Strange bedfellows, liberal teachers and the Cato institute against the Common Core.

I doubt we could agree on the sky is blue and puppies are cute but here we are agreeing that the Common Core is the wrong way to go.

From the Cato Institute by Neil McCluskey:  Just about anyone who opposes the Common Core national curriculum standards, under serious reexamination in Florida right now, is either a kook or a goof. That, at least, is the impression an impartial observer would get from listening to Core supporters.

But the reality is quite the opposite: education thinkers from across the political spectrum are taking on — and apart — the Core.

In the face of powerful and growing grassroots concern, there is a major effort underway to paint Core opposition as grounded in “misinformation” and plain old craziness. For instance, former governor Jeb Bush, arguably the Core’s greatest champion, has repeatedly questioned the motives and knowledge of Core opponents. Recently, he accused them of employing conspiracy theories, and several months ago he berated the Republican National Committee for voting to condemn the Core “based on no information.”

Mr. Bush is not alone. In a recent oped, Michael J. Petrilli and Michael Brickman of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute characterized Core opponents as a “small but vocal minority of conservatives” coupled with a bit of “the far left.” In other words: scary fringe types.

Like in every group, there are some Core opponents who say outlandish things, but that is the exception, not the rule. Much more important is the diverse group opposing the Core who are the exact opposite of the “kook” stereotype: education experts.

The Common Core is opposed by scholars at leading think tanks on the right and the left, including the Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institution, the Brookings Institution and the Cato Institute. My research has shown that there is essentially no meaningful evidence that national standards lead to superior educational outcomes.

Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Eric Hanushek, an education economist and supporter of standards-based education reform, has reached a similar conclusion, recently writing: “We currently have very different standards across states, and experience from the states provides little support for the argument that simply declaring more clearly what we want children to learn will have much impact.”

Hanushek’s conclusion dovetails nicely with Common Core opposition from Tom Loveless, a scholar at the left-leaning Brookings Institution. In 2012, Loveless demonstrated that moving to national standards would have little, if any, positive effect because the performance of states has very little connection to the rigor or quality of their standards, and there is much greater achievement variation within states than among them.

In fact, Loveless has been one of the clearest voices saying the Core is not a panacea for America’s education woes, writing: “Don’t let the ferocity of the oncoming debate fool you. The empirical evidence suggests that the Common Core will have little effect on American students’ achievement. The nation will have to look elsewhere for ways to improve its schools.”

Moving to arguably the far left, education historian Diane Ravitch has also taken on the Core, noting that it is untested, was assembled behind closed doors, and was essentially foisted on schools by the federal Race to the Top contest. That it also seems intended to produce huge increases in test failures — as occurred when New York employed Core-aligned tests without Core-aligned curricula — seemed to push Ravitch over the edge.

“I hope…that the Common Core standards are great and wonderful,” Ravitch wrote on her blog when she first came out against the standards, but added: “I wish they were voluntary, not mandatory. I wish we knew more about how they will affect our most vulnerable students. But since I do not know the answer to any of the questions that trouble me, I cannot support the Common Core standards.”

There is an extremely well-informed opposition to the Core, and dismissing opponents as loony does Florida’s children no service. Indeed, as the Sunshine State struggles with how to move forward, ignoring crucial analysis and research puts them in serious danger.

http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/you-arent-total-kook-you-oppose-common-core

Jeb Bush switches gears... again (rough draft)

Have you noticed how the problem in education went from all those teachers with their feet up on their desks protected by union dues who only cared about their Cadillac pensions and benefits to our standards sucked? 

For a few years there Jeb Bush and his ilk had many convinced it was teachers specifically union teachers that were the problem in education. That is until teachers started pushing back and people began to wake up. Now we aren’t where we should be as John Stewart recently pointed out during an interview with Diane Ravitch. He made the point that many people feel the education system has serious issues but at the same time are very satisfied with their neighborhood schools.

Now that teachers are a bit back in favor partly and sadly due to the sacrifices of some in Connecticut and Oklahoma we aren’t getting beat up on as bad and now we need the (very debatable) better standards that Common Core provides to save us. I find this ironic because old Jeb was in charge of Florida’s standards for eight years and back then they were good enough.

This isn’t the first time Jeb Bush has switched gears either and as long as there is a buck to be made I don’t think the last either. When he started selling charters and vouchers it was so poor kids could leave their failing neighborhood schools and experience better options. The problem however for the ed reformers is that charter schools and voucher schools despite sizeable advantages performed no better and often performed worse.

Now they say we need vouchers and charters because competition makes everyone better.

Jeb Bush is a con man, a flim flam artist and a snake oil salesman all rolled into one. He isn’t here to help kids, he is here to make a buck and to serve his pathological hatred of unions and at the end of the day he will be the villain of the story.

Arguments against the class size amendment make little sense.

Three things you should know about the class size amendment in Florida that mandated classes be smaller..

It is one of the few reforms that has actual evidence that says it works.

Education reformers hate smaller classes because it is money that schools have to spend on teachers instead of tests and…

No teacher ever said; give me five more students and it will make me better.

One of the arguments people like chair of the state board of education, Gary Chartrand and ReDefined Ed blog writer Patrick Gibbons make against the class size amendment is the money would be better spent elsewhere. Here is the thing they fail to acknowledge, if the money wasn’t being spent on smaller classes it wouldn’t be spent on education at all.

It’s not like in 2003 the Florida legislature was about to say, hey district’s here is 20 billion dollars spend it how you like before the class size amendment was enacted. No, education would not have seen a nickel of that money.  It is a ridiculous argument to say non-existent money would be better spent elsewhere.

So sure make the argument the money would be better spent on other things, though some examples would be nice, but people like Chartrand and Gibbons should keep quiet until the money is allocated first.

Supporters of Common Core ignore our real problems

By Michael Weston via Facebook

Standards are not the problem in education. We keep spending money on the latest silver bullet while ignoring the real problems. Providing silver bullets is a very lucrative business these days. Perpetuating the myth of failing schools is the greatest marketing hoax thus far this century.

Factor out poverty level students and the US holds up most favorably to other nations. New standards, new tests and new curricula do nothing to ameliorate the real issue. Unfortunately, these "reforms" all lead to a narrowing of curriculum and the over reliance of high stakes testing. This contributes to a decline in the education experience of students in all economic brackets.

Dump common core and the billion$ it sends to the parasitic education industry. Provide students pathways to success; all students, not just those who are college bound.

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/national-education-think-tank-urges-florida-leaders-to-keep-common-core/2151310

Is Gary Chartrand trying to starve our schools of resources?

Gary Chartrand is no fan of public education; he has invested millions in charter schools, Teach for America and the pretend teacher association, the professional educator’s network.  Throw in race based goals and him voting multiple times to deceive the people of Florida by masking and tweaking the A-F grading system then it is inexplicable to me that he has any position of power.

Sadly however as chairman of the state board of education, that’s right he went from top 50 in grocery store news to running our schools, he has lots of power and he may be using that power to starve our schools of needed resources.

From HT politics: Members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, which will write its own public school funding plan in the spring, questioned whether the state agency’s request adequately reflected the needs in the 67 school districts.

Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, who is also the head of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, raised the issue of funding for school buses and other transportation services, noting the districts have been facing rising fuel costs as well as an increasing demand for bus stops.

“I think that’s an area that we need to at least give some attention to,” Montford said.

http://politics.heraldtribune.com/2013/11/06/senators-question-if-school-budget-will-meet-states-needs/

Basically Montford and other state senators believe the DOE is low balling their needs.  The article also went on to talk about health care needs and technology needs and how the DOE budget doesn’t adequately address them

Why would they do that? Well friends there are two possible reasons, it is because the board led by Chartrand is composed of people who don’t believe or even like public education and would like to see it fail or they don’t know what they are doing. Who wants to bet it is a combination of both?

Michelle Rhee’s Astroturf group Students First coming to Florida.

Discredited and apparently shameless, Michelle Rhee’s Astroturf group Students First, should be testing companies first, is coming to Florida. They may sound familiar because they have played a pivotal role the last two years in attempting to get parent trigger legislation, something practically no parent supported, passed in Florida and our leaders in the privatization movement.

Here they plan to spend their boat loads of corporate cash and right wing connections to take over schools and transform the teaching profession into a service industry job. In short they are that is wrong in the education reform movement.

To read more click the link: http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/studentsfirst-expanding-in-

A parent sticks up for her daughter... a teacher!

From a reader

My daughter just started teaching - 1st year out of college with a Math degree that she worked very hard for- at a Duval County High school.  Unfortunately, you don't pay much attention till it hits home...but I am appalled at what she has to put us with every day from a handful of students.  These students make her job almost impossible and the other students she has suffer as a result.  She is being threatened every day and has asked numerous times for help - the only help she gets is being told - you just have to deal with it. NO ONE has really offered her any constructive help.  In fact, a staff person just told all the teachers he is concerned about safety at the school because of the delinquent kids who they can't control.  She is cussed at, yelled at and disrespected every day...and is told "just hang in there - it will make you a better teacher".  She writes referrals, calls parents, has tried everything she's been taught and everything experienced teachers have suggested and nothing has worked.  That is unacceptable...I see now why the education stats are so bad...you do not give someone who has dreamed their whole life of becoming a teacher a fighting chance.  I am sure many quit after their first year of dealing with this - if they make it through the year.  My daughter is tough and will but how much more productive could she be if these students were effectively dealt with.  She says she is giving it 5 years - if this is what life is like everyday she teaches - she will find another career.  I cannot understand how our school system has gotten to a place where a few students rule.
 
They put a first year teacher in a class of nothing but remedial kids all day - every day...which is challenging enough - then they expect her to have enough experience to discipline kids who have no intention of learning and have over the top anger and other  behavioral issues.  Everyone loses here.  No teacher should be required to do this.  This is way more than a disciplinary issue and frankly I am concerned for her safety.
 
This does not happen in every school - why do we allow it to happen in some.

Teachers talk about discipline if Duval County Schools.

From various readers who are teachers.

The new code states kiddos finally get after school detention for SEVEN TARDIES to the same class...why bother? and the cycle restarts with each quarter...i did write 2 young ladies up for 7 T's and the note said they were counseled because they didn't realize the importance of arriving on time.....

Why even bother? I had an Admin compliment me once on never writing a referral. I told her that only good teachers write referrals. The look on her face was priceless. But I'm close to retirement and can say stuff like that.

I wrote my first one last week. It was returned to me today with a note telling me to call home.

If vitti stopped this then why were we told the district said we were writing too many referrals We are actually seeing referrals still not being handled. Our new dean more friend than authority figure

I don't generate paper (referrals) unless I absolutely have to in order to protect my ass. COMPLETELY gave up fighting the use of the word "nigga". 

As long as they keep the same Student Progressive Discipline Plan; as long as they require teachers to do many discipline interventions; as long as they insist on teachers using the ineffective CHAMPS; as long as they refuse to support teachers and blame teachers for student misbehavior things will not improve. Behavior would much improve if students were assessed "0s" for unexcused absences including suspensions. Another novel idea....quit making school miserable for students, teachers and principals with the high stakes testing and all the test prep.

Done Geatz, disingenuous about common core till the bitter end.

Just so we are straight I don’t believe Common Core is a plot for a federal takeover of schools, though it is pretty hard to ignore the federal government’s involvement.  Through race to the top grants given to desperately cash strapped districts at the height of the great recession, the federal government was able to trade local control for a few nickels as districts had to agree to up their standards and to what have become often odious and destructive teacher evaluation systems.

No, Common core is not a federal takeover of our schools, instead it is just the continuation of another disastrous federal initiative that states and districts felt they had to accept in order to keep afloat. Hmm, I may have to revisit my initial assertion.

All that being said I have a problem with Florida’s senate president Don Geatz statements about common core not being a takeover of education.  “You can’t dip them in milk and hold them over a candle and see the United Nations flag or Barack Obama’s face,” Gaetz said. “They’re not some federal conspiracy.” –

Sure but at the same time he thinks Obamacare is a federal takeover of health care and was instrumental in blocking some 700 thousand Floridians from getting health care. Geatz who by the way made his bones in for profit hospice care and sadly yes that does exist is the same person who is for merit pay, which has no evidence that says it works, and for charter schools, which has plenty of evidence that says they don’t and since that is the case why should we listen to anything he has to say, even when like a broke clock is occasionally right, he is right too.

Disingenuousness oozes from this guy.

Bullying is alive and well in the Duval County School District

Some typical definitions of bullying are; someone who uses superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what they want and a person who is habitually cruel or overbearing, especially to smaller or weaker people. I am sad to say bullying is alive and well in Duval County. Now I am not talking about in the halls or at recess or what happens between students. I am talking about what happens in the teacher’s lounge, during evaluations and after school when all the kids have gone home. I am talking about how administrators bully teachers into getting what they want, making them victims of intimidation, treating teachers in an unfair and cruel manner.

I am not saying all administrators are bullies. On the contrary we have many wonderful administrators but like we have some children who insist on using violence and intimidation to get what they want we have enough administrators here in Duval County that a few bad apples is threatening to spoil the cart. We have enough acting in a fashion that should concern and embarrass us all.

I recently completed what I thought was an excellent training. If the instructor was half as good with her students as she was with us teachers I can truly say she must be incredible. At the end she told me this was it for her and she was putting in her papers to retire. When I asked why she told me how an assistant principal had ruined the year for her and made teaching no longer worth it. I have heard a variation of this story hundreds of times and about how principals and administrators talk to teachers in a fashion that would get teachers in serious trouble if they did so in the same way to their students.

Teachers’ especially new ones have very few protections while at work. If a principal or an administrator gets it in their head that they don’t like you, they can make a teachers life very difficult. Spot lesson plan checks, constant visits to your room, a change in assignment, a hit to an evaluation, a loss of merit pay, a lack of respect in front of peers or worse in front of children, a dismissal of concerns or issues, a lack of support, a denial of trainings, it goes on and on the subtle ways those with a little power can make a teacher’s life miserable. I know one teacher who was told she could no longer park in the teacher’s parking lot.

Veteran teachers tell new teachers all the time to be quiet and take it. That it is best to fly under the radar, when they complain in confidence about unfair demands or overbearing administrators. It used to be after three years teachers had some kind of protection, what the public education-hating crowd convinced some of the public was tenure but now even that is gone. From this point on teachers have become at will employees capable of being fired at the end of the year for any reason, real or imagined.

You better pass this amount of children or your evaluation will suffer, you won’t get merit pay or you know what I have a neighbor whose nephew says he might want to try teaching so you could be gone. Don’t think about writing any referrals either. The same goes for refusing to work extended day, Saturday school, to tutor on your personal time, running a club, taking on extra work or projects, or just plain don’t think any kid should get grade recovery for any reason. Well from now on refuse any of these things at the risk of your evaluation or job.

So what some people might say. They like to point out with this economy there is no end of applicants but what they don’t like to point out is, do we really want anybody willing to roll the dice teach our children and five years ago when the economy was good we didn’t have enough teachers and we were recruiting in India and Canada. That’s right friends we were traveling thousands of miles away to find teachers for our students in Florida because not enough people were willing to roll the dice. If the economy ever does turn around we won’t have enough warm bodies to staff our classrooms.

The legislature has recently given principals and school districts carte blanche to intimidate and bully teachers, not that they needed it. Petty tyrants like the one who made my brilliant reading teacher want to quit are already alive and well throughout the district. They use the hammer and the fist to get what they want. They intimidate and cajole and use methods we want to protect our children from in order to get their way.

How are teachers supposed to stick up for their children, how are teachers supposed to point out flaws in the system, how are teachers supposed to do what is right when they might lose their job for it. The best administrators get their staff to want to work with them, to make them want to succeed, they don’t use fear, threats and intimidation to get what they want. The best teachers use similar methods as well.

Bullying is alive in well in Duval County and like how we have seen it adversely affect children and have called for its stop we should likewise demand administrators stop it as well. We need to support and back our teachers. We need to nurture the new ones too. We need to have a district where everyone feels respected and appreciated until they prove other wise, not just play lip service to that idea.