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.

CTEN letter - February 2012

Dear Colleague,

Every year, the National Council on Teacher Quality puts out a yearbook, a 52-volume, 9,000-page compendium examining the state of the states on their policies to promote teacher quality. ( http://www.nctq.org/p/tqb/viewBulletin.jsp?nlIdentifier=286  )

“For the first time ever, this year's Yearbook includes a progress rating for states on goals that have been measured since 2009. In addition to receiving an overall grade, states also receive overall progress rankings, showing how states compare to each other in moving forward on their teacher policies.”

Unfortunately, California came in 51^st in 2011. Please look at the CA report and see if you think we have been treated fairly - http://www.nctq.org/stpy11/reports/stpy11_california_report.pdf  I think this report might make for a good discussion to have our blog. If you agree, let’s start a conversation at http://www.ctenteachers.blogspot.com/

No Child Left Behind and the federal role in education are topics that are debated constantly. The following three links seem to generally encapsulate the differing factions. (There is no shortage of written material on the subject!) No one likes it as is, but suggested fixes vary considerably. Once again, if you would like to start a dialogue about NCLB, please do so at http://www.ctenteachers.blogspot.com/

http://dropoutnation.net/2012/02/09/obama-and-duncan-waive-good-bye-to-systemic-reform/

http://www.hoover.org/news/press-releases/107411

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/01/student-success-act-reforming-no-child-left-behind

If you are a charter school teacher, your pension may be endangered. The IRS “recently issued a Proposed Regulation titled ‘Determination of Government Plan Status.’ This regulation would force states to prohibit charter school teachers from participating in state retirement plans. Presently, every single state that authorizes charter schools either requires or permits charter school participation in the state’s retirement system. Therefore, this regulation would negatively impact nearly all charter school teachers in the country.” To learn more, go to http://www.publiccharters.org/Additional-Pages/IRS-Proposed-Regulations.aspx

Last month, CTEN board member Darren Miller went to see Diane Ravitch speak in Sacramento -- hoping for one thing, but getting another. To read his excellent in-depth report on the former reformer who has done a remarkable 180, please go to http://rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-evening-with-diane-ravitch-and.html

In case you haven’t heard, March 5^th, during the school day, the California Teachers Association will take a leading role in an “Occupy the Capitol” demonstration in Sacramento. CTA President Dean Vogel is quoted on the union’s website:

“We have seen class sizes grow, college tuitions increase, and job opportunities vanish at the same time that banks have received bailouts and large corporations and millionaires have received tax cuts. We are the 99%. It’s time to put Main Street before Wall Street, and for corporations to pay their fair share of taxes."

We at CTEN can’t help but wonder why CTA is demanding that “corporations pay their fair share of taxes” when the current rate is 35 percent, already the second highest of all industrialized countries. Also worth noting is that CTA is itself a corporation that brings in almost $200 million a year and pays no taxes at all.

Bob Bowdon, director of The Cartel, has made an excellent video in conjunction with the Association of American Educators about why school choice is not only good for kids, but also good for teachers. To see this 16 minute video, released during National School Choice Week, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHQThKptwQc

On February 8^th, I had a brief debate with Joel Flores, a California Federation of Teachers union organizer, on SoCal Insider broadcast on KOCE in Los Angeles and Orange Counties - http://video.wttw.com/video/2196615360  I also wrote a piece for City Journal in which I analyze the state of school choice in the Golden State - http://www.city-journal.org/2012/cjc0124ls.html

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.

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.

As always, we at CTEN want to thank you for your ongoing support and feedback.

Larry Sand

CTEN President

CTEN - January 2012 newsletter

Dear Colleague,

As the fiscal situation in California worsens, Governor Jerry Brown has come out with a budget that cuts even more from education. He and others are confident that a tax increase is in the cards, but this remains to be seen and teachers should not count on it. To read more, go to http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/07/BAOC1MM0FM.DTL

 

Certainly a part of the state’s financial malaise stems from the public employee pension “tsunami.” The school districts and unions have sold the state a devastating bill of goods. Please don’t assume that this won’t affect you, even if you are already retired. Recently, in Rhode Island, some retired cops and firemen bit the bullet and took cuts to their pensions. It would behoove all public employees to stay on top of this issue and perhaps take the lead. I have written two pieces about this recently. I know not all of you will agree with what I wrote. Please share your thoughts with us on the CTEN blog. (http://www.ctenteachers.blogspot.com/)  To read my blog posts, go to redcounty.com/content/state-sponsored-thievery-continues-plain-sight  and  http://redcounty.com/content/more-pension-truths-and-why-you-should-be-very-angry  Additionally, a good website for keeping up with news about public employee pensions is http://pensiontsunami.com/  

The National Education Association seems to have jumped on the reform bandwagon and it has issued a “Three Point Plan for Reform.” (http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/NEA_3point_plan_for_reform.pdf) What will come of this no one knows. Unfortunately we’ve been down this road with NEA before and typically, nothing much comes of their good sounding talk. Either their reforms become adulterated and rendered meaningless or the state and local affiliates want nothing to do with them. 

In another olive branch move, NEA Pres. Dennis Van Roekel co-wrote an article with a former enemy, Teach For America’s Wendy Kopp.  http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2011-12-20/teachers-education-public-schools/52121868/1 )  An odd couple if ever there was one! In fact, their collaboration upset many people, including Matt Damon’s mother Nancy Carlsson-Paige who was so upset by it that she told NEA that her son would not be accepting the NEA’s “Friend of Education” award. According to Mike Antonucci, “The New York Times and the Washington Post report that Dr. Carlsson-Paige has rejected the nomination on behalf of herself and her son, because of what she calls a “collaboration” between NEA President Dennis Van Roekel and Teach for America. TFA, according the Post‘s description, “recruits newly minted college graduates who are not education majors and gives them five weeks of summer training before placing them in classrooms in high-poverty schools. Recruits are asked to commit to only two years of teaching.” ( http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/01/05/matt-damons-mom-wont-let-him-accept-nomination-for-nea-award/ )

Mike Antonucci also reports that NEA continues to lose members, down 169,000 in the last three years - http://www.eiaonline.com/archives/20111219.htm  This hasn’t seemed to hurt their lobbying efforts, however, which included fifty NEA activists sending over 17,000 e-mails to Congress, which comes to about an email a day from each of the fifty writers. (http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/2011/12/19/youve-got-mail/) 

As schools of education have come under fire lately, I was asked to write a piece about them for the online publication, Clarion Call (http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/287144/are-education-schools-our-weakest-link-george-leef) which reportedly generated a pretty good response. I’d like to know how many of you had similar experiences in ed school. Once again, if you’d like to share your thoughts and experiences, the CTEN blog (http://www.ctenteachers.blogspot.com/) is the place to do that.

Last July, a Wall Street Journal editorial proclaimed 2011 “The Year of School Choice.” “School may be out for the summer, but school choice is in, as states across the nation have moved to expand education opportunities for disadvantaged kids. This year is shaping up as the best for reformers in a very long time.” To read more, go to (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304450604576420330972531442.html?mod=googlenews_wsj ) The Journal’s sentiment was echoed by Marcus Winters in the Washington Examiner in a piece called “Manhattan Moment: Why 2011 is the Year of the School Voucher.”  (http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/11/manhattan-moment-why-2011-year-school-voucher) 

And, speaking of choice, National School Choice Week runs from January 22-28 this year. On Jan.24^th, I will be speaking at an event in Los Angeles with former D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty - http://www.schoolchoiceweek.com/lissnell/reason_foundation_school_choice_celebration_in_los_angeles  The next day, I will be in Santa Clara moderating an all-star panel. Gloria Romero, a former state senator, author of the Parent Trigger law and currently the State Director of Democrats for Education Reform, will be joined by Terry Moe, Stanford professor and Koret Task Force member and Lance Izumi, Senior Director of Education Studies at the Pacific Research Institute. For more information about this event, please go to http://www.schoolchoiceweek.com/8365/school_choice_for_santa_clara_county_with_terry_moe  For all the NSCW events that week, please go to - http://www.schoolchoiceweek.com/

 

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 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 - October 2011 newsletter

Greetings,

I just returned from the Foundation for Excellence in Education conference in San Francisco. For education reformers, this was the certainly the place to be – teachers, think tankers, charter operators, legislators, etc. convened for a day and a half, compared notes and planned reform strategies. I’m not sure what the future of education will look like, but I can tell you with great certainty that the status quo will not continue to stand for long. The conference, which was streamed live, is available as a podcast - http://wpc.230d.edgecastcdn.net/00230D/august2/fee/webcast/index.html

Perhaps the greatest threat to business as usual is digital learning, which is already being utilized in some states on a limited basis. Perhaps the greatest boon to learning via computer came accidentally. Sal Khan, a former hedge fund analyst, made a couple of YouTube videos to help his younger cousins get through some troubling math areas. Soon Mr. Khan learned that it wasn’t just his cousins that he was helping. He then made more videos on different subjects and people from all over the world began to watch and learn from them. Bill Gates became a supporter and Khan is now known to millions.  To get the full story, I urge you to watch this video in which Mr. Khan gives an overview of what he has accomplished in a very brief time -   http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html  His website, which now has over 2,600 videos, is a must visit - http://www.khanacademy.org/

No Child Left Behind has been in the news recently; due for yet another renewal, people from both sides of the aisle are fighting about the best course to take. The government, which wants to give waivers to states that are not going to able to live up to the original dictates of the 2001 law, is supported by some. But others are just plain tired of the government’s involvement in what they feel should be an issue left up to the states. The following articles sum up both sides of the discussion - http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-federal-takeover-of-education/2011/09/30/gIQAdKYBBL_story.html  and http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/03/opinion/la-ed-nclb-20111003

Teacher preparation programs have been in the news lately and mercifully so. Too many of our schools of education do a horrible job of readying teachers for life in the classroom. The National Council on Teacher Quality reports that, “In response to growing demand from its state customers to offer a new elementary generalist licensing test, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) will be releasing a considerably improved alternative to the current Praxis II ‘content knowledge’ test now used by 25 states.” The hope is that with a more rigorous assessment, the states will do a better job of teaching the next generation of teachers. 

Additionally, President Obama has thrown himself into the ed school fray. “The Obama administration announced a new $185 million competition Friday that would reward colleges for producing teachers whose students perform well on standardized tests.”

This competition “would require states to provide data linking collegiate teaching programs inside their borders to the test scores of their graduates' students. Under the proposal, to be eligible for the money, states would have to ratchet up teacher-licensing exams and close persistently low-performing teacher-training programs.” To continue reading this Wall Street Journal article, go to http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204138204576602992880869786.html
 

And finally, there is a union angle to the ed school follies. While NEA President Dennis Van Roekel constantly complains about poor teacher preparation, NEA gave $381,576 in 2009-2010 to the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, which oversees teacher training programs. To read more about this double-dealing, please go here - http://redcounty.com/content/tragedy-and-farce-american-schools-education

On the subject of teacher quality and teacher pay, education researcher Marcus Winters claims that a compensation system “based on additional academic credit and experience makes sense only if those factors are actually related to classroom effectiveness. They aren't.” This article, which explains that the way most teachers are paid is wrong, is a must read - http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/02/opinion/la-oe-winters-teachers-pay-20111002  

Long time friend of CTEN, Palm Desert High School teacher Ossil Macavinta has suggested that if you are interested in starting a “No Cussing Club” at your school to let him know. He is very interested in expanding the clubs and would be willing to help you get one off the ground. More info can be found at http://palmdesert.patch.com/articles/city-extends-influence-of-no-cussing-club and http://PDHSNoCussing.com  To contact Dr. Macavinta, you can email him at ossil.macavinta@dsusd.us or info@pdhsnocussing.com or call him at 760-333-2139.

Final reminder: If you are considering becoming an agency fee payer, it is a two step process. First, you resign from the union (thus becoming an agency fee payer) and then request that the political part of your dues be returned to you. Sample letters for both steps are available here - http://www.ctenhome.org/knowMembership.htm#exoptions  (As a first timer, you must take care of both steps by November 15 to get a full rebate.)

If you already are an agency fee payer, you must request your rebate this year (and every year!) by November 15th. If you are even one day late, you will not get a penny back. Also, because liability insurance is very important for teachers, we suggest joining the Association of American Educators http://www.aaeteachers.org/  or Christian Educators Association http://www.ceai.org  Both AAE and CEAI are professional organizations, not unions, and are apolitical. (Also, teachers who mention CTEN when they sign up with AAE for the first time will get a $30 discount off the regular $180 first year membership.)

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.

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.

As always, we at CTEN want to thank you for your ongoing support and feedback.

Larry Sand

CTEN President