Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Renewed Perspective

Note to my readers: Just in case you wondered why there has been a pause in posts on this blog I wanted my readers to know that I took a break from blogging to travel out West. I traveled to Yosemite and other great sites and enjoyed this and other wonderful natural wonders in the western part of our country. I believe that an appreciation of the lasting beauty of nature is a great way to remind us that the puny actions of man are often not very important in in the grand scheme of history.

Meanwhile I am pleased to refer my readers to several prolific education and political writers who have done a great job in the last few weeks of chronicling the recent developments in Governor Jindals' erratic and poorly planned education reform program. I particularly want to refer my readers to the new blog by Diane Ravitch. Dr Ravitch has produced several revealing posts in the last few weeks exposing the many flaws in the Jindal program which will damage public education in Louisiana. I hope my readers will go to her blog and take the time to get the perspective of one of the few writers who truly understands the critical issues in education and who is willing to tell the truth to all who are willing to listen.

In addition, a very experienced local political writer, Tom Aswell has also written much recently in his blog Louisiana Voice about the many missteps of the Jindal administration on  education and other issues. Finally, I refer my readers to the Geaux Teacher! blog  and the Educators for All blog. These are blogs by local educators who have been intensly involved in trying to counteract the recent attacks on public education. I recommend also that readers check regularly with the Louisiana Association of Educators and the Louisiana Federation of Teachers for the latest news on education. In the coming months I will be consulting with LAE concerning contacts with educators on the critical issues facing educators in Louisiana.

Please allow me a little time to get back to my home base and get reoriented to the continuing development of education issues in Louisiana. I am anxious to restart dialog with our many fine educators, school board members and parents.

My highest priority now will be working with leaders of the Coalition For Louisiana Public Education to prepare a set of suggestions for educators to utilize in communicating with their local legislators concerning needed changes in the reform efforts. I plan to meet with my legislators soon to discuss some of these needed reforms of the reforms. I hope that my readers will do the same.

If you have not already done so, please send me an email requesting to join my Defenders of Public Education data base. Include your address so I can organize members by their legislative districts. I plan to send specific emails to members as issues arise that the Defenders can communicate to their legislators.


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

New Accountability Rules

News Flash, Added 6/7/12: Baton Rouge Advocate finally breaks with Jindal and criticizes his unconstitutional voucher boondoggle and strong arm tactics. Also click here for Diane Ravitch commentary on Louisiana's voucher debacle.

On May 29 the US Department of Education approved Louisiana's ESEA Flexibility Request. This approval means that Louisiana will be given flexibility in the use of ESEA Title I funds and will be granted a waiver from some of the mandates and possible sanctions of the No Child Left Behind Act. This waiver should allow public schools more flexibility in how they utilize Title I funds and may not force schools to implement programs and practices that have not been found to be ineffective in improving student performance.

According to Dr. Scott Norton, head of Accountability for the State, schools will now be exempted from some of the burdensome regulations and reporting requirements of No Child Left Behind.

In order to be granted ESEA flexibility, Louisiana had to submit a plan for improving student performance, evaluating teachers partially based on student performance, and implement plans for closing the gaps in student performance. This ESEA Flexibility Request contains major changes in Louisiana's Accountability system that will impact all public schools. The following are some of the major changes in Accountability that will take effect in the 2012-13 school year.
  1. The School Performance Score (SPS) system will be changed from a 200 point system to a 150 point system and the following schedule will determine school grades: 50-69.9=D, 70-84.9=C, 85-99.9=B, 100-150=A.
  2. The SPS system will no longer consider school attendance by students in calculating the SPS for elementary and middle schools.
  3. Dropout rates in grades 6-8 will go from a weight of 10% to 5% in the calculation of SPS.
  4. Each school with a B rating or less for the previous year is expected to grow its SPS by 10 points per year.
  5. Schools where at least 35% of students in new super subgroups (comprised of minority and low performing student groups) exceed value-added expectations will be awarded bonus points on the SPS system.
  6. The greatest changes in the SPS system will occur in the high schools (grades 9-12) where the new SPS will be determined by 4 factors: 25% based on the ACT average score for all students, 25% based on the end of course test results, 25% based on the graduation index, 25% based on the cohort graduation rate.
  7. Any school below B that does not grow by at least 10 SPS points in a particular year must participate in mandatory COMPASS training.
I hope you have time to review the critique of the Louisiana ESEA Flexibility Request by the Louisiana Association of Educators. This letter to John White dated Feb. 28, 2012 and also sent to the USDOE explains what LAE believes are serious deficiencies in the  flexibility request. LAE believes that valid concerns of educators were ignored and a very impractical accountability plan continues that places the entire burden for student performance on educators and none on parents and students. The Association pointed out that the new accountability plan would result in more pressure being put on teachers to teach to the test. LAE also pointed out that school takeover which is continued in this new plan has not been successful in turning around low performing schools and should not be used.

I want to express my appreciation to Joyce Haynes, president of LAE and to Mary Washington, the LAE representative on the Accountability Commission for allowing me to attend the Accountability Commission meeting as their representative at the meeting of May 29.

This Commission was to have had a major voice in approving the new accountability changes. Frankly I was shocked that the Commission had very little input into the initial proposals to the USDOE. For example, the Commission was apparently never told that Louisiana had been allowed several options for improving student achievement as part of the ESEA Flexibility request.  Superintendent John White instead decided that Louisiana should retain the old goal of 100% student proficiency in ELA and math by 2014. The Commission was  never allowed to consider a much more reasonable alternative that was acceptable to USDOE. I can only conclude that Jindal and White were only concerned with the PR value of such irresponsible goals and not at all with the guaranteed perception of failure this causes to be assigned to most of our public schools.

Members of the audience of the Commission meeting pointed out that requiring the ACT of all students in high school would not be appropriate and may result in distorted or unfair school performance scores.

In the course of the meeting I questioned Jessica Baghiam, (formerly JessicaTucker) the young consultant who helped draft the ESEA Flexibility plan, about the mandatory COMPASS training for schools not meeting the new 10 point SPS growth requirement. I asked if this mandatory training may amount to punish work for the teachers in such schools where they would be required to stay after school for failing to achieve an almost impossible goal. She assured the Commission that this was not the intent of the rule. But no one assured us that teachers would not be required to participate in such extra work without pay.

Later that day we heard that the USDOE had approved the ESEA Waiver request. Approval by BESE apparently will simply be a formality.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Jindal is Not All Powerful

Thousands of educators who attended Education Committee meetings early this legislative session were disheartened by the way the Jindal "Education Reforms" were rammed through the legislature seemingly without regard to the legitimate objections of educators. It seemed like Governor Jindal had complete control of the legislature and that it was hopeless to oppose him.

Now it looks like he has spent much of his political capitol bullying legislators, humiliating professional educators, and pushing an agenda that has more holes than swiss cheese! Not only is his hand picked new Superintendent looking incompetent in his sloppy handling of the new school voucher system, but much of the Governnor's overhaul of the retirement system is headed for possible defeat, and the new MFP that funds vouchers and college courses in violation of the Constitution is in big trouble! Just read the linked stories in the Advocate on the MFP and the retirement legislation to see what I mean.

That's why I say it is not too late for educators to sign up for my Defenders of Public Education data base and get involved a growing movement to stop and reverse these attacks on our public schools! It does not make sense for educators to teach Civics to our students and not be willing to use legitimate political action tactics to defend our students and teachers from these attacks! Just follow the simple instructions in my last two posts and get on board. It is completely free and 100% confidential.

Added 6/4/12: Click on this link to the Alexandria Town Talk for a morale booster for educators!

I have thought long and hard about whether or not to recommend to my readers participation in the Jindal and legislator recall efforts. My unofficial reading of  voter sentiment is that there is tremendous disappointment and anger toward Jindal across a broad spectrum  of Louisiana voters  but especially among educators and state employees. The main argument against the recall effort however, is that it is almost impossible to get one third of the voters to correctly sign such a petition in the time allotted (six months) especially for a state-wide office. Some say that once the recall fails, it seems to vindicate the target of the recall.

I have always believed however that when the cause is right and there is a legitimate remedy to change things, good citizens have a right and obligation to take action. Recall petitions are a perfectly legitimate political tool and were put into law for a good reason. No public official should ever feel that he can go against the will of the people even if he is at the beginning of his last term. The recall process is a great way to keep public officials accountable throughout their term in office.

That's why I am recommending that educators, their friends and families and other displeased voters make every effort to support the recall petitions now circulating against the Governor and several legislators. At the same time, I hope more legislators will be added to the list of recall targets. Don't be intimidated by the Governor's strong arm tactics! Those are the very reasons he should be recalled. Teachers are brave people. They fight seemingly impossible battles to defeat ignorance and produce educated citizens every day in their classrooms. Any effort to right a wrong is worthwhile no matter how great the odds against that effort. Take a look at the latest Diane Ravitch blog on the Jindal strategy.

Please go to the Recall Jindal web site and download a correct version of the petition, read the rules of recall and possibly arrange a training session for petition volunteers. It is extremely critical that correct signatures are gathered using the correct format of petitions.

I have organized and run successful recall petitions before in Louisiana and found that when recall efforts have a good rationale and good solid citizens running them, the voters will respond in a positive manner. Remember when I pointed out that members of the public still have great respect for teachers. It is absolutely true. Teachers have much more support among the voters than politicians. They know your motives are good and they want to support you. So get involved, do you civic duty, give the public a chance to see how dedicated you are to our public schools!