In Case You Missed It – October 17, 2022

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

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THIS WEEK

Steven Singer refutes Republican nightmares about public schools, North Carolina wants to used test scores to grade teachers, teaching the controversy of the holocaust, and new plans for NACS.

REPUBLICAN NIGHTMARES

Top Five Republican Nightmare Fantasies About Public Schools

Do public schools teach children to be gay? Steven Singer refutes Republican nightmare fantasies about public schools.

From Gadfly on the Wall Blog

Republicans are fighting against a version of public education that does not exist.

Critical race theory, pornographic school books, and other bogeymen haunt their platforms without any evidence that this stuff is a reality.

Doug Mastriano, the GOP nominee for Governor of Pennsylvania, actually promises to ban pole dancing in public schools.

Pole dancing!

“On day one, the sexualization of our kids, pole dancing, and all this other crap that’s going on will be forbidden in our schools,” he says.

Mr. Mastriano, I hate to tell you this, but the only school in the commonwealth where there was anything like what you describe was one of those charter schools you love so much. The Harambee Institute of Science and Technology Charter School in Philadelphia used to run an illegal nightclub in the cafeteria after dark.

But at authentic public schools with things like regulations and school boards – no. That just doesn’t happen here.

Maybe if your plan to waste taxpayer dollars on universal school vouchers goes through you’ll get your wish.

But reality has never stopped the state Senator from complaining about a list of fictional public education woes.

CONTINUED PRIVATIZATION IN NORTH CAROLINA

North Carolina: A Teacher Explains Why the State is Pushing a Disastrous Plan

Here is another response to North Carolina's new education plan that continues to move public education in the state from a highly acclaimed system a decade ago to privatization. The plan calls for paying teacher for test scores, which hasn't worked and ends up driving teachers out of education...causing a teacher shortage.

...which is likely one of the goals of the privatizers. Peter Greene explains more about the plan in his Forbes column -- Who Is Behind North Carolina’s Plan To Upend Teacher Pay.

From Diane Ravitch

A few days ago, I posted a column by Peter Greene about a dreadful plan in North Carolina to align teacher pay and evaluation with test scores, an approach that has always failed and that always demoralizes teachers.

Peter was relying on the thorough research of Justin Parmenter, a North Carolina teacher who is a National Board Certified Teacher.

Another North Carolina teacher wrote the following comment...

TEACHING CONTROVERSIES

Teachers: Would Your District or State Allow You to Teach Ken Burns’ Series on the Holocaust?

New state laws about teaching "controversies" might get in the way of teaching history.

John Thompson's comments can be found here, John Thompson: Will Oklahoma Schools Dare to Show Ken Burns’ Series on the U.S. and the Holocaust?

From Diane Ravitch

I recently posted a commentary by John Thompson, a retired teacher in Oklahoma who speculated about whether the state would permit high school teachers to teach Ken Burns’ series on the U.S. and the Holocaust. Oklahoma has a law—HB 1775–which might intimidate teachers.

In response, a teacher in Utah said that he or she felt sure that the Burns’ series would not be allowed because it’s controversial.

NACS PLAN FOR SHAPING THE FUTURE

Creating a 'North Star' among goals for Northwest Allen County Schools superintendent

The new superintendent of Northwest Allen County Schools announces his plan to collect input from district stakeholders.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Superintendent Wayne Barker plans to give Northwest Allen County Schools stakeholders an opportunity to shape the district’s future.

Leading the 8,000-student district through a strategic planning process is among four goals Barker and the school board set for his superintendency. That’s the best way to collect input the public is eager to share, Barker said Monday.

“It’s letting the community, first of all, say, ‘Here’s what we want from Northwest Allen County Schools,’” Barker said. “‘These are the things that are important to us. These are the things that maybe we do well now. Here are things that we should be focused on in the future.’”

Although Barker has spearheaded strategic plans in other districts, he said the district will likely hire someone to do that work, and not just because of the district’s size.

“We need to make sure it, quite honestly, looks neutral, that we totally solicit the public’s input on that in a neutral way,” Barker said, acknowledging the tensions and division NACS has experienced in recent years.

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

^†Note: NEIFPE's In Case You Missed It is posted by the end of the day every Monday except after holiday weekends or as otherwise noted.

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How to Reward Teachers

by Phyllis Bush

The topic of performance payouts has gotten a great deal of reaction in the past few days. While I would imagine that those who came up with the plan for rewarding teachers were well-intended, I have a lot of issues with merit or performance pay for teachers.

While I was still in the classroom, I thought of myself as a career teacher and as a professional—not as a trained monkey who would perform for a reward. The whole concept of rewards strikes me in much the same way as when students used to ask me if they could get extra credit for this or that. My stock answer was usually something like this: your reward should be the intrinsic value of learning and from the value of spending 55 minutes per day with me.

Most good teachers do not do the things that they do that are above and beyond their contract so that they can be rewarded. They do it because it is the right thing to do. That is not how most teachers are wired. When I paid for things out of my own pocket for my students or for my own classroom, I did it because it needed to be done...not because I was looking for a reward or a Bozo button.

If legislators or schools districts really want to reward teachers, perhaps the best way would be to afford them respect as professionals by providing positive working conditions, by making sure that class sizes are small, by providing salaries that are commensurate with their education and experience level, by providing adequate social services to help children, by funding districts equitably, and by listening to educators' concerns about developmentally and instructionally appropriate methods of teaching.

Merit pay and performance payouts pit teachers against one another. Whether the intent was to reward teachers in specific zip codes, I cannot say, but whatever the case, the result is yet another slap in the face to those who work in the "wrong" district.

[EDITOR: This article was published as a letter in the December 29 edition of the Fort Wayne, News Sentinel]

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