Just who gives a bleep who has endorsed Scot Shine?!? Corrected.

Scott Shine is quite proud of the endorsements he has received. He has gotten them from the members of the QEA board (the rich white cabal that is trying t buy our schools) former school board members that represented district 2, Peter Rummell and a whole host of others. Just go to his web site and he has an entire section dedicated to them.    http://scottshine.com/?page_id=92

To which I reply who cares.

Unfortunately none of the people who have endorsed him know a hill of beans about education and I am including those former school board members. If Shine is serious about representing our schools then he has to get serious with ideas and the only three I heard him mention while he was dodging answering questions at the district 2school board forum were, more charter schools to alleviate overcrowding in district 2 schools, and that is a problem but his solution is worse, more teacher surveys to find out why they are so unhappy (I guess the last ten or so weren’t good enough) and to sell the school board building and move the district offices into district 4 to help alleviate poverty. I kid you not, when talking about how to mitigate poverty in our schools that was his idea.

It seems to me like Shine is pulling a Hazouri and just using the school board position as something to do after a lifetime of living off the public dole and he is hoping to ride his aging surfer boy looks to 1701 Prudential avenue.

In a comment below Mr. Shine says I am incorrect about above and all his public service has been voluntary and he has not been paid for it, I will take Mr. Shine at his word. Mr. Shine has touted his public service and I wrongfully assumed that he was paid and for that mistake I sincerely apologize. It's important to me that Education Matters gets things right and I plainly failed to do so above and again I apologize to Mr. Shine and my readers. 

I would however like to point out that he doesn't say what else I got wrong.     

The thing is we don’t need another person who looks at the school board as another line on a resume. We need somebody who loves public schools and wants to fight to make them better who has both the ideas and energy to make it happen.

Am I being too hard? I don’t think so, go look at his issues tab, it’s amazing how so much is written but so little is said. http://scottshine.com/?page_id=94

I would say Shine is the frontrunner, though the beaches are fortunate to have two other legitimate candidates but before anybody even thinks about voting for Shine they should demand to hear his ideas, something that if he has any has been drowned out by him talking about his endorsements.  

More and more Florida cities are pushing back against testing and charter schools. When will Jacksonville?

You know the super says all the time that he wants to bring students back from charter schools but then hires charter school executives and approves charter school after charter school even when there are opportunities to push back.

He and the entire board say there is too much testing going on too but then do noting to stem the tide.

Other cities are pushing back however. Other cities are pushing back against the privatization of our schools and the warping of education into nothing but churn and burn.

Look at what they are doing in Leesburg:

"Lee County School board members unanimously expressed their disdain for standardized testing at the school board meeting Tuesday evening, pledging to research the possibility of "opting out" the entire district from standardized testing.

"There needs to be a come-to-Jesus meeting...to talk about these issues point blank," Chairman Tom Scott said.

Board member Don Donnie Armstrong said the district cannot afford to continue testing like it does now.

"A lot of our money is being poured out of this county to go to one company, I won't say names," he said. "But on this board or not on this board, I won't stand for it anymore."

http://www.news-press.com/story/news/education/2014/08/12/lee-county-school-board-to-meet/13947251/

Then Charter Schools USA has descended on Jacksonville like a plague of locust building one school before it was even approved. The boards response, a shrug of their collective shoulders before approving it.   Tampa however is fighting back.

From Scathing Purple Musings: But it is Elia’s presence on Scott’s transition team which is most poignant here. Also on that transition team was Charter Schools USA CEO Jonathan Hage. The two now find them facing off against in each other this morning over the future of four CSUSA facilities belonging to Hage in Elia’s district. Last night’s stunning report from WTSP reporter Noah Pransky that Elia had notified Hage that she would be closing three of his schools for a pattern of ongoing illegal oversight was indeed a show stopper.

http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/hillsborough-a-fight-like-no-other-for-charter-schools-usa/

I personally told the board that the members of the charter school boards weren't local, so much for local control, democracy and the concept of charter schools being parent teacher driven laboratories of innovation right and suggested they make a rule that at least have of the members of a charter school board be from the city. The DCPS board didn't care. Maybe since many have taken money from charter schools it is no surprise  

Tampa isn't the only city pushing back either:

From the Sun Sentinel:

Tamarac city officials have shot down a proposal to open a charter high school within the city.

At a recent City Commission meeting, officials went against staff's recommendation and voted unanimously against granting a special exception to open an alternative high school named International High School. The denial is in the backdrop of complaints by city residents that too many charter schools are opening in the city.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/tamarac/fl-sf-charter-0730-20140803,0,3392832.story

While our school board members ignore the problems and instead slap each other’s backs for taking money from privatizers and as our scores and grades sink lower and lower cities across the state are fighting back. 

It is a sad state of affairs.

Teaching the one profession where they expect you to cut your own throat.

It wasn’t always like that. At one point teachers joyfully collaborated and mentored the new ones. You see they were a team only as good as their weakest member and they all had a stake in bringing them up. Now if you bring somebody up it might cause you to be on the way out. 

If veteran teachers, you know the ones often demonized for wanting to have work protections and the ones practically everybody acknowledges do a better job help their cheaper, younger counterparts it can have both detrimental employment and pay ramifications if they prove successful and since that is the case where is the incentive to help the newbies, to nurture them and see that they improve.

The powers-that-be have created a gladiatorial setting where only the best is assured a job and those elusive merit pay bonuses. Their shortsighted run it like a business method encourages teachers to cut their own throats and many teachers are more than wiling to do so. They are nurturers who can’t help themselves and that’s also what the powers that be are counting on.

I hate to say it but if I was at a school with a Teach for America teacher, I would say good luck to you but that would be the height of level of assistance. I also hate to say it but its time teachers played the game and instead of being selfless they were selfish, their jobs may just depend on it.

Peter Green of the Curmudgeon blog, has an excellent piece on the subject:

http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2014/08/teachers-in-thunderdome.html

Why is accountability only for public schools?

By Greg Sampson

One of the catch-phrases of this blog is “I threw up in my mouth a little.” Well, this article made me throw up a lot—not a little bile around the teeth, but a mammoth Thanksgiving feast all over my clothes, in my lap, and a pool that my feet are soaking in.

http://dailysignal.com/2014/08/14/school-choice-regulation-careful-wish/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

To save you this disgusting experience, the writer of the article, and the Washington think tank behind him, The Heritage Foundation, says that accountability is only for traditional public schools. To force private schools that take state government vouchers to take the same annual assessment as public school students would ruin the ability of private schools to be a laboratory for innovation.

(I reread the article carefully. The author does not add charter schools to his pronouncements,

but we can logically infer that is what he really means. Private schools have never been looked at as labs for experimentation and innovation, but that is the original reason for charter schools to exist.)

Oy Vey! (Chris, you’re having a bad influence on my writing … just kidding.)

Demolishing arguments—pay attention, Heritage:

1. The fourteenth amendment: Equal protection under the law. Why are private/charter school students a privileged class? How about fair play? Schools used to teach that to students. You’re saying, Heritage, that no longer applies?

2.       Taxpayers should not expect accountability over where their taxes are sent? You demand exactly that in all other areas of government expenditures, Heritage.

3.       Private school accountability leads to fewer seats? What they mean is that private schools don’t show up for the game—they send in a forfeit because they cannot win.

4.       You talk about a “decentralized learning process.” Okay, I’ll buy into that. To decentralize the learning process, we need to:

a.       Repeal NCLB.

b.       Junk the Value Added Model that everyone except self-interested politicians and technology-selling billionaires says is ridiculous and invalid. Everyone includes mathematicians and statisticians—people who have built their careers constructing valid statistical measures. Is it really about the data? Then get good data.

c.       Eliminate all conditions of the federal waivers from NCLB that the federal Department of Education, under the leadership of Arne Duncan, forced on the states. States knuckled under during the Great Recession to get the money the DOE dangled. But we know that, under the law, contracts entered into under duress are invalid.

d.       Force state Boards of Education to return autonomy to local school districts and their leadership.

e.       Reduce the testing that goes on. Stop labeling students—give teachers back the respect and autonomy they deserve.

5.    Private means just that—not public. If a private school starts taking money, it ceases to be private.

I used to respect these people (The Heritage Foundation). Now I wonder if they have gotten it so wrong about education, how can I render them credibility about anything?

The fixed mind set of the education reform movement or why it will never succeed.

By Greg Sampson

If you want to know why Education Reform is off the rails and cannot succeed, you have to understand the fixed mindset, its implications, and ultimate destructiveness for those who have it.

The fixed mindset believes that talent, intelligence, and ability are fixed at birth. Improvement and achievement are only possible if someone has the genes, the inheritance from their progenitors, for it. This has the following implications:

·         A refusal to recognize failure and grow from it. Failure must be covered up lest the world find out that the fixed mindset person is a fraud—not really talented, not really intelligent, not possessing the right stuff, as Tom Wolfe described it.

·         An avoidance of challenge. New challenges are not opportunities for growth and learning, but tests that one might fail.

·         A lack of effort. Trying to achieve is doomed to failure if one is fixed, cannot improve, and will never succeed in surpassing set levels.

·         A lack of humility. The human ego protects itself at all costs. The fixed mindset lies about its true results, always inflating measurements of achievement, to maintain a pretense of competency.

·         A persecution of subordinates. The last thing a fixed mindset wants around it and under it is people who might be better than them. They will drive those people out of their organizations. They have to be the best; they have to be the smartest person in the room.

Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology, currently teaching at Stanford University, previously at Columbia University, has made the study of mindset a key feature of her research. My summary comes from her book, Mindset—The New Psychology of Success: How We Can Learn to Fulfill Our Potential. You can preview a copy on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mindset-How-Fulfil-Your-Potential-ebook/dp/B000FCKPHG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407599126&sr=8-1&keywords=mindset+by+carol+dweck or check out the website www.mindsetworks.com.

Her discoveries are astounding and the implications far-reaching. The fixed mindset explains what is wrong with educational reform and those who lead it, including foundations, charter school advocates, legislators, state boards of education, and commissioners of education. In a series of posts, I will sketch the implications of the fixed mindset and how it is leading those in charge to erroneous conclusions and disastrous policies. At the end, I will provide prescriptions for educational improvement that works.

As an introduction, let us look at standardized assessments and how they promote a fixed mindset in students that erodes their confidence and leads to apathy, if not outright contempt, toward school.

In Florida, we have given the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) for many years. Every state has its version of the once a year test that measures and labels students for their achievement. These tests are not designed for growth. Their purpose is to label achievement. If these standardized tests were designed for growth, students would be allowed to revisit the questions they got wrong and investigate what they did wrong to discover ways to correctly solve the items. But not even teachers are allowed to review the tests.

In Duval County, we take the same approach to our Curriculum Guide Assessments. After the students have taken the test, we are not allowed to let them review the questions they got wrong and work on how to come up with the right answer. The fixed mindset: this is what you are—accept it. You get no chance to improve.

The test labels children and they take it to heart. They cannot believe that with effort and study they can learn and surpass these achievement labels. “No, the test said I’m a 1. That’s all I’ll ever be. No more homework for me. It’s worthless. When can I drop out of school?”

The surprising and outrageous consequence of the way we test is that the process creates low-achieving students. Let’s hear from Jo Boaler, Stanford University, who wrote the book What’s Math Got to Do with It? (page 95):

The ways in which assessment reporting can affect students’ confidence as learners was illustrated poignantly by a ten-year-old student in England reporting on the standardized tests (called SATs) she was about to take. She said, “… I’m afraid I’ll do the SATs and I’ll be a nothing.” When the interviewer tried to convince her that she could never be a “nothing,” no matter what happened on the tests, the young girl insisted that the test would make her one.

Students buy into the label. And they live down to it to the point where they will disrupt a class to make their peers laugh and prevent the teacher from teaching. If no one is learning, no one will find out how low they are. If they could change that, well maybe they would give the class a chance, but since they cannot, their best way of protecting their self-image is to take the class down.

CHAMPs (a classroom management system), zero-tolerance, parental involvement, and restorative justice cannot solve this problem. Instilling a growth mindset will.

From Carol Dweck:

One day, we were introducing the growth mindset to a new group of students. All at once Jimmy—the most hard-core turned-off low effort kid in the group—looked up with tears in his eyes and said, “You mean I don’t have to be dumb?” From that day on, he worked. He started staying up late to do his homework, which he never used to bother with at all. He started handing in assignments early so he could get feedback and revise them. He now believed that working hard was not something that made you vulnerable, but something that made you smarter. (Dweck, Mindset, page 59.)

Have I convinced you that we should throw out standardized testing because it is destructive in the lives of children? If so, Vive La Revolucion!

Next: The Growth Mindset and How It Promotes Learning, followed by The Failed Promise of Charter Schools: Doomed by the Fixed Mindset.

The absolute wacky things Darryl Willie says.

It’s no secret I don’t like Teach for America in the city. It makes our administration lazy, because instead of searching for professional teachers they take hobbyists who think I will give that a try and then they are put with our neediest children or the exact opposite of what we know is best for them.

Furthermore they are insulting to professional teachers saying anybody can do my job even without an education or experience and that’s not true, then they also have pay, benefit and pension ramifications for teachers and are expensive. When combined with the 3,000-dollar finders fee we pay, we spend a disproportionate amount of money on them only to watch them quickly leave. It’s a bad deal all around. 

Darryl Willie disagrees. He came through their ranks and is proud of his affiliation, though for some reason he doesn’t mention them on his campaign web site. Regardless he loves them.

From WJCT: An audience member asked the candidates whether or not schools should notify parents if their child's teacher is a TFA recruit.

Willie, a former TFA member, said he would not support such a measure.

“True, some of our Teach for America recruits don’t have years and years of experience, but the screening process they go through to stand in front of those students is quite intense,”

http://news.wjct.org/post/school-board-candidates-lay-out-plans-and-priorities-district-4

Um, years and years of experience? How about no experience, any at all and forgive me but I don’t think their stints as camp counselors in training for two weeks one summer when they were sixteen is relevant. TFA’s model is to take non-education majors who are recent grads, to put them through a five-week access course and then into our neediest schools with our neediest children. Or and say it with me, the exact opposite of what we know to be best for those children.

Is there a screening process? Yes. Is it rigorous, I’m not sure because as a lark last spring I almost set up an interview saying I was about to graduate from UNF with my psychology degree.

Then think about this not only are they starting the school year but most of them are in the process of moving too. That’s right folks they are sent all across the country and few end up in their hometowns and that’s a lot going on.

Now he could have said, they are enthusiastic or excited, but for him to even to bring up experience, as a possibility for some isn’t even remotely true.

Let me ask you this question. Who do you want teaching your child, and I freely admit there are some great TFA teachers, and some poor professional ones, but playing the odds, do you want a professional teacher with education and experience or some recent grad who says I will give that a try, then goes through a five week access course and them moves to a new city. It’s not even close in my mind.

Darryl Willie and TFA think they are the heroes of the story, giving up two years of their lives to help inner city children, but the real heroes are the teachers that toil year in and out, often in anonymity, with little support, who Teach for America is trying to squeeze out.

Cleve Warren’s well spent 255 bucks or Darryl Willie’s 30 pieces of silver

A question came up about single gender schools at the district 4 school board forum and Darryl Willie was enthusiastically for them practically more so than for anything else. He sung their praises mightily.

The problem is the research is very mixed to say the least. There doesn’t seem to be a definitive answer on whether they make a difference or not and for somebody who frequently talks about following the data his response seemed out of place. 

If I would have been asked the question I would have answered, I don’t think they will make a bit of difference plus as important as the quadratic formula or the period table are so is teaching young men and women how to be successful together. I do however think that districts need to experiment and try new things and then see what the data says.

It struck me though how enthusiastic Willie was but then I remembered that the operator of two just opening single gender charter schools, Cleve Warren had donated to his campaign. Now the sum was just 255 dollars, not much, but Warren also opened the door to Willie for other charter school operators and their representatives to give him thousands and thousands of dollars.    

From a WJCT piece about the debate:  Willie and Wright were also asked about their stance on charter schools. Both said that the job will involve some cooperation with the existing charter schools. They also said it will involve focusing more on the quality of education offered in traditional public schools.

“We have to have more charter schools, but we also have to hold them more accountable,” Willie said.

http://news.wjct.org/post/school-board-candidates-lay-out-plans-and-priorities-district-4

Um, why do we have to have more charter schools? Most are defacto publicly funded private schools more interested in making money for their owners than educating their kids and yes before I get a thousand e-mails some do it right, and even I think they have a role to play but they system Florida has now is abysmal and is doing much more harm than good.

In Florida over 260 have opened, taken public money and closed leaving communities in a lurch including 13 in Jacksonville alone. A piece by Julie Delagul recently outline how the cities charter schools as a group are way under performing, despite advantages like who they take and keep and being able to put requirements on parents, when compared to their public school counterparts and before you point to the KIPP school let me remind you they spend about a quarter more than public schools do and nobody has been able to tell me what happened to a quarter of their first class. Sure some matriculated out but KIPP has a reputation for forcing low performers out too. And their grades have been F, B, C, protected by the one letter grade drop rule and B. Pretty mediocre for a school that specializes in kill and drill education.

So why does Willie think we need more charter schools especially when we have so many schools under enrolled as it is and the ones we have now aren't good (as a group) ? Oh I know it’s because his donors want more charter schools, that’s the only reason I can think of because facts and evidence say we have way more than we need as it is.

How much does it cost for one to sell out a community and attempt to funnel their kids to substandard options? Look at Darryl Willie’s list of donors to know.

 http://www.duvalelections.com/Candidates-And-Committees/Campaign-Treasurer-Reports-Bios/Search-Local-Contributions-And-Expenditures.aspx

Thirty pieces of silver.

Karen Feagins stops the debate early. It’s not the questions they ask but the questions they don’t.

I was disappointed that Feagins didn’t mention that Darryl Willie was on the WJCT community board last night at the district 2 forum. She might not think it is a big deal, heck it might not even be a big deal but it’s a little piece of information, full disclosure, that I think is important.

I also wish she would have mentioned that Trey Csar, of the JPEF, the co-host of the forum was also on the board with Willie and that they both were Teach for America alumni. I feel like I am peeling an onion here. Her not doing so reminds me that she had Csar on a panel to discuss charter schools a little while back. Now Csar was once the vice principal of one but it never came up that many of his bosses either own or have close ties to them. I think more relevant information left out.

Finally Feagins who also seemed disinterested at points for some reason stopped the debate some 12 minutes early and I know she had questions on the table about Gary Chartrand and race based goals, teacher tenure, voting for charter schools that give candidates donations and VAM scores. I know because I submitted them. I really think Willie would have had a more difficult time explaining his position for some of them than than Paula Wright would have but If 8:30 would have rolled around and they had gone unasked I would have shrugged my shoulders but since that wasn’t that case it makes me wonder why.

It makes me wonder if Willies close ties to WJCT and Feagins was the reason.  

Should school board members be endorsing candidates?

I have heard of outgoing school board members endorsing candidates before, Gentry endorsed Hall and in 2012 and Lee has endorsed the younger version of himself Scott Shine but for as long as I have been following the school board I can’t remember a sitting member doing so. So I was blown away reading that Jason Fischer has endorsed Scott Shine

Now you might be saying but city council members and members of congress always endorse the mayoral or presidential candidate that represents their parties. The thing is school board races are supposed to be non-partisan, political affiliation is supposed to play no role. Unfortunately that is no longer the case. Look at Orange Park and how Van Zant used political chicanery to disenfranchise the democrats and independents there. Then closer to home Jason Fischer the Mandarin representative ran on his close ties to Jeb Bush and the Republican Party.

If Shine doesn’t win, then Fischer has just made his job and the job of governing our schools that much more difficult and for what? What points does he get for jeopardizing the good working order of the board?

But maybe he doesn’t really care what happens on the board and this endorsement is his attempt to join the cool kids of the county who have all gotten behind Shine. He can now say look at me as he hopes for a seat at the table because to Fischer the school board is just one step on a career that he hopes will see him elsewhere.  

How Jacksonville’s non-profits were hoodwinked by a bunch of millionaires.

From a Times Union article speaking about the district 2 school board forum: The forum was sponsored by a coalition of community groups led by the Jacksonville Public Education Fund. 

All the organizations have signed a pledge to not support or endorse a candidate.

Oy vey, but what the paper fails to mention is that five members of the JPEF board have donated thousands of dollars and endorsed a candidate in each school board race. But think about this too.

The JPEF partnered with 20 organizations and by making them sign a pledge that they arguably have not adhered too, have taken their potential endorsements off the table. Wouldn’t you like to know who the League of Women Voters would support or how about the NAACP? Two large and influential organizations would certainly have a voice.

This small cabal of ultra rich donors, none of who are educators, live in the neighborhoods the candidates they are donating to do and who have close ties to the education reform movement are literally having their cake and eating it too. They are endorsing and supporting and preventing people who might endorse or support other candidates from doing so at the same time.

Shouldn’t the media at least inform the people and then let them make their own judgments?