In Case You Missed It – December 23, 2024

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 of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"It is well known that a school district’s aggregate standardized test scores correlate more closely with the economic level of the district’s population than with the quality of the schools’ programming and teachers. What Senator Brenner, whose district includes the wealthy, exurban Olentangy public schools, never acknowledges is that his new bill is an attack on school districts serving concentrations of poor children. And while Senator Brenner specializes in devising punitive systems for low scoring schools and school districts, Ohio’s legislature, in which Brenner chairs the Senate Education Committee, has not yet fully phased in and funded the Fair School Funding Plan, which is designed to provide equity and to invest in school districts serving children in poverty. Ohio’s legislature also recently established a universal voucher program currently diverting a billion dollars a year from the state budget to private schools." -- Jan Resseger in Ohio State Senator Pushes New Version of Punitive Plan to Restructure or Take Over Low-Scoring Schools

OHIO STATE SENATOR PUSHES TEST-AND-PUNISH

Ohio State Senator Pushes New Version of Punitive Plan to Restructure or Take Over Low-Scoring Schools

We know that punishing teachers, schools and/or students for scoring low on standardized tests does nothing to improve learning, yet this Ohio legislator is willing to try it again. The fact that it will hurt the most vulnerable of the state's students doesn't seem to bother him.

From Jan Resseger

Andy Brenner, the Chair of the Ohio Senate Education Committee, is once again pushing the Ohio Legislature to pass an old fashioned, test-and-punish school accountability bill, Senate Bill 295, in this last week of the legislature’s lame-duck session without sufficient public accountability or hearings. The bill would significantly restructure or close the schools in some of Ohio’s poorest communities. A hearing on the bill is scheduled for this afternoon.

Brenner, “an entrepreneur in the real estate and mortgage fields,” who earned a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Liberty University Online, is known for the now disproven theory that if teachers work harder and smarter, they can immediately ensure their students score higher on standardized tests. His new bill is modeled after No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which promised to make every American child proficient by 2014. Of course, we now know that NCLB’s threatening educators and school districts with scary sanctions failed to produce uniformly proficient students despite all the threats to close or charterize so-called “failing” schools, or fire and replace all the staff.

MORE LEGISLATIVE INTERFERENCE

Federal Anti-Commie Education Bill

Peter Greene is one of public education's most important voices. His work appears on his blog (see link below), in Forbes, on Substack, and elsewhere.

From Peter Greene at Curmudgucation

It could be worse. It's not a mandate to use Prager U materials, after all. And to be clear, I'm not personally a big fan of communism, though in my reading of history, nations that "turn communist" usually keep being awful in ways that they were awful before anyone pretended to be a communist.

In fact, now that I think of it, some study of what creeping totalitarianism wouldn't hurt Americans (in or out of high school) right about now.

But teachers recognize this same old dodge. "We want students to know and agree with This Particular Thing," say some bunch of leaders somewhere. "How can we do that? I know! We'll get teachers to teach it to them. Because there's lots of room in the day to slip in one more slab of curricular materials. Also, students always believe what teachers say. Also, legislating curriculum always works out well."

Congress may very well pass this. Teachers will either ignore it or not as they are so inclined, and politicians will be proud of themselves for battling the scourge of communism and for once against standing up for only the correct sort of indoctrination in our schools.

NO TEACHERS NEED APPLY

New Arizona charter school will use AI in place of human teachers

This is computer-led instruction. There will be human adults present...as baby-sitters.

From KJZZ Phoenix

At least one Arizona school will be handing off teaching duties to artificial intelligence in 2025.

The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools’ approved an application for an AI-based virtual academy on Monday.

Unbound Academy, which also operates in Texas and Florida under the name Alpha Schools, claims that kids can learn twice as much using a two-hour learning plan that gets customized by an AI program instead of a traditional human teacher in front of a classroom.

STUDENT LOANS

Biden Announces $4.28 Billion in Student Loan Forgiveness

Help for those with student loan debt.

From Diane Ravitch

The U.S. Department of Education released a statement:

The Biden-Harris Administration announced today the approval of $4.28 billion in additional student loan relief for 54,900 borrowers across the country who work in public service. This relief—which is the result of significant fixes that the Administration has made to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program—brings the total loan forgiveness by the Administration to approximately $180 billion for nearly five million Americans, including $78 billion for 1,062,870 borrowers through PSLF.

PAYING FOR EDUCATION IN INDIANA

Public schools remain on hook for book, curricula fees

Indiana struggles to pay for the constitutionally mandated promise of a free public education system.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

The Indiana Constitution of 1851 says the General Assembly will provide a system of schools “wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all.” During the 2023 legislative session, state lawmakers delivered on that 172-year-old promise.

Legislators dedicated $160 million in the state budget to eliminate textbook and curricula fees, starting this academic year, but Hoosier schools still must pay for those materials. Last month, Indiana’s largest teachers’ union called for a more than $500 million increase to basic tuition support for public schools in the 2025 fiscal year.

That’s 7.98% more compared to what schools are expected to receive. Under current law, K-12 public schools are projected to see average student funding increases of 1.7% in the 2025-26 school year.

CREEPING CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM

The Religious Right Is Plotting How To Get Christianity Into Schools

Not all our students are Christians. Not all our Christian students are Evangelical Christians. Not all parents of our Evangelical Christian students want public school teachers teaching religion.

Both parts of the First Amendment are important -- the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;..."

From Nathalie Baptiste in Huffpost

From displaying the Ten Commandments to demanding that teachers use the Bible in their classrooms, conservatives seem determined to blur the lines between church and state by infusing Christianity into public schools. And with Donald Trump headed back to the White House and a conservative majority in the U.S. Supreme Court, reshaping the country’s education system is looking increasingly feasible.

GET A SECOND OPINION

Trump Questions Need for School Vaccines

Experts, not politicians, should determine medical policy.

From Diane Ravitch

We know that Trump chose RFK Jr. to run the federal public health system as head of the Department of Health and Human Services. we know that Kennedy opposes vaccines. He has said that he would not ban vaccines outright but suggested that he might leave the decision about vaxxing to parents. We also know that senior Republican Mitch McConnell had polio as a child and does not like the idea of making the polio vaccine a matter of personal choice.

But we didn’t know much about what Trump believes or wants when it comes to vaccines.

Politico reports that he wants to keep vaccines, at least for adults. But he is doubtful about vaccine mandates for attending school. Public schools in every state require students to be vaccinated. If these mandates are reversed, we can expect to see a spread of the highly infectious diseases that were nearly eradicated.

Your child or grandchild might get measles or mumps or rubella or tetanus. These are deadly diseases.

**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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In Case You Missed It – August 5, 2024

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 of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Studies of student performance under school voucher programs not only showed that they don’t help them, but that they could actually have harmful effects. Results from a 2016 study of Louisiana’s voucher program found “strong and consistent evidence that students using an LSP scholarship performed significantly worse in math after using their scholarship to attend private schools.” In Indiana, results also showed “significant losses” in math. A third study of a voucher program in Ohio reported that “students who use vouchers to attend private schools have fared worse academically compared to their closely matched peers attending public schools.”

We aren’t against private schools. But we are against taxpayer money going to private schools at the expense of public schools." -- The Governors of North Carolina and Kentucky quoted in Diane Ravitch's blog post, Governors Roy Cooper and Andy Beshear: Real Democrats Support Real Public Schools! (emphasis added)

VOUCHERS CHIP AWAY AT PUBLIC EDUCATION

Governors Roy Cooper and Andy Beshear: Real Democrats Support Real Public Schools!

By the time you read this, Vice President Harris may have already chosen her running mate for the upcoming presidential election, but it's good to remember that there are some Democrats who are still fighting for public education.

From Diane Ravitch

Voucher programs chip away at the public education our kids deserve

This is their strategy: Start the programs modestly, offering vouchers only to low-income families or children with disabilities. But then expand the giveaway by taking money from public schools and allowing the wealthiest among us who already have children in private schools to pick up a government check.

CITIZENSHIP BUILDING IS A CORE PURPOSE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

I am a Patriot

Public schools serve all our students -- those with a variety of religious beliefs, Christians, Muslims, and others, and those with no religious beliefs. That is the value of having a First Amendment protecting the right to free exercise of religion and prohibiting the state from establishing one religion over another. Nancy Flanagan writes about the error made by the State Superintendent of Public Schools of Oklahoma and others who would impose their beliefs on others.

From Nancy Flanagan in Teacher in a Strange Land blog

I love the idea that it took decades of discourse for the early, 18th century Rebels (by no means a majority) to organize in resisting colonial rule, fighting the imposition of taxation without representation (which still resonates today). I think all children in America should know the truth about our Founding Fathers, and their multi-racial legacies. I think elementary schools should hold mock elections and HS Social Studies teachers should organize voter registration drives. I think flying the national flag—right side up—is everyone’s prerogative.

I also think the Superintendent of Schools in Norman, Oklahoma, who declared “We’re not going to have Bibles in our classrooms”—after a memo from Ryan Walters, their moronic State Superintendent specifying that all OK classrooms will offer Bible-based instruction—is a patriot.

A patriot who understands our foundational principles–the separation of church and state, for example. Perhaps even a patriot who sees citizenship-building, not just job training, as a core purpose of public schools.

TRAINING YOUR SCHOOL BOARD UNDER PROJECT 2025

The Heritage Foundation Wants to Train Your School Board.

The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 has directions for school board members. Would you want your school system run by people who want to destroy public schools?

From deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

Given the Heritage Foundation’s push for outsized, ubiquitous influence in casting America in its own far-right-conservative image, it should come as no surprise that the Heritage Foundation even offers its own “school board training”:

The status quo in your school system wasn’t working. You saw the need for new leadership with a different vision for education. You stepped up to the plate and ran for school board—and you won! Now your role as a school board member brings a new set of challenges and opportunities—and the learning curve can be steep. But you don’t have to navigate this new territory alone.

The Heritage Foundation is pleased to offer training designed especially to help you succeed in your new role as a school board member. Experienced schoolboard leaders and education policy experts from across the country have teamed up to share the knowledge and information you need for immediate effectiveness. Designed for busy board members and parents, this training is available on demand so that you can learn at your convenience and at your own pace.

Okay.

So, who’s instructing these “on-demand” lessons on behalf of the Heritage Foundation?

STATE AND LOCAL NEWS

‘Back to school’ brings new education laws to Indiana classrooms

Most of the new policies took effect July 1, though some changes are still a year or two out from full implementation.

From Indiana Capital Chronicle (emphasis in original)

IREAD and third grade retention
Among the most debated legislation of the 2024 session, Senate Enrolled Act 1 seeks to remedy Indiana’s literacy “crisis” by requiring schools to administer the statewide IREAD test in second grade — a year earlier than previous requirements — and direct new, targeted support to at-risk students and those struggling to pass the exam.

But if, after three tries, a third grader can’t meet the IREAD standard, legislators want school districts to retain them. That number could reach into the thousands, according to 2023 data. New IREAD results for tests taken in Spring 2024 are expected to be released next month...

...Religious instruction
Although an option previously existed for Hoosier students to receive religious instruction during regular school hours, House Enrolled Act 1137 requires schools to approve parental requests for students to leave class during the day.

The change tightens previous Indiana law that permitted students to leave school for up to 120 minutes a week for voluntary religious instruction, as long as it takes place off school property, and private transportation is provided.

Purdue president: New Indiana high school diplomas won’t meet admission requirements

Herein lies the danger of having legislators, the vast majority of whom are non-educators, micromanage our state's school curriculum.

From WFYI (Indianapolis)

Purdue University’s president says Indiana’s proposed changes to high school diplomas do not meet the school’s admission standards in math, social studies and world languages.

In a letter sent to top state education leaders last week, President Mung Chiang said several changes to the diplomas do not meet what have been the entry criteria at the Big Ten university.

High school curriculum is an important factor in college admission, Chiang said in the letter.

“Not all students will attend college,” Chiang wrote. “However, all students should clearly understand college admission requirements and be offered the coursework needed to be admitted to and succeed in college.”

See also: Indiana's new high school diplomas spark concerns among university leaders


East Allen County Schools administrators gather as new year nears

EACS and FWCS prepare for the new school year.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

East Allen County Schools expects to begin the academic year with no unstaffed bus routes – an achievement that had the superintendent smiling Monday as administrators gathered for a back-to-school tradition.

Marilyn Hissong also announced at the annual Administrators Academy that the district has only two new administrators, both of whom were promoted from other roles.

“That’s an exciting year, not to have the turnover – to have our people all back,” Hissong said.

About 50 district and school leaders – including principals, department directors and central office staff – gathered at the EACS Annex in New Haven for the annual professional development session held days before classes begin Aug. 7.

Hissong said the tradition is an opportunity to work on leadership skills and ensure that all administrators have the same information as they prepare for a new academic year.

“We also unveiled our strategic plan for the district,” Hissong said. “This one contains curriculum, community, culture – all of that.”

FWCS to have weapon detection systems in high schools for upcoming year

From 21Alive News

Last school year South Side High School took on a pilot program for the Open Gate Weapon Detection systems.

Now with data collected from the school, officials with FWCS are ready to implement the system into other schools.

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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In Case You Missed It – July 1, 2024

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 of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Imagine there is no public schooling and a candidate in 2024 runs on a great new idea: “Let’s provide universal free K-12 for all students and tax ourselves to pay for it!” What was established 150 years ago would seem outrageous today, especially in an environment strongly influenced by wealthy donors who want to do away with public programs. We take for granted the fact that in all of our communities, we have tuition-free schools that welcome all of our children—it’s a natural feature of the landscape. The system isn’t perfect and often disappoints us. But we need to remember that the core features of this system—that it is publicly governed, taxpayer-supported, open access, and used to advance the common good—are actually pretty remarkable. Moreover, our public education system has made our country far more equal than it was in the past. If we dismantle public education, it would be difficult if not impossible to bring it back." -- from NEA Today, What do Book Bans and Vouchers Have in Common?

THE WAR AGAINST PUBLIC SCHOOLS

What do Book Bans and Vouchers Have in Common?

A new book from the Have You Heard podcasters...coming on July 2.

From NEA Today

In their latest book The Education Wars, journalist Jennifer Berkshire and education scholar Jack Schneider explain the sudden obsession with race and gender in schools and the ascendancy of book bans. It offers analysis of school vouchers and the impact they’ll have on school finances and explores the movement for “parents’ rights,” explaining the rights that students and taxpayers also have.

NEA Today spoke to Berkshire and Schneider about the new book and some of the alarming findings. We also asked about the path forward...

...Can a family with an LGBTQ+ student attend private school with a voucher? What about students with disabilities?...

JB and JS: LGBTQ+ students would be embraced by a Quaker school, but those are a small percentage of the faith-based schools that dominate the private sector. Most LGBTQ+ students would face resistance at a religious private school or, worse, intolerance and exclusion. So vouchers may offer options, but they don’t protect students’ rights. They can deny admission and equal treatment based on their “religious freedom.”

Students with disabilities will face similar obstacles. We recently did a podcast on threats to special education in a voucher system. A mother of a student with disabilities from Tennessee read 20 different rejection letters she got from 20 different schools. In a privatized system, a school can say “no, we don’t have the facilities or the personnel to accommodate your child.” And there will be no incentive to do so. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which turns 50 next year, would not apply as it does in our public school system. Again, vouchers provide some options, but no rights, which leaves a large population with no options.

READING WARS

The Comprehension Problem with New Reading Programs: Ignoring the Books Children LIKE to Read!

The Science of Reading leaves out one essential aspect...the joy of reading.

From Nancy Bailey's Education Website

I’m not a gambler, but if I were, I’d bet that a lot of parents whose elementary school-age children are getting explicit phonics instruction, memorizing rules, and who can define words like diphthong and schwa will be disappointed when their children get to high school and couldn’t care less about reading.

New reading programs promising the Science of Reading don’t cover what children need to become good readers. What’s missing are reading comprehension and the incentive to read because it’s fun and interesting.

When critics of public schools and teachers debate how to teach reading comprehension today, they chatter about knowledge building (of course, previous knowledge is important) and raise questions like, should you teach a child about the main idea? (of course, you should), as if teachers haven’t taught children to read (and write) in the past.

The difference is that, today, they often ignore the main star: books children like to read.

VIRTUAL CHARTER REPORT

New Indiana virtual charter school report shows $60M in funding for 2022-23

The annual report also gives other data on class sizes and teacher-student ratios across the state’s seven virtual charters.

From the Indiana Capital Chronicle

More than $60 million in state tuition funding went to Indiana’s virtual schools during the 2022-23 academic year, according to a new report.

In all, those dollars covered roughly 8,500 students — a majority of those attending a handful of virtual charter schools operating in the state.

Each year, virtual charter schools are required by law to submit data to the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) with the number of student-teacher meetings conducted in-person or via video conference, classroom size, the ratio of teachers per class, as well as state funding totals.

The newest numbers were submitted to the Indiana State Budget Committee last week.

POLITICS AND EDUCATION

New Hampshire: Why the GOP Is Determined to Destroy Public Schools

This is an important article for everyone to read, no matter where you live. It explains succinctly the true goals of the privatization movement.

From Diane Ravitch

A responsible citizen is an informed citizen, and that appears to be the problem today. Too many people interested in power instead of governing don’t want a truly informed public. Instead, they want enough of the public spoon fed “alternative facts,” conspiracy theories, and outright lies to ensure they retain power although they have views that are both harmful to the majority of citizens and allow the tyranny of the minority to overturn the will of the majority.

At the heart of the minority’s transformation plan is the destruction of the public school system.

Indiana’s attempt to take shortcuts on education is costing us.

It’s time for the State to stop trying to privatize schools and start investing in our public school system.

From Masson's Blog: A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Ball State economist, Michael Hicks, has a column about Democratic run areas of the country getting richer while Republican run areas are getting poorer. He notes that the U.S. is seeing its best economic performance in the last half century but the benefits are not being distributed uniformly. He doesn’t lay the blame on one party or another because some of the underlying reasons were a long time in the making. But he does underscore the significance of educational attainment in the dynamic.

It is difficult to lay the blame for worsening economic conditions at the feet of one party or the other. For the past 50 years, there was considerable overlap in state policies, so conservative Democratic states behaved a lot like more progressive Republican states in tax, education and economic development policy.

...The 15 states that have seen the biggest relative drop in educational attainment are all solidly Republican states—and poor. Indiana ranks 10th on this list...

LOCAL NEWS

FWCS board unanimously approves $55M loan for Snider stadium

From WANE.com

At Monday’s meeting, the Fort Wayne Community Schools Board welcomed a new member and approved financing of the upcoming Snider football stadium.

The FWCS Board unanimously approved the financing of the new Snider Stadium alongside other improvements in the district. The cost will come as a loan of $55,650,000 from general obligation bonds and building corporation property tax first mortgage bonds.

FWCS Board President Maria Norman assures that the project will not raise property taxes.

Snider’s new 4,000-seat stadium will utilize a large portion of the loan. The remaining money will be used to update athletic equipment, scoreboards, and other FWCS facilities such as restrooms and offices.

^†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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In Case You Missed It – June 10, 2024

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 of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"The addition of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is one more step we can take to have a real impact on the lives of our youngest (community members),” [said Allen County Commissioner Rich Beck]. “We are ready to engage our community in securing funds not only to launch the program but to sustain it in the long run.”

Donations can be made at acpl.info/imaginationlibrary or at any branch." -- in Allen County Public Library fundraising for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

LOCAL NEWS

Allen County Public Library fundraising for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

In 1995, Dolly Parton launched the Imagination Library in Sevier County, Tennessee, where she was born and raised. She was inspired by her own father’s inability to read or write and determined that there had to be a way to help children fall in love with books. The program sends free books to children from birth to age five and helped to inspire a love of reading in the lives of the children in the mountains of her youth. Now, with your help, the same program is coming to Fort Wayne...

From Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

The Allen County Public Library is using Dolly Parton’s favorite children’s book – “The Little Engine That Could” – as the inspiration for its next fundraiser, its executive director said.

“What did the train say? ‘I think I can,’ ” Susan Baier said during a Thursday news conference. “I think we can as well. I think Allen County can make this a reality, and we are asking all of you to get the momentum going.”

The library’s staff announced a new $100,000 fundraising campaign with the Allen County Public Library Foundation to bring Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to local children. The program gives one free book each month to children from birth to age 5.

The library needs to raise money to fund the program’s launch and sustain the first two years.

Click to donate to the Imagination Library at ACPL.

FWCS expands Peacemaker program after success at South Side

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Next week, more than 60 Fort Wayne high school students will begin training with a local nonprofit on how to cultivate a culture of peace at their school during the 2024-25 school year.

Alive Community Outreach’s Peacemaker Academy started as a nonviolent leadership development program at South Side High School. Since 2021, school officials say the Alive initiative has contributed to a reduction in fights, late arrivals and disruptive conduct.

In February, the Fort Wayne Community Schools board awarded Alive a $500,000 contract to expand the Peacemaker program to North Side, Northrop, Snider and Wayne high schools with money from the school district’s recent Safer FWCS referendum.

Subsequent contracts will come to the school board yearly, Matt Schiebel, FWCS’ executive director of safety and community partnerships, told The Journal Gazette’s Ashley Sloboda. He said the district will evaluate the program’s progress annually and make adjustments as needed.

A STUDENT SUCCESS STORY

Man with Sixteen College Degrees Can’t Read

Check out this fascinating article…

From Nancy Flanagan who blogs at Teacher in a Strange Land

I mostly stay out of the Reading Wars. Not because I don’t have opinions on reading instruction. I emphatically do. I avoid the controversy because—as a lifelong music teacher—expressing that opinion inevitably leads to a pack of Science of Reading enthusiasts pointing out that I am not a reading teacher, and therefore what do I know?

This is deeply ironic, as those same SOR fans also spend lots of time criticizing experienced reading specialists. Also–I have taught in the neighborhood of 4000-5000 kids, over 30+ years, to read music, relying on a wide array of pedagogical techniques. But that form of reading instruction evidently carries no water with the SOR bullies.

I was intrigued today by a story in NY Times Magazine about Benjamin Bolger

NEW ORLEANS CHARTER DISTRICT

After a 7-year experiment, New Orleans is an all-charter district no more

This excellent article summarizes how the marketplace system fails children.

After a 7-year experiment, New Orleans is an all-charter district no more.

From Route Fifty

In August, New Orleans Public Schools will open a district-operated school named for Leah Chase, a late civil rights activist and revered matriarch of a culinary dynasty. The school will eventually serve 320 students from pre-K through eighth grade, with an emphasis on the city’s culture and history. Located in a historic building, it will replace the failing Lafayette Academy Charter School

As they hire Leah Chase’s teachers, pick its uniforms and curricula and arrange for transportation and lunches, district leaders are also creating the administrative jobs other school systems rely on to oversee individual buildings. These central office departments will make it easier for NOLA Public Schools to open more “direct-run” schools, Superintendent Avis Williams says.

You read that right: New Orleans’ love-it-or-hate-it, seven-year experiment as the nation’s first all-charter school system is coming to a close. Going forward, it will act both as a charter school authorizer and an old-fashioned school district.

INDIANA DIPLOMA CHANGES

‘You are hurting the future of the state’: Educators share views on Indiana’s proposed high school diploma changes

Listen to educators!

From 21 Alive

“You are hurting the future of this state in more ways than one with these proposed changes,” a teacher said. “You pay little to no regard to those in the trenches who have to figure out the logistics and add more to their overflowing plates to carry out your ideas.”

Back in March, the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) announced a proposal to change the number of high school diploma options from four down to two. They say the consolidation is part of an ongoing effort to rethink the high school experience making it more career-relevant and learner-centric.

In the proposal, Indiana’s future diplomas would include the Indiana GPS (Graduates Prepared to Succeed) Diploma, a more flexible version of the current Core 40 diploma, and the Indiana GPS Diploma Plus, a work-based learning approach. IDOE says the new diplomas will align with the state’s current graduation pathways and the five characteristics of the Indiana GPS model.

**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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In Case You Missed It – May 20, 2024

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 of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Vouchers were supposed to improve educational outcomes for poor children. The programs have not only failed to improve learning outcomes, they have increased racial segregation, facilitated religious discrimination, and been a windfall for the wealthy (many of whom already had children in private schools), all while robbing the nation’s public schools of desperately needed resources.

They’ve been a civic and educational disaster." -- Sheila Kennedy in Race, Religion, Money And Vouchers

VOUCHERS CONTRIBUTE TO AN INCREASE IN SEGREGATION

Race, Religion, Money And Vouchers

Not only do voucher programs drain money from public schools, fail to increase student achievement, and fill the bank accounts of religious organizations with public tax dollars, but they have also led to a rise in school segregation.

From Sheila Kennedy

The nefarious effects of educational vouchers continue to be documented.

The Washington Post recently reported on a study confirming what a number of prior studies have suggested: that an unexpected rise in racial segregation is largely attributable to the expansion of school voucher programs.

Ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, a study being released Monday shows a pronounced increase in school segregation since 1988, particularly in large school districts with significant numbers of Black students.

Overall, school segregation between Black and White students has increased by 25 percent since 1991 in the 533 large districts serving at least 2,500 Black students — a significant increase but nowhere near the decline that occurred in the aftermath of Brown, according to the study. (Of note: the paper makes clear that most of the school segregation in the United States is driven by demographic differences between districts, not within them.)

The study found that the problem was not housing segregation, although that certainly helps explain school segregation, because housing has become less segregated since 1991. It also found that rising school segregation isn’t driven by economic inequality, which has also declined over this period.

The researchers point to two specific policies: federal courts releasing school districts, including Charlotte-Mecklenburg, from obligations to desegregate schools beginning in significant numbers in the late 1990s; and school-choice policies that let parents pick what school their children attend.

Surprise!–NOT.

YET ANOTHER BILLIONAIRE WANTS TO "FIX" EDUCATION

Peter Greene: Elon Musk Proclaims His Views about Fixing Education

Your child's teachers know more about education than your local, state, and federal legislators, media pundits, and the billionaires who regularly dump their riches into schemes detrimental to public schools.

From Diane Ravitch

I think most educators would agree that they are tired of getting lectures from billionaires about how to teach or how to fix the problems of American education.

But Peter Greene reports that the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, has decided it’s time for him to add his uninformed views to those of Bill Gates, Betsy DeVos, the Walton family, and a long list of financiers, all of whom use their wealth to change the schools.

TEACHER COMPENSATION -- STILL INADEQUATE

The Grinch Who Stole Teacher Appreciation Week

The younger the children, the more important the teachers are, and the less they're paid. It's time to realign our priorities to favor our children...and our future.

From Teacher in a Strange Land Blog - Nancy Flanagan

I’ve always been of the opinion that teachers get so few routine perks in their professional lives they deserve every random treat or award that meanders their way–from sticky little misspelled mash notes to free use of a leased SUV.

After all, there aren’t many workplaces where professionals end up providing their own materials, cleaning services and professional development. There aren’t many college-educated specialists who gladly share their expertise for free–or attend a weekend conference on their own dime, then arrive at work on Monday morning, without a thought for “comp time.” Because if they didn’t show up, someone would have to pay. And it shouldn’t be the teacher next door, or their students.

For these reasons, and a hundred more, nobody begrudges teachers the tokens of appreciation that come their way this week, from the handmade construction-paper cards to the potluck lunch from the PTA. I love it when teachers invite their former students to check in on Facebook–or when they post their stats (years of experience, states/countries/schools, degrees, subjects and so on). It’s good to see colleagues reclaim their honor or share a few points of pride.

But it’s time we asked ourselves just who gets ‘appreciated’ once a year–and whose work is considered vital, essential, and fully professional year-round, with no need for annual symbolic gestures. There’s something about Teacher Appreciation Week that smacks of a pat on the head for being willing to go the distance without adequate compensation or support. We’re supposed to persist and excel ‘for the kids’–a phrase that teachers rightfully perceive as specious and manipulative.

UPGRADE FOR SCHOOL MEALS

School meals get an upgrade: What to expect going forward

From the Center for Science in the Public Interest

In April 2024, the USDA issued its 2024 Final Rule Requirements for School Meal Programs. This rule, effective July 1, 2024, updates school meal nutrition standards to bring them in closer alignment with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The rule will institute the first-ever added sugar limits for school meals and update sodium standards, among other changes.

The meal pattern changes will begin to take effect starting in school year 2025-26 and will be phased in through school year 2027-2028. The new rule represents a significant step toward science-backed nutrition standards in US schools.

In the last decade, the nutritional quality of school meals has improved significantly, thanks in large part to a 2012 rule that updated school nutrition standards following passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Between school years 2009-2010 and 2014-2015, school meals increased in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, and decreased in saturated fat and sodium.

Despite these marked improvements, school meals still have room for improvement...

LOCAL NEWS

Indiana sees record participation in voucher program

Indiana's voucher program was never meant to help "poor kids" in "failing schools." The plan has always been to divert money from public education to line the pockets of religious institutions and entrepreneurs. The fact that this harms public education is not a problem for most, and a feature for some.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Participation in Indiana’s school voucher program has nearly doubled in the last three years, with a record 70,095 students – including nearly 10,000 from Allen County – receiving money this academic year to attend private K-12 institutions, according to a new annual report.

The additional 16,833 participants – the largest-ever increase in the Choice Scholarship Program – represented a 31.6% hike from the previous year, the Indiana Department of Education report said.

Participation totaled 35,698 as recently as the 2020-21 year.

This year, students were awarded about $439 million – a 41% increase from last year’s $312 million, the report said.

How much have your county public schools lost to vouchers?

**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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In Case You Missed It – January 8, 2024

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 of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.

Happy New Year! and welcome back to NEIFPE's In Case You Missed It. This week we bring you more than a dozen articles that received wide attention on our social media platforms over the recent winter holidays. Note that the source for more than half the articles is the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. To support this vital source of local news see the link at the end of this post.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Universal ESA vouchers threaten to accomplish in Arizona exactly what they were designed to do: dismantle public education. Arizona would be wise to follow the nation in learning from our mistakes — before it’s too late." -- Beth Lewis and Dr. Sharon Kirsch in One year in, Arizona’s universal school vouchers are a cautionary tale for the rest of the nation.

VOUCHERS

Josh Cowen: 2023 Was a Banner Year for Vouchers, Censorship, and Attacks on LGBT Kids

From Diane Ravitch

Writing in the Washington Spectator, veteran voucher researcher Josh Cowen reports that 2023 was a good year for some very bad ideas, many supported by prominent rightwingers and Dark Money, whose sources are hidden.

#SCHOOLVOUCHERSCAM$

The Network for Public Education's School Voucher Scam$ page, which began in September of 2023 in response to the recent flood of irresponsible universal voucher programs includes a sorting feature that allows you to search charter scandals by state and by 12 categories. You can also search by keyword.

From the Network for Public Education


One More Time…

From Sheila Kennedy

Arizona, like Indiana, has a legislature dominated by Republicans, and those legislators sold the concept of universal vouchers by insisting (as they did in Indiana) that it would help low-income students. They also insisted that the additional cost to the state would be negligible.

As the paper reports, just one year into what it calls “this failed experiment,” it has become apparent that universal ESA vouchers are welfare for the wealthy. They are also on a path that will “devastate the state’s budget and lead to school closures, teacher layoffs, and eventually cuts to services like firefighters, health care, roads and more.”

CHARTERS

South Carolina: Moms for Liberty Will Open Their Own Charter School in Affluent Neighborhood

From Diane Ravitch

Steve Bailey, an opinion writer for the Charleston Post and Courier, wrote recently about the new charter school that will open in an affluent neighborhood in Charleston. It will use the Hillsdale College curriculum. The Moms predict it will be the highest performing school in the area. With the freedom to choose its students and to oust the ones who are problematic, it’s sure to get high gest scores.

INDIANA NEWS

Indiana public schools' learning loss recovery slow, uneven: study

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Indiana’s public schools continue to experience the effects of pandemic-related learning loss, with recovery happening at a slow and uneven pace, according to a new study by Ball State University researchers.

“We were surprised at the persistence of learning loss since COVID,” researcher Michael Hicks said in a statement. “Recovery in test scores has been modest across the state, with little to suggest a full recovery is on the way.”

Indiana joins new summer food program for school children

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Last month, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s Division of Family Resources notified the federal Department of Agriculture of its intent to participate in the 2024 Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children program.

'23 graduation rate is a testament to resilience in youth

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

As the Indiana General Assembly seeks to remake Hoosier high schools, it would be good to listen closely to educators on what’s promoting or hindering success then work toward prompting holistic strategies rather than punitive policy.

As for the graduates of 2023 — with a nod to educators and families — here’s a belated congratulations on showing perseverance during a highly anxious time in history.

These are the major education topics Indiana lawmakers expect to focus on in 2024

Topics include improving third-grade literacy, tackling chronic absenteeism, revisiting career readiness, targeting cell phones, and cracking down on antisemitism.

From the Indiana Capital Chronicle

Although Indiana lawmakers maintain the 2024 legislative session will be quicker, quieter and “noncontroversial,” there’s no shortage of critical — even touchy — education-related topics expected to be prioritized in the coming months.

Jim Banks And The GOP War On Education…

From Sheila Kennedy

Jim Banks–aka “Focus on the Family’s Man in Washington“–wants to be the next U.S. Senator from Indiana. During his tenure in the House, he has made most of his agenda very, very clear: a federal ban on abortion with no exceptions; no recognition of, or help for, trans children; no restrictions on gun ownership; no affirmative action or other recognition of the effects of racial disparities (he wants to ban DEI programs); no funding for Ukraine, and–as this last bit of news confirms– a constant war on education.

Why aren’t Hoosier kids showing up to school — and what can Indiana lawmakers do to help?

From the Indiana Capital Chronicle

Indiana lawmakers are adamant that moving bills to help improve student literacy and bolster career readiness is high-priority in the upcoming legislative session. But their efforts could end up fruitless if the state can’t solve another issue plaguing schools: Hoosier kids aren’t showing up to the classroom.

FORT WAYNE AREA NEWS

550 Whitley County children sign up for free books through expanding program

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

More than 500 Whitley County children will receive a book every month until they turn 5 through a program that’s expanding statewide, the United Way of Whitley & Kosciusko Counties announced in a news release Wednesday.

The organization is an affiliate for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a book-gifting program for children younger than 5, regardless of family income. The release said the books grow with the child, progressing from board books to picture books to full-length stories.

Fort Wayne Community Schools prepares for next major renovation

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Fort Wayne Community Schools recently checked off an initial step toward its 25th major renovation.

SACS considers hiring speaker to advance work in creating culture of belonging, understanding

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Southwest Allen County Schools’ relationship with the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism might continue, pending board approval to spend $10,000 to host the nonpartisan group’s leader early next year.

Allen County school districts find remedies for bus driver shortage

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

When East Allen County Schools is short on bus drivers, Charles Ward is among the first to pick up an additional route to ensure students arrive to school and return home.

...This practice is among the solutions Allen County school districts have used when they lack bus drivers. Other remedies include asking transportation office staff to drive and shifting schools to e-learning, something Fort Wayne Community Schools used once this fall when a significant number of drivers were absent because of personal or family sickness.

Northwest Allen County Schools busing changes 'LEAD' to benefits

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

The Northwest Allen County Schools transportation department has never been busier hiring drivers.

The district, which has about 6,300 bus riders, welcomed 15 drivers this calendar year – a record high based on the documents available to Natalie Hoffman, transportation director.

**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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In Case You Missed It – July 10, 2023

Here are links to the last two 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 of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"The best choice is your local public school. It welcomes everyone. It unifies community. It is the glue of democracy." -- Diane Ravitch

July 1 was Diane Ravitch's 85th birthday.

THE SUPREME COURT -- AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

U.S. Supreme Court Bans Affirmative Action in College Admissions. Will It Matter?

From Diane Ravitch

In a decision handed down today, the United States Supreme Court banned the use of race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The six conservative justices voted for the decision, the three moderate-liberal justices voted against it.

The media coverage stresses the likelihood that entrants to elite universities will become more Asian and more white, because of reliance on standardized tests, where those two groups typically have higher scores.

But we do not yet know how much it matters to eliminate official policies of affirmative action.

THE SUPREME COURT -- CHARTER SCHOOLS

Supreme Court Declines to Rule on Whether Charter Schools Are Public or Private

From Diane Ravitch

Matt Barnum, writing in Chalkbeat, reports that the U.S. Supreme Court declined today to rule on whether charter schools are public or private.

The case at hand was a charter school in North Carolina that required girls to wear certain types of clothing. If the school were deemed “public,” its rule would be considered discriminatory. If it were deemed “private,” the school could write its own rules about student dress.

So the question remains open, and the Court of Appeals ruling that the school could not discriminate remains in place.

THE ANTI-PUBLIC SCHOOL RIGHT WING

Politico: Republicans Flock to “Moms for Liberty” Event

From Diane Ravitch

Politico reported on the rising significance of “Moms for Liberty” among leading Republicans. “Moms” are known for their advocacy of censorship, book banning, and hatred for public schools.

BATTLE OF THE MOMS — Moms for Liberty is having a busy month...

How extremists ‘won by losing’

From School Matters

The John Birch Society was “the original Moms for Liberty,” as the headline on a recent episode of “Have You Heard” podcast puts it. Like the contemporary extremist group, it specialized in far-right rhetoric, conspiracy theories and bullying tactics. It appealed to a small but passionate group of true believers.

But there’s one big difference. The Birch Society, in its heyday of the late 1950s and ‘60s, was almost universally considered a fringe group. The news media marginalized it. Popular entertainers mocked it. Republicans, even many conservative Republicans, kept their distance.

Today, by contrast, Republican officeholders and candidates trip over themselves to appeal to Moms for Liberty and similar groups, like Indiana-based Purple for Parents. Indiana legislators fell in line with their agenda of attacking so-called critical race theory, diversity education, and LGBTQ+ youth. Lawmakers banned state funding for Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute based on disproven right-wing claims.

INDIANA -- NEW LAWS

Indiana: More Laws to Stifle Freedom of Thought and Democracy

From Diane Ravitch

These are some of the new Indiana laws that will take effect on Saturday. [Indiana is run by the GOP and they have NO respect for public schools or teachers.] Gary is a poverty area and they cannot vote for their school board members. 87% of Hoosier children attend public schools and they are continuously underfunded.

Book bans — Every public school board and charter school governing body is required to establish a procedure for the parent of any student, or any person residing in the school district, to request the removal of library materials deemed “obscene” or “harmful to minors.” School districts must also post a list of the complete holdings of its school libraries on each school’s website and provide a printed copy of the library catalogue to any individual upon request. (HEA 1447)

Charter schools...

Gary schools...

INDIANA -- EDUCATION DASHBOARD

New Indiana education dashboard data sheds light on student performance, teacher retention

From Indiana Capital Chronicle

An updated education data dashboard released this month by the Fairbanks Foundation shows declining teacher retention across Indiana, as well as increases to student suspensions and expulsions, among other trends. For the first time, the Community Data Snapshot additionally displays academic outcomes and workforce readiness information for Marion County on a school-by-school basis. Users can then sort that data by race, ethnicity and family economic status and other characteristics. The updated dashboard allows users to explore data by school corporation and compare metrics across school types, including by each district, public charter, Innovation Network, and private school — a feature not available through other online dashboards.

THE READING WARS

Rcharvet: How I Taught My Students to Love Reading

From Diane Ravitch

Rcharvet, a retired teacher and regular commenter here, explains how the pedagogy of the Common Core taught his students to dislike reading. They were supposed to read excerpts of books, not a complete book. They were expected to analyze the meaning of words and sentences instead of following the narrative of the story. Mr. Charvet became a subversive. He explains here.

...When I taught reading, I would read out loud so kids would HEAR the characters voices (yes I did the voices as well). For struggling readers they typically move through a sentence like they are walking on glass. But, we worked together.

One book that we started was “The Pig Man.” It started out slow (geez I was slow) but started liking the book to the point kids were saying, “Can we read The Pig Man and find out what happened?” They felt the words. They connected to the characters. We could ask questions like, “If you were Tommy what would you do in this case? What should the Pig Man do about the broken statue?” Then because I was making a connection to the book and trying to follow the curriculum I was deemed “moving too slow” and the department head said, “Just collect all the books and move on.”

What did I know?

Tom Ultican: “The Right to Read” is Horse Manure

Ultican shows the graphs of NAEP scores over the past thirty years: reading scores have been unchanged for 30 years. The rhetoric about “the crisis in reading” is a hoax.

From Diane Ravitch

In this illuminating post, Ultican analyzes a documentary called “The Right to Read,” which he compares to the propaganda film “Waiting for Superman.” Behind the film, he writes, is the whole apparatus of the corporate reform movement, armed with derogatory claims about public schools and a simplistic cure for literacy.

He begins:

The new 80-minute video “The Right to Read”was created in the spirit of “Waiting for Superman.” It uses false data interpretations to make phony claims about a non-existent reading crisis. Oakland’s NAACP 2nd Vice President Kareem Weaver narrates the film. Weaver is a full throated advocate for the Science of Reading (SoR) and has many connections with oligarch financed education agendas...

...One of the first media interviews about “The Right to Read” appeared on KTVX channel 4 in Salt Lake City. Ben Heuston from the Waterford Institute answered questions about the new film and the supposed “reading crisis” in American public schools. Heuston who has a PhD in psychology from Brigham Young University claimed that two-thirds of primary grade students in America read below grade level. That is a lie. He is conflating proficiency in reading on the National Assessment of Education Performance (NAEP) with grade level and should know better.

MICHIGAN SUPPORTS PUBLIC EDUCATION

Michigan Passes Historic Increases for Education

From Diane Ravitch

It’s amazing to see what a state education budget can look like when you have pro-education legislators in charge–and teachers chairing the House and Senate Education Committees and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on PreK-12.

The budget includes:

•universal school meals

•foundation allowance increase of 5% — the largest in state history

•fully funded special education programs

•expanded Pre-K programs

•student teacher stipends for K-12

...Budgets are about more than dollars—they are moral documents; and in Michigan we are showing that we value our children, our families, and our future...

NAEP TESTING

John Thompson: The Misinterpretation of NAEP Data

From Diane Ravitch

John Thompson writes here about the negative consequences of shallow reporting on NAEP data. Reporters are sensitive to whether scores are up or down, but tend to ignore contextual factors that may play a role in student performance.

He writes:

Despite the problems with education metrics, the decline in the nation’s 2022 math and reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test is worrisome – if we look at the big picture.

As Diane Ravitch explained, the decline in scores during the pandemic was a “duh” moment. Rather than publishing panicky headlines, these predictable drops in scores should be seen in the broader context of the decade of declines which followed the implementation of rushed and simplistic corporate school reforms. And, as we should have done previously, we must acknowledge what reformers should have previously understood – meaningful increases in learning require inter-connected, holistic team efforts, as opposed to metric-driven instructional shortcuts.

^†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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