tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49389510823505615392024-02-20T10:44:41.440-08:00atelier blogAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.comBlogger134125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-78475812163299689902012-11-10T06:46:00.000-08:002012-11-19T05:53:56.283-08:00More Jindal CoersionGovernor Jindal intimidated his way to another win over the Legislature and the voters by turning over the administration of group benefits health insurance to Blue Cross Blue Shield. See the excellent post on this travesty in the <a href="http://louisianavoice.com/">Louisiana Voice blog</a>.<br /><br />All employee groups participating in OGB programs spoke against the privatization move. The groups opposing included the Retired Teachers' Association, the LAE, LFT, AFSME, and the School Boards Association. These groups remained in opposition even after the Jindal hand picked administrator for OGB sent out a glowing letter of praise for the Blue Cross contract to all participating School Boards earlier this week. This Coersion has become Jindal's trademark.<br /><br />Only one school board official from Jefferson Parish testified in favor of the contract. The Jefferson Parish official thanked the Jindal Administration for the one million dollar savings the move would mean for Jefferson Parish. But other testimony before the committee pointed out that the one million savings only was possible because of the huge surplus in the OGB account caused by the excellent management by OGB. The savings in premium would have occurred without the Blue Cross takeover. Upon questioning by Rep. Pat Smith, the Jefferson official admitted that the Jindal voucher program was costing Jefferson two million dollars this year! Wonder why the Jefferson school system would thank Jindal for a net loss of one million?<br /><br />Rep. Katrina Jackson pointed out that the actuaries are already predicting a huge hundred million dollar increase in payout of benefits for the new plan which will more than wipe out any temporary savings. Get ready for a big premium increase!<br /><br />The following are the strong legislators who still voted "no" on the privatization plan:<br /><div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRoman,Bold'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Senate House </span><br /><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRoman,Bold'; font-size: 18.000000pt;">No </span><br /><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRoman'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Senator Sherri Smith Buffington <img alt="page1image4404" height="0.660034" src="file:///page1image4404" width="95.880005" />Rep. James Armes </span></div></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); font-family: TimesNewRoman; font-size: 16px;">Senator Fred Mills, Senator Edwin Murray</span><br /><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRoman'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Rep. Jared Brossett<br />Rep. Roy Burrell<br />Rep. Katrina Jackson, Rep. Edward “Ted” James, Rep. Walt Leger </span><br /><span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRoman'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Rep. Helena Moreno<br />Rep. Patricia Haynes Smith, Rep. Ledricka Thierry </span></div></div><img alt="page1image6448" height="0.660034" src="file:///page1image6448" width="252.000000" /> </div><br />Please send an email "thank you" to those legislators for standing up to Jindal and for the employees and voters!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-29959965978166111542012-11-04T21:19:00.000-08:002012-11-19T05:53:56.291-08:00Jindal Defeat a Lesson for Educators<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Breaking News! </span>Another meeting of the joint committee of the House Appropriations and the Senate Finance Committees has been scheduled for 8:30 am, this Friday, November 9. At least two dissenting members of the Appropriations committee have been replaced by Jindal's puppet House Speaker. (<a href="http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20121103/NEWS01/211030351/Booted-lawmakers-lash-out-speaker?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1">Click here for the Monroe NewsStar article</a>) The intent is to ram through the privatization of the Office of Group Benefits just as was done to public education last Spring. I am urging all members of the Group Benefits plan to call or email members of those committees and ask that they oppose privatization again. <i><u>This move by Jindal is his most anti-democratic move yet!</u></i></b></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b><i><u><br /></u></i></b></span>Educators (teachers, principals, and school board members) have the power to reverse or correct most of the Jindal damage to public education and the teaching profession! That's the lesson we can take from the decisive defeat suffered by Governor <a href="http://theadvocate.com/news/politics/4301657-123/insurance-privatization-vote-delayed-again">Jindal last Thursday on his effort to privatize the Group Benefits insurance program.</a> The political lesson to be learned and utilized by educators is that when a large group of voters is adversely affected by a government action and they choose to put maximum pressure on their representatives in government, they win!<br /><br />The action last week was supposed to be a simple rubber stamping by hand picked legislative committee members of the Governor's decision to turn over our successful, cost effective group benefits program to the Governor's friends at Blue Cross. But this time the educators, state workers and particularly the retired educators and retired state workers decided they had had enough of Jindal's bullying. The word spread quickly that the joint committee composed of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations Committees had the power to stop the Governor's latest power play. The Retired Teacher's Association and other interested groups sent out an urgent message to their members listing the members of these legislative committees and their contact information (phone numbers and email addresses). The email urged members to simply tell their legislators on those committees how they felt about this move. One of my readers sent me the LRTA email, and I forwarded it to my Defenders of Public Education data base with the same call to action. The result was overwhelming! Within a matter of hours the Governor's control of the House Appropriations Committee was totally lost. Legislators reported receiving hundreds of phone calls and emails opposing the privatization with not a single constituent in support of the Governor's plan even though his “experts” had predicted that the privatization would save money and result in better service.<br /><br />The result was a chaotic joint committee meeting with our hero, Rep. Katrina Jackson running parliamentary procedure circles around the Governor's cronies to force a “no” vote on the proposal. By the time the dust settled the vote was going to be firmly 16 against and only 7 in favor of the Governor's privatization plan. The Governor's Commissioner of Administration was allowed to withdraw the plan from the committees' agenda before a final vote could be taken. Senate Finance Committee members were greatly relieved to avoid voting on this losing proposition. This is what happens when the voters are willing to speak forcefully to their elected representatives. Of course the Jindal administration moved quickly to punish two key legislators by removing them from the Appropriations committee. I urge my readers to send an email to Rep Joe Harrison, Rep. Cameron Henry, and especially Rep. Katrina Jackson thanking them for their courage. This fight is not over, but I predict that even if the governor eventually wins this battle by sheer intimidation he will eventually lose the war and his ability to control the legislature.<br /><br />There is no question in my mind that the education community can do the same thing to dismantle the worst parts of the Governor's ALEC dictated education “deform” blueprint. That's because the average voters never really cared about this plan for vouchers, school takeovers, teacher bashing, VAM evaluations, the stripping of teacher qualifications and dignity, and all the forms of privatization promoted in the Governor's plan. The dozens of legislators whose allegiance was <i><b>bought</b></i> by the big money from the privatization and testing interests have realized by now that the “emperor has no clothes”. The educators who work in the trenches and the school board members who have been humiliated and blamed for imaginary failings of our schools who really care about public education now have an opportunity to fight back and win. <br /><br />The only thing that makes me just a little skeptical is that I wonder how many teachers and maybe even school leaders have never worked up the courage to sit down and talk face to face with their legislator about these critical matters. If many educators have only sent one or two emails and then given up and concluded that they have no power against the forces of the Governor and John White, then I really fear that we are doomed. But those educators were wrong! It is not too late. Why should we let these guys who voted to destroy public education, and who probably know they voted wrong, off the hook? Look. . . <i><b>both of my legislators</b></i> were new in their office this year and voted wrong on the education reforms, because they were overwhelmed by the Governor's initial push. But now educators are meeting with them regularly and calling their offices when an important education issue comes up. We are educating them about what is really important in education. <b>Even more importantly t</b><i><b>hey also know that we won't forget their support or lack of support at election time</b></i>. You and your fellow educators can do the same. <i><b>If you really care about public education, here is what you need to do now!</b></i><br /><ol><li>Make a short list of the gut issues you care most about in education that you want to communicate to your legislators about and plan to meet with them to discuss those issues. You can see my personal list of important education issues at the bottom of this post. </li><li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Use social media and emails to get educators to follow our louisianaeducator blog so all educators can be informed and prepared to deal with attacks on educators and public schools.</div></li><li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Form a committee of educators in your area or school who will meet regularly with local legislators and proceed to educate them about the need to reverse the destructive Jindal reforms. Start small and grow your educator activist group with time and effort. Have faculty meetings to plan strategy and send emails and make phone calls to legislators. Get to know the legislator's legislative aide at his/her home office and get the aide to relay your messages to your legislator.</div></li><li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Join your professional organization/union or administrator group and get active at the local and state levels.</div></li><li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Join our Defenders of Public Education data base today! It is free and you remain in total control of your communications with your legislators. I pledge to work directly with the Louisiana Coalition for Public Education to keep you informed and communicating effectively with your legislators. To join, all you have to do is send me an email at <a href="mailto:louisianaeducator@gmail.com">louisianaeducator@gmail.com</a>. Tell me you want to be part of the “Defenders” data base and either give me the name or district numbers of your state representative and state senator or give me your home address so I can look it up and place you in the correct contact group. Then when an important vote comes up you will get an email about contacting your legislator before the vote happens. <i><b>We can and will make a difference!</b></i></div></li></ol>Here is my list of key reform issues that should be reversed if we are to save public education in Louisiana:<br /><ul><li>Stop the vouchers now. Most of the vouchers violate the concept of separation of church and state and needlessly drain critical MFP dollars from our school board budgets. Greedy creationist preachers and rip off artists are making Louisiana education a laughing stock.</li><li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Freeze the approval of new charter schools and close down the many destructive charters that are paying huge salaries to their administrators without taxpayer supervision and who use any means possible to fake success and continue to raid our public school funds.</div></li><li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Stop the out-of-state for-profit virtual schools. They are education failures everywhere in this country, but they are making a few people very rich using taxpayer money.</div></li><li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Stop the Course Choice program before it starts. It is impossible to have real accountability in this program. It will rob our MFP and it will do a poor job of educating students.</div></li><li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Stop the VAM and COMPASS now. This system is not accurate and will demoralize and divide the teaching profession in Louisiana. It will turn many professional educators into mindless “test teachers” and cheaters.</div></li><li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Stop using standardized testing to rate our schools and teachers. This ill advised system narrows our curriculum that turns professional educators into “test teachers”.</div></li><li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Stop the failed takeover of schools by the incompetent administrators of the RSD. Instead put extra resources, and provide incentives for our strongest principals to serve in our high poverty schools and for our most effective teachers to teach in our most challenging schools. Work with the community to encourage positive parental involvement in our poorest neighborhoods.</div></li></ul><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Here is my best advice: <i><b>Stop complaining and use your skills as an educator and an organizer to win back control of our public schools. This is a fight we must win for our profession and our students!</b></i></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-49558932219946323402012-11-02T08:51:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.299-08:00LDOE Proposing Radical Changes in Teacher Salary SchedulesIf you thought that the Governor and John White were through messing with teachers for a while, you were wrong. A recent briefing session for local personnel directors by the State Department of Education on implementation of Act 1 salary mandates proposed radical changes in teacher salary schedules for all parishes. The examples provided by the DOE to local systems are just suggestions. No particular salary schedule is mandated by Act 1. <strong><em>But Act 1does mandate that the teacher salaries in all school systems must be revised to include a performance component based on the new Act 54 evaluation system (COMPASS).</em></strong> According to the law, all such revised schedules must be adopted by local school boards by January 1, 2013. That means that in less than two months, school systems that are faced with ever tightening budgets will be expected to totally overhaul all teacher salary schedules to go into effect next school year. And since in almost all cases there is no new money, school systems will be expected to "rob Peter to pay Paul".<br /><br />Local personnel administrators were presented by DOE officials with two suggested models for revamping teacher salary schedules. Both of these models propose huge ( $10,000+) raises for the small number of teachers that will be rated by COMPASS as highly effective. <a href="http://www.louisianaschools.net/lde/uploads/20663.pdf">Click here for the LDOE power point presentation on Act 1 compensation models.</a><br /><div align="LEFT"><br />For the teachers getting these huge "suggested merit raises" no weight is given to advanced degrees. What Superintendent White wants is for extra compensation to be based solely on the new evaluation system. If you have been taking graduate courses for years and are on the verge of getting your Masters degree in hopes of getting an improved salary. . . “tough!” say the TFA salary gurus at the State Department. Higher degrees for teachers is passe' even though the DOE wants it for our students. National Board Certification status for teachers is passe'. All that matters now is a "highly effective" rating on VAM. But there are serious holes in this reasoning. Consider the following facts that are apparently being ignored by our DOE.</div><ol><li>Two thirds of all teachers in the state are teaching non-tested subjects or grades. That means that the VAM portion of COMPASS does not apply to approximately 36,000 of the 55,000 public school teachers. In the place of a value added score, such teachers are expected to develop SLTs (student learning targets) in cooperation with their principal. Such teachers could conceivably achieve a highly effective score by achieving their student learning targets and getting a good evaluation from their principal. This means that if school systems adopt the suggested merit pay plans proposed by LDOE, music teachers, foreign language teachers, kindergarten teachers, physical education teachers and many others may be eligible for huge bonuses without having to go through the trauma of getting the very rare highly effective scores on VAM. One of the models suggested to personnel directors would require that a teacher receive three highly effective ratings before getting the merit pay. This may not be so difficult for a teacher setting his/her own SLTs but almost impossible for the VAM teachers. This serious difference in standards could create great tension among school faculties if the local school board chooses to adopt the large merit pay schedules recommended by the DOE.</li><li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The current version of VAM is highly erratic and according to analysis by the creator of the Louisiana VAM, a teacher's VAM score can vary greatly from year to year even if she/he makes no changes in teaching methods. Teachers in Houston, TX who are being paid using performance on VAM jokingly call it “the lottery” indicating how much random factors have to do with teachers getting the merit pay.</div><li><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In these times of shrinking school board budgets and escalating mandated costs such as increased contributions to retirement and legacy costs, the only way to fund the merit increases is for non-merit teachers to have their salaries frozen. This includes doing away with salary increases for higher degrees and experience. (Note: the law prohibits reducing a current teacher's salary but such salaries may be frozen almost permanently to pay for the merit raises for relatively few teachers.</div></li></li></ol>What do you think will happen to morale when some teachers who are able to game the system receive huge raises while all others have their salaries frozen to pay for those raises? For example, in order for one teacher to get a “merit” raise of $5,000 may require that 10 teachers sacrifice step increases of $500 each. <br /><br />What can teachers do if they object to these drastic changes in salary based on an untested evaluation system? Here are my suggestions: <br /><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The law does not mandate how much teachers' salaries should depend on the new evaluation system. Teachers can recommend that the merit increases be kept minimal ( I don't know, maybe $100) until the evaluation system proves itself to be valid. There should not be great emphasis on the merit raises until we know that the instrument upon which it is based is valid and reliable. </div><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">What actions should concerned teachers take?</div><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">By all means, teachers should communicate with their local superintendent, if they want to stop this merit system from drastically altering salaries. Teachers should also appeal to their school board members who will make the final decision on any revision in the salary schedule for each parish. School board members are now prohibited by law from hiring and firing teachers but it is still their responsibility to approve salary schedules.</div><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><strong><em>I suggest teachers talk to their school board members now before a decision is made that will have a profound effect on their careers. Better yet, the local teacher association/union should adopt a recommendation based on what most teachers want and present it to the local Board. I am sure that LAE and LFT will have model schedules for teachers and school boards to consider.</em></strong></div><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-50818697739583153702012-10-29T06:09:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.306-08:00VAM Based on False Assumption“Research has shown that teacher effectiveness is the greatest determinant of student outcomes followed closely by principal effectiveness”. <i><b>This totally inaccurate statement</b></i> which is based on an incorrect quote of research findings is included on page 113 of Louisiana's ESEA Waiver proposal as part of the justification for using student value added data as part of the COMPASS evaluation system to evaluate and certify teachers in Louisiana. It is inexcusable that State Superintendent John White would continue to use a bogus assumption for making such serious career decisions for teachers and principals. <br /><br />The correct quote of research conclusions regarding the influence of teacher effectiveness relative to other factors states that “<i><b>of all school related factors</b></i>, teacher effectiveness is the greatest determinant of student outcomes followed closely by principal effectiveness”. While it is difficult to absolutely quantify the effect of various factors on student performance, most researchers have concluded that non-school factors including socioeconomic factors (primarily poverty levels) have approximately an 80% influence on student outcomes while school related factors make up the remaining 20%. <u><b>That puts teacher effectiveness at a far cry from being the greatest determinant of student outcomes!</b></u> <br /><br />While improving teacher effectiveness is highly desirable for improving student performance, it is not the dominant factor. It follows that an evaluation system that makes a teacher's career so overwhelmingly dependent on student outcomes is a huge mistake and can produce many unfair unintended results. Louisiana's Act 54 of 2010 which makes 50% of a teacher's evaluation and therefore career dependent on student performance is counterproductive to say the least. In addition the Louisiana COMPASS evaluation plan allows an “ineffective” rating on VAM to totally invalidate the principals' observation portion of a teacher's evaluation and therefore is a violation of Act 54. It improperly magnifies any errors coming from the highly erratic and inaccurate VAM, and in those cases becomes 100% of a teacher's evaluation.<br /><br />One of the principals who read my blog on flaws in VAM sent me an email informing me of another serious flaw involving what are called “connections” students. These are students who have failed the 8<sup>th</sup> grade LEAP but who state policy allows to move to a high school campus in hopes of getting them back on track for graduation. It seems that LDOE policy requires that if a high school teacher is teaching 10 or more of these students, the teacher may be included in the VAM portion of the evaluation system. This principal fears, with much justification, that if such students fail the 8<sup>th</sup> grade LEAP in the current year, their high school teachers could have their VAM score dragged down to the “ineffective” level. These teachers had nothing to do with moving such students up to the high school level, and may be providing minimal instruction related to the 8<sup>th</sup>grade LEAP, yet the teacher's job is being put in jeopardy by factors over which he/she have no control. It seems the examples of VAM flaws are quite numerous rather than highly limited and correctable as suggested by Superintendent John White. But that's on top of the false assumption upon which VAM is based. There is a new slogan going around in Louisiana educator circles. It is stated simply: “White lies”.<br /><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">White continues hiring non-educators to top administrative positions in LDOE.</span></b></div><br /><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Long time investigative reporter Tom Aswell who publishes the blog, <i><b>LouisianaVoice,</b></i> recently uncovered the fact that Superintendent White had hired motivational speaker/utilities lobbyist, and all around flimflam man, Dave Lefkowith, to head the “Office of Portfolio” which includes administration of the Choice Course program. (<a href="http://louisianavoice.com/">See the October 10th post in the LouisianaVoice</a>)The salary for this non-educator, with no credentials whatsoever will be $144,999 to recruit private companies to teach just about any course they can sell to our public school parents and students. This is the massive course privatization program authorized by Act 2, which is scheduled to go into full operation next school year. Private companies and individuals will be allowed to raid the MFP of all school systems in the state with little or no accountability for results. An email response to several questions I posed recently to BESE President, Penny Dastigue confirmed that choice course providers can be paid up to 90% of the pro-rated amount for one Carnegie unit of credit for some high school courses even though the students do not have to attend any particular number of hours of instruction and do not pass the end of course test. Such a rip-off would raid critical MFP funds while leaving the local school system and parents holding an empty bag. This program which is an open invitation to fraud and abuse using our tax dollars is just the kind of rip-off that Lefty Lefkowith is really qualified to run. <i><b>How long will our legislators allow this madness to continue?</b></i></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><strong><em></em></strong> </div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><strong><em>Have you submitted your name and address to my Defenders of Public Education data base yet? All you have to do to get special emails about upcoming votes of BESE and legislators is to send me a short email at <a href="mailto:louisianaeducator@gmail.com">louisianaeducator@gmail.com</a> telling me your preferred email address and either your home address or the name or number of your state Representative and Senator. I am not interested in your private information, I just need to know who your legislators are so that we can do some targeting of legislators when key votes are coming up.</em></strong></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><strong><em>Thanks,</em></strong></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><strong><em>Mike Deshotels</em></strong></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-87716386875181178902012-10-25T06:23:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.315-08:00VAM Fix Must Comply with Law<strong><em><span style="color: red;">Note: Please read this post as a supplement to the article below it.</span></em></strong><br />A teacher from Caddo sent me an email in response to my post this week on fixing the VAM system for Louisiana. She said the attorney for the Caddo School Board gave his opinion that John White's proposed fix for South Highlands Elementary and similar schools did not comply with Act 54. (The 2010 law setting up the new evaluation system which includes the 50% value added factor). The attorney believes that the law does not allow for such an exemption that removes the value added factor from the evaluation of some teachers. Unfortunately for this situation, I agree with the attorney. I don't think the State Superintendent can go around picking and choosing which teachers can be exempted from VAM, <strong><em>especially not after the fact of getting a bad evaluation</em></strong>. There is a provision for teachers of non-tested subjects and grades to be rated using student learning targets (SLTs) jointly developed by the teacher and his/her principal, but the teachers involved did not fall into this category. This just one more example of what you can expect when you put the careers of professional educators in the hands of an inexperienced unqualified individual. The email I got also pointed out other invalid results that can occur in the evaluation of a teacher using VAM, but there is no legitimate way of tinkering with the VAM formulas to correct these problems.<br /><br />The same problems are being observed all over the country where a similar value added evaluation is being tried. But the most disgusting example I can think of is the following: A teacher who had previously been recognized as one of the most highly effective in her system, got an ineffective rating because of VAM and was dismissed. Later, strong evidence was found that the teachers the previous year had cheated on the student testing so that <strong><em><u>their</u></em></strong> student scores would help them get an effective rating. Those inflated scores caused the teacher the following year to be rated as ineffective because the students showed little or no growth on state tests. <strong><em>So one highly effective teacher was fired while other unethical or fraudulent teachers were rated as effective!</em></strong><br /><br />This is what happens to our formally proud profession when we let amateurs sell the public and the legislature on a "miracle" solution that is not based on sound educational principles. Act 54 is a very bad law that has terrible unintended consequences. <strong><em>If the legislators from Caddo really want to do the right thing, they need to repeal Act 54 during the next legislative session!</em></strong>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-17689672182098004372012-10-22T05:15:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.323-08:00Can VAM be Fixed?<a href="http://theadvocate.com/news/education/4185959-123/option-proposed-for-review-holes">Superintendent John White believes he has a solution</a> to the problem of teachers in top rated schools receiving an “ineffective” because of the VAM portion of the new teacher evaluation system. It was discovered recently that some high performing students in exclusive magnet schools sometimes experience a lull or slowdown in their academic gains caused by factors outside the control of the teacher. Even though such students are normally high performers, in some cases a classroom of high performers may perform <i><b>below its VAM predicted scores</b></i> on state tests, thereby placing their teacher in the bottom 10% on the VAM ranking statewide. When simulations showed that several teachers at the top rated elementary school in the state may be classified as ineffective by VAM, the whole community <i><b>and their state representative</b></i>were up in arms. When this story broke in the newspapers, Superintendent White immediately adjusted his schedule to travel to Shreveport and met with teachers and administrators at South Highlands Elementary Magnet School. <br /><br />Within just a few days of the discovery of the flaw in VAM for high performing schools, Superintendent White had a solution. He will be proposing to BESE that in cases where some teachers who teach high performing students get an “ineffective” from the VAM, the state will simply wipe out the VAM portion of the teacher's score and use the qualitative portion of Compass as the only factor in determining the rating of the teacher. This exemption to VAM will be applied <i><b>as long as a teacher's students score at the top two levels on state assessments</b></i>, even if her/his students do not show the growth the VAM formulas demand. That's a great victory for the teachers at South Highlands Elementary school and the teachers there certainly deserve to be exempted from this flaw in the evaluation system. <br /><br />I believe White's recommended change for South Highlands and other similar schools will be approved by BESE, not because of the extenuating circumstances that may cause an unfair evaluation of those teachers, but because the legislator representing that district is a solid supporter of Governor Jindal and his “reform” programs. White, who has no training in teacher evaluation, no training in statistical analysis, and who has never evaluated teachers, came up with an instant solution that will fix the problem for <i><b>that select group of teachers.</b></i> But White's solution will still allow thousands of other teachers in the state to be vulnerable to ineffective ratings based only on the VAM <i><b>even if </b></i><i><u><b>they</b></u></i><i><b> have extenuating circumstances in </b></i><i><u><b>their</b></u></i><i><b>classrooms.</b></i><br /><br />For example let's look at another teaching situation. (The following is a hypothetical example because I don't have access to actual the value added growth that VAM predicts for various socioeconomic groups.) Lets consider a high poverty middle school in the inner city that has had most of its high performing students transfer to magnet schools. A 20 year math teacher (teacher B) is assigned a group of 25 students where the VAM formulas project that those students should show composite growth of .8 years in math for that year. But during that year, two of the girls get pregnant, 3 of the boys are picked up on drug charges and detained in a juvenile institution for three weeks to a month, and three other students' families were evicted from their home because their unemployed parent could not pay the rent. Those students had to live with relatives and friends where they were lucky to find a bed in which to sleep, much less find a quiet place to study. One other student's mother was murdered by her estranged husband causing traumatic shock waves throughout the community. LEAP testing produced a composite growth in math of this class of only .4 years. I guess you could say this teacher's class also experienced a lull or slowdown in academic gains probably caused by factors outside the control of the teacher. Teacher B received a good rating from her principal on the qualitative portion of Compass, but her low rating on VAM placed her in the bottom 10% statewide, so she received an overall ineffective rating. There is no appeal for an ineffective rating on VAM. That teacher immediately loses her tenure, has her salary frozen, and is placed first on the list to be laid off next year, in the event the school system is forced to reduce teaching staff. That teacher is all alone. She did not have a state legislator who was aligned with the Governor to campaign for her and get a special rule change for her extenuating circumstances. There will be no adjustment in her evaluation.<br /><br />Here's another example deserving consideration. Some teachers have pointed out that there seems to be a difference in average state test scores for students from one grade level to another. That difference could be caused by several factors. It could be that the state tests do not increase smoothly in difficulty from grade to grade. LEAP and ILEAP tests are constructed by contracted testing companies that make a huge profit regardless of variations of their tests. Or it could be that students in one year where state policy requires retention of students who do not make the state cut off score work a little harder to pass the test that year than they do the previous or succeeding years. That can have both adverse and beneficial effects on ratings for teachers in different grades even if teacher performance is generally the same from grade to grade. Would White recommend a change in the teacher evaluation system in such a case? Specifically using real data if we compare the 4<sup>th</sup> grade LEAP scores of all students statewide in 2011 to the ILEAP 5<sup>th</sup> grade scores we find that 24% of students scored below basic in ELA in 2011 while 30% of those students scored below basic in 5<sup>th</sup> grade in 2012. Statistically this means that more 5<sup>th</sup> grade ELA teachers are expected to fall in the bottom 10% of VAM than 4<sup>th</sup> grade teachers because their students don't perform as well on state tests. If a disproportionate percentage of 5<sup>th</sup> grade teachers are rated as ineffective because of the factors I mentioned above, will some legislator go to bat for those teachers and get them an exemption from VAM?<br /><br />One more point. It turns out that the Governor's supporters in the legislature generally represent the more affluent areas of the state. Opponents of the Governor generally represent impoverished communities. Which teachers do you think have the best chance of getting exemptions from or adjustments to VAM? The ones teaching in high poverty schools or the ones teaching in more affluent schools? <br /><br />Can VAM be fixed so that it will be fair to all teachers and still produce the mandatory 10% of teachers rated as ineffective? Obviously not, because for every group of teachers granted special exemptions, the system will have to pull more or the rest of the teachers down to the the ineffective level.<br /><br />I hope all teachers and administrators will stick together in opposing the continued implementation of this fundamentally flawed evaluation system. Right now I believe most teachers are appalled at the lack of accuracy and now also the lack of integrity in the decision making process relative to this evaluation system. It cannot be fixed. It must be junked. Let's not allow some good teachers to be thrown under the bus while others get an exemption.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-51891825199972534022012-10-16T06:22:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.330-08:00The Children Can't Wait!The children can't wait. That was the refrain used over and over by the Jindal reformers to pass huge revamps of education law privatizing and chartering education and forcing the implementation of a new evaluation system for public school teachers before it was proven. Today the Baton Rouge Advocate carries two stories that demonstrate that Louisiana should have waited before these attacks on public education and teachers were launched. Maybe the public and the business community would have realized that charter schools were not a panacea and that school takeover and mass firing of teachers and administrators only creates chaos.<br /><br />Please read over both of these articles and the comments below them that show that most people are no longer willing to be fed miracle solutions that cause more damage than good. The Advocate stories are about<a href="http://theadvocate.com/news/4161514-123/teachers-reviews-threaten-their-jobs"> the teacher evaluation system</a> and about the <a href="http://theadvocate.com/news/4136944-123/2012-13-enrollment-declines">drop in enrollment of takeover/charter schools</a> in the Baton Rouge area.<br /><br />I am also including a link to a story about the <a href="http://www.wwltv.com/news/St-Tammany-school-board-details-negative-effects-of-new-education-reform-173792351.html">damage being done by vouchers</a> to one of Louisiana's best large school systems.<br /><br />The following are the reader comments so far on the evaluation article:<br /><br /><div style="color: #999999;">1) Comment by Concerned_Parent - 10/16/2012</div><fieldset>Mr. White keeps saying "isolated cases" yet you keep hearing from more and more schools across the state with the same exact issues/concerns. What hasn't been clearly pointed out is that the principle's will also be labeled as ineffective b/c of the teachers being wrongly labeled as so. They will also be on the chopping block. And if any teacher is rated a 4(the highest rating) the state dept is going to send in their own evaluator to reexamine the teacher. If for some reason there is an unrully child in class that day that causes the lesson to not go as smoothly, that teacher's rating can be dropped to whatever the state dept evaluator deems it to be. It doesn't matter what the principle who is at school every day thinks, if this one lesson goes bad that teacher will suffer for it. As the teacher in this article stated, why would she want to continue working in that type of environmnent? The focus is NOT on the children. It is on the teachers. You have news articles about communities afraid to be outside once school dismisses b/c of all the fighting and violence that occurs in the streets, but I'm sure Mr. White thinks that's b/c the teachers failed those students. Those students are clearly not going home to study or do homework. Those parents clearly don't have control over their kids, but I guess the teachers should be responsible for raising them 24/7. I see lots of "ineffectiveness", but the vast majority of it is NOT taking place within the walls of the schools. </fieldset><div style="color: #999999;">2) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 10/16/2012</div><fieldset>I keep reading this: "Under the new review system, teachers rated as ineffective for two years in a row can be fired." While it is factually true, the real important truth lies hidden. A masterful, caring, high quality, and experienced teacher who is dedicated to changing the lives of her students for the better, will lose any protection she has after ONE year. That's right. If only one year in the Value Added Measurement (and remember, she can get a top rating from the principal portion of the over teacher evaluation, but that is TRUMPED by the wholly invalid VAM score) and she is rated INEFFECTIVE. Once she has this rating, ONE TIME,she is subject to removal for any reason, and her only recourse is that she is allowed to write a letter to the Superintendent to challenge his position. IF, there are "statistics" that show that all these teachers are incorrect, perhaps Superintendent John White could actually release all of the data on the evaluations, WITHOUT NAMES ATTACHED, of course, and let us see for ourselves what the data show, unfiltered by the department. In fact, if the system is so effective, why not allow the public, for the first time, to actually see the evaluation instrument. After all, it was paid for with our tax dollars! </fieldset><div style="color: #999999;">3) Comment by lovemykids - 10/16/2012</div><fieldset>Jindal and White believe that all you have to do to be a good teacher is follow a workbook and of course not want a decent paycheck or benefits. Teachers give our children more than Jindal and White combined can give them. A future. </fieldset><div style="color: #999999;">4) Comment by mikedeshot - 10/16/2012</div><fieldset>So we should be surprised when an improperly tested evaluation system being run by people with zero qualifications already looks like a disaster? Another article in this edition shows that all the takeover/charter schools in the Baton Rouge area are such failures that parents are pulling their children out in droves. Why don't we have an evaluation system for Whte and Jindal based on the "value lost" by our school systems since they took over. Jindal better hope he gets a cabinet position because he won't be able to run for dog catcher in Louisiana after his education and healthcare reforms run their course. I am really concerned about the lasting damage this will do to our teaching profession as good teachers retire early and bright new teachers go to other states! </fieldset>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-58995652904492030882012-10-12T11:25:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.337-08:00Letter to the President<strong><em><span style="color: red;">To my readers:</span></em></strong><br /><strong><em><span style="color: red;">The following is a letter I am sending on behalf of myself and many Louisiana teachers to president Obama as part of a campaign sponsored by <a href="http://dianeravitch.net/2012/10/05/instructions-for-the-october-17-campaign-for-our-public-schools/">Diane Ravitch</a> from her blog and Anthony Cody of the blog <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/">Living in Dialog</a>. I am urging any educator who would like to write a letter to the President to do so by sending a copy to Anthony Cody at the email address </span></em></strong><a href="mailto:anthony_cody@hotmail.com"><strong><em><span style="color: red;">anthony_cody@hotmail.com</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span style="color: red;">. Please send it before the deadline of October 17 so it can be included in the package to be sent to President Obama. </span></em></strong><br /><strong><em><span style="color: red;"></span></em></strong><br /> Dear President Obama:<br />I am a retired teacher who writes a blog for educators in Louisiana. I am absolutely appalled by the attacks on public education and the teaching profession that you and your Secretary of Education have helped to promote in Louisiana. The Race to the Top fiasco which doubled down on some of the most destructive elements of No Child Left Behind law has been promoted in Louisiana by Secretary Duncan to force the most destructive polices I have ever seen on our public education system. <br /> <br />Your Secretary of Education actively campaigned for the appointment of John White, an unqualified privatizer of public education to be appointed as our State Superintendent of Education. This individual was also preferred by Governor Bobby Jindal, the greatest enemy of public education and teachers Louisiana has ever seen. As I write this letter, thousands of proven highly competent and dedicated Louisiana teachers are being forced to neglect their teaching duties to prepare for a silly dog-and-pony show John White calls a teacher evaluation program. You and your Secretary have pushed for the implementation of a value added system for measuring the performance of teachers in Louisiana that is so poorly designed and erratic that a disproportionate number of teachers in some of our highest performing schools are being rated as “ineffective”. The new value added system pushed by your administration requires that a certain percentage of our teachers be rated as ineffective each year for an undetermined number of years, basically decimating a huge portion of our teaching force without considering the professional opinion of their school principals. That's because the value-added “ineffective” rating overrules the principal's evaluation. One of our regional newspapers declared in an editorial that such a policy bordered on the immoral! <br /> <br />Your U.S. Department of Education specifically approved this policy as part of the Louisiana application for waiver of ESEA standards. As part of this waiver your Department approved Louisiana keeping the ridiculous unscientific goal of 100% proficiency for all Louisiana students by the year 2014. This is a goal that was left over from the No Child Left Behind standards that has been universally discredited by experts in tests and measurement. It is just one part of making our state a laughing stock in the eyes of the world education community. <br /> <br />Finally, and most destructive of all, your administration has not raised a single objection to the mass privatization of education in Louisiana pushed by Jindal and White which takes funding for this privatization directly from the Minimum Foundation Formula for our public schools. This plan subjects many Title I students to <i><b>educational abuse</b></i> at the hands of greedy preacher/administrators who teach creationism instead of science and who place children in primitive, substandard classrooms. So Louisiana, with the full support of your Education Department has kept the most harmful parts of the previous failed reform while adding the most radical destructive changes ever seen to our public education system.<br /> <br />Arne Duncan is still pushing the closing of schools and conversion of public schools to non-accountable charters and virtual schools, many of which are skimming off obscene profits from our tax monies dedicated to public schools. Studies have shown that the closing of schools in Chicago (by Duncan) and in many other cities and the firing of teachers and principals have not benefited the students involved in any way, yet it continues and is promoted and funded by your administration. Many parents in our poor neighborhoods are now realizing that their legitimate concerns for their community schools have been ignored and mocked by the privatizers. Your Education Secretary continues to help push these destructive policies down our throats here in Louisiana and in many other states.<br /> <br />A careful analysis of the testing data comparing American students with students in the countries with the highest performing educational systems shows that when our students are compared with similar demographic groups in other advanced countries our students perform equal to or better than similar students in those countries. We have many public schools in Louisiana that are demonstrating world class performance by students. Our problem is not with our schools or our teachers. <br /> <br />Our problem is simple. The students from our high poverty communities are performing at levels much below what is needed to adequately prepare them for a good life and a career. This is particularly serious in Louisiana because our poverty rates are among the highest in the nation. This fact was no reason to blame and trash the entire public education system and to force punitive counterproductive reforms on our teaching profession! As a lifelong Democrat, I am appalled and disgusted by your abandonment of democratic principles as they relate to public education.<br /> <br />Why doesn't your Department of Education help states provide incentives for the best teachers and most effective principals to take on the revitalization of the schools in our poor communities with emphasis on support of parents and community leaders? This means that <i><b>you</b></i> <i><b>and your Education Department</b></i> should stop blaming and start helping and supporting the dedicated educators who are willing to tackle these challenging educational communities. It also means funding for extended day, extended year, enrichment activities, music, arts, physical education and career education in addition to the much over-emphasized college prep curriculum. There is abundant evidence to show that not every student can or should aspire to a standard 4 year college education, yet the present reform agenda overvalues 4 year college degrees and stigmatizes the many other educational training options where opportunities abound in our job market.<br /> <br />I implore you to order your Education Secretary to immediately discontinue the destructive policies of his department and instead convene a task force composed of professional educators to design a true reform of our public education system that will support the teaching profession and focus laser-like on the pressing problems facing some of our schools while preserving our successes and building on the historical strengths of American public education.<br /> <br />Sincerely,<br /> <br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Michael Deshotels, blogger at louisianaeducator.blogspot.com</div><br /><strong><em><span style="color: red;"></span></em></strong><br /><strong><em><span style="color: red;"></span></em></strong>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-17678960767342236652012-10-05T04:52:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.345-08:00Serious Flaws in VAMThe subject of this post is extremely critical to teachers and principals in our public schools. The new laws connecting teacher evaluation directly to layoff, salary, and tenure should require that any evaluation system be as accurate as possible. But it seems like our education hierarchy at the state level comprised as it is of rank amateurs, is destined to make one blunder after another. I believe the evidence presented below demonstrates that the Value Added Model portion of the teacher evaluation system now being implemented by LDOE contains serious flaws that can unfairly destroy the careers of many good teachers and principals.<br /><br />I mentioned in one of my recent emails that there was ample evidence coming directly from Dr George Noell (the father of VAM in Louisiana) that the value added model is erratic and unreliable in measuring good and bad teaching. Today I would like to discuss with you the clear evidence for this conclusion.<br /><br />Wayne Free, Director of Instruction and Professional Development for the Louisiana Association of Educators has just written an extremely good analysis of Louisiana's Value Added Model. From this analysis we can easily conclude that the Louisiana VAM should never be used to evaluate the performance of teachers, should not be used to deternine the order of lay off of teachers, for freezing a teacher's salary, or for removing tenure and placing teachers on a path to be fired. Yet despite all the evidence I am about to present here, all of these actions that are so destructive to the teaching profession and to the education of our children will soon start happening. Please <a href="http://www.lae.org/cms/Instructional+Advocacy/138.html">click on this link</a> to the LAE website for Mr Free's analysis. For this post I will just summarize one of the most critical findings in his study.<br /><br />The most damning evidence that this VAM is far from ready for prime time comes from several answers to direct questions posed by Mr Free to Dr Noel. Here is the most outstanding one:<br /><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Free asked: "What percentage of the teachers rated in the bottom 10% by the VAM in one year would be expected to be rated again as ineffective the following year <i><b>if they did nothing to change their teaching from one year to the next?"</b></i>( The following is my comment) <i>I believe that if this system is accurate in identifying ineffective teachers, the answer would be somewhat close to 100%, especially if the system is considered reliable enough to destroy a teacher's career. Right? ... Wrong!</i>)</div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The percentage possibility of a repeat of an ineffective rating in the succeeding year according to Noell is only 26.8%. And that is assuming the teacher does not change his/her teaching. This was shocking to me. The fact that there is only a one in four chance of the same result the following year means that the system is erratic and may have<i><b> incorrectly identified</b></i>large numbers of teachers as being ineffective in the first place. It means that contrary to the assumption in the legislation, that the process will be deliberative and free of gross errors, such teachers will immediately be placed first in line for layoff, have their salaries frozen, and those rated ineffective next year will permanently lose their tenure and be placed on a path to dismissal. But the most damaging result of such an incorrect determination I fear, is that the local newspapers will somehow get the list of the teachers rated as ineffective and publish it in the home town paper where a teacher's reputation will be permanently destroyed and parents will be demanding that their children not be assigned to that teacher's class. This could easily happen this year to a teacher with 20+ years experience and a previously perfect evaluation record!</div><br />One of the most unfair requirements of the evaluation system, is that even if a teacher gets a great evaluation on the qualitative (Compass) from her/his principal, but gets an ineffective rating on VAM (quantitative) the final result is required to be <i><b>an automatic overall ineffective rating</b></i>. This rule is in direct violation of Act 54 which states that VAM is supposed to make up 50% of the overall result. (not 100%) This is sure to result in numerous lawsuits. I suggest that all teachers vulnerable to VAM join their teacher association/union now so that their lawsuits can be funded if necessary.<br /><br />A perfect example of how crazy the results can be is the strange outcome reported in an<a href="http://www.americanpress.com/AP-Editorial-9-26-12"> editorial published recently by the Lake Charles American Press</a>. The American Press editors were appalled by the fact that the VAM system is set up to find 10% of all teachers evaluated as ineffective no matter how well or how poorly they actually perform. This is called grading on the curve, and is not allowed in any public classroom. We measure and grade our students by how well they master the material. If 80 or 90 percent of the students master the material, that many will get an A or a B, and if no student fails, then that is something we celebrate. Not so with the teacher evaluation system. It has been <strong><em>predetermined</em></strong> that a minimum of 10% of our teachers <i><b>must fail</b></i>. The American Press editors say that such a system borders on being immoral!<br /><br />But it gets worse. The editors found that for some strange reason, in the pilot program that was run recently by LDOE, one of the best performing school systems in the state (Jeff Davis) had only 3 percent of its teachers rated as highly effective, and a disproportionately high percentage rated as ineffective. In fact several of the highest performing districts in the Lake Charles area had some of the lowest teacher VAM scores. How can that be? This system is both illogical and destructive! <a href="http://www.americanpress.com/AP-Editorial-9-26-12">See the editorial in the American Press.</a> Not only are teacher evaluations adversely affected by this tendency, but their principal's evaluations could also be damaged because of the number of "ineffective" teachers in their school.<br /><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="http://theadvocate.com/news/4058670-123/teachers-claim-new-evaluation-system"> The Baton Rouge Advocate carried a story</a> recently about the teachers of a high performing school in Shreveport also getting disproportionately low VAM scores in the pilot program. Our amateur Superintendent White is quoted as characterizing this as an isolated glitch which can easily be corrected. Maybe his 12,000 per month (part time) PR person can somehow spin this fiasco as a positive. </div><br />What's worse, as is implied by White in the Shreveport situation, the LDOE managers of VAM can change the complicated formulas that produce the value added results at will without consulting anyone. So they can manipulate the results. They are probably doing just that as this post is being written and you and I have no way of knowing. I wonder what group of teachers will be penalized next time after the formula has been tweaked to take care of Shreveport? And your professional career depends on this foolishness?<br /><br />For more information on flaws in VAM in general as it is used in several other states you may want to read an <a href="http://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1118&context=childrenatrisk">analysis by Gary Rubinstein</a>. Thanks to Cathy, one of our readers for suggesting this link.<br /><br />If you as as outraged by this as I am, would you please send an email to your legislator, who can easily change this in the next legislative session before it affects anyone. In my last post I gave you a <a href="http://www.legis.state.la.us/">link to the legislative ID system</a> that gives you email addresses of your legislators. I know many of you meant to send emails at my last request but you may have been too busy. I know how busy you are but this is critical!<br /><br />Here is a sample email: <i><b>Dear (insert your legislator name), The most recent information available about the new Act 54 evaluation system clearly shows that it is an unreliable system for rating teacher performance. I hope you agree with me that the stakes are too high and that professional educators should not be rated by a system that is flawed. Please take whatever steps necessary to stop this evaluation system </b></i><i><u><b>immediately</b></u></i><i><b>and not implement it or any other evaluation system until it is proven reliable. Thank you for supporting your professional educators in this critical matter.</b></i><br /><i><b>Signed: ____. </b></i><br /><br />There is one more thing I am asking you to do right now. If you have not already done so, submit your contact data to me so you can become a part of my Defenders of Public Education data base. The educators, school board members and parents in this data base will receive timely notices of upcoming actions at BESE and the legislature so you can contact your representatives before they vote. Believe me all of us together can make a difference! Just send me an email at <a href="mailto:louisianaeduator@gmail.com">louisianaeducator@gmail.com</a>with your home address <i><b>or</b></i> if you prefer send me the district numbers for your representative and senator (it will save me the trouble of looking them up). Include your preferred email address so that my emails can reach you anytime your help is needed. <br /><i><b></b></i><br /><i><b>Believe me we can change this is we just stick together and speak as one!</b></i><br /><br />Thanks again for all you do as an educator or parent or school board member. We can never thank you too much for your valuable contribution to public education.<br />Michael Deshotels<br /><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-28558645355734233012012-09-30T14:01:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.377-08:00Outrage!Our state Department of Education keeps finding new ways of insulting the teaching profession in Louisiana. First our Superintendent and Governor claimed that education credentials mean nothing and changed the law so that persons without education certification will be allowed to teach in Louisiana charter schools. Then while public school teachers are being laid off because of loss of state and local funding to voucher schools, the State Superintendent started spending 12 thousand dollars per month to hire an additional public relations specialist.<br /><br />But the action that demonstrates the most contempt for professional educators is the recent appointment of a TFA Corps member to manage the evaluation of 60,000 public school teachers and administrators. It turns out this person has never served as a principal, or evaluator. In fact she has no real teacher credentials, and taught for 2 years in a school that was considered by the Department to be a failing school. As far as we know, she has never demonstrated the ability to improve the education of students. Yet she will rule over a system that will evaluate persons with Masters and PhD's in Education and decades of teaching experience. She will have the power to order the firing and destruction of the careers (even terminate the certification) of thousands of qualified teachers. The person who held the position over the Act 54 evaluation system before her also had no teacher credentials, and never taught a day in the classroom yet was allowed to train principals in the new VAM and COMPASS systems. Educators who have put up with numerous attacks on the profession by Jindal and White are now expressing outrage over these latest humiliations of the teaching profession.<br /><br />Please click on this link to <a href="http://theadvocate.com/home/4004848-125/evaluator-defends-not-renewing-own">The Advocate story about the credentials</a> (or lack thereof) of the state director of the teacher evaluation system. Take the time to read some of the many comments at the end of the article by present and former teachers and by members of the public. One of the commenters pointed out that this is like letting an intern rule on the employment of experienced physicians. Would Doctors stand for this? <strong><em>There is not one positive comment</em></strong> on this issue and no defenders of this action. <strong><em>Educators have a right to be outraged! </em></strong><br /><br />Superintendent White keeps saying in his speeches that he wants to “empower” teachers and school administrators, but his actions are only “empowering” amateurs to make decisions that affect the careers of the real educators. I just heard a description of one of the evaluator training sessions last week where this amateur teacher (state director of COMPASS) took it upon herself to <i><b>fuss</b></i> at highly experienced and qualified administrators. What an insult!<br /><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But what is the point of the outrage if we don't channel it into productive action? Why not communicate our outrage to BESE and to the Legislature who created this mess? Our elected representatives could stop this insanity. But it will not happen until they hear from their constituents! There are 60,000 teachers in the state that are subject to humiliation and possible career destruction by this ill conceived evaluation system that is being run by amateurs receiving obscene salaries. Principals who have demonstrated many years of effective management of employees are being subjected to the humiliation of being “trained” and lectured to by neophytes with no education credentials. Please consider taking one or all of the following actions now.</div><br />1. Sponsor a petition at your school. The following is a sample petition to BESE:<br /><i><b>The undersigned professional educators are acutely aware that the new educator evaluation system mandated by Act 54 of 2010 and Act 1 or 2012 could have a great impact on the careers and welfare of many public school educators. We believe that proper credentials and educational experience are important requirements for any managers at the Louisiana Department of Education level who are charged with the implementation of this program. We therefore respectfully request that BESE require that all managers of the evaluation program have proper education credentials. In addition, only persons with extensive classroom and supervision experience should be allowed to administer the teacher and principal evaluation programs. Any lesser requirements will amount to disrespect for the education profession in Louisiana and will discredit the entire evaluation program.</b></i><br />Mail the petition to Ms Penny Dastugue, President, BESE, P. O. Box 94064, Baton Rouge, LA 70804.<br /><br />2. The following is a sample email to BESE and to our legislators:<br /><i><b>Dear BESE or ( Legislative member): Teachers and principals in our school are outraged that the new educator evaluation system mandated by Act 54 of 2010 and Act 1 of 2012 is being managed by persons with no valid education credentials. We refuse to be humiliated by having our careers put in jeopardy by persons who are not qualified to judge our work. Please take all necessary actions to correct this unfair situation. </b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Get the BESE email addresses by <a href="http://www.doe.state.la.us/bese/meet_the_board.html">clicking on this link</a>. Get your legislator email by looking him/her up by <a href="http://www.legis.state.la.us/">clicking on this link</a>.</span></span><br /><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">3. Email to Governor Jindal: (same as above) Send to; <a href="http://www.gov.la.us/">www.gov.la.us</a> or go to the following web site: <a href="http://www.gov.la.gov/index.cfm?md=form&tmp=email_governor">http://www.gov.la.gov/index.cfm?md=form&tmp=email_governor</a></div><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I appeal to all educators. <strong><em>Please do something to show your pride and support for your profession.</em></strong>Don't let the enemies of public education beat you down or push you into early retirement. <strong><em>The children of Louisiana need real educators.</em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em>Thanks for all you do as an educator,</em></strong><br />Michael Deshotels<br /><strong><em></em></strong> </div><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-23679304807706443932012-09-28T05:16:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.407-08:00Harmful Salary Schedule MandateJust as teachers and principals begin grappling with the new Value Added Model of teacher evaluation, school boards will be forced by law to develop possibly radical new salary schedules for teachers in all our public school systems. This is another classic case of an effort by those outside the education business to force the practitioners to adopt a solution to a problem that does not exist! School boards according to a provision in Jindal's ALEC inspired Act 1 must revise their local teacher salary schedules to add a performance or merit pay component. According to the new law, the revised salary schedules should consider (1) effectiveness as measured by the new evaluation system, (2) job demand/area of certification, and (3) experience, yet no one factor of the three may account for more than 50% of the final formula. This means that results of the new teacher evaluations using VAM data may affect teacher's salaries as a form of merit pay. At the same time some teachers (10% of those evaluated using VAM) will find their salaries frozen based on the new evaluation.<br /><br />Act I also requires that a new teacher layoff priority list be created for 2013-14 with the teachers that were rated as ineffective by the new evaluation system being first to be laid off without considering their previous evaluations or experience. Seniority of teachers is absolutely banned by Act 1 in the making of employment decisions. Effectiveness as measured by the new VAM system is “king” in the employment and layoff of teachers. As we saw in the editorial by the American Press this week, some schools that are top performers in the state may have disproportionate numbers of teachers classified as ineffective using this new flawed system. Those same evaluations may also cause major changes in the salary schedule for teachers.<br /><br />So we have a brand new teacher evaluation system whose validity is being seriously questioned by numerous education professionals and now a major Louisiana newspaper, that also may soon have a major impact on teacher salaries. Teachers and school boards will now be forced into possibly adversarial positions just to comply with a law they never needed nor asked for. This is another example of non-educator ideologues dictating new problems for our public school systems. Will such new rules apply to the voucher schools or to the new course choice course providers? Of course not! These unproven competitors with public education as usual are exempted from the heavy handed approach of our ALEC influenced legislature.<br /><br />According to the new law, a teacher's present salary may not be reduced by the new salary mandate, but a teacher who had looked forward to regular step raises based on experience may no longer receive those incentives to stay in the profession here in Louisiana. Also, some educators who have spent precious dollars and time pursuing higher degrees in expectation of a higher salary rewarding this additional education may now find their plans quashed by the new rules. <br /><br />One of the perverse incentives to school boards to drop or reduce step increases for experience or advanced degrees are the projected deficits to many school board budgets caused by freezes in the MFP, unfunded mandates by the legislature, and the new drain on the MFP caused by vouchers and Course Choices. School boards may be forced to choose between teacher salaries that were used in the past to attract and retain experienced and educated teachers or increasing class size. Many Charter schools in Louisiana have already chosen cheap TFA corps members over experienced teachers partly so they could pay their administrators obscene salaries. You see TFA recruits only expect to do this “public service” for just a couple of years, get their college loans paid and then move on to their real careers. Or they may get high paying jobs in our State Department of Education. <a href="http://theadvocate.com/home/4004848-125/evaluator-defends-not-renewing-own">The Advocate points out today</a> that the Director of the new teacher evaluation program is a two year TFA teacher with no training in education other than the 5 week crash course. You see in our Brave New World of Louisiana education, the advantage goes to persons with no professional training in education but who buy into all the latest reform fads.<br /><br />If you want to get a good idea about the destructive effects of these mandates take a look at <a href="http://dianeravitch.net/2012/09/26/rhees-teacher-evaluation-bombs-in-dc/">the recent blog by Diane Ravitch</a> about the chaos that has resulted from a similar program implemented in the Washington DC public school system by Michelle Rhea. The main difference is that the DC system had much more funding with which to implement this monstrosity! Louisiana will be attempting to do it at the same time that most school systems are faced with crippling budget shortfalls. Many of my teacher readers have sent me emails confiding that they believe these programs may finally drive them out of the profession or at least cause them to look for employment in another state. Louisiana may soon be faced with a shortage of experienced competent teachers.<br /><br />Will educators and school boards along with innocent students continue to be helpless victims of our misguided corporate styled reforms?<br /><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Why not fight back? Why not have teachers and school boards present a united front to our common enemy; the privatizers of public education? I am suggesting that school boards and teachers propose amendments to these unneeded laws before they are mandated to take effect in the next school year. Teachers and school boards are on the same side in opposing these unprecedented attacks on public education. I hope we can find new hope in cooperation as a united front.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-62760870051886967882012-09-26T19:36:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.417-08:00Editorial Blasts VAM<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>Thank you to the Lake Charles American Press for an excellent editorial and for being willing to take an independent stand on this critical issue!</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">___________________________________</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.americanpress.com/AP-Editorial-9-26-12" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;">http://www.americanpress.com/AP-Editorial-9-26-12</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span style="color: #303030; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;"><img src="webkit-fake-url://83DC0386-BFE7-45A4-83B1-60C58404F713/imagejpeg" /></span></span><span style="color: #303030; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;">State superintendent of Education John White</span></b><span style="color: #303030; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;">. (Donna Price / American Press)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica;"><h3 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt; font-weight: bold; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br />Editorial: Value-added model rating system unfair to teachers<o:p></o:p></span></h3></div><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica;"><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Last Modified: <b>Tuesday, September 25, 2012 8:59 PM</b><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepeddropcappressed"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Contemplate this scenario: The CEO of the company you work for decides to implement an employee evaluation system in which only about 10 percent of the total employees will receive annually the highest level of evaluation possible. Job security and some employee compensation is based on that rating system.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Do you think that’s fair? Neither do we.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Yet that is the prospect that public school teachers in Louisiana face with the <b>fledgling value-added model rating system</b>.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Amazingly, state Superintendent of Education John White defends the system.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The rating system for teachers provides four levels: highly effective, effective proficient, effective emerging and ineffective.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">For value-added teachers, the system uses a bell curve that projects that about 10 percent of the teachers in the state will earn the highly effective status in a given year; 80 percent will earn the effective proficient and effective emerging ratings; and 10 percent will be labeled as ineffective.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Teachers in <u>grades 3-8 who teach core subjects</u>, as well as <u>high school Algebra I and geometry teachers</u>, will be evaluated under the value-added model.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This bell curve will make up 50 percent of their total evaluation score.</span></b></span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">A rating system that has either predictable results or outcomes has not 1 ounce of credibility</span></b></span><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">. How can an evaluation system that projects the end numbers be taken seriously?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Additional statistics expose other flaws in the evaluation system</span></b></span><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Less than 6 percent of the fourth- through ninth-grade teachers in Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron and Jeff Davis parishes evaluated by the VAM system received a highly effective rating last year.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Traditionally, those four school districts have been ranked in the top 25 percent of all districts in the state. In fact, Jeff Davis Parish, where only 3.06 percent of the evaluated teachers were rated highly effective, has routinely ranked in the top eight districts in the state.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Low-performing school districts have, on average, a higher percentage of highly effective-rated teachers than high-performing school districts.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The numbers don’t jibe with reality.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">‘‘It isn’t like if you achieve this, then you will get this rating. It’s where you stand in the overall state rank,’’ said <b>Jeff Davis Parish</b> <b>Superintendent David Clayton</b>. ‘‘What is the concrete standard for teachers?’’</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Under the VAM system, those standards are nebulous at best.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Additionally, to earn tenure, a nontenured teacher must receive a highly effective rating <u>for five out of six years</u>. Based on trials, that appears to be <u>simply unattainable for most teachers</u>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In 2009-2010, 715 teachers in the trial received a highly effective rating. In 2010-2011, only 277 of those teachers maintained the highly effective rating. And last year, that number fell to 149.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Under this new system, the rating system factors into teachers’ compensation</span></b></span><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><u><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">White is correct when he says the former tenure status was too easily attained. But the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.<o:p></o:p></span></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">If White and Gov. Bobby Jindal wanted to abolish tenure, they should have had the political courage to accomplish it through legislation, not through this sham of an evaluation.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We submit that any evaluation system that has per-conceived or intended results is not only unprofessional, it borders on immoral.</span></b></span><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="rsepedpressedtext"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Such evaluations challenge the very issue of fairness and the motives of White, Jindal and the state Department of Education.</span></b></span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Zapf Dingbats', serif;">•••</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span class="abriefhead"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This editorial was written by a member of the </span></i></span><span class="aendnotesepr"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">American Press</span></i></span><span class="aendnotesepr"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Editorial Board. Its content reflects the collaborative opinion of the Board, whose members include </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Bobby Dower</span></i></strong><span class="aendnotesepr"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">, </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ken Stickney</span></i></strong><span class="aendnotesepr"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">, </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jim Beam</span></i></strong><span class="aendnotesepr"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">, </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Crystal Stevenson </span></i></strong><span class="aendnotesepr"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">and </span></i></span><strong><i><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Donna Price.<o:p></o:p></span></i></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">___________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></i></div></div></div><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica;"><h3 style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt; font-weight: bold; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5392952820096205874" name="comments"><u><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Comments made about this article - 4 Total</span></u></a><u><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></h3></div><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica;"><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Posted By: <strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Zach</span></strong> On: <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://6" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" x-apple-data-detectors-result="6" x-apple-data-detectors="true">9/26/2012</a><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Title: <strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Most teachers don't use this grading scale</span></strong><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">What <u>may</u> work in the business world doesn't always work for everything else. I don't see how it's fair that even if all the teachers in the state work at a high level that 10% will still fail no matter what. This doesn't work in classes with grades. I never had this type of grading scale in K-12 and in my college years I never had a professor use this type of grading scale. In fact I had more than one professor say how much they do not like this scale.</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In today's world it is very difficult just to become a teacher. College students in education go through a lot and have to deal with a lot of crap just to graduate. The process to be certified to be a teacher helps weed out most bad teachers. They don't do it for the money or incentives like that like they do in the business world, they do it because they have a passion for teaching otherwise they would not take the time and effort to become a certified teacher. And then the stress involved with teaching usually weeds out any bad ones that make it through being certified because once you start teaching if you don't have a passion for it you won't stay in it long. If the state wants to revise things fine but don't let a dictator strong arm everyone and ruin public education. Let the teachers be involved in the process as well. I'm willing to bet that in the next several years there will be a shortage of teachers in the state or even if not the quality of education will be less because a lot of good teachers will not want to teach here.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div></div><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica;"><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Posted By: <strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Glenn Gordon</span></strong> On: <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://7" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" x-apple-data-detectors-result="7" x-apple-data-detectors="true">9/26/2012</a><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Title: <strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">School is not the real world Kyle</span></strong><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Kyle (above) said that this how he is rated in the "real world"....Well, I too was rated this way in the corporate world before becoming a teacher. Here is why he is wrong. When I was rated this way, I was <u>100% responsible for all inputs into my product line</u>. There was <u>no part of my</u> <u>evaluation that was not in my hands</u>. <b>In education this is not true</b>. We have these students less than 1/3 of their day. We have no control over any aspect of their lives other than the 1 hour a day we see them<b>. Holding someone 100% responsible for a child's education ignores the</b> <b>reality of real life.</b> Or, as Kyle said..."the Real world"...Absent parents, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and homelessness are all problems that <u>my "products</u>" (my students) have had in the time I have been teaching these young people. I invite Kyle to try teaching for a few years or better yet....<u>let me have access to his inputs and after I screw them up really well....he can see how his evaluations look.<o:p></o:p></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div></div></div><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica;"><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Posted By: <strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Kyle</span></strong> On: <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://9" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" x-apple-data-detectors-result="9" x-apple-data-detectors="true">9/26/2012</a><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Title: <strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Welcome To The Real World</span></strong><o:p></o:p></span></div></div></div><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">There are no new concepts here. This sort of system is how major corporations manage thier employee evaluations. The objective is to reward high performers and weed out under performers. I have worked under this sort of system for 20 years, evaluating staff and being evaluated by my management. My salary and bonus calculations are closely tied to this system. It drives performance! The key to the process is setting clear goals in the beginning of each year and meeting or exceeding (the 10%) those goals. It's usualy those who do not set or strive to meet thier goals that are the complainers about the system.</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Posted By: <strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Anne Farrar</span></strong> On: <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://10" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" x-apple-data-detectors-result="10" x-apple-data-detectors="true">9/26/2012</a><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Title: <strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Thank you!</span></strong><o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As a teacher, <u>I'm so relieved to see that someone other than teachers gets the unfairness of the system</u>. John White doesn't even understand that the scores the teachers worry about are not the levels students achieve on the iLEAP/LEAP tests. It's about the scaled scores. I so appreciate the support for teachers who stood against this system in Baton Rouge last spring. Thank you SO much!<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-92117673384082079542012-09-26T06:07:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.428-08:00Score One Point for The AdvocateThe Advocate finally got it right with this editorial about Supt. White AND BESE adding more expensive PR staff at a time when teachers are being laid off! http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/3977561-123/our-views-pr-additions-odd<a href="http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/3977561-123/our-views-pr-additions-odd">http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/3977561-123/our-views-pr-additions-odd</a><span id="goog_1246538616"></span><span id="goog_1246538617"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-15987505707266400532012-09-21T07:50:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.457-08:00Chicken Processors Preferred to TeachersWhy would the state of Louisiana spend millions of taxpayer dollars to keep a chicken processing plant in North Louisiana from closing, yet next year the state will allow local school systems to lose teaching jobs to out of state providers? The reason the Governor and his staff gave for awarding a chicken processing plant a large subsidy a couple of years ago was to protect local jobs from being sent out of state because of the closing of a Louisiana facility. The jobs to be saved by subsidizing the chicken plant were by all accounts low paying minimal skills jobs. In the case of the Course Choice program which allows Louisiana teachers to be laid off so that students can get almost unlimited classes from out of state instructors, tax monies will be used to send college trained jobs out of state!<br /><br />In many of our rural parishes, education is one of the biggest industries. Governor Jindal has often pointed out that his administration works hard to attract and retain jobs that require college trained workers. Why would Louisiana want to ship college educated jobs out of state particularly in rural parishes where education workers help to boost the local economy because of the economic impact of their spending on local goods and services? When our local tax monies are sent out of state the local economy suffers. <br /><br />Will Louisiana children get a higher level of education by having them sit in front of computer monitors and watch lectures by out of state teachers? Will students scores on LEAP and end of course tests improve? Will students be better motivated by these long distance instructors? Will these remote control teachers be able to reach out and get to know our students better so that instruction can be individualized to the unique learning styles of each student? The LAE reported recently that the new Louisiana virtual for profit charter schools run by K12 and Connections Academy were producing below average results on state testing. There is no evidence whatsoever that virtual teaching is in any way better than on site instruction. In fact the news media has uncovered that in <a href="http://www.ednewscolorado.org/2011/10/04/25310-analysis-shows-half-of-online-students-leave-programs-within-a-year-but-funding-stays">Colorado</a> and <a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120225/OPINION03/302250035/1001/NEWS/These-online-schools-worrisome-public-money-grab">Iowa</a>, the results for virtual instruction were significantly poorer than for on site instruction. In fact the reporters found that many students quit their online instruction early in the school year and returned to their local schools even though the local funding had already been committed to the for-profit virtual providers. <br /><br />In Louisiana these long distance teachers will not be evaluated by the value added system that is supposed to relate evaluations to the progress of the students. K12 and other online for-profit providers have been severely criticized for producing inferior instructional results in several states. See the linked article. <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/16/3005122/in-k12-courses-275-students-to.html">In Florida, there is a story about a pupil teacher ratio in some online k12 classes</a> of as many as 275 students to one teacher. There are other investigations of alleged wrongdoing by K12 in Florida. Some of these for profit online schools will do just about anything to maximize profits. <br /><br />So in the Louisiana Course Choice plan, out of state providers will certainly be held accountable for poor results. Right? Wrong! According to the Choice Course law in Act 2 of 2012, the local home school will be held responsible for the accountability testing results of students taking courses from Course Choice providers. Even in cases where local school authorities believe that students have not learned the material provided by a Choice Course, the local school will be prohibited from questioning the credits awarded by an online school. (See my post of Sept. 16) Also according to state law, local school officials are prohibited from discouraging students from taking Course Choice Courses by BESE approved providers, yet for the first 3 years of the program all the accountability for successful results falls on the shoulders of the local school. After 3 years the outside providers will be evaluated and may be denied further participation in the Choice Course program.<br /><br />By the way, I wonder if that chicken processing plant in North Louisiana is still in business? Just wondering.<br /><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-67252292860989972612012-09-19T08:59:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.485-08:00Fight Back Against Phony Destructive ReformsA couple of months ago I requested that educators, particularly those that had signed up for our “Defenders of Public Education” data base make it a point to meet with the legislators in their home districts to point out why Governor Jindal's reform legislation which was so hastily rammed through the legislature was already revealing its obvious flaws. Our concern was that many of the legislators who voted for this package may not have been fully aware (although they should have) about how subversive and damaging this legislation was at the time they voted for it. Many educators had warned that some of the new vouchers may go to schools run by persons who had selfish motives and would subject our students an inferior level of education compared to what they would have received in the public schools. At the same time this system results in crippling raids on MFP funding that is vital to our public schools. Since then we have seen the approval of a voucher school run by a guy who calls himself the “prophet”, other schools that do not have the bare minimum of classrooms and instructional materials and many who will teach various forms of creationism instead of Science. Some of our “Defenders” sent me emails describing the meetings with their legislators and giving me vital feedback which I intend to share with lobbyists for the Coalition for Public Education so they can be better prepared for the next legislative session.<br /> <br />Probably the most revealing insight on legislators' thinking when they voted for this garbage reform package came from one legislator who said he voted for the legislation because at least it was an attempt to <i><b>do something</b></i>about our failing education system. He claims he voted for the Governor's proposals because the teacher unions and the school boards had not offered any significant alternatives for reform. I would like to discuss with you why I think this reasoning is not only a weak cop-out for voting for the ALEC inspired destruction of education package, but mainly because it is totally wrong in its assumptions and remedies.<br /> <br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Point # 1</b>: <i><b>Those who claim that public education in Louisiana is broken or failing are dead wrong.</b></i> Last year I linked two spreadsheets with data from the Louisiana Department of Education to produce a comparison of our almost 1300 Louisiana public schools that were assigned letter grades with the level of poverty of the students attending each school. You can access the resulting spreadsheet by <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8LP1WoZ0jz4cm9EeGxnVmxwT3c/edit">clicking on this link.</a> You will find as I did that schools with low poverty (10% to 20% of students on free or reduced lunch)<i><b> all received an “A” rating from the state</b></i>, except for one charter school. The next group (20% to 30% free or reduced lunch) had a grade point average of 3.5 on a 4 point scale. As you look at schools in higher poverty communities, the grade average goes down steadily until we get to schools with 90% or more free and reduced lunch who got a grade point average of .9 Poverty was such a powerful factor that 5 times as many schools in the 90-100% free or reduced lunch category got F as did the schools in the 80-90% free or reduced lunch category. From this analysis I determined that our education system is far from broken when it deals with kids who do not come from a high poverty background. They are all rated as A or B. <i><b>Our only real problem is in properly educating the students who come from a very high poverty community.</b></i>Yet the Governor and his big business supporters have condemned the entire public education system. But when the state allowed some high poverty students in New Orleans to attend private (voucher) schools they performed on average lower than the New Orleans Recovery District which was the second lowest performing school system in the state. So allowing high poverty kids to get vouchers was certainly not the answer to producing better achievement. The point is nobody has come up with a school reform solution that magically boosts the achievement of all high poverty students.</div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Point # 2:</b> Our new State Superintendent and other reformers have concluded that the reason some of our students perform poorly must be because we have a large number of ineffective or incompetent or just plain lazy teachers. All we have to do according to the reformers is to fire and replace the bottom performing teachers and we will soon have all of our students doing just great! Again their assumptions and conclusions are completely wrong. There was an easy way the reformers could have checked out the theory that poor student performance was directly related to poor teaching. They could have taken the teachers in one of our highest rated schools (an A school) and switched them with the teachers in one of our lowest rated schools (an F school) and monitored the results for a couple or three years to see how performance would change. I believe there would be very little change in the performance of students at the two test schools because the controlling factor was not poor teaching or excellent teaching but instead was the socioeconomic level of the children. Good teaching always makes a positive difference but it is not enough to overcome the negative influence of poverty. To add insult to injury for teachers, the new evaluation system in the Governor's plan is set up to find at least 10% of Louisiana teachers to be ineffective based on value added formulas. I must point out that this 10% is not a scientific finding. It is a preset requirement before a single teacher is evaluated. Analysis of the data coming from a similar system in New York (<a href="http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/2012/09/15/analyzing-released-nyc-value-added-data-part-6/">see Gary Rubinstein's blog</a>) found that the ineffective rating is so extremely volatile from year to year as to be useless. Also in the Louisiana plan it is not true that the value added score only counts for 50% of a teacher's evaluation as was promised in the legislation. In our system the state has put a provision in the plan that if a teacher falls in the bottom 10% of value added, that score totally overrules the principal's evaluation and the teacher <strong><em><u>must</u></em></strong> be rated ineffective.</div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Point # 3:</b> Louisiana school boards and local administrators and teachers were already making significant improvements in student performance in our lowest performing schools before these “reforms” were enacted. In fact since the Legislature created the so called Recovery District, a much larger percentage of low performing schools managed by local school boards have moved up to better ratings than have those managed by the Recovery District. In fact all of the schools that were taken over by the Recovery District outside of New Orleans are now performing more poorly than before they were taken over! And the ones taken over in New Orleans are still the second lowest performers in the state. The reformers at the State Department have failed miserably compared to the efforts of local school systems. So why is the State Department of Education still in charge of the current reforms? In answer to my questions in my previous post, the State Department has proposed basically no accountability for the new choice courses. We have already seen what a fiasco they have made of the voucher school approval process.</div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Point #4:</b> I have found that in some local school systems the State Department micromanagement of local disciplinary policies has become a major obstacle to improving the school environment. In East Baton Rouge, the State Department has appointed a special master that can overrule local administrators in the application of discipline. The special master often ignores or overrules teacher disciplinary rights specified in state law. One principal told me recently that often the school is not allowed to discipline students who routinely start fights and who threaten the safety of other students. This is one of the main reasons some parents are afraid to enroll their students in some public schools. On the other hand, charter schools in some parts of the state are allowed to routinely remove or counsel out students who are guilty of relatively minor discipline infractions especially if they are expected to be low performers on the state tests. </div><br />This is what I have to say to that legislator who felt he had to vote for <i><b>something</b></i>. First of all you should not have voted for laws that you did not have evidence would make any improvement. Second, you had no business blaming teachers for the effects of poverty on student performance. Our students who come to public school ready to learn <i><u><b>are learning</b></u></i> and teachers are already working as <i><b>hard as possible to help bring up those who come to us with disadvantages</b></i>. Finally, why don't <i><b>you act to get the State Department to stop interfering with sound educational practices in locally run schools?</b></i><br /> <br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I would recommend that the legislature put a moratorium on adding any new voucher schools until we have time to assess the effectiveness of the ones already operating. The LEAP scores for every student participating in the voucher program this year should be aggregated and a letter grade assigned to the whole program using the same factors now being used to grade public schools. If the average is below the average for public schools there should be no new vouchers approved. </div><br />Also, the only choice courses that should be allowed are special vocational and career courses that are not now available because of lack of facilities or certified trainers in the public schools. Minimum hours of attendance for all choice courses should be required and the program regularly evaluated by evaluators outside the State Dept. of Education. <br /> <br />Finally, the first two years of the new value added teacher evaluation system should not count against any teacher. Outside experts should be asked to evaluate the consistency and validity of the new teacher evaluation system and after the second year of results, a complete review of the program should be made based on this independent evaluation.<br /> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-76368481746118252452012-09-16T15:00:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.513-08:00Follow Up on Choice Course Program<div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: red;"><b><i>Note to readers: the following is a second letter to BESE in response to an email by the Executive Director of BESE explaining the policy of the Board for the implementation of Choice Courses for the 2013-14 school year. The email from the Executive Director is reprinted below my letter. Ms Dastuge has recently informed me that the email was actually prepared by the DOE team that is charged with implementing the Course Choice Program. </i></b></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent;">Dear Ms Dastugue and BESE Members:</span></div><div></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I have received the responses to my questions to BESE about choice course regulations. It is my understanding that President Dastugue directed Ms Pozniak (BESE Executive Director) to answer my questions according to BESE policy as it will be applied to choice courses for the 2013-14 school year.</div><div><br />I was disappointed by the lack of substance and accountability of BESE policy on choice courses as interpreted by Ms Pozniak in her answers to the questions. My major concern is that the application of BESE policy described does not seem to require students to attend a minimum number of hours of instruction in order to receive credit for a choice course. While Ms Pozniak states at the beginning of her response that the choice courses will emphasize achievement over attendance, her answers reveal that students may get full credit and the provider may get full payment for a choice course even if there is no evidence presented at the end of a choice course that adequate learning has taken place. </div><div><br />At the beginning of her response to my questions Ms Pozniak characterizes seat time or class time as archaic. I do not believe Ms Pozniak is qualified to dismiss school seat time as “archaic”. She states that choice courses will emphasize learning outcomes over length of instruction. If seat time were archaic, we would not need the mandatory school attendance law. If seat time were archaic BESE would not have a policy that denies course credit to students who have more than the minimum number of allowed unexcused absences. If seat time were archaic, our district attorneys and judges could call off all efforts to require parents to send students to school on a regular basis. The fact is that the lack of accountability by some parents and poor student attendance is one of the greatest root causes of under-performance by many of our students. There is a direct relationship between students who miss many days of school and the low performance of such students. In addition, Act 2 specifies that quality course providers in their application to BESE must specify the length of each course. That implies that students are expected to attend or participate for a particular number of hours specified for a course.</div><div><br />I believe the interpretation of BESE policy relative to choice courses by Ms Pozniak if implemented in the way she described will result in a lowering of standards and a decline in student performance by many students who participate in such courses. I believe such a policy will encourage fraud and abuse in the use of MFP funds by <u>some </u>of the choice course providers. Such abuse could dwarf the abuses seen recently in the chaotically implemented voucher program this school year. I respectfully request that BESE carefully consider the issues raised in my questions on choice courses and adopt policies that will insure safeguards of taxpayer dollars and insure that students receive adequate instruction from each choice course.</div><div><br />In her response Ms Pozniak seems to assume that BESE will not require minimal instructional time for any of the choice courses. Apparently BESE will simply take the provider's word that students have completed their assignments for the course as adequate evidence to award credit for a course. Since the law allows course providers to receive the remaining 50% of their funding based on students completing a course on time, taxpayers can expect that many students may not be held to minimal standards for completion. If regular attendance or participation for a certain number of hours will not be required, who in the Department of Education will check to see if a student who has sporadically participated in a choice course has actually completed the required assignments of a choice course? </div><div><br />Ms Pozniak's responses verify my fears that the course provider can stipulate that a student has completed a course and receive full payment even if the student cannot demonstrate reasonable knowledge of the course or even if the student fails to pass the end of course exam. How would such a system reward achievement over attendance? In such a case, how can BESE justify full payment for the course? How does this system emphasize learning outcomes over length of instruction? </div><div><br />In addition, Ms Pozniak's responses gives no assurance that any part of the 50% initial course payment will be refunded to the state and the local school system even if the student drops out or is expelled soon after enrollment in a choice course. This creates an incentive for choice course providers to use aggressive promotions to get students to register for such courses even if the student may drop out with minimal participation in the course.</div><div><br />Ms Pozniak indicates that if a student takes a choice course for which end of course testing is required by BESE and then fails the end of course test, the state will still make full payment to the provider based upon the provider's claim that the student has completed the course. Does this system reward achievement? BESE should not waive minimum course attendance and also waive minimal performance.</div><div></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />I must recommend that BESE, consider adopting a strict policy relative to choice courses that require the standard number of hours of instruction in order for the student to receive course credit and for the provider to receive full payment for a choice course. This rule is particularly important if the student does not pass the end of course test required by BESE. Otherwise there is insufficient accountability for use of our taxes.</div><div><br />Ms Pozniak dismisses the question about choice course providers being required to document attendance or participation of students by simply stating that choice courses comply with the objectives of the compulsory attendance law. I believe this is an incorrect interpretation of the law and is not acceptable to me as a taxpayer. Since Act 2 stipulates that each choice course must have a length, BESE should have a firm policy that requires choice course providers to actually document the number of hours of student attendance or participation for each choice course whether it be an on-site course or a virtual course. I believe that even in the case of a virtual course delivered over the Internet, it is possible for the provider to monitor the participation time of students.</div><div><br />Ms Pozniak also states that when a student takes a credit recovery course from a choice provider and that provider reports to the student's home school that he/she has passed the course, the home school must grant the student credit even if the student does not pass the end of course test for that course. This is not acceptable. What is the point of taking a credit recovery course if the student still does not have satisfactory knowledge? How does this reward learning outcomes? BESE should not award full payment to a choice course provider for a credit recovery course if the student cannot pass an approved end of course test.</div><div><br />I believe that any lesser requirements by BESE will result in the raiding of critical MFP funds allocated to local school districts and will make a mockery of accountability. I will be happy to appear before BESE and further clarify my concerns and recommendations on the issue of choice course regulations.</div><div><br />Sincerely,</div><div>Michael Deshotels</div><div>Zachary, Louisiana</div><div><br />The response to my questions from Ms Pozniak are reprinted below. </div><div></div><div>Mr. Deshotels,<br /><br />I am sending this response on behalf of Penny Dastugue.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><br />Catherine Pozniak<br />Executive Director<br />Board of Elementary and Secondary Education<br /><br /><br />Course Choice will provide families with unprecedented choices – down to the <br />course – to prepare students to succeed in college and careers. Courses will be <br />aligned to the expectations of post-secondary education and the jobs that await <br />students after high school. Under the program, the measure of quality will be <br />student achievement, not just attendance.<br /><br />* Will choice course providers be required to deliver a certain number of <br />clock hours of instruction in order for a student to receive one Carnegie unit <br />of credit and for the provider to receive the agreed upon tuition for one <br />Carnegie unit?<br />* Could choice course providers offer courses that require different amounts <br />of instruction time for different courses that earn one Carnegie unit of credit?<br />* Will there be a certain number of hours the student in a virtual class <br />must participate in order to receive credit for the course?<br />* Could a virtual choice course provider substitute an end of course test as <br />validation that a student has completed a virtual choice course instead of <br />requiring the student to “attend” or participate in a certain number of hours of <br />instruction?<br />Course Choice uses a performance-based funding model and providers have the <br />option to implement a competency-based model to award credit. Course Choice <br />moves beyond the archaic “seat-time” model, which rewards attendance over <br />achievement, to a new model which emphasizes learning outcomes over length of <br />instruction. School districts also have the opportunity to waive <br />“seat-time/clock hours” (Bulletin 741--Louisiana Handbook for School <br />Administrators with the exception of §907, Secondary--Class Times and Carnegie <br />Credit).<br /><br />To earn credit, students must demonstrate mastery of the grade-level <br />expectations, just like traditional schools. Also like traditional schools, <br />students can demonstrate mastery by earning a passing score on a standardized <br />statewide assessment or end-of-course exam, providing a portfolio of work or <br />completing the required assignments of the course.<br /><br />Students who are behind in credits can accelerate their progress toward <br />graduation by completing blended courses, which combine online and face-to-face <br />instruction. Students will be able to progress through a course at their own <br />pace, moving through the content as they master standards grouped into modules, <br />clusters, or units. Providers can use multiple conventional methods, including <br />assessments, research projects, and presentations, to demonstrate mastery of <br />course standards or competencies to earn credit toward graduation,<br /><br />Unlike traditional schools, providers are only paid when a student completes a <br />course. Providers are paid 50% upon enrollment of the student and 50% upon <br />completion of the course by the student.<br /><br />* Could a choice course provider be approved for accelerated choice courses <br />where students who can demonstrate mastery of a course by taking a test would be <br />allowed to complete the course in a shorter period of time than what is normally <br />required for a Carnegie unit of instruction? If the answer to this question is <br />“yes”, would the Choice course provider still receive the same tuition as if the <br />course required a standard number of hours of instruction.<br />The same funding model applies to Course Choice providers and school districts. <br />Both Course Choice providers and school districts earn funding when a student <br />demonstrates mastery in an accelerated course.<br /><br />* Suppose a student taking a choice course drops out soon after starting the <br />course and no longer participates in a choice course. Will the choice course <br />provider be required to reimburse the state for any of the initial funding?<br />* Suppose a choice provider expels or otherwise terminates a student enrolled <br />in a choice course soon after the course begins, will there be provision for <br />return of any portion of the tuition?<br />Under the law, Course Choice providers will receive 50% of funding for the <br />course upon successful enrollment and 50% of funding upon successful, on-time <br />completion of the course. Course Choice providers are penalized 10% if a <br />student completes the course late, receiving just 40% of the second installment.<br /><br />Course Choice policy will allow an introductory period which allows students to <br />register for the class, review course materials and start initial coursework.<br /><br />* Suppose a student takes and completes the required number of hours of <br />participation in a choice course and receives a failing grade from the choice <br />provider, will there be any provision for refund of any of the tuition?<br />* Suppose a student takes and receives a passing grade for a choice course <br />for which the state requires end of course testing and the student fails to <br />receive a passing score on the state test. Will there be any provision for any <br />refund of tuition?<br />The same policy applies to Course Choice providers and school districts. Like <br />school districts, Course Choice providers receive funding when a student <br />completes a course. Also like school districts, students do not have to earn a <br />passing score on a standardized end-of-course exam to receive full funding for <br />the course.<br /><br />* Suppose a student takes and passes a credit recovery course from a choice <br />provider, and the student is tested on the course by his home school following <br />the completion of the course and fails to make a score that is acceptable to his <br />local school system for receiving credit for this course. Is the student's local <br />school system still required to give the student credit for such a course? Will <br />the choice course provider be allowed to keep the tuition?<br />Under state law, school districts must award credit for courses completed by <br />students through Course Choice and those credits must count toward the <br />requirements of a diploma.<br /><br />* Will choice course providers be required to take attendance roll for <br />students attending choice courses, particularly when the student is attending a <br />course provided at a site provided by the course provider? If roll is taken and <br />the student is found to be absent without excuse for more than the minimum <br />number of days required by BESE for public school attendance, will the student <br />still be allowed to receive a passing grade on the choice course?<br />* In the case where a choice course provider is providing a virtual or <br />internet delivered course so that the student participates in a choice course <br />from his/her home, will the choice provider be required to take a participation <br />roll each day the student is supposed to be receiving instruction?<br />Course Choice complies with the objectives of Louisiana’s compulsory attendance <br />law.<br /><br />* What action would the DOE take in a case where there is no evidence <br />provided by the virtual provider that the student actually participated in a <br />minimum number of hours of instruction in a virtual course?<br /><br />Under state law, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will conduct a <br />thorough review of the Course Choice providers after one year in the program. <br />If the academic performance of students enrolled in a provider’s course does not <br />meet rigorous standards, the provider will face consequences, including <br />probation and/or removal from the program.<br /><br />* Are choice course providers allowed to refuse admission of any students to <br />a choice course when the enrollment limit has not been reached who have been <br />classified by their local school system as eligible to take the choice course in <br />question?<br />Course Choice providers must accept students who meet the pre-requisites for the <br />course (such as, Latin I before Latin II). Providers cannot refuse eligible <br />students if space is available in the course.<br /><br />* Would a choice course provider be allowed to test a student wanting to <br />enroll in a choice course and by that means find that the student is not <br />qualified for or prepared to take the choice course in question and thereby deny <br />the student admission even if the student has met all other prerequisites for <br />admission to a course?<br />Course Choice providers must accept students who meet the pre-requisites for the <br />course (such as, Latin I before Latin II).<br /><br />September 4, 2012<br />Questions about new choice courses:</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-51825192027481143542012-09-07T11:16:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.542-08:00Potential Abuse of Choice Course Program<span style="color: red;"><strong>My readers are certainly aware by now that I believe there is much potential for abuse of taxpayer funding of the Choice Course Program included in ACT 2 of the 2012 legislative session. I am so concerned about this that on September 4, I sent the email below to all BESE members. I have received a response from BESE president Penny Dastuge promising that answers to my questions will be forthcoming. I am encouraging all my readers to study these issues carefully and share your concerns not only with BESE but with your legislators. </strong></span><br /><br />Questions about new choice courses:<br />Dear BESE member:<br />The State Department of Education is now receiving proposals for quality choice courses for the 2013-14 school year as stipulated in Act 2 of 2012. It is my understanding that BESE must approve all ChoiceCourse Providers by January 1, 2013. I have reviewed the information on the LDOE web site for Choice Courses <br />and Choice Course Providers and I have several questions and concerns about the implementation of this program. I would suggest that BESE adopt proper guidelines for this program to insure that our students get good solid instruction and that tax money is used wisely. My questions are as follows:<br /><ol><li>Will choice course providers be required to deliver a certain number of clock hours of instruction in order for a student to receive one Carnegie unit of credit and for the provider to receive the agreed upon tuition for one Carnegie unit? Could choice course providers offer courses that require different amounts of instruction time for different courses that earn one Carnegie unit of credit?</li><li>Could a choice course provider be approved for accelerated choice courses where students who can demonstrate mastery of a course by taking a test would be allowed to complete the course in a shorter period of time than what is normally required for a Carnegie unit of instruction? If the answer to this question is “yes”, would the Choice course provider still receive the same tuition as if the course required a standard number of hours of instruction.</li></ol><strong>Act 2 stipulates that choice course providers will receive 50% of the agreed </strong><strong>upon tuition for each course immediately following the enrollment of students in </strong><strong>such courses. The remainder of the tuition is to be paid to the provider at the </strong><strong>end of the course. I have the following questions about funding issues:</strong><br /><ol><li>Suppose a student taking a choice course drops out soon after starting the course and no longer participates in a choice course. Will the choice course provider be required to reimburse the state for any of the initial funding?</li><li>Suppose a choice provider expels or otherwise terminates a student enrolled in a choice course soon after the course begins, will there be provision for return of any portion of the tuition?</li><li>Suppose a student takes and completes the required number of hours of participation in a choice course and receives a failing grade from the choice provider, will there be any provision for refund of any of the tuition?</li><li>Suppose a student takes and receives a passing grade for a choice course for which the state requires end of course testing and the student fails to receive a passing score on the state test. Will there be any provision for any refund of tuition?</li><li>Suppose a student takes and passes a credit recovery course from a choice provider, and the student is tested on the course by his home school following the completion of the course and fails to make a score that is acceptable to his local school system for receiving credit for this course. Is the student's local school system still required to give the student credit for such a course? Will the choice course provider be allowed to keep the tuition?</li><li>Will choice course providers be required to take attendance roll for students attending choice courses, particularly when the student is attending a course provided at a site provided by the course provider? If roll is taken and the student is found to be absent without excuse for more than the minimum number of days required by BESE for public school attendance, will the student still be allowed to receive a passing grade on the choice course?</li><li>In the case where a choice course provider is providing a virtual or Internet delivered course so that the student participates in a choice course from his/her home, will the choice provider be required to take a participation roll each day the student is supposed to be receiving instruction? Will there be a certain number of hours the student in a virtual class must participate in order to receive credit for the course?</li><li>What action would the DOE take in a case where there is no evidence provided by the virtual provider that the student actually participated in a minimum number of hours of instruction in a virtual course?</li><li>Could a virtual choice course provider substitute an end of course test as validation that a student has completed a virtual choice course instead of requiring the student to “attend” or participate in a certain number of hours of instruction?</li><li>Are choice course providers allowed to refuse admission of any students to a choice course when the enrollment limit has not been reached and who have been classified by their local school system as eligible to take the choice course in question?</li><li>Would a choice course provider be allowed to test a student wanting to enroll in a choice course and by that means find that the student is not qualified for or prepared to take the choice course in question and thereby deny the student admission even if the student has met all other prerequisites for admission to a course?</li></ol>I offer the above questions as a taxpayer who is concerned that my tax dollars for education are not wasted or otherwise used by unscrupulous individuals for personal profit without providing proper services to our students. I would very much appreciate a response from BESE on all of the questions above as soon as <br />possible.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br />Michael Deshotels<br /><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-17043683637135918722012-08-28T08:52:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.570-08:00More and More Testing; Diminising ReturnsMost of our non-educator education reformers believe that the primary purpose of K-12 education is to get <strong><em><u>all</u></em></strong> students ready for college. The high school Redesign Commission under the direction of previous Superintendent Pastorek several years ago adopted a goal that most students would graduate by completing the college prep Core 4 curriculum. (<a href="http://louisianaeducator.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-02-04T05:20:00-06:00&max-results=2&reverse-paginate=true">See my post of 1/29/2010</a>) That's also why State Superintendent John White has decreed that starting this year all 8<sup>th</sup> through 11<sup>th</sup> graders in public schools will be required to take the ACT <a href="http://www.louisianaschools.net/lde/uploads/19722.pdf">(See the Louisiana ESEA Flexibility Request page 54). </a> <br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> </div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A few educators have warned that college prep for all is a serious mistake. We believe that not all of our student population can and should be prepared for college. We believe that scheduling all or most students in college prep courses results in a watering down of instruction. When more than half the class is not ready for Algebra, Geometry or Advanced English, the teacher ends up teaching only the minimum needed to get students to pass the end of course tests. As a result the true college prep students do not get the rigorous course content they need and most are bored to death.</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> </div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The non-college bound students are hurt even more by this system. They struggle to get through the Core 4, and some have to take credit recovery courses to try to graduate on time. They have no time to take vocational courses that could allow them to pursue a valuable career. These students barely graduate from high school with no salable skills and very little chance of succeeding in college. Some that attempt college end up dropping out with a huge load of college loans and still no career. <strong><em>The reformers then simply blame teachers and administrators for not pounding square pegs into round holes.</em></strong></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> </div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The push for college for all has been the policy in Louisiana for several years. </div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">How successful has Louisiana been in preparing all students for college? ACT test averages for all states were released last week for test takers in the 2012 school year. Louisiana students scored an average of 20.3. The Louisiana Department of Education put out a press release claiming improvement for our public school students over last year and a narrowing of the achievement gap. <strong><em>One important item that <u>was not</u> mentioned in the LDOE press release is an analysis by the ACT experts concluding that only 17% of Louisiana students met the benchmarks that would predict success in all major categories of college course work.</em></strong></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"> </div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">ACT testing administrators also published a 5 year listing of average scores for each state. The 2012 score for Louisiana students is exactly the same as the average score of 20.3 in 2008. <strong><em>So if one looks at the most recent 5 year period, Louisiana shows no overall increase in the average ACT score. The 5 year period covers the last part of the administration of Paul Pastorek, the non-educator guy who set us on this course.</em></strong><br /><br />A complicating factor in using ACT scores to estimate improvement in public education in Louisiana is the fact that scores are averaged for <u><b>all students</b></u> <b><u>t</u></b><u><b>aking the test including both public and private school students. </b></u>It is impossible to know whether a gain in the average is due to public school students or to the fairly large number of private school students taking the test. The State Department of Education however, is claiming that the flimsy one tenth point improvement this year in the overall average means that public schools are improving. I hope that is true, but I would first like to see a breakdown showing separate averages for public and private schools.</div><br />I participated in a meeting of the High School Redesign Commission a few months ago, where the group was informed that the State Department of Education will start requiring all high school students to take the ACT and that 25% of the all important School Performance Score will be based on the ACT average score. Some of the Commission members grumbled that this would not give the high schools time to set up special ACT prep courses. But not wanting to seem to be against this latest reform, they dutifully voted to endorse the new testing scheme. So it looks like many more of our teachers will be singing <strong><em><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5wkJxTwXnk">the Test Teacher Song</a></em></strong>. (Click on the link and you'll see what I mean.) <br /><br />It used to be that high schools in addition to producing literate and well rounded citizens would prepare students for <i><b>either</b></i> vocational/career<span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">work</span></span></span> <i><u><b>or</b></u></i> for entry into 4 year colleges. Now the goal has been carefully reshaped by our non-educator reformers so that schools are supposed to produce adults who are College <i><u><b>and</b></u></i>Career ready. The reformers are telling us that if we achieve the goal of college prep, we will also automatically be preparing students for careers that require less than a 4 year college degree. The problem is there are only so many hours in the school day. That's why many school systems have been forced to sacrifice many of their vocational-technical programs to allow more time for the Core 4 curriculum. <br /><br />No other industrialized country attempts to prepare all its students for college. They know that the modern work force needs skilled and vocational workers just as much as it needs college educated workers. Why do our school reformers insist on doing exactly the opposite of what the most successful countries are doing?<br /><br />It is ironic that business leaders have been telling the Louisiana Workforce Commission that what they need are skilled workers in many jobs that do not require a college degree. That's why one element of the Jindal reform legislation will now allow high school students to leave their home campus and attend vocational courses by private providers. The problem is most of these kids are not able to go in two directions at one time.<br /><br />I believe that forcing students who are not suited to, or have no interest in college prep to take such courses is very bad policy. It is discouraging and damaging to the students and guarantees that our public schools will continue to look like failures. <strong><em>For educators it's more and more testing with diminishing returns.</em></strong><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-84196673697952934912012-08-20T08:16:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.599-08:00Choice Providers: Private Schools Authorized to Raid MFP<span style="color: orange;"><b>Note to my readers:</b>This is an expansion of my post of </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5392952820096205874#editor/target=post;postID=6400224199597834541"><span style="color: orange;">July 2, 2012</span></a><span style="color: orange;"> that alerted you to the new Choice Course Provider system. More information has come to light as a result of the </span><a href="http://www.louisianaschools.net/coursechoice/"><span style="color: orange;">LDOE web page</span></a><span style="color: orange;"> giving detailed information on how the Department plans to proceed with this program.</span><br /><br />A new type of private school serving public school students at taxpayer expense was created by Act 2 of 2012. These new private schools will offer “Choice Courses”, a major component of Jindal's attack on our public schools. Choice course providers will be able to recruit students and a portion of their MFP allocation starting with the 2013-14 school year. All students attending public schools rated “C” or below (more than half of public schools) will be targets of these new choice providers. There is also a provision in the law that allows students from B or A schools to take choice courses and raid the MFP funding if such courses are not offered by their home schools. Proposals are now being received by the State Department of Education for choice courses for the 2013-14 school year. BESE will have the authority to approve any courses by private providers that meet state requirements by January 1, 2013. The state will then publish a list of approved choice course providers and the courses they will offer so that students can sign up for the 2013-14 school year.<br /><br />What type of organizations are expected to be choice course providers? Colleges may offer college credit courses, business organizations may offer technical and vocational courses, large national based for-profit virtual course providers such as Connections Academy and K12 may offer any subject at any grade level in the state approved curriculum, and individual entrepreneurs or teachers may also offer either virtual or on-site courses. <br /><br />These course providers will operate in direct competition with local school systems but the playing field in this competition will not be a level field. The tuition charged by these choice course providers comes directly from the MFP funding normally allocated to the school district where the student lives. But since choice providers are private, they are not required to use any particular portion of the MFP for actual instruction. Choice course providers can use media advertising to lure students away from public schools and charge the cost to us, the taxpayers. They can capture public school students for all but one hour of instruction each day and there is absolutely nothing local school boards can do about it. <i><b>In fact school officials are prohibited by law from discouraging students from taking choice courses.</b></i><br /><br />The tuition charged can be up to 90% of the pro-rated MFP allocation for a course even though a choice provider may have a fraction of the state mandated overhead costs of public schools. In the question and answer section of the State Department web page for choice courses, the Department predicts that somehow competition will create a “market price” for choice courses. We don't know if that means that BESE will approve only the lowest cost providers for particular categories of courses or if many different fee proposals will be approved for the same courses. As far as the students and their parents are concerned, there is no incentive for choosing the lower cost courses because all such courses are free (if the student comes from a “C” or below rated school or if the course is not offered in his/her “B” or “A” school). This course approval process by BESE is sure to be controversial and may result in court challenges.<br /><br />According to the law these course providers, once approved by BESE, may offer choice courses for up to 3 years. The law provides for an evaluation of Choice Course Providers after 2 years, and allows a course provider to be put on probation for their third year based on performance of students taking their courses. After 3 years each provider may be terminated or renewed for at least 3 more years. This process means that many students may be allowed to participate in these unregulated schools possibly providing sub-standard services for at least 3 years before anything is done.<br /><br />Choice course providers can pay their administrators any salary <i><b>they choose</b></i> using our tax money, allocate any amount <i><b>they choose</b></i> to their owners or stockholders and use any pupil teacher ratio <i><b>they choose</b></i>. Their teachers will not be evaluated as is required by state law because they are private schools. At this point, there are no plans for the state to monitor whether or not students attend regularly as required in public schools. As far as I know there are no plans by the state to check to see if students are spending the number of required minutes each day on each course, and no one will know if the required GLE's or common core standards are being covered. Choice schools will receive 50% of their fees at the time of student enrollment. At this point there is no regulation to cover what happens if a student is expelled from a choice provider course or what happens to the initial 50% payment made by the state to the choice provider if the student drops out or is expelled by the choice provider. It looks like most of the <i><b>“choice” will be in the hands of the choice course providers.</b></i><br /><br />But here's the most disturbing part of the rules for choice courses. All students participating in the course choice program will be tested by LEAP or its successor tests at their original home public schools. Their scores made on LEAP and other high stakes tests will be assigned to their home schools even if the majority of their courses are taken off campus. <i><b>So the profit for choice courses goes to the providers, but for the first three years at least, the penalties for any under performance will go to their assigned public schools.</b></i>You could have a “C” rated school that may have its grade reduced to a “D” or worse by the scores of choice students. Or you could have a school that may lose its higher performing students to choice course providers while the lower performing students remain. Some choice course providers may look good because they have carefully skimmed the best performing students from the public schools! We have already seen that some of the voucher schools have ways of <a href="http://louisianaeducator.blogspot.com/2012_08_05_archive.html">discouraging qualified students from enrolling</a> if the school administrators want to cull out certain students.<br /><br />Another unintended consequence of having courses offered by unregulated providers is grade inflation. There is nothing to keep some of the choice providers from watering down standards and using grade inflation to attract more students to their profit making enterprise. Particularly in cases where the courses offered are not tested by the state, the state may not be in a position to challenge the rigor of such courses. This is very similar to what we see now with many of the virtual schools offering “college level” courses over the Internet. Many graduates of such schools are finding their degrees to be worthless even after they have accumulated huge college loan debts. (<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5392952820096205874#editor/target=post;postID=5216189334732577899">see my post of August 5)</a><br /><br />Louisiana does have a great need for expansion of career training as opposed to our present policy of attempting to prepare all students for college. This could have easily been done by providing for partnerships between our high schools and our vocational/technical and community colleges. In addition there should be more business and industry related apprenticeship programs. There was no need for a law that could drain the lifeblood out of our public schools.<br /><br />What Jindal and the Legislature have done is to allow private companies and individual profiteers to experiment with the education of children and collect much of the MFP money with very little oversight. The difference is that even if a student may be under-performing in a public school, at least the public system assures taxpayers that the student is in attendance, that the teacher is being monitored and evaluated, and that the required elements of the curriculum are being taught. With a choice course nothing is guaranteed. The same lack of accountability applies to the new voucher schools. How can we trust that the Department will properly evaluate choice providers based on some of the atrocious voucher schools approved so far? For the voucher and choice schools, over 75 years of legislation designed to protect the education of Louisiana public school students has been thrown away. At the same time, the State Department of education will continue to micromanage our public schools as never before. <i><b>This is school reform?</b></i><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><i><b>Based on my many years in education, I know that this and the other parts of the Jindal plan will not work. In all probability many students will be hurt by this multitude of poorly monitored privatization schemes. Our students should not be the guinea pigs for these untested programs. Please talk to your legislator. There is still time to stop this train before it runs off the tracks and wrecks our education system.</b></i></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-86647967516920778472012-08-14T12:06:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.627-08:00A Great Monroe News Star Editorial<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22.5pt;">Voucher Program: </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 22.5pt;">“Details to come”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">11:59 PM, Aug. 13, 2012 |<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://www.thenewsstar.com/comments/article/20120814/OPINION01/208140317/Details-come" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" title="Go to comments"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">3 Comments</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 15pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><a href="x-apple-msg-load://CD90A337-91EA-4C2B-B98A-8E4D5957E52E/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #004276; text-decoration: none;">Email</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 15pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><a href="x-apple-msg-load://CD90A337-91EA-4C2B-B98A-8E4D5957E52E/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #004276; text-decoration: none;">Print</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 15pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt;"><span>·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><a href="x-apple-msg-load://CD90A337-91EA-4C2B-B98A-8E4D5957E52E/" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #004276; text-decoration: none;">Share</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">While no one is certain — because <b>the state Department of Education will not release its records</b> — it would appear to the most casual observer that <b>the state's voucher program was approved "DTC."</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">That's "<b>Details To Come."</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">And those details are so vague that even some members the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, who have rubber stamped approval of most every decision this year (after, we've learned, meeting in advance via phone to come to a consensus), may be starting to have questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">All we can say at this point is a hearty "Hallelujah." <u>It's about time to shine some light on this program</u>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the most recent turn of events, after it became apparent last week that voucher athletes would not be allowed to play sports and some dude in South Louisiana who calls himself a “prophet” managed to garner himself a financial bonanza in vouchers, there's <b>now the question of the Common Core Curriculum</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Students enrolled in Louisiana public schools this year will have a tougher curriculum</span></b><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> and have to <b>meet higher standards</b> to make the grades they need to advance to the next level. That's the Common Core, which is used in 46 states.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But students who have transferred to private and parochial schools through the </span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">new statewide voucher program</span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <u>won't </u>have to comply with the tougher standards.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The biggest differences from what's being taught now, said Nick Bolt, Department of Education deputy chief of staff, are "higher standards, higher expectations" for student performance. "The standards themselves are more rigorous. The Common Core will be better than what we have now."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><u><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But it's only in public schools because "private schools have not bought into the Common Core," Bolt said, and "we cannot require that private schools adopt the Common Core. They develop their own curriculum."<o:p></o:p></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This new, tougher curriculum is <b>practically guaranteed to plunge more students — and more schools — into "failing" status</b>. Any educator who understands the testing process will tell you that when the rules change, as they will with the Common Core Curriculum, the baseline year shows more failures with improvements in future years as teachers understand what is required for their students to pass.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">And that low scoring will then create opportunities for more vouchers and virtual online academies that don't face the same requirements of the Common Core.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If private and parochial schools are willing to accept taxpayer dollars, they should be held to the same standards</span></b><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> as public schools. We are, after all, in this to improve the overall quality of education in Louisiana, are we not?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><u><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Questions are being raised about the quality of teaching and the academic quality of what's being taught at some of the new schools that are to receive state funding </span></u><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">for the first time.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Even Penny Dastugue, president of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, says "we need a deeper discussion of the approval process." She said she will ask the board Tuesday to postpone action on final approval of the first-time schools seeking approval so they can receive voucher funds.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">"They're not just getting non-public approval status," which makes schools <b>eligible for state textbooks and transportation</b>, Dastugue said. "They're using it for a statewide voucher program" that brings thousands of dollars of state funding.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">There may be a constitutional question about this inequity related to the curriculum.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Article 8, Section 4 of the Louisiana Constitution</span></b><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> states, "Upon application by a private elementary, secondary, or proprietary school with a sustained curriculum or specialized course of study of quality <u>at least equal to that prescribed for similar public</u> <u>schools,</u> the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education shall approve the private school. A certificate issued by an approved private school shall carry the same privileges as one issued by a state public school."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Our best hope is that the elected and appointed BESE members will start asking questions — <u>in public</u> — about the voucher process.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It's obvious they too have been kept in the dark about the "DTC."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span lang="EN" style="color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The editorials in this column represent the opinions of The News-Star's editorial board, composed of President and Publisher David B. Petty, Executive Editor Kathy Spurlock and community representatives Lyle Miller, Tom Nicholson and Kelly Shambro<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">______________________________________________ <o:p></o:p></div><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border-bottom-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1pt; font-family: Helvetica; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 8pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; vertical-align: top;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">COMMENTS:<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border-bottom-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1pt; font-family: Helvetica; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 8pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; vertical-align: top;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/bradallenthompson" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Brad Allen Thompson</a><span class="fsm1"> · Top commenter</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; vertical-align: top;"><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The goal of Jindal's program was to promote Republican Party ideology, not to protect students' interests or to improve academic standards. That is clear. When you try to improve something, you invest yourself, your time and your money into that thing, and make changes that bring demonstrable results. The Republican plan is and has always been nothing but washing their hands of the public education system, and disintegrating it so that <u>private enterprise</u> could step in and take over, with the <u>benefit of subsidies from our public tax dollars.<br /></u>Meanwhile</span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, standards are higher at public schools with fewer resources and an out-flux of students</span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, while </span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">private schools don't have to follow</span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">the same academic standards,</span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">don't have to follow clearly nondiscriminatory admissions standards</span></b><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, and as is reported nationally, can "teach" just<span class="textexposedhide2">...</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; vertical-align: top;"><b></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; vertical-align: top;"><span class="textexposedlink2"><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">See more </span></b></span><span class="textexposedlink2"><i><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[Click on the link to the article above to read more.]</span></i></span><b><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div></div><form style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica;"></form><form style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica;"></form><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border-bottom-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1pt; font-family: Helvetica; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 8pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; vertical-align: top;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/griffinscott3" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Griffin Scott</a><span class="fsm1"> · </span><span class="followlink"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/comments.php?channel_url=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.ak.facebook.com%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter.php%3Fversion%3D9%23cb%3Df1bfae38d049e1c%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.thenewsstar.com%252Ff91980bf261fd1%26domain%3Dwww.thenewsstar.com%26relation%3Dparent.parent&href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenewsstar.com%2Farticle%2F20120814%2FOPINION01%2F208140317&locale=en_GB&numposts=10&sdk=joey&width=640" id="u7hmrn_44" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;">Subscribe</a></span><span class="fsm1">· Top commenter · <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Delta-Ouachita-Vo-Tech/115354085142734" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank"><span style="color: grey; text-decoration: none;">Delta Ouachita Vo-Tech</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; vertical-align: top;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Better late than never.<br />But BESE is hardly the only culprit, <span style="color: #c00000;">how bout the rubber stampers of the Louisiana Legislature?</span><br />Or the Vice Pres, oops, I mean the governor who <u>privatized Louisiana's public education system</u> in the first place?<br />Remember this past spring, just a few months ago when all we heard from supporters of this debacle of an education 'reform' plan, how bad teacher and their unions were?<br />Funny how now that it’s happened all those cheerleaders have faded away... you know, if I didn't know any better I'd say it’s almost like they're ashamed of this Republican accomplishment.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></div><form style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica;"></form><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; border-bottom-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1pt; font-family: Helvetica; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 8pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; vertical-align: top;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 8.5pt;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/bilbo.jenkins.7" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Bilbo Jenkins</a><span class="fsm1"> · Top commenter</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 0in; padding-right: 0in; padding-top: 0in; vertical-align: top;"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Agreed. Jindal performed a masterful dance, pirouetting from an open, honest discussion of vouchers and subsequent ramifications to a smokescreen of questioning teachers' benefits and their dedication to education. The chickens are coming home to roost, so to speak, with even the News Star having to reverse their prior lavish praise of "the boy wonder". Now, would all of you Jindal enthusiasts please admit you were flimflammed by this con artist and do something about it? If you can't own up to your misguided mistake of electing this man, then we are going to perpetually remain off course. As the old saying goes, "lead, follow, or get out of the way".<br /><br />Time for you to step aside; those of us who warned you about him will get to work and clean up your mess.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-49279225801201026572012-08-13T06:07:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.657-08:00Welcome Back, Louisiana Public School TeachersLouisiana teachers beginning the 2012-13 school year will face the greatest challenges in the history of our public education system. Teachers this year will be expected to do much more with much less and to do their jobs under the constant threat of humiliation and dismissal by a blatantly unfair evaluation system. This new system guarantees that at least 10% of the teachers who are rated by the new value-added system <i><u><b>must</b></u></i>be found to be “ineffective” and immediately be placed at the top of the list for layoffs and placed on track to dismissal and decertification. At the same time teachers will begin the process of preparing kids to take new high stakes tests based on the common core standards. (Our entire education system is now primarily about preparing kids for state tests) <br /><br />Wow! Given these challenges and threats, only public school teachers could be expected to greet their students this year with a smile and a firm determination to continue giving their students the best education possible.<br /><br />In my many years of dealing with public education I have never seen anything like the present threats to our teaching profession, nor have I ever seen the level of misinformation and scapegoating of teachers as I have seen this year. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5392952820096205874#editor/target=post;postID=4670157770217906841">This blog has pointed out the blatant inaccuracy and unfairness of Louisiana's school grading system</a> and its destructive effects on teacher morale. My analysis of all available data shows that Louisiana teachers today are educating students better than ever before, yet they have been labeled by our Governor as individuals who get paid for just breathing. This was a major insult to both teachers and their principals. When they pointed out the flaws of the so called reforms teachers' professional organizations/unions have been labeled as defenders of the status quo. <br /><br />If you want to know the facts about the high level of performance of our teachers nationwide, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/education-and-the-income-gap-darling-hammond/2012/04/26/gIQAHn0LkT_blog.html">read this linked article by education professor Linda Darling-Hammond.</a> In this article Hammond points out that our public school students in schools that are not affected by poverty <i><b>outperform even the highest performing school system in the world! </b></i>My analysis all 1400 Louisiana public schools also demonstrates that the only significant causes of low achievement in our schools are the debilitating effects of poverty related factors. It is wrong and counterproductive to blame teachers for this condition. Yet none of Louisiana's efforts at reform are focused on the real problems and almost all reforms result in the threatening and punishing of teachers and principals. <i><b>But</b></i><b> the icing on the cake is Governor Jindal giving parents taxpayer funded “scholarships” to transfer their children to private schools that have inadequate facilities, teachers and a substandard curriculum.</b><br /><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It's as though Louisiana were to declare war on lung cancer and our war strategy would include the firing of a certain percentage of doctors while ignoring smoking, obesity and other environmental factors. What do you think would be the effect on lung cancer if we rated oncologists according to patient mortality and fired the bottom 10% and replaced them with “bright young” college graduates with 6 weeks of “intensive summer training” in curing cancer? By the way, those new “doctors” would only work as doctors for two years, then many of them would be <i><b>promoted to run the hospitals. </b></i>That's like what we are doing when we replace experienced teachers with TFA corps members and then promote some of them to run the State Department of Education!</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />Also this year, Louisiana will begin the process of creating a whole new type of charter school (type 1-B) that will be allowed to flood the airways, billboards and newspapers using part of their MFP dollars with misleading ads in an effort to lure the best students away from public schools. (<a href="http://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/12/a-teacher-in-a-charter-school/">Please read this commentary by a charter school teacher).</a> And this year for the first time, charter schools in Louisiana will be allowed to <i><b>staff entire schools without hiring a single certified teacher.</b></i><i></i><i><b>What a reform! Shame on those who would defend the status quo!</b></i></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />So welcome back public school teachers of Louisiana! You have my sincere admiration for the miracles you will accomplish this year despite the challenges you face. All I ask is that all of you resolve to use a small part of your boundless energy to fight back against these horrible attacks on your profession. I and many other old retired teachers promise to stand and fight with you!</div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-39968400866471554262012-08-07T10:36:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.687-08:00Voucher and Charter AbusesThe Baton Rouge Advocate <a href="http://theadvocate.com/news/3517739-123/transfer-and-repeat">carrie</a>d a story that stumbled upon a common practice of both voucher and charter schools called creaming. This story is about a child who received a voucher to attend a religious school in Ascension Parish. Upon attempting to enroll her child in the school, the parent found out that the school required an entrance interview and the taking of an enrollment test. Following the testing, the parent was notified by the school that her child would be required to repeat the 4th grade in order to be accepted by the school. The student had passed the 4th grade LEAP which normally is the main criteria for promotion to the 5th grade, yet the voucher school would not honor the previous placement of the student. As a result the parent will probably choose not to enroll her child in the voucher school. <br /><br />These practices (the entrance interview and grade repeat requirements) allow a school to skim only the most "acceptable" students without officially refusing entry to some students they don't want. Many charter schools "manage" their enrollment in this manner to insure high performance ratings. Real public schools must accept all students no matter what it does to their performance scores.<br /><br /><a href="http://theadvocate.com/home/3559422-125/crestworth-school-fails-fire-inspection">Another story in the same issue</a> explains how Crestworth Middle school will now be taken over by the state from its charter manager partly because of fire code violations. But it also turns out that the charter board has not been paying its bills and is probably in financial trouble. So even though the media has buried the real story, all but one of the charter takeover schools in the Baton Rouge area have now been taken back from their charter operators. And the one still in the hands of its charter operator is a Turkish operated school still under investigation for possible violations of policy and/or law. Instead of reporting on the complete disaster of the Baton Rouge takeovers, The Advocate a couple of months ago announced that the State Department had created a <strong><em>new "achievement zone"</em></strong> to take over failing Baton Rouge schools. <strong><em>That article forgot to mention that all but one of the schools being taken over were really failed Recovery District schools</em></strong>.<br /><br />You couldn't make this stuff up! The voucher and charter schools are a huge waste of our taxpayer dollars, yet the new media in Baton Rouge continues to assist the State Department of Education in trying to dupe the public. This one story by reporter Charles Lussier is the first one by the Advocate that begins to tell the public truth about how deceptive the Recovery District has been in dealing with the charter school disasters.<br /><br />Take a look at the <a href="http://dianeravitch.net/">latest posts by Diane Ravitch</a> just today that demonstrate how dangerous these vouchers and charters can be to our public school systems and how they shortchange our students. To add insult to injury, Louisiana is becoming a laughing stock across the country for Jindal's reform fiascoes.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-59520430606882507982012-08-05T09:48:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.717-08:00Wall Street VulturesA member of the Coalition for Louisiana Public Education sent me this link to a <a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/02/usa-education-investment-idINL2E8J15FR20120802">Reuters news story dated Aug.2</a> about a recent business conference where the <i><b>opportunities</b></i>for school privatization schemes were discussed with interested business persons. It seems that many of the Wall Street guys see K-12 education as a major source of big profits. <i><b>Big profits? </b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How can that be at this time of shrinking school budgets and increased mandated costs to local school systems? </span></span> <br /><br />Here's the gist of it. The wall street guys have figured out that the major cost of providing K-12 education is in personnel. You know the cost of salaries and benefits for teachers, administrators, central office personnel, and even custodial workers. Also because of a major pension and health insurance cost escalation (much of it caused by the shenanigans of those same Wall Street guys) local school systems and states are looking for alternatives to the high cost of education personnel. Some entrepreneurs are proposing to replace education personnel with various forms of computerized instruction. Another big factor working in the profiteers favor is the current panic about the supposedly poor performance of our public education system compared to other industrialized countries. (<a href="http://dianeravitch.net/2012/06/27/the-most-brilliant-scholar-in-the-u-s/">See Diane Ravitch's analysis of this bogus issue</a>) Some politicians are convinced that the way for America to boost education performance is to turn over large segments of the education process to private enterprise.<br /><br /><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Louisiana of all states is probably the most ripe for the picking by these opportunists. Governor Jindal has fixed it so that almost any huckster with a “</span></span><i><b>great new educational product”</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">is allowed to raid the MFP funding for public schools and make a profit with almost no accountability to the taxpayers. I don't know of any other state that has opened up the public treasury to more "no bid" deals for grabbing education tax dollars than Louisiana. </span></span></div><br /><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Some have proposed that the free market system in the long run will insure that taxpayers will get the best results with education dollars spent on privatization. You know the famous Jindal quote: “Parents are the best accountability system.” That's not at all guaranteed. Let me give you one example from a related area. A few days ago I saw an ad on television for the University of P____, promising young people a great career if they would just pick up the phone and make a call for information. So instead of making the call, I decided to google a few facts about the University of P____. I found out that this </span></span><i><b>for-profit</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">company has an enrollment of over 300,000 students, many of them receiving instruction on line instead of in a building where you have to pay rent, utilities, custodians etc. Also since there is no guarantee of maximum class size, we have no way of knowing how much contact students have with instructors. You can be sure that this for profit company is </span></span><i><b>minimizing</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">their instructional personnel costs. According to the University web site, the tuition is over $11,000. I couldn't tell if that was for a semester or a year of instruction. I wondered how successful this “University” has been in preparing students for valuable careers as is claimed in the ad so I googled graduation rates and found that this </span></span><i><b>school has only a 2% four year graduation rate!</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Then I googled student reviews of the school and got a bunch of remarkably negative reviews. Mostly the reviews were by young adults who claimed that they ended up deeply in debt with college loans and could find no one willing to hire them with their U of P degree. I wondered how so many young people could be fooled into signing up for this obviously bogus education? Then I googled entrance requirements and found out that all you need to get into this school is a GED. So part of the problem is that these online education sellers “take” anyone who is willing to get a government guaranteed loan and worry very little about whether or not the student gets something for his/her money. This is obviously an </span></span><i><b>extremely successful company as measured by profit</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span><i><b>but a total ripoff of the students and taxpayers!</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Do a little googling of your own and you will find dozens of other high profit, low standard, low performance online schools just like the U of P. The problem is that now that we are </span></span><i><b>allowing corporate America to buy many of our politicians</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">there is very little chance of government oversight. </span></span></div><br /><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So how does this relate to K-12 in Louisiana? Plenty! Just look at the multitude of ads for K-12 virtual school and Connections Academy where they are trying to lure students away from public schools into their online schools. Soon our MFP will pay the tuition for every kid who gets lured to these sites (Next year there will be no limit to how many students can enroll using the course choice option, and our guidance counselors are prohibited by the new law from discouraging enrollment in such off campus courses). In Colorado the media has uncovered the fact that many of these online students drop out after the online school gets the bulk of the state funding and the students often go back to the public school that has had its funds raided. Those that actually stay in the online schools are performing significantly lower than similar students who go to a real school. </span></span><br /><br /><i><b>Massive advertising campaigns work!</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Look at all the legislators and BESE members Jindal and his corporate buddies were able to get elected to office with slick advertising campaigns. Louisiana taxpayers and parents are being fleeced at an accelerating rate. Louisiana as poor as it is, and with all its tax giveaways to big business, is now the proving ground for raiding public education funds to make rich people even richer while our kids get less and less.</span></span></div><br /><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: red;"><strong>Do you want to do your part to stop this attack on public education in Louisiana? If so, you can join my Defenders of Public Education. I believe that dedicated educators can do much to stop this destructive privatization effort. Just last week we sent emails thanking the two BESE members who had the moral fortitude to oppose what I called the Whitewashing of accountability for voucher schools. We know however that our best hope of success is with the legislature. There are dedicated public educators who live in every legislative district in this state. If educators will just use their political influence with their own legislators, I believe we can accomplish much. Have you really had a face to face talk with your two legislators about the major problems with Acts 1 and 2 of the 2012 legislative session? Our initiative for the next month or two will be to have those face to face talks with our legislators. Please send me your home address or at least your zip code and favored email address to <a href="mailto:louisianaeducator@gmail.com">louisianaeducator@gmail.com</a> so I can place you in the data base according to your legislative districts and send you custom emails as future legislative decisions are being considered.</strong></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-15815575400258191842012-08-01T03:44:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.745-08:00Possible Theme SongLet's just lighten up today by listening to a Utube production by a teacher who just had to put his woes into a song. <span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5wkJxTwXnk" target="_blank"><span style="color: #6699cc; font-size: small;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5wkJxTwXnk</span></a><span style="font-size: small;">.</span> </span> <span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">I am thinking of designating this song as the theme song for this blog. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Let me know if it could be the Louisiana Educator theme song. </span></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4938951082350561539.post-35165290755571691072012-07-31T04:15:00.000-07:002012-11-19T05:53:56.773-08:00Creating More Failing SchoolsThe La State Dept. of Education has been releasing its list of schools rated as failing based on school performance scores for the past school year. See the <a href="http://theadvocate.com/news/3485199-123/unacceptable-schools-list-swells-from">Advocate story</a>. The list of failing schools has increased over last year solely because the state has raised the passing score from 65 to 75. Purely arbitrary! No reason given except that BESE wanted to raise the bar. Why not simply decree that all students must score above average or their school would be rated as failing?<br /><br />Jindal claims to be trying to attract industry and jobs to Louisiana. What will this arbitrary grading system for our public schools do to the attractiveness of our state? These people on BESE are not experts in determining the success of a school (and neither are the TFA'ers and other non-educators occupying our Department of Education).<br /><br />What will this increased threat to the survival of public schools accomplish?? In my opinion it will encourage more teaching to the the test, outright cheating, (see Campbell's law) and much less real education.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511432864734182961noreply@blogger.com0