In Case You Missed It – March 4, 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

"I wonder how many Indiana legislators who have voted to add more testing for Hoosier kids spent hours in their elementary being tested and then evaluated by those standardized tests. Judging by the age of many if not most of them, I would guess very few. I am sure these people must have children/grandchildren in Indiana schools. How is it that they ignore data and expertise that clearly shows testing does not produce good educational results and in that ignorance continue to vote for more tests?" -- NEIFPE member Terry Springer on FaceBook.

LOCAL FORT WAYNE AREA NEWS

Local stories dominated our social media this week, covering all four of our local school districts, and highlighting the importance of strong local news sources. Please support Fort Wayne area news sources.

This week's articles target elections, early childhood, and retirements. Subscribe to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette** and read the full articles online.

"Across the country...fewer eyeballs are probing into whether local and state governments are spending our tax dollars wisely. Fewer feature stories are being written about local people innovatively serving their towns. Fewer editorialists are helping shape a city or state’s agenda." -- William McKenzie, Senior Editorial Advisor at the Bush Institute in Strong Local Newspapers Are a Key to Strengthening Our Democracy

Residents push back on Northwest Allen County Schools election discussions

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Early discussion about Northwest Allen County Schools potentially adjusting board elections received pushback this week from residents, but the member instigating the topic said his efforts will continue.

“At some point, I will put together some sort of plan for this board to look at and decide what makes sense,” Darren Vogt said during Monday’s board meeting. “It will be listening to those folks in the audience and those folks that aren’t here that have talked to me about it as well. This is a community decision. Any plan that I present will be debated and discussed.”

The five-member school board has two at-large members and three members elected from residency districts – Eel River, Lake and Perry townships. All voters within NACS may vote for all five seats, regardless of their address.

Vogt, who was elected as an at-large member in 2022, said last month it’s time to revisit the residency districts because the townships vary in population.

Southwest Allen County Schools superintendent announces retirement

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

After an education career of 38 years, the Southwest Allen County Schools superintendent announced his retirement in a letter to parents Friday.

Park Ginder said he will retire at the end of the school year.

“I feel fortunate and privileged to collaborate with some of the brightest, most compassionate and dedicated faculty and staff, consistently making extraordinary contributions to the lives of our students and each other,” he said in the letter.

Ginder became the district’s superintendent in June 2021 after working as the principal at Homestead High School since 2013. He has also worked as principal at DeKalb High School, assistant principal at Carroll High School and department head and art teacher at Northrop High School and Shawnee Middle School.

East Allen County Schools considers early childhood agreement with Fort Wayne Community Schools

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

The East Allen County Schools board could approve an agreement next week with Fort Wayne Community Schools about a proposed early childhood learning center serving the districts’ teen parents.

The proposed memorandum of understanding indicates the facility is anticipated to be within EACS’ boundaries at Queen Street and Werling Drive in southeast Fort Wayne.

FWCS would be responsible for costs associated with constructing, equipping and operating the center because the districts anticipate “significantly more” FWCS students would have children attending the facility’s programs, the memorandum states.

The document further indicates that EACS would pay mutually agreed fees, if any.

FWCS announced in late 2022 that it planned to open a child care and early learning center to support teens balancing parenthood and high school.

Indiana Tech guarantees admission, tuition for eligible Fort Wayne Community Schools grads

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

All Fort Wayne Community Schools students who graduate with a minimum 2.0 GPA will be guaranteed admission to Indiana Tech under a new program announced Monday.

Promise IT will also cover full tuition and fees for FWCS students who are eligible for full federal Pell Grant and state college aid, Indiana Tech said in a news release. Students who aren’t Pell eligible will have access to other scholarship opportunities at the university to increase affordability.

The program begins with the next academic year.

Fort Wayne Community Schools to part with transportation site

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Fort Wayne Community Schools will soon seek buyers for property related to the recently shuttered South Transportation Center.

The school board on Monday approved a resolution authorizing the disposal of the 8.53-acre site, 6006 Ardmore Ave. The transportation center closed less than a year ago because of consolidation with the north location along Cook Road.

The district hired Steffen Group to handle the marketing and sale of the property.

Online personal property and real estate auctions are scheduled for April with board approval expected May 13, Chief Financial Officer Rosie Shipman said after the meeting.

Combining the two transportation centers has led to savings in areas including utilities and maintenance costs, said Renee Dawson, transportation director.

RETENTION IMPACTS ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

How the reading retention bill moving through Indiana Statehouse impacts English learners

Once again...does retention even help? Most research says no.

Also note that schools still face a penalty for low test scores...but are constrained by the legislature's micromanagement of schools and curriculum. Do legislators have more expertise than educators in curriculum and teaching methods?

From Chalkbeat* via WISHTV.com

...The bill includes “good cause” exemptions to retention for several groups of students, including English learners who have received services for less than two years and whose teachers and parents agree that promotion is appropriate.

But advocates for English learners say that the exemption for this population doesn’t align with what research says about how long it takes for students to learn a new language.

With a growing population of 93,000 English learners in Indiana, and a history of shortages of educators licensed to teach language learners, advocates worry that English learners will be denied an appropriate education if they’re retained. The state also has an increasing number of immigrant students, some of whom will need language services.

Advocates also say the provision conflicts with the state’s implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which gives students six years to demonstrate proficiency in English before their schools face a penalty. Federal law also states that English learners should not be retained solely on the basis of their English language proficiency and that they are entitled to age-appropriate curriculum and participation in school programs.

CURMUDGUCATION WEEKLY READING LISTS

ICYMI: In Like A Weasel Edition (3/3)

Like NEIFPE, Peter Greene at Curmudgucation, releases a weekly list of important education-related articles. Check it out.

From Peter Greene at Curmudgucation

Welcome to the GOP's new education agenda: Loot our public schools for private vouchers

Governor Roy Cooper and Governor Andy Bashear team up in this USA Today op-ed and they mince no words. If you'd like to see an elected official actually stand up for public education, you'll want to read this.

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

**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 – February 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

"'The primary role of chaplains is to provide pastoral or religious counseling to people in spiritual need,' the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana said in a statement. 'Allowing them to assume official positions — whether paid or voluntary — in public schools will create an environment ripe for religious coercion and indoctrination of students.'

"Without any oversight to prevent chaplains from imposing their own religious viewpoint on the children they counsel, HB 1192 and SB 50 could undermine the religious freedom of students of all faiths and no faith." -- the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette** editorial board.

INDIANA GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 2024

Faith-based school chaplains would test First Amendment

We included this article from last week's In Case You Missed It again this week. It continues to be read and spread through social media. And now the Senate has passed their version of the bill.

Contact your state representative to stop this bill before it goes any further. We need trained counselors in our public schools, not religious indoctrination. Indiana taxpayers already fund sectarian religious instruction through school vouchers. No more.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Indiana’s student-to-counselor ratio ranks worst in the nation, according to the 2023 State of the Indiana Girl Report published in September.

Two bills introduced in the General Assembly — one in the House, the other in the Senate — seek to fill the counselor void, but critics say their solution is unconstitutional and could end up further harming some children’s emotional and mental health.

...Proponents of HB 1192 and SB 50 likely will tout the proposals as remedies to the mental health needs of Hoosier students.

Chaplains are trained and certified to provide spiritual and emotional support. Lawmakers should leave mental health care services to the professional school counselors qualified to do that job.

Allen County school districts react to bill aiming to address 3rd graders who fail state reading exam

Does retention even work?

"Tamyra Kelly, a public information officer for East Allen County Schools, said they’re in favor of any extra support for students learning to read.

"'In our experience, retention would not be the answer. A bill that could fund earlier intervention and supports would be most favorable to schools and their students,' Kelly said."

From WANE.com

School district leaders in the greater Fort Wayne area are reacting to a state bill that focuses on making sure students can read proficiently by the end of 3rd grade.

Senate Bill 1 would support holding back students who fail the Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination assessment (IREAD-3), a grade three reading assessment developed in accordance with state legislation, while also requiring schools to give remediation to students at risk of not passing.

The bill was written by Sen. Linda Rogers (R) and 30 other GOP lawmakers. Once referred to as the “retention bill” by some, Senate Bill 1 has been amended to contain more efforts before getting to retention, with that being more of a last resort.

CHILD TAX CREDIT EXPANSION

U.S. House Passes Child Tax Credit Expansion. Bill Heads to Senate.

Children learn best when they are safe, well-fed, and well-cared for. The tax credit expansion will help.

From Jan Resseger's Blog

For a long time, the needs of poor children have not been much of a motivator for American social policy reform.

Many of us remember Bill Clinton “ending welfare as we know it” in 1996, but we have very likely forgotten the title of the bill that ended welfare: the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, a law whose name specifically blamed the poor for a lax attitude about bettering themselves through work. The American Rescue Plan generously expanded the Child Tax Credit and made it fully refundable. That COVID relief bill, passed in March of 2021, reduced child poverty in the United States by 40 percent during that year, but Congress allowed it to expire at the beginning of 2022, when Joe Manchin and the majority of Congressional Republicans said the modest cash payments were discouraging parents from working. This month, the Washington Post reported another example of politicians punishing children for the supposed sins of their parents: Republican governors in 15 states have rejected a new, federally funded program to give food assistance to hungry children during the summer when school is not in session. Nebraska’s governor said: “I don’t believe in welfare.”

While a lot of politicians have shown themselves willing to overlook the well documented needs of millions of U.S. children, last night the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bipartisan compromise tax bill that combines business tax breaks and significant expansion of the Child Tax Credit. The bill will now move to the U.S. Senate.

FORT WAYNE AREA NEWS

Southwest Allen County Schools begins strategic plan process

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Small-group conversations Wednesday among Southwest Allen County Schools stakeholders – including students, parents and teachers – marked the beginning of a four-month effort that should end with a roadmap for the district.

School board President Jennifer Bennett expects the final product – a strategic plan – will ensure that district leaders are basing decisions on a cohesive vision.

“I’m excited to get this process going,” she told about 40 people gathered at the transportation conference room for the first of four strategic planning sessions.

Along with collecting feedback from invited participants, SACS will seek input from the broader community via an emailed survey, Superintendent Park Ginder said.

Bidding closes for NACS construction projects

From WANE.com

Northwest Allen County School Board Members approved maximum price amendments for three construction projects in the district.

Bids for the Carroll High School additions and renovations, Willow Creek Middle School, and Central Office construction are closed as contracts with Weigand Construction were approved Monday.

The guaranteed maximum price amendment for the three projects adds up to approximately $130 million. They will be funded through lease financing which will keep the community’s tax rate the same. Wayne Barker, Superintendent of NACS, said the costs are less than what they expected.

Groundbreaking nears for Northwest Allen County Schools construction projects

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Northwest Allen County Schools expects to celebrate groundbreakings next month as three projects totaling $130 million in construction costs get underway.

“Countless hours have been spent to get us to here,” Superintendent Wayne Barker told the board Monday, adding that contractors could start moving dirt next week. “It won’t come soon enough because we have students to educate, and they keep coming. So that’s a very good problem.”

The board agreed last spring to address increasing enrollment by building a third middle school and by expanding and renovating Carroll High School. The elected leaders also approved construction of a central office because it has outgrown its space at Perry Hill Elementary School. That project includes renovations to Perry Hill.

Board action Monday addressed the projects’ guaranteed maximum price. Willow Creek Middle School will cost about $73.5 million; the Carroll improvements will cost about $41.1 million; and the new central office and Perry Hill renovations will cost about $15.8 million.

**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 15, 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

"PEN America reported that more than 1,600 books have been removed from circulation until they have received approval from school officials. The big joke in Escambia County [FL] is that a dictionary is in the Escambia list of books that possibly violate the law. Actually, five dictionaries!" -- From Diane Ravitch in PEN America: Escambia County, Florida, Banned More than 1,600 Books, Including 5 Dictionaries!

BANNING BOOKS IN AMERICA

PEN America: Escambia County, Florida, Banned More than 1,600 Books, Including 5 Dictionaries!

Republicans want to be the ones to decide what K-12 students can read.

(Emphasis in original)

From Diane Ravitch

Five dictionaries are on the district’s list of more than 1,600 books banned pending investigation in December 2023, along with eight different encyclopedias, The Guinness Book of World Records, and Ripley’s Believe it or Not – all due to fears they violate the state’s new laws banning materials with “sexual conduct” from schools.

Biographies of Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, Nicki Minaj, and Thurgood Marshall are on the list, alongside The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Black Panther comics by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The Feminism Book was banned along with The Teen Vogue Handbook: An Insider’s Guide to Careers in Fashion.

The list obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project also includes Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. The Princess Diaries and 14 other books by Meg Cabot have been taken from libraries, alongside books by David Baldacci, Lee Child, Michael Crichton, Carl Hiassen, Jonathan Franzen, John Green, John Grisham, Stephen King (23 of them), Dean Koontz, Cormac McCarthy, Celeste Ng, James Patterson, Jodi Picoult, and Nicholas Sparks. Conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly’s two books, Killing Jesus and Killing Reagan, were also banned pending investigation.

THIRD GRADE RETENTION

GOP lawmakers look to cut exemptions to grade retentions

Contrary to this editorial, retained students are at a higher risk of dropping out. At best, retention doesn't help.

The writers also cite a New York Times columnist's claim that "retention of third graders [was] 'perhaps the most important single element' of Mississippi’s apparent success" in the state's improved fourth-grade test scores. Could it be that the improved test scores were because low-achieving students were held back in third grade and were no longer included in the fourth-grade cohort?

Yet states continue to double down on third-grade retention. A student's future should not be determined by a test score.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Last school year, more than 65,000 Hoosier third graders – or 81.9% – demonstrated proficient reading skills on the state’s IREAD-3 reading test, according to the Indiana Department of Education.

In Allen County, 93.1% of third graders in Northwest Allen County Schools, 88.5% at Southwest Allen County Schools, 79.5% at East Allen County Schools and 70.9% at Fort Wayne Community Schools passed IREAD-3. Statewide, scores improved just 0.3%.

As reading scores have decreased, retention rates also have fallen, causing thousands of students to enter fourth grade unable to read at grade level. State education department data show more than 96% of students who did not pass IREAD-3 advanced to fourth grade.

Urgent improvement for all student populations will be essential to achieve Gov. Eric Holcomb’s worthy goal of 95% of all Indiana third graders passing IREAD-3 by 2027. He and Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston presented their legislative agendas Monday for the 2024 session. Improving elementary student literacy rates is among their top concerns.

LIES, LIES, AND MORE LIES

Arthur Camins: The Lies That Protect the 1%

(Emphasis in original)

From Diane Ravitch

Liar, Liar. Pants on Fire. The lies from the powerful, especially Republicans, have risen to stunningly Orwellian 2 + 2 = 5 levels. The lies that protect their wealth and power have been quite successful at gaining wide acceptance. They keep at it because they know most of us reject a grossly inequitable society in which only some people enjoy a stable secure life. Inevitably, the truth seeps through the cracks in their wall of deceptions. Most Americans want fairness and access to decisions that affect our lives. The purveyors of self-protecting fabrications are afraid of the truth. Increasingly, they resort to authoritarianism, outlawing truth-telling, spreading misinformation, and blocking democratic processes.

The well-trod lies are designed to sound like common sense but are demonstrably false. They include:

Providing parents with choices through school vouchers and charter schools improves achievement and equity.

No, they support the privileged, starve and undermine public education, and get the rest of us to fight amongst ourselves for scraps.

PUBLIC EDUCATION SALARY INCREASES

Indiana teacher salaries are on the rise — but averages still fall short of governor’s goal

From Indiana Capital Chronicle

New data shows Indiana’s teacher pay is ticking up — but still trails behind averages in neighboring states — as the debate over Hoosier educator salaries continues.

The average teacher salary in Indiana is $58,531 — up from about $57,000 the year prior — according to the 2022-23 state teacher compensation report by the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board (IEERB).

The lowest teacher salary reported was $38,000. The highest is about $108,000.

More than 31,000 full-time Hoosier teachers earn above the statewide average. Almost 32,000 educators still earn below that margin, per the report.

Currently, Indiana law requires a minimum salary of $40,000 for each full-time teacher. The Indiana State Teachers Association’s (ISTA) county-by-county map of average teacher salaries and starting salaries shows most, but not all, Hoosier districts have raised salary minimums during the previous and current school years.

But representatives from the state’s largest teacher union told the Indiana Capital Chronicle that the latest IEERB report shows “there is still work to be done in achieving the teacher salary goals set by the governor in 2020.”

New custodial, maintenance, transportation contracts OK'd at East Allen County Schools

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

East Allen County Schools’ custodial, maintenance and transportation staff will receive bigger paychecks this year, following a school board vote this week.

The elected leaders approved two-year agreements Tuesday with the EACS Custodian Association, the EACS Maintenance Association and the EACS Transportation Association. The contracts were ratified by each union in December.

Terms include raises comparable to other negotiated groups. Compensation for 2025 will be revisited during reopeners, said Pat McCann, chief financial officer.

**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 – December 18, 2023

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.

NEIFPE's In Case You Missed It will be on hiatus until January 8. Thank you for your support of public education.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"The evidence that grade retention will work over the long run is mixed, at best. And making students repeat a grade has negative social and emotional impacts, especially for poor children and students of color. Let’s hope Indiana officials keep all that in mind in their efforts to improve reading." -- Steve Hinnefeld in More on Reading and Retention

GRADE RETENTION

Retention of students in grade has been used for decades as a way to help slower learners "catch up." In recent years state legislatures have required third-grade students to pass a reading test or be retained. Yet retention alone doesn't seem to help in the long run.

Do we even know if the tests accurately measure student learning?

Grade Retention Sleight of Hand

Peter Greene is a retired English teacher. Here he uses his knowledge to explain how words are used to put a positive spin on grade retention while downplaying the need for additional help for struggling students aside from retention.

From Curmudgucation

Flunking 8 and 9 year olds because they didn't pass a Big Standardized Test is easy; giving additional supports and resources to students in poor and under-resourced schools is hard. "Flunk everyone who didn't make the cut score," is quick and simple. Broad support systems require investments of time, money, and staffing. And, of course, the retention is a hot new reform idea, while the broad support for students who need it has been the request of teachers since the invention of dirt.

Maybe this research is solid, or maybe it's just well-packed baloney. I'm not going to get into that now (though my suspicions have a first name). But even if this is legit, the framing of it is irresponsible; it's a sleight of hand trick aimed at getting you to pick the card they want you to pick. Whenever someone brings up this report, ask them why they didn't write the sentence the other way.

More on reading and retention

Steve Hinnefeld at School Matters wants to know if 'parental rights' will be ignored when it comes to the retention of students in grade.

From School Matters

Indiana legislators say they want more children to repeat third grade if they don’t pass the state’s IREAD-3 test. Data released last week suggest that would be a big change in elementary schools.

According to the Indiana Department of Education, nearly all third-graders who weren’t proficient on IREAD-3 in spring 2023 were promoted to fourth grade anyway. Many of those students had “good-cause exemptions” because they were in special education, were English learners or had previously been held back twice. But even among the 8,337 students without such exemptions, 95% were promoted.

WHAT HAPPENED?

The Rise and Fall of Moms For Liberty

Moms for Liberty has had some difficulties lately...

From The Progressive: Public Schools Advocate

On June 30, 2023, a Washington Post headline declared “Moms for Liberty didn’t exist three years ago. Now it’s a GOP kingmaker.” On November 10, 2023, after a raft of school board elections across the country, the Post ran another headline: “Voters drub Moms for Liberty ‘parental rights’ candidates at the ballot.” Moms for Liberty (M4L) not only didn’t make any kings, it didn’t even make many school board members. What happened?

FRACKING OUR ATTENTION

John Thompson: The Most Important Lesson That Students Need Today

Can we restore our attention?

From Diane Ravitch

D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh, and Peter Schmidt begin their New York Times opinion piece, “Powerful Forces Are Fracking Our Attention. We Can fight Back,” with an eloquent version of a statement that should have long been obvious:

We are witnessing the dark side of our new technological lives, whose extractive profit models amount to the systematic fracking of human beings: pumping vast quantities of high-pressure media content into our faces to force up a spume of the vaporous and intimate stuff called attention, which now trades on the open market. Increasingly powerful systems seek to ensure that our attention is never truly ours.

Then Burnett, Loh, and Schmidt use equally insightful language to explain why “We Can Fight Back” against “the little satanic mills that live in our pockets.” They recall that “for two centuries, champions of liberal democracy have agreed that individual and collective freedom requires literacy.” Today we face widespread complaints that reading is being undermined by “perpetual distraction,” due to commercial use of digital technologies. They add, “What democracy most needs now is an attentive citizenry — human beings capable of looking up from their screens, together.”

FORT WAYNE LOCAL NEWS

Fort Wayne Community Schools board awards superintendent with raise, bonus

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Superintendent Mark Daniel’s salary will increase by 3% under his second raise since returning to Fort Wayne Community Schools more than three years ago.

Maria Norman, school board president, announced the board’s decision to increase the superintendent’s compensation and award him a $5,000 bonus during Monday’s meeting. She noted the raise aligned with the raises other employees received.

**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 – October 24, 2022

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

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

THIS WEEK

A judge in Mississippi understands that public funds shouldn't be spent on private, religious schools.

Memphis, Tennessee school board rejects two new charters.

Jan Resseger (as promoted by Diane Ravitch) argues against third-grade retention laws.

And a middle school teacher wonders why we don't care enough about children to protect them from gun violence.

UNLIKE INDIANA, MISSISSIPPI JUDGE RULES AGAINST VOUCHERS

Mississippi: Judge Rules Against Using Public Funds for Private Schools

A decade ago, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that state tax money, in the form of vouchers, can be spent at religious institutions despite Article I, Section 4, and Section 6, of the Indiana Constitution...

Section 4. No preference shall be given, by law, to any creed, religious society, or mode of worship; and no person shall be compelled to attend, erect, or support, any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry, against his consent.

Section 6: No money shall be drawn from the treasury, for the benefit of any religious or theological institution.

The money used for school vouchers in Indiana belongs to the public schools and is diverted to mostly Christian, religious schools. Apparently, even Mississippi knows better.

From Diane Ravitch

Here is good news. The politicians in Mississippi tried to divert public funds to benefit private schools. This is taking from the poor and middle-class to benefit the children of the affluent. The judge said no. In most red states, state judges have repeatedly ruled that state constitutions are invalid when it comes to funding private and religious schools. All state constitutions require that public funds are for public schools. Mississippi is lucky to have a judge who ruled that the state constitution means what it says.

CHARTER SCHOOL SETBACK IN MEMPHIS

Tennessee: State Charter Commission Rejects Two Charter Schools in Memphis

Charters lose this round in Tennessee.

From Diane Ravitch

The executive director of the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission has recommended against approving two proposed charter schools in Memphis, siding with a school board that found the charter applications failed to meet state standards.

Tess Stovall’s recommendations uphold the Memphis-Shelby County School board’s unanimous decision in April and again in July to reject the applications for the proposed Binghampton Community School and Tennessee Volunteer Military Academy. Leaders of both schools had appealed the decisions to the state.

END MANDATORY THIRD GRADE RETENTION

Jan Resseger: Why Ohio Must End the Failed Policy of 3rd Grade Retention

Third grade retention policy, which is also part of Indiana's education environment, should be ended. Diane Ravitch reports on why retaining students in third grade is a bad idea.

From Diane Ravitch

Jeb Bush and his ExcelInEd Foundation have been dogged promoters of the Third Grade Guarantee, but last May, the Columbus Dispatch’s Anna Staver traced Ohio’s enthusiasm for the Third Grade Guarantee to the Annie E. Casey Foundation: “In 2010, the Annie E. Casey Foundation released a bombshell special report called ‘Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters.’ Students, it said, who don’t catch up by fourth grade are significantly more likely to stay behind, drop out and find themselves tangled in the criminal justice system. ‘The bottom line is that if we don’t get dramatically more children on track as proficient readers, the United States will lose a growing and essential proportion of its human capital to poverty… And the price will be paid not only by the individual children and families but by the entire country.’”

But it turns out that promoters of the Third-Grade Guarantee ignored other research showing that when students are held back—in any grade—they are more likely later to drop out of school before they graduate from high school. In 2004, writing for the Civil Rights Project, Lisa Abrams and Walt Haney reported: “Half a decade of research indicates that retaining or holding back students in grade bears little to no academic benefit and contributes to future academic failure by significantly increasing the likelihood that retained students will drop out of high school.” (Gary Orfield, ed., Dropouts in America, pp. 181-182)

DO WE CARE ABOUT KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE?

Will We Even Try to Keep Students and Teachers Safe from Gun Violence? Or Just Keep Preparing for the Worst?

Right-wing politicians get all bent out of shape by the "damage" done to America's school children who were forced to wear masks in order to keep them, their peers, their families, and school staff safe during the coronavirus pandemic, don't seem to care enough to do much about the "pandemic" of school shootings.

From Gadfly on the Wall Blog

“Teachers, we are operating on a lockdown. Please keep your doors locked until we tell you it has been lifted.”

Before me a sea of wide eyes and scared faces.

I slowly walked toward the door continuing the lesson I had been giving before the announcement. The door was already shut and secured but I nonchalantly turned the extra deadbolt.

“Click!” it sounded like a gunshot across the suddenly silent room.

I continued talking while making my way back to the blackboard pretending that nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

That’s just life in the classroom these days.

According to Education Week, there have been 38 school shootings in the US this year resulting in injuries or deaths. That’s up from 34 last year and the highest it’s been since the media source began tracking such things in 2018.

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, there were only 10 such shootings in 2020, and 24 each in 2019 and 2018.

That comes to a total of 130 school shootings in the last five years.

“Mr. Singer, can I go to the bathroom?” DeVon asked.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “We’re still under lockdown. I’ll write you a pass as soon as it’s lifted.”

It seems like nowhere is safe.

^†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 21, 2021

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

RACISM AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY

Critical Race Theory is "...an academic movement of civil-rights scholars and activists who seek to critically examine the law as it intersects with issues of race and to challenge mainstream liberal approaches to racial justice. Critical race theory examines social, cultural and legal issues as they relate to race and racism."

Schools don't "teach" Critical Race Theory, but state legislatures and school boards around the country are coming out against the "teaching" of Critical Race Theory in public schools. Is teaching that the first enslaved people arrived on North American shores in 1619 (and earlier) untrue? Is teaching that the Constitution had slavery clauses embedded within it teaching children to hate America? Is teaching about slavery, Jim Crow, and the failure of Reconstruction anti-American?

Of course not. Racism exists. Race as a source of conflict in the United States exists. Race has had an impact on the laws, history, and people of our country. Teaching about that impact is not anti-American. It does not mean that schools are "indoctrinating" children to hate America. It means that we teach children who we are...the good and the bad.

Public Schools Are Not Indoctrinating Kids About Racism. Voucher Schools ARE

From Gadfly on the Wall Blog

Republican frenzy has reached a fever pitch with attacks in at least 16 states on schools that allegedly teach Critical Race Theory.

Right-wingers claim public schools are indoctrinating America’s youth in lies and deception about race and racism – namely the “lie” that these things remain problems.

They grudgingly concede that racism was a (slight) problem in this country before the civil rights movement, but then Rosa sat down and Martin stood up and – POOF – racism was over.

End of story. Let’s move on.

However, there are several things wrong with this besides its basic reductivism.

First, no public school actually teaches Critical Race Theory.

Second, racism is not over in the US, and talking about the facts of history and how they led to our current situation is not indoctrination. It’s education – the job of public schools.

And finally, if you really want to see taxpayer funded indoctrination, look at private and parochial schools accepting taxpayer funding through voucher and tax credit programs.

Using Critical Race Theory To Target... Everything

Critical race theory- people who have no idea what it is are twisting it to gag the teaching of real and accurate history.

From Curmudgucation

...The vast majority of people talking about and talking against critical race theory have no clear idea of what it is, and so it is being used as a bludgeon against everything unpopular or controversial. Florida Citizens Alliance, one of the many anti-CRT groups popping up around the country talks about "the many tentacles" of CRT; those tentacles include "'equity', 'diversity', BLM, 1619 project, social emotional learning, etc." They consider it a CRT red flag if a textbook claims to use culturally sensitive teaching. Parents Defending Education, one of the leading astro-turf groups in the fight is against "indoctrination" and wants a return to "non-political" education, and they want you to know that Americans (at least the real ones) hate "woke" policies. Nevada Family Alliance is opposed to the "victim/oppressor worldview" pushed by schools that are indoctrinating students to "lead the effort to accomplish 'social justice'".

CRT is everything, everywhere.

It's fitting that some of these folks have linked CRT to Common Core, because the playbook is much the same. Define the term broadly, apply it to anything you don't like, dig up some wacky examples, raise some hell. (And don't forget to throw in some accusations of Marxism.)

There are several emerging trends.

Florida’s New Critical Race Theory Gag Rule Will Have A Chilling Effect in Classrooms.

From Peter Greene in Forbes

...states have passed, or are considering, legislation that bans broad topics such as “divisive ideas” or the idea that an individual, “by virtue of his or her race or sex is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive.” Oklahoma’s law says that the concepts such as the idea that “any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex” can’t be made part of a course. The list is typically composed of characteristics that opponents of critical race theory claim it contains.

But Board of Education member Tom Grady took Florida’s rule a step further by explicitly banning Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project, as well as explicitly forbidding any idea that racism is in any way systemic or “embedded in American society.”

The rule manages to be both specific and vague at the same time; like many of these bills, it offers a definition of CRT that proponents of CRT would not necessarily recognize. Attempts to clarify are not necessarily helpful; when asked the department about teaching the Ocoee massacre, a 1920 attack by a white mob on a Black community, a reporter was told, apparently in writing, “The Ocoee massacre was a historical event. Like all historical events, it will be taught thoroughly.”

Justin Parmenter: North Carolina Tries to Control What Teachers Teach

From Diane Ravitch

NCBT Teacher Justin Parmenter writes here about the reaction of the Republican-controlled Legislature to their rampant fear that teachers might try to indoctrinate students into radical views of American history and society, like discussing shameful episodes in the past. The legislators want patriotic history that makes students proud to be Americans. First they passed a law requiring teachers to make public their lesson plans to prove that they are not “indoctrinating” students.

HIRING TEACHERS

Virus relief to hire teachers

Fort Wayne Community Schools will use coronavirus relief funds to add additional teachers.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Fort Wayne Community Schools is increasing its instructor roster with help from federal coronavirus relief dollars.

About a dozen of the 45 teachers hired Monday will be paid with the third round of temporary funding, which can be spent through fall 2024.

The investment in people is part of a strategy to narrow student learning gaps, Superintendent Mark Daniel said, telling the school board the district has added 40 positions.

With more personnel, FWCS can reduce class sizes and focus on students especially in need of help, Daniel said.

VOUCHERS

IN: Voucher Increase To Serve Church, Not Taxpayers

Indiana's voucher program has become a middle-class entitlement program. It's not about helping poor children. It's not about claiming that private schools are better than public schools. It's about giving even well-to-do families (in some cases with incomes over six figures), that already send or intended to send their children to private -- and in this case, Catholic -- schools, public funds so they can afford extra vacations, sporting events, camps, and other outside of school activities.

From Curmudgucation

Today's Catholic (Serving the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend) offers an article that gives a good picture of what vouchers really do. After all the rhetoric about choice and free exercise of religion, what are taxpayers really paying for?

Indiana has had a huge voucher program for ten years, and this year, the state budget included a big expansion of the program. The Indiana Catholic Conference lobbied for that expansion, which would "give more middle-income parents the option to choose a faith-based education for their children." Well, yes, because six-figure income families are now eligible.

That emphasis on religious education is the whole point and purpose.* Dr. Joseph Brettnacher, superintendent of Catholic schools for the diocese, lays out the mission:

The most important aspect of the Choice expansion is that more families will have the ability to send their children to faith-based schools, where students can develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ within His mystical body, the Church. Our goals for students are to create disciples of Jesus Christ, help them fulfill their destiny to become saints and reach heaven.

PUNISHING CHILDREN: RETENTION IN GRADE

Alabama Joins the Third-Grade Punishment Club

Decades of research into retention in grade has shown that it doesn't work as a solution to low achievement. "The majority of research fails to find compelling evidence that retention improves long-term student achievement. An overwhelmingly large body of studies have consistently demonstrated negative academic effects of retention. Contrary to popular belief, researchers have almost unanimously found that early retention during kindergarten to grade three is harmful, both academically and emotionally. Many studies find that retention does not necessarily lead to increased work effort among students as predicted."

So, why do we still do it?

From Live Long and Prosper

The Alabama attempt at this, using Individualized Reading Plans without additional support. The classroom teacher is supposed to take care of the whole thing. This is typical of the U.S. -- We require more from teachers without providing more support. Our children aren't a high enough priority for us to spend the money needed to assure their success.

We're failing our children because we're too cheap. Then we blame the student for learning at their own rate and punish them with retention. We are shortchanging our own future.

**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 13, 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.

NO PUBLIC EDUCATION EXPERIENCE

This Is Why You Need A Secretary of Education With Classroom Experience

Secretary of Education DeVos once again shows her disrespect for public schools and teachers.

From Curmudgucation

Betsy DeVos has been pretty much no help at all during the pandemic closing of schools. The US Department of Education has offered next to no guidance to public schools on how best to navigate the current storm.

Imagine a country where, in the face of a major disruptive health crisis that cuts across all communities, the federal department of education says, "We've got some stuff figured out and some resources to share. Let us know what we can do to help you get through this." That might be cool.

But it's not where we are. Mostly DeVos has seemed anxious to capitalize on the crisis by pushing online schooling. This has led to some unclear directives that seem to boil down to, "Get that education stuff on line, and if you have to leave behind some students to do it, oh well." DeVos also smells a chance to launch another kind of national voucher program.

WORLD BANK SWITCHES SIDES

World Bank Changes Policy on For-Profit Privatized Schools

From Diane Ravitch

Thanks in large part to the work of Education International, a world confederation of teachers’ unions, the World Bank has changed its policy.

In a sudden and far-reaching policy shift, World Bank President David Malpass has agreed to major reforms that include officially freezing any direct or indirect investments in private for-profit pre-primary, primary and secondary schools. This has been a critical issue for Education International for many years and has been the key focus of our interactions with the Bank.

CHARTERS ARE SMALL BUSINESSES, NOT PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Outrage: Charters Pursue Federal Small Business Funds

From Diane Ravitch

The charter lobby wants a slice of the $2 trillion intended to save small businesses even though the charters have suffered no loss of funding during the pandemic.

IPS GIVES AWAY MORE SCHOOLS

Indianapolis ‘restart’ schools try to build trust and hire teachers — from a distance

Hopefully there will come a day when IPS quits wasting the community’s tax dollars on “middlemen” to run their schools.

From Chalkbeat*

Next academic year, Adelante Schools will take over Emma Donnan Elementary and Middle School, and Phalen Leadership Academies, an established Indianapolis charter network, will take over School 48. All three operators were approved at a March board meeting, igniting criticism from some people who said the decision should not have been made during the crisis.

The campuses will still be considered part of IPS, which will get credit for their enrollment numbers and test scores. But the staff will be employed by the charter operators, and the teachers won’t be represented by the district union.

The coronavirus and the school closures it triggered could be roadblocks to overhauling struggling Indianapolis campuses because building trust with the community and families can be crucial to the success of turnaround efforts.

SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED. REFORMER WANTS TO TEST THE KIDS

More Pandemic Prompted Reformster Baloney

This Teach for America alumnus thinks that when our schools open again we should greet them with tests.

From Curmudgucation

If there has ever been a moment to drop the fiction that "test score" and "student learning" are synonyms, now is the time. (Okay, every single moment has been a moment to do this, but now is especially urgent.)

As the response to the pandemic blows holes in the standard school year, our focus must be bolstering actual education and not test scores. Get out your copy of Koretz's The Testing Charade and remind yourself that the Big Standardized Test does not deserve this kind of attention or regard. It's junk, and it is wasting valuable time.

EVALUATE TEACHERS DURING A PANDEMIC?

Indiana officials mull how to evaluate 78,000 teachers as coronavirus shutters schools

Teachers are working hard right now trying to deal with a situation they did not create, yet the state is foolishly wasting time trying to figure out an evaluation process.

From Chalkbeat*

The Indiana State Teachers Association is calling on the state to waive this year’s evaluation requirements and rate all teachers as effective so they can receive raises and the state grant. Improvement plans could be tabled until schools reopen, said ISTA president Keith Gambill.

“The focus now should be on students, rather than on creating portfolios of work, scheduling online observations and measuring teacher adherence to goals and standards,” Gambill said in an email statement. “Given that nearly a third of the teaching year has been disrupted, it’s hard to imagine how any annual review process would be meaningful to anyone or serve as a fair basis for high-stakes decisions.”

RETAIN KIDS AFTER THE PANDEMIC?

Should We Just Hold Students Back Next Year?

Research has shown that retention is rarely helpful and often damaging to children.

From Peter Greene on Forbes

Petrilli correctly notes that the “first order of business” will be to focus on the social, emotional and mental health needs of students, as well as smooth their transition back to school routines. But he also proposes high-quality diagnostic tests to determine if students are ready to move on to the next grade. Under his proposal, students would be greeted with, “You have to take a test on material from seven months ago. It’s going to decide whether you pass or fail.”

That’s a tremendous amount of pressure to place on a child. Yes, one can rationally describe this as testing to assess what the child needs. But the child will still hear, “Pass this test or you have to repeat the same grade as last year.” And if they do fail, what a sad, discouraging way to return to school in an already stressful and difficult year.

Based on the testing results, Petrilli suggests grouping and tutoring, with regular tutoring with specialists to bring those furthest behind up to speed. Though Petrilli says this would make the experience different from just “repeating the grade,” what he describes is pretty much exactly what Title I schools (and many others) already do. Thus, it would actually be pretty much “repeating a grade,” which he acknowledges has been shown to have few benefits.

THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

Wired for learning: Schools' closure lays bare long-simmering concerns of 'digital divide'

Computers are simply a tool. The foundation for learning requires more.

A free article from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

“College-educated white-collar parents who can telework are home with their kids and can provide individualized instruction. ... They also have access to reliable high-speed Internet if and when districts are able to ramp up instruction from a distance in the coming weeks. They also have comfortable housing in which this education can occur. ... Parents who have to leave home to work, by contrast, will need to patch together ad hoc child care that may change day-to-day. ... Their only Internet access might be a cell phone. They're more likely to live in an underfunded school district that lacks the resources to manage an abrupt, never-before-tried emergency transition to distance education.”

Wendy Robinson, superintendent of Fort Wayne Community Schools, leads one of those underfunded school districts and is painfully aware of the educational disparities laid bare by the pandemic. Sending computers home with 30,000 students or expecting them to have online access isn't a simple matter.

*Note: Financial sponsors of Chalkbeat include pro-privatization foundations and individuals such as 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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