Read the following from the recent NEA today journal and find out what the largest teachers union in the United States offers: www.neapriorityschools.org.

I’m feeling grateful that my Master’s degree program is almost complete. Yippee! I did well too!

My fourth grade students have performed well this year, and parents are already questioning if I can be their child’s teacher next year. What more can you ask for? A bountiful lunch is always served and greeted with delight, but “thanks” is most valued.

As if the negative words won’t be felt, I have seen a few full page ads thanking teachers again and again. Maybe some influence has been felt as those experts at negativity have heard from constituents, parents, teachers, or children.

How have I learned to speak to students? Find the positive. More likely to stick (if the administration is relentless) than telling kids how bad they are.

I read in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle, May 8, 2012, that San Francisco teachers, having worked without a contract for many years, are ready to strike. It turns out collective bargaining hasn’t worked for them in spite of cooperation through years of budget shortfalls, layoffs, furloughs, increased class size, and elimination of summer school. Nor has mediation worked this time. My mom said I was in my first walkout when I was only a year old. No babysitter was available, so she took me. The district and the local union settled but not until a lot of howling on both sides. San Francisco School District is the big local urban district that is really hurting.

Now that budgets are such a mess in the state (see the EdSource report), I’m happy that our district looked ahead and the teachers are middle-of-the-road types so they listen, even when they have objections.

As long as teachers feel appreciated, and not denigrated, they keep teaching all the children, easy and difficult, in schools in America.

My advice: celebrate and don’t listen to the nay-sayers.

News about loans to pay for college have been on TV, papers, magazines, and blogs a lot. Congress is fighting over Stafford loans. In case you haven’t read, the on-line website carefully and clearly tells the reader about two kinds of Stafford loans-subsidized and unsubsidized. The interest rate increase scheduled for subsidized Stafford loans in July 2012 is causing the outrage. The loan proposal was negotiated in 2006, the cost was realized, and then amended to sunset in July 2012-allowing a five year window before further decision had to be made, i.e. extending the interest rate of 3.4%.

If you were still in high school or were a parent helping your college student, wouldn’t you be in disbelief that the House of Representatives you voted for now has a budget plan to eliminate the interest rate change for Stafford subsidized college loans (making it rise to 6.8% again) to reduce the federal government’s deficit? Pell Grants for college finance would be reduced also. Over seven million college students currently rely on subsidized Stafford loans. House members say 6.8% is cheap compared to for-profit student loans. So?

The House budget plan has already received extensive coverage. The fight was not over extending the legislation. Everyone assures the U.S. that college students need help. Instead, it was over how the budget bill would allow the interest rate to remain.

Some House members thumped their foreheads and thought who won’t vote in the next election? M-m-m. Oh yes, women and children worried about their health. Cuts were made to safety net programs for women and children. Other House members who voted against the budget bill offered to erase gas and oil subsidies that could have more than paid for the interest rate change. Representative Clarke, Democrat from Michigan, introduced a bill to give up to $45000 rebate after ten years of on-time payment at 10% of income. Too late. Didn’t pass. The original budget did.

The bill is now in the Senate. “Senate Democrats have proposed a one-year extension of lower rates by eliminating a tax break for S corporations, which pass corporate income, losses, deductions and credit through to their shareholders for federal tax purposes,” said Alexander Bolton in The Hill. Another Democratic Senate proposition is to close a tax loophole that doctors, lawyers, and small business owners use to avoid the payroll tax. Senate GOP members have not offered a way to pay to keep loans at a low rate. They must like the House way.

According to Katrina vanden Heuval (May 1, 2012) of The Washington Post, Pell grants are a much better deal and should be given, not cut, to college students because they were initially designed for those with low-income needs to attend college.

Jennifer Mishory and Nicholas Kelly of The Huffington Post wrote, “Yet even while this generation has been hit hardest, college graduates fare much better than their non-college peers, and a degree is increasingly becoming more important to 1) having a shot at entering the middle class, and 2) increasing the economic strength of our country.”

Should college education be unaffordable?

rural California high school with truancy problem

Think truancy. It begins in the elementary school when students skip or are late to school often. Have you read the cover article by Brenda Payton in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Insight (Sunday April 22, 2012) that tells how the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation looks at truancy data for third graders to see how many prison beds will be needed in the future?

Not only is California worried about the snake slithering in the grass, states all over the country have programs to correct truancy rates. Some are punishing and some are helping. All of these programs try to get children to attend school, especially high school so the graduation rate improves. Not only do truancy numbers flail their heads, but the rate affects high or low graduation rates.

What to do about this vicious challenge?

You’ve all read this blog’s answer: low-performing schools, where truancy is a big problem, need money to change around their programs. They also need high-performing administrators to insist on improvement. Easy to say, hard to do. If Congress weren’t so stingy and determined to reduce departments, no matter what gets bitten or choked, legislators might look at programs that actually have reduced truancy.  No state has used the same model; no county has used the same formula. Even the counties in the Bay Area of California pursue different strategies although all parents end up in some kind of Truancy Court if the attendance of their child doesn’t improve. Even so, 2011 California truancy rate was 29.8%.

Other states and counties’ programs and rates can be seen on the Internet: Georgia, Duke University, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Colorado are a few. It will be a long time before a variety of schools exist so students can choose. It will be a long time before the economy improves and money is again available to schools. See the Tool Kit for Creating Your Own Truancy Program.

Education will improve if parents see the value of sending their students on time every day. A heartless technocrat advocates doubling down on the free market answer, although plenty of studies have shown the snake can only be expelled from public schools with a strong truancy program set in motion and stuck to persistent ly.

I will have another degree so my salary will rise. Lucky me, I have no loans to repay, no tuition still unpaid. Most of my friends have been not only talking but wringing their hands about all money items. Even with a raise in pay for a master’s degree, my friends will be in debt for a long time. As one can guess, I’ve been reading the newspapers, education magazines, and on-line articles that come my way. University of California pieces share demonstrations against tuition increases, and items describe Congressional votes against funding of federal Pell Grants, which are relied on, remember, because the pitiful amount doesn’t have to be repaid.

No one talks anymore about funds for the DREAM Act which would have helped some people I know who are from illegal immigrant families, but have lived here for a long time. What is it against these people? Almost everyone has some defect: legal, physical, mental. Nowadays, we have to listen to TV news about the GOP candidate who assures all us women teachers that the U.S. Department of Education will be closed down. Don’t candidates realize that the main country-wide changes to improve education have occurred in the last three years because of guidelines from the federal government? The states or local districts haven’t been prodding for change, that’s for sure.

Usually, I read the news items about elementary schools, mainly about the advantages and disadvantages of Proposition 98. Recently, I read an article addressing organized games at recess.  Sounds good until you realize that the teacher is supervising the playground. There is no money to find a teacher to organize and supervise games in any but a few California schools.

Now I concentrate on the articles about money for my college friends.

Does it snow in the winter? Students need light and heat. Don’t cut into the cost of electricity. That’s all the U.S. has right now.

Hot in the spring and fall? Everyone wants air-conditioning.

Does the school have a lot of high-income kids or only low-income? Parents want kids to have their own textbooks-either way. Don’t save money by sharing books.

Are a lot of kids packed in each classroom? Have schools been closed and kids stuffed into another school? Parents and students want smaller class size and more teachers.

Do students live far from the school? How far before the school district cuts the busing cost? In some urban areas, students walk or ride bikes; in far off rural districts students just don’t attend, creating drop-out and graduation problems.

Has the school been known for music and sports? Parents and students don’t like those programs to be cut. They will pay fees, raise funds for instruments and uniforms, and drive (with their own insurance costs) to provide these activities, but don’t cut the teachers and coaches.

Have custodians been laid off in the district? And the teachers told to sweep and empty waste baskets? Who do you think does the work? Clue: instructional minutes in the school day. As services are cut, this has long been an exercise in elementary schools. Now middle and high schools.

How long has the school had librarians, nurses, and uniformed security personnel? Are their services being cut?

Has the school district cut the equipment and teachers who provide computer training? Computers are part of the 21^st century world. Every graduate needs to have some skill with electronic equipment. Not every student has a computer, cell phone, or Internet service at home.  Or the family income to support it.

Have vocational programs and teachers been cut from the school district? Not every graduate will attend college.

Have counselors, special education teachers, and tutors been cut or eliminated from the school district? Are the services continually on the edge?  Mental health and special education are the most difficult services to maintain and upgrade in a school district.

Look up Texas, New York, and California to see how each of these states have financially chomped up parts of school districts. Forget about test scores, standards, and evaluation. Just look at the school infrastructure.

Last year Los Angeles needed a legal settlement before the district spread layoffs around, not keeping to the rule of seniority. Earlier this year, San Francisco had its chance, wiping away seniority when turning around failing schools. Of late Oakland Public Schools teachers face the same long-established union rule, waving their hands in resistance to a plan to reform some of its very low-performing public high schools-first of all, by ignoring seniority and making all teachers re-apply to teach in the three high schools. See “Teachers resist radical reform” by Jill Tucker of the San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 2012.

If only a decent teacher-administrator-school evaluation was part of California’s Education Code. Some education experts blame the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers for resistance to change the rules. Other pundits cheer the need to bargain. Think of the current debacle in Wisconsin.

The state legislature has proposed a considerable number of bills to address education issues, but only one calsl for evaluation legislation for each district. Money seems to be the first issue.

Assembly Bill -AB 18 has offered the largest reforms depending on funds, even supported by Tom Torlakson, current Superintendent of Instruction. AB 721 and AB 1741 have been read to the legislature to promote similar reforms for post-secondary education, including mechanisms to restore funding.

On the other hand, there is a pro and con silent argument over the part of the education code that requires sex education and proposes a bill to “opt out.” Look at AB 1756 versus AB 1857 which includes teaching curriculum on sexual violence and requiring administrators to perform specific roles similar to requirements in elementary schools (AB 1880). Senate Bill-SB 1080 supports particulars of sex education also.

Speaking of funding, the big issue for California schools from kindergarten to post-secondary is the passage (or not) of one of the initiatives in the November election.  Bills that address the funding issue are AB 2202 and SB 1461 for post-secondary services.

The only bill that addresses evaluation-seniority comes in here-is Senate Bill 1458, written it seems to benefit the Tom Torlakson and the state’s Department of Education if a waiver proposal is sent to the U.S. Department of Education. The bill asks for changes to teacher and student accountability; changes to the scores used as benchmarks for the state’s Academic Performance Index (API); and graduation rate changes.

Will such a California bill pass and be signed? There are months and months to wait for new legislation in 2012.

a beach town elementary in California

No kidding! But dutiful as this blog is, earlier charter school posts, dated 9-9-2009, 12-9-2009, 1-27-2010, and 6-23-2010, were reviewed to see if some other answer could be found. Nope.

The topic is brought up every few months. According to Sirota “inevitably the conversation turns to charter schools-those publicly funded, privately administered institutions.” As of 2012 the statistics claim 2 million American students at charter schools all over the United States. Compare that number to 6 million students in traditional public schools in California alone.

In 2012, looking at current deficits, states can’t bear to rewrite state tests, put new evaluation procedures in place, provide adequate funds to train teachers at colleges, much less support school districts to turn around failing schools, the main reason education “experts” always claim charter schools are the “silver bullet.” Even so all those revisions must occur to close the achievement gap-the main goal for which charter schools have been contemplated.

The National Education Association (NEA) “believes that charter schools and other nontraditional public school options have the potential to facilitate education reforms and develop new and creative teaching methods that can be replicated in traditional public schools for the benefit of all children. Whether charter schools will fulfill this potential depends on how charter schools are designed and implemented, including the oversight and assistance provided by charter authorizers.”

And there’s the problem as we’ve read in report after report, some mentioned in Sirota’s column. The main criticism is that the charter school close to your home may not improve the child’s academic success (as shown by test scores). Why? For all the same reasons that your traditional neighborhood pubic school may not be up-to-par.

Then, what’s to talk about for your next conversation? Here’s the list. Charter and traditional public schools can insist on a test that follows the Common Core Standards that all but a few states have agreed to. Doesn’t have to be the same test-who wants to be accused of manipulating the free market for developing tests. The question once the tests are developed probably should be can the tests be compared to find out if the achievement gap among students is closing.

Next, young children who enter Kindergarten before 5 years of age might be allowed more than one year to prepare themselves for the rigors of first grade reading and mathematics in a 21^st century education. Is your child young and does the local school (charter or traditional) provide this transitional opportunity if he/she is not ready? It’s been put off in California.

Finally,many education go-getters advocate for “choice” by parents. Home-schooling is the choice of one GOP candidate. To top it off, a fee voucher is put forward by so-called authorities to choose a parochial, private, or charter school. Charters are authorized with the promise to improve student achievement as a condition of relief from some of the rules and regulations that apply to traditional public schools. However, since the public school district already pays for a chartered school, why would a voucher help?

For writers of this blog, as the NEA suggests, employees of such schools should be subject to the same public sector labor relations statutes as traditional public schools. In addition, charter school employees should have the same collective bargaining rights as their counterparts in traditional public schools.

There we are-stuck with a conflict that cannot and will not be compromised. No new state tests, no new evaluation procedures in place, no adequate funds to train teachers at colleges, much less support school districts to turn around failing schools.

Teachers were unhappy and why shouldn’t they be? At the time, this blog advocated an evaluation plan be built first, including “value-added” statistics only if it would give those being accountable in some way to improve student academic achievement or help assess a school’s needs.

This year New York City schools used the tool to assess scores received by students and evaluating teachers for improvement. Of course, no evaluation tool, often called accountability, had received consensus ahead of the testing in New York City. After the value-added model (VAM) came out for New York schools and the lowest-scoring teacher had, in the past, been rated high-performing, disadvantages were noticed about a complex tool not yet understood.

The first objection is that the country, state, or school district has not agreed on a test that can be compared. Next, which teachers receive a “value-added” score? This is certainly a problem in the middle and high school, but also in the elementary school with resource teachers. Misjudgments about teachers can be made. A school’s change efforts can be hampered.

This blog has discussed several initiatives coming up in the November election. California has not looked into VAM or evaluation as a state-too concerned about money in the state budget. Some counties have investigated the term. In the meantime, just this week a report from the Council on Foreign Relations got involved in schools under the auspices of the well-known Condoleeza Rice and the former New York schools superintendent Joel Klein.

What does the Council on Foreign Relations know about “value-added?” The report caught the eye of this blog which is always looking for a good word for teachers. It states the country needs national security skills such as foreign languages and computer programming. Sounds good?

The report also suggests Common Core Standards-a good thing supported by all; students should have “choices” for schools-which means money; and a national security audit should be developed by the states-what does that mean besides the “cost?” Several members of the task force did not agree. Go to Tuesday’s PBS Newshour for more information. The news reports did not discuss how teachers will be accountable for student success so that the national security will be upheld.

A 2003 RAND Education report did provide both advantages and disadvantages to “value-added” evaluation. For those that like clean mathematical models, the “value-added” model is wonderful, as it cleans up any variables that influence scores like family background. On the other hand, a long range database must be developed to find enough data so that the numbers are reliable-a problem for most research. VAM is looked upon with suspicion by teachers and school districts because it involves a complex system of statistical tools.

Teachers are waiting for time to develop a decent accountability plan with strategies to guide them. They rarely have time to read the research and understand the pros and cons of “value-added” models, though several are available, but not established. A policy goal from the Council on Foreign Relations that worries about national security is far down the road.

The program’s purpose is to honor schools in the state-reaching about 5% each year of the more than 900 public schools in this large state of fifty-two counties. The program recognizes exemplary schools and identifies excellent interventions used in these schools that show improvement in closing the achievement gap. In other words, the school doesn’t already have to have an Academic Performance Index (API) over 900 (out of 1000) to qualify for the award. In reality, what school has time to do all the preliminary work if the school doesn’t already have the numbers?

Look it up. The eligibility criteria for elementary schools in 2012 are consequential. If the school is lucky, the necessary scores, tables, and charts have been generated electronically. In the Bay Area, this is probable, but in some small rural district? Maybe, maybe not. Wait for the state? The county?

In this day and age, does the state think that most schools have teacher time to put all that material together and still teach the standards? Many teachers are put on the spot in March, worrying about layoff notices, upcoming tests, and improving school targets.

As much as it is necessary, closing the achievement gap does not only depend on picking the correct program. It depends on budget funding. Teachers keep teaching. They benefit and students benefit from professional development that distinguished schools can share, but money is the key.

Politicians can say all they want, but the schools that need help need infrastructure, teachers, tutors, and administrators that can oversee a new program and make sure it is implemented well over time. They don’t need less money like many call for.

If the school is honored with the California Distinguished School award that lasts four years, does that mean more money to show off its excellent programs? This blog doesn’t think so. It means only that the school can put in more time and effort for the National Blue Ribbon award.