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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"School reformers have a bad habit. Over the past century, they have skipped from one big policy fix to another without analyzing what happened the first time around. Or even whether the reforms succeeded or failed. Since World War II, U.S. public schools have been in one crisis or another...Reform-minded policymakers have offered rhetoric-wrapped cures time and again without a glance backward. If there were pills to cure amnesia about school reforms, policymakers would have been popping capsules for years. Since World War II, reformers have targeted U.S. public schools for changes decade after decade. Memory loss (or ignorance) about past school reforms permits policymakers to forge ahead again and again with cascades of reforms without looking in the rear-view mirror." -- Larry Cuban in Fixing Public Schools Again and Again
HOPSCOTCHING FROM ONE "SOLUTION" TO ANOTHER...
Fixing Public Schools Again and Again
"School reformers have a bad habit. Over the past century, they have skipped from one big policy fix to another without analyzing what happened the first time..."
From Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
...Consider the following fixes to problems reformers have framed time and again:
*Fix students (e.g., early childhood education, teach middle class behaviors and attitudes to students from low-income families)
*Fix schools (e.g., more parental choice in schools, longer school day and year, reduced class size, higher curriculum standards, more and better tests, accountability for results, different age-grade configurations; give autonomy to schools)
*Fix teachers (e.g., broaden the pool of teaching recruits, improve university teacher education, switch from teacher-centered to student-centered ways of teaching, more and better classroom technologies)
Public and policymaker affections have hopscotched from one solution to another then and now and in some instances, combined different fixes (e.g., extending school day, raising standards and increasing accountability for schools and teachers, promoting universal pre-school, pushing problem-based learning).
Evidence to support such skipping about has been skimpy, at best.
VOUCHERS
School vouchers are conservative billionaires’ Trojan horse
The goal is to get public tax dollars to support religious education.
From Maureen Downey in the Las Vegas Sun
Education researcher Josh Cowen understands that the movement to pass voucher bills in states across the country and the national rollback of reproductive freedom are not the same thing. “But they are driven by the same people,” he said. “What puts these two things together is their attempt to make America a Christian nationalist state.”
Who are these people? In a new book, Cowen says they’re conservative billionaires with tightly networked and well-financed political advocacy groups. Among them are former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who works through her American Federation for Children, and industrialists Charles Koch and the late David Koch, who created Americans for Prosperity.
In an interview about “The Privateers: How Billionaires Created A Culture War and Sold School Vouchers,” Cowen said school privatization has become the mission of a conservative cabal that has effectively masterminded “a political capture of the judiciary, the federal regulatory apparatus, and state lawmaking processes.”
Cowen is a Michigan State University professor whose early studies of small, select voucher pilots found they showed some promise. But as voucher programs expanded and became large-scale, Cowen documented increasingly dismal academic outcomes. Large-scale studies found students in Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio and Washington, D.C., who used vouchers to leave public schools for private schools experienced sizable learning declines.
Data from recently enacted state programs show the typical students using vouchers never attended public schools as they were already in a private school, home-schooled or enrolling in a private kindergarten. And the data also show many of these private schools raise tuition once states adopt vouchers.
Yet even as evidence mounts against their effectiveness, vouchers are spreading. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, this year, 19 states have already or will consider legislation on the issue of school vouchers or “education savings accounts.”
ED TECH -- ALL OR NOTHING
The Madness of EdTech: All or Nothing Options
Technology should be used as a tool...not an end in itself.
From Nancy Bailey's Education Website, By Emily Cherkin, MEd.
Recently, my daughter, grade 6, had to turn in an illustrated graph for Science. She was proud of the beautiful colored pencil work she did and I loved the fact that she actually had a paper-based assignment. As is typical of my creatively-brained child, however, she realized the morning it was due that she was also supposed to type an “artist’s statement.”
With just ten minutes left before she needed to leave, she ran to get her school-issued laptop. Shoveling bites of cereal in her mouth while she booted up the low-quality computer, her stress level increased with every minute the machine whirred and hummed.
I am not exaggerating when I say it took five minutes to start.
By this point, her anxiety was palpable: “I’m not going to be able to get this done! This is so frustrating!”
I offered paper and pencil– “You can write it down and hand it in this way!”
No.
I offered to have her dictate the statement to me to type on my computer– “I can email it to the teacher!”
No.
“I’m supposed to do it on my computer!” she moaned.
Finally, the machine started, and she logged in to her Schoology account, went to the Science class “page,” and started typing.
At least she was typing with more than her two index fingers, I observed wryly.
But the futility of this experience was clear: Proud of her illustrated graph and ready to turn it in, she was flummoxed by the completely unnecessary and additional challenge of a sluggish school computer on which she should type a few sentences to consider her homework officially “done.”
What madness is this, you might ask, that a child, actually excited about a school assignment, loses all enthusiasm because she is stymied by the low-quality, tech-at-all-costs requirement to actually complete it?
It is the madness that is modern-day education and the absurdity of an all-or-nothing choice.
LOCAL AND INDIANA NEWS
McCormick emphasizes curriculum, accountability, and teachers in Indiana education plan
The Democratic gubernatorial nominee — who previously served as the state’s instructional superintendent — released her five-part platform on Thursday.
From Indiana Capital Chronicle
School accountability, teacher salary boosts and “academic freedom” are priorities on Jennifer McCormick’s education plan, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate announced on Thursday.
The former state public instruction superintendent, along with running mate Terry Goodin, said their platform largely intends to create more flexibility for K-12 administrators and educators to craft curriculum, while still ensuring academic rigor and accountability across both public and private schools.
The plan also guarantees that teachers would be paid at least $60,000 per year — an increase from the current $40,000 minimum.
“Obviously, education is my passion. It is also Terry’s passion. We believe in the power of education — not just for our kids — but for our families and our communities and the entire state. It’s also what empowers us as a nation,” McCormick said during a Thursday press call. “Too often in Indiana, we talk about the expense, because we are incredibly expensive, but we don’t talk about it as an investment, and it needs to be. … It’s not a K-12 isolation, it is a system of education.”
The costs of the proposal are unknown at this time.
McCormick/Goodin campaign introduces ‘common sense’ education plan
From WANE.com
the Democratic ticket in Indiana’s governor race, both of whom are previous educators, released their “common sense education plan,” centering around the fight for a minimum base pay of $60,000 for teachers, expanding childcare in the state and creating an accountability platform for all schools.
Jennifer McCormick, the state’s former superintendent for public instruction and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and Terry Goodin, a former state representative who previously served as a superintendent and the Democratic lieutenant governor candidate, aim to increase school accountability and academic rigor through their plan.
...McCormick stressed the importance of all schools being held accountable to the same academic and fiscal standards as public schools, with more than $1.6 billion being sent to private schools through vouchers.
Northwest Allen County Schools leader receives $10,000 bonus, board 'blessed' to have him
From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**
The Northwest Allen County Schools board rewarded Superintendent Wayne Barker on Tuesday with a $10,000 performance stipend for exceeding expectations during his second year on the job.
Kent Somers, board president, said Barker earned the one-time bonus by satisfying goals related to transparency, redistricting decisions, the strategic plan and the current school construction projects addressing enrollment growth.
Barker thanked the board for its confidence in his leadership, but he noted that many more contribute to the district’s success.
“Really,” the superintendent said, “I’m just one of nearly 1,200 employees that we have here every day who do great things for students.”
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JOIN US
An Evening with Jennifer McCormick
NEIFPE is proud to co-sponsor this event featuring Jennifer McCormick, candidate for Governor of Indiana. We hope you can attend.
Click HERE to register for the September 25th event:
**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]
†Note: NEIFPE's In Case You Missed It is posted by the end of the day every Monday except after holiday weekends or as otherwise noted.
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