Assigned Reading

No educational writer today is better than Jay Mathews, a columnist and blogger for the Washington Post. Yesterday he wrote this:

The D.C. schools that work best are run by principals who have the power to teach their students any way they and their teachers think best, as long as achievement improves.

Mathews targets a couple of do-gooding council members who have proposed a dramatic increase in physical education time for city students. With the increase in obesity and unhealthy behaviors, some might consider the proposal a worthy idea. But the councilors do not address how schools will pay for the additional physical education. And since the proposal does not include a longer school day, physical education will have to displace academics; the councilors offer no suggestions.

It’s these bureaucratic dictates, no matter how well-meaning they might be, that are often the obstacles for school improvement.

Mathews is exactly right when he calls for more decision-making power at the school level; give principals and teachers the power to make change, and hold them accountable.

But telling them [individual schools] they have to do it whether it works for them or not is a bad idea, one of many from politicians who thought they were doing the right thing but never considered the consequences.

Amen.

Commissioner Deborah Gist and the Rhode Island Department of Education have released an “Agenda for Transforming Education“. This agenda will serve as an application for Race to the Top (R2T) federal education funding.

The general objectives we have seen before, although individual districts seem to have more control over the level of participation.

1. Turn around persistently struggling schools, in partnership with districts, using a blend of proven strategies in leadership, programs, organization, and student supports;
2. Close achievement gaps so that all students are on track to graduate from high school well prepared for college and challenging careers;
3. Help all schools build the infrastructure that inspired, expert educators will need in order to improve student achievement; and
4. Allow all districts to partner in a significant way as a participating district or to opt in to some of the initiatives as an involved district.

R2T funds will be used to improve preparation for teachers, implement the statewide evaluation system approved by the Board of Regents earlier this month, and establish a Leadership Academy to “prepare principals to work in struggling schools”.

Rhode Island schools will also adopt the National Common Core Standards, and develop curriculum supported by effective instructional strategies that would be available to all districts.

Sure to rankle the teachers’ unions is the plan to deal with schools that are determined to be persistently low achieving: convert them to charters, turn over the management to private firms, or transform that schools’ staff and programs.

Pursue more aggressive reforms with Level I schools that have missed targets for five or more years and are identified as persistently low achieving. Working with each district, RIDE will determine the best way for struggling schools to serve their students: closing and converting to a charter school, contracting with an education firm to manage the school, or transforming the school in more significant ways regarding staffing, program, budget, and schedule.

Clearly Commissioner Gist won’t be pleased with the status quo, and is unafraid to put forth ideas that challenge the educational power structures in the state.

The agenda is worrisome in that it further centralizes educational decision-making at the state level. Hopefully RIDE officials will refrain from meddling in districts that are succeeding; this is just as important as intervening in districts that are failing.

You may have noticed, as I did, how unusually quiet the teachers’ unions have been about the healthcare reform currently being debated in the US Senate. Both national unions, but particularly the NEA, typically throw their weight behind Democrat initiatives, especially those pushed by President Obama. And while the unions have certainly expressed support for healthcare reform, the Senate bill hasn’t caused them to rally their members.

Today, the media finally explain why. Many of those who enjoy the so-called Cadillac healthcare plans are not wealthy, management types. They’re union members.

Teachers enjoy some of the best benefits available. And as a result, we working class Americans will be subjected to a 40% premium tax, a punishment for having healthcare plans better than most Americans.

One would think the teachers’ unions in particular would be loud and vocal in their opposition. This would be true if the teachers’ unions were most interested in teachers. But when push comes to shove, the unions will put down their arms if it helps secure a victory for the Democrats.

Adoption of the Senate bill will mean a significant increase in taxes on middle class folks like myself, the very people President Obama promised wouldn’t see a single dime in tax increases.

For now the unions will work behind closed doors, lobbying and negotiating with elected officials to eliminate the tax. They’ll save the more boisterous public outrage for when it can be directed at the Republicans.

It’s been difficult trying to analyze the budget changes proposed by Governor Carcieri. My feelings are mixed.

I agree with the governor that teachers need to join with other government workers in accepting a three percent pay cut. No one wants a reduction in pay, but in these challenging times, I find it difficult to argue against such a cut. When the ship is taking on water, you must be willing to throw some things overboard, or risk losing everything.

But I don’t believe we should do so because we are paid too much. Quite frankly, I’m getting tired of defending my salary. I’m a professional, with years of education and experience, and I am confident my salary is fair. There are too many fellow conservatives who seem more interested in bashing teachers. Suggesting dramatic cuts in teacher salaries is not a solution, nor will it result in better schools.

I strongly believe that tax increases should be off the table. Tax increases will only make an abysmal economy more desperate.

So we need to rethink everything. And we need to do it quickly.

• Schools should employ less people. Districts need to privatize much of the non-instructional services, like custodial, building maintenance and grounds-keeping. Special services like occupational, physical, and speech therapies should be provided by part-time therapists who are not covered by the collective bargaining agreements.
• Reduce administrative costs. Smaller districts should close administration buildings, sell them if possible, and place these offices directly in schools. Eliminate many of the bureaucratic positions and turn over most decision-making to school principals and improvement teams. Merge payroll, record-keeping and secretarial services with the municipal departments to reduce redundancies and costs.
• Increase buying power. Negotiate lower costs for health and dental insurance, instructional materials, and non-instructional supplies by merging with other (or all) school districts. Statewide busing and computer/technology could also produce significant savings.

My goal is to cede control of much of the non-instructional costs to larger entities, while maintaining control over education at the smallest level. Schools know what their kids need, and can easily adopt strategies to meet those needs. Who cleans the bathrooms, what brand of toilet paper is used, or who drives the yellow schools buses is irrelevant.

In the long-term, we need to lobby elected officials, both state and federal, to end unpaid mandates. Federal special education laws, in particular, have an enormous financial impact on every school in the country.

So yes, I’ll agree to a pay cut. I’ll even advocate for it. But not just to maintain the status quo. It’s time we told the unions to take a hike and the bureaucrats to get off our backs, that the schools belong to the communities, the kids and their families. It’s time to do things differently.

A hearty congratulations to Middletown High School spanish teacher Dana Ramey. He is the 2010 Rhode Island Teacher of the Year.

US News and World Report has released its annual list of Best High Schools in the country. For what it’s worth, no Rhode Island schools made the top 100. Four schools were recognized. Classical in Providence and North Kingstown High earned silver medals, and Providence’s Times2 Academy and South Kingstown High were awarded bronze.

It’s convenient for adults to blame kids for the failures of the public education system. In a weekend letter-to-the-editor in the Providence Journal, 47-year veteran teacher Robert Salerno does just that.

I submit that they might learn that the problems of public education do not lie with the teachers but with the students themselves. Although many youngsters try to be good students, there are far too many who do not.

These boys and girls should be called “attendees,” ones who go to school but give little or no effort. Their numbers are larger than ever and I will leave it to our educational leaders to find out why this is happening in many areas of our state. These unmotivated students hurt their parents, classmates, school and society. According to the research, this begins to appear in middle school and becomes worse as these “attendees” move to the high school. This phenomena is not the fault of the classroom teacher.

As a teacher, I am sickened by this line of thinking. For too long, the adults that control public schools have allowed stagnation. Change has come too slow, if at all. Today students sit in the same classrooms where their parents and grandparents once sat, in schools where operations have changed very little.

While childhood has been revolutionized by technology, our schools remain antiquated structures incapable of providing what our students need for the 21st century. My classroom was constructed with only one pair of electrical outlets…one pair…located in the front of the classroom. An electrical strip was installed in the back of the classroom for a set of computers that is more than five years old. Televisions need to be rolled around on carts, and no access to cable is available. If I am able to pull together an LCD projector with a laptop that can plug into an ethernet port (no wireless), our network security blocks all streaming video.

So we teach the world using textbooks, even though our students can see it and experience it on television and the Internet in their own homes. In real time.

Teachers unions have done everything in their power to improve the conditions for teachers, even at the sacrifice of the students they teach. School days are roughly six hours long, regardless of what students need. Teacher mandated prep periods dictate schedules. Contracts limit what teachers can be asked to do, even when it is clear what kids need. Teacher evaluation systems over the years have been horrendous, no matter what the unionists might tell you. And the unions have sapped every dollar from local school budgets, resulting in deteriorated buildings and outdated technology.

Bureaucrats have reached into all facets of education, leveling mandates that make teaching our kids so difficult. Time is consumed by a ridiculous number of fire and intruder drills, health and wellness initiatives, state and local testing, endless paperwork, and a pet project from just about every bureaucrat with the power to require one. Not a week goes by without a period or two disrupted by some initiative, some do-gooder project, or something “special” that has little to do with the curriculum we are challenged to teach, and often has little impact on the students in our class.

And, or course, there are the parents. The adults who let their kids sit in front of televisions watching inappropriate programming or playing violent video games. They don’t check their kids’ backpacks each night; don’t visit schools for conferences or get involved in the parent groups. Parents who don’t follow up on homework, or classwork and don’t read newsletters from their kids’ teachers. Parents who don’t insist upon a sit down meal each evening and let their kids stay up (or out) until all hours of the night, even on school nights; dads who aren’t even involved in their sons’ lives.

Not all teachers or parents or bureaucrats are this bad. Many teachers and parents are doing the right thing (and probably a few bureaucrats here and there) for their kids. But still many are not. These are often the kids who are failing, the unmotivated kids, the “attendees” as Mr. Salerno refers to them.

Our kids have changed. But the adults refuse. To blame the kids is just another part of our failure to reach them, to teach them, and to care what their futures might hold.

If our kids aren’t learning, then we, the adults, our failing. It’s that simple.

The Rhode Island Board of Regents met in Lincoln this evening, and the outcome was a state mandated teacher evaluation system. According to a press release posted at Anchor Rising, the board approved a system that mandates annual evaluations of all teachers using standards developed by RIDE.

While all would agree that teachers should be evaluated regularly, it’s a shame that, once again, the bureaucrats have decided they know best. Rather than set minimum criteria and allow districts to develop satisfactory evaluation tools, RIDE has taken the all-too-common path of ignoring the unique characteristics of each individual school system.

The time principals will spend evaluating teachers will dramatically increase, as will the amount of paperwork that distracts teachers and principals from doing what is most important, teaching kids.

RIDE has gone so far as to require the use of “evaluation-system templates,” which can only be modified with permission from the commissioner.

Anchor Rising’s Justin Katz is right when he calls this another unfunded mandate. The Tiverton superintendent estimated the additional cost at $250,000.

The additional time, cost, and paperwork will not, in all likelihood, weed out the bad teachers anymore than current evaluation tools do. But the bureaucrats will feel better, believing they have flexed their power once again to better our kids’ education.

Just another pretty ornament on the tree.