Kids First: August 2024

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

New literacy policy- crazy or what?

Crazy is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result.

The Maryland State Department of Education has backed down a bit on its requirement that all students must be competent readers by the end of grade 3 or be retained until they are. Competence in reading is defined as a score of 375 on the MCAP test. There was significant push back from the State Board of Education and the public.

Now there is a compromise. Parents will have gained the right to challenge a school district’s decision to retain a poor reading third grader. Districts must inform parents within 15 days from the time the decision to retain a 3^rd grader has been made. BUT, parents have the option to insist that their child move onto 4^th grade as long as they agree to use additional help from the school district such as summer school or before or after school tutoring that happens outside of the school day. The State Board will decide at its September meeting on whether or not it will approve the compromise plan.

Maryland has developed a 3^rd grade English test called the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program or MCAP. It is administered near the end of the school year. A student who scores 375 or above is considered proficient. Starting in the 2025-26 school year, districts would need to screen children three times for reading proficiency. They will also be screened once a year for dyslexia beginning in kindergarten. That’s a WHOLE lot of testing going on and those tests do not include all of the other academic testing. According to the plan the retention policy would go into effect at the end of the 2026-2027 school year.

The instructional portion of the policy will go into effect as soon as the State Board approves the plan as early as its September meeting. Under the new instructional policy, ALL reading instruction will be based on what is being called the Science of Reading, which is essentially a phonics-based approach to reading instruction which teaches students the sounds of letters and how they come together to make words. Don’t let it bother you that English is one of the LEAST phonetically regular languages. The policy bans reading instruction that has kids guess words based on sentence context. But WAIT, how do adults figure decode words they don’t know- or right by the context of the sentence. Hmmm, so is that word read or read? We can't use the context of the sentence right? So teachers are no longer allowed to teach this mature reading habit.

And just in case, kids are still not scoring 375 on the MCAP in the 4^th grade they will be put on an “intensive reading program”. Crazy is continuing to do the same thing and expect a different result. Could it be that the so-called science of reading doesn’t work for some kids?

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

How many special educators does it take to teach a child?

How many special ed teachers does a school district need?

How many teachers for children with disabilities does a school system need? The answer to that question depends on who is asking the question and how are they figuring it.

In Calvert County Maryland, the school district believes that 1 special ed teacher for every 175 students enrolled in the district is just right. Given that most experts believe that the incidence of disabilities in the general population of a school is about 15%, that staffing pattern would yield one special ed teacher for every 26.4 children with disabilities. That is quite remarkable because the average class size for plain kids in Calvert County grades k-3 is 20 and for grades 3-5, it’s 25. So if you are an elementary aged child in Calvert County and you have a disability, you might be better off in general ed rather than getting the appropriate education you are guaranteed by both federal and state law.

In spite of those difficult staffing ratios, Calvert County is still short 16 special ed teachers as the start of the 24-25 school year approaches.

The head of special ed for Calvert County was challenged by several Board members regarding this ratio. Two members of the Board did not think the ration was sufficient. The special ed department director said that this was the ratio she inherited two years ago when she took over. Somehow this situation seemed to make her think she wasn’t responsible for it two years later.

One Board member compared the vacancies and the staffing ratios to neighboring counties on both the western and eastern shores of Maryland. All of the comparable school districts had lower staffing shortages and a better staffing ratio.

The special ed department director felt that all systems were dealing with a state-wide shortage of special ed teachers, even if other systems were reporting better numbers.

What is interesting is that even with the staffing shortages, and the poor staffing ratios, Calvert County still insists that it is able to provide the free, appropriate public education to children in the district. When parents disagree and ask for an approved non-public program, they are in for a fight.

How does that logic work? On the one hand, the system acknowledges they don’t have the staff or the staffing to do the job. And on the other hand, they insist they can provide an appropriate education for their students with disabilities. Interesting logic?

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Does Maryland have the best school system?

Well not quite the best but depending on whom you ask it might be the third best school system in the country.

WalletHub compared all 50 states and DC schools across 32 key metrics. The analysis looked at funding, safety, class size and instructor credentials as key indices of greatness.

By this evaluation, Massachusetts has the best school system in the country. That isn’t particularly new news as most state rating systems rank Massachusetts highly. One of the differences in this evaluation is that the hard focus was not just on test scores but rather making sure students feel safe, comfortable and cared for.

In the ranking, Maryland came in at 3^rd, just after Massachusetts and Connecticut. Louisiana was #47. Guess those 10 Commandments that are supposed to be in every classroom are to help the kids pray for a better school system. Dead last at 51 (remember 50 states plus DC) was New Mexico. The lowest drop-out rate went to West Virginia; the highest was DC.

Maryland has the 3^rd best school system according to these rankings. It is one of only seven states with laws making digital content and instructional materials available outside of the classroom. It has the 7^th highest share of students scoring at least 3 on AP exams. It also has the 10^th-best share of public schools that rank in the top 700 nationwide, at about 6.2%. Maryland was one of the top spending states.

Other variables usually not considered in these kinds of rankings include reports of being threatened or bullied while attending school, feeling unsafe at school or in transit to and from school. The availability of illegal drugs on school property was also a factor in measuring school safety as was the number of school shootings. The rankings looked at aggregate data for each state. So in Maryland the lower rankings on the Eastern Shore and Western Maryland would be offset by the higher rankings in the DC Maryland metro area and in the school systems surrounding Baltimore City.

This ranking is unique in the weight it gives to environmental safety factors in measuring the quality of a school system. From the student’s perspective, those factors may well be the most important.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2024

Keep the littlest buggers in school!

Maryland banned out-of-school suspension in 2017 for kids in pre-K through grade 2 unless a student was a threat to others and was evaluated by a school counselor or psychologist. So what difference did it make?

Educators have long argued that suspension is not an effective tool for dealing with negative behaviors and it is highly correlated to poor graduation rates and involvement with the criminal justice system. Of course, correlation does NOT mean causation and it just might mean that the same kids with bad behavior keep having those bad behaviors all their lives.

What we do know is that suspension seems to be more a protection for the school system than it is for preventing future bad behaviors of kids.

Most bans on suspension have been at the district level, Maryland is unique by having a state level ban.

One would think that a ban would mean none. Not so. Although suspensions did drop a great deal for the targeted grades. In the first year of the ban, suspensions dropped 58% but there were still 1,409 suspensions in these low grades. There also seemed to be an impact on 3^rd graders as there was a slight reduction in that grade as well.

And it seems kids of color still seem to be suspended at a disproportionate rate. Teachers don’t want to give up this tool.

Here is what we do know that should be impacting the use of suspensions. Children from lower socio-economic homes regardless of race and/or disability, have poor expressive language skills. Humans who cannot speak their frustration and anger with language, do so with physical acting out. Perhaps what we need to do act prophylactically is teach kids language skills with which to express anger. In more basic terms, we need to teach kids how to speak their anger rather than aggressively show their anger behaviorally.

Instead we keep responding to the outcome rather than to the cause. Suspension really doesn’t work to change kids’ behavior. It just gives the teacher a bit of short- term relief.

Better aggressive (yes aggressive) language skills could circumvent the aggressive acting out behaviors.

The little buggers and the big kids are better off in school.

TUESDAY, JULY 30, 2024

A Failure by 3rd Grade

A Failure by 3^rd Grade

Generally, kids are fairly successful readers with good word attack skills by the end of third grade. Good thing too, because in fourth grade reading begins to be used to acquire information in other subject areas.

But what happens to kids who are not successful readers by the end of third grade. Well, that depends on whom you ask.

Some folks believe those children should pass on to fourth grade and receive remedial work to catch up on those reading skills. Other people have taken a different approach.

There is a very strong movement to retain children in 3^rd grade if they are not up to grade standard in reading by that time. The wisdom behind this approach is that the children will learn more both from the repeat and from increased maturity. A policy to retain third graders in 3^rd grade was presented to the Maryland State Board of Education at its recent meeting. There were both strong support and strong concerns.

Those in support of the measure argued that without basic reading skills, children would not progress in the other academic areas as they moved into the intermediate grades. It was also argued that some children perhaps because of immaturity or just needing more time would do better if they had another run at basic reading.

Folks in opposition to the plan countered that it wasn’t the kids’ fault if they failed to gain the required skills in reading. It could be lack of support from parents. Or it could be poor teaching on the part of the teacher. Maybe both. Why make the children suffer for the failure of others.

Both sides argued that their position would create more high school graduates. The side for retaining said that sending children into fourth grade with good reading would ensure future academic success and thereby foster graduation.

The side against retaining said that failure at such a young age would forever embarrass the child and make school a place they would want to get out of and make him/her always too old for each grade peer group.

Then there was the elephant in the room. What if a second run at third grade didn’t work either? How many times would a child be retained.

Maryland is about to be knee deep in the “science of reading”, a method that puts heavy emphasis on phonic-based word attack. In the plans, for children to be retained there is no mention of switching to a different method for the rerun, just exactly that, a re-run of what failed the previous year.

Whatever your reasoning, eight years old seems very young to be a failure.

TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2024

Would be nice if you stopped by?

The rate of chronic absenteeism in Baltimore City schools has dropped to 45% and they feel they are making progress. Individuals with chronic absenteeism get lower grades, lower test scores, and lower graduation rates. But it isn’t just the individual that is impacted. When half of a class is absent, the teacher can hardly afford to move forward with the curriculum material. Lessons are repeated and the kids who did come to school have to suffer the repeats.

In Baltimore City, charter schools and magnet schools had the lowest rates of chronic absenteeism.

What’s the reason? First of all, these schools tend to be smaller. Smaller schools have teachers with better connections to kids. Never mind that despite all of the evidence regarding the benefits of smaller schools, we are still building bigger ones. Students with connections to their teachers feel wanted and understood, and they often are. Also by coming to school more, students build relationships with their peers so they want to come to school for the socialization. Schools that had admission criteria also had lower absenteeism.

One the other hand, schools with large populations had the highest absentee rates. Alternative schools regularly have the highest number of chronic absenteeism. One alternative school in the City had a chronic absentee rate of 95%!! What was the point of having the school?

Students are missing school to take care of younger siblings, earn money to help their families or they just don’t think it’s valuable for their future. There are also gang issues so that some kids don’t feel safe at school.

One strategy that is very expensive is calling or visiting the homes of kids who are chronically absent. One school starts calling kids homes and then follows up with a visit after 3 days of absence. Some schools offer rewards for good attendance. But overall, the most the most significant factors and check-ins at home AND check ins at school. Attendance plans that require students to check in at school with a preferred adult.

Progress is s l o w. And it’s being made. The question is, can the schools meet the added expense along with the rest of the higher budget expectations.

COVID gave kids an excuse to stay home, now we need to give them a reason to stop by. Who knows with enough buy-in they might enjoy it.

TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2024

Do you need an ID for that?

Do You Need an ID for that?

People with developmental disabilities are seven times more likely to have a negative encounter with law enforcement than are typical people according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Add that to the fact that law enforcement receives little to no training on the best ways to interact with these individuals AND they often cannot identify that a disability even exists. Many of these disabilities are invisible to the untrained eye.

It is not unusual for people with disabilities and particularly people with disabilities of color to receive inappropriate treatment from law enforcement. There have even been instances of accidental death when law enforcement over reacts to what is typical behavior for someone on the autism spectrum.

One solution to this problem is the issuance of an ID card indicating that the individual has a disability that is invisible to the eye but is just as real. The idea being proposed to the state legislatures is that drivers’ licenses be marked with a code indicating the disability in the case of a traffic stop. And that an official ID card be developed to show law enforcement if stopped in other situations. Proponents of the bill are VERY clear that if passed the process should be entirely voluntary.

The idea has received a great deal of support but there are questions being offered. One of the first questions is whether having either the ID or the noted drivers’ license will require the expense of a medical exam. Another issue is will acknowledging that an individual has a disability prevent him or her from getting the license. People were also concerned that the ID cards could be easily duplicated and that a number of people would benefit that should not. There was also the concern that if the designation were to be on a driver’s license there would be a requirement for a medical exam prior to receiving a license.

The people who are strongly advocating for this opportunity say that the important element is that it be entirely voluntary; therefore, if the designation was too onerous on the person, then they could choose not to participate. There was also the concern that this would be another benefit available only to those people who could afford it and that many people with disabilities are among the lower income strata of society.

The bill did not get out of committee in the 2024 Maryland legislative session. Advocates are pushing hard for it to move towards passage in the 2025 session. Maybe soon there will be an ID for that.

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2024

The Strike is on!

The Strike is On

What union president receives a salary greater than that of the President of the United States or the Governor of Maryland? It is probably surprising but that union is the National Education Association or NEA. The union that represents over 3 million teacher members. It seems the folks that work for the Union believe that their employer has violated the rules and has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. It has also gone out on strike.

Employees for the Union have formed a union to protest the treatment they are receiving from the Union. 😅 The staff union say that the Union has wrongly halted overtime pay for holidays and it is contracting out over fifty million dollars worth of work that should have gone to full-time staff. The NEA union calls for a strike when local school districts do that, now they are doing what they charge against others.

The NEA is in a pickle. Their convention was supposed to have been held this month. Wanting to avoid the embarrassment of the NEA asking union members to cross a picket line of its own union workers, the NEA threatened to go to a virtual convention. President Biden canceled his scheduled appearance. Lots of delegates also canceled their intent to attend.

The Union itself has strayed from its stated intent of supporting education and teachers and has begun to engage in progressive political speak. Some Union members are demanding the NEA call for a cease fire in Gaza. There is conflict between the Union, Union workers and Union members.

It is interesting to see the rank-and-file union workers calling out the well-paid Union bosses for collective-bargaining abuses. The Union membership might be learning something about their leadership’s values when it comes to the leadership’s pocketbooks. The President of the United States earns $400,000 a year. The Governor of Maryland earns $150,000 a year. But if you were president of the NEA, you would receive a salary of $495,787! And there are other perks too.

Union employees are calling for fair labor relations. Is no one worried about falling public schools? No wonder The Strike is ON!

TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 2024

Can we still afford special education

Can we still afford special education?

As more children qualify for special education, more school systems are deciding the provision of special education is a hill too high to climb.

In the 22-23 school year a record 7.5 million students accessed special education services in the United States.

Several factors are playing into the increase. The pandemic left many kids at home with parents. Sometimes the parents were doing school lessons and were discovering that the issues in learning their kids had were very real; they weren't all the teacher's or school's fault. Secondly, the stigma for some disabilities is going down. Autism spectrum disabilities are on the rise as are people on the spectrum being shown as very smart and maybe just a bit quirky so what’s so bad about that.

Schools don’t have the money to provide the services and when they do, they can’t find the teachers. Three in five special ed teachers leave in the first five years. Then there is the issue of all those wonderful federal pandemic funds that are going away.

In Maryland the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future is pumping lots of new state money into local school systems. But that is not a free lunch. The new money may only be spent in specific areas for the purposes of legislation. And money begets money so, the local jurisdictions are required to increase their spending in those areas beyond the Maintenance of Effort amounts already established.

There is only so much money to go around. Somethings are happening in Maryland that have seldom happened before. Teachers are being laid off. From the smaller systems such as Cecil County to the largest one, Montgomery county. Programs are being cut; positions are eliminated in the Baltimore metro area as well. All of this means involuntary teacher transfers if teachers want to keep their jobs.

Money being pumped into school systems is being allocated on a per pupil basis and that money goes to the schools where the kids are. The money is not for general overhead to run the district.

Special education is more expensive than general ed. Now that there is less money all around, the hard question of can we still afford special education has left the whisper stage and is being asked out loud.

TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2024

We can end dropouts right now

All men are not created equally. And neither are students. So why is it that we insist on pushing every child through the same knot holes in order to get a high school diploma?

Baltimore City has been working very hard to get students who have dropped out during the pandemic and the virtual not instruction to return to school. It is sending folks to homes and to student workplaces trying to convince them it is worth their time and energy to come back to school.

But is it really? What will they get in high school that will change their lives besides a high school diploma. For a teenager, a high school diploma is in never never land and now they can get $15 an hour in the service sector and that looks like big time earning.

If they return to school, they can get algebra 1, Shakespeare, and another foreign language. What exactly are they going to do with that? How will that make their lives better?

We talk a good game about college and career readiness. In reality all we are preparing students for is college and there are lots of kids whose abilities and interests do not require college.

We need to drop many of the academic classes that we currently require kids to take. Students need to learn to read and write grammatically correct English, would be good if they could speak it too. They need some heavy coursework in financial literacy and civics so they can learn how the government is run and how to avoid being scammed by bad actors who want their money. Current history would be valuable as well. Some science in how to manage and take care of the body that they live in. Beyond that we need to start training kids for the jobs that are out there right now. For some those jobs require college. But for lots of other jobs, no college required.

Look around at the jobs that are going begging. Georgia has an entire training program to prepare kids for the TV production industry. Georgia is about to outpace California in that field. Why, because they have skilled labor and they are preparing more and better skilled support staff for all of the theatre union performers.

Maryland has huge vacancies in the construction trades and in commercial drivers. We should be teaching students those skills and they might see some purpose in coming back to school.

We could eliminate dropouts in just a few years if we made school relevant to the students and to their interests and skill set instead of pandering to the politicians who are in white collar jobs that don’t require dirty hands. Let’s take a giant step backwards to the olden days when there were academic (heading to college), commercial (heading to the business world) and vocational-technical (heading to skilled employment) diplomas. More students finished high school because it was worth their time.