Dear Colleague,

 
In December’s letter we posted a link to an article which took exception to the oft-repeated assertion that we are in the midst of a teacher shortage. True or not, the California legislature is busy doing what it can to attract more teachers. There are three bills in the hopper that our lawmakers think will alleviate the problem. Perhaps the most intriguing is from State Sen. Ben Allen who wants to “fund residency programs for new teachers to apprentice alongside a mentor in a classroom of low-income students while they are getting their credentials.” If your ed school experience was like mine, anything that would cut out a lot of useless classes would be most welcome. Instead, teachers would get on-the-job training from a master teacher. To read more about the proposed legislation, go here - http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article57993603.html

And talking about ed schools, the National Council on Teacher Quality released a study last month that looked at a representative sample of textbooks used in programs that train elementary and secondary teachers. And the results are not pretty.

Not one of the textbooks selected by programs for assignment in educational psychology or methods coursework—where teacher candidates typically learn about learning—provided even minimal coverage of the small set of research-based instructional strategies most likely to be effective in any kind of classroom, no matter the age or subject.

At best, the textbooks reference a fraction of what would benefit teachers. To learn more about NCTQ’s findings, go to http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=c9b11da2ceffae94e1dc196f6&id=5c95021e76&e=20e292f39f

In a field where fads and “new ideas” are an everyday event, one of the more controversial is restorative justice. While the new way to deal with student miscreants has resulted in fewer suspensions and expulsions, has it led to better behavior by the offending student or resulted in improved classroom life for teachers and good students? Well, according to a recent article from EAG News, in Los Angeles, the answer is a resounding NO.

Suspensions in the district dropped from eight percent in 2007-08 to less than one percent in 2014-15, the Los Angeles Times reported. Schools days lost to suspensions fell from 75,000 in 2007-08 to 5,024 last year.

But many teachers in the Los Angeles district report that the new system has resulted in a state of chaos in many schools, because students realize there are no serious consequences for their actions.

“My teachers are at their breaking point,” Art Lopez, the Los Angeles Academy Middle School’s union representative, wrote in a letter that was quoted last year by the Los Angeles Times.

“Everyone working here is highly aware of how the lack of consequences has affected the site. Teachers with a high number of students with discipline issues are walking a fine line between extreme stress and an emotional meltdown.”

To read more, go to http://eagnews.org/restorative-justice-discipline-policies-push-l-a-teacher-to-their-breaking-point/  However, there is a new report out that looks at three schools in Denver that have successfully implemented restorative justice practices. To read about it, go here - http://b.3cdn.net/advancement/213db9b237a868a182_jfm6ii7yo.pdf

West Virginia has just become the 26^th right-to-work state. The bill passed in the legislature, but the governor vetoed it. However, since the bill wasn’t related to the budget, or any other appropriation, Republicans just needed a simple majority to override a veto from Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. To read more, go here - http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/12/west-virginia-is-now-the-26th-right-to-work-state/

And on the right-to-work subject, the Concerned Educators Against Forced Unionism is holding its yearly conference online Saturday, February 27^th at 9am (PST). As always, admission is free. To watch a one-minute promo video, go here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=louQjCRBd5E  At the end of the video, you will be able to register for the conference by clicking on the video link.

Any of you teach students the importance of entrepreneurship? If so, you can apply for a $5,000 scholarship from the National Federation of Independent Business. (The scholarship is open to all K-12 teachers.)

Applicants are asked to submit a short video describing the best practices he or she uses to teach entrepreneurship and what the outcome has been. The winner of the award will be granted a $5,000 scholarship that can be used for educational resources pertaining to entrepreneurship.  Applications and videos must be submitted by March 31, 2016.  The winner will be invited to attend the NFIB Young Entrepreneur of the Year Luncheon in Washington, D.C. this July where his or her video will be presented.

For more info, go to http://www.nfib.com/foundations/yef/

Whatever your take on school choice, the best way to become informed is to check out the “The ABCs of School Choice” from the Friedman Foundation. It’s a comprehensive guide to every private school choice program in America. Out in late January, the latest edition defines each of the four types of school choice: education savings accounts, vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, and individual tax credits and deductions. It also features a spread for each school choice program including the most recent participation, funding, and eligibility data as well as information on the program’s rules, regulations and legal history. To access the report go to http://www.edchoice.org/research/the-abcs-of-school-choice/

A provocative headline in Education Week, reads “School Superintendents Think Parents Just Don't Understand, Gallup Poll Finds.”

A nationwide Gallup poll found that less than a third of K-12 superintendents surveyed believe that parents in their school district have a solid understanding of the district's academic model and curriculum.

And just 16 percent of the superintendents surveyed think that parents understand how the state accountability system evaluates their schools.

Roughly 70 percent of superintendents say parents need more information to understand how states assess school performance.

Has this been your experience with parents? To read more, go to http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/District_Dossier/2016/01/gallup_poll_parents_just_dont_.html

Another eye-catcher: this one from The Washington Post: “Teacher race affects black students’ odds of being labeled gifted”

Black students are half as likely as white students to be assigned to gifted programs, even when they have comparably high test scores. But the racial gap in “giftedness” largely evaporates when a black student is taught by a black teacher, according to new research published this week.

Black students taught by black teachers are assigned to gifted programs at almost the same rate as white students, and three times more often than black students with similar academic ability and family background who are taught by teachers of other races, according to the study by Vanderbilt researchers Jason A. Grissom and Christopher Redding. The race of a black child’s teacher made a particular difference in whether he or she was identified as gifted in reading.

To read more, go here - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2016/01/21/teacher-race-affects-black-students-odds-of-being-labeled-gifted/

And finally, a sad note. Director at Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom Andrew Coulson, 48, died of brain cancer on February 7^th. He was a brilliant thinker, extraordinarily kind and had a terrific sense of humor. His colleagues described him as “almost impossibly sunny.”

Coming from a computer engineering background, Andrew seized on education reform—and the need for educational freedom—not because he had spent a career in education, but because he saw a system that was illogical, that was hurting society and children, and that needed to be fixed.

To read more of Coulson’s legacy, go to http://www.cato.org/blog/andrew-coulson-memoriam  In an article posted on the CTEN website Coulson contends that the unions effects on collective bargaining are trivial. He claims that their key success has been their effective lobbying to maintain the educational status quo. To read this scholarly piece, go here http://www.ctenhome.org/PDFdocs/CoulsonCato%20Journal.pdf

There was a second death of note last week. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away Saturday. The Friedrichs decision, which presumably would have favored the plaintiffs 5-4, is now on hold. In all likelihood, a vote on the case, which could kill mandatory union dues, hasn’t yet been taken and the result of the remaining Justices’ vote will probably be 4-4, leaving the current Abood decision in place. The plaintiffs’ best hope is that the case gets held until a new Justice is appointed – and that the appointee is not named by either the current president, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. For more info on the replacement procedure, go here - http://www.scotusblog.com/2016/02/tie-votes-will-lead-to-reargument-not-affirmance/

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.

And finally, 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 again, please share our monthly letters with your coworkers. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Larry Sand
CTEN President
 

Dear Colleague,

Now that President Obama has signed the latest version of No Child Left Behind – rechristened the “Every Student Succeeds Act” – we all need to know what comprises the law. Education Week’s Allyson Klein provides a good overall summary here - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2015/11/esea_reauthorization_the_every.html At the same time, Mike Antonucci writes “I’m the Party Pooper” in which he expresses doubt that much good will come of it, and presents a “been there, done that” scenario. To read Antonucci’s take, go here - http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2015/12/03/im-the-party-pooper/

In the myth-busting department, the American Enterprise Institute’s Nat Malkus takes issue with the much talked about “teacher shortage.” He writes that the national data tell a different story.

Last week, the National Center for Education Statistics released a report (which I authored when working for a prior employer) that shows the difficulty public schools have filling vacant teaching positions has dropped considerably over the past dozen years. The report uses data from the Schools and Staffing Surveys from 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012, which asked a national sample of principals about vacancies in their schools and the difficulty they faced filling them. The percentage of public schools with at least one difficult-to-staff position dropped by more than half between 2000 and 2012, from 36 to 15 percent.

To continue reading, go to http://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/2015/11/25/the-teacher-shortage-crisis-is-overblown-but-challenges-remain

“America has too much standardized testing” has been repeated so many times that it’s believed to be a fact. But is it? According to a recent Hechinger Report, it’s not – at least when compared to other countries. Andreas Schleicher, an international education expert based in Paris, has looked at data from over 70 countries and finds that “most nations give their students more standardized tests than the United States does. He notes that the Netherlands, Belgium and Asian countries — all high-performing education systems — administer a lot more. He adds that in many countries there is a test going on every month.”

He adds that annual tests are common the world over. “Roughly 97 percent of 15-year olds in the United States said they took a standardized test once or twice a year — about the same share as in Finland, a country that’s famous for not relying on standardized testing.”

To read more of this piece, go here - http://hechingerreport.org/24830-2/

A new study by researchers Michael Lovenheim and Alexander Willen reveals that the collective bargaining process for teachers leads to lower future earnings, occupational skill levels and hours worked for the students involved.

While they find no clear effects of collective bargaining laws on how much schooling students ultimately complete, their results do show that laws requiring school districts to engage in the process with teachers unions lead students to be less successful in later life. ‘Students who spent all 12 years of grade school in a state with a duty-to-bargain law earned an average of $795 less per year and worked half an hour less per week as adults than students who were not exposed to collective-bargaining laws. They are 0.9 percentage points less likely to be employed and 0.8 percentage points less likely to be in the labor force. And those with jobs tend to work in lower-skilled occupations.’

To learn more, go to http://educationnext.org/bad-bargain-teacher-collective-bargaining-employment-earnings/

While collective bargaining may not be good for students, some union spending isn’t doing much for teachers. A new report claims that “Teachers Unions Spent Millions on Luxury Hotels, Overseas Travel, Car Services.” Investigators from The 74, a news site headed by former newswoman-turned-education-reformer Campbell Brown, dug up financial documents filed with the U.S. Labor Department by the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and United Federation of Teachers which reveal that the union elite “show a penchant for five-star business expenses that are far removed from the $56,000-a-year average teacher’s salary in the U.S.” Between 2011 and 2014, the country’s largest teachers unions “spent more than $5.7 million booking rooms at the world’s poshest hotels and resorts, scoring flights to exotic overseas destinations and traveling back and forth in limos….” 

To read on, go here - https://www.the74million.org/article/documents-show-teachers-unions-spent-millions-on-luxury-hotels-overseas-travel-car-services

 

The latest NEA political spending numbers have been released and, not surprisingly, the amount is astronomical. RiShawn Biddle, using the yearly teacher union’s labor department report finds that,

The union spent $131 million on lobbying and contributions to what are supposed to be like-minded organizations in 2014-2015, just slightly less than the $132 million spent during the previous year. This doesn’t include the $40 million it spends on so-called representational activities, which are often just as political in nature.

One of the big recipients this year: The Center for Popular Democracy, the progressive outfit which has become a key player in efforts by both NEA and the American Federation of Teachers to oppose the expansion of public charter schools. The outfit and its political action fund collected $570,900 from NEA last fiscal year, double the $250,000 collected from the union in 2013-2014. This is certainly good news for AFT President Randi Weingarten, who sits on Popular Democracy’s board and whose own union poured $160,000 into the outfit and its political wing.

To continue reading, go to http://dropoutnation.net/2015/11/26/neas-131-million-influence-buying-spree/

 

Talking about unions, if you missed the special email we sent a few weeks ago, CTEN and the Association of American Educators hosted an event in September in which we examined the Friedrichs and Bain lawsuits and their possible ramifications for teachers and the general public. The panel discussion featured lawyers and plaintiffs from both cases, and was followed by a lively audience Q&A. A video of the event is now available and can be accessed here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-ybSkYsLBI  

Our friends at the National Council on Teacher Quality have just released the “2015 State Teacher Policy Yearbook.” It is their ninth annual report and is comprised of a National Summary and State-specific reports for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The 52 volume Yearbook “provides a 360-degree analysis of every state law, rule and regulation that shapes the teaching profession—from teacher preparation, licensing and evaluation to compensation, professional development and dismissal policy.”

Among the report’s many findings is that “California gets ‘D’ in supporting teacher effectiveness.” To read more about California’s troubles, go here - http://laschoolreport.com/new-report-california-gets-d-supporting-teacher-effectiveness/ To access the NCTQ report, go to http://www.nctq.org/dmsStage/2015_State_Teacher_Policy_Yearbook_National_Summary_NCTQ_Report

History teachers, we have found a program that teaches traditional American values to high school students. It includes materials that explain the “principles and values of America's free-market/limited-government history and heritage. There is a series of nine resource packets delivered to each participating high school's Social Studies department on a one-per-month basis during the school year. Packets save teachers valuable lesson-plan preparation time and provide students multiple discussion/debate opportunities relating to major public policy issues. Also, there is coverage of all aspects of the Presidential election process beginning in January and continuing throughout 2016.”

If this sounds like something you can use, please visit their website - http://teachingteenagersamericanism.us/blog/restoring-americas-promise/

Anyone wishing to make a year-end donation to CTEN can do so very simply through a personal check or PayPal - http://www.ctenhome.org/donate.html  As a non-profit, we exist and operate only through the generosity and support of people like you. (And to those of you who already regularly donate – our heartfelt thanks!)

It has been another exciting year for CTEN - www.ctenhome.org/ and we look forward to an even more vigorous 2016. We remain grateful for your interest and involvement, and wish you and your families the happiest of holidays. See you next year!

Sincerely,

Larry Sand

CTEN President

Dear Colleague,

An issue that can’t seem to keep itself out of the news these days is standardized testing – it has even made its way to the White House where President Obama has officially weighed in.

Faced with mounting and bipartisan opposition to increased and often high-stakes testing in the nation’s public schools, the Obama administration declared Saturday that the push had gone too far, acknowledged its own role in the proliferation of tests, and urged schools to step back and make exams less onerous and more purposeful.

Specifically, the administration called for a cap on assessment so that no child would spend more than 2 percent of classroom instruction time taking tests. It called on Congress to “reduce over-testing” as it reauthorizes the federal legislation governing the nation’s public elementary and secondary schools.

However, edu-pundit Robert Pondiscio has a very different opinion. Writing in U.S News & World Report, he claims the problem is not with over-testing, but rather with test-prep.

When parents complain, rightfully so, about over-testing, what they are almost certainly responding to is not the tests themselves, which take up a vanishingly small amount of class time, but the effects of test-and-prep culture, which has fundamentally changed the experience of schooling for our children, and not always for the better.

To read more about Obama’s position, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/obama-administration-calls-for-limits-on-testing-in-schools.html To get Pondiscio’s take, go here - http://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/2015/10/26/obamas-school-testing-talk-is-meaningless

While testing has become the education story-du-jour, the Common Core controversy isn’t far behind. The political battles over the standards have been well documented, but a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal “Financial Woes Plague Common-Core Rollout” gets into its costliness.

The total cost of implementing Common Core is difficult to determine because the country’s education spending is fragmented among thousands of districts. The Wall Street Journal looked at spending by states and large school districts and found that more than $7 billion had been spent or committed in connection with the new standards. To come up with that number, the Journal examined contracts, email and other data provided under public-records requests by nearly 70 state education departments and school districts.

The analysis didn’t account for what would have been spent anyway—even without Common Core—on testing, instructional materials, technology and training. Education officials say, however, that the new standards required more training and teaching materials than they would otherwise have needed, and that Common Core prompted them to speed up computer purchases and network upgrades.

To continue reading this sobering piece, go to http://www.wsj.com/articles/financial-woes-plague-common-core-rollout-1446514250?alg=y

As some of you know, CTEN has been working with Rafael Ruano, a lawyer who helps teachers establish an alternative model to the traditional teachers unions. Here is a message from Mr. Ruano detailing his plan:

Many California teachers are completely unaware that they can opt out of part of their CTA dues every year. Even fewer know that they, in conjunction with a majority of their fellow teachers in their school district, can actually choose to cast CTA aside and adopt an independent model of teacher representation. While still a small minority, in the past few years, a small set of independent teacher associations have navigated the process of decertification to gain recognition as the exclusive bargaining representative for the teachers and other certificated employees of their school districts.

In 2013, the Corning Union High School District certificated employees  gathered the necessary signatures to submit a petition to decertify their CTA local chapter and replace it with their newly created Corning Independent Teachers Association. After overcoming the expected dirty tricks and scaremongering from CTA, the Corning teachers voted for the alternative model. Two years later, CITA is thriving, providing professional representation to its members, charging dues about one fourth of the old CTA fees (saving teachers approximately $650 per year), and managing to avoid all of the dismal predictions made by CTA should Corning teachers make the change. 

If you are a California teacher who is dissatisfied with the status quo and want to learn about a different model, go to www.caindependentteachers.com

A comprehensive analysis by the National Council on Teacher Quality shows 42 states and Washington, D.C. require that student growth and achievement must be considered in teacher evaluations. Just six years ago only 15 states did so. From the NCTQ website:

This report presents the most comprehensive and up-to-date policy trends on how states are evaluating teachers. It also breaks new ground by providing a look at the policy landscape on principal effectiveness. Finally, this report examines state efforts to connect the dots – that is, use the results of evaluations to better inform practice and make decisions of consequence for teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

California is one of the eight that does not, despite the fact that it has been the law to do so since 1971 when the Stull Act was passed. In 1999, the state legislature amended the law, requiring that the governing board of each school district “shall evaluate and assess certificated employee performance as it reasonably relates to: the progress of pupils toward the standards established pursuant to subdivision (a) and, if applicable, the state adopted academic content standards as measured by state adopted criterion referenced assessments.” In other words, a teacher’s evaluation must be based at least in part on how well her students perform on state tests. But school districts still turned a blind eye to the law.

Then in 2012, per a suit brought by Sacramento-based nonprofit EdVoice, a judge ordered the inclusion of test scores to be part of a teacher’s evaluation. However, in a report released earlier this year that sampled 26 districts’ compliance with the decision, EdVoice found that half of them were ignoring that court-ordered requirement to use the test scores.

To learn more about the NCTQ report, go to http://www.nctq.org/dmsStage/StateofStates2015

 

Former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed has twice rolled out statewide pension reform initiatives for public employees, but both times Attorney General Kamala Harris, using “slanted” language, killed the measures before Reed could get them off the ground. But Reed is back, and along with former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio, he submitted two new initiative proposals. As Contra Costa Times writer Daniel Borenstein explains, the measures are directed at new workers. Each would slow mounting retirement costs for state and local governments but in slightly different ways:

The Voter Empowerment Act would require voter approval to offer traditional pensions to employees hired after 2018. The balloting would be among residents of the affected jurisdiction, such as a city, county or, for state employees, the entire state.

The measure would also limit the government to paying no more than half the cost of pensions and other retirement benefits, with employees responsible for the rest. That 50 percent government share could only be increased with voter approval.

The Government Pension Cap Act would continue allowing traditional pensions for public employees hired after 2018 without voter approval.

To read the rest of Borenstein’s article, go here - http://www.contracostatimes.com/daniel-borenstein/ci_28941163/daniel-borenstein-latest-chuck-reed-pension-initiatives-address

For a little more detail on the initiatives, go to https://calwatchdog.com/2015/11/10/chuck-reed-reform-measure-will-bite-pension-liability-elephant/

The event sponsored by CTEN and the Association of American Educators in September, in which we examined the Friedrichs and Bain lawsuits and their possible ramifications for teachers and the general public, will soon be available on YouTube. When it is posted, we will send you the link.

For CTA agency fee payers, the November 15th deadline has passed, so we hope you have already submitted your 2015 rebate form. However, if you are a first time filer, you may resign from the union after the 15th. You will not get the full amount, but rather a prorated one depending on how long after the 15th you file. For more information, please visit http://www.ctenhome.org/know.htm

As always, we at CTEN want to thank you for your ongoing support and invite you to visit us regularly at www.ctenhome.org  If you need any information that you can’t find there, just 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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sincerely,

Larry Sand

CTEN President