I AM NOT A STEPFORD TEACHER!

This is a letter to the editor of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. I just finished penning it and submitting it. I'm well aware that it will be considered too long for publication but what I'm hoping is that at the very least it will provide the editor with another side of the story and will perhaps cause him or her to seek out other opinions from other teachers. I really felt that the Journal Gazette article almost inferred that by the end of our State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Bennett's talk and the discussion at Waynedale Elementary School in Fort Wayne that he'd pacified us all into being "Stepford Teachers." I just wanted to say "NOT SO!"

First, this is the article: http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20101118/LOCAL04/311189984

Here is my letter:
Dear Editor,
I would like to thank the Journal Gazette for covering State Superintendent Tony Bennett’s visit to Waynedale Elementary School. I appreciated that the article indicated that the “air” was tense and that the teachers present were leery of Dr. Bennett and his initiatives. However, I was dismayed to see that the close of the article seemed to infer that the teachers who were present were pacified after listening to Dr. Bennett. There was even a quote from a woman who stated she didn’t believe Dr. Bennett was “the bogeyman” anymore.

I can assure you that none of the other five teachers who were with me were, or are, pacified. I can assure you that all of us remain committed to opposing Dr. Bennett’s plan to sanction more charter schools, his plan to have teacher salaries based on a merit system, and for that merit system to be based primarily on student evaluations. We oppose Mitch Daniel’s plans to do away with collective bargaining and seniority rights. I do not believe that we were (or are) in the minority of those teachers who attended the Waynedale talk or in the minority amongst our colleagues who were not in attendance.

To start, we oppose charter schools because only 1 in 5 in the nation has been proven to be effective and those that are effective have had huge infusions of private capital and support, they usually only have to serve a “motivated” constituency, and they have not had to “play” by the same rules as “regular” public schools. But most importantly, we oppose them because they siphon off money from an increasingly limited pool of funds for the public schools leaving schools that are already in trouble in more of a lurch.

In a study of successful charter schools, the things that have been identified as making them successful were parent participation/interest, adequate resources, the number of motivated students enrolled, TIME in school for students and collaborative educational teams that have TIME to collaborate. All these things could already happen and often do already happen in the public schools with the teachers we have, if our educational leadership and our legislature would provide for those things to happen.

Substantiating my belief that I am not alone amongst my colleagues in my opinions on this is that a woman at Wednesday’s event got the ONLY spontaneous and resounding applause of the day for challenging Dr. Bennett about his interest in charter schools.

Secondly, we oppose merit pay. We oppose this because despite what Dr. Bennett presented on Wednesday, he still could not indicate any real definitive and fair plans to administrate such a system. He indicated that it hadn’t all been worked out and that much of it would be up to local control (except for the achievement pay factor ) and we wonder how subjective that’s going to be without the teachers having any input into the evaluation system.

Dr. Bennett spoke a good deal about how the growth model evaluations would make this type of teacher evaluation fair, yet he still has no plan in place for how he would evaluate special class (art, music, p.e. etc.) teachers or K-2 teachers (whose students are not tested) or special education teachers. When asked about special education teachers, Dr. Bennett again pointed to the growth model and he thought that these could show progress fairly and be a fair representation of a special education teacher’s effectiveness. All this, while the Economic Policy Institute (orginated by 7 prominent professional educators and associations) has issued a policy statement and petition to OPPOSE heavy reliance on test scores for teacher evaluation. The petition specifically cites that there are specific dangers in using value added or growth models to evaluate teachers.

We oppose our evaluations being based on student achievement because it would cause teacher’s rankings to be based on the particular population of students in their classrooms. What teacher is going to want to have student’s with special needs or behavioral problems or even special circumstances (such as a family going through a divorce or a death) in his or her classroom? Can we expect those children to make the predicted growth or even comparative growth against their cohorts?

We oppose eliminating collective bargaining rights and seniority based pay systems. There is much information to be found about these subjects in the media, however I will cite a Washington Post Answer sheet indicating that 9 of the 10 of the highest achieving states for highest average student rankings on the NAEP are Unionized states. Perhaps that’s a coincidence but I don’t believe so. As for a continual claim that union- backed tenure prevents bad teachers from being fired, I will answer that tenure is ONLY a guarantee of due process awarded to teachers after an initial period of employment and all it really means is that teachers cannot be fired for arbitrary reasons. A school can get rid of ANY teacher it wants to at ANY point IF they follow due process procedures.

Speaking to Dr. Bennett’s promotion of the Growth model we cite an article by Kevin Welner, (Associate Professor of education policy and director of the Education and Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado) for the American Association of School Administrators entitled “The Overselling of Growth Modeling.” In it he lists 5 limitations to growth models especially when they are used for cohort comparisons such as Dr. Bennett’s presentation indicated that Indiana’s growth model system of evaluation would do. The five limitations cited are 1. If used for cohort-comparisons, they cannot provide a true measure of individual growth. 2. Growth expectations can be just as unrealistic as the current AYP expectations. 3. Mobility of students, multiple teachers per student each year and untested subjects all introduce further confusion into the model, and there is no perfect way to adjust. 4. Any growth must be based on assumptions about the ongoing effects of a given teacher in subsequent years and about the ability of a prior year’s score to fully adjust for student, family and community resources as well as school and classroom resources. (Simply put- this is saying that you can’t determine what the outside factors or reason might be for a student’s growth or achievement or lack there-of.) 5. The switch from a proficiency-threshold system to a growth model would not address core concerns about test-based accountability, such as narrowed curriculum, teaching to the test, measurement error and reliance on one type of assessment rather than multiple factors.

To sum up, while the growth model might be better than the current AYP system of judging schools and or educators, we simply do not feel that this will be the panacea that Dr. Bennett is suggesting it will be and we certainly do not agree with him that it should have any place in the evaluation of teachers and or principals.

Dr. Bennett encouraged those of us who questioned and challenged him that instead of fighting him we should instead join with him in improving the educational system in Indiana. He indicated that if we had better ideas or plans, should have (or should) let him know of them. My answer to that is “That’s a nice sentiment, Mr. Bennett, but it’s a little late in coming especially after you shut the ISTA out of any opportunity for meaningful input into your plans when you submitted your unsuccessful Race to the Top plans and there is no confidence on my part, based on your past performance, that my opinions or those of my colleagues would have any impact on your agendas.”

At the beginning of Dr. Bennett’s talk on Wednesday he posed the question to us “Why would I want to destroy the public schools as so many of you think I do?” He said he was a father of kids who went to public schools and he indicated he would not want to leave that kind of legacy behind him. There was a ready answer in my head as to why Dr. Bennett might want to destroy public schools and that is that he would do it for political gain, his own and for Mitch Daniel’s.

Sincerely,

Cindi Pastore

Note: I am a special education teacher for the Adams Wells Specials Services Cooperative of Adams and Wells Counties.
(Also incidentally, while I did not include this in my already lengthy letter, I was sitting in the front row and I could swear that I heard Dr. Bennett to say “Many of you have came today…” rather than the correct “Many of you came…” or “Many of you have come..” That may sound trivial but wow, he’s our state superintendent of schools. Perhaps I heard wrong but if you would happen to have a recording of the event, I’d sure like to listen for that. )

Perhaps i should have added- "I AM NOT A STEPFORD TEACHER!"

Educational Steamrolling

I've been a little silent on this blog once again. Many people I've run into (people I didn't even know read this blog) have asked me why?- Why I got quiet right before the mid-term election and after the election? Why I wasn't screaming my little head off about it all?

And the only thing I can really chalk it up to is depression over being steamrolled. Really, it's hard for even a hugely opinionated person such as myself to stand up and say "PLEASE PLEASE LISTEN!" when the powers that be (aka the enemy) seem to have fixed all the races to go their way.

Sadly I just get to the point where I say to myself "What's the point of making any noise, NO ONE with any of the power listens or even cares to listen and the voting public just does NOT seem to "get it" no matter what research is shown them or what logic is put before them? What good does all my yelling do when all I'm doing is preaching to the choir?"

Adding to my depression following the elections, the other day I saw in my local newspaper that Tony Bennett (my state's Superintendent of Public Instruction) has been honored by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce as Government Leader of the Year.

And to make it worse than that, the article stated it was because he was saving the state money. He wins an award, not because his educational leadership and policies have any legitimate research behind them, or because they have been proven to be effective solutions or reform; but because he's helping to keep costs down in Indiana.

And I respectfully say that THIS is NOT his job. His job is to lead Indiana Schools, not to save the taxpayers money. And while it's wonderful if those two things can go hand in hand, but I have to tell you that none of the legitimate research I read indicate that the things he has in mind have any validity in improving schools.

What his policies seem to be about to me is saving the governor a buck and destroying the ISTA. You'll have to forgive me if I won't be sending him a note of congratulations. Closer to the truth is that I'd like to wring his neck. (But rest assured, I'm not a violent person.) But that aside, it's just another example to me of how the public schools are being steamrolled in this state.

So today when I was at church, someone again approached me and asked me why exactly I hadn't been more vocal to the local press preceeding the election while complimenting me on the one letter to the editor I wrote. And my answer to her was "I'm depressed. I'm too depressed to speak right now."

Then I came home and while sitting in front of my TV watching my beloved Colts, I noticed a tweet from "truthout" titled "Deligitimizing Public Education." When I clicked on the link it was an op-ed piece from the Washington Post. I'm going to copy/paste it in for you here. It expresses EXACTLY how I feel about what's happening nationally and in my state with public education. It will tell you why I'm so depressed. It enumerates the steamrolling that's been done to public education.

Education
Thursday 11 November 2010

by: Marion Brady | The Washington Post | Op-Ed

The quality of American education is going to get worse. Count on it. And contrary to the conventional wisdom, the main reason isn’t going to be the loss of funding accompanying economic hard times.
Follow along and I’ll explain:

Step One: Start with what was once a relatively simple educational system. (For me, it was a one-room school with 16 or so kids ranging in age from about 6 to 15, and a teacher who, it was taken for granted by the community, was a professional who knew what she was doing.)

Step Two: Close the school, build a big one, buy school buses, open a district office, and hire administrators to tell teachers what they can and can’t do.

Step Three: When problems with the new, more complicated system develop, expand the administrative pyramid, with each successive layer of authority knowing less about educating than the layer below it.

Step Four: As problems escalate, expand the bureaucracy, moving decision-making ever higher up the pyramid until state and then federal politicians make all the important calls.

Step Five: Give corporate America - the Gates, Broads, Waltons, etc. - control of the politicians who control the bureaucracy that controls the administrators who control the teachers.

Step Six: Pay no attention as the rich who, enamored of market forces, in love with the idea of privatizing schools, and attracted by the half-trillion dollars a year America spends on education, use the media to destroy confidence in public education.

Step Seven: As a confidence-destroying strategy, zero in on teachers. Say that they hate change and played a major role in the de-industrialization of America and the decline of the American Empire.

Step Eight: As the de-professionalization of teaching and the down-grading of teachers progress, point to the resultant poor school performance as proof of the need for centralized control of education. So, what’s next?

I don’t have a clue. But if I were forced to guess, I’d say that what’s next is whatever the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable - eyes fixed no farther than the next quarter’s profit - want to be next. They’ve been wildly successful thus far.

It’s possible, of course, that education policy next year will be just another excuse for partisan warfare, with little or no change in the status quo. Or it may be that some small congressional caucus will stick a wrench so firmly in the legislative gears that the simplistic, reactionary education "reform" machine built by corporate America, sold to Congress, and showcased by non-educator-educators like Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee, will simply grind to a halt.

What particularly grieves me is that, whatever happens, it won’t be a consequence of any real understanding of education. Neither will it cause the education establishment itself to take seriously what Erica Goldson said in her June valedictory speech at Coxsackie-Athens High School in New York:

"We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

"Some of you may be thinking, "Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn't you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

"I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system."

And whatever happens next won’t support and encourage educators to get a spine. They need to scream bloody murder at stupid policy, reject inappropriate use of market forces, point out mainstream media educational naiveté, and demand that policymakers listen before serving up dysfunctional programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.

And when they do so and are dismissed as self-serving whiners who don’t want to be held accountable, they should take to the streets in protest.

(All republished content that appears on Truthout has been obtained by permission or license.)

Now the author of the piece indicates that we educators ought to be standing up and "screaming bloody murder." And I'm thinking "Yes you're RIGHT, I need to fire up the "pen" again and start screaming again. We all need to come out of our educational funk and SPEAK UP!

A commentor on the Washington Post piece said that rather than "scream" that we educators needed to stand up and present "a better way." And all due respect to that person but I just want to say "Really? REALLY? You think that no one has? REALLY? Because it seems to me like Diane Ravitch has, a great many of our teacher leaders already have and our Unions already have and yet we are not listened to and we are continually STEAMROLLED over. So GIVE ME A BREAK!"

So where am I going to go from here? Am I going to spring up (cartoon-like) from my steamrolled flattened state and pop back into shape again? Start screaming again?

Well, here I am posting again. That's my start. What will you do?

Waiting for Clark Kent

Public Education Matters
Waiting for Clark Kent

(Disclaimer: I still have not seen the documentary “Waiting for Superman” so I don’t really even know what the analogy of the title specifically refers to. Until I have the opportunity to view it, I am only guessing at the analogy when I write this reaction to the hype that I’m hearing about it.)

When I was very young, my heart and sympathies when watching the Superman TV show were always- not with Superman or the troubled endangered citizenry, but with Clark Kent. Even while I didn’t miss that Superman and Clark Kent were the same “person” I really did view them as two distinct beings in some ways. And I felt sorry for Clark because he never got any credit for anything really. And there he was plugging along in anonymity always for purposes of good, of right, and for the American way. And no one seemed to care. Lois and all the rest just fell all over Superman.

To understand my sympathy for the “underdog” here, you would need to understand my upbringing. I was brought up in a family where hard work, integrity, commitment, steadfastness, humbleness, and modesty were valued above almost all things. I was not brought up to worship flash and glamour and wealth and fame. I also was not of the Gordon Gecko generation with the motto is “Greed is good.”

So I felt sorry for old modest Clark. As I feel sorry now for the teachers in our country. We do not get any credit for anything. We are demonized and vilified and disparaged by practically everyone. Recently, my understanding is that we have been portrayed as almost the epitome of evil in the Documentary “Waiting for Superman.”

I want to go on record here as saying that I don’t think every single person in my field is good at what they do. I don’t think that all of my colleagues are worthy of saving. However that doesn’t mean I believe the institution of PUBLIC education isn’t worth saving. That also doesn’t mean that I believe that teachers unions, collective bargaining, and tenure are not of paramount importance in preserving public education. I think actually that the institution and the unions and the rights they have fought for ARE the Clark Kents of education.

I feel strongly that weak or downright poor administration and nothing else is directly responsible for any “bad” teachers being in my field. I believe that without union protection we would have even lower pay and benefits and that will eventually cause our field to be populated only by those who can afford to do charity work or have agendas. I think that would be a very dangerous road to go down. I think that this would cause the field to be less about the public interest and the education of children and more about the private and moneyed interests. I believe it will fail to attract the best and the brightest for more than a few years of servitudeand that the constant rollover in personnel would seriously be a detriment to the education of children. There would be so little continuity and consistency in programing.

I believe that without our Clark Kents, that our Supermen who come in and save the day will cease to exist as well. And evil will prevail and the American way will not.

I listened in on NBC’s Education Nation today as they discussed all the criticisms of public education leveled at us by the documentary. (I do want to note that I was unable to hear the first part so I’m only responding to the part that I heard.) I was so dismayed to hear some of my younger colleagues (some in charter schools) express the view that they don’t need tenure and that unions only get in the way of reform. In a word, I feel these people are extremely naïve to the world as it is and to the powers that be. They have no idea of the actual evil that is actually out there if there aren’t checks and balances.

These teachers may right now be working in utopian situations with wonderful administrators and unfailing support, however, they are turning a very blind eye to the realities of our nation’s history, the history of our field, and the realities of politics and the realities of our economy. I’m sure they are well meaning, however, I can only hope that they do not learn their lessons on these realities the hard way. In the meantime, I’d personally appreciate it if they were not stepping up to claim the superhero status for themselves. In doing so, they actually become part of the problem and not part of the solution.

I’m really not much changed from that little girl watching the campy TV show on the 10 inch black and white TV so long ago. I still much more appreciate the unsung Clarks of the world over the super-flashy Supermen who come flying in to take the glory for supposedly saving the day. I think if the Clarks had more power and more appreciation in this world that there would be a whole lot less evil to fight off in the first place. But I guess that wouldn’t make for good TV or an award winning documentary.

The SKY Is Falling!!

Public Education Matters 8.26.10

The Sky Is Falling!

“Long time, no see!”

Yes, I took a bit of a Summer hiatus from the PEM blog. That was for two reasons. One, was that I have been terribly busy this summer, the highlight being a trip to Japan to see my daughter! The second was just because, frankly, most of what I was reading in the news regarding education was prompting not meaningful and articulate thoughts and commentary, but rather an inarticulate “ARRRGGGHHH!” Really, that’s about all I could muster for how frustrated I was. (Or for that matter, still am!)

Would you like me to be more specific? I will do my very best to try to articulate my thoughts without sounding like “Chicken Little.” Trust me, I am not really an alarmist, it’s just that I honestly believe that “we” as a nation and especially “we” in my state have great reason to be alarmed about the path some are wanting to take regarding public education. I really think the sky may actually be falling.

What do I mean? Well bear with me while I trace it all out. It might take a bit of patience and a bit of a sense of humor for you as the reader. I’ll respectfully thank you ahead of time for your concentration and attention. I’ll also beg your pardon for not getting to the story I promised in my last post. That will need to wait for another time.

What has me so riled and alarmed and almost to the state of chicken-like panic are the steps that my Governor, who happens to be running for President and his (I refuse to say mine) State Superintendent of Instruction Tony Bennett are taking towards what I believe will be complete and total destruction of public education, IF we sit by and do nothing and let it all happen.

Let me spell it out a bit more clearly for you:
1. Mitch Daniels is the Governor of Indiana. He is being touted as and considering himself as (don’t let his words fool you) one of the next likely front runners for the GOP candidate for the Presidency of the United States. One of the ways you get to be a front runner for the GOP is by showing that you can cut spending and limit programs. That’s what the GOP likes to hear. They think that will improve our country.

2. This past year, even while he did not have to, (For instance, he could have figured out instead how to replace the property tax income that used to help fund schools or he could have used the money that was there already.) Mr. Daniels cut THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS from the Indiana Budget for education. The severity of these cuts when school systems were depending on these dollars to maintain staff and programs at present levels caused both more unemployment in the state and a real shortage of staff in our schools. Only some late-coming stimulus relief from the federal government prevented the situation from being worse than it was. Most of the GOP voted against this stimulus.

3. Mr. Daniels has said publically that he wants to end the practice of collective bargaining for teachers, which means that teachers will be subject to arbitrary pay levels and compensation, and hiring a teacher will wind up being a bid for the cheapest taker. It will have nothing to do with quality for cash- strapped systems. It will have nothing to do with consistency for cash strapped systems. It will be all about who you can get for the least amount of money. I’m not sure that’s going to make for educational improvement. I think that will turn teaching into a less sought- after career field when you can’t even be sure of making a living wage, not being subject to arbitrary hiring and firing practices, and being subject to the whims of the state rather than policy driven by sound educational research and practice- become constant threats. I predict that within 5 years (as this current workforce retires) and less qualified people go into teaching, our state and maybe even our country will suffer a teacher shortage.

I know that I personally would not go into education today, because I would not sell my soul to be part of private education and I would not be inclined to spend 5 to 6 years in college in order to make less than the average factory worker or truck driver who didn't go to college. And you can say all you want that you’ll reward me with merit pay if I’m any good or supposedly worth my salt, but frankly I wouldn’t trust for one second that I’d be judged fairly. Truly, I would choose another field. I would choose a field that would allow me to support my family and myself.

4. Tony Bennett, the State Superintendent of Public Schools meanwhile has just given his “State of the State Education” speech in which he repeated the spiel that he’s given all year about how education dollars and teaching jobs needs to be tied to increased test scores. He says he is all about accountability and reform of education. I beg to differ. I believe it all has to do with his wanting to be in lockstep with Mr. Daniels.

5. Along the way, a local Superintendent and Principal have joined up to be on Tony’s team with the (I think) sincere belief that they will be able to give Bennett practical and down to earth advice about how his policies are affecting or will affect the districts. Forgive me, I’m going to say perhaps the rudest thing you’ll EVER hear me say on this blog- but here goes, I really feel it must be said- “I believe that these people are TOOLS” Or rather they will become tools for Tony Bennett and Mr. Daniels. They’ll be used when November comes around to say “Look who supports me!” with the hope that people will vote for the candidates for the Indiana House that support Mitch Daniels and Tony Bennett because of their “endorsement.” The House will then be in danger of being lost to those of us who support true Public education. When that happens, it will spiral on down from there.

Here is what I envision:

6. Mitch Daniels will use his GOP support that he will gain in the House to affect continued and more policies of slashing and burning the education budget (after his brief hiatus in cuts that he’s announced just in time so that any voters that might be beginning to be disgruntled with the $300million cuts will think that the worst is over and the bleeding has stopped and will vote his way thinking “yeah, we survived and maybe it’s not so bad after-all) that will “buy” him more GOP support. He will become the GOP candidate for the Presidency.

7. Tony Bennett will tag along with Mitch with the promise that he’ll take Arne Duncan’s (Head of US Education Department) job someday. From there they will continue to cut not just state education dollars, but now Federal education dollars. More and more of “Public” Education will be fielded to the private business sector with their claims of being able to deliver more bang for the buck. Along with that money will go every civil rights and fair labor practice protection that state workers (I mean teachers and education staffs) now have. The pay will go down. When the pay goes down, less qualified people will be attracted to the field with the exception of those who go into teaching as a filler while they look for a career in another field or those who can afford to teach as a second income.

Along with this, I believe that IF (and that’s a big hopeful if) “they” continue to insist (by law) that we must educate ALL children, even the disabled, the poor, the disadvantaged, etc that we will start seeing just what we are seeing now with charter schools - that the education provided will be NO BETTER in terms of test scores, literacy rates, or graduation rates or preparedness for college or for work. In fact, I believe that all of that will go downhill. And then….. well then, you’ll get what you get. I hope not to be alive to see it, to tell the truth. Because even just thinking about it all, makes me want to weep sometimes until I remember I have a plan for if the sky falls.

Yes, maybe I do sound to you like Chicken Little here. “The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling!” But you know what? I really think time will bear me out if we all don’t wake up and do something to stop Mitch Daniels and Tony Bennett. I sincerely believe that all of us in Indiana need to do everything we can to make sure we vote education-friendly (mostly Democrat) people into the house this November. And really, if you think I am an alarmist, go ahead and call me a nut or Chicken Little, but I encourage you to read and think a little bit deeper on this issue than what the mainstream media is saying. I encourage you to read commentary from the “other” side and not fall into the trap of just believing all the propaganda that your political party or your neighbor is sending out to you. I encourage you to consider the source of your information. Does it come from someone who is in the business of making money or someone who has spent their life educating or doing research in education? Does it come from solid and unbiased educational research or is it someone parroting something they read in an email from Aunt Susie? I’m asking you, I’m begging you to become REALLY informed and to think CRITICALLY and beneath the surface. I’m begging you to think out what might come next if all the “sound-bites” from Tony Bennett and Mitch Daniels offices all come true.

But don’t worry about me. Really don’t. I am close to retirement thankfully. Also, even if I can’t retire because I can't afford health care, if the sky does fall, one of my colleagues and I have a plan. Our plan is to borrow some money (because we certainly haven’t been able to save any in our field) buy some property and start our own school. Our plan is to take all the children that the private sector doesn’t want and that we reasonably can, and accept barters for payment for teaching them. We’ll teach your children to read for chickens or boxes of rice, or fresh produce. We’ll teach them algebra for you paying our utility bills. For shoes, we will throw in Social Studies. For a bushel of wheat, we'll teach some science. Hey, we’ll even teach a foreign language if you’ll help pay our monthly mortgage and our gas money.

That’s our plan. And really, when we start up our school, we really won’t be worse off than anyone else……. when the sky falls.

An Open Letter to Dr. Bennett from the Lady in the Pink Dress

Public Education Matters

An Open Letter to Dr. Bennett from the Lady in the Pink Dress

Dear Dr. Bennett,

You don’t know me, but you met me the other day at the Wells County Chamber of Commerce Luncheon where they were honoring the Wells County “Turn-Around” students. You were the speaker at the luncheon. I was the lady in the pink dress, who asked you a question. I’m also obviously the writer of this blog. I wasn’t sure if you put the two together, because I didn’t have “publiceducationmatters” on my nametag.

When we first arrived at the luncheon, we were told that you would only be speaking and that there would be no opportunity to ask you questions. Since I had a list of 10 questions I might ask in case I was given the chance in my purse, I was a bit disappointed. But on second thought I was rather glad to hear that you weren’t going to let the luncheon in honor of those wonderful “turn-around” students be turned into some kind of political football game. Truly it was their day and also the day of the people and businesses in Wells County who sponsor these awards. Really, because these students have changed directions and paths and are now pointed in positive directions in their lives. It is an occasion to celebrate. I was happy that you did acknowledge all that.

Imagine my surprise then, when you then seemed to turn around and use your speech for somewhat of a lobbying effort for your educational agendas. I understood that it was fitting to say that Wells County is an example of much that is good with public education in Indiana. However, I did not see this as the occasion to promote the principles of ending tenure and using testing to evaluate teachers and/or schools. These ideas may be your strongly held opinions and even your goals, but to me, they were not appropriate fodder for a speech honoring agencies or students. In short I thought some of your speech was in poor taste. I also very much disagreed with you when you said that your views of education and educational reform are not bipartisan in nature. True, education really should not be, but I believe the views you cited have an extremely partisan basis. You may disagree with me, but that is how I view it.

I was equally surprised when at the end of your speech you did say you would take questions. I have to say that I wondered if the “surprise” was only a surprise to us, that if all along you’d planned to take questions but you didn’t want anyone to know you were going to do that, so people would not prepare themselves. I admit, this is an unkind and suspicious thought and partly grounded in my pre-conceived belief that you were there to rub shoulders to promote your agendas, but nonetheless, it is what I wondered. My apologies for my unkind thoughts.

When no one immediately raised their hand, you joked with us, saying “Come on- you can’t be any tougher than “the press” who interviewed me this morning.” My thought then was “Well, you’d be wrong there, because I think I have much more of a working knowledge of what’s going on in education than almost any member of the press and especially of the Fort Wayne newspaper that you mentioned.”

At any rate, I was kind of struggling inside with raising my hand to ask a question. The reason was that I still wasn’t sure if this was an appropriate venue. But then someone else asked a question and perhaps my better judgment didn’t prevail and I changed my mind. I thought “OK, but I’ll at least try to throw you a softball.” At least it was as “softball” as I know how to be when I am concerned about something.

I started my question with acknowledging that I was excited to read the book by William Zhao, the Chinese student at Kokomo called “Fierce Urgency” that you cited in your speech. You said the young author was inspired to write this book by you and that in the book he espouses that we are not competitive enough with China and India’s educational systems and if we don’t step it up we will lose the “chess game.” I really am excited to read it, although I was not able to locate it on Amazon and download it to my Kindle when I got home that night. But don’t you worry, I’m a very diligent soul and I’ll find it eventually.

I’m hoping that when I read it, in addition to his worry over our students being able to compete with top students in those countries, that I’ll find that he notes the inherent differences between public education in China and India and the United States. Here is a pretty interesting article about the state of public education in India http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2116/stories/20040813007301500.htm and here is an interesting excerpt from a University of Michigan report about China. http://sitemakedu/vanschaack.356/strenghts_and_weaknesses_of_both_systemser.umich..

Anyone making assertions about how Indiana or the United States should achieve reform to win at the chess game might want to understand the similarities and differences more fully. These sites are just a start. I won’t get into all that now, but I do want to stop and point out of the things I thought was most interesting. The U of M article concluded that in China teachers are afforded much more respect than here in the states. Hmm.

So, as I said, I started with saying I’d very much like to read this book you mentioned. (William sounds like an outstanding young man. ) Then I went on to ask you if you’d read Diane Ravitch’s “The Death and Life of the Great American School System.” I apologize for jumbling the title when I asked the question, but I understood you to know exactly what book I was talking about when you said that you’d read parts of it. Of course it was impossible for me to know which parts you had read, so I decided at that point to make my question rather broad in nature, more so than I’d originally intended.

Continuing, I tried to indicate to you that one of the things I appreciate about Diane Ravitch’s book is that it is filled with research and documentation behind her assertions that NCLB and the current US educational reforms will not work and why. Call me crazy, I like it when non-fiction writers do that; when they back up what they are saying with something substantial.

I continued and finally got to my question which was “What kind of research was behind the reform agendas in the Fast Forward plan’s attempt to win the federal Race to the Top Money?”

I also have to stop again here and confess to you that with my question, I was indeed trying to make my own point, just as you had tried to make your points in your speech.

My point was that I think that when we endeavor to improve education that we most decidedly should understand the reasons behind what we are doing. We shouldn’t just implement ideas pulled out of thin air, no matter what so-called “important” person says they’ll be a good idea. We should check first to see if they hold water and are worth our time and money to implement. We should know history and what has and hasn’t worked in the past and why and why not. We should take into account ALL of the factors involved in the replication of anything that has been tried before. We should attempt to anticipate the shortcomings of any new idea that me might seek to implement. We should look for valid research supporting the principles of what we are attempting. We will want to consult the most non-partisan, unbiased, and accurate research studies we can possibly find. We also in this instance might want to consult the teachers in the state who are in the trenches and on the frontlines before we make our decisions.

Forgive me Dr. Bennett, if I state to you that I believe that you won’t find one shred of real (unbiased) evidence that ending seniority or tenure or breaking up or weakening the teacher’s union will improve education. There isn't any difference in achievement between right to work states and unionized states. You can say all you want that the seniority system is wrong and keeps poor teachers in place while not allowing new “better” teachers in the door of classrooms, but until you can show me with science that newer = better, then I think I’m going to have lean towards the research that says that experienced teachers are generally more effective than inexperienced ones. I think I’m going to have to lean towards what I know from what I’ve observed when I work in schools.

Please don’t say that experience is not a guarantee of a quality teacher. I know it’s not, however, unlike what you seemed to be saying to your audience (that poor teachers cannot be dismissed) I maintain that you already have the means to rid the state’s systems of poor teachers. It simply involves effective administration and following due process. It also involves devising a system of determining who is a good teacher and who is not.

And there’s another rub, isn’t there? Your third principle in your speech was about accountability- accountability of teachers and accountability of schools. Forgive me if I make a leap here that I shouldn’t, but I’m assuming that in the case of teachers, you are a believer that a teacher’s employment should hinge on his or her students’ test scores. You did mention that you favored the increasingly popular “growth model” rather than the current tests against state grade level standards. But that’s where things got a little fuzzy for me, for two reasons.

The first reason, a man in the audience asked you about students who have IEPs- whether or not they would be expected to make a year’s progress in school as you stated that every child in Indiana should be expected to make each year. You answered in so many words that they would only be expected to make the progress they could be expected to make, that it might be different depending on the circumstances. My question here is how do you know what growth they might be expected to make? Doesn’t that pretty much depend on the judgment of the teacher and the parents and other members of the IEP team? So aren’t you giving them a lot of latitude to decide what is acceptable progress and what is not? How do you then judge a teacher’s effectiveness against what might typically be his or her own expectations? Can you do that objectively? Moreover, would you really trust a new and young and inexperienced teacher to be able to make as “good” of a judgment on these matters as an experienced teacher?

The second reason that’s a little fuzzy to me is that just yesterday an email was sent out to superintendents and directors of Special Education discussing the creation of core standards. I have to say I don’t really know the details of this but my stab in the dark here is that these are really just another name for national standards. I’m not one of those people who has a problem with there being national standards so long as they are used only to gauge where a student is along a continuum and help a teacher or a school know what should be taught next or at certain grade levels (providing they are actually developmentally appropriate for the majority of students.) But, I do wonder how your “growth model” of assessment fits into this. I also worry (as I told you) that as Diane Ravitch cautions, that student tests (no matter what kind they are) will be used in ways never intended by the makers of tests. Specifically, I do not believe any kind of student measure should be a measure of teacher accountability.

Now please don’t think me stupid, I can almost hear you saying “but shouldn’t we have a way of determining if teachers are doing a good job of teaching?” And here’s where in your comments at the luncheon you actually answered "your" own question, even though I doubt you realized it.

Do you remember when you were talking about grading of schools and you talked about how the Wells County Schools were so outstanding and that sadly there were 23 (I think) schools in the state that were not succeeding like the Wells County schools? Well how about this? How about taking a look at what the administrators and teachers here in Wells County are doing and comparing it to what the administrations and teachers in those schools are doing?

“What?” you say! “That’s not fair because the circumstances in those schools are different.” you say! (forgive my “creative” imagination of what questions you might be asking.)

Well, what makes those schools different? Is it the staff or the students? Shouldn't good teaching be good teaching be good teaching, no matter where it’s done? Or is it the community that changes the circumstances? Is it the lack of resources? What is it?

And if you are wondering those things, then how can you say it’s fair to judge a teacher by his or her students’ test scores? If it’s just a matter of they’ve got a bunch of bad teachers at that school, you should be able to airlift Wells Counties teacher in and have them fix the problem. Hmm. Probably not feasible but you also might begin to think that perhaps a better way to judge teachers is by what it is exactly that they are doing and how they are doing it; even if it seems on the surface to be more logical to judge them by some kind of “end” product.

The problem with using tests is that first they were not meant to be used for this purpose, not in any test developer’s wildest dreams. Second, let me tell you about one of my students. He’s dying. Second let me tell you about one of my colleague’s students. He lives in a car. Third, let me tell you about one of my son’s friends when he was in school, his mother died. Fourth, let me tell you about another one of my students, he suffered a C4 spinal fracture and no longer has use of his lower extremities. A year before he was on the football team.

This is NOT to say that any of these kids can’t or won’t succeed in their lives in some way or even in grand ways. I personally know that these kids have it in them (with good guidance) to become tremendous successes in their lives. Some, in my eyes, already are. However, what I’m saying is that these students and many many other students may have a year or two when doing well on a test is just simply not a priority to them.

I believe the year that my own children’s beloved aunt died of breast cancer that their tests scores slumped a bit. Should we have graded their teachers on that basis- on their year of decline? Really? My daugher went from being a straight A college student to almost flunking out a semester. (Later she went back to being a successful student.)

And forgive me, to make another point of reason why using test scores does not make sense, when our nation’s founders said “all men are created equal” they only meant in the eyes of the law. They did not mean, and we should not pretend, that all people (children in this case) are equal or start out equal in ability or in increments of developmental growth. We do (whether we want to or not) need to acknowledge this reality of life and we need to understand that not all children will achieve to the same levels or at the same even pace.

You might even be wondering as I did, how exactly you knew in the first place that Wells County schools are “making the grade?” How did you know Dr. Bennett? You judged them as remarkable schools making a difference. What was your proof of that? Was it in the faces of those turn-around students or was it in some test score? Was it in their graduation rates? Was it because you knew from talking to Steve Baker some of what is going on in Wells County Schools? What?

I don’t really know. But one thing I do know is that many of those students in those successful schools were taught by teachers with experience, occasionally mixed in with new teachers. Most the teachers around here in this community have been in this community for some time. People tend to stay here. Mostly, these are not a bunch of newly minted teachers here and yet you have judged them to be successes. That doesn’t follow the logic of your one principle in your speech at all.

Think about it, not one of them was judged for continued employment by a student’s test scores. Not one. Because we’ve never done that here. And yet, somehow the administrators here knew to keep them, and here they are- making a success of things. You said so yourself. How’d those administrators know to continue their employment all these years without the scores telling them to do so? I’m truly puzzled. (Ok, not truly.)

All of this makes me wonder Dr. Bennett. It makes me wonder why exactly we would need to be getting rid of a system of tenure and seniority that produced and kept these very fine teachers that have made the Wells County Schools successful. It makes me wonder why you can’t take a look at what they are doing and replicate it elsewhere without tearing apart a system that makes it possible for these employees to feel a sense of security that they won’t be ripped out of their jobs on the whim of an errant administrator or school board member. (And if you think that couldn’t and wouldn’t happen without a teacher’s unions protections, stayed tuned to the next blog, because “have I got a story for you!”) It makes me wonder if job security is perhaps one of the things that makes teaching a half way attractive field to go into, since it’s certainly not the level of pay. I look at some of these quality individuals that we have hired here in Wells County and I think “Wow, wonder what they could have made in the private sector! Thank goodness we have them, how might we keep them longer?” I wonder if making them afraid for their livelihood is the answer. Somehow I doubt it.

I have to tell you Dr. Bennett that two of your three principles cited in your speech made me think that what you’re really trying to do is break or weaken the teacher’s union and not that they have anything to do with reforming schools. You did finally cite in answer to my question that your research included the work of Joel Klein. I was polite and didn’t follow up with the “mincemeat” that Diane Ravitch made of the applicability and replication of Joel Klein’s ideas. I didn’t at the time see the luncheon as the time and place for that.

Before I close, I want to tell you about when I arrived at the luncheon. Bluffton’s mayor, who I’ve known for many years, came up to me and put his hands on my shoulders and said “Cindi, my most important “mayoral” job responsibility today is keeping you calm.” This was his good natured way of teasing me for being quite opinionated on the subject of schools. He knew before it all started that I would not agree with you on many things. I assured him that I would try to be “good.” After the dinner, I went up to him and said “Ted, I did the very best I could, I want you to know that.” He laughed and said “Cindi, you were the model of self restraint.”

My mother was also in attendance at the event. She was there because she works for the local newspaper, “The Bluffton News-Banner.” She was taking the video to put on the paper’s blog. Afterwards she said to me “Are you going to go up and continue your questions to Dr. Bennett?”

I told her “No.” She asked “Why not?” I answered her “Because Mom, Dr. Bennett and I are so very far apart on things that there doesn’t seem to be any point in it, plus this is not the proper time and occasion for it all.” I admit, I was mostly just frustrated.

And in closing this letter, Dr. Bennett, I just want to say that I’m very sorry that I took that attitude of defeatism on Thursday afternoon. I’ve rather changed my mind also that it was not the proper place or time. If now is not the time, then when would be? If that wasn’t the place with those Turn-around students and members of the community who are partially responsible for their success present for the discussion, then where would be?

Dr. Bennett, I just don’t think you and I talk often enough. I’m sorry I blew the chance to continue our conversation. And don’t worry, if ever we do get the chance to meet again, remember my own mayor has judged me to be “a model of self-restraint.” I just wonder how he made that judgment without testing me. I’d also like to leave you with one of my very favorite quotes. You’ll see it on the wall of my office if you ever come to visit me. It’s by Albert Einstein. He is still generally considered to have been a first rate genius, even though it’s been reported that he wasn’t deemed very successful in school. “Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”

Regards,
Cindi Pastore (aka the woman in the pink dress at the luncheon)

Bennett v. ISTA

Public Education Matters

4.30.10

Bennett v. ISTA

I understand that my state (Indiana) is not unique in its decision to not go for the second round of RttT funds. Several states have come to the conclusion, as I did, that the amount of money is just not even worth the bother. Even Arne Duncan in an interview on NPR’s Talk of the Nation more or less stated that the RttT money really is just a drop in the bucket over the entire US education budget. I gather from listening to a portion of the segment on the radio show that Mr. Duncan’s intent with RttT was not to touch existing programs but rather to stimulate the states to start thinking about doing other innovative things on top of what they were already doing. (Which is fine, except for his support for the firings of the Rhode Island teachers.)

Anyway, the rub seems to be that the states seemed to think of RttT either as a way to replace state funds that they were taking away OR they were taking this as license to try and destroy teacher’s unions, who in their eyes, get in the way of what they want to do.

My feeling is that in my state, our state superintendent Tony Bennett was trying to do both those things. Why do I think that? Well, ok, first, my state’s economy is like every other state’s economy --a bit “wonky” right now. Times are tough and well, I’m sure our Governor and Dr. Bennett thought it would be great to have money come in while they were taking money out. (Governor Daniels wishes to cut 300 million of state funds from education.)

Second, there has been this little “back and forth” between Dr. Bennett and the ISTA. Dr. Bennett says that the Union killed the second application because they refused to meet with him. And it’s slightly true, they did refuse to endorse his plan, but the reasons they refused were because he only opted to meet with them a. AFTER he realized that his first attempt where he didn’t even seek to work with the Union was one of the reasons his Fast Forward plan was rejected in the first round competition (before that he never even asked for input.) And b. when Dr. Bennett did realize he needed the Union support, he only offered a superficial “opportunity” to work together. (He invited the ISTA to meet in ONLY 1 work session and with the media present.) Basically, he wanted to them to sign a “blank check” with no time to meaningfully consider what they were signing.

And as I predicted, when the Union refused to be railroaded in this manner, Dr. Bennett played the blame game and said that it was all the Union’s fault that Indiana wouldn’t be applying. Also, as I predicted he had the state’s major media outlets in his back pocket with headlines bashing the ISTA.

I have to tell you that this all rings really hollow to me. I’ll tell you why. In between the time the first application was rejected and the time that Dr. Bennett “offered” his superficial “opportunity” to the ISTA to try to seek the second round application- when his first attempts to coerce the Union into endorsing his plan as written didn’t work- he up and decided to try and take it to the “streets.” He sent out an email to all of the state’s teachers saying he didn’t want to hear what the Ista had to say, he wanted to hear what we teachers had to say. He seemed to think that the ISTA did not in fact represent our thoughts and that we were somehow victims of the ISTA’s dictates.

I responded by sending Dr. Bennett a link to this blog, so that hopefully he could see that while the ISTA doesn’t tell me what to think, they do represent my interests. I very much resent that he seems to think that my thoughts and opinions are controlled by a Union or by anyone for that matter. I wished him to see that independently I personally questioned his Fast Forward Plan. ( You can read about his reactions to that in prior posts on this blog. )

Anyway, his request for our input without the ISTA seemed rather strange to me then when he pitched a fit to the press that the Union wouldn’t cooperate with him. Did he want anyone’s input really? Or did he just want to hear what he wanted to hear and when he didn’t hear it from the ISTA, he thought he’d try another tack? To use a “popular” internet expression- wth?

One of my colleagues in our state responded with a very sincere but “tongue in cheek” letter that is posted below. I applaud her for standing up and calling a “spade a spade.” But before you read that I’d like to cite the words of the 1993 Teacher of the year, Nancy Flanagan. She is from Michigan and she has a blog called “Teacher in a Strange Land.” The particular blog post from which this excerpt is from is called “The Union Label” It is not necessarily complimentary to teachers unions, but even so she does recognize that teachers unions do serve a purpose. I’m inserting this because I would like Dr. Bennett and the public to understand that while the unions may not be perfect, that they are in fact necessary and the solutions to public education’s issues and the solutions to our nation’s economic problems cannot be found by destroying the Unions. Without further ado, Ms. Flanagan…..

“Unions are sometimes the only bulwark between ill-advised policy and the little-understood complexities of good teaching practice. Unions unabashedly insist that teachers' skills and contributions are worth a great deal to society--and should be remunerated in kind. They do serve a purpose. Most of the hackneyed clichés about the evils of teacher unionism are muted by comparing academic outcomes and programs in strong-union states and right-to-work states. A non-union workforce may be more compliant, but they're not necessarily more professional.”

Now before I post the letter I mentioned above, I’d like to emphasize my belief that teachers unions are not the evil that I believe Dr. Bennett believes them to be. I believe that he doesn’t like them because they are not compliant to his or our Governor’s taste. I think Dr. Bennett and Mr. Daniel’s would very much like to operate in a state (or a world) where no one ever questions their ideas or their plans or their motives. I’d like to state how dangerous a world or a state I think that would be.

We can all see how well a lack of checks and balances has worked out for us with the corporate and financial world lately. We can all see from history how well a lack of checks and balances has worked out in many a civilization.

I’d like to remind Dr. Bennett and Governor Daniels that every teaching position cut is also a cut to the state’s economy; that we teachers are also tax payers and consumers. I also want to see that the best and the brightest are in my field, but I’m just not going to accept a system that can’t really even determine who the best and the brightest are and also seems to really just want the most compliant and the cheapest.

I’d like to state that I’d appreciate it if some actual research on effective education and education reform were consulted before state plans were conceived by politicians. I’d also like to proffer that if Dr. Bennett thinks teachers should be judged by standardized test scores as he wanted the ISTA to agree to- that he read the letter below and take a moment to consider what he’s suggesting. Perhaps he’ll see that it’s not quite fair- if he sees the tables turned on him.

My colleague's letter:

“Dear Superintendent Tony Bennett,

I am a special education teacher at Eastern High School in Greentown, Indiana. I am taking time out of my busy schedule to write to you today in response to your e-mail asking for input from educators across the state. It is my understanding my pay and my teaching license may very well depend on how much gain my students make on standardized tests and you, along with Governor Daniels wholeheartedly support this reform. I think it is only fair I have the opportunity to commend you and Governor Daniels for your gains as well.

Since we all agree that circumstances and factors beyond our control have little to no impact on our overall effectiveness, I think you too will be proud of the gains you have made. In fact, in many categories, you have helped Indiana lead the nation.
. Indiana's unemployment rate has increased from 5.3% in 2004 to 10.1% in 2009.
. The amount of children in Indiana under the age of 18 living in poverty has grown from 15.7% in 2004 to 17.9% in 2008.

. Since 2004, 16,330 students have been added to the free/reduced lunch program.
. In 2004, Indiana schools only had 31,956 limited English speaking students, now we have 45,885.

. From 2004 to 2006, Indiana gained 54,267 more individuals receiving food stamp assistance.

. Since 2004, the percent of 12th graders NOT taking the SAT has grown by 4%.

. Indiana has expanded their student enrollment in public school by 46,263 students since 2004.

. In just one short year, 2007 to 2008, Indiana dramatically increased bankruptcy filings by 20.8%.

The gains you and Governor Daniels have made in the state of Indiana are nothing short of remarkable. You have set the standard on how one can be effective regardless of the circumstance. Initially I was skeptical of the impact of tying student performance on tests to teacher pay and retention but now I realize that not only am I an effective teacher, I am also a prime candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction and Governor.

Sincerely,
Crystal Bramel

Crystal Bramel
Special Education Teacher
Eastern High School”

Thank you Crystal for speaking up! I enjoyed your letter immensely. I suspect Dr. Bennett did not. Also. a Thank you to my new “breakfast club” from NMS. Thanks for reading my blog and I hope to see many of you on the 13th!

Public Education Matters

4.18.10

A Weekend Discussion of Public Education

I’ve mentioned my brother ( the fiscally conservative Republican lawyer) before in this blog and I want to tell you that over the course of this past weekend, I took a lot of good natured teasing from my favorite (only) sibling about this blog. He tells me to cease and desist with my “liberal, socialist ways” and that no one wants to listen to my thoughts. I reminded him that this is America, full of freedom of speech and democracy, and I do happen to have the right to state my own personal opinions on my own blog. :-)

The occasion for my brother and I to be together this weekend was because my father was posthumously inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame. (If you scroll down below Ernie Pyle a bit, you’ll see him in the list of 2010 inductee at the far left.) One of the criteria behind inductions to this hall of fame, besides contributions to the field of journalism, is the contribution to community and society in general. Per that criterion, I unabashedly say that there never was a person more deserving of this award than my father.

The induction speech, given by our friend and one of my father’s former employees, Justin Peeper, spoke specifically to that my father was most often the first in our community to “weigh in” on issues of public concern and that many very fine causes were successful because of his editorial support. Mr. Peeper also cited my father’s high degree of fair-mindedness and his vision and the trust that the community had in him.

I’d also like to note the presence at the ceremony of the widow of our former Governor Frank O’Bannon. One of the other very deserving inductees was Randy West, former Editor of the “The Corydon Democrat” the newspaper owned by the O’Bannon family. This coincidence triggered the memory of other honors that my father was bestowed in his lifetime. He was twice named a Sagamore of the Wabash, once by Governor O’Bannon and he was the first recipient of an award that Mr. West also was presented- the Charlie Biggs Commitment to Community Award.

So, why is all this important to my “lowly” blog about public education? Well, because my father was maybe the BIGGEST supporter of public education that ever walked the earth. His mother was a teacher, his wife was a teacher , his granddaughter just received her degree in education, and of course, there’s me, his daughter, who has worked 30 plus years in education.

Perhaps the greater point though is that my father was also one of the biggest supporters of democracy that ever walked the earth and if you had the opportunity to ever talk with him about it, he would have told you in no uncertain terms how vital PUBLIC education is to our (or any) democracy, in fact to the very survival of democracy.

I was privileged to have had many long discussions about my field with him when he was alive. While we didn’t always agree about everything, I can tell you without equivocation that he was against the use of the public dollar for vouchers and eventually against the charter school movement and that he was vehemently against the property tax cuts because they were not replaced by a stable source of income for our schools.

Originally, my father leaned towards support of NCLB (I did mention that by and large he leaned toward being a Republican, no?) until I loaned him a book about it (forgive me for not remembering which one) and after discussion between the two of us and reading it, he then came to much the same conclusion, as did Diane Ravitch in her book “The Death and Life of the Great American School System" . He came to believe that the reforms sought with NCLB would severely weaken, if not destroy, the public school system in this country.

All of this is not to say that my father was not for accountability in our school systems, but he believed we were ALL accountable: teachers, parents, the community, legislators, school board members, unions, administrators, and students! To him, it was a SHARED responsibility that political motives and uneducated, uninformed policies had no place in. He meant “shared” in the truest sense of the word.

It is also not to say that he didn’t believe that at times the teachers unions needed to re-examine some of their policies and stances. He did believe, however, that there IS a definite place in the world for teachers unions. He felt strongly about their existence. He simply wished that they and the Departments of Education would work together more for the common good.

My father covered numerous school board meetings in his day, he editorially and enthusiastically supported building drives and positive educational programs. He actually understood complicated school budgets and the politics involved (Ironically he was not a journalism major in college, but rather an economics major) and he endeavored to stay current on national and state educational policies.

He covered events and wrote about issues and did interviews with school administrators and teachers . I would be so bold to say that there was no community newspaper that ever provided more coverage of all (not just athletics) school activities and events than his newspaper did. Yes, it’s true, part of this was to sell papers, but largely it was because he believed in the good of all these things. He believed in showing the community what was good in our local systems. He believed students, administrations, and teachers should get public recognition for the good work that they did. And he believed that there was a TREMENDOUS amount of good in the public school system.

So , part of what my father was honored for this weekend was his support of our community and society through his support of public schools. This weekend of honor for his work was very bittersweet for my entire family. As we shared in the honor and as my brother teased me, I felt the loss tremendously- because I know that my father would have bridged it all by teasing us both and then we’d have had a wonderful discussion of it all examining all the perspectives; my father thinking rings around the two of us, I’m sure. He was the best sounding board I ever had about my field and more than anything I would love to discuss the current issues with him.

I know my father and I would have had many deep discussions about the Race to the Top issues, the good and the bad. I know he would have weighed in about Tony Bennett’s Fast Forward Plan. I do not believe he would have been in support of it either. I think he would have said that he’s going about things from a completely wrong direction and I believe that he would have written then about what he thought was the right direction which is collaboration, not a punitive move to destroy the teachers union. What’s more, I believe that people in this community at least would have listened to him.

I am basically a “nobody” with a blog, while my father was a respected leader in the community, known for his intelligence, and his fairness, and delightfully for his sense of optimism even when things look very bleak, as they do right now for Indiana’s public school system.

But he is no longer with us, so I have to make do without him when I want to discuss education, so I turned to my brother this weekend. And, I love and respect my brother of course- all differences of political opinion and teasing aside. But in the absence of my father, thank goodness for my brother’s wife! Lorie is quite an intelligent person herself but in particular she was appreciated yesterday because she herself is a school board member of their local school system in Michigan and as part of her duties she just returned from a National School board convention where she had the opportunity to hear Diane Ravitch (see link above) talk. Amazingly she had not heard of her before and had picked the session randomly. She came away from the session as firm of a believer in what Ms. Ravitch is saying about school reform as I am.

She had also had the opportunity to hear Anthony Mullen (National Teacher of the Year) speak about his personal experiences in teaching. I personally believe that his story about the effectiveness of a caring and involved teacher can do more to reform education than ANY browbeating, punitive measure hammered into place by a school superintendent or a legislature. I believe the public should hear his perspective.

Also chiming into the ongoing discussion was Justin (mentioned above as the speech giver and my father’s former employee.) An interesting thing about Justin is that he is now a young teacher and even a Department Head, himself. He also believes deeply in the public school system. He also still works part-time for my father’s paper (the Bluffton News-Banner) and you’ll often see an editorial by him there. Moreover, often those editorials are about public education’s importance. It’s a delight to see him carry on my father’s tradition of weighing in on public education issues with the same optimism for the future and the same belief in the preservation of public education that my father held.

Justin, it should be noted, had just flown in from taking a group of high school journalism students on a field trip, arriving at 4 in the morning to be back just in time for breakfast, a walk around Bloomington’s campus and self-led tour of the Ernie Pyle Journalism building, the luncheon, his speech, and our discussion.

All in all it was a marvelous and happy weekend and a time for reflection. It was a weekend that filled me with pride for many things, but foremost, pride that I am the daughter of such a wonderful man as my father was. And despite my brother’s light-hearted urgings to cease and desist, I believe I’ll follow the example of my father and continue speaking out on and for the things that I believe in. (-: This is America and this is a democracy and freedom of speech is both a privilege and a responsibility.

Reading this blog and hearing what I have to say is an option for the reader. My only real hope in writing here is that the blog posts will cause people to think, consider, and maybe re-examine their actions.... just as my father’s reporting and writing in the newspaper often did.

You might remember in the last blog post I spoke about the exchange between Indiana’s Union President and Tony Bennett, the State Superintendent of Public Schools. I don’t believe I told you that in answer to another email sent by Dr. Bennett to all of Indiana’s teachers stating that he would like to hear our opinions regarding education in our state not filtered through the ISTA, I replied with a link to this blog. ( I figured I’d take him at his word that he wanted to hear my opinion even if my brother does not. (-:)

On Thursday, a member of Dr. Bennett's staff emailed me back to tell me that Dr. Bennett wanted her to get back with me as soon as possible and indicate that it was clear from this blog that while we clearly had differences of opinions, it seemed we both shared the same concern for students. I’d like to believe that assertion is true.

I appreciate that Dr. Bennett took the time to have a member of his staff email me back. I’d have appreciated if she’d spelled my name correctly, but that’s really a trivial concern. What’s more important to me is that this gives me just a glimmer of hope that Dr. Bennett or at least a member of his staff might follow this blog from here on out. It gives me a glimmer of hope that he actually might consider different thoughts on educational reform other than his own or those of Mitch Daniel’s.

I realize that I will never be as influential as my father, but I’d like to think that my opinions and thoughts do matter a little bit. I’d like to believe that the thoughts and opinions of my fellow educators matter a little bit to “the powers that be” as well. I’d like to think that someone is listening. Thank you if you're someone who did.

The Heart of the Matter

Public Education Matters

The HEART of the Matter

4.14.10

Today I received an email from the President of my state’s teacher’s union. In it it is explained that they have refused our State Superintendent of Public School’s request to get behind Indiana’s Fast Forward Plan to apply for the 2nd round of Race to the Top money. Included in the email was Dr. Bennett’s request to the ISTA and then the response. Respectively, I’ll post those links here. Bennett RttT request to ISTA.pdf and ISTA's response to Bennett request.pdf

As you can see if you read the links, the ISTA will NOT be throwing their support behind the Fast Forward/Race to the Top application. All I can say is “YIPPEE!!!”

I say this for two reasons. One I do not think the amount of Race to the Top money will be worth it and I do not like the whole Race to the Top program’s emphasis on competitiveness.

The second reason is that I do not at all support my state’s Fast Forward plan and I also do not believe the ISTA should give in to Dr. Bennett’s stipulations to the ISTA that go against both what is good for teachers and what is good for students.

Furthermore, Dr. Bennett is basically asking the ISTA to sign away to anything and everything the IDOE decides to do in the future. What person with even half a brain would sign a contract with anyone like this? For the ISTA to do so would be irresponsible on their part.

Now, the heart of the whole matter is not what I personally think. The heart of the matter is that Dr. Bennett and his Fast Forward Plan espouse almost everything that has been proven NOT to work in providing effective and successful education reform.

Don’t believe me? Then I ask you to read Diane Ravitch’s “The Death and Life of the Great American School System.” In this book she provides arguments and documentation about some of the very programs that she formerly supported when she was a top player in George Bush’s education administration (the administration that brought us NCLB.) She is now renouncing all that. Furthermore, she is stating why she no longer supports the type of “reform” that does not revolve around teacher input and collaboration as Dr. Bennett's does not. She doesn’t just make statements, she provides substantiation and documentation of her current assertions.

The heart of the matter here also is that I believe my state capital’s leading newspaper (the Indianapolis Star) to be so partisan and so wrapped up in supporting every little thing that our Governor and Dr. Bennett spew out that I believe that the next thing that will happen will be a great deal of press coverage supporting Dr. Bennett and Mr. Daniels - suggesting that it is the fault of the teacher’s union that our state will not be applying for Race to the Top money (round 2.)

I’d like to put it out there right now that this is NOT at all true. I want to put it out there before all the "yes people" in the state's media try to tell you all otherwise. Yes, it’s true the ISTA will not be supporting the Fast Forward plan, but to dig a bit deeper- one should see WHY the association will not support it- because THAT is the HEART OF THE MATTER.

"You're Fired!"

Public Education Matters

3.27.10

"You're Fired!"

I have a really great friend from college who was in management with JC Penney's for years before getting out and starting up her own successful businesses. Even while our life and career paths have been very different, we discovered a few years back that we both got a huge kick out of the TV show "The Apprentice."

Have you seen this enterprise created by Donald Trump? It pits, first, teams of people, and then, individuals against each other in business type challenges to determine who remains hired and who gets fired. The punch line of each show as a contestant is thrown "off the island" is "you're fired." Currently they are doing "Celebrity Apprentice" featuring a number of "celebrities" including the former (disgraced) Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagovich. " Blaggo" incidentally, seems pretty good at practically nothing, struggling to even turn on a computer, use it to search the internet, or even type on it, for that matter.

Anyway, what has bemused both my business friend and I since we first started watching the show is that it's simply amazing to us how really stupid these contestants seem to be at their own chosen "sport." We find ourselves constantly saying "D'oh! No no no, don't do that, do this" and then speculating how we would do things if we were in that kind of competition. We also speculate that we would literally "kick bxxx" if we were to ever go on the show. Make no mistake; Donald Trump would be impressed with us! We'd be hired and rewarded handsomely.

I'm thinking about that today as I read a column "The Scarlet T" by Anthony Mullen (the 59th National Teacher of the Year) on tenure, which would more correctly be called "due process." I'm also thinking about it today because after one day back from spring vacation, I'm considering my NEXT career. I'm thinking to myself that I'm truly tired of all the criticism, scapegoating, and the blame for the state of the economy from people not in my field and who know nothing about it. I’m tired of all the misdirection, misguidance, and rhetoric by our educational leaders and our legislators regarding education and children. I'm disgusted by the lack of respect and even simple understanding of the true nature of things such as tenure from people such as Mr. Mullen's Rolex wearer. I really think that perhaps in a few years I would like to get out of this "biz."

So, I'm wondering what I might do next. I'm wondering what talents I have as a teacher and as a consultant teacher that might lend themselves well to another (hopefully more respected and better rewarded) career. I have to think this way because goodness knows I've not amassed a great fortune on which to retire from my education career. I have to think this way because I will need to be able to pay for my own healthcare until I reach the age for Medicare.

And it occurs to me that while I've been playing along at home with "The Apprentice" I've actually been thinking about this all along. What would I be good at? Well, quite honestly LOTS of things!! I'd be good at marketing, at running a business, at managing people, at human resources, at being a waitress or a hostess or a cashier. I'd even be good at things involving physical labor because I've stayed in good shape alongside students all these years and because I've got a creative enough mind to be able to withstand the boredom of any repetitive job.

I could work outdoors and withstand the elements because I've weathered recess duties that have toughened me for even the most arctic of weather. I could pursue music or art therapy as I've learned to be quite creative using multi-sensory methods. I've developed the patience and empathy necessary for most any counseling type position or even as a hostage negotiator. I could report and write for a newspaper or a magazine. I’d be good at advertising. Because of my own "specialty" of working with students with orthopedic and health issues, I probably know enough medical terminology to work in the health care field. Literally, I could do a million things and do them well, almost anything- so long as it didn't involve extensive math (which is my Achilles’ heel.)

Literally, I do have a long standing offer from my college friend to retire from this business and come manage one of her stores. And I'm thinking to myself as I read about the firings in Rhode Island, hear about my Governor's cuts to our state educational system, watch the dog and pony show that seems to be the Race for the Top competition, and listen to all this business about "those spoiled teachers don't deserve tenure" or "those teachers get raises for breathing, it's time they take cuts" that "WOW, maybe it IS time for me to get out! I have had just about enough from all you people!"

I even hear it from my own brother, who as a stuffy old attorney is about as Republican as they come. He worries that his “just- graduated from college” daughter (my niece) won't be able to get a job in the field that his SISTER (me) inspired her to go into - Special Education. And it takes all the patience I can muster to explain to him for the UMPTEENTH time what tenure actually is.

But I'll explain it one more time for his benefit and for the public's on this post. It IS simply Due Process. It's NOT a set of procedures designed to keep bad teachers, as critics of teachers' unions always want to tout. It IS a set of procedures that makes certain that the law is followed in the dismissal of any teacher. It is a guarantee that you won't be fired simply because there is a cuter young thing with a perky personality showing up at the superintendent's door looking for a position. It IS what would assure my niece and her father that even while she'll never get rich being a teacher, she won't be summarily turned out on the streets after his investment in her education and after she's been a practicing teacher for 5 or 6 or 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 years because the system can find someone just out of school for less money. Again, I'll tell you that there is no reason that a "bad" teacher (no matter how long he or she has been teaching) can't be fired IF the administrators follow the law and the due process procedures.

And you know what? There's another reason that the public and my brother and the teachers' unions want tenure or due process to stay on the books- It's good for the students. There is actually research out there on teacher experience correlating with student achievement. I personally can assure you with complete certainty that I am a much better teacher now than I was at 24. A teacher gets better and more effective with experience if provided a nurturing environment; I can assure you of this.

I can also assure you that without a truly outstanding "older" teacher next door to me who served as my unofficial mentor when I first started, I would not be HALF the teacher I am today. Because of her experience and her guidance and her willingness to share and collaborate with me, I became who I am. I'd really hate to think how different I'd be today if the school system had sought to get rid of her after her first few years of teaching. I simply would not have gotten those same benefits (and neither would my current and past students) had the teacher beside me been a young teacher like me, no matter how great he or she might have been. On top of that, as I've said before in this blog, consistency and community are things that you want in your schools. Can you not see the benefits of a 5th grader looking back down the hallway and knowing that her first grade teacher is still watching out for her as she grows?

Now you can say all you want to that competition in the workplace for teachers would in fact make sure that all teachers were great. But I won't believe you, because I'll tell you what- with all the talents that I've got now (and had the buds of way back when) - if I'd have known a long time ago that I would only have a "chance" of making a living wage rather than having a secure future (so long as I did my job) I would NEVER EVER have gone into teaching. I would have gone into business, maybe run a non-profit organization, or anything else that would have made it more likely that I could provide for myself and my family. People like me would not be in this field.

I did not go into this field to get rich and wear a Rolex, really I did not. I didn't expect that and that's OK. Rather, I went into this field in order to work with and educate students and help them achieve. It seemed like a good idea at the time because I thought I'd be able to live on what I earned while doing a job that I loved. Perhaps I was wrong and maybe it's time for me to take my talents elsewhere. Mr. Trump, is it too late for me to sign up for the next season?

Spring Break!

Spring Break

Public Education Matters

3.22.10

I realize that it’s been awhile since I last posted. I hope you’ll forgive the lapse. It certainly is not because there were not things in education to write about- the talk over the re-issuing and change of NCLB for one. And well, I’m still so very hung up the Rhode Island teacher firings and the President’s response to it.

In fact, I was so upset about Obama’s response that I was having a lot of trouble staying behind his healthcare concerns as things moved toward the House vote last night. Because while I do seriously believe that something must be done with healthcare, I can’t help but worry that if Obama is THIS messed up about education and is standing behind Arne Duncan’s policies and praising the Rhode Island firings, well then he can’t really be doing a good job with healthcare either. I know that’s a rather visceral reaction and there is no real reason to think that Obama’s healthcare policies are similarly misguided.

Somewhere down the line in this blog, a commenter called me a liberal communist and socialist. To be honest, I’m not really hurt by this characterization even while it’s not altogether true. I do not really consider myself to be a true liberal or a communist. I do perhaps see myself as being a bit of a socialist, but I don’t really think that’s a bad thing.

The truth is that I will willingly pay taxes because I want things like roads, and police, and firefighters, and affordable access to healthcare, and YES, indeed, I want there to be public education for ALL children not just those children who have parents who care. I believe in having those things quite sincerely and I do not believe that anything comes for free. I’m more than happy to pay for these things with my taxes. If that makes me a socialist, then so be it. If that makes me less than a free trade capitalist, then so be it. I don’t really think that this is a bad thing. I think it makes me a concerned, and socially aware and caring individual.

So here’s my problem with Arne Duncan and his plans and with President Obama’s endorsement of the teacher firings and with my governor’s educational cuts- All of these things are rather capitalist responses to social concerns and issues. There is a great belief out there in the business world, almost “Randian” in nature that if you just let people play out their capitalist endeavors and let competition rule the day- that everything will sort itself out eventually and everyone will be the better for it.

My problem with this brand of thinking is that it pretty much ignores the reality of how people really are. In education, it ignores the reality of how children really are. One of my commenters on an earlier post gave me a link to something quite interesting. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

This man speaks about how even the business leaders do not really get “it.” Science is telling us that incentives and competition do not motivate people to be better in 21st century tasks. In fact it has the opposite effect, it makes us perform worse. But this is apparently not what business people and legislators and even our educational leaders want to believe. It seems easy to me to connect the dots here and see that incentives such as Race for the Top only narrow our focus and won’t work and won’t have the intended consequences of improving anything in education. But somehow the people in charge are either just not listening or they just don’t really care. It’s hard to decide which it is.

Because, as I watch the struggle for healthcare reform it strikes me that adherence to capitalist and competitive principles left millions and millions of people without the ability to afford or attain healthcare and it’s created a shortage of primary care physicians, partly due to a decline in their wages, and the only people it’s really benefited were the insurance companies and perhaps trial lawyers who litigated malpractice suits. So I have to wonder why on EARTH we’d want to apply those principles to fixing education.

The teachers in Rhode Island weren’t a bunch of bad teachers. I’m willing to admit that there were probably some who were less than stellar, given that you’ll find these everywhere, given that we truly haven’t addressed teacher education and teacher hirings correctly ever. But, what they mostly were, however, were people afraid of giving in to what seems a very slippery slope. You give in here at this point and where does it stop? And who does it stop with?

The problem is that in healthcare it stops with sick people and in education it stops with children. They are ultimately the ones who pay the cost. I’m just really curious why President Obama would think that there are going to be teachers lining up to fill the void left by the fired teachers and even if initially they can find people, please tell me how long they are going to be able to keep it up, when the reality of the day-in and day-out problems of an economically depressed school system hits them where they live.

Just as the healthcare crisis has driven physicians out of the primary care field, I expect eventually this to happen with teachers. I certainly know I would not encourage anyone I love and care about to go into a field where they can’t expect to make a living and they can’t expect to have any respect for their work and their opinions, let alone expect any respect for the findings of behavioral science.

Another disregarded behavioral science finding is that people feel empowered to achieve and perform, when they have a sense of belonging- when they feel as if they are a valued part of something bigger than themselves. I could provide you many a link here, but there is such a preponderance of evidence on this, that it would be hard to pick just one or just a few, so I’ll leave you to do your own research on this. After all, it is Spring break for many of us and you shouldn’t just be sitting around watching the healthcare votes or anything.

At any rate, I still find it hard to understand why no one understands the link to teachers being disenfranchised by their administrators, by their state leaders, and by their national leaders and the fact that we can’t seem to fix or transform or reform education.

To be honest, I’m quite glad to be nearing the end of my career and well, I honestly have the arrogant belief that I’ve been one of the “good ones” throughout most of my career. I know I have always been striving to be better. But you could not even pay me enough now even if I “earned” all the merit pay you could gather, to go into this field where both science and children are completely disregarded in deference to politics and business interests.

Here is a link to one of my less jaded and younger colleague’s blogs. This also is good Spring break reading. Even while she is not as old and defeated and jaded as me, she raises interesting and relevant concerns about our field, while being highly amusing. It seems to me that she is the kind of person we want to remain in the educational field. I only hope that she isn’t chased out by educational reform movements or she isn’t fired for standing up for her beliefs. http://itsnotallflowersandsausages.blogspot.com/

Enjoy. And moreover- THINK!

Accentuate the Positive- Song and Dance in Education

Accentuate the Positive, An Educational Song and Dance

3.7.10

Public Education Matters

On the wall of my office I have a number of cartoons that have something or other to say about education. They’ve been clipped from various newspapers and magazines over the years. My very favorite is a Peanuts cartoon, where Linus is bemoaning that he’s tired of hearing about Dick and Jane and he’d rather hear about how Anna Karenina throws herself from the train, a funny reminder to myself to always pay attention to students’ real needs, levels, progress, and interests rather than just blindly following a lesson plan. A reminder that teaching is rather like a dance and that you should always be trying to meet the students where-ever they “are” rather than where you expect them to be or hope them to be.

One of my other favorite cartoons shows a man with a chart that has an arrow pointing downward. He is standing before a group of men in suits saying “Due to recent budget cuts, I can give you the song or the dance, but not both.” This cartoon represents my frustration with education budgets and funding at times. I’m often tempted to say “What more do you want from me?!!!! I can only do so much with what I have!”

You’d think maybe that would have been the reaction of the states to Barak Obama and Arne Duncan’s “Race to the Top” contest. You’d think that because the economy is so bad, that they’d have analyzed what the “song and dance for money” would cost them against their real chances of winning and the actual “gain” and maybe just maybe have decided that it just wasn’t worth it. But well, you’d be wrong if you thought that, because it seems that 41 of our 50 states applied. This means these 41 states all spent resources (money and time) on applying for something that most of them had no hope of winning in the first place. As it happens, 16 of the 40 states were chosen to be only finalists. It will be interesting to see now in April who will be chosen for this first round of money.

Now some might argue that it wasn’t all wasted time because the policies and programs created for the application might be positive reforms after all for the individual states ----even if they weren’t national winners. But I would argue back that if you see the actual application, for my state at least, you’ll see that most of it seems just a “dance” or “jumping through hoops” and nothing much of real substance or backed up by research. (On top of that, as I’ll point out in a minute, it may be even more ominous than that, in that the application seems filled with an agenda that has nothing to do with really improving public education.) Many are speculating about why these particular states were chosen over others and insinuate that there might have been political issues involved rather than true educational merit.

Regardless of the reasons for being rejected, not all is lost for those states who were losers. They can apply again in June for Phase 2 money with finalists being announced in August and final winners being chosen in September. My State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Bennett has already announced his intent to plow ahead with his “losing” Fast Forward reform program in the hope of getting in on Phase 2 funds. He indicated in a public statement that he is undaunted and that he will be most interested in getting feedback from the feds about why Indiana lost out on Phase One money.

The interesting thing about this is that many of the people in my state who have examined Dr. Bennett’s application have been quite appalled about the negative, almost punitive tone that the whole Fast Forward plan assumed. One comment I heard was that it was hard to imagine from the tone of it that anyone could write something like it unless their actual intent was to be negative. I’ve also heard many people comment that Fast Forward seemed to have very clear agendas, not of reform of educational practices or improving student achievement, but of eliminating the right of collective bargaining in our state and of privatizing education. (Two asides- If you are not a fan of collective bargaining, you might want to do a little research about levels of student achievement in states with collective bargaining versus states without collective bargaining. You might change your mind. As for privatizing education, I’m just wondering here, when you privatize education, how do you maintain PUBLIC education? And Do we value public education or not?)

Anyway, the interesting thing is that many are speculating that THE REASON Indiana’s Fast Forward plan was rejected for RttT funds was because it was so very negative and not a positive plan for educational change.

Following that speculation, opinions were proffered about whether or not Dr. Bennett would be so arrogant to push Fast Forward forward without making changes as indicated by the RttT rejection or if he would just more subtly disguise his agendas.

My problem with all of this is that it is costing us money with very little hope of any real gain for children, even if “we” would happen to “win.” First, you should know that in any state that is a “winner” a significant amount of the money “won” stays at the state level to hire people to monitor the data about the implementation of the programs. That’s a stipulation of RttT winnings. Ironically, my state’s department of education has been pondering how they would be able to hire enough people to analyze that amount of data with the less than “living wages” they would be able to offer and so they had been making plans to “outsource” these jobs to outside companies. That just seems slightly “off-key” to me or maybe a “mis-step.”

Furthermore, as an example, I was told that the award for one of my nearby districts (if my state had won a berth in RttT) would have been around $90,000 for ONE year only. After that it would be up to the state and the local system to continue any new programs without federal help. Now, sure if someone gave me that amount of money, I’d be one happy, dancing gal, no doubt! I’d pay off my mortgage or my children’s college debt. But a one-time $90,000 gift for an entire school district at the same time your state is taking the hit of massive state cuts- that’s maybe 3 first year teachers’ salaries with no hope of continuing their employment in the coming years. Or maybe it’s the funding for some new technology, but with technology you always have to be able to upgrade, update and maintain it. How would you be able to do that? Maybe it’s new texts and materials, but textbooks and materials go out of date and then what? Maybe it’s training for teachers? Well professional development has to be ongoing, as staffs and circumstances change, so how would you keep it up- especially in a state that has all but eliminated the funding for professional development?

So, in the meantime, while we in education are all dancing and/or singing for federal funding, how many student needs are going unmet? How many reductions in force are being sent out, reducing teaching staffs and creating larger class sizes? How many current Music, Art, and Physical Education programs are being cut?

In the meantime, while we in education in my state are dealing with the rejection of our state’s song and dance, how are we simultaneously to cope with our Governor’s slashing of $300 million dollars from the schools’ budgets?

Please bear with me while I share with you a not quite random and “cute” education story from my “collection.” One day in February several years back, I was walking down the hall of a school when a bulletin board about the Presidents (in honor of President’s Day) caught my attention. Student papers with “facts” about the President of their choice were posted. On one of these, about George Washington, a child wrote “Washington met with the Indians around a campfire. He said to the Indians “Dance and I will give you money.” Now I’m not sure of the story behind that “fact” but what I am sure of is that it amused me to no end at the time.

But here we are in the year 2010 and it seems that Washington is saying “Dance and I will give you money” to the states and we are starting to see the “Indians’” responses and so far, I just have to say that I’m not real crazy about my state’s negative “dance routine.” I’m also just not sure that it’s going to work out any better for any of us than it did for the Indians.

I’m wondering if the pursuit of the phase 2 money of RttT is worth it.

I’d like to offer that rather than “singing and dancing” for federal money to fund education, and rather than creating negative agenda-driven plans for privatization, I’d like to see us follow Bing Crosby’s advice and Accentuate the Positive that is already there in PUBLIC education if you look for it. It’s a great tune for singing AND dancing.