Dear Colleague,
As the 2012-2013 school year draws to a close, there is a
piece of litigation in the news that could become law by the time school starts
again in late summer. AB 1266 would require that a pupil be permitted to
participate in sex-segregated school programs, activities, and facilities,
including athletic teams and competitions, consistent with his or her perceived
gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records. In
other words, if a boy thinks he’s a girl, he gets to play on female sports
teams, use the girls’ bathroom, shower, etc. For more info on the bill, go to
If you believe the education establishment and mainstream
media, you might think we are going through a bullying epidemic. However, as
Choice Media’s Bob Bowdon reports, this is false.
… according to a task
force report by the American Educational
Research Association, that isn’t so. In fact, the report found that the
idea that bullying is worse now than in the past is simply not true. It says
bullying is down 50 percent between 1995 and 2009.
To read more and access the AERA report, go to http://choicemedia.tv/2013/06/03/how-much-school-bullying-is-media-myth/
Bowdon also exploded
another myth about the alleged evils of “for profit” charter schools.
The
most recent serving of anti-for-profit narrative was in a Washington Post blog
of May 20, by David Pickler, President of the National School Boards Association,
titled "What's wrong with school 'choice"? Here's what."
(Choice was put in quotation marks.) He referred to Louisiana's voucher
law as "driven primarily by outside forces that want to make big profits
on the backs of our nation's most vulnerable children." Sounds bad,
eh?
It
was enough to set off Jason Bedrick of the Cato Institute, who published a response the very
next day, using a parallel interrogative title structure. His piece was
called, "Who's Afraid of School Profits?"
Bedrock
pointed out that most of the private schools taking Louisiana vouchers are, in
fact, non-profit. Then he goes on to explain in the piece how selectively
people like Pickler apply their "money is corrupting"
logic. Jason Bedrick explained it to me too.
Oh,
"outside forces want to make big profits on the backs of our nation's most
vulnerable children." Which is just patently absurd. Nobody
says, "That business, they're making a profit on the backs of their paying
customers." It doesn't make any sense at all. When you think
about it, really, these are schools that these families have chosen. Who's really benefiting
on the backs of these vulnerable children? I would say it's the people that
are fighting to continue the public school monopoly.
To continue reading, go to http://choicemedia.tv/2013/05/28/backlash-against-for-profit-school-bashing/#.UbnkQpxQCJ8
Researcher Greg
Forster recently released his latest study on school choice and, as usual, his
findings fly in the face of what the educational establishment tells us. A few
of the key findings:
- Twelve empirical studies have examined academic outcomes for school choice participants using random assignment, the “gold standard” of social science. Of these, 11 find that choice improves student outcomes—six that all students benefit and five that some benefit and some are not affected. One study finds no visible impact. No empirical study has found a negative impact.
- Twenty-three empirical studies (including all methods) have examined school choice’s impact on academic outcomes in public schools. Of these, 22 find that choice improves public schools and one finds no visible impact. No empirical study has found that choice harms public schools.
- Six empirical studies have examined school choice’s fiscal impact on taxpayers. All six find that school choice saves money for taxpayers. No empirical study has found a negative fiscal impact.
To read more, go to http://www.edchoice.org/Research/Reports/A-Win-Win-Solution--The-Empirical-Evidence-on-School-Choice.aspx
In the current Education Matters, the Association of
American Educators newsletter, there is a very interesting piece about online
learning and one teacher’s experience with it. “How
Blended Learning Saved My Teaching Career” details the story of a young teacher
who had reached the breaking point and found that the blended learning model
saved his career.
Blended learning is not about replacing
teachers with machines. Rather, it’s about leveraging technology to provide
students and teachers with immediate feedback, holding each individual student
accountable for his or her academic success, and personalizing course work to
best meet students exactly where they are. Dave Levin, one of the founders of
the KIPP charter network, recently emphasized that blended learning relies upon
skilled teachers. This point is absolutely critical: without highly effective
teachers and instruction, a blended-learning model cannot be successful or
sustainable.
To continue reading this compelling story, go to https://www.aaeteachers.org/images/em/2013junnews.pdf
Among the key reasons, she finds, are TFA’s accountable, analytical, and adaptable managerial practices….
TFA
placed 10,400 teachers in 2012 and its plans call for expansion to 15,000
teachers by 2015. Its teachers worked in 3,200 public schools in
2013. Of the 48,000 applicants for TFA openings in 2012, which included
11 percent of Yale’s graduating class, only 8,200, or 17%, were accepted.
TFA reports that 550 alumni have become school principals, 100 are system
leaders, and 70 hold elected offices. Almost three-quarters of TFA’s
revenues came from philanthropy in 2011—$194 million, up $40 million from
2010. To meet the new goals, including projects in another 18 countries,
TFA will need revenues of a half billion dollars a year.
It’s hardly a secret
that America’s schools of education – to understate the case – don’t do a very
good job. In the summer 2013 issue of Education
Next, National Council on Teacher Quality president Kate Walsh does an
excellent job of pinpointing the problems and makes some good common sense
suggestions as to how to improve teacher training.
Shocked by teacher
education’s refusal to train teachers to use scientifically based reading
methods, Reid Lyon, who headed a 30-year study at the National Institutes of
Health of how people best learn to read, once stated, “If there was any piece
of legislation that I could pass it would be to blow up colleges of education.”
To read this hard-hitting piece, go to http://educationnext.org/21st-century-teacher-education/
Talking about “hard-hitting,” LAUSD chief John Deasy, fed up
with playing nice with abusive teachers, got rid of a bunch of them last month.
He axed 100, got 200 more to resign and is “housing” 300 others.
The personnel files stretched the
length of the 15-foot conference table in Superintendent John Deasy's office, a
chronicle of the corporal punishment, verbal and physical abuse and sexual
misconduct reported in the classrooms of the Los Angeles Unified School
District.
Cuts
and bruises. Curses and racial slurs. Caresses and pornography.
In
the past, the misdeeds detailed in the teachers' files would likely have earned
the offender a disciplinary memo, maybe a week's suspension, perhaps a transfer
to another school.
Today,
they're grounds for firing.
Under
the zero-tolerance policy that Deasy enacted after the Miramonte Elementary
sex-abuse scandal erupted in February 2012, the school board has voted to
dismiss more than 100 teachers for misconduct, and accepted the resignations of
at least 200 others who were about to be terminated. Nearly 300 additional
teachers accused of inappropriate behavior remain "housed" in
administrative offices while officials investigate the complaints.
To read more, go to http://www.whittierdailynews.com/bellremembered/ci_23220307/lausd-cracks-down-teacher-misconduct-100-fired-200
We recently sent you a special email about National Employee
Freedom Week. In case you missed it, here is the salient information:
National Employee Freedom Week
is a national effort to inform union employees of the freedom they have
regarding opting out of union membership and making the decision about union
membership that’s best for them. Often that choice is freeing themselves from
union membership, becoming an agency fee payer, or identifying as a
religious/conscientious objector.
Additionally,
many employees are thrilled to learn that alternative professional associations
provide better benefits and professional development opportunities for a
fraction of the cost of union membership.
If you are still using a school email to receive these
newsletters, please consider sending us your personal email address. More and
more school districts are blocking CTEN. In any event, if you enjoy these
letters and find them informative, please pass them along to your colleagues
and encourage them to join us.
If you would like to see us address certain issues, topics, etc. in these newsletters or on our website – http://www.ctenhome.org – please let us know. And have a great summer!
Sincerely,
Larry Sand
CTEN President
