Dear Colleague,

Now that most districts in California begin the school year in August, many of you are back in class. The post Labor Day starts seem to be disappearing from the landscape. In any event, we hope that the beginning of your school year has been (and will continue to be) a good one.

In the July letter, we told you about SB 1530 -- a bill that, if passed, would have shortened the endless “dismissal procedures” and make it easier to get rid of a teacher who has abused children with drugs, sex and violence. The theme continued to stay in the limelight when former CNN and NBC news reporter Campbell Brown wrote in the Wall Street Journal that in New York, “Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators.”

(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443437504577547313612049308.html)

Needless to say, AFT President Randi Weingarten couldn’t ignore Brown’s op-ed and the two of them wound up in something of a cat fight on Twitter. (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2012/08/a_twitter_debate_on_teacher_se.html)

The National Council on Teacher Quality has a new newsletter, TR³ Trends, aimed at school officials, but we see no reason why the information it contains would not be of interest to teachers. Each month they use data from NCTQ's TR³ database to “highlight the latest trends in school district policies and collective bargaining agreements nationwide. TR³ contains teacher policies from 113 school districts, including the 50 largest districts, the largest district in each state, Broad Prize winners, Gates investment districts, and members of the Council of the Great City Schools.” For more information, go to http://www.nctq.org/p/tqb/pdq.jsp?tag=TR3%20Trends

 

The New Teacher Project, now known as TNTP, has come out with a new study which claims that urban schools are “systematically neglecting their best teachers, losing tens of thousands every year even as they keep many of their lowest-performing teachers indefinitely – with disastrous consequences for students, schools, and the teaching profession. The study by TNTP documents the real teacher retention crisis in America’s schools: not only a failure to retain enough teachers, but a failure to retain the right teachers.” While TNTP has conducted similar studies with similar results in the past, this study should certainly not be ignored. For more, go to http://tntp.org/assets/documents/TNTP_Irreplaceables_2012.pdf
 

On the same note we found an excellent op-ed in the New York Post recently, which describes a teacher’s frustration with the New York City school district’s ability to retain great teachers. The writer is leaving the teaching profession, and while describing New York, she undoubtedly speaks for many educators all over the country. The op-ed can be found here - http://www.educators4excellence.org/news/2012-07-why-nyc-cant-keep-great-teachers

We all know that data can be skewed to make a protagonist’s argument. The following video makes this point graphically and purports to outline the real state of California K-

12 schools. “The presentation shows that our state is not really making any real progress at improving actual student subject mastery. The analysis details the performance of some of the state's largest districts, as well as some of the author’s local district's as a way to clarify important information.” See if you agree with the video which can be found here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwru7faexew

Another video worth watching, especially for those of you who are looking for an alternative to the teachers union, comes from our friends at the Association of American Educators which is the largest non-union, professional educators' organization in the country. They advance the profession by offering “a modern approach to teacher representation and educational advocacy, as well as promoting professionalism, collaboration and excellence without a partisan agenda.” To watch the video, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lC0ornsg_4&feature=player_embedded

Researcher Jay Greene has written an important blog post in which he proclaims that “Charter Benefits Are Proven by the Best Evidence.” Referring to randomized control trials (RCT), he says, “Happily, we have four RCTs on the effects of charter schools that allow us to know something about the effects of charter schools with high confidence.  Here is what we know:  students in urban areas do significantly better in school if they attend a charter school than if they attend a traditional public school.  These academic benefits of urban charter schools are quite large.  In Boston, a team of researchers from MIT, Harvard, Duke, and the University of Michigan, conducted a RCT and found:  ‘The charter school effects reported here are therefore large enough to reduce the black-white reading gap in middle school by two-thirds.’” To read Greene’s blog post, go to http://jaypgreene.com/2012/05/07/charter-benefits-are-proven-by-the-best-evidence/

For those of you who are interested in getting more info about charter schools or are possibly interested in working in one, the best place to start is the Center for Education Reform FAQ page - http://www.edreform.com/2012/03/just-the-faqs-charter-schools/      

CTEN is in the process of setting up a YouTube network in which we will try to present various issues in a simple, easy-to-understand way. Topics will include agency fee status, religious objector status, charter school basics, an explanation of vouchers, etc. We will have more information in the “official” welcome back newsletter in September.

Also, next month, we will have information about the steps needed to attain agency fee status. (If you are already an agency fee payer and plan to apply for your yearly rebate, make sure not to do so before September 1st.)

If you are interested in giving CTEN brochures to colleagues, you can print them right from the home page - http://www.ctenhome.org/index.htm  Or, if you prefer, we will be happy to send you as many preprinted ones as you need.

And finally, we still have a limited number of t-shirts available. They are navy blue with the CTEN logo on front and “A resource for all who care about education” printed on the back. They come preshrunk, in small, medium, large and extra large. If you would like one, all you have to do is make a $15 donation to CTEN via PayPal - http://www.ctenhome.org/donate.htm ) Then, please let us know what size and where to send it and we will get it out to you.

As always, we at CTEN want to thank you for your ongoing support. Please keep providing feedback so that we can continue to meet your needs by keeping you informed as well as provoking lively discussion. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Larry Sand
CTEN President

CTEN - July 2012 letter

Dear Colleague,

The Los Angeles chapter of New York based Educators 4 Excellence has come up with an evaluation plan for teachers, which was rolled out last month. On hand for the presentation were local teachers, media and LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy. While Deasy had a few issues with the plan, he found much to his liking. In any event, kudos to E4E for embarking on this teacher-led project. Teachers have complained for a long time that decisions were being made over which they had no control. It is heartening to see an organization made up of teachers take the lead. For more about their plan, go to http://educators4excellence.s3.amazonaws.com/8/e7/3/461/E4E-LA.Teacher_Evaluation.final.pdf

Talking about LAUSD, according to a report released last week by the Education Action Group, the teachers’ contract in Los Angeles is costing the city, which is on the verge of bankruptcy, unnecessary millions that it can ill afford to spend at this time. “Sucking the Life Out of America’s Public Schools” gives us the gory details. It is also a primer on what other districts should not do. To read the report, please go to - http://eagnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Los-Angeles-contract-report.pdf

Is it possible that the NEA is in deep trouble? According to Mike Antonucci,

After a year of unprecedented membership losses driven by economic stresses and political attacks, the National Education Association stands at a crossroads. Unlike in the past, our shrinking membership is not the sole product of a down economy from which we could expect to eventually recover. The forces impacting us are so strong that they have indelibly changed our industry, the educational system, and society at large. Things will never go back to the way they were. Attacks on collective bargaining and the role of the union, the nation's changing demographics, education reform efforts, and an explosion in the use of education technology and online learning have radically changed the role of educators and the system of educating our nation's students.

To read more of Antonucci on the subject, go to http://www.eiaonline.com/archives/20120611.htm  

On the same subject, Greg Toppo in USA Today writes,

The National Education Association (NEA) has lost more than 100,000 members since 2010. By 2014, union projections show, it could lose a cumulative total of about 308,000 full-time teachers and other workers, a 16% drop from 2010. Lost dues will shrink NEA's budget an estimated $65 million, or 18%. (http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-06-28/Teacher-unions-education/55993750/1)

I throw in my two cents on the subject here - http://www.capoliticalreview.com/top-stories/the-national-education-association-finds-itself-in-a-big-hole-and-keeps-digging/

In a story that garnered  a lot of angry editorials in California newspapers, the teachers unions managed to prevail on state assembly education committee members to kill SB 1530, a bill that if passed would have shortened the endless “dismissal procedures” thus making it easier to get rid of a teacher who has abused children with drugs, sex and violence. An editorial from the SF Chronicle typifies the POV of many of the CA newspapers who wrote about this situation. The editorial begins with,

The influence of the California Teachers Association was rarely more apparent - or more sickening - than in the defeat of SB1530.

To read the rest of it, go to

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/article/SB1530-defeat-a-disservice-to-children-3684559.php

Back in April 2010, we told you about the strange case of Eileen Blagden who was a principal at Stowers Elementary School in Cerritos in South Los Angeles County. “Her troubles began when she questioned the history of a teacher she was ordered to place at her school. This eventually led to her being removed from her position after seven years on the job. According to Ms. Blagden, she has not been given any reason for her removal.” In the intervening years, she was “demoted” to a classroom position as court proceedings went forth.

The facts have now been revealed and it would seem that she lost her job as principal because she reported death threats made by one of her teachers against two other teachers to the police. Her superiors in the district told her not to tell anyone about the threats, not even the teachers whose lives were threatened. For more on this woman who did the right thing and paid a heavy price for it, please watch this brief video on KNBC about the story - http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Demoted-Principle-Accuses-District-of-Trying-to-Hide-Threats-161315835.html

The Long Beach Press Telegram had a front page article on July 4^th - http://www.presstelegram.com/education/ci_21002087/former-principals-lawsuit-claims-she-was-demoted-reporting

Then the most damning piece to date in the July 6^th Los Cerritos News ran with the headline “Court Rules ABC School District Fabricated Evidence Used to Demote Former Stowers Principal.” ( http://www.loscerritosnews.net/2012/07/06/court-rules-abc-school-district-fabricated-evidence-used-to-demote-former-stowers-principal/ )

We received an email recently from The American Center for School Choice, an organization that is launching a "Commission on Faith-based Schools." Its objectives are to “expand public understanding of the role(s) of faith-based schools in American education, especially in low-income communities” and to “address the need for expanding publicly funded school choice to increase family ability to choose a faith-based school.”

If you are teacher who supports this concept and would consider being a Commission member of this fledgling group, please let me know and I will pass your information on. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Last week, Andrew Coulson penned a provocative op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that raised the hackles of many. As of this writing, “America Has Too Many Teachers” has garnered 680 comments. Please read the article and at least some of the comments to get an idea of how volatile this subject really is.

( http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303734204577465413553320588.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments )

As always, we at CTEN want to thank you for your ongoing support. Please visit us regularly at www.ctenhome.org.  We do our best to keep our website up-to-date, but if you need information and can’t find it there, please send us an email at cteninfo@ctenhome.org or call us at 888-290-8471 and we will get back to you in short order. 

Sincerely,

Larry Sand
CTEN President

Dear Colleague,

As the 2011-2012 school year draws to a close, there are two pieces of litigation in the news that will affect just about every teacher in the state. The first case – Doe vs. Deasy-- first came to light last November (http://www.city-journal.org/2012/cjc0119ls.html) when EdVoice, a reform advocacy group in Sacramento, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the LAUSD, district superintendent John Deasy, and United Teachers Los Angeles. The lawsuit accuses the district and the union of a gross dereliction of duty.

According to the parents’ complaint, the district and the union have violated the children’s “fundamental right to basic educational equality and opportunity” by failing to comply with the Stull Act which is part of the California Education Code. The 1971 law states that school districts must include student achievement as part of a teacher’s evaluation. Los Angeles Unified has never done so: the teachers union wouldn’t allow it. The case was settled last Tuesday in favor of the plaintiffs. (http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2012/06/12/6587/draft-l-unified-must-include-student-performance-t/)

Though only LAUSD was named as a defendant, every district in the state will be affected, as no district outside LA has followed the law either. Then, last month, a suit with even broader ramifications for teachers was filed on behalf of eight students from around the state, claiming provisions of California’s education code—rigid tenure rules, a seniority-based firing system that ignores teacher quality, and a “due-process” system that makes it all but impossible to remove incompetent or criminal teachers—violate student rights. As a result of these arbitrary distinctions in hiring and firing, the complaint reads, “children of substantially equal age, aptitude, motivation, and ability do not have substantially equal access to education. Because education is a fundamental interest under the California Constitution, the statutes that dictate this unequal, arbitrary result violate the equal protection provisions of the California Constitution.” To read more, go to http://www.city-journal.org/2012/cjc0606ls.html

The worst union in the country? Troy Senik makes his case that it is our very own California Teachers Association. See if you agree. (http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_2_california-teachers-association.html) As always, if you have opinions one way or the other, please share them on the CTEN blog - http://www.ctenteachers.blogspot.com/

Then there is a snippet from the May Issue of CTA’s magazine, California Educator, the hard copy of which is mailed to all its members. For the rest of us, it is now available online. (HT Darren Miller.) On page 20-21 of the current issue --(http://digital.copcomm.com/i/65746) --there is a two page spread in which CTA excoriates Stop Special Interest Money Now, an initiative that will be on the ballot in November. CTA commits two sins here. First, it shamelessly lies about the details of the initiative. The second and worse sin is on page 22 where CTA suggests that teachers tear out the poster on the previous page and hang it in their classrooms:



On the lighter side, Choice Media has posted a cartoon which concerns itself with the teachers unions - http://youtu.be/LdACxVeaq3Q which brings to mind an earlier effort called “Teachers Unions Explained” -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kxc6kzH-uI A report from the National Council on Teacher Quality delves into what teacher candidates are learning about student assessment. This disturbing document quantifies the magnitude of a serious problem. “Before going into the classroom, teacher candidates' exposure to the task of assessing student learning, including how to interpret results and better plan instruction, is pretty thin--and that includes helping teachers do a better job designing their own pop quizzes, tests and exams.” This is yet another example of what a poor job of so many of our education schools are doing. To read the report, go to http://www.nctq.org/p/publications/docs/assessment_report.pdf

Better schools for less money? Marcus Winters thinks this is possible by giving individual schools more autonomy. He makes a good case for it here - http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_2_public-education-spending.html

If you are a supporter of school choice, National School Choice Week is giving you the opportunity to get involved by posting a photo of yourself with a placard of your own creation on Facebook or Twitter. For more information, go to http://www.schoolchoiceweek.com/resources

To see what it looks like on Facebook, go to https://www.facebook.com/schoolchoiceweek If you would like some hard copies of the placards, I’d be happy to send you some.

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. We know that there are many independent-minded teachers in California who are looking for alternative sources of information, and we would like to be one of those sources. 

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.  

Some of you have asked whether or not we will be sending out the newsletter in July and August.  Absolutely. We will certainly do our best to update you on any important educational issues. As such, even if you are traveling, please try to stay in touch. Thanks – and have a great summer! 

Sincerely,

Larry Sand
CTEN President

Dear Colleague,

As the year winds down, it is a time of great anxiety for some teachers as the “final” layoff notices are due shortly. Of course even if a teacher does get bad news, depending on the yet to be determined final budget, many of these teachers will get their jobs back in the fall. Things unfold this way because the final budget isn’t due until July 1^st. To state the obvious, the layoff scenario needs to get in sync with the state budget cycle. The state Legislative Analyst Office has issued a prescriptive report which we wrote about in the April letter. In case you missed it, you can access the report here - http://www.lao.ca.gov/reports/2012/edu/teacher-layoffs/teacher-layoffs-032212.pdf The Los Angeles Times Steve Lopez recently wrote about the situation in a piece called “LA Unified’s Annual Dance of Death.” (http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/08/local/la-me-lopez-lausd-20120509)

Los Angeles is not the only big city school district going through bad times. In Philadelphia, the city’s school district is being dissolved. Here are a few essential details -


Forty schools would close next year, and six additional schools would be closed every year thereafter until 2017. Closing just eight schools this year prompted an uproar.


Anyhow, the remaining schools would get chopped up into “achievement networks” where public or private groups compete to manage about 25 schools, and the central office would be chopped down to a skeleton crew of about 200. District HQ has already eliminated about half of the 1,100-plus positions that existed in 2010. 


This is all aimed at closing a $218 million deficit for the coming year, part of a $1.1 billion cumulative deficit by 2017. Charter schools will teach an estimated 40 percent of students by 2017.


To learn more go to http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/nakedcity/Philadelphia-School-District-announces-its-dissolution-.html
 

The National Education Association celebrated “Stand Up To Bullying Day” on May 4^th. Its website is full of advice about how to deal with what it calls “everyone’s problem.” But the union talks only about children bullying other children; there is nothing about adults bullying other adults, which is the subject of a report, “Bullying Teachers: How Teachers Unions Secretly Push Teachers and Competitors Around” by Joy Pullmann, managing editor of School Reform News. The report is summarized as “When Bullies Grow Up, They Can Always Run Teachers Unions,” an op-ed in the Washington Examiner. She explains that teacher union bullying is rampant and can come either directly from the unions or as a result of fear of them. For example,

Many superintendents and principals in Kansas will not even let Garry Sigle give teachers information about his nonunion teacher organization. One superintendent told Sigle, “Why would I want to [let you talk to teachers in my district] if I knew that would create an issue between me and a union I have to negotiate with?”

At a new teacher orientation in Jacksonville, Fla., a union representative heard a presentation by a nonunion group. She walked onto the stage before 600 teachers, accused the presenter of being "a desperate former teacher" and stalked about the room ripping up the competition's fliers, said Tim Farmer, membership director for the Professional Association of Colorado Educators.

As sickening as these examples are, Pullmann goes on to say that they are not isolated incidents. “Teachers unions engage in repeated, unashamed aggression against dissenting teachers and competitor organizations.”

To read Pullman’s op-ed, go to – http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2012/04/when-bullies-grow-they-can-always-run-teachers-unions/538746 To read the full report go to - http://heartland.org/sites/default/files/bullyingteachers.pdf

 

Here’s something for any teacher who might not like sitting down and grading several hundred essays. How about automated essay scoring? Seriously. For more, please read “Contrasting State-of-the-Art Automated Scoring of Essays: Analysis.” (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/44416236/NCME%202012%20Paper3_29_12.pdf )


It’s not news that school choice is in short supply in California. But what you may not know is that there is an “Open Enrollment Act” which has been on the books for a couple of years now. OEA lets parents whose children attend the lowest-performing 1,000 schools in California opt out and send their kids to a higher-performing, non-charter public school anywhere in the state. For more on this law you probably have never heard of, go to http://www.city-journal.org/2012/cjc0508ls.html
 

In honor of National Charter Schools Week, Professor Jay Greene has posted a piece in which he makes the compelling claim that “Charter Benefits Are Proven by the Best Evidence” and that “opponents of charter schools have no equally rigorous evidence on their side.” To read more, go to http://jaypgreene.com/2012/05/07/charter-benefits-are-proven-by-the-best-evidence/

Dr. Greene also has another interesting post in which he extols the virtues of decentralizing education. While he is not necessarily enamored with local school districts, he prefers them to “central planning fantasies.” To read more, go to http://jaypgreene.com/2012/05/08/why-i-favor-decentralized-governance-of-education/

A few weeks ago there was an online learning conference at Cal State Fullerton. While only thirty people attended, the information disseminated reached a lot more people thanks to Hailey Moran who wrote about the conference in the Daily Titan, the school newspaper. What ever you may think of technology in the classroom, it’s undeniable that in some form, it will be a force in the future. To read more about what was discussed at the conference, please go to http://www.dailytitan.com/2012/04/online-learning-now-essential-speakers-say/

And finally, Katy Grimes at Cal Watchdog tells us that due to legislation, the state’s GATE program will be subject to quotas if a bill proposed by Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield becomes law. Blumenfeld claims that “‘children of color’ are not fairly represented in GATE programs across the state.” To read more, go to http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/05/04/affirmative-action-attacks-gate-school-program/

CTEN has two Facebook pages. If you have a Facebook account, we urge you to visit ours and let us know your thoughts. Having a dialogue among teachers is an effective way to spread information and experiences and share ideas. Our original Facebook page can be found here - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=125866159932&ref=ts 

Our second page, which deals with teacher evaluation and transparency, can be accessed here - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=126900987357825&ref=ts 

As always, we at CTEN want to sincerely thank you for your ongoing support and feedback, which in turn helps us to keep you informed, provoke discussion and address the needs of all CA teachers.

Larry Sand

CTEN President

Dear Colleague,

The current rage in reform circles is to come up with an equitable way to evaluate a teacher’s performance. But few talk about how to measure a principal’s performance. Surely if teachers are going to be held accountable for their students’ gains, certainly principals should be accountable for their teachers’ success or lack thereof. In the current National Council on Teacher Quality bulletin, there is a proposal set forth by Educators 4 Excellence as well as report by the Rand Corporation that deals with this issue. To read more, go to http://www.nctq.org/p/tqb/viewStory.jsp?id=31371

Last November, we told you that some parents in Los Angeles filed a lawsuit that will undoubtedly have ramifications all over the state and perhaps elsewhere. It seems that the “Stull” evaluations we have undergone in our teaching careers have been “incomplete.” According to the Stull Act (Section 44660 of the state’s education code, (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=edc&group=44001-45000&file=44660-44665), part of a teacher’s evaluation is required to include a student achievement component. This has not happened anywhere in the state, hence the lawsuit. To learn more go here - http://tinyurl.com/7sydgo7 and here - http://toped.svefoundation.org/2011/11/02/new-life-for-old-law-on-evaluations/  The case is going forward, the next hearing being June 1^st. Two briefs were filed in the case recently, including one by LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The briefs can be found here http://www.scribd.com/doc/71444873/Doe-v-Deasy-StullAct-LAUSD-suit110211-1  and http://toped.svefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Eval-EdVoiceSuit-MayorBrief040412.pdf

New York has already implemented a new evaluation system that includes student performance as part of the process. Not surprisingly, there is controversy. Here is a teacher’s opinion in the NY Daily News - http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-02-19/news/31078238_1_value-added-data-teacher-evaluation-student-gains  Marcus Winters at City Journal weighs in here - http://www.city-journal.org/2012/eon0229mw.html

Closer to home, a report by the non-partisan Legislative Analyst Office tackles the teacher layoff process in California. March Reduction In Force notices, seniority, bureaucratic bloat, etc. are all dealt with in a fair and unbiased way. The proposed fixes could affect all teachers in the state. To read this brief document, go to http://www.lao.ca.gov/reports/2012/edu/teacher-layoffs/teacher-layoffs-032212.pdf

Much has been written about Finland and its world class education system. Now there is a book which tries to get to the crux of the reasons for the Finns’ success. Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland By Pasi Sahlberg. Sandra Stotsky, Professor of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, has a report about the book here - http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/7641490/538623379/name/Finnish%20Lessons%20PI%20policy%20brief.pdf and a shorter review can found on page 18 of the current School Reform News - http://heartland.org/sites/default/files/newspaper-issues/pdfs/april_12_srn_web.pdf

Atlanta has been the focal point for cheating on standardized tests. A few weeks ago, however, the Atlanta Journal Constitution came out with a report which claims that Atlanta is just the tip of the iceberg – that cheating is rampant in other places too, including Los Angeles and many other large school districts. To read this report, go to http://www.ajc.com/news/cheating-our-children-suspicious-1397022.html  For a commentary on the subject by CalWatchdog’s John Seiler, go to - http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/03/25/paper-massive-cheating-in-l-a-other-schools-districts-across-america/

We have mentioned the inevitability of traditional public schools using online books in the near future, but in “Electronic textbooks: What's the Rush?,” a couple of researchers suggest that maybe we are moving too quickly toward that end. To read more, go to http://www.danielwillingham.com/1/post/2012/04/no-title.html

Founded in 1990 by Princeton graduate Wendy Kopp, Teach For America chooses the best and the brightest – only one in eight are accepted into the program – and trains them to work in the nation’s worst schools. These committed and enthusiastic college graduates get five weeks of teacher training, ongoing support once in the classroom, and must commit to teach for two years. The teachers unions, which see TFA as a threat, do what they can to discredit the organization. In Washington State recently, the Seattle Education Association went one step further and tried to cancel a three year contract that the school district had with TFA. Though the school board voted (by a one-vote margin) to keep the TFA teachers for the time being, TFA teachers are on notice that they are not welcome in the profession by the teachers union in Seattle. For more, go to  

http://unionwatch.org/seattle-teachers-union-seeks-to-ban-teach-for-america/

And Gwen Samuel found out just what the local teachers union in Connecticut thinks of her. She had a part time job with New Haven’s Head Start program and was also founder and president of Connecticut Parent's Union. It was in the latter role that she asked Michelle Rhee to come to speak at a rally on March 14^th, after which she was relieved of her job, very possibly as a result of teacher union pressure. Ms. Samuel has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education and asked the state Department of Education to “audit the Head Start program to explain why she was fired.” Stay tuned. For more, go to http://www.mcall.com/news/education/hc-gwen-samuel-fired-0405-20120404,0,2138438.story

On the subject of teachers unions, Terry Moe appeared on Martha Montelongo’s internet radio show last week. Dr. Moe explained the nature of the unions and why he thinks they will be marginalized in the years to come. To hear the interview, go to http://gadflyradio.com/podcasts/

On April 20^th, schools all over the country will celebrate the annual “Day of Silence” - http://blog.glsen.org/category/day-of-silence/ - which is a “National youth-run effort using silence to protest the actual silencing of LGBT people due to harassment, bias and abuse in schools.” We at CTEN would like to know if you think having a day of silence is a good idea, how your school acknowledges this day, etc. Please post any comments on the CTEN blog - http://www.ctenteachers.blogspot.com - or send them to me directly. As always, confidentiality will be respected.

If you are interested in giving CTEN brochures to colleagues, you can print them right from the home page - http://www.ctenhome.org/index.htm  Or, if you prefer, we will be happy to send you as many preprinted ones as you need. Also, anyone wishing to donate to CTEN can do so very simply through PayPal - http://www.ctenhome.org/donate.htm  As a non-profit, we exist only through the generosity of others.

As always, we at CTEN want to thank you for your ongoing support. Please continue to provide feedback so that we can continue to keep you informed, provoke discussion and meet your needs. Thank you very much.

Larry Sand

CTEN President

CTEN - March 2012 newsletter

Dear Colleague,

Until recently, Californians had three different tax hike proposals to look forward to on the November ballot – all promising to help our fiscally strained public school system. But now, it seems that Jerry Brown has worked out a compromise initiative. Details are still sketchy, but here are a couple of links that will shine some light on the issue - http://cbp.org/pdfs/2012/CaliforniaBudgetBites/120306_tax_comparision.pdf  and http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/03/jerry-brown-tax-compromise-millionaires.html

Two very interesting reports on school choice have emerged in the last month. One deals with Milwaukee, which has the oldest voucher program in the country. The study’s press release states, “Students enrolled in the Milwaukee voucher program are more likely to graduate from high school and go to college than their public school counterparts, boast significantly improved reading scores, represent a more diverse cross-section of the city, and are improving the results of traditional public school students.” To read more, go to

http://www.uaedreform.org/SCDP/Milwaukee_Research.html  In North Carolina, the results of a study were released which show that giving public school students a choice as to which public school they can go to dramatically lowers the crime rate. Interestingly, the choices in this study are limited to traditional public schools – no charters schools or vouchers are involved. To read more, go to http://educationnext.org/does-school-choice-reduce-crime/

When Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker outlawed collective bargaining for teachers, he set off a firestorm of criticism from teachers unions and others in Wisconsin. Now there is a report that examines what has transpired since Walker’s controversial move. “Wisconsin school districts have realized significant savings either through the implementation of collective bargaining changes or the threat of them, according to an analysis by the Michigan-based Education Action Group Foundation, known as EAG, a nonprofit research organization promoting school spending reform.” For more, go to

http://www.wisconsinreporter.com/impact-of-an-act-new-report-finds-big-benefits-in-wis-act-10

Is your school district using any digital textbooks yet? They will be soon if Apple has anything to do with it. Cheaper in the long run, they will undoubtedly be with us at some point. - http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2012/01/19/apple-unveils-digital-textbook-e-publishing-platform

While we are on the subject of digital learning, Sal Khan, the guru of the flipped classroom, was again featured recently on 60 Minutes. Even if you are familiar with Khan, this brief video is worthwhile as it reveals some amazing statistics about what this amazing man has accomplished in a few short years on the scene. To see the video, go to www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7401696n

In Colorado, many teacher union activities are taxpayer supported. According to School Reform News, “Teacher unions in 20 Colorado school districts have spent more than $5.8 million in taxpayer dollars on union activities in the past five years, from union presidents’ salaries to paid teacher days off. Collective bargaining agreements between unions and these districts compelled tax funding beyond the dues collected from teacher payrolls.” To read more, go to

http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2012/01/13/colorado-teacher-unions-receive-millions-directly-taxpayers

It would be interesting to know if your school district pays for things like release time, union president’s salaries, etc. Please let me know via return email or post on the CTEN blog - http://www.ctenteachers.blogspot.com/

Lance Izumi, senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute, has written an excellent little book, “Obama’s Education Takeover.” (http://www.amazon.com/Obamas-Education-Takeover-Encounter-Broadsides/dp/1594036284) The book addresses what has been called “an unprecedented centralization of education policy….” A companion piece video can be found here - http://www.theblaze.com/stories/new-whiteboard-video-attacks-obamas-education-takeover/

Our special email a few weeks ago which suggested you to write in and tell us “What makes a good teacher?” and asked for volunteers to be in a CTEN TV ad (pending funding) elicited quite a few responses. I’d like to thank all who took the time to do so. One person wrote the following,

My point is that the general public conception of CA teachers is that we are all lazy union rebels who protest for more money all the time, get lots of vacations, and that we are all angry LAUSD employees! I hear this all the time from people who aren't my close friends, and it drives me nuts! How can we change this perception?

If you have any comments, responses, etc. to her query, please post on the blog or respond to me by email and I will post some of the feedback in the next newsletter.

One CTENer emailed us that many schools are not safe from earthquakes. A report from California Watch claims that there are “systemic failures by the state's chief regulator of construction standards for public schools.” To read more of this disturbing story, go to http://californiawatch.org/earthquakes

If you are a charter school teacher, you may find AB 1172 more than a little troubling. The bill would allow local school boards to block the creation of a new charter school if it would have a “negative fiscal impact” on the school district. Trouble is, the bill doesn’t clearly define what that means. California’s charter law already provides several clearly defined justifications for denying new petitions. The bill would only obscure the existing law. And besides, charter schools get less funding than traditional public schools. According to the nonpartisan California Legislative Analyst Office, new charters received $721 less per pupil in 2010-11 than traditional public schools. The bill currently awaits a vote from the state senate’s rules committee. To read more, go to http://www.city-journal.org/2012/cjc0313ls.html

And finally, there will be an initiative on the November ballot that, if passed, would have a major effect on teachers in California. There are four elements to the Stop Special Interest Money Now ( http://stopspecialinterestmoney.org/ ) proposition:

1. Bans both corporate and union contributions to state and local candidates;
2. Prohibits government contractors from contributing money to government officials who award them contracts;
3. Prohibits corporations and labor unions from collecting political funds from employees and union members by means of payroll deduction; and
4. Makes all employee political contributions strictly voluntary, requiring annual written consent.

Number 4 is of special interest to teachers as it would make it illegal for teachers unions to deduct political dues from teachers’ paychecks. Of course, teachers would still be free to donate on their own.

As always, we at CTEN want to thank you for your ongoing support. Please visit our website - www.ctenhome.org regularly.  We do our best to keep it up-to-date.  And if you need information and can’t find it on the website, please send us an email – cteninfo@ctenhome.org or call us at 888-290-8471 and we will get back to you in short order. 

Sincerely,

Larry Sand

CTEN President

A Year After The Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Law, Are There Any Effects?

There are many, according to this report:

While there is no disputing the divisiveness and political bitterness Act 10 has created, the law that redefined collective bargaining in Wisconsin has made a dramatic difference for the state’s financially struggling school districts, according to a report slated for release this week...

Wisconsin school districts have realized significant savings either through the implementation of collective bargaining changes or the threat of them, according to an analysis by the Michigan-based Education Action Group Foundation, known as EAG, a nonprofit research organization promoting school spending reform.

The pointed report, titled “The Bad Old Days of Collective Bargaining: Why Act 10 Was Necessary for Wisconsin Public Schools,” devotes plenty of its pages to applauding the collective bargaining reforms led by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, but it backs up the assertions with some telling numbers.

We at CTEN are teachers, so we're not "anti-teacher".  We're also taxpayers, and recognize the budgetary imperatives of reining in some aspects of collective bargaining.