In Case You Missed It – September 13, 2021

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 new Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column to be informed when our blog posts are published.

THIS WEEK

Two Allen County school systems, NACS and EACS, have decided to ignore the science (and their respective educational leaders) and stay mask "optional." See this article for information on masks in school, from last week's In Case You Missed It.

We also have articles about former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan who wants to increase class sizes for "the best" teachers, and the continued privatization of America's public schools.

FORT WAYNE AREA SCHOOLS -- SPLIT ON MASKS

2 districts turn down masking mandates: Emotions high as EACS, SACS boards defy leaders

Bowing to threats of pressure from vocal anti-mask patrons, the school boards of East Allen County Schools and Southwest Allen County Schools have chosen to ignore the science and risk COVID-19 outbreaks among their students and staff.

The two other public school systems in Allen County -- Fort Wayne Community Schools and Northwest Allen County Schools -- are currently under mask mandates.

A free article from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Masks remain optional in two Allen County districts despite superintendents' efforts Tuesday to reinstate mandates.

The proposals at East Allen County Schools and Southwest Allen County Schools were in reaction to Gov. Eric Holcomb's action last week that loosened quarantine rules for symptom-free students, teachers and staff in close contact with a positive COVID-19 case – but only if schools mandated masks.

SACS board's authority disputed: County health leader: Can't alter state quarantine rules

The Governor released new rules earlier this month to incentivize masking. Southwest Allen County Schools has tried to manipulate those rules without invoking a mask mandate.

A free article from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

The Southwest Allen County Schools board does not have the authority to create less stringent quarantine rules than the state, the county's highest public health official said Wednesday.

Dr. Matthew Sutter, the Allen County health commissioner, was reacting to the five-member board's decision Tuesday to adjust quarantine rules while maintaining a mask-recommended policy. In a 4-1 vote, the board agreed close contacts won't have to quarantine if both the exposed person and infected person were wearing masks during the exposure.

“Since the quarantine rules are set at the state level, neither the local school boards nor local health departments have the authority to create less stringent rules than the state,” Sutter said in a statement. “We are actively engaged in discussions on this issue and will continue to work toward consistency in following state requirements.”

ARNE DUNCAN TALKS ABOUT EDUCATION

Arne Duncan and Pedagogical Badger Hats

Arne is still “at it.” This time he's on TV touting a plan to have "the best teachers" -- the "Albert Einstein algebra teachers," for example -- teach 10s or 100s of thousands of students virtually. Class time with a real person, apparently a lower-paid, non-Albert Einstein-type person, would be used for tutorials and small groups. This, Curmudgucation (aka Peter Greene) says, is a dumb idea. "It's not a new idea--reformsters have dreamed of this world where we pay fewer teachers to teach more students."

The rest of this piece is a must-read. Duncan and Zakaria, two non-educators with no teaching experience, talking about how to teach during "normal" times would be bad enough. During these more difficult-for-students-and-teachers-to-cope times, it's ridiculous.

From Curmudgucation

Arne Duncan was at it again, popping up on Fareed Zakaria's CNN show to talk about post-covid education (looking kind of Herman Munster-ish on his Zoom screen).

Much of his shtick was predictable. Students are months behind (which actually means, of course, scores on the Big Standardized Test are down, we think). We have to meet their social emotional needs, as we accelerate learning (just, you know, teach faster, because teachers have been holding back all these years).

Zakaria says/asks, the "digital economy" did awesome in most sectors, but in education learning-through-a-screen didn't really deliver. Howcum?

DISRUPTION THROUGH VOUCHERS -- NEW HAMPSHIRE

New Hampshire: Republicans Laud New Voucher Program While Ignoring International Evidence

New Hampshire's new voucher program is part of a "Shock-Doctrine-esque" privatization increase brought on by the global COVID-19 pandemic including a substantial increase in Indiana's "investment" in private schools*. "Disaster Capitalism" is playing out as we watch.

From Diane Ravitch

Jeanne Diestch, a former Democratic state senator in New Hampshire, recently wrote about the attention showered on the state’s new voucher program by Republican conservatives like Mike Pompeo, a likely Presidential candidate, and Betsy DeVos. Republicans took control of the New Hampshire legislature until 2020; its Governor, Chris Sununu, is a Republican, and he appointed the state’s commissioner of education, Frank Edelblut, who homeschooled his children. Republicans wasted no time in passing a sweeping voucher bill.

US Conservatives Eyeing NH Vouchers

Diestch wrote in her newsletter...

*Note: Financial sponsors of Chalkbeat include pro-privatization foundations and individuals such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, EdChoice, Gates Family Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and others.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has changed its online access and is now 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/

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In Case You Missed It – May 25, 2020

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention in NEIFPE's social media. 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.

CAN WE GO BACK TO SCHOOL IN THE FALL?

How Hard Are CDC Guidelines To Follow

Curmudgucation writes on the realities of opening schools safely. It’s not looking feasible for two reasons- cost and human nature.

From Curmudgucation

So now everyone is freaked out about the CDC "guidelines" as reported on that blue meme that was going around. This, of course, was the point-- to sell the idea that public schools will be like prisons, so everyone should pull their kids out. Because in the spirit of never letting a crisis go to waste, there are folks from your neighbor with the tin hat all the way up to the US Secretary of Education who see the pandemic as one more chance to dismantle public schools. So the blue list was framed, worded, and occasionally misrepresented in order to create maximum outrage. Mission accomplished.

Let's look instead at the actual CDC guidelines. I won't lie-- as I pointed out when they were just a few suggestions, they are not particularly awesome. But let's take a look-- Just how big a challenge do schools face when it comes to re-opening in the fall?

NACS superintendent says returning to classrooms next semester is still unknown

Northwest Allen County Schools Superintendent, Chris Himsel, plans to open schools when they are safe.

From Fort Wayne's NBC

After an unprecedented end to the spring semester, Rep. Jim Banks is urging schools to make a commitment to return to the classrooms in the fall. NACS superintendent, Chris Himsel, says it's too soon to decide out of the safety of his students and staff.

I’m a former district leader. Here’s what Indiana schools will need to reopen with confidence.

From Chalkbeat*

In my more than 30 years of experiences in roles from classroom teacher to Washington Township superintendent, I’ve learned that there are no simple solutions to complicated problems.

Re-opening our public schools is one of those complicated problems. Let’s face it: Indiana is not going to recover economically until our more than one million school children go back to school. “Who will care for my children when I’m back to work?” needs an answer, or our efforts to restore the economy will fail.

Getting students back into school buildings, though, is going to be tougher than many realize. If I were a superintendent today, I would be assuming that at least 25% of the parents in my district would be reluctant to send their kids to school because they don’t think schools will be safe. I’d bet the percentage would be similar for employees, from teachers to bus drivers, custodians, and food service employees. Parents do not knowingly put their children in dangerous places, and teachers and staff do not want to work in dangerous places, either.

AFTER DENOUNCING DUNCAN, REPUBLICANS DO THE SAME THING

Betsy DeVos Has, In Fact, Become Arne Duncan 2.0

Politics, thy name is hypocrisy.

From Curmudgucation

For many conservatives, one of the greatest sins perpetrated by Obama’s secretary of education was using the powers of his office to bypass the legislature. Arne Duncan oversaw Race to the Top, which was instrumental in pushing Common Core and other preferred policies into schools across the country. Now Betsy DeVos is using nearly identical tactics to push for her own favorite educational ideas.

MCCORMICK REJECTS DEVOS'S "GUIDANCE"

She CARES: McCormick rightly overrides feds on schools' pandemic relief distribution

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, is clear in how billions in assistance to K-12 schools should be distributed: School districts “shall provide equitable services in the same manner as provided under Title I” for educating disadvantaged students. Federal lawmakers clearly intended the money to be distributed based on poverty.

But DeVos directed public school districts to distribute the money to the private schools within their boundaries based not on the number of students from poverty they serve, but on total enrollment.

“The way we are distributing monies now does not eliminate (funding for non-public schools),” McCormick said in an online information session Tuesday. “It just makes sure that the equitable services for (private) and public schools goes to those students who are most at risk. ... We chose to go with the intent of the law, to address the most at-risk.”

DeVos' directive shortchanges even children from poverty within private and parochial schools. If relief funds were distributed on the basis of enrollment, Bishop Dwenger High School, with just 16% of its 1,014 students qualifying for free- or reduced-price lunch, would collect more federal money than Bishop Luers High School, with about 44% of its 511 students within the poverty guidelines.

Indiana: State Chief Jennifer McCormick Turns Down DeVos Guidance

From Diane Ravitch

Hooray for State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick of Indiana!

She rejected Betsy DeVos’ guidance to share CARES relief funding between public and private schools.

No wonder Republicans are planning to get rid of her and replace her with an appointed state superintendent whom they can control, on behalf of charter schools and voucher schools.

The state education department estimates that if they followed DeVos’ plan, poor kids in public schools would lose more than $15 million to private schools.

GET RID OF IREAD-3 FOR GOOD

With IREAD canceled this year, some Indiana educators push to get rid of it for good

IREAD with 3rd grade retention is educational malpractice that our legislators force upon schools . It is time to end it!

From Chalkbeat*

In a few months, thousands of Indiana students will start fourth grade without ever having taken the state’s third grade literacy exam — the test that typically decides whether or not a student can advance.

It marks the first time in nine years that third-graders haven’t taken IREAD, which was among the statewide standardized tests canceled when the coronavirus forced schools to close and shifted learning online. And the gap year has already opened the door for questions about its value.

As state and school leaders grapple with how to move forward, State Superintendent Jennifer McCormick has said the current situation bolsters her argument for Indiana to get rid of the specialized test. She favors assessing reading progress as part of the more general standardized exam students take in grades 3-8, ILEARN.

INDIANA TEACHERS OF THE YEAR -- ALL OF THEM

Indiana Department of Education Recognizes All Indiana Teachers as 2021 Teacher of the Year

From the Indiana Department of Education

“The COVID-19 pandemic brought new complexities and challenges to schools with no advance warning,” said State Superintendent Dr. Jennifer McCormick. “Teachers across our state have displayed a level of flexibility and commitment, underscoring the fact Hoosiers really are #INthisTogether.”

CREDO'S NEW STUDY

CREDO’s New Study Biased against Public Schools

From Tultican

The CREDO study is singularly focused on test results as determinate of school quality and ignores other advantages of public schools. It is a well known fact that many charter school systems like IDEA and Success Academy spend an inordinate amount of time teaching to and preparing for standardized tests. To these criticisms, Professor Mark Weber of Rutgers University adds a few more observations:

• “The matching variables that create the counterfactuals are far too crude to do the job properly.”

• “The definition of the treatment — enrolling in a charter school — does not account for factors such as increased spending, peer effects, and other advantages which have nothing to do with ‘charteriness.’”

• “The consistently small effect sizes have been pumped up by an unvalidated conversion into ‘days of learning’ which has never been properly justified by the authors.”

DEMOCRACY WORKS WHEN WE THINK ABOUT EACH OTHER

Obama tells 2020 graduates: ‘If the world’s going to get better, it’s going to be up to you.' Read the transcripts of two speeches.

From the Answer Sheet

...This pandemic has shaken up the status quo and laid bare a lot of our country’s deep-seated problems – from massive economic inequality to on-going racial disparities to a lack of basic health care for people who need it. It’s woken a lot of young people to the fact that the old ways of doing things just don’t work; that it doesn’t matter how much money you make if everyone around you is hungry and sick; and that our society and our democracy only work when we think not just about ourselves, but about each other.

It’s also pulled the curtain back on another hard truth, something that we all have to eventually accept once our childhood comes to an end. All those adults that you used to think were in charge and knew what they were doing? It turns out that they don’t have all the answers. A lot of them aren’t even asking the right questions. So, if the world’s going to get better, it going to be up to you.

*Note: Financial sponsors of Chalkbeat include pro-privatization foundations and individuals such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, EdChoice, Gates Family Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and others.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has changed its online access and is now 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/

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In Case You Missed It – Apr 22, 2019

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention in NEIFPE's social media. 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.

INDIANA'S NEW STANDARDIZED TEST

New ILEARN standardized test set to launch

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

As early as Monday, elementary and middle school students statewide will face Indiana's standardized test – but it won't be ISTEP+.

They will instead demonstrate their smarts through ILEARN, the new online assessment that should, state education officials say, adapt to students' knowledge and produce results quicker.

“It is actually pretty exciting with a lot of new changes to it,” said Adam Baker, Indiana Department of Education spokesman.

ILEARN stands for Indiana's Learning Evaluation Readiness Network.

DOE: New assessment is ‘not ISTEP 2.0’

From School Matters

State officials also tout the fact that ILEARN was developed with help from Indiana educators, including classroom teachers. Committees that included about 500 educators have been involved, Flores said. Another improvement, ILEARN will take less time than ISTEP; up to two hours less at each grade level.

SUPERINTENDENT MCCORMICK VISITS FORT WAYNE

In city stop, schools chief urges public to be a voice

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

McCormick spoke for about an hour, sharing information about student demographics and why 35% of teachers leave the profession within five years.

“They're leaving it because of pay and working conditions,” McCormick said. “For us to act like the pay doesn't matter ... pay has a lot to do with this.”

She wasn't optimistic about the current legislative session.

“I think our vouchers are going to be big winners this session, and I think our charters are going to be decent winners this session,” McCormick said. “Our public schools, I'm still very, very concerned about.”

NEIFPE recording of Superintendent McCormick's presentation.

Indiana State Superintendent talks education legislation at Ivy Tech visit, From WANE. com

[McCormick] said the decisions regarding school safety should be left to the local level, but does not support arming teachers.

"I'm not in favor of the let's arm every teacher and hope for the best. I think that's very irresponsible. That's not the way Indiana should go," said McCormick.

ASKING FOR TROUBLE

Guns Headed For The Classroom

Our Hoosier legislature demonstrated today that they do NOT care about your children. Look up who voted to invite violence into our schools today and remember to vote them out next election.

From Curmudgucation

Of all the bad ideas.

I know there are folks who believe in their heart of hearts that arming teachers will make schools safer, or that putting armed police in the building will be helpful. But there are so many bad signs.

I want to believe that school resource officers can be helpful. Earlier this month, a school shooting was likely averted just up the road because students at the school felt comfortable enough with the SRO to turn in the students who were planning the attack.

But when I see stories like the one of the Chicago cops dragging a sixteen year old student down a flight of stairs, or see the video of a Florida cop body slamming an eleven-year-old, I have to conclude that sooner or later, some child is going to be killed in school.

FUNDING PROBLEMS

Less funds available for budget

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Lawmakers will have to adjust their budget priorities by about $100 million following an updated revenue forecast Wednesday.

The analysis shows tax collections growing but at slower rates than initially forecast in December – a drop of about $30 million in revenue.

On top of that, an updated Medicaid forecast shows increased net expenses of about $65 million.

That equals about $100 million in changes to a $34.6 billion budget expected to be approved next week.

INDIANA DUMPED FROM PRE-K RANKINGS

National report downgrades Indiana for excluding some families from pre-K vouchers

One more way that our Hoosier legislators have let down the children of this state. When will we stop them?

From Chalkbeat

An annual national report on preschool dumped Indiana from this year’s rankings, excluding the state’s fledging On My Way Pre-K program because of a controversial requirement that bars some families in need from signing up.

In order to qualify for Indiana’s prekindergarten vouchers, income-eligible parents must also be working, attending school, or seeking a job. Local early education advocates often tout the workforce benefits of Indiana’s pre-K program, which they say helps many parents maintain or seek jobs while their children are in school.

But that means “the primary purpose is not education,” said Steve Barnett, senior co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research. Instead, the organization deems On My Way Pre-K to be a child care program.

WHY TEACHERS QUIT

Why this South Carolina teacher quit mid-year: 'The unrealistic demands and all-consuming nature of the profession are not sustainable’

From the Answer Sheet

“I always joked that teaching was two full-time jobs. One was actually teaching, and the more time-consuming one was all the extra that comes with it.”

DEVOS STILL HATES PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Betsy DeVos and Payday for the Charter Industry!

From Diane Ravitch

Eva got $9.8 million from her friend Betsy.

KIPP will secure a total of $86 million over five years for its San Francisco operations.

IDEA in Texas scores $116 million over five years!

Despite the report from the Network for Public Education showing that 1/3 of the grants by the federal Charter Schools Program are awarded to schools that never open or that close soon after opening, the money keeps flowing.

WHEN WILL CANDIDATES REVEAL PLANS FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION?

Bernie: Still Clueless About Charters

From Diane Ravitch

...this is point one:

We must make sure that charter schools are truly serving the needs of disadvantaged children.

This ignores the fact that charter schools are not public schools. They are privately managed. They are free to choose their students and free to expel those they don’t want.

This ignores the fact that the NAACP called for a charter moratorium. The ACLU of Southern California criticized charters for discriminating against and excluding students with disabilities and ELLS. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed suit against charters in Mississippi for seeking to divert public funds from public schools, contrary to the state constitution.

INDIANA ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY

Armed teacher bill OK'd

“There should never be a gun in a classroom, never,” said Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis. “This is a bad bill. We are going to be on the wrong side of history.”

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

All teachers authorized to carry guns in school would be forced to first undergo a personality screening and take firearms training under a bill that passed the Senate 32-14 on Tuesday.

School districts already can allow teachers to carry under state law. But House Bill 1253 goes another step and requires 38 hours of specialized weapons training to do so, as well as recurring training each year.

The personality inventory is meant to weed out teachers or staffers who might not have the right temperament to carry a firearm in school.

TEACHERS, WE GET WHAT WE VOTE FOR

Indiana education advocates demand boost to school funding, teacher pay at Statehouse rally

“You get what you vote for,” she said. “You need to elect people and hold us accountable.” -- Supt. McCormick

From Chalkbeat

For many teachers, low pay means either working two jobs or leaving the profession altogether, said Teresa Meredith, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association.

Either way, she said lower pay correlates to higher teacher turnover and “at the end of the day, our kids suffer,” she said.

The rally also touched on controversial discussions taking place in the Statehouse that have drawn backlash from many teachers, such as whether projectiles should be allowed during active shooter drills and whether to prevent schools from being “gun-free zones.”

GATES DOESN'T GET IT

Melinda Gates Achieves Peak Epic Cluelessness

This rich lady wants to experiment on your children. Are you ok with that? Do riches automatically instill educational experience and knowledge??

From Curmudgucation

Melinda Gates seems like a nice lady who means well, but her recent interview at the New York Times Magazine is a master class in how living in a very wealthy bubble can leave you out of touch with the rest of the world and an understanding of your place in it.

It starts in the very first paragraph.

“There are absolutely different points of view about philanthropy,” says Melinda Gates, who, along with her husband Bill, heads the charitable foundation that bears their name, aimed at increasing global health and reducing poverty. Its endowment, at $50.7 billion, is the largest in the world. “But we’re lucky to live in a democracy, where we can all envision what we want things to look like.”

Well, we can all envision what we want things to look like, and then become in a political process to support and elect leaders who then work within a democratic-ish government to pursue that vision. Only a few of us can use our vast wealth to completely circumvent the entire democratic process to impose our vision on the rest of the world.

TIME TO DEFUND CHARTERS

Congress Should Defund the Charter Schools Program and Invest the Money in Title I and IDEA

From Jan Resseger

The Network for Public Education published its scathing report on the federal Charter Schools Program three weeks ago, but as time passes, I continue to reflect on its conclusions. The report, Asleep at the Wheel: How the Federal Charter Schools Program Recklessly Takes Taxpayers and Students for a Ride, is packed with details about failed or closed or never-opened charter schools. The Network for Public Education depicts a program driven by neoliberal politicians hoping to spark innovation in a marketplace of unregulated startups underwritten by the federal government. The record of this 25 year federal program is dismal.

DUNCAN STILL CLUELESS

Arne Duncan Makes Me Want To Punch Myself In The Brain

All was not well in the pre-Betsy era, and all is not well in our state legislature either.

From Curmudgucation

For my money, while Betsy DeVos is a truly awful and unqualified Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan inflicted far more actual damage on the US public education system. Duncan owes the students, teachers, and parents of the US a huge apology. But we're never going to get it; he'll just keep saying things that we used to say to him in an attempt to get him to realize the wrongness of his policies, only he's never going to connect the dots. He'll just smile that derpy grin, head off to his next cushy edu-guru gig, cash some more checks, and never actually see all the destruction he caused. All that and periodically raising my blood pressure.

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In Case You Missed It – August 20, 2018

Most of NEIFPE's social media presence is on Facebook where we post links to articles and blogs dealing with the state of public education in the U.S. For those of you who are not on Facebook (or have left), we've gathered links to a few articles of interest to help you 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.

FROM FAILING CHARTER TO FAILING PAROCHIAL

The Path of Privatization

Horizon to continue in its mission: To stay open despite voucher denial

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Horizon took over the campus from Imagine MASTer Academy charter school in 2013. Imagine and a sister school closed their doors when Ball State University declined to renew their charters, citing poor academic performance and insufficient growth.

...Horizon enrolled as many as 500 students in recent years as it consolidated Imagine schools with its own. But academic progress lagged. State accountability grades of D's and F's in consecutive years brought Horizon before the Indiana State Board of Education. It was prohibited from enrolling new voucher students during the 2017-18 school year, Beasley said. Horizon asked for a waiver so it could enroll new state-paid voucher students this fall.

A state analysis showed the school is able to demonstrate academic improvement with some of its students. But the number of students demonstrating either standard or high growth falls well below a majority. In July, the board denied the waiver request. Horizon can still serve current voucher students and those who pay tuition.

CONFIRMATION OF WHAT WE ALREADY KNEW

Pressuring schools to raise test scores got diminishing returns, new study of No Child Left Behind finds

From Chalkbeat

...a new study shows that continuing to “raise the bar” during the No Child Left Behind era only had a modest effect at best. That raises questions about whether the small gains were worth the political controversy, and what critics claim were the educational costs, of putting a greater focus on test scores.

“These results suggest that the ratcheting [up] of test-based accountability pressures alone is not enough to sustain improvements in student achievement”

DUNCAN HASN'T CHANGED

Arne Duncan talks a good game

From The Answer Sheet

What he didn’t do, which some in the education world argue is the most important thing he could have attacked, is this: attempt to change the way the United States funds its public schools. School districts rely in large part on property taxes, which guarantees that poor communities have schools with fewer resources. Federal funding aimed at closing the gap doesn’t come close, and, so, in this country, standardized test scores tell us only where a child lives, making reforms that place high stakes on the scores nonsensical.

WE CAN'T AFFORD THREE PUBLICLY FUNDED SCHOOL SYSTEMS

Back to School in America, 2018-2019 Indiana Edition

From Live Long and Prosper

Trying to support three separate school systems, a public one, serving 90% of the students in the state, and two private school systems through vouchers and charters, has made it difficult for Indiana to support schools and pay teachers. Can we really afford that?

Only one school system is mandated by the state constitution...the one that serves all students who enter -- no exceptions.

INDIANA PLAN FOR SCHOOL SAFETY

Holcomb Details School Safety Recommendations

From Inside Indiana Business

Governor Eric Holcomb has released a report detailing recommendations on improving school safety throughout the state. The report was compiled by a working group that included officials from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Indiana Department of Education, and other agencies.

The report names 18 recommendations that were separated into three categories: enhanced mental health services; safety equipment, technology, tools and training; and policy or legislative considerations regarding school safety. As a result, the governor has directed several next steps in improving school safety...

DITSY DEVOS

Omarosa claims Betsy DeVos wants to ‘replace public education with for-profit schools’ — and that Trump calls her ‘Ditzy DeVos’

From The Answer Sheet

A new book about President Trump by one of his former senior advisers, Omarosa Manigault Newman, claims that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos wants “to replace public education with for-profit schools” and that Trump has called her by the nickname “Ditzy DeVos.”

NACS BUILDING NEW SCHOOL

NACS finds site for elementary

From Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

A soybean field near Carroll Middle School will soon make way for a new school.

Northwest Allen County Schools announced the site of its eighth elementary school Monday during a board meeting, at which the five members unanimously approved a $1.4 million real estate purchase agreement for a 98-acre property along Hathaway Road.

Voters approved the school through a $33.98 million referendum in May.

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER CHARTER SCANDAL

Gulen-Bay Tech Charter School in Trouble Again

From Diane Ravitch

Recently we learned that the principal of the Bay Tech Charter School in Oakland gave himself a generous severance package of $450,000, then left for Australia.

Bay Tech is a Gulen School, connected to the reclusive Imam Fethullah Gulen, who lives in seclusion in Pennsylvania while overseeing one of the largest charter chains in the U.S. You can tell a Gulen school by the disproportionate number of Tirkish people on its board and teaching staff...

...In California, laws are written to regulate public schools, not charter schools. The most powerful lobby in the state is the California Charter Schools Association, and it fights any regulation or accountability or even prohibition of conflicts of interest.

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Education wake-up call

This op-ed by NEIFPE co-founder Phyllis Bush appeared in the June 26 edition of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

DeVos' dangerous incompetence reinforces the threat to public education

No matter what the education issue is that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is addressing and no matter where the venue, she manages to show how ill-prepared she is to lead the U.S. Department of Education with her vacuous and insensitive remarks. She has shown herself to be completely tone-deaf about what is instructionally appropriate or what is best for children. Through all of her malaprops and her sense of entitlement, she has managed to do what pro-public education folks like me have been unable to do – she has managed to get people to pay attention.

As a founding board member of the Network for Public Education, I have watched as our NPE membership has grown from 22,000 before the DeVos appointment to 350,000 since she was nominated. For those of us who have been calling attention to the corporate reform assault on public schools, this is welcome news. I can only hope that this spontaneous growth is due to more people waking up to the possibility of what is at stake if public education, the bedrock of our society, is further decimated by those who wish to “reform” it.

Education should be about kids and about learning, and it never should have become a political football, and yet politicians and pundits of all political stripes have done precious little to help support policies that will create equity among schools. In fact, in recent years state legislatures have worked to underfund, to overregulate and to privatize public schools. Those of us across Indiana and across the country who have been fighting to save public education have done nearly everything we can think of to bring the plight of education to the attention of our fellow citizens. No matter how many forums and conferences we have hosted, no matter how many opeds we have written, no matter how many times we have testified at our statehouses, we have found it difficult to engage those who are not closely involved in education.

Arne Duncan's tenure over the Department of Education ushered us into the Race to the Top era of test and punish. While Race to the Top has been an unmitigated failure, at least Duncan had some marginal qualifications. DeVos is unqualified to hold any Cabinet position, let alone one which will affect all of the nation's children. Now that she has made a gaffe-filled entrance into the political landscape, more people seem to be aware of her lack of qualifications. While taking notice is a start, it is up to all of us to actively stand in support of our public schools, our kids, our teachers and our communities.

Will Betsy DeVos be the lightning rod who might awaken us to the potential destruction of public education? I have no idea whether this focus on DeVos will be more than another example of our short attention span with ever-breaking news stories. My hope is that people are finally getting fed up with this anti-public education push and will choose to fight back to save our schools for the nation's most precious resource, our children.

Phyllis Bush, a retired English teacher and Fort Wayne resident, is a member of NEIFPE and treasurer of the Network for Public Education.

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Education Issues 2012 #2

Testing, Corporate Reform, Teacher Evaluation, Job Qualifications, ALEC, Arne Duncan,
Fiction vs. Non-Fiction

(Click on the titles below to read the complete articles.)

Testing isn't teaching

To understand how tests and learning become enemies, imagine the impact on teachers whose job security suddenly depends on the inappropriate application of a statistical model that almost all assessment experts warn cannot validly measure teachers' performance.

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Coming Soon to a School Near You: Big Ed

Corporate America has given us Big Banks - banks too big to fail. Corporate America has given us Big Pharma - a pharmaceutical industry too big to fight. Coming soon to a school near you, courtesy of corporate America: Big Ed - a centralized education system too big to question its self-serving, profit-driven, intellect-destroying priorities.

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Stephen Krashen on Teacher Evaluations

Stephen Krashen, professor emeritus at the University of Southern California, responds to a USA Today article about evaluating teachers using test scores.

A number of studies have shown that rating teachers using test score gains does not give consistent results. Different tests produce different ratings, and the same teacher's ratings can vary from year to year, sometimes quite a bit.

In addition, using test score gains for evaluation encourages gaming the system, trying to produce increases in scores by teaching test-taking strategies, not by encouraging real learning. This is like putting a match under the thermometer and claiming you have raised the temperature of the room.

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The Tragedy of Education Transformation: Leadership without Expertise

Professional degrees in education and experience in the classroom don't matter. So say some politicians who have no professional degrees in education or experience in the classroom.

South Carolina's Superintendent of Education Mick Zais makes several claims in The State (March 25, 2012) that build on one central argument: "The most important information about teachers isn’t the degrees they have or their years of seniority. Their effectiveness in the classroom matters much, much more."

Like Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Zais has no experience teaching children in K-12 public education. This complete lack of teaching experience and degrees in the field of education is a suspect position from which to claim that these two characteristics do not matter. In fact, political appointees and elected officials sit in unique positions often above both accountability (the mantra du jour of the political elite regarding education) and qualifications—unlike the real world markets they often praise.

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Lobbyists, Guns and Money

ALEC isn’t single-handedly responsible for the corporatization of our political life; its influence is as much a symptom as a cause. But shining a light on ALEC and its supporters — a roster that includes many companies, from AT&T and Coca-Cola to UPS, that have so far managed to avoid being publicly associated with the hard-right agenda — is one good way to highlight what’s going on. And that kind of knowledge is what we need to start taking our country back.

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Condi Rice-Joel Klein report: Not the new ‘A Nation at Risk’

The report cites lots of statistics that paint public schools in the worst possible light, and continues the trend of comparing America’s educational system with that of high-achieving countries — but doesn’t note that these countries generally don’t do the kinds of things these reformers endorse. Its recommendations would lead to further privatization of public schools and even more emphasis on standardized testing.

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Flunking Arne Duncan

Diane Ravitch gives US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, a report card.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan loves evaluation. He insists that everyone should willingly submit to public grading of the work they do. The Race to the Top program he created for the Obama Administration requires states to evaluate all teachers based in large part on the test scores of their students. When the Los Angeles Times released public rankings that the newspaper devised for thousands of teachers, Duncan applauded and asked, “What’s there to hide?” Given Duncan’s enthusiasm for grading educators, it seems high time to evaluate his own performance as Secretary of Education.

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Fiction vs. Non-Fiction

Does non-fiction help children learn to read better than fiction? Maybe if you define "learn to read" as "passing a standardized test."

See also Keith Oatley's Scientific American article (Nov. 2011) Fiction Hones Social Skills.

The first article below touts a study showing that non-fiction helps students learn to read better than fiction.

Nonfiction Curriculum Enhanced Reading Skills, Study Finds

Children in New York City who learned to read using an experimental curriculum that emphasized nonfiction texts outperformed those at other schools that used methods that have been encouraged since the Bloomberg administration’s early days, according to a new study...

Howard Gardner, professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, responds.

Reading Curriculums

To the Editor:

Re “Nonfiction Curriculum Enhanced Reading Skills, Study Finds” (news article, March 12): It is instructive to know that second graders who received a Core Knowledge curriculum performed better than comparison groups on measures of reading. But every choice of curriculum — and, more important, every choice of an assessment measure — entails a value judgment.

Those educators who selected a reading program that valued fictional works presumably thought that was an appropriate emphasis. It is now up to those educators to provide measures that might reveal better performances on their curriculum — for example, richer imaginations by students or a greater likelihood of reading books of any sort outside the school environment.

HOWARD GARDNER
Cambridge, Mass., March 12, 2012

...and Neuroscience responds...

Your Brain on Fiction

Reading great literature, it has long been averred, enlarges and improves us as human beings. Brain science shows this claim is truer than we imagined.

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