Again, and Again and Again

 Again, and Again and Again

School test results are out in Maryland and in spite of the HUGE investment of funds, student test scores have only inched upward.  What is keeping student achievement so low?

Everyone keeps trying.  In 2002 it was No Child Left Behind (NCLB), that assured us that by 2014 every child would be on grade level.  And that was going to be achieved by the ever popular accountability.  Didn’t happen.

And by 2015, NCLB was left behind with the all new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).  

NCLB and ESSA required lots of accountability AKA testing.  School systems had to make adequate yearly progress or be held accountable with sanctions.  That, of course, made no sense because school systems that did poorly would be sanctioned to receive less money and the illogic went with less money they would learn to do better.  Not sure how that works?

There is one full proof way of improving test scores- change the test until the test produces better scores.  Maryland is at the forefront for that.  After several attempts with tests that yielded poor scores, Maryland will roll out a new state testing system, The Maryland System of Testing Academic Readiness (MSTAR).  Don’t you just love how the new name creates such a delightful acronym?  The new system will launch in the spring for grades 3-8 for ELA and for math.  The high school tests MCAP will remain the same.

Paired with the new testing system is a read by third grade or be retained program. Students must be on grade level by the end of 3rd grade or be retained. There is, however, the caveat, parents have to agree to the retention.  If they do not, kids will need to take a summer program before they are promoted to 4^th grade.  If the parents do agree to the retention, students will be retaught in the method that has already failed them because we all know that the Science of Reading, a highly phonetic method of teaching reading, works for everyone.  Everyone that is, except for the kids who fail to learn by it.  

All of these solutions that throw money at the problem fail to take into account some very basic principles.  All humans learn differently; teach them the way they learn even if that isn’t the most popular method du jour.  Get the unions involved so school districts can find a way to get rid of folks who can’t teach.  They aren’t bad they just need a different career.  And lastly stop rewarding all teachers equally regardless of their performance.  Use the money that is saved to reduce class size so that even the best teachers have a chance to teach.

Equitable doesn’t mean the same thing for all kids.  Accountable doesn’t mean more testing.

When will we ever learn.

 

Saving Special Ed-Maybe?

 Saving Special Ed-Well, Maybe

In July, a bipartisan group of US Senators pushed a bill (SB5046) through a Senate committee.  The Secretary of Education and the Trump administration are working to dismantle the US Department of Education.  That can’t be done straight away because the Department was created by Congress and can only be eliminated by Congress.  However, the Education Secretary is working at death by a thousand cuts. Mostly what she is doing is entering into agreements with various other federal agencies to take over the functions of the Department of Education.  For example, the section that does Career Education has been transferred to the Department of Labor by one of these agreements.

SB5046 would keep the Office of Special Education and Rehab Services (OSERS) within the Department of Education.  Advocates for the civil rights of children with disabilities were already very concerned that their function was being transferred to the Department of Justice where it would be very low priority.  Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) were the co-sponsors of the bill.  Interestingly, both Collins and Murkowski are in very tough reelection campaigns.  

The Bill was introduced on the Senate Floor on August 4.  It has not moved since then.  The Congress did state in the most recent passed spending bill that the Department of Education had no authority to transfer these programs.  BUT the language is non-binding so the Department of Education was free to keep on making agreements to transfer programs which it has continued to do.

What difference does this make to the kids with disabilities who may be living in your house or in your family?  Turns out lot of difference.  If a local school district doesn’t do right by a child, the appeal is to the state department of education.  However, the State Department of Education and the local school system are arms of the same animal.  So if a family doesn’t like the result, they have no administrative, no cost appeal.   It’s off to court, if you can afford counsel.

What's with teachers hitting kids in DC schools?

 What’s with teachers hitting kids in DC schools?

There has been a string of allegations that District of Columbia public schools’ staff have abused kids.  In March, a teacher’s aide pleaded guilty to forcing a child to eat hot sauce as a punishment.  The child is nonverbal and on the autism spectrum.

In May, a parent was not notified when her daughter on the autism spectrum was sexually assaulted by another student.  

In 2024, a parent sued the District when untrained staff were administering her child’s medication.

Parents are suing the district in a case that involved a boy who was open palm smacked in the face by his teacher.   The family was not notified until 2 hours later.  The child’s face was still red from the smack when the dad picked him up AFTER school.  The boy was in kindergarten.  He has difficulty with speech, language and verbalizing.  In April 2024, the boy was tossing a football with a friend during morning before care.  The teacher asked the boy to stop.  When he didn’t, her testimony is that when he didn’t she grabbed his shoulder and turned him around, “causing her hand to hit his face.”  Both another staff person and another student collaborated the boy’s account, that he was flat on smacked in the face with an open palm.  The teacher continued her assignment in both before care and in teaching up until her arrest.  There were two other prior allegations of misconduct by the teacher.  In this instance, the teacher pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree cruelty to children and was sentenced to a year of probation, including anger management classes and a mental health evaluation.

The boy’s family is now suing the school district.  Plaintiffs claim that since the event the boy has been afraid to attend school, expects to be hit by a teacher if he does wrong, and is suffering from anxiety.  The family has said they have proposed a settlement with the school but have not received a response.  The family has also claimed they were totally shut out of the follow-up to the incident and to any disciplinary measures taken by the school.  It is unclear by the court decision if DC public schools has revoked the teacher’s license.  

The family has recently sold their home in Washington DC and moved to Prince George’s County Maryland.  Their son not attends school in Capitol Heights.  They say he still is afraid to go to school.

It should be noted that all of these events were against kids with significant disabilities.  Are these things happening to plain kids?

Washington DC is not that big a school district.  About 51,500 kids attend traditional public schools and the remaining 45k attend public sponsored charter schools.  What’s going on within the culture of DC schools? 

Public Schools are unconstitutional- courts might decide

 Public Schools Unconstitutional??

A court hearing in Nebraska will consider the position of a Columbia University law professor who believes public schools to be unconstitutional.  His position is that the First Amendment guarantees free speech.  Since he believes education is primarily speech, parents should have the right to exercise authority over the speech their children hear in school.   He continues to argue that families must accept the government messaging of public school or pay a steep price to provide a private education for their children.

Parents in Lincoln Nebraska are challenging the State’s combination of compulsory education and public-school-only funding.  Nebraska law requires parents to enroll their children in a “public, private, or parochial” school.  Families may also home-school.   Failure to do so could result in up to 3 months in jail or a $500 fine.

The problem, as these parents see it, is that public funding of around 19k is spent on kids in public schools but not a dime of public money goes to the other options.  Nebraska ranks near the bottom of the 50 states for other than public school choice options.  Parents who opt out of the public school system bear the full cost of the private school they might select.  Both of the families in the lawsuit have withdrawn their children from the public schools because they do not approve of the speech to which their children would be exposed.

The case is based on 3 issues:

Requiring children to attend a government funded school abridges the free -speech rights of the parents.

The same requirement also abridges the Nebraska Constitutions free-speech clause which closely mirrors the federal constitution.

Thirdly, the state may not condition a valuable public benefit on the surrender of a Constitutional right.

The point is that the state requires a compulsory mandate then only funds the one that reflects the government’s point of view.  Their argument is that the government has no compelling interest in funding public education.  The plaintiffs are not challenging the content of any curriculum, they are challenging the process and want the money to follow the child so that parents could direct those funds to any educational system the parents preferred.

The rationale of the plaintiffs totally ignores the stake that the entire society of a democracy has in an educated electorate.  That is the premise behind the funding of free public education, so that the folks who get to vote will be educated sufficiently to make an informed choice.   It is also why folks who have no children, or whose children have long since left public schooling are still taxed to provide for the public schools.   If only those people who had kids in school paid for schools there would be a great deal less money in the system. Another point is that once a child hits 18, they are emancipated and could still be in school.  Do they get to cede their rights to hear whatever speech they choose to their parents?

It will be interesting to see how this theory plays out in the courts.

 

 

The teachers have had it

 The Teachers Have Had it!

The teachers have had it and they are not taking it anymore!   There is a new law in Iowa that goes into effect at the start of this school year.  From now on, if a child is suspended, the classroom teacher has to agree to take that child back into his/her classroom.   If the teacher refuses, the school has to find another space for the child.  That provision is particularly onerous since it was put into place allegedly because of bad behavior on the part of children with special needs.  So where might these kids go?

According to administrators, student behaviors among special ed students mainly violence and aggression are causing teachers to leave their positions.  Two years ago, there were 200 special ed vacancies at the end of the school year.   This past year, there were over 600!   The bad behaviors, according to teachers, are impacting not only teachers but other students who are trying to learn.

One teacher testified before the legislature that one student’s bad behavior can disrupt not only the class but the whole school.  The new law (and it is a law, not just a school regulation) also gives teachers three days of paid leave if they are assaulted by a child.  

It is probably fair to wonder why, if the kids are receiving an education appropriate to their needs as required by federal law, they are having so many behavioral issues.  

That question is probably answered in another requirement of the law-TEACHERS ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE STUDENTS’ IEP.  And we thought that was already a requirement. Hmmm, might be an answer in there somewhere.

Handcuff and sedate- yes it's all legal

 Handcuff and sedate- Yes it's all legal

An emergency petition filed by a teacher or a school staff member could land a child in an ambulance, medically sedated, and handcuffed on his way to an ER.  In fact, the Maryland’s largest school systems have done this to children 1,500 times since 2021.   And if you think that’s a lot, Wicomico County Public Schools, one of the smallest districts in Maryland, was having officers handcuff and take kids to the ER on average of 3 times a week in 2023.  There are approximately 15,000 students in Wicomico County.

Emergency petitions are often filed against kids on the autism spectrum who are not getting the services they need and, therefore, act out.  One seven-year-old student who was diagnosed with autism had an emergency petition filed against him because he was throwing Legos in the classroom and would not stop with a verbal command.  His IEP called for a 1:1.  He didn’t have one.  Law enforcement and a social worker called for police to take him to the ER with an emergency petition.  At the hospital, the physician makes the call whether the child should have an involuntary commitment to a psychiatric treatment facility or go home with a parent.   It is not unusual for panicked kids to become more aggressive when placed in the police car or ambulance.  EMT’s can administer sedation drugs and/or handcuff children.

Maryland does not require the collection of data as to how often these events occur.  But when Baltimore City public schools started tracking the occurrences the number of petitions dropped by 60%.  In Washington County public schools, another small school district in Maryland, roughly half of the children cuffed and taken to the ER by police deputies were 10 or younger.   The youngest a 6-year-old girl.  It takes handcuffs and deputies to calm down little children?!  What scars does this leave?  The 7-year-old was taken to the to see his pediatrician after the event and told his physician that he had to come to the doctor because “I am a bad boy”  AT 7??!!!!

A bill was entered into the Maryland legislature this last session to require that school districts keep data on the number of these events.   It never got out of committee.  Maybe someone should have requested an emergency petition.

Billions later, not much has changed

 Billions later, not much has changed

The State Department of Education released the test scores for the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP).  There was not much joy in Mudville, Blueprint, the mighty Blueprint had struck out.  After spending BILLIONS and projecting that there would be a 10% gain in MCAP test scores over two years, only a 3.3 percent gain was seen in the last two years.   And only 51.5% of the students were proficient in reading while math saw a proficiency rate of only 21.7%.   Proponents of the Blueprint say the problem in there was more work to be done and there now needs to be even more money spent.  Overall the Blueprint is supposed to increase education spending by 5.2 BILLION in the next several years.

For all the investment, the gaps between Black and Hispanic students and white kids have barely budged.  In Prince George’s County, a majority Black district, the English proficiency rate rose less than one percent to 38.9% and the math scores rose to a very sad 13.7% up from 13.1% the previous year.   

So, what’s wrong.   Well first of all a huge chunk of the money is going towards raising starting salaries for teachers, the rising tide will lift other salaries as well.  Problem is you raise the salary of a weak teacher and you get a better paid weak teacher not a better teacher.

Another hunk of the money is going to kindergarten and early childhood education.   Those benefits won’t be seen until the children get older and move up the grade levels.  This year Maryland is sending reading coaches into the schools to improve the teaching of reading.  This tactic was used in Mississippi for Dr. Wright’s original miracle.  MSDE will be asking the ’27 legislature for money to add math coaches.  

And finally, the best method of all when your current measures aren’t showing progress, change the measuring stick. Sure, enough Maryland will be ditching the MCAP tests for a new batch of tests.  Let’s hope these tests can measure better results.