Another school board meeting another show.... . Glendive decided not to join the Montana Quality Education Coalition because MQEC gets all its money from the taxpayers and is suing the legislature with it. They didn't think the taxpayers should have to sue themselves- YEAH FOR GLENDIVE! Finally someone in the school establishment that cares about democracy and fairness for taxpayers!
A large part of the meeting was a discussion of what to pay the new superintendent. The school board member who talks constantly about poverty- seems to want to send us all there. He wanted us to pay our new superintendent at least ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS!! Where does he think this money comes from? SEVENTY PERCENT of our property taxes go to the SCHOOLS!
Billings, a much bigger district than ours, paid a base of $160,000.00 for their new superintendent whom they just had to get rid of. I'll bet Billings paid for a firm for their big mistake too.We used to not hire firms to hire our superintendent.We looked locally and paid modestly and our schools did well- we weren't last in the state in math. The final figure they came up with after much discussion was a range of $135,000- $155,000. In my view this is WAY TOO MUCH for our little school district- especially considering that housing prices are going down everywhere and this will eventually effect tax receipts(i.e. the school district should be planning on having less MONEY). As was pointed out by one board member, and reaffirmed by the business manager, the superintendent's salary effects all the administrative salaries that surround the superintendent. One of the excuses for this huge amount of money was that our former superintendent got a $144,000.00 package. This was after 15 years of raises as another board member pointed out. So the new guy gets to START where the former superintendent left off. We could get a superintendent that we know for far less and he/she would do a great job- if we hired right.
The principal from Warren School gave a very nice presentation. He had DATA to back up his math and reading scores. They emphasize phonics and computation skills at their school. One teacher told me that he protects them from all the constant demands of the non profits that operate in our schools these days. He protects ACADEMICS. He apparently has worked in high school administration as well as elementary. Why do we have to go out of district and pay $155,000 (plus benefits) to someone we don't know when we have good people that could do the job for less right here?
Frankly the idea of going to the public for input on hiring our superintendent is a ridiculous farce. We are a representative democracy- we vote for representatives to do the hiring. This is not a board that listens to the public anyway as we all witnessed in the sex ed debate. This board is looking for a "professional" educator and by this they mean someone who is on the Federal grant bandwagon. Someone who goes to all the right professional meetings in Denver and has worked for a district where he got all the grants and programs. They don't look for a problem to solve they just look for constant change. Part of their advertisement for the new superintendent is that he will implement change. If their former superintendent really was so wonderful why is their priority after 20 years still "implementing change". Why are our math scores so low and our drop out rates so high?
Could I suggest that we get rid of the non profits and go back to teaching? One new nonprofit is Parent/teacher Home Visit non-profit organization. It comes to us from Sacramento California where they had problems with all the non english speaking families. I mentioned to a board member that we don't have that problem here, he said it helped to have home visits in poor areas. Even if this were true, the Helena School District is not just doing home visits in poor areas, they're doing them everywhere. They don't wait to see if a student is going to be an attendance problem they go there anyway.
Another new program is the academies. It was interesting to hear the Warren principal point out that part of our drop out problem is that kids are bored. I have heard this from so many parents I can't count them. So how are academies that put all grade levels together going to challenge the advanced learners? As the principal pointed out also, individualizing is just not a real possibility- and he is right. The academy experiment is going to dumb down education in our high schools and cause more kids to be bored and drop out.
So we'll have a new very expensive superintendent to keep the experiments going and keep ruining the structure of education in Helena. They talk about outcomes based education but we never see any good outcomes. Education is more than notorious for experimenting and then walking away from programs that never work. The school board trustees move on and the students and taxpayers get left with the problems. Things are going to change significantly in this country real soon, the money is running out. We're all, including school boards, going to have to be more responsible with our money- yeah for Glendive!
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Friday, 18 November 2011
WHY HAVE COMPETITION?
I was at the football game this weekend and the mission statement of the MHSA(Montana High School Association) was broadcast over the speakers. Part of their mission statement says "We believe competition is important". Why do they believe that? We used to all believe that. Competition makes a person work harder, try more, learn self discipline and hard work for a purpose. But our schools are doing away with competition. Why are they doing that? If competition builds self esteem through discipline and hard work in a person, if it builds character, why don't the schools want competition? I don't really know the answer to that (well, maybe I do, kind of) but I'll show you how they are assiduously doing away with competition in our educational system.
Let's start with testing. We used to have norm referenced tests. This meant the students were judged against a statistical norm. Students would come home with CTBS (California Test of Basic Skills) reports, or later ITBS(Iowa Test of Basic Skills) reports and you could see how your student performed against the rest of the nation. You would get a percentile rank. If your child was in the 90th percentile rank they were doing well. If they were in the 30th percentile they had some work to do. Well now that we have government tests there are no more national norms. Students are just Not Proficient, Proficient, or Advanced. These are called criterion referenced tests. In other words, either your child knows the given information or they don't, no comparing. Do you think the incentive is the same and the reporting information is as clear when you are just proficient? Do you think taxpayers have the right to know how Montana students compare to other states percentage wise? I do.
Well, that's just testing. Competition is being taken out of the classrooms in very serious ways that I believe will have disastrous consequences for our students learning. The academies are being introduced into the high schools. At Helena High this year, as I was told by a school administrator, all freshman students are in academies. This means that a group of students take their 4 core classes together. There is no more "A" English or "C" English. Students of all academic levels are put in the same class. How do you accommodate all of these different ability levels? Do you dumb down the curriculum so everyone will succeed? I'm sure the school administrators (who don't teach) would deny this vehemently. You could individualize assignments. Kind of like trying to teach A English and C English at the same time. Maybe they'll go back to reading groups like we have at the elementary schools so that they can hold appropriate literary discussions with all ability levels, read literature that is advanced for advanced students,and offer remedial help for the C English levels. When you look at the reading lists (which are on line) you see that all the students are getting the same books, so they aren't varying literary content to meet the needs of advanced students. It was suggested at a board meeting that I went to at Helena High that they would like to go to project learning(the old cooperative learning from the 80's is back). We all know the problems with project learning, the top students do the work , the slow students learn very little, and everyone gets the same grade. What about math? How are they going to fit calculous students with students who haven't mastered algebra?
So the question remains. Why are they doing this? Is it just a way to bring low achievers up? Maybe, but it sure isn't going to get them an education (maybe a grade!). Our schools, for a long time now, have been about making a new society, not about delivering the best education. The MHSA knows that competition works. If you look at world markets, you know the only reason there is a market is because of capitalism and the incentives it provides. So, competition works but the people who are running our schools now (think BIll Ayers), don't want different levels of achievement. It seems like they're aiming for the classless society in school instead of the best education for everyone.Maybe they think if we all just learn to collaborate everyone will help each other and all of societies problems will go away. Maybe they don't like the idea that when we compete we consider ourselves as achievers INDIVIDUALLY.
Is this the kind of America you want where we are all the same? Are people ever the same? Do you like the football model where students discipline themselves, put up with hardships and overcome hardships? A model where the best get to play and others have to improve or move on to something else? Or do you like the model where we try to make everyone the same and pull out the victim card when things get tough?
Perhaps if we were all weak and dependent we would need a super centralized government that met everyone's every need. Kind of like the schools wanting to provide education from the age of two through job training (the planning has begun). But has this model ever worked anywhere at any time in history? Have you looked at the debt clock on line lately? Are you aware of the Solyndra scandal where all the political bundlers got in on the green energy money coming from Washington, or some of the other scandals like insider trading by legislators (they use confidential information to help them make stock picks). Why do all our presidents become millionaires now? Does big centralized government that tries to be a "nanny state" breed corruption? Thomas Jefferson had the best advice "If people were angels we would not need government, but people are not angels, so we need a limited government".
I agree with MHSA, let competition and freedom ring!
Let's start with testing. We used to have norm referenced tests. This meant the students were judged against a statistical norm. Students would come home with CTBS (California Test of Basic Skills) reports, or later ITBS(Iowa Test of Basic Skills) reports and you could see how your student performed against the rest of the nation. You would get a percentile rank. If your child was in the 90th percentile rank they were doing well. If they were in the 30th percentile they had some work to do. Well now that we have government tests there are no more national norms. Students are just Not Proficient, Proficient, or Advanced. These are called criterion referenced tests. In other words, either your child knows the given information or they don't, no comparing. Do you think the incentive is the same and the reporting information is as clear when you are just proficient? Do you think taxpayers have the right to know how Montana students compare to other states percentage wise? I do.
Well, that's just testing. Competition is being taken out of the classrooms in very serious ways that I believe will have disastrous consequences for our students learning. The academies are being introduced into the high schools. At Helena High this year, as I was told by a school administrator, all freshman students are in academies. This means that a group of students take their 4 core classes together. There is no more "A" English or "C" English. Students of all academic levels are put in the same class. How do you accommodate all of these different ability levels? Do you dumb down the curriculum so everyone will succeed? I'm sure the school administrators (who don't teach) would deny this vehemently. You could individualize assignments. Kind of like trying to teach A English and C English at the same time. Maybe they'll go back to reading groups like we have at the elementary schools so that they can hold appropriate literary discussions with all ability levels, read literature that is advanced for advanced students,and offer remedial help for the C English levels. When you look at the reading lists (which are on line) you see that all the students are getting the same books, so they aren't varying literary content to meet the needs of advanced students. It was suggested at a board meeting that I went to at Helena High that they would like to go to project learning(the old cooperative learning from the 80's is back). We all know the problems with project learning, the top students do the work , the slow students learn very little, and everyone gets the same grade. What about math? How are they going to fit calculous students with students who haven't mastered algebra?
So the question remains. Why are they doing this? Is it just a way to bring low achievers up? Maybe, but it sure isn't going to get them an education (maybe a grade!). Our schools, for a long time now, have been about making a new society, not about delivering the best education. The MHSA knows that competition works. If you look at world markets, you know the only reason there is a market is because of capitalism and the incentives it provides. So, competition works but the people who are running our schools now (think BIll Ayers), don't want different levels of achievement. It seems like they're aiming for the classless society in school instead of the best education for everyone.Maybe they think if we all just learn to collaborate everyone will help each other and all of societies problems will go away. Maybe they don't like the idea that when we compete we consider ourselves as achievers INDIVIDUALLY.
Is this the kind of America you want where we are all the same? Are people ever the same? Do you like the football model where students discipline themselves, put up with hardships and overcome hardships? A model where the best get to play and others have to improve or move on to something else? Or do you like the model where we try to make everyone the same and pull out the victim card when things get tough?
Perhaps if we were all weak and dependent we would need a super centralized government that met everyone's every need. Kind of like the schools wanting to provide education from the age of two through job training (the planning has begun). But has this model ever worked anywhere at any time in history? Have you looked at the debt clock on line lately? Are you aware of the Solyndra scandal where all the political bundlers got in on the green energy money coming from Washington, or some of the other scandals like insider trading by legislators (they use confidential information to help them make stock picks). Why do all our presidents become millionaires now? Does big centralized government that tries to be a "nanny state" breed corruption? Thomas Jefferson had the best advice "If people were angels we would not need government, but people are not angels, so we need a limited government".
I agree with MHSA, let competition and freedom ring!
Thursday, 10 November 2011
PICKING THE PUBLIC'S POCKET
At Home Town Helena last Thursday our school district superintendent was in an interesting quandary. He was there to talk about a new plan which is going to cost the property owners of Helena a lot of money, (if he or the next superintendent can get the bond passed). He first had to explain why the number of elementary students in Helena is GOING DOWN. It's not real great to ask for support for going after more money when you actually have less students. His explanation as to why he has less students is that THE ECONOMY IS BAD in Helena and that people are having to leave town to find work. My, My, there is less money out there so we are just going to belly up to the bar and take the money we want right out of the back pockets of those poor suckers who are still able to make their house payments in Helena. Does this make sense to you? Does it feel like the people running the school district i.e. THE SCHOOL BOARD, really give a darn about the property tax payers? Did you know that business people who have businesses in Helena but live out of the school district don't even get to vote on these bonds- even though they have to pay for them? Does this sound fair to you?
See if this sounds fair to you. At the school board meeting Tuesday night there was a presentation from MQEC (Montana Quality Education Coalition). These are the folks who started a law suit against the legislature years ago to equalize funding for schools so that small school districts would have the same funding as large districts.They have sixty districts paying them dues and sent this gentleman out to get more. It came out at the meeting that there are 250 districts- so he has a ways to go. But yes, Helena is a member, of course. So, once again, the tax payers are being forced to pay to sue themselves! He lamented that they really only have enough money from the dues to pay his salary - not to fund the new lawsuit so he didn't say it surprisingly- but he expects money from the school district to pay legal expenses. I was wondering-why didn't he just ask for the money? Can they do this in a back room deal? I know they use the building reserve for all kinds of things like paying for a planning firm- can they just take money out of the budget? Maybe you're wondering what the new law suit is. Well, it's just an attachment to the old law suit as one of the board members explained to us. Here's how it goes. The legislature only gave the schools a 1% increase in their funding for the 1st year of the biennium and a 1.16% increase in the second year. According to MQEC this doesn't meet inflation needs which are specified in the annotated code (law). The law says that the legislature MUST give them more money every legislative session. Are you wondering who determines what this rate of inflation for the schools is? Well you probably guessed right- The MONTANA OFFICE OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION! Is this kind of like the fox in charge of the hen house? Can we expect the Office of Public Instruction to be an impartial judge when it comes to school funding?
I sat there at this meeting, the peon in front of the gods, and wondered what it must be like to be elected to the legislature. I thought about all these poor people getting out to vote for Republican legislators because they want a change, they want less government and less taxes. Does it seem to you that the legislators just have their hands tied? Carl Graham from Montana Policy Institute has been fighting for a long time for zero based budgeting. This would give the legislators a chance to look at real school budgets built for each year and to decide what we should fund instead of just being given a figure from last year with OPI's rate of inflation increase figured in. Let's get behind Carl . Let's make our vote really stand for something. With the "Whole Child " concept that our school district operates under our schools are the center for all social services- most of them duplicative. Our legislators are not just funding schools in the school budgets, they're funding non profits and social services. Our new bond plan is going to include all kinds of social programs, not just buildings.
So where is the public voice in all this spending? Our board chair is making phone calls, he's offering invites for the STEERING COMMITTEE and the CITIZENS' COMMITTEE which will be the public input on this new planning for the bond. In the newspaper it will look like everyone got a voice but - not so much. He's not publicizing the search (he says it has been mentioned in a newspaper article)- even a board member called foul on this - but they passed her right by like a post on the freeway. If you get on the committee you know already what the outcome will be - every program they've got going in the district, every federal grant and every nonprofit wish list. I really hope there's some one or two of you out there that will get on those committees. The board chair says to just call the district. You may not be able to make a change this time but you can stand for the property owners and families and get the word out. This board needs a balance!
See if this sounds fair to you. At the school board meeting Tuesday night there was a presentation from MQEC (Montana Quality Education Coalition). These are the folks who started a law suit against the legislature years ago to equalize funding for schools so that small school districts would have the same funding as large districts.They have sixty districts paying them dues and sent this gentleman out to get more. It came out at the meeting that there are 250 districts- so he has a ways to go. But yes, Helena is a member, of course. So, once again, the tax payers are being forced to pay to sue themselves! He lamented that they really only have enough money from the dues to pay his salary - not to fund the new lawsuit so he didn't say it surprisingly- but he expects money from the school district to pay legal expenses. I was wondering-why didn't he just ask for the money? Can they do this in a back room deal? I know they use the building reserve for all kinds of things like paying for a planning firm- can they just take money out of the budget? Maybe you're wondering what the new law suit is. Well, it's just an attachment to the old law suit as one of the board members explained to us. Here's how it goes. The legislature only gave the schools a 1% increase in their funding for the 1st year of the biennium and a 1.16% increase in the second year. According to MQEC this doesn't meet inflation needs which are specified in the annotated code (law). The law says that the legislature MUST give them more money every legislative session. Are you wondering who determines what this rate of inflation for the schools is? Well you probably guessed right- The MONTANA OFFICE OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION! Is this kind of like the fox in charge of the hen house? Can we expect the Office of Public Instruction to be an impartial judge when it comes to school funding?
I sat there at this meeting, the peon in front of the gods, and wondered what it must be like to be elected to the legislature. I thought about all these poor people getting out to vote for Republican legislators because they want a change, they want less government and less taxes. Does it seem to you that the legislators just have their hands tied? Carl Graham from Montana Policy Institute has been fighting for a long time for zero based budgeting. This would give the legislators a chance to look at real school budgets built for each year and to decide what we should fund instead of just being given a figure from last year with OPI's rate of inflation increase figured in. Let's get behind Carl . Let's make our vote really stand for something. With the "Whole Child " concept that our school district operates under our schools are the center for all social services- most of them duplicative. Our legislators are not just funding schools in the school budgets, they're funding non profits and social services. Our new bond plan is going to include all kinds of social programs, not just buildings.
So where is the public voice in all this spending? Our board chair is making phone calls, he's offering invites for the STEERING COMMITTEE and the CITIZENS' COMMITTEE which will be the public input on this new planning for the bond. In the newspaper it will look like everyone got a voice but - not so much. He's not publicizing the search (he says it has been mentioned in a newspaper article)- even a board member called foul on this - but they passed her right by like a post on the freeway. If you get on the committee you know already what the outcome will be - every program they've got going in the district, every federal grant and every nonprofit wish list. I really hope there's some one or two of you out there that will get on those committees. The board chair says to just call the district. You may not be able to make a change this time but you can stand for the property owners and families and get the word out. This board needs a balance!
Sunday, 6 November 2011
SMALL VICTORIES
Well break out the champaign we've had a victory for decency in our culture. They took down the "NO SNOOPING WHEN SOMEONE'S POOPING " and the "NO SEEING WHEN SOMEONE'S PEEING" signs. I do thank them for this from the bottom of my heart. The schools really are the future of America and I certainly don't want to live in a world where our public discourse is brought down to rude and vulgar levels. It did take letters to the school board before this happened. Letters to the principal and the superintendent alone didn't do the job.
As I mentioned the schools really are the future of America. Those of us over the age of 50 remember making American flags for Washington's birthday and stove pipe hats for Lincoln's birthday. In fact, we had these days off school. We learned to love our country and to love our American heros and what they stood for. What did they stand for? Integrity, respect, hard work, tenacity, personal discipline, fairness, and righteousness were some of the character traits they stood for. They dressed with dignity and they acted with dignity. No one hated America in those days. We recognized America as a place where the problems we had were solved. We fought and died for freedom in the Revolutionary War, and justice for the oppressed in the Civil War and World War II. What are children being taught in school today? They are being taught special interests for the purposes of those with special interests.
I watched the movie "PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS" last night. In this movie Will Smith had a young son and no money. He was trying to make it in the world as a stock broker. He was pursuing his happiness, his American dream. At one point he was so poor that he had to go with his son to a shelter. Why? Because the last $500.00 he had in the world was taken out of his account by the government to pay back taxes. My favorite part of the movie was how he never gave up, how he believed that he could make his own opportunity and he did. I'm guessing the liberals favorite part of this movie would be the long line at the shelter. What they see is that we need more shelters, what I see is that we need to build more characters like Will Smith.
The Helena School District superintendent presented the new plan for the new BOND at Hometown Helena Thursday morning. His plan includes early childhood education to work training. It includes "Community involvement" and healthy lifestyles. He's planning to the year 2074! They will feed children, daycare children and provide mental health assessment. I can see that this BOND, or school borrowing, will not be only for buildings as it has been in the past. We will now be borrowing to support nonprofits in the school district. They are already saying "Youth Connections of the Helena Public Schools". Youth Connections is already housed at the public schools and has a school district email. As I have mentioned on this blog before, Intermountain and Head Start are also housed in our schools. The Myrna Loy uses our schools as a fundraiser every year through the arts program, Big Brother's and Big Sister's takes kids out of class at both the high school and the elementary schools, Planned Parenthood has clubs at both our high schools and is so heavily into education now that they have an education administrator. Food Share now shows up on Fridays and sends home food for the weekend at at least 2 elementary schools and they are of course planning more ( I thought we were giving free food to all income levels at Bryant so they wouldn't feel singled out and embarrassed (which they never were), so isn't it embarrassing to go down to the office and get a sack to lug home?). The schools now of course do food drives as well, Exploration Works has the kids farming and Youth Connections has appointed themselves mental health experts ( they screened all 9-12th graders this year for "mental health"). This is just a list of a few of the participants, I'm sure I must be missing many, but the point is , WHAT ARE WE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN?
Well, if I was in those schools I would be learning that absolutely no one can make it on their own. I would be learning that I couldn't even make it through the day without my water bottle by my side and snacks. I would be learning that the government provides food and all other needs and that the government determines what correct attitudes and values are. I might think if I didn't get on board that I would be singled out by Youth Connections as being mentally or emotionally deficient. Youth Connections is sponsoring a "World Renowned" author for a presentation at Helena Middle School ( Which I'm pretty sure kids throughout the district will be taken out of class to attend) on the Bully, the Bullied and the BYSTANDER. Get it- you can't just ignore this you have to be on their wave length or you're the problem. Remember, the bully program was lobbied for at the legislature by Gay Pride, Human Rights Network, and the ACLU among others. This isn't just about bullying.
So freedom today is a politically correct freedom. It is also a freedom without responsibility. What are we doing to our Will Smith's (Chris Gardner in the movie) of tomorrow? Will they have the examples and heros that teach them to survive? If they grow up thinking they can pull the victim card and the government will provide they just ought to talk to a few of the homeless today- anywhere. Life doesn't work that way.There's not enough money in the world to make a person successful who doesn't understand that he has to provide for himself and find his own happiness.
I'm really happy that they took the signs down at Hawthorne School, it's a step in the right direction away from vulgarity, but we have a long way to go in teaching our children the values of personal fortitude that will give them a successful tomorrow. Families teach these things in spite of the schools, but those students that don't get it from the family may end up in a world of hurt as they try to climb the ladder of success, especially if they're poor like Chris Gardner. These kids have spent a great deal of their school time not learning to read too.
As I mentioned the schools really are the future of America. Those of us over the age of 50 remember making American flags for Washington's birthday and stove pipe hats for Lincoln's birthday. In fact, we had these days off school. We learned to love our country and to love our American heros and what they stood for. What did they stand for? Integrity, respect, hard work, tenacity, personal discipline, fairness, and righteousness were some of the character traits they stood for. They dressed with dignity and they acted with dignity. No one hated America in those days. We recognized America as a place where the problems we had were solved. We fought and died for freedom in the Revolutionary War, and justice for the oppressed in the Civil War and World War II. What are children being taught in school today? They are being taught special interests for the purposes of those with special interests.
I watched the movie "PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS" last night. In this movie Will Smith had a young son and no money. He was trying to make it in the world as a stock broker. He was pursuing his happiness, his American dream. At one point he was so poor that he had to go with his son to a shelter. Why? Because the last $500.00 he had in the world was taken out of his account by the government to pay back taxes. My favorite part of the movie was how he never gave up, how he believed that he could make his own opportunity and he did. I'm guessing the liberals favorite part of this movie would be the long line at the shelter. What they see is that we need more shelters, what I see is that we need to build more characters like Will Smith.
The Helena School District superintendent presented the new plan for the new BOND at Hometown Helena Thursday morning. His plan includes early childhood education to work training. It includes "Community involvement" and healthy lifestyles. He's planning to the year 2074! They will feed children, daycare children and provide mental health assessment. I can see that this BOND, or school borrowing, will not be only for buildings as it has been in the past. We will now be borrowing to support nonprofits in the school district. They are already saying "Youth Connections of the Helena Public Schools". Youth Connections is already housed at the public schools and has a school district email. As I have mentioned on this blog before, Intermountain and Head Start are also housed in our schools. The Myrna Loy uses our schools as a fundraiser every year through the arts program, Big Brother's and Big Sister's takes kids out of class at both the high school and the elementary schools, Planned Parenthood has clubs at both our high schools and is so heavily into education now that they have an education administrator. Food Share now shows up on Fridays and sends home food for the weekend at at least 2 elementary schools and they are of course planning more ( I thought we were giving free food to all income levels at Bryant so they wouldn't feel singled out and embarrassed (which they never were), so isn't it embarrassing to go down to the office and get a sack to lug home?). The schools now of course do food drives as well, Exploration Works has the kids farming and Youth Connections has appointed themselves mental health experts ( they screened all 9-12th graders this year for "mental health"). This is just a list of a few of the participants, I'm sure I must be missing many, but the point is , WHAT ARE WE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN?
Well, if I was in those schools I would be learning that absolutely no one can make it on their own. I would be learning that I couldn't even make it through the day without my water bottle by my side and snacks. I would be learning that the government provides food and all other needs and that the government determines what correct attitudes and values are. I might think if I didn't get on board that I would be singled out by Youth Connections as being mentally or emotionally deficient. Youth Connections is sponsoring a "World Renowned" author for a presentation at Helena Middle School ( Which I'm pretty sure kids throughout the district will be taken out of class to attend) on the Bully, the Bullied and the BYSTANDER. Get it- you can't just ignore this you have to be on their wave length or you're the problem. Remember, the bully program was lobbied for at the legislature by Gay Pride, Human Rights Network, and the ACLU among others. This isn't just about bullying.
So freedom today is a politically correct freedom. It is also a freedom without responsibility. What are we doing to our Will Smith's (Chris Gardner in the movie) of tomorrow? Will they have the examples and heros that teach them to survive? If they grow up thinking they can pull the victim card and the government will provide they just ought to talk to a few of the homeless today- anywhere. Life doesn't work that way.There's not enough money in the world to make a person successful who doesn't understand that he has to provide for himself and find his own happiness.
I'm really happy that they took the signs down at Hawthorne School, it's a step in the right direction away from vulgarity, but we have a long way to go in teaching our children the values of personal fortitude that will give them a successful tomorrow. Families teach these things in spite of the schools, but those students that don't get it from the family may end up in a world of hurt as they try to climb the ladder of success, especially if they're poor like Chris Gardner. These kids have spent a great deal of their school time not learning to read too.
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
THE CUTTING EDGE
I was at the school board meeting yesterday. It was a "Work Session" which they have every month. Hawthorne school was giving their school improvement report. They've been doing this for about 20 years- you'd think they would be improved by now- but what would happen to all the workshop providers, non profits and consultants if they actually accomplished school reform? They'd be out of work. Does this mean that we will be in school reform mode at the public schools indefinitely? It appears that way.
Well the school board always praises the school improvement reports- this is a way of praising themselves. They are just so cutting edge- probably just so cutting edge that the rest of us just can't understand it-or better yet- can't accept their genius (which comes to them from Federal Grants that generally get their push from somewhere else- like special interest groups and the U.N.). In any case- see if you think I'm just not forward thinking to not accept this one. In the bathrooms at Hawthorne School they are teaching respect by putting up signs that say "NO SEEING WHEN SOMEONE IS PEEING" and "NO SNOOPING WHEN SOMEONE IS POOPING". Hippies always did love vulgar language.
I couldn't believe I had to get up this morning and take the time to write the principal at Hawthorne School (c.c. ing in the Superintendent who was at the meeting) to explain to them that saying pooping and peeing to the little children was inappropriate- the kind of thing we generally hope to teach our children not to say- at least in polite company, at school, and in public. She wrote me back and thanked me for my "OPINION". I'm probably just flailing out there all alone with this OPINION, right?
They are just so "Cutting edge" that they don't know that controlling our language is one way of showing respect to one another. They don't know that we teach our children appropriate behaviors and language by modeling it for them.
The "cutting edge" planning committee was there to give their first report after being hired. They skyped a lady who spoke all of about 3 sentences. The presenter could have told us himself that Brain Spaces is a firm that specializes in planning spaces for education- but that would be just so yesterday. I guess we're all just too stupid to arrange classrooms for kids, we need a $250,000.00 firm to do this. So the school district will pick who will be on the planning committee. Don't bother applying- they only want smart people- that means people who agree with them. You only can see the future and are smart and with it if you go along with the program here. OF COURSE the business community and other powers that be will be on this committee, if they can get them. Getting the "right" people on the committee will help pass the BOND.
Before we leave the "cutting edge" here we should talk about the DIGITAL ACADEMY ( even we stupid people know this is online learning). Apparently the "Cutting edge" is collaboration all the way- or maybe it's online learning by yourself at home. As the curriculum specialist from the digital academy gave his presentation I was on the edge of my seat waiting for someone to ask the obvious question. There was a time for questions from the board but no one ever did ask that obvious question. There is just such a lack of curiosity. So I followed the gentleman out into the hall and asked him myself. I said when I taught school for 30 years there was always the concern of children not doing their own work- looking on other students papers for test answers for example. Here's the question HOW DO YOU KNOW THESE STUDENTS ARE DOING ANY OF THE WORK AT ALL- ESPECIALLY TAKING THE TESTS? I always did wonder about these online courses. Well- if the students work changes a lot for the better they call him/her up and ask questions. If they're not satisfied with the answers they make them do the work again. Tests are taken at school with a proctor (teacher aide to make sure they don't cheat)- oh so yesterday. Only one more thought and I hate to be the one to bring it up-but of course I will- why in the world would you offer classes in the Irish language? I'm Irish - but I don't speak Irish. Has anyone noticed that it's a dead language of no use at all unless you're an ancient historian and want to read original documents? I doubt our high school kids fit into this category.
Even if you vote Democrat you can't make more money. Choices are going to have to be made and that's one thing we know for sure. Will they choose teaching Irish and $250,000.00 firms over food share?
Well the school board always praises the school improvement reports- this is a way of praising themselves. They are just so cutting edge- probably just so cutting edge that the rest of us just can't understand it-or better yet- can't accept their genius (which comes to them from Federal Grants that generally get their push from somewhere else- like special interest groups and the U.N.). In any case- see if you think I'm just not forward thinking to not accept this one. In the bathrooms at Hawthorne School they are teaching respect by putting up signs that say "NO SEEING WHEN SOMEONE IS PEEING" and "NO SNOOPING WHEN SOMEONE IS POOPING". Hippies always did love vulgar language.
I couldn't believe I had to get up this morning and take the time to write the principal at Hawthorne School (c.c. ing in the Superintendent who was at the meeting) to explain to them that saying pooping and peeing to the little children was inappropriate- the kind of thing we generally hope to teach our children not to say- at least in polite company, at school, and in public. She wrote me back and thanked me for my "OPINION". I'm probably just flailing out there all alone with this OPINION, right?
They are just so "Cutting edge" that they don't know that controlling our language is one way of showing respect to one another. They don't know that we teach our children appropriate behaviors and language by modeling it for them.
The "cutting edge" planning committee was there to give their first report after being hired. They skyped a lady who spoke all of about 3 sentences. The presenter could have told us himself that Brain Spaces is a firm that specializes in planning spaces for education- but that would be just so yesterday. I guess we're all just too stupid to arrange classrooms for kids, we need a $250,000.00 firm to do this. So the school district will pick who will be on the planning committee. Don't bother applying- they only want smart people- that means people who agree with them. You only can see the future and are smart and with it if you go along with the program here. OF COURSE the business community and other powers that be will be on this committee, if they can get them. Getting the "right" people on the committee will help pass the BOND.
Before we leave the "cutting edge" here we should talk about the DIGITAL ACADEMY ( even we stupid people know this is online learning). Apparently the "Cutting edge" is collaboration all the way- or maybe it's online learning by yourself at home. As the curriculum specialist from the digital academy gave his presentation I was on the edge of my seat waiting for someone to ask the obvious question. There was a time for questions from the board but no one ever did ask that obvious question. There is just such a lack of curiosity. So I followed the gentleman out into the hall and asked him myself. I said when I taught school for 30 years there was always the concern of children not doing their own work- looking on other students papers for test answers for example. Here's the question HOW DO YOU KNOW THESE STUDENTS ARE DOING ANY OF THE WORK AT ALL- ESPECIALLY TAKING THE TESTS? I always did wonder about these online courses. Well- if the students work changes a lot for the better they call him/her up and ask questions. If they're not satisfied with the answers they make them do the work again. Tests are taken at school with a proctor (teacher aide to make sure they don't cheat)- oh so yesterday. Only one more thought and I hate to be the one to bring it up-but of course I will- why in the world would you offer classes in the Irish language? I'm Irish - but I don't speak Irish. Has anyone noticed that it's a dead language of no use at all unless you're an ancient historian and want to read original documents? I doubt our high school kids fit into this category.
Even if you vote Democrat you can't make more money. Choices are going to have to be made and that's one thing we know for sure. Will they choose teaching Irish and $250,000.00 firms over food share?
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
250,000 DOLLARS
What could you buy for $250,000 dollars? A new house? Maybe every family on your street could get a new car. What could a school district do with 250,000 dollars? They could hire 5 new teachers for a year. They could have a new textbook adoption. OR----they could hire a firm!
Well, you guessed it they are hiring a firm. What makes this firm so valuable? I don't know and I really don't think anyone at that meeting knew- really even the contractor asking for the contract. These people were architects (apparently). But they don't plan on doing any architectural plans- one of the board members asked about this and it was explained to him that if any building was going to be done they would absolutely have to hire architects to make that plan. No these architects are going to set up meetings with staff to discuss where the district is and where they want to go - pie in the sky kind of stuff.
Even some of the board members discussed the risk that they would hire this firm and nothing would come of it. The newspaper today discussed a 15 year projection for the planning but the real number bandied about by the consultants as well as the board was 50 years! Who in this world really knows what the world will be like in 50 years?!! Well, the school business manager of all people, thinks she knows what the world will be like in the future. She even knows what education will be like (REALLY??). As far as I know she's a great business manager but maybe she should just stay in her area of expertise. The business manager made a big speech recommending the hiring of the firm because the future in the world, and I guess according to her, in education, will all be collaborative. We'll need new spaces to accommodate all this collaboration. Shouldn't the school board have recognized that their business manager is not an educator and would know nothing about the future in the delivery of educational services?
Back in the 60's they thought everything was going to be collaborative too, or they hoped. Remember Rossiter School? The school in the round where they had to put up all the walls when they found out things couldn't work so open and collaborative? Ray Bjork and Broadwater had to put up partitions too after the abysmal failure of this experiment. Even their own new age education , the digital academy, is less collaborative and requires working on your own at home on a computer.
The truth is that none of us really know the future. What we do know is that this country, and states and cities across the nation are broke. We need to spend our money judiciously. What this firm is about really is getting a new bond issue, read YOUR PROPERTY TAXES ARE GOING UP! One of the firm members did mention the figure $200,000,000 but he said that was too high- they couldn't go that high with a bond. Well, how high can they go? Another presenter from the firm mentioned that other firms (Not theirs thank goodness) have had an 80% success rate in getting their bond passed. So this firm will get $26,000.00 just for getting the staff together and finding out where we are (we need to know how many soccer fans we have for example), and then $62,000 ostensibly for every phase after that. These
other phases will include getting the stake holders together (this may be you) and putting together and presenting a plan with, I guess, a price tag. In other words, they will be doing a lot of ground work and public relations work for this big bond.
I am not against bonds and I am not against good schools for kids, but in my view we already pay a great deal for our schools ( 75% of the huge property taxes you pay go to the schools). Is it O.k. to think about good old mom and dad struggling to raise a family and grandma and grandpa who are living on a fixed income just a little bit? I wonder if this board would have hired this firm if it was their own money they were spending. It's time to stop experimenting with our children's education and do common sense things in realistic ways that will really improve our schools and help our children. Let's start with the overcrowding in the valley. Apparently, the 10.8 MILLION DOLLARS we already spent over 7 years went to replace a boiler and I guess hire this firm.This bond was passed in 2007. We used to do upkeep of buildings out of the general fund and not have to go to the tax payers again. We used to hire our own superintendents without spending $15,000.00 from the tax payers to hire a firm. ARE WE ALL GOING TO BE TAXED OUT OF OUR HOUSES?
Well, you guessed it they are hiring a firm. What makes this firm so valuable? I don't know and I really don't think anyone at that meeting knew- really even the contractor asking for the contract. These people were architects (apparently). But they don't plan on doing any architectural plans- one of the board members asked about this and it was explained to him that if any building was going to be done they would absolutely have to hire architects to make that plan. No these architects are going to set up meetings with staff to discuss where the district is and where they want to go - pie in the sky kind of stuff.
Even some of the board members discussed the risk that they would hire this firm and nothing would come of it. The newspaper today discussed a 15 year projection for the planning but the real number bandied about by the consultants as well as the board was 50 years! Who in this world really knows what the world will be like in 50 years?!! Well, the school business manager of all people, thinks she knows what the world will be like in the future. She even knows what education will be like (REALLY??). As far as I know she's a great business manager but maybe she should just stay in her area of expertise. The business manager made a big speech recommending the hiring of the firm because the future in the world, and I guess according to her, in education, will all be collaborative. We'll need new spaces to accommodate all this collaboration. Shouldn't the school board have recognized that their business manager is not an educator and would know nothing about the future in the delivery of educational services?
Back in the 60's they thought everything was going to be collaborative too, or they hoped. Remember Rossiter School? The school in the round where they had to put up all the walls when they found out things couldn't work so open and collaborative? Ray Bjork and Broadwater had to put up partitions too after the abysmal failure of this experiment. Even their own new age education , the digital academy, is less collaborative and requires working on your own at home on a computer.
The truth is that none of us really know the future. What we do know is that this country, and states and cities across the nation are broke. We need to spend our money judiciously. What this firm is about really is getting a new bond issue, read YOUR PROPERTY TAXES ARE GOING UP! One of the firm members did mention the figure $200,000,000 but he said that was too high- they couldn't go that high with a bond. Well, how high can they go? Another presenter from the firm mentioned that other firms (Not theirs thank goodness) have had an 80% success rate in getting their bond passed. So this firm will get $26,000.00 just for getting the staff together and finding out where we are (we need to know how many soccer fans we have for example), and then $62,000 ostensibly for every phase after that. These
other phases will include getting the stake holders together (this may be you) and putting together and presenting a plan with, I guess, a price tag. In other words, they will be doing a lot of ground work and public relations work for this big bond.
I am not against bonds and I am not against good schools for kids, but in my view we already pay a great deal for our schools ( 75% of the huge property taxes you pay go to the schools). Is it O.k. to think about good old mom and dad struggling to raise a family and grandma and grandpa who are living on a fixed income just a little bit? I wonder if this board would have hired this firm if it was their own money they were spending. It's time to stop experimenting with our children's education and do common sense things in realistic ways that will really improve our schools and help our children. Let's start with the overcrowding in the valley. Apparently, the 10.8 MILLION DOLLARS we already spent over 7 years went to replace a boiler and I guess hire this firm.This bond was passed in 2007. We used to do upkeep of buildings out of the general fund and not have to go to the tax payers again. We used to hire our own superintendents without spending $15,000.00 from the tax payers to hire a firm. ARE WE ALL GOING TO BE TAXED OUT OF OUR HOUSES?
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
IN THE WEEDS
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!!
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!!
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