All the kids just got smarter!

All the kids, just got smarter

 

Everyone seems to agree that test scores need to move upward.   The big question is exactly how do we do that.

Well several states have found a guaranteed way to improve test scores.  Oklahoma and Wisconsin have just changed the “cut point”.   So, by lowering the point score needed to be ranked basic, proficient or advanced, the same actual score, gives students a much better rating.  Truly simple.  This approach gives parents the impression that the schools and their child are improving; when, in fact, nothing has changed at all. Easiest approach of all.

Another approach is to reduce graduation requirements and inflate grades by banning failing grades and/or lowering the “fail” grade to 50% instead of the standard 60%.   Both Washington state and North Carolina have used this approach to show that grades are improving since the pandemic.

The approach to the grading crisis seems to be to lower expectations down to where the kids are rather than work with the students to meet the higher standard.

Each state controls its own definition of proficiency and how students can achieve grade level performance.  States aim for grade level proficiency based on their own standards. There is no gold standard in the sky of what equals 3^rd grade reading level.   Consequently, what is 3^rd grade in one state might be 2^nd or 4the in another state.  By moving bar on cut scores, states can automatically improve their proficiency scores.    The alternative approach is to redesign the test to make it easier so kids will do better.  Then tout how much better students are doing.  New York won’t admit to lowering standards.   Instead, they say they are adjusting the tests to what you would expect kids to learn today.  Illinois is the next state to lower the cut off scores so that more students score in the proficient range.

Dr. Cathy Wright, the new superintendent in Maryland, says that approach is all wrong.  She firmly believes that higher standards need to be set and teachers need to be trained to meet those standards.  She has set a goal of a 5% improvement rate each year for the next three years. To achieve that goal, more students will be retained in 3^rd grade if they are not at grade level.

Dr. Wright’s approach is not as sure fire as the other states, but if it works, the kids might just not only be more proficient but even learn more.

 

What do principals have the right to know?

 What do principals have a right to know?

 

Recently, a student in a Howard County public school came to school with a gun and fatally shot another student.   Turns out the student had a record of such offenses.  The principal didn’t know that.  The Superintendent knew the student had a record with the Department of Juvenile Services but was not told how serious the record was.

The question is-who benefits from this system?  Some say it is not fair to the student to carry the burden of past offenses for everyone to know.  How can he start over?   Others say it is the primary duty of the local superintendent and the principal to keep the other students safe.   Can these both be true?

Maryland had a rule that superintendents could share the specifics of reportable offenses (rape, murder, weapons charges) to the receiving superintendent.  They were not required to. Some did, some didn't.   Following the fatal shooting of a student in Columbia, Howard County things changed with lightening speed.

Citizens demanded action from their legislators.  Turned out that wasn’t necessary.  At the next State Board of Education meeting the State Board enacted emergency legislation that requires sending superintendent to notify the receiving superintendent of any transfer student with a reportable offense that has been charged or convicted.   The receiving superintendent is then required to notify the receiving principal.   School districts are required to provide an education to all children between the ages of 5-18 in Maryland.   But that education does not have to be in the comprehensive school with other children.  The measure was passed as an emergency regulation so it went into effect immediately without the usual period of public comment and an open hearing.  The speed was lightening even for emergency rulings.

As usual there are three sides to every story.  Some people are very concerned for the safety of the general population and do not want students with these kinds of past behaviors in the school.  They are concerned about events such as the ones that have recently happened.  Others think this will stigmatize these young people and not give them a chance to change.  This situation will be particularly true if school districts chose to educate delinquents with serious offenses in segregated environments or virtually.   Is there a third option that would protect both sets of kids, those who have offended and those who have not?  Once you have the right to know, what do you do with the information?

Why so many?

 Why so many?

 

The number of American children and adults diagnosed with autism increased 175% in roughly a decade.  This information is according to new research that shows the uptick is particular to a few groups.

In a study published in the journal JAMA Network Open indicated that autism prevalence jumped from 2.3 per thousand to 6.3 per thousand in the roughly one decade studied.  

The biggest jump was seen in adults ages 26-34 which saw an increase of 450%.  This jump included a significant increase of female vs male children.  The highest prevalence was found in children ages 5 to 8.   Kids from racial and ethnic minority groups saw the biggest jump.   But this trend did not hold to adults.

The big question is why???  Have you ever had the experience after buying a blue car to notice how many blue cars there are out there.   Something similar is happening to diagnosing autism.   There has been an expansion of universal development screening that accounts for some of the increase in diagnosis rates.  There is also the notion of status.   Many years ago, the formal diagnosis of learning disabilities became a reality.   Suddenly,  many children who had been diagnosed with mental retardation became learning disabled.  As we learn more about autism, some historians are looking back at famous people and deciding that they too had autism.  Perhaps autism has become a status diagnosis.   People on the spectrum are featured in prime time TV shows.   It has become sort of a boutique diagnosis.

Interestingly, the increase has been more in the higher functioning areas of the spectrum.   Although the increases in the lower functioning areas sends out a call for society to be looking at adult care for these individuals who may not be able to live independently.

What you look for you will find.   Is that true of autism?

Jump down, spin around, pick a bale of cotton

 Jump down, spin around, pick a bale of cotton

 

Gotta jump down, spin around,  pick a bale of hay.  Some of you might remember the old folk song.  It seems it might be coming back to life.

A federal lawsuit claimed an Illinois teacher gave Black students a bag of cotton- and ONLY Black students- after a lesson on slavery.

The racial discrimination lawsuit was filed against a teacher at Julian Middle School in Oak Park Illinois.   The lesson involved all students putting their hands into a box that supposedly contained raw cotton from cotton plants.   The teacher then gave the 2 African American children a separate bag of cotton for them to take home.   No white child was given the separate bag of cotton.   The incident caused an outcry at a Board meeting.   Numerous parents said their children had experienced racial discrimination in the district was this was the last straw or piece of cotton.

At the meeting, parents spoke about many different instances of overt racial bias.  Representatives of the local NAACP were also at the meeting and said it was their intent to also file a compliant with the U.S. office of Civil Rights.

The lawsuit said that Oak Park school administrators held a meeting with the teacher after the incident.   Administrators explained that the use of cotton in the lesson had not been “approved” by the school district.  The teacher allegedly cried during the meeting with her principal and said she didn’t think it “would cause any harm”.  It is difficult to figure out just what she thought it would do to those two students.  And why were they treated any differently than the remaining white students?

Another question that needs to be asked is where has the local NAACP been during all these months when Black families have been complaining about racial bias and harassment.   Are they just waking up to the need to do something?

The NAACP asked, “why are Black families not taken seriously when they report something?”   The same question could be asked of the NAACP.   What caused them to finally wake up to the issue?

Maybe the school district and the teacher are not the only ones ignoring feelings. Maybe folks need to jump down, spin around and pick up some good sense.

 

 

Promises Made, Debt Unpaid

 Promises Made, Debt Unpaid

 

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future makes lots of promises for a great tomorrow in education.  There are many areas where doubts are being expressed about the cost as they begin to come due in the next few years.

One of the areas of greatest need and least fulfillment is the promise of free early childhood education.   With the number of kids in single parent homes and the number of children in families where both parents are working, early childhood education is critical.   Not just for the child but for the family.

Child care usually falls to the mother in the family.   Private early childhood education runs about $1,800 a month.  If a family has more than one child, the cost can equal the net salary of the mother.  Consequently, many women decide to give up or delay their careers to stay home and provide child care.

The plan in the Blueprint is for there to be a public/private partnership to provide the free childcare.   That plan isn’t working for multiple reasons.

Application for the funds by private providers is long and complex.   Add that to the fact that the State Legislature does not end the session until mid-April so MSDE does not know how much money it has to allocate for the effort.  Private providers do not know how many free seats they will have until sometime after the school year has begun.   At the present time there isn’t a system for public programs that are full to refer candidates to the funded private providers.    Consequently, private providers may have openings for funded students but are unaware of where those students are.

On the other hand, some private providers may chose not to do the lengthy paperwork required or to work with the state bureaucracy.  Additionally, participants in the funding plan need to have staff with certain credentials and need to pay their staff at a going rate.  Some private provides do neither.  As a result, those private providers are finding their census down dramatically previously paying customers are going to free seats elsewhere.  In some cases, threatening their viability of staying open; thereby decreasing the number of paid seats available to those families who can afford the cost.  

The subsidy is currently $13,000 a year.  It is set to increase to 14k next year and up to nearly $20,000 the following year.

But the piper must be paid.   Already candidates for Boards of Education spots are worrying how the cost of the Blueprint is going to be paid.  The Blueprint was passed without a funding plan.   Public schools are fighting to find physical spots for public pre-K, in addition to the cost of pre-k teachers who need to be paid on the public teacher salary scale.  Commitment to the Blueprint is showing signs of fragmenting.

Of all the pillars in the Blueprint, pre-k education for all of Maryland’s children is  a debt that must be paid.

 

Big Change for SSI

 Big Change has arrived for SSI

 

People with disabilities may receive Supplemental Security Income or SSI.   Recipients of the benefit are required to report how they spend the stipend.  Until recently if a recipient paid less than fair market value for his/her rent, the difference between the fair market value and the actual rent was deducted from the stipend.

This situation was most likely to occur when the recipient lived at home or with other family members.  Yet, the benefit did not pay enough for fair market value in the open market AND the recipient’s disability often made it very difficult for him/her to live independently.

Recipients went to court in a number of states.  As a result, there was variety around the country.  In seven states, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Texas, monthly payments were not reduced if the recipient was paying more than a third of his/her income for housing even in those instances when it was less than fair market value.

With the new rule, Social Security will apply the less stringent standard nationwide.   Social Security administration expects that as a result of the new rule about 41,000 people will see their SSI payments increase an average of $132 a month.  An additional, 14,000 are expected to now qualify for SSI.

The new policy took effect on September 30.

This rule change is part of a wide-ranging effort to reconsider how the Social Security Administration is handling SSI payments.  Earlier in the spring, the Social Security Administration said it would also stop counting food as part of the “in-kind support and maintenance” this fall.  How Social Security views income from other public agencies is also being examined.

Martin O’Malley, Director of Social Security,  explained that the plan not only had huge benefits for recipients but it also reduced agency time spent calculating and administering rental subsidy.

A win-win for people with disabilities and the bureaucracy that serves them.

 7%- That’s Amazing

Only 7% of the 8^th graders taking the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment in math passed it last school year.   That’s terrible.  Well actually it is quite amazing if you take the trouble to look at some of the practice items that are published online.  If you did that, you would not only be amazed that anyone passed the test but  you would also have to ask the question – why on earth do we even TRY to prepare kids to pass this foolishness.

Sample question:

Which expression below is equivalent to +=

A= -8

B= -1/8

C= 1/8

D=8

 

Truly the above is a sample question for an 8^th grader.  The vast majority of 8^th graders got this wrong.  Probably the vast majority of job holding successful adults got it wrong too. Other questions on the test are similar.

Time is finite.   Once elapsed you can never get it back.  Teachers are working and wasting students’ time teaching them to try and do this foolishness.   To what purpose??  Evidently so they will not be among the 93% who do not pass the test.  How many more useful functional things could our students be learning instead of wasting their time on this. 

 

One of the easier items is =49/16

Again, how useful is this?  

Students need to pass these tests to get a high school diploma.  Check around with people you know and see how many can answer the questions.  Then ask yourself, are they relatively successful adults?   Are they employed, self-supporting, have jobs, contributing to society?  And yet they can’t do these math questions. 

There is a lot of hype around the poor math scores of students.   Very few people ask the question, what is being measured and is the juice worth the squeeze.  Do we really care if our kids can do these things or not and isn’t there some better way for them to be using their time.

Sort of reminds me of the Emperor’s New Clothes.  While we are arguing over the color of his cloak, we fail to acknowledge he isn’t wearing a cloak at all!

BTW, the answer to question 1 is D-8.   The answer to question 2 is 1 ¾.  Let me know if you can ever use this information.