Playing Catchup

 Playing Catchup!

 

Many years ago, William Proxmire, a U.S. Senator, regularly announced his Golden Fleece Award.  This award was given to research activities that seemed to be a waste of the taxpayers’ money since they sought to research that which was abundantly and obviously known.  I was recently reminded of the Golden Fleece Award when I read the results of a research project that determined during virtual learning school attendance was down dramatically and so was achievement.   Who couldn’t have figured that out in about ten minutes?   I hope there wasn’t much money wasted on that.

Now we do know that federal and state governments are doing what they always do in the face of a problem- throw money at the problem before they have begun to determine either a solution or the cost of that solution.

Anyone who has paid attention has understood that attendance would be down.  Staring at a screen all day for instruction without personal interface becomes flat out boring.  Add to the fact that a parent might be in another room doing his/her own work from home activities means little to no supervision.  Some older kids have even gotten jobs.

If you are a teacher, teaching from a Chromebook is not your best way to display your teaching abilities.  Had less interesting teaching, the boredom of the screen, and lots of more interesting things to do with that screen than follow along with the teacher and you have a recipe for lower achievement.

School systems now have more money than they know what to do with.  In Maryland, besides all of the federal money flowing in, the Kirwan Commission money will soon be showing up in the school system coffers.  Maryland has a new young State Superintendent who has never had supervisory responsibility for  a school system before.  He will need to answer to the Maryland State Board of Ed as well as to the Oversight Board for the Kirwan money.

Spending more money on the same teachers, adding more teachers and writing policy papers isn’t going to do it.

All of this money gives us the opportunity for an entirely new paradyme of what public education needs to look like.  We should begin with the consumers-that would be the kids and recent graduates.  We need to be willing to really flip the system and do something very different.  Of course, the unions will be against any changes but playing catchup will just not be enough in this situation.  Or we could spend lots of money researching what we already know.

Not Perfect Quite Yet

 Not perfect yet

 

This past weekend we celebrated the 245^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.  A very upstart act that sometimes doesn’t seem as brave today as it was 200+ years ago.  When these men, yes they were all white men, (although not all old, Jefferson was only in his early 30’s and Adams only 41) signed the Declaration they ended with a pledge of their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.  And sacred honor may have meant a lot more then.  They were putting their lives at risk.  Had this upstart set of colonies lost this war against the most powerful nation on earth at the time, their lives would have been sacrificed.

Twelve years later, after an initial failed start, the Constitution of the United States was ratified “to establish a more perfect union”.   You will notice the goal even then was not to establish a perfect union, but a “more” perfect one.  Even the initial framers knew perfect is an ongoing process.

Today states are forbidding the teaching of Critical Race Theory because they believe it is critical of the United States and these legislators do not want children to learn that our Union is not perfect.  First of all, as the name suggests, this is a theory not a curriculum.  Secondly, what is obvious to any marketer, whoever thought of this name needs to rethink his/her career choice.  The name is terrible, but the idea behind this theory  is not.

Even the most loving parent would probably admit that his/her child is not perfect, but that does not stop us from loving.  The same can be said about adult spouses, significant others or best friends.  It is also true of our nation’s allies.  “Ain’t nobody perfect” but that has never stopped us from loving.

Has our nation made some mistakes during the course of that 245 year history?   You bet, and some mighty big ones too.  Does knowing about those mistakes stop us from loving our country, not likely, but it might help us to work to make fewer mistakes in the future.  Just as being aware of and confronting our own mistakes in our personal lives helps us to grow and be a better person.  So being aware of our nation’s mistakes helps us to teach our children how to make fewer of them when they are old enough to be in charge.  Just as many a parent has said to his/her children, “I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I made when I was growing up.”

Mistakes in our personal lives and in our nation’s life are part of growing and perfecting.  None of us is perfect yet, not we as individuals, nor we as a country.  We can’t fix a problem until we identify what it is.  That’s all critical race theory is saying, let’s look at where we have gone wrong so we can go right in the future. Not much to be afraid of.  We are all still looking for the “more perfect union”.  

What It is and what it isn’t

 What it is and what it isn’t 

The Supreme Court has ruled that the trash talking spoiled 14-year old was within her free speech rights when she fired the F word at her school, her team and her teammates.  The Court does not rule on character.  The child said in court that that was how 14-year olds talked.  If that is true, there are a whole lot of parenting issues that need to be taught.  

There are really two separate issues at play.

The most obvious is the one of free speech.  While the Court unanimously agreed in both the official decision and the dissenting opinion, the student’s language was inappropriate.   So the decision boiled down to two things, did she have a Constitutional right to be inappropriate and, secondly, did the school have the right to provide consequences for inappropriate speech off-campus.   The answer to the first question is yes she did have a Constitutional right to behave without character and the school could not punish her for that flaw.

Now where does that leave schools in terms of providing consequences for profanity and/or other flawed speech.

In the past, whether the “speech” took the form of t-shirts or spoken words, the Court has ruled that schools may intervene and limit any speech that is disruptive to the operation of the school.  And this decision does not change that authority .   Had the online speech threatened a student or a staff member it would have been a different decision.  Instead the words were stated online and outside of the school building and they were generalized to entities not specific individuals. 

We are left with 14-year olds essentially having the same rights as others to expose their lack of character and self-entitlement online.  

However, statements that negatively target kids or staff in a manner that is racist, sexist or any other form of bullying are still up for consequences.  These statements are disruptive to the operation of the school and can be regulated.  

One can hope that the 14-year old who is now 18 has gained some maturity in the intervening years.  But then again, there are lots of middle aged folks and older who seem to be stuck in adolescence.  

Suppose they find greener fields?

 Suppose they find greener fields

 

Private schools and public schools took two very different approaches to the pandemic.  Public schools closed up tightly.  No one knows how many trees sacrificed their lives as public schools sent thousands of “packets” of routine schoolwork out to students in lieu of being taught by a teacher.  Initially, the packets went out by grade level so all the kids in any grade got the same packet regardless of where they were academically.  Consequently, those packets were probably only useful to about 40% of the students and that is being charitable.  Finally, after lots of political pressure to open up, and lots and lots of resistance from teacher unions to stay at home, public schools began to marginally open for some kids on some days.

On the other hand, private schools were all in from the beginning.  As soon as they were allowed to open in person, private schools began bringing students into the schoolhouses.  Were there outbreaks of COVID in some spots, yes.  Were those cases managed by the schools and the local health departments with carefully targeted quarantine, absolutely. Did the children in private schools get a better education, most definitely.

Parents noticed and if they had the economic means they walked out and, private school enrollments began to increase.  

Now the question is, will those private school students return to the free public schools or keep paying the tuition.  The results are not in yet and we probably won’t know until this fall.  But there are some things that we do know.  White students are being enrolled in private schools at a much higher rate than other groups.  This situation is particularly true in districts where there was a heavier emphasis on virtual learning or systems are slow to return.  Public school districts receive funding based on enrollment.   For the 20-21 school year, Maryland’s Governor has agreed to fund public schools at pre-pandemic levels.  But that may not hold for the upcoming school year.  In addition to the loss of students to private schools, there has also been an uptick in families that are home-schooling.   In communities where the income of a 16 or 17-year old may be needed, families may make the short-sighted decision for the child not to return to school.  All in all, if these trends continue, we might well see a dramatic shift in the public school population, where higher income families chose private school or home-schooling and lower income and/or minority families chose public schools.  That situation will yield fewer state and federal dollars based on enrollment and public schools might also lose the strong advocacy of parents who push for more public school funding.  What if those greener fields aren’t full of weeds and families decide to stay?  Still more pandemic fallout.

If your child has a disability where do you turn?

 If Your Child has a disability, where do you turn?

 

A school year is ending and the new one will begin very soon.  Hopefully the 21-22 school year will open and we will be on our way.  If you have a child with a disability the decision on what to do is much more consequential.  

There are two considerations.  One is the quality of the teachers and the other is the quality of programing.

Maryland ranks 4^th in the country in terms of funding for public schools and providing financial equity in support of minorities and lower socio-economic groups.  Maryland also pays its teachers very well.

The national realtor association ranks Baltimore, Maryland as #27 out of 150 cities as a top place to work if you have a special needs child.  But there are other questions about living in Baltimore and overall the Baltimore City school system is considered to be a very poor one.  The U.S. Office of Education monitors the 50 states as to their compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA).  According to the recent monitoring, Maryland is not in compliance with the Act.  However, Maryland is in good company given that less than half of the 50 states are in compliance.

The next question is the quality of the teachers.  If we can equate salary with quality- AND that is a very big IF- Maryland teachers should be very good.  Maryland ranks #4 in the country behind Alaska, Vermont and California in teacher pay.  And that is BEFORE the Kirwin money is kicking in.  The average special ed teachers’ salary in Maryland is just under $50,000 and 10% of Maryland teachers earn more than $90,000.  So, they are being well paid.  In fact, Maryland special ed teachers rank 9^th in the country in terms of salary.  You might be wondering why the discrepancy between all teachers being 4^th and special ed teachers being 9^th.  The reason is the very high turnover in special ed teachers.  Three out of five are gone in the first 5 years.  Consequently they are leaving before the higher salaries begin to kick in.

But someone in Maryland is doing something right.   Maryland is one of only eight states with 33% or more of its adults with disabilities competitively employed.  So maybe Maryland isn’t such a bad place to land if you have a child with a disability.

The Worst Form of Racism

 The worst form of racism

 

One of the best ways out of poverty is education.  One of the best ways to a better life is education.  The taxpayers of Maryland and Baltimore City are paying for a top flight education.  In fact, the per pupil expenditure for plain kids in Baltimore City is among the highest in the state.  Evidently it is money VERY poorly spent.

iReady is a system that Baltimore City uses to assess the grade level performance of its students.  Students are give iReady assessments three times a year to measure academic achievement.  The most recent testing indicates that some students are performing as much as 10 grade levels below their age.

In one high school in Baltimore the over half of the students have a GPA of less than .99.  That means the average GPA for that 50% of students is below failing.  At least one student in the 11^th grade at that school (and these are NOT supposed to be kids with disabilities) is functioning at only the 1^st grade level in math.  He will graduate next year.  Kids are passing and graduating high school who are functionally illiterate in math and reading.  Ninety percent of the kids tested in 6^th grade were below grade level in math and reading.  Yet they are not allowed to be retained in grade because the system thinks that is bad for their self esteem and they may be too old for grade in a year or two.

So instead, the City is graduating students who lack the skill set to get a decent job or go onto a community college for advanced training in a skilled trade.  They can’t get a decent job or make a life for themselves.

The gun violence epidemic rages on in Baltimore and the students are released into the community ill-prepared to earn a decent living.

It is time for out-of-the-box thinking.   Let’s stop putting students in grades that seem to have little or nothing to do with their achievement levels.  Why not move to a program based on academic competency instead of grade level.  Students would move from class to class based on what they have achieved academically and when.  So a student could be at one level for math, another level for language arts and reading and a third or fourth level for science and social studies.  The arts could be across levels so students would have some grouping with their chronological agemates, but even in the academic grouping there wouldn’t be more than a 3-4 year spread, not terribly unlike the original one-room school houses or even elementary schools today in some very rural communities.

What we are doing now, just moving students along an assembly line is cruel and serves them badly.  We are paying for an educational program and promising that program to our kids and delivering a fake.  It is the worse form of racism.

How Will Your Money Be Wasted This Year?

How Will Your Money Be Wasted This Year?

 

EVERY year Maryland spends about 1 billion- yep, that’s billion with a B, on professional development and reimbursement to teachers for courses that they are required to take to sustain their initial certification.  Maryland continues to do this even though there is NO evidence that this expenditure impacts the quality of teaching in Maryland.

Mark Procopio, an educational research professor, says there are no data that show either the coursework or the professional development contribute to teacher growth or student outcomes.   Yet both are required in Maryland for teachers to maintain their certification.  In fact, Maryland also requires that teachers earn Masters degrees or 30 post-bachelor degree credits within a short time of the initial certification.  As a reward for meeting this requirement teachers get a nice bump-up in salary, an additional added cost to the taxpayers.   David Steiner, the executive director of the Institute for Education Policy at Johns Hopkins University and former member of the Maryland State Board of Education has said “we have no quality assurance that this money is really well spent.”   Yet we keep on spending it.

The Maryland legislature recently approved a 10-year multi-billion-dollar (there’s that b again) educational reform package that will be throwing more money at folks who get the advanced education and certification.   There is absolutely no evidence that paying poor teachers more money makes them any better at their jobs or improves student outcomes.

The one thing that would improve teaching, the teacher unions would never accept.  Teaching is the only so-called profession in which people who are bad at their jobs can’t get fired.  The unions have assured us of that by creating so many multi-year hoops that principals and school districts must jump through to terminate a teacher that few teachers ever lose their jobs for incompetence.  Instead we get the dance of the lemons, where poor teachers are transferred and recycled to other schools where they will inflict their poor skillset on other innocent kids.  And by the way, ever a fan of getting teachers more money regardless of whether it is earned or not, Cheryl Bost, president of the Maryland State Education Association, the largest teachers’ union in Maryland, thinks the money spent on professional development and coursework was great for her.  But then she hasn’t been in a classroom for many years. She works fulltime for the union.   And there we go, more money wasted.