Dear Colleague,
With much hoopla, the 2017 NAEP scores were released last week. The
basic response thus far from edu-pundits has been, “Meh.” National
averages were essentially unchanged since the test was last given in
2015.
In some ways, the flat trajectory nationwide provides relief for
educators after the especially bitter NAEP news in 2015, when scores
dropped for three out of four age/subject groupings. The development
came as states were still rolling out testing regimes aligned with the
Common Core, and the new standards were widely (and controversially)
blamed for bringing down student performance.
Although scores for American students have gone through periods of
sizable and consistent growth — most recently at the dawn of the modern
era of academic standards and school accountability in the late 1990s
and early 2000s — results over the past 10 years have left education
reformers at a loss.
California did register a 4-point gain in 8th grade reading scores and 4th
graders gained 3 points. The state’s 1-point gain in math scores was
not a significant change, according to a spokesman for the National
Center for Education Statistics.
For more, go to http://laschoolreport.com/california-makes-some-gains-in-reading-but-naep-scores-remain-flat-amid-signs-of-a-widening-gap-between-highest-and-lowest-performers/
One California school did stand out recently. El Camino Real Charter
High School in Woodland Hills won the California Academic Decathlon in
Sacramento. The Los Angeles Unified high school will advance to the
national competition this weekend in Texas.
In Academic Decathlon, nine-member teams of ninth- through
12th-grade students compete in academic contests in 10 categories — art,
music, language and literature, social science, science, mathematics,
economics, speech, interview and essay — plus the Super Quiz, a
"Jeopardy!"-style question-and-answer session that draws from all
subjects.
The theme of this year's competition is Africa.
Schools from LAUSD have won the national competition 18 times since
1987, and California has held the national title for the last 15
consecutive years.
To learn more, go here - http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-academic-decathlon-20180325-story.html
Speaking of charters, there is a new study out that compares the
cost-effectiveness of charters and traditional public schools. The
findings include:
Education dollars go farther in charter schools than they do traditional public schools.
For every $1,000 in per-pupil funding, students in charter schools
earn 17.76 points on the reading portion of the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP) compared to 13.42 points for students in
traditional public schools. In math, students in the charter sector earn
19.21 NAEP points compared to 14.48 in traditional district schools.
Every dollar spent on students in traditional public schools results
in $4.67 in lifetime earnings for those in traditional schools, $6.44
for those in charters, and $5.40 for those who split their K-12 years
between both.
To read more about this study, conducted by Patrick J. Wolf of the
University of Arkansas, Corey DeAngelis of the Cato Institute, et al, go
to https://www.educationdive.com/news/study-compares-cost-effectiveness-of-charters-traditional-public-schools/517101/
Those of us who believe that not every single student in the country
needs to go to college are buoyed by a recent story about Fresno County,
where nearly every school offers Career Technical Education courses.
From robotics, to culinary arts, to construction- these are just
some of the career tech courses Fresno County students are learning in
classrooms in school districts throughout the Central Valley.
"One of the things we try
to do in career tech education and ROP particularly is have some
consistency across districts in like subjects because our employers
don't care what side of the district boundaries you come from they are
looking for a core group of competencies," said Administrator Valerie
Vuicich.
The skills students are mastering in class were put to the test at
the annual career skills challenge….15 hundred students going up against
each other in teams; competing against one another in their area of
interest.
To read more about this important program, go here - http://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/education-matters-apprenticeship-career-skills/1060801150
On the school choice front, there was an interesting piece written by
American Enterprise’s Rick Hess and Sofia Gallo, in which they claim
that “School-Choice Supporters Should Drop the Overheated Rhetoric.”
The school-choice
movement features more than its share of alarmist rhetoric and
extravagant boasts. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has opined
that school choice is necessary because millions of students “are
trapped in schools that fail to meet their needs.” Proponents boast that
“like Uber disrupts the transportation industry, charter schools and
private schools can and are disrupting the education industry.”
Hess/Gallo claim that choicer verbiage is alienating too many parents.
But researcher Greg Forster strenuously disagrees, positing that choice
is:
…winning in statehouses, winning in governors’ mansions, and winning
in public opinion polls. No doubt that success will ebb and flow in the
future, as it has in the past. But choice has better public perception
today than at any time in its history.
To read the Hess/Gallo piece, go here - https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/school-choice-debate-rhetoric-overheated/ To read Forster’s rejoinder, go to https://jaypgreene.com/2018/04/04/hess-and-gallo-get-words-wrong-in-nro/
In January, it was discovered that Californians David and Louise Turpin,
who were homeschooling parents, had imprisoned their thirteen children
for years in the most disgusting and degrading ways. Shortly thereafter,
State Senator Susan Eggman, (D-Stockton) hatched AB 2926, a bill that
would establish an advisory committee whose purpose is to make
recommendations to the state board of education “on the appropriateness
and feasibility” of imposing additional requirements on a home school.
They would include, but are not limited to, health and safety
inspections, specific curriculum standards, and certification or
credentialing of teachers.
The teachers unions and other education establishmentarians are cheering
this bill on, “Teachers of home instruction programs should meet
California certification requirements. Additionally, there are certain
guidelines educators believe should be followed. … Permission granted by
the local governing board shall be required annually,” CTA spokeswoman
Claudia Briggs said.
But others are alarmed, insisting that the law is unnecessary and way too meddlesome. To learn more, go to http://gvwire.com/2018/03/23/battle-isnt-over-for-homeschoolers-new-regulations-ahead/
The unions have been very much in the news lately, initiating statewide strikes in West Virginia and Oklahoma. The Washington Post’s
Valerie Strauss has a very sympathetic view, stating, “Teachers don’t
want to strike and they don’t like to strike. But they will strike if
you make it clear to them that you intend to do them harm, and that you
won’t listen to them any other way. If there are no not-unseemly
options, unseemly is what you get.”
However, the Center for Education Reform has a very different take, blaming much of low teacher pay on escalating pension costs.
STRIKING FOR THE WRONG
THING? The teacher unions won’t tell them, but the teachers who are
striking across the country aren’t going to solve anything even if the
legislatures give them an annual raise. Why such a strident statement?
Consider the following number: $1,000 PER PUPIL. That’s the annual cost
of employee pensions. Imagine a school of 600 students — that’s
$600,000! Let’s just say half those funds could go to teachers instead
of the state pension coffers upfront. There are approximately 26
classroom teachers in a school that size, if we are talking a
traditionally organized school. If you took just half of those funds and
put them in teachers’ salaries in that school, they’d be earning
another $11,000 a year each! Please note that these funds are above and
beyond employee contributions, Social Security and taxes.
To read the Strauss piece, go here - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2018/04/06/those-unseemly-teachers-strikes/?utm_term=.5b0143272b55 To get the opposing point of view, go to - https://www.edreform.com/2018/04/newswire-april-03-2018/
Last month, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed HB 7055, which includes a
provision that would decertify any teacher’s union that fails to get
the approval of 50 percent of its workforce. Florida House Speaker
Richard Corcoran said simply: “The reality is nobody should be forced to
be led when the majority of the people you’re leading don’t want to be
there.… It’s un-American.”
Needless to say, the teachers unions and their friends don’t agree with
Mr. Corcoran, and instead have launched into sky-is-falling rhetoric.
“It is a not-so disguised attempt to destroy public education in the
state of Florida,” said Wendy Doromal, president of the Orange County
teachers union. “It’s a direct torpedo to the unions who come to the
rescue of educators,” warned Florida State Rep. Kionne McGhee.
To learn more, go to http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-vouchers-teachers-union-house-bill-20180205-story.html
Washington State teacher Barb Amidon tells an interesting tale in a
two-minute video that she made for Rebecca Friedrichs’ new venture “For
Kids and Country.” Amidon talks about how her forced union dues had gone
to causes she disagreed with, which included a huge loan to a PAC which
concerned itself with political causes having nothing to do with
education. Worse, the Washington Education Association subsequently
forgave the loan. Amidon put out a newsletter to other teachers
explaining what happened, but WEA took exception to that and wound up
suing Amidon! Must See TV, the video can be found here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DnRZ70bT6E To check out Friedrichs’ new “For Kids and Country” website, go to https://forkidsandcountry.org/
If you are still using a school email to receive these newsletters,
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school districts are blocking CTEN. In any event, if you enjoy these
letters and find them to be informative, please pass them along to your
colleagues and encourage them to join us.
Also, anyone wishing to donate to CTEN can do so very simply through check, money order or PayPal - http://www.ctenhome.org/donate.html As a non-profit, we exist only through the generosity of others. Thanks, as always.
Sincerely,
Larry Sand
CTEN President
