Adoption etiquette: a primer

This op-ed by NEIFPE member Anne Duff appeared in the July 27, 2024 edition of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.** Read the entire article here.

Adoption etiquette: a primer
by Anne Duff

“Ohh…you’ll like this one a lot better.” Someone uttered these words to my husband and me when they found out I was pregnant.

We already had adopted a daughter from China and were in the process of adopting another daughter from the same country. We chalked it up to ignorance and didn’t say anything. But as we raised our three children – our two daughters who were born in China and our biological son – we heard hurtful, often unintentional, comments from family, friends, and passersby.

There is an adoption etiquette that adoptive families all know, but most people whose lives have not been touched by the miracle of adoption don’t grasp the insensitivity in their comments.

• “Are they sisters?” is a question I hear often about our two girls. Of course they are sisters. They have the same mom and dad – my husband and me. The appropriate question to ask is “Are they biological sisters?” And, no, they are not. And they may look alike to you (another comment), but they look nothing alike to us, and they are completely different in almost every way. With Chinese adoptions, it is rare to adopt a sibling group. Most adoptions are one girl, either special needs or non-special needs.

• “So, he’s yours (or he’s ‘real’)?” They’re all “real” and they’re all mine. I have corrected people on this one because I’ve heard it so frequently that I find the need to educate people about adoption. The appropriate question is, “So, he’s biological and the girls are adopted?”

• “And you are…?” I’ve been asked. I’m their mother. International adoption has been around long enough that it is OK to assume I’m their mother. I’d rather hear, “And you’re her mother?” than to be asked otherwise and given a strange look when I confirm that I am indeed their mother. And they’re not foreign exchange students, either. And, no, you don’t hear an accent.

• “What’s their nationality?” Both of my daughters are U.S. passport-holding, full-fledged Americans. Naturalized citizenship is automatic with foreign adoption. The best question I received regarding their birth was, “What’s their heritage?” But I won’t be offended if you ask me what country they are from.

• “It’s a miracle that you got pregnant!” I will always believe that our two girls from China are our miracles. The unconditional love that is instantaneous when these girls were placed in our arms for the first time is a complete miracle. I look at them every day and don’t see how I could love them more than I do. They are my own; they are my miracles.

Most adoptive families love to talk about their children’s adoptions. It’s a journey that is both stressful and amazing. Ask questions about the process, but please be sensitive to the terms you use.

There have also been comments about adoption that made me chuckle. I know my girls are pro-adoption.

When my kids were little and all three played together, their brother would tease and torment the girls. After enough taunting by their brother, my daughters would come to me and say, “I’m definitely adopting.”

Anne Duff is a retired teacher and guidance counselor, a community volunteer, and an at-large member of the Board of School Trustees for FWCS.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is essential; one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/ [NOTE: NEIFPE has no financial ties to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]

Kids' complexities require added funding

This op-ed by NEIFPE member Anne Duff appeared in the February 28, 2023 edition of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.** Read the entire article here.

Kids' complexities require added funding

by Anne Duff

As a school board member in a district with high poverty and a high free and reduced lunch rate, I've witnessed some of the conditions in which our children live and some of the baggage they bring with them to school...

Those of us with students such as ours understand the importance of complexity. Complexity funding was created to provide dollars to educate students from low-income homes who are at risk.

We've seen how poverty affects students and know that extra resources are needed to educate them. This funding covers counseling, health services, alternative education, classroom assistants, English-language learning, tutoring programs, pull-out programs - essentials for our most needy...

The children we provide these services to have experienced trauma...

Educators and anyone else who cares about the well-being of children know this trauma affects every ounce of a child's education. Until a child's basic needs are met, until a child learns how to regulate their emotions and behavior, it is not easy for them to focus on math and science and reading...

Anne Duff of Fort Wayne, a member of the Fort Wayne Community Schools board, wrote this on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Fort Wayne.

Click here to read the entire article.

Join us. Be sure to attend An Education Update with Jennifer McCormick and Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer in the Auditorium at the downtown Allen County Library at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is important, and one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/ [NOTE: NEIFPE has no financial ties to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]

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In Case You Missed It – Aug 15, 2022

Here are links to last week's^† articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column to be informed when our blog posts are published.

THIS WEEK

This week we have news from Fort Wayne Community schools and other local school systems. Diane Ravitch reports on some national issues.

Regular readers should pay particular attention to the last article about Facebook tracking codes, even if you don't use Facebook.

FWCS BEGINS THE 2022-2023 SCHOOL YEAR

Take Me Back to the Classroom...

Anne Duff is the current President of the Fort Wayne Community School Board and a member of NEIFPE.

From Anne Duff for Education

...Sometimes working with young people can be a thankless job. While your students really do appreciate what you do, they may not always let you know – no thank you, no hug, no sign that you made a difference. But sometimes it creeps up on them…it took me nearly 40 years to realize that Mrs. Shearer was an awesome teacher. So when your students are out in the world as adults, something may trigger a memory for them. Then they just may look you up on Facebook and send you that message that you really did change their life.

I know my story is about a teacher and a student, but all of you can have an impact on a child – or even one of your co-workers. Though you may never hear it, you have given your students strength. You have given them memories; you have shown them love. As you begin this year, remember that you are creating memories for your students that they may reflect on later in life. Continue to love and inspire them! Continue to make a difference every day.

FWCS staff kicks off new year

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Speakers included Superintendent Mark Daniel, board President Anne Duff and John Urbahns, president and CEO of Greater Fort Wayne Inc. They offered motivational messages from home plate to the roughly 4,000 employees, who will welcome almost 30,000 students back to school Wednesday.

"We get to wake up and sell Fort Wayne and Allen County, trying to create jobs, trying to bring investment to our community," Urbahns said of his organization. "But without people like you, training our kids, caring for them every day, it would not be an easy task."

Daniel further emphasized FWCS' role in the city.

"Hopefully, you understand how important we are as educators - public schools, pre-K through 12th grade," the superintendent said. "We're the building blocks for future economic growth."

Duff, a retired educator and guidance counselor, acknowledged that working in education can be a thankless job.

She shared personal stories to illustrate the effect school employees can have on students.

"When you go back to school this year, remember you do make a difference," Duff said.

Fort Wayne Community Schools leader prepares for 'pivotal' year

Local schools are going back to (the new) normal this year. COVID is not being ignored, but teachers and administrators have learned how to deal with widespread contagions.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Schools across Allen County will begin the academic year this week in a way they haven’t since 2019 – with regular operations in place.

Boards for districts including East Allen County Schools and Southwest Allen County Schools have approved plans confirming as much. The COVID-19 policies and procedures that affected the last two years are largely gone, including mask mandates and social distancing.

“It’s not as much a focus on COVID,” EACS Superintendent Marilyn Hissong said while summarizing changes to the Return to School Plan for school board members last month.

Rather, she continued, the protocols are good to fight any disease, such as the flu: “You know, taking the normal precautions, cleaning and disinfecting.”

Mark Daniel of Fort Wayne Community Schools told his school board in July that he looks forward to being “as much back to normal as possible” and seeing the gains students will be able to attain.

ANNEXATION FOR HUNTERTOWN?

NACS board unclear on Huntertown annexation

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Huntertown has asked Northwest Allen County Schools to voluntarily annex part of its property into the town, but board members Monday night said they aren't clear about the impacts and tabled it.

NACS' new superintendent, Wayne Barker, said school officials were told the town needs to have a continuous property line in order to annex new residential development. But to achieve that, he said, the district would need to allow the property of Carroll Middle and Eel River Elementary schools to become part of Huntertown.

Barker said he did not know the size of the land to be annexed, or which upcoming or existing developments were seeking annexation. A representative from Huntertown approached school officials with a proposal it wants the board to pass. But those officials could not attend Monday's meeting to explain it because of a schedule conflict.

The annexation of residential development would bring additional tax money into Huntertown. The annexation of the schools' land and buildings would not, as the properties are tax exempt.

OKLAHOMA PUNISHES SCHOOLS FOR TALKING ABOUT RACISM

Oklahoma Downgrades Two Districts for Making Whites Feel “Uncomfortable”

From Diane Ravitch

Tulsa is a majority-minority district, but it made the mistake of teaching something other than lily-white stories about America., where racism might have long ago existed. Teaching about racism today is intolerable.

Representatives for the Tulsa and Mustang school districts did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday. In a statement to the Oklahoman, Tulsa Public Schools denied that the training stated that people of a certain race were inherently racist, saying it would “never support such a training,” but the system defended the need for implicit bias training.

“In Tulsa, we are teaching our children an accurate — and at times painful, difficult, and uncomfortable — history about our shared human experience,” the district told the newspaper. “We also teach in a beautifully diverse community and need our team to work together to be prepared to do that well.”

FLORIDA'S GOV. DESANTIS DRIVING TEACHERS AWAY

Florida: Is DeSantis Purposefully Driving Teachers Away?

From Diane Ravitch

Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida, has pushed policies that are driving teachers out of their profession. He knows exactly what he is doing. He favors charter schools and voucher schools, where teachers have no job security, no pensions.

Teachers are leaving public schools. They are quitting. DeSantis is getting what he wants.

BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2022 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — The Palm Beach County School District appears to be in desperate need of teachers as the new school year gets underway. The first day of school for students is August 10th. Several teachers tell BocaNewsNow.com that they — and their colleagues — are leaving their long-held positions due to what they call the politicization of teaching by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

FACEBOOK TRACKING CODES EMBEDDED IN THEIR LINKS

Facebook has started to encrypt links to counter privacy-improving URL Stripping

This article claims that Facebook has changed its link protocol so that when you click on a link it will track you and the browser you're using will not be able to strip the tracking code from the link. According to our research, this has not yet happened.

Since many of our readers avoid Facebook for this very reason (internet tracking), we at NEIFPE have always stripped the tracking code on articles that we've posted on these In Case You Missed It posts. When, and if, Facebook changes its protocol for links we will continue to make sure the links we provide do not have the Facebook tracking codes.

From ghacks.net

Facebook has started to use a different URL scheme for site links to combat URL stripping technologies that browsers such as Firefox or Brave use to improve privacy and prevent user tracking.

Some sites, including Facebook, add parameters to the web address for tracking purposes. These parameters have no functionality that is relevant to the user, but sites rely on them to track users across pages and properties...

There is no option currently to prevent Facebook's tracking of users via links. Users could avoid Facebook, but that may not be possible all the time. URL tracking does not help much if other tracking means, e.g., through cookies or site data, are not available. While Facebook gets some information from URL-based tracking, it can't link it if no persistent data is available.

Users who don't sign into Facebook and clear cookies and site data regularly, may avoid most of the company's tracking.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is important, and one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/ [NOTE: NEIFPE has no financial ties to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]

^†Note: NEIFPE's In Case You Missed It is posted weekly except on holiday weekends or as otherwise noted.

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An issue of great public interest

NEIFPE member Anne Duff discusses the privatization of Public Education in this op-ed for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

An issue of great public interest

School privatization 'madness' continues to deplete one of our communities' greatest assets

Growing up in a neighborhood where all the school-aged children walked to the nearby elementary for school every day is one of my favorite memories.

Going to school was my sanctuary. School was the place I could go where I knew adults would protect me, comfort me and even discipline me. My teachers also found in me qualities I didn't know I had – my strengths and my hidden talents they knew I could develop. My teachers made a difference in my life and became my inspiration to do the same for others. Thus, I became a teacher and then a guidance counselor because I had a passion for education and wanted to make a difference in the lives of young people, just as my teachers had done for me.

Much has changed in recent years, and I am outraged and fearful about the future of public education.

After making the decision to stay home to raise my three children, I never lost my love for my career and stayed connected to my teacher friends by volunteering and remaining in touch with what was happening in education. The more I continued to be involved in public education, the more I became bothered by the idea of the privatization of public schools. My husband read newspaper articles about education and asked my opinion as an educator. There was one recurring theme I noticed, and that was the privatization of public education.

During this stay-at-home-mom time in my life, another mom and I saw that Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education was screening two films at the Cinema Center, “Waiting for Superman” one Sunday and “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman” the following Sunday. After attending the film series, we came away with an overwhelming feeling of helplessness as we became acutely aware that “education privateers” were profiting off our children.

Shortly thereafter, my friend and I attended the Omnibus Lecture Series featuring education activist Diane Ravitch. She reiterated what we had already learned: Public education is headed for privatization.

I wondered what could I do to make sure this didn't happen. How could I spread the word to others to let them know what could happen to our public schools? We decided to show “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman” to our PTA. We invited two members of NEIFPE to help us facilitate the discussion afterward.

Finally, I knew that my new calling was to fight and advocate for public education.

For the past six years, I have written letters to our legislators to express my concern about their expansion of the voucher/Choice Scholarship programs. I asked our legislators to put a pause on giving tax dollars to private schools so they can evaluate the benefits of these programs as well as require both financial and instructional oversight.

With voucher expansion, our public schools lose funding. Teacher pay has remained stagnant. Children have bounced back and forth between parochial and public schools.

What happened to the stability of the quality public education system that I grew up with? What makes our legislators believe private schools can educate better when clearly public schools, educating 90 percent of our young people, are still the primary choice for families?

I am horrified that this same privatization scheme is happening at the federal level with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Rep. Jim Banks, R-3rd. House Resolution 5199, sponsored by Banks, once again takes federal dollars from public schools to educate children at parochial and private schools.

When will this madness stop? When will our legislators, both state and federal, stop depleting funding for our public schools, the one chance where children have an equal playing field to build a better future? It is time to bring back fully funded public schools so children will get that one chance, teachers will be respected and well paid, and schools will again be the hearts of our communities.

Please join me in writing your legislators and members of the State Board of Education. Let them know our public schools matter!

Anne Duff is a member of Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education and the Fort Wayne Community Schools Board of Trustees.

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Parents must keep up pressure for public schools

NEIFPE member Anne Duff wrote this letter to the editor. In it she expresses her opinion on public school reform and school choice.

Parents must keep up pressure for public schools

Published: March 16, 2018

As a parent, former teacher and guidance counselor, and current school board member, I was pleased to see so many parents engaged and involved in the recent reinstatement of honors classes in Fort Wayne Community Schools.

While we all may view this as a victory, we must remain vigilant because the attack on public education continues in Indiana.

We have seen public dollars educating more children under the guise of “school choice.” We have seen an attack on teachers by stripping them of their unions, evaluating them with students' test scores and keeping their incomes stagnant for an incomprehensible amount of time.

We have been comparing apples to oranges as the legislature and State Board of Education constantly change how we grade schools and which high-stakes tests we will use to do this.

We have seen poorly performing charter schools be forgiven their debts while many public schools are struggling to sustain financial stability due to budget cuts and tax caps.

Parents have seen the strength a committed, determined group of parents can have. They've seen the power of persuasion work in their favor.

I commend them for their efforts, but I encourage them to keep the momentum going by becoming more informed and more active.

Our public schools should be the pride of our communities and should continue to provide a strong, equal education to all students. It's time to start paying attention. It's time to put an end to the attack on public education.

Parents, you can do this! Continue your fight – not just for your children, but for all children so that they, too, can have equal access to a great public education.

Anne Duff

Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education

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Testimony For Teacher Shortage Hearing

A legislative committee met yesterday in Indianapolis to consider Indiana's looming teacher shortage. The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports that "several education experts spoke" to the committee. Unfortunately, the marathon of "several education experts" took about 5 hours for their part of the meeting. Those teachers and supporters of public education who were waiting for "public input" were forced to wait until late into the evening. By that time many of the legislators had left. At the end of the meeting only six of the sixteen legislators were listening to the public.

Several NEIFPE members spent hours in Indianapolis waiting for their turn to speak before finally giving up and returning home. Phyllis commented,

What happened at that hearing today was yet another abuse of power with regard to public education. This is looking like a diversionary tactic to go ahead and do whatever they've intended to do all along. Even though I expected to have to endure at least an hour or two of "expert" testimony, I am appalled that the expert testimony (many from out of state shills) lasted for over 5 hours.

Please remember this the next time you vote.

Below are the written testimonies of our NEIFPE members. A comment from State Superintendent Glenda Ritz is also included.

Testimony by Phyllis Bush

Public education is so important; that is why I keep driving to Indianapolis to testify about various and sundry education issues. Sometimes it seems futile, but I won't give up. If I don't speak out when I see the consequences of misguided educational policies that are so fundamentally wrong, then I am complicit in the damage done to public education. Having said that, I will continue to speak out against what seems to be a legislatively orchestrated attempt to destroy public education. I’m tenacious by nature, so I’m in to stay. I’m in until Public Education is made whole.

Given the current teacher scapegoat climate both in Indiana and in the nation, it doesn't take rocket science to figure out why there is a teacher shortage. When our legislators and policy makers continuously demean and disrespect teachers, is it any wonder that teachers are leaving the profession faster than rats leave a sinking ship? Is it any wonder that young teachers would not want to stay in a profession where there is little chance for a salary increase based on spurious and often inaccurate data? Is it any wonder that good teachers don’t want to continue spending a great share of their time preparing kids for tests and teaching to the test? Is it any wonder that they don’t want to carry out state mandates which they know are instructionally inappropriate?

If we are to look for the causes of this supposed teacher shortage, the finger should point directly at the feet of government officials in this state and across the nation who have scapegoated, demeaned, and devalued the teaching profession.

When people are belittled or told that they are worthless or inadequate, when the expectations are inappropriate and punitive, when the opportunities for expressing views are stifled, there is a toxic mixture of factors which border on abuse.

How many new teachers will be drawn to a profession where there is no respect, where there are few rights, and where they are viewed with the same lack of respect as minimum wage workers are?

Maybe this committee is asking the wrong questions.

Is there really a shortage of teachers or is it that teachers have fled the profession because of untenable working conditions?

Superintendent Glenda Ritz and her Blue Ribbon Commission have made a list of suggestions which target teacher retention and recruitment, and their list sounds much like what teachers have been asking for since the so-called reforms of Mitch Daniels and Tony Bennett. Our organization, the Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education, is ready and willing to help by offering concrete suggestions.

Rather than discussing whether or not there is a teaching shortage, perhaps this committee needs to be discussing what is our legislature planning to do to repair the damage that has been done before it is too late?

Phyllis Bush

Testimony by Anne Duff

Testimony for Teacher Shortage Hearing

Good afternoon. My name is Anne Duff, and I have three children who attend our public schools. I am here today to speak to you, Senator Kruse and Representative Behning, to let you know how the causes for this teacher shortage affect my children and many other children in our public schools.

I know both of you believe in “choice” in one’s education, and you need to know we have chosen public education for our children. We want our children to be exposed to all kinds of children and cultures and there is no better place for that than a public school. Where else can my children see Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists work peacefully together? My children have seen those who live in poverty and in wealth, those from single parent homes, homes with 2 moms, those in abusive homes and those in nurturing homes. My children have been exposed to probably more than they will encounter in the “real world” and this was by design. We love our public schools, but you have made us feel like public schools is a “bad” choice due to your legislation that ultimately sets public schools up for failure.

How do this shortage and the causes of it affect my children? There are several ways. First, with a teacher shortage come long term subs who, frankly, did not choose teaching as their profession and should not be in the classroom. My daughter had a long term sub in her Advanced Algebra class. He told them he was an “engineer” so they thought that would be a good thing. By the end of the semester, we found out that he was a music engineer, and they made it to Chapter 2. My husband had to tutor my daughter so she would be ready for pre-calculus because this substitute fell way behind. Most students aren’t as fortunate and are probably struggling now in pre-calculus.

This overuse of testing has got to stop. I am tired of teachers having to teach to a grade-level test for fear of low test scores costing them their jobs. I already know how my children perform. I know they are good students, and I don’t need a test to tell me they are at grade level. Drilling them to death doesn’t do a lot for them except to make them hate the tests and ultimately hate school. The way you use these tests are not what they were meant for – grading our schools, evaluating our teachers. My children experience the stress these inappropriate uses have caused. This is not a good education…text anxiety, pressure to do well and punishment when you don’t. You are wasting my children’s time with too much testing. Their learning could be enriched with a number of other innovative opportunities instead of pointless memorization and punitive measures all for a test.

Your decision to reduce teachers’ collective bargaining to salary, insurance, and benefits has affected my children. Do you realize that our former teacher contract had a maximum number of students a teacher could have in a classroom? Now my children see classes with numbers in the 40s. Because this no longer can be negotiated and because the money has been dwindling from public schools, my choice leaves my children with classrooms with more than twice the recommended number of students per teacher. I didn’t ask for this for my children and neither did our teachers.

In addition, recess time is limited so kids barely can eat and hardly play. Teachers need a break and so do our kids, but we focus on tests. Teacher morale is low and my kids sense this. I am worried of the quality of teachers my children will get because you have watered down the requirements for becoming a teacher and demean the ones who remain by taking away their rights and basing their raises on a test my child must pass. You no longer value our teachers. They are teaching to the hope of the nation, our future, our next generation of leaders…you need to put more value on that – I want my children to have teachers who want to learn more about what they teach and how to teach it, yet there is no longer value for education, no incentive for a Master’s degree or value for years of experience in the profession.
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These things need to change. The current conditions of the classroom and the teaching profession need to change. Please don’t put a Band-Aid fix on this by thinking a sign on bonus to a new teacher will help with the shortage. Fix the things that have made our current teachers quit and young adults seek professions other than teaching. I’m tired of worrying about the quality of teachers, the ridiculous demands from these tests, and whether or not my school will get enough funding to lower the student-teacher ratio. Please undo the harm you have done. Make our choice for our children the best choice as it once was. My kids deserve better. So does our community and the future of this state.

Anne Duff

Testimony by Donna Roof

Teacher Shortage Comment by NEIFPE Member Donna Roof

A few years ago when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I thought that fighting for my life would be the hardest battle I would ever face. Little did I know then what awaited my teaching profession. As a career teacher, I never ever in my wildest imagination dreamed I would be battling to save my profession.

People ask me what teaching is like these days, so I tell them what I know: There are times these days that being a teacher is more challenging, more stressful, more worrisome, more physically and emotionally draining, more frustrating than my being a cancer patient ever was.

So now we have a teacher shortage here in our state and across the nation. In as much as my lump didn’t just magically appear one day, neither did this teacher shortage. It has been insidiously growing for years, mostly undetected. However, ever since the Daniels/Bennett tenure, legislators, teachers, administrators, parents, grandparents, and concerned citizens who support public education have been speaking out against the many ill-advised, inappropriate, and punitive educational legislative policies. Many of them have come before you numerous times to speak or have emailed you and warned you of the bad educational policies and their deleterious effects on teachers, students, schools, and districts.


My list of reasons for why there is a teacher shortage would be similar to those of others addressing you today: Race to the Top, lack of respect for public school teachers, siphoning off of public school funds for vouchers, charters, developmentally inappropriate curriculum, loss of recess time, financial costs of testing, loss of instructional time for test prep, harmful consequences for teachers, students, and schools, removal of collective bargaining, teacher evaluations tied to student scores, merit pay, but you already know all the reasons.

With my cancer diagnosis I worked closely with my team of doctors, my cancer experts. I always felt as though my input mattered. Together we made sound decisions. Yet teachers who support public education are left out of the decision-making process when it comes to public education. Those educational experts who support public education and are valued by teachers are dismissed by those making legislation in favor of individuals with business savvy and big bucks but no expertise—no experience—in the classroom.

If you really want answers to why there is a teacher shortage, plan one of your committee meetings on a Saturday when teachers from across the state can be here to speak in person. Better yet, go to a school and be a teacher for at least a week.

Witness what your legislation has done. This teacher shortage is a Frankenstein of your own creation.

Although I am now nine years out from my breast cancer diagnosis, I will continue to raise awareness of it in hopes that more lives can be saved like mine was. If I don’t, the cancer wins. Additionally, I will continue to speak up, speak out, and speak truth about public education because it’s the right thing to do. For the students.

Thank you,

Donna Roof

From Glenda Ritz:

"Today, I testified in front of the Indiana General Assembly’s Interim Study Committee on Education to bring them up to speed on the great work that is being done by the Blue Ribbon Commission for the Recruitment and Retention of Excellent Educators.

"The Blue Ribbon Commission is continuing to develop a legislative agenda in addition to other strategies in the hope of bringing about long-term systematic change.

"The Commission has done great work – in fact, the members have been focused on strategies to make sure that we are able to meet the demand of what is needed in our classrooms.

"The goal of this work is to be proactive. We know we’ve always had shortage areas in our schools; however we are now starting to see a dip in the number of those entering the field of education. I am committed to ensuring that, as a state, we are headed in a good direction." -- Superintendent Ritz

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Visiting Our Public Schools

Two members of NEIFPE participated in Fort Wayne Community School's Principal for a Day activity.


Phyllis Bush, representing NEIFPE, visited Nebraska Elementary School. Here is the note she wrote to the Nebraska school principal, Jayson Balsley, after her visit.

Dear Mr. Balsley,

Thank you so much for hosting my visit to Nebraska School today. While I was prepared to see a typical "dog and pony show" that most schools show visitors, I was pleased to see the real operations of your school. While there are clear and high expectations throughout the building, the care and concern that the staff and students show one another is apparent.

I really enjoyed spending the day at Nebraska school. Thank you so much for being so warm and welcoming, and more importantly, thank you so much for all that you and your staff are doing for children. You are principal and an educator of whom FWCS can be justly proud. You and the Nebraska staff rock.

Thanks again,
Phyllis Bush

NEIFPE member Anne Duff, representing Fort Wayne Community Schools Board of School Trustees, visited Ward Education center and the Allen County Juvenile Center. She blogged about her experience in Principal For a Day.

An excerpt...

I went to Allen County Juvenile Center or “ACJC.” At the end of the day, Mr. Pruitt sent me an email and wrote, “I hope the tour of ACJC was what you were expecting.” Well, I guess it wasn’t. I wasn’t expecting to see young people wearing orange prison uniforms in classrooms. I wasn’t expecting to see a 9 year old who was waiting for a decision to be made about his placement or release after entering ACJC earlier that day. I was not expecting to see the garage door where the police cars enter with the arrested young person. I did not expect this to be the last place these children will see “the light of day” once they are booked until and the time they are released. I did not expect to see a 6’x8’ jail cell made for two inmates, bunk beds attached to the wall with a pillow/mattress foam combo.
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So, what was I expecting? I don’t know. I guess I was expecting it to be less harsh. I guess I wanted to believe we don’t need a “real” prison for our young people. I wasn’t expecting a “scared straight” experience. But there are positives from my visit. The teachers said they loved their jobs. ACJC is a state of the art facility. In addition to continuing one’s education, the young people are given other opportunities after “school” - chess club, Youth for Christ, addictions counseling, plus other wrap around services to make this program something that will give our young adults the skills to be better citizens once they are back home. These children are fortunate to be surrounded by caring adults. Hopefully they will be touched by one of them who will make a difference in their lives. That is what I expect.

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Letter to Newly Appointed SBOE Member, Steve Yager

NEIFPE member Anne Duff published the following letter to new SBOE member Steve Yager on her blog.

LETTER TO NEWLY APPOINTED SBOE MEMBER, STEVE YAGER

Dear Mr. Yager,

I am writing to you as not only a member of the Fort Wayne Community Schools Board of Trustees, but also as a mother of three children who attend FWCS who are subjected to an exorbitant amount of high stakes testing.

With new academic standards barely in place before the school year began, our teachers had to learn these standards and be ready to implement them for this school year. New tests were developed over these standards, and our children were yet again obligated to endure another testing nightmare. As practice tests were given on computers, malfunctions occurred including the inability to choose the appropriate response, slow response time, navigation issues, freeze and reboot issues, and other issues that make young test takers fear and worry about these high stakes tests.

As I’m sure you are aware, FWCS chose paper and pencil tests so that our children would no longer have to worry about these issues that arose from the computerized tests. And, although testing was shortened, I believe there is still entirely too much of it and that stakes –especially for a brand new test and brand new standards with no historical data – are too high.

When Glenda Ritz put a resolution on the agenda at the February 13 State Board of Education meeting about pausing accountability this year, I was shocked and disappointed that this item was immediately dismissed. The resolution was stricken from the agenda with little explanation. It is my hope that when Gordon Hendry said, “and today I believe is not the right time or place to have the discussion that you presented as it relates to pausing accountability. I might add that I’m opposed to that. But I’m more than happy to have that debate at a future meeting” he sincerely meant that he would have this discussion at a subsequent meeting. Our schools – my children’s schools and our community’s pride - need a pause in accountability. It is time to reflect on what we are doing to our schools and our neighborhoods as we label them as successes and failures. It is time to take a look at the 12 options from our federal government on pausing accountability and consider one of these options. We have been given this opportunity. As a parent, I have had enough. There are no strings attached to pausing our accountability, and I feel it’s time to take a step back and take a breather from all of this testing mayhem for once and choose an option, as 26 other states have already.

It is my hope that the pausing accountability options from the federal government are presented at the July 1 SBOE meeting, and that options are discussed and selected. This is our opportunity as a state to stop and reflect about the testing and the stakes placed on our children and schools.

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This Isn't A Child's Job

by Anne Duff
(Reprinted from Anne Duff for Education: This Isn't a Child's Job)

This week-end I attended the Network for Public Education’s 2nd Annual Conference in Chicago. While I met and talked with some of the “rock stars” of public education, what touched my heart the most were the presenters at a session simply titled, “Student Panel.”

As I walked to this session, I made the assumption that these were college students. I have connected with college groups in the past who have become activists for public schools, and since this was a conference filled with well-known heroes of public education, this surely had to be a session with some of those college students. But as the panel began to speak, I became less sure as to who these students were, so I raised my hand and asked, “Are you high school students?”

After this group, students from the Newark Student Union and a student union in Tennessee, affirmed my question, my thoughts raced from feeling proud of these amazing young people to feeling incredulous and angry about what they had to do. These child-activists taught us the difference between a direct action and civil disobedience. They shared the actions they have taken because they want to save their public schools. They spoke from the heart about their sit-ins, walk-outs, and marches all in an effort to receive the education they desire. But what broke my heart was this: Shouldn’t public education be a “given?” Aren’t these children entitled to their right under the New Jersey constitution (“The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years.”)? Why should these students have to fight the take over from charter schools, to demand an end to the reign of their corporate-driven appointed superintendent of public instruction, and to sit in the streets, arms locked together, to make a plea that their state return to community schools with wrap-around services for all children? This isn’t their job. This isn’t what they should be doing. This is their right. My heart broke.

While I am proud to be part of a school system that continues to be a pillar in our community and offers wrap-around services including arts, athletics, community outreach, a clothing bank, and partnerships with local businesses and community leaders, I know that the privateers, the corporate reformers, the charter invaders, and profiteers are alive and lurking in our state. Do we, as a community, have what it takes to fight off these groups? Are you willing, as these noble New Jersey students are, to stand together, arm in arm, to protest those who want to destroy our public schools? I hope you are willing. I hope that, together, we can continue to offer to our young people – the future of our community – a free, equitable education - an education where everyone is accepted, an education filled with math, music, physical education, art, libraries, extra-curricular activities, highly-qualified and caring teachers. After all, they are children. They are our future. This shouldn’t be their fight. It is their gift. Let’s fight for them and the gift they well deserve.

Sidebar:

If you are familiar with and follow those who fight this good fight, then you may be familiar with some of the attendees. This conference gives opportunity to meet and converse with the “rock stars” of public education – many bloggers and activists so as Diane Ravitch, Peter Greene with Curmudgucation, Jennifer Berkshire with Edushyster, Mercedes Schneider, author of A Chronicle of Echoes, Anthony Cody with Living in Dialogue, Fort Wayne’s own Phyllis Bush with NEIFPE, Chicago Teacher Union’s Karen Lewis, Randi Weingarten with AFT, and Lily Eskelsen García with NEA.

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Who wants those kids?

by Anne Duff

I see it coming. Universal vouchers. Competition among schools. Only the best will survive. Those schools that can’t make the grade will be closed. But what will happen to those students? Those students who contribute to the schools who receive “As” will be persuaded to stay at those schools…at least until they do poorly on a test or their attendance drops. But imagine those students who have special needs – those moderately and severely disabled students who are not on a diploma track but whose lack of graduation still counts against a school when they only receive a certificate of attendance. Who wants those kids? Or what about those English Language Learners who come to this country midyear and know no English but are required to take the ISTEP test only a few months later and have their scores averaged in with the rest for those schools letter grades? Who wants those kids? And those same students with their moderate and severe disabilities – let’s not forget that they still have to take the test…it doesn’t matter that they have never taken the classes that prepare them for the tests…and that they aren’t on a diploma track…they still test and have it count. Who wants that?

As a mother of 3 children, I have become acutely aware that stability has been one of the best things for my children. They don’t like change. They like the comfort of being with teachers they have grown to love, thrive on the long lasting friendships with children they’ve known since the age of 3, and enjoy the traditions year after year in the school they’ve attended since they were very young. But it seems our legislators have decided this wasn’t meant for all children. Those children who need stability the most will be moving from school to school to school because, frankly, who wants them? If competition and good letter grades keep a school open, and our new “universal voucher system” can pick and choose the most desirable students, as can our vouchers schools currently, then what will happen to those children who need extra help, who can’t speak English, who will never pass ISTEP, who will never receive a diploma? What ever happened to their constitutional right? “…provide, by law, for a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all.”

Why We Will Win!

NEIFPE members Phyllis Bush, Terry Springer, and Anne Duff explain WHY WE WILL WIN!

On March 1st and 2nd, a group of education activists from Indiana attended the Network for Public Education (NPE) National Conference in Austin, Texas. The Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin buzzed with energy as people from all over the United States gathered, united by a single purpose – to support public education. Most of them had never met in person; many knew each other only through social media conversations and posts. What could have become a great deal of whining and gnashing of teeth about the sorry state of the corporate education reform was instead a powerful convocation of like-minded advocates and activists.

NPE Board member, Anthony Cody opened the conference welcoming 500 teachers, administrators, parents, school board members, legislators, and students. Cody’s speech emphasized that the entire audience was unified in support of public education and against corporate reform and “hedge fund managers who have discovered a passion for the poor.”

John Kuhn, Superintendent of Perrin-Whitt School District in Texas, and Karen Lewis, President of the Chicago Teachers’ Union, reminded us in their keynote speeches that being a traditional public school teacher is noble and good. In her keynote address, Diane Ravitch movingly listed the heroes of public education, naming students, teachers, legislators, superintendents, and numerous advocates. When she called out the Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education as heroes, all the letters we have written, all of the calls that we have made, all of the presentations that we have given, all of the testimony we have spoken, all of the frustration and sadness we have felt suddenly seemed worthwhile.

Arising from this message of validation, we (along with the rest of the audience) could feel that there is hope and that the tide is turning. Momentum is building, and it feels as though we are approaching a tipping point. The 500 activists at the conference represent thousands more across the country who are questioning the wisdom and the speed with which education reforms and untested policies have been implemented and which ask for virtually no accountability for charter schools and for voucher-funded parochial schools. Parents and teachers are protesting the vast amount of instructional time devoted to preparing kids to take tests whose only real value appears to be to label students, teachers, schools, and communities as failing.

Parents are questioning how their children's private information is being accessed and sold to the highest bidder, and parents are calling for consent legislation that allows them control of their child's data.

Throughout the country there is a growing sense of outrage over the bill of goods corporate reformers have sold legislators. The primary way in which these reformers have operated is by writing stock legislation that governs legislation at the state level and threatens local districts with punitive action. Throughout the country, there is a growing sense that parents and educators have been right all along; public schools are not failing. The corporate, for-profit reformers view children as data points and test scores; their view is unacceptable. The research shows that this "brave new world" of testing, accountability, charters, and vouchers that Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, the Koch Bros, the Walton Foundation, and ALEC have promoted is not working.

Parents and teachers know that the joy of learning comes from imagining, creating, playing, thinking, experimenting, problem solving, and being ready to learn. The joy of learning comes when a child has an "aha moment" when he/she finally gets it. Parents know that play contributes to learning; that children need the physical activity at recess and in gym class just as much as they need “rigor” sitting at a desk; that art and music help children learn much more than learning to practice for a test and bubble in an answer sheet.

The momentum to reclaim our public schools is growing, but in order for it to continue, more parents, teachers, administrators, students, grandparents, and concerned citizens need to stand up and voice outrage at the attack on public education by profiteers and power-brokers. Public education is a human institution created for the common good and is an essential factor in our democracy. It should not be a market place commodity. It should guarantee equity for all students rather than be a competition where there are winners and losers. We need to be informed about the legislation that is proposed and to let our legislators know what we want in our schools. We need to speak louder and defy the power and money behind corporate reformers and the legislation proposed by ALEC.

And we can do it. In the words of Diane Ravitch, "We will win because everything these faux reformers are doing is failing or has already failed. You can’t succeed if everything you do fails. . .The walls of Jericho will come tumbling down…. Blow your trumpets. Wake the town. Tell the people. It’s a well-known saying, but I never tire of reading it or writing it: Margaret Mead says, 'Never doubt that a small group of individuals can change the world. That’s the only thing that ever has’."

At the end of the conference, the Network for Public Education called on Congress to investigate high stakes testing. The revision of NCLB is long overdue, but neither the Bush nor Obama administrations nor Congress has done anything except increase the stakes. NPE has issued a call for “formal hearings to investigate the over-emphasis, misapplication, costs, and poor implementation of high-stakes standardized testing in the nation’s k-12 public schools.”

The message of this conference is clear: We can reclaim our schools as kind and friendly places for teaching and learning – not profit centers for corporations, and entrepreneurs, and snake-oil salesmen, and consultants.

As Ravitch concluded, “We are many, and they are few. And this is why we will win.” Winning means preserving public education for the common good and for all our children. It will take more effort, more voices, more action.

Phyllis Bush, Terry Springer, Anne Duff
Members of Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education and The Network for Public Education

Letters: Public school can handle preschool

NEIFPE member Anne Duff wrote this letter about preschool.

Public school can handle preschool

February 10, 2014 3:00 a.m.

I truly don’t know what our legislators are thinking with House Bill 1004 that so conveniently sneaks in voucher expansion. I am for fully funding all-day kindergarten and preschool, and I am also completely for giving this early childhood education initiative to our already-capable public schools. If you have ever visited Bunche Montessori Early Childhood Center, a public Montessori preschool that is part of Fort Wayne Community Schools, you will see children are fully engaged in learning, doing works of their choice, investigating, creating and developing practical life skills. You will see children as young as 4 reading and doing math. You will see young children fall in love with learning. I am strongly opposed to Section 10 of HB 1004, which expands the voucher program. I am also opposed to giving the responsibility of preschool to private institutions. I am opposed to private preschools receiving public tax dollars as well as private schools hurriedly expanding their programs to offer preschool so that they can receive our tax dollars. In fact, I believe our public schools are more than capable of handling this initiative. I hope there is an amendment to HB 1004. I believe the state’s preschool proposal is important enough to stand on its own, without Section 10 of HB 1004. I wish our legislators would allow our public schools to do what they do best – teach all children equally; accept all children fairly; provide for our children what our democracy has promised them – an equal opportunity for education. That is what I want to see happen.

ANNE DUFF Fort Wayne

Letters: Parents remain best gauge of what’s best in their children’s schools

NEIFPE member Anne Duff wrote this letter about the A-F grading system last August...

Published: August 22, 2013 3:00 a.m.

Congratulations to the Fort Wayne Community Schools Board of Trustees on its resolution to dispense with the Bennett A-F grading system. However, as a parent with three children in Fort Wayne Community Schools, I would like to have seen the word “Bennett” removed.

Having said that, I don’t agree with any grading system that rates our schools. I believe these systems have been put into place to gradually weed out schools – whether they are good or “bad”- so that privatizers and corporate entities can come in and take over our public schools, making a profit on the backs of our children.

Who can judge a school? Do we need an A-F grading system that stigmatizes our schools? Do we need an outside accrediting agency to tell us how our school is doing? Absolutely not. The answer to who knows whether a school is successful is obvious: parents. They know what they want for their children’s education.

Parents want a curriculum that has high academic standards, is rich in the arts and social sciences, offers an adequate amount of time to eat lunch and have recess, has afterschool programs, updates technology regularly, uses a variety of methods to instruct children, and has teachers who love their students and love their jobs.

Steve Corona was spot on with his analogy of buying a gas stove. How did he ultimately decide which stove to buy? He valued the opinion of someone he trusted. We make choices by listening to someone we trust. If I were to choose a new school for my children, I would do my research online, but ultimately, I would ask those I trusted. How did I find the schools my children currently attend? By talking with teachers and parents. Our teachers and parents are proud of their schools and want to share with others the great things that are happening. They both are in the trenches every day. Who would know more about what is going on and how schools are meeting the needs of our children?

I don’t need some constantly changing, unexplainable A-F system to tell me where my kids should go to school; I want caring, passionate individuals to tell me what they see and what they feel and what they know.

Again, congratulations and thank you to the FWCS board for taking huge steps in denouncing the reform movement with their resolutions against vouchers, charter schools and now the A-F grading system. Their stand on what is harmful to our children and to public schools is courageous.

ANNE DUFF

Fort Wayne

FWCS Says No to A-F

from NEIFPE's Anne Duff:

Congratulations to the Fort Wayne Community Schools Board of School Trustees on their resolution to dispense with the Bennett A-F grading system. However, as a parent with three children in Fort Wayne Community Schools, I would like to have seen the word “Bennett” removed.

Having said that, I don’t agree with any grading system that rates our schools. I believe these systems have been put into place to gradually weed out schools – whether they are good or “bad”- so that privatizers and corporate entities can come in and take over our public schools, making a profit on the backs of our children.

Who can judge a school? Do we need an A-F grading system that stigmatizes our schools? Do we need an outside accrediting agency to tell us how our school is doing? Absolutely not. The answer to who knows whether a school is successful is very obvious: parents. They know what they want for their children’s education. Parents want a curriculum that has high academic standards, is rich in the arts and social sciences, offers an adequate amount of time to eat lunch and have recess, has after school programs, updates technology regularly, uses a variety of methods to instruct children, and has teachers who love their students and love their jobs.

Steve Corona was spot on with his analogy of buying a gas stove. How did he ultimately decide which stove to buy? He valued the opinion of someone he trusted. We make choices by listening to someone we trust. If I were to choose a new school for my children, I would do my research online, but ultimately, I would ask those I trusted.

How did I find the schools my children currently attend? By talking with teachers and parents. Our teachers and parents are proud of their schools and want to share with others the great things that are happening. They both are in the “trenches” every day. Who would know more about what is going on and how schools are meeting the needs of our children? I don’t need some constantly changing, unexplainable A-F system to tell me where my kids should go to school; I want caring, passionate individuals to tell me what they see and what they feel and what they know.

Again, congratulations and thank you to the FWCS Board for taking huge steps in denouncing the reform movement with your resolutions against vouchers, charter schools, and now the A-F grading system. Your stand on what you believe is harmful to our children and to public schools was courageous.

Anne Duff, Fort Wayne