Do you remember a vote for a bond for buildings in the school district in 2007? If you live in the valley you may remember voting for it because you are overcrowded out there and thought the school district might build a new school or at least add some classrooms. Well, not so much. The school district, as I mentioned earlier on this blog, is hiring a planning firm. This is not an architectural firm or an engineering firm, sorry to disappoint, but a firm to help the district plan for "school improvement strategies". I would like to note that they have been working on school improvement strategies since 1992, with I would say, little or more probably no success when you look at social and achievement data.
I had the pleasure yesterday to attend one of these planning meetings. The meeting went for SIX HOURS! After 3 hours of wandering around in the weeds I left, they had nowhere to go with all this because they didn't even know what their role as a school board should be. Before getting into the specifics of all the wandering I WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT that they were spending LOTS OF MONEY. We don't yet know the exact amounts but we will continue to try to find out how much of the 10.8 MILLION DOLLARS is being spent on planning. For this meeting they hired a consultant to give them advice via skype and a mediator, had a large meal prepared and brought in, and must have hired "guest teachers" (substitutes) because teachers and other paid staff were present.
Well do you think they talked about which buildings they were going to build? NO that's not it. They talked for 3 hours and as far as I could tell from the agenda, intended (after dinner), to talk for another one and a half hours about assessment. Let me see- should it be broad assessment?(assessment of the whole district) or narrow assessment (3rd grade for example), or then again it could be pinpointed at particular classrooms! On they went. The consultant likes performance assessment, inquiry based. Lets think outside the box and not worry about all those pesky facts. The scary thing is they may get away with this. According to Denise Juneau, Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction, (who has not returned my call for further inquiry),speaking at Hometown Helena, our schools are doing away with Iowa Basics achievement testing and going to a FEDERAL TEST AT EVERY GRADE LEVEL(NAEP, National Assessment of Student Progress). So what we now teach, ( even the people at the meeting acceded that the test determines what we teach), will be determined by the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. If you haven't traveled in a totalitarian state you may not realize just how scary that is.
Maybe you remember Competency Based Standards for graduation that I talked about on this blog earlier? Well they talked about students collaborative skills being assessed and social measures. Sounds subjective to me. Are we now going to try to form our children into someones version of the perfect person rather than just expect them to learn academics at school?
The terminology has reached crisis proportions, they are producing new words by the nano second. But the intent is clear, they don't understand their role as a school board, the role of teachers in the classroom, the role of schools in students lives, and what teaching is all about anyway. Finally one of the board members pointed out that when you teach Biology there are certain things like Mitosis which you just must teach.
Let me try to clarify this for the school board, first, school boards are not there to assess or teach, they are purely administrative, they make sure the trains run on time so to speak. Secondly, the teachers are there to teach. They should not be responsible to write curriculum and be researchers! Twenty five students to teach 7 subjects to in 4 hours (when you're not on constant drills of every kind i.e. fire,earthquake, national disaster, lockdown etc.) and giving your classroom over to special programs, is a monumental feat these days! If you want any results at all please let the teachers teach at least once in a while. Assessment, as pointed out even by someone at the meeting, takes away teaching time. Many firms are selling assessment- some international! So there is pressure to jump on this bandwagon. The consultant even suggested using our children as guinea pigs for firms doing research ( they'd just love it if we signed up).
Our school district is not doing well as pointed out by almost everyone at the meeting including the consultant. Our kids are losing ground in math by third grade. The one school that is doing better than others is recovering from ("unfortunate leadership disarray") as pointed out by at least one board member. In other words they're getting back up to speed. Can I ask why if our former superintendent was so wonderful he let this "disarray" go on for 18 years? Why are our math scores so low and why can't our students perform on achievement testing?
The one board member had it right ( and he's a former teacher), there are certain things that need to be taught. Give our teachers the time to teach and it will happen. Your train is going way off track when you let administrators micromanage teachers, as one said shockingly,"the school has to decide on a strategy and through collaboration the other teachers should be sure everyone is doing it". News flash for her,our teachers each have their own teaching style and will do a bang up job on the whole if you just leave them alone!
Proof of this is that our scores were better before school reform happened to us. Why do we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on textbooks if we don't trust them? They have the structure, (they actually talked about how things should be taught in a sequence (you think?!!) at this meeting), well, the textbook has the sequence. They are written by professionals that do nothing but this. Guess what? They even have the ASSESSMENT after each part that you talked about (those are called chapters). Get out of the weeds and let our teachers teach!!
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
THE AFTER SHOW SCHOOL BOARD MEETING SEPTEMBER 13,2011
Another board meeting, another show. Where to begin? At the beginning I guess. Did you hear today that scores on the SAT (college entrance exam) for students in the U.S. reached their lowest in math and reading ever recorded? Just think of that - after 20 years of school reform and 35 years of a national department of education our scores are the lowest ever.
At the board meeting they discussed more planning and more firms. Then Youth Connections gave their annual update - being sure to note that their grant expires in 2013 and they hope to be fully integrated into the public schools by that time. Did our public sign up for this? I think when most people vote for school funding they think they are voting to educate the children not analyze them and behaviorally engineer them.
I read all of the Youth Connections material. Did you know that Youth Connections did mental health screening (according to their literature) in 2010 fall and spring, of all 9-12 graders? Did you as a parent see this screening and sign off for it to be done? All K-1 classes get social skills programing aimed at reducing impulsive and aggressive behavior and increasing social competence ( Is their a behavior guru who knows the perfect behavior for all of us?). Four "Project Success" counselors have been hired at the middle schools and high schools to identify students who could benefit from mental health services.
Tracy Moseman , project director, went on to say that they are basically assessing teachers and parents too because everyone must feel safe. Apparently they are doing all of this in large part to prevent substance abuse ( I thought the DARE program and the RESOURCE OFFICER program did that- how many programs do they need to do the same thing that doesn't work? ) Tracy went on to say that, according to her statistics teen underage drinking is down, but maybe this is because, as reported by her, 25% of our teens are doing MARIJUANA!!
The principal from Broadwater School was there to tout her attendance initiative under MBI's (Montana Behavior Initiative's Best Practices- every state has one so if you were in New York you'd have the New York Behavior Initiative and if you were in New Jersey you'd have the New Jersey Behavior Initiative, you get the idea- the Federal Government through their grants are social engineering America). So what is she doing to increase attendance? A graph in the hall that shows tardies and attendance for every class. I taught for 30 years, 9 of those at Bryant school where some families are really struggling. Should the weight of peer pressure be put on little kids to get to school and on time? This is an adult thing and I just feel for those little guys stressing like that. So when has school been so important to these people? This year they are using FOUR DAYS of instruction(no school for kids) for all their teacher pressuring and behavior controlling workshops mandated by the Federal Government. Class time is used almost constantly for MBI programs and performance assemblies, as well as screening and then the RESOURCE OFFICER in the classroom and DARE and children whisked away for Big Sisters Big Brothers and buddy programs and community service training and contests for collecting food and then the PEAK program which takes them out 1 day a week (1/5th of their education). Aidan Myhre was praising all these programs and then lamenting that it is REALLY SO IMPORTANT that kids get to school. To school for what, BEHAVIOR TRAINING? Do you get the feeling that these folks are more interested in social engineering behaviors than academic teaching? I do.
The after show was really great though. There were actually 2 other people who spoke up besides myself ( I spoke about building reserve money being spent to hire a firm that will not just handle buildings but will handle curriculums and programs etc., and about the yelling out of names of private genitalia at CRA) these people were wonderful- smart, informed and with really important messages.
One lady spoke about the RESOURCE OFFICER program which is criminalizing children at early ages. She noted that school behaviors are apparently at times turned over to the RESOURCE OFFICER (police). With the new POWER SCHOOL program children's behavior is monitored and data is collected on every student. If your child has a fight on the playground he can have a record before he turns 7!
Another mother spoke about the PEAK program which apparently selects out kids, 90% of which are highly motivated high achievers, based on a not very scientific IQ like test in 2ND GRADE. Before you turn 9 our district has labeled you as not one of the smartest ones. Apparently at Hawthorne School last year some of the PEAK kids were going around telling other kids they were always right because they were smarter. And what do they do to teach these children when they miss a whole day of school? Apparently rafting trips and even trips to FRANCE!
You can contact Tracy Moseman director of Youth Connections at tmose@helena.k12.mt.us (a school district email) if you have any advice for her on what everyone's behavior should be and how to identify insecure parents and teachers. Personally I think this whole behavior control thing has gotten out of hand. The schools are trying to create the perfect world while our children are NOT GETTING AN EDUCATION! Reading and math are the most important things they need for self esteem and success in this world and for their futures. Trying to be all things to all children at all times (the whole child concept ) is destroying our schools. It would be like serving dinner at the barber shop- neither job would get done well.
At the board meeting they discussed more planning and more firms. Then Youth Connections gave their annual update - being sure to note that their grant expires in 2013 and they hope to be fully integrated into the public schools by that time. Did our public sign up for this? I think when most people vote for school funding they think they are voting to educate the children not analyze them and behaviorally engineer them.
I read all of the Youth Connections material. Did you know that Youth Connections did mental health screening (according to their literature) in 2010 fall and spring, of all 9-12 graders? Did you as a parent see this screening and sign off for it to be done? All K-1 classes get social skills programing aimed at reducing impulsive and aggressive behavior and increasing social competence ( Is their a behavior guru who knows the perfect behavior for all of us?). Four "Project Success" counselors have been hired at the middle schools and high schools to identify students who could benefit from mental health services.
Tracy Moseman , project director, went on to say that they are basically assessing teachers and parents too because everyone must feel safe. Apparently they are doing all of this in large part to prevent substance abuse ( I thought the DARE program and the RESOURCE OFFICER program did that- how many programs do they need to do the same thing that doesn't work? ) Tracy went on to say that, according to her statistics teen underage drinking is down, but maybe this is because, as reported by her, 25% of our teens are doing MARIJUANA!!
The principal from Broadwater School was there to tout her attendance initiative under MBI's (Montana Behavior Initiative's Best Practices- every state has one so if you were in New York you'd have the New York Behavior Initiative and if you were in New Jersey you'd have the New Jersey Behavior Initiative, you get the idea- the Federal Government through their grants are social engineering America). So what is she doing to increase attendance? A graph in the hall that shows tardies and attendance for every class. I taught for 30 years, 9 of those at Bryant school where some families are really struggling. Should the weight of peer pressure be put on little kids to get to school and on time? This is an adult thing and I just feel for those little guys stressing like that. So when has school been so important to these people? This year they are using FOUR DAYS of instruction(no school for kids) for all their teacher pressuring and behavior controlling workshops mandated by the Federal Government. Class time is used almost constantly for MBI programs and performance assemblies, as well as screening and then the RESOURCE OFFICER in the classroom and DARE and children whisked away for Big Sisters Big Brothers and buddy programs and community service training and contests for collecting food and then the PEAK program which takes them out 1 day a week (1/5th of their education). Aidan Myhre was praising all these programs and then lamenting that it is REALLY SO IMPORTANT that kids get to school. To school for what, BEHAVIOR TRAINING? Do you get the feeling that these folks are more interested in social engineering behaviors than academic teaching? I do.
The after show was really great though. There were actually 2 other people who spoke up besides myself ( I spoke about building reserve money being spent to hire a firm that will not just handle buildings but will handle curriculums and programs etc., and about the yelling out of names of private genitalia at CRA) these people were wonderful- smart, informed and with really important messages.
One lady spoke about the RESOURCE OFFICER program which is criminalizing children at early ages. She noted that school behaviors are apparently at times turned over to the RESOURCE OFFICER (police). With the new POWER SCHOOL program children's behavior is monitored and data is collected on every student. If your child has a fight on the playground he can have a record before he turns 7!
Another mother spoke about the PEAK program which apparently selects out kids, 90% of which are highly motivated high achievers, based on a not very scientific IQ like test in 2ND GRADE. Before you turn 9 our district has labeled you as not one of the smartest ones. Apparently at Hawthorne School last year some of the PEAK kids were going around telling other kids they were always right because they were smarter. And what do they do to teach these children when they miss a whole day of school? Apparently rafting trips and even trips to FRANCE!
You can contact Tracy Moseman director of Youth Connections at tmose@helena.k12.mt.us (a school district email) if you have any advice for her on what everyone's behavior should be and how to identify insecure parents and teachers. Personally I think this whole behavior control thing has gotten out of hand. The schools are trying to create the perfect world while our children are NOT GETTING AN EDUCATION! Reading and math are the most important things they need for self esteem and success in this world and for their futures. Trying to be all things to all children at all times (the whole child concept ) is destroying our schools. It would be like serving dinner at the barber shop- neither job would get done well.
Friday, 9 September 2011
A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT FOR FOOTBALL
I went to the Capital High football game tonight and I was struck by all the wonderful kids and their families. Mom's were taking their babies up to high five the bear and students were coming up to their parents for comfort if they were upset or for approval of their outfit if they just needed a little encouragement. Parents were taking pictures of their darlings everywhere. Many parents were there just to see their daughter dance at half time or to see their son sit on the bench. They cared and they were there.
Maybe a lot of these people don't know about the agenda being driven in their schools- or maybe they do. Either way it is these families that will ultimately reclaim America and stop the march to Socialism.
One can tell the social justice crowd has not completely taken over because they still are using cover. It was announced at the game that they have a new Montana Behavior Initiative grant.The grant is supposedly for "Responsibility, Respect, and Graduate". Who could argue with those values? But then- think a little deeper- why would you need a federal grant to teach the things we've always stood for? Is there possibly more to this grant? Probably. Are the people driving the grants careful to couch everything in terms these families will accept- you bet.
So we don't cheer for "Take that ball and fight" or "All the way in one play" or even " We are the Bruins the mighty mighty Bruins" We cheer for "Parents to stand up" . I sometimes wondered if these girls were paying any attention to the field at all- or were even taught about the game. Maybe I've just been watching this attempt to social engineer for so long that I'm too suspicious, but it sure seems like the cheers have been changed from good old football fighting to win, to spirit building only.
In spite of all this I just loved seeing all these healthy kids and healthy families- the very people in the end that I believe will reject revolutionary socialism and renew America to its moral and constitutional roots.
Maybe a lot of these people don't know about the agenda being driven in their schools- or maybe they do. Either way it is these families that will ultimately reclaim America and stop the march to Socialism.
One can tell the social justice crowd has not completely taken over because they still are using cover. It was announced at the game that they have a new Montana Behavior Initiative grant.The grant is supposedly for "Responsibility, Respect, and Graduate". Who could argue with those values? But then- think a little deeper- why would you need a federal grant to teach the things we've always stood for? Is there possibly more to this grant? Probably. Are the people driving the grants careful to couch everything in terms these families will accept- you bet.
So we don't cheer for "Take that ball and fight" or "All the way in one play" or even " We are the Bruins the mighty mighty Bruins" We cheer for "Parents to stand up" . I sometimes wondered if these girls were paying any attention to the field at all- or were even taught about the game. Maybe I've just been watching this attempt to social engineer for so long that I'm too suspicious, but it sure seems like the cheers have been changed from good old football fighting to win, to spirit building only.
In spite of all this I just loved seeing all these healthy kids and healthy families- the very people in the end that I believe will reject revolutionary socialism and renew America to its moral and constitutional roots.