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February 14, 2013

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What Really Are Common Core Standards and Why Do They Matter?

According to Erin Powers (Education Consultant and Literacy Specialist) in a post on Edutopia, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represent the most significant, widespread education reform that has ever occurred in American public schools.  These new standards are designed to link learning to 10 Career and College Readiness Standards intending to ensure students are ready to thrive in college and in the career world.

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One of the pluses of the new standards is that they recognize that learning builds through the grade levels.  Erin Powers says this “will help teachers focus on the big picture and see how their work with students is connected to a child’s academic past and future.”  Another plus is that the standards address the ever-increasing important issue of literacy and how teachers of all disciplines have a role in literacy development.  To ensure students stay current in ever-changing information age, CCSS also incorporates research and media skills  into every subject.  The recognition being that students must be able “to navigate through, independently, a vast amount of information, learn and mimic new genres, and communicate with others near and far.”

What has yet to be fully fleshed out is what the new assessments will look like.  Will the new PARCC tests demonstrate a student’s ability to think critically versus just regurgitate?  The states will begin the new testing in the 2014-2015 school year and that is right around the corner.

Finally, we already know sufficient funding has not been allocated for implementation.  What about time?  Teachers are already stressed with too much to do and not enough time to do it.  Will CCSS be just another mandate shoved down their throats without sufficient resources to properly implement?  Or, will they be allowed to help shape what it looks like, thereby being more open to taking ownership?

As Diane Ravitch recently pointed out in her blog, the CCSS are controversial and their flaws should be fully dissected.  As is usually the case, there is no one “silver bullet” to perfect our education system.  It will take dedicated people, working together, with sufficient resources to move ahead.  And of course, it is absolutely amazing what can get done if one doesn’t care  who gets the credit!

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February 13, 2013

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Common Core Standards Have a Common Problem

Thomas photo med_2     Efforts are well underway in 45 states and three territories to implement the new Common Core Standards for educational goals.  These standards are promising, having been developed by governors and educational and corporate leaders across the country.
     Proper implementation of these standards faces an all too common problem…lack of sufficient funding.  According to the Arizona School Board Association and the Arizona Association of School Business Officials, the cost for statewide implementation of the essential elements of Common Core for fiscal year 2014 is estimated at $156.6 million.  This number comes from a survey of districts across the state, representing over 339K students (38% of the total K-12 district population.)
     A breakdown of the costs shows $47.8M to train teachers and other district staff, $96.1M for curriculum material and textbooks, and $12.7M to design and revise district-level student assessments.
     Of course these are just the FY2014 costs.  The costs of additional hardware and software, and associated PARCC assessment of student mastery of the standards will be $205.6M statewide.  In addition, the cost of increasing Internet capacity related to these items will be $24.6M statewide – if they can find it (20% said the may have difficulty with this.)
     This is new money required and doesn’t even begin to address the hole the state legislature has dug for traditional public education in AZ.  Arizona enjoys the dubious honor of leading the nation in per pupil funding cuts ($3B) since 2008.  To that amount, we must add the $80M shortfall per year caused by the recent appeals court decision that the legislature must fully fund the annual inflation adjustments to the base education-funding formula approved by Prop. 301.
     By my calculations, that means we are already $3B in the hole in per pupil funding, need an additional $230M one-time cost for preparing us for Common Core Standards, plus $236.6M per year for implementation, and $80M per year to make up for inflation costs.  It honestly isn’t even worth totaling all this up because it is not achievable.  The point is that education has not been properly funded and much more is needed to ensure the success of Common Core Standards implementation.
     Henry Ford is credited with saying:  “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”  We just can’t afford to not properly implement these standards.  Our children deserve the best we have to offer.  Our future is dependent on our getting this right.  Right here, right now.  I’m in…how about you?
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February 12, 2013

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The AZ Legislature is Busy…How Will Education Fare?

Several bills on education have been introduced recently in the Arizona Legislature.  Some will help support the majority of our students (almost 90% whom are enrolled in traditional public schools.)  Some however, will only serve to support privatization of education in Arizona which will not work to the advantage of most of our students.  The description of these bills has been provided by the Arizona Education Association.  My comments follow in italics.Thomas photo med_2

HB2399 would double school districts’ bonding capacity, which would help some districts out that are able to get voters to approve the bond, but this measure would also increase the economic inequities between school districts. – As many SaddleBrooke residents know, our latest bond issue for the Oracle School District failed in 2011.

HB2425 would disband the ELL Task Force and move its assignment to the Arizona Department of Education.  This task force was originally charged with the creation of the Structured English Immersion (SEI) program to be used in all school districts and with reviewing and approving alternative SEI models submitted by school districts.

HB2530 requires students enrolled in an Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) to annually take a norm-referenced achievement test or a college admissions exam. Kudos to Rep. Heather Carter for pushing this bill forward and ensuring there is accountability in this tax-payer funded voucher program.  Unfortunately, another bill (SB1363) expands the ESA voucher program to include students who are eligible for kindergarten. – HB 2530 is supported by the AZ Education Assoc. and the AZ School Board Assoc.  It is absolutely amazing to me that not only do we not have laws that require standards and testing in AZ’s work-around to a voucher program (ESA) and home schooling, but the AZ Legislature and AZ Dept. of Education is prohibited from regulating these programs.  How then do we know the children in these programs are being properly educated?

SB1285 would require the Arizona Department of Education to mail a pamphlet to parents about non-public school options such as private schools and vouchers. The bill would cost $1.5 million annually and proposes to use federal Title 1 funding.  AEA President Andrew F. Morrill told the Arizona Republic, “The bill appears to be a marketing ploy to use public funds to increase the customer base for private schools. This is unnecessary and probably would run into some legal challenges down the road.”  The bill is ALEC’s signature legislation this year.  It was held in Senate Education committee last week and is on the agendas for the Education and Appropriations committees this week.

SB1385 would make private charter school teachers’ evaluations so they could not be released under a public records request. – How can this be in anyone’s best interest except for those who profit from the charter school’s operation?

SB1450 seeks $5 million from the general fund for Arizona’s Alternative Teacher Development Program to be awarded to a qualifying service provider, i.e. Teach for America. – Both Diane Ravitch, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education and an education policy analyst and Linda Darling-Hammond, Professor of Education at Stanford University, have criticized Teach for America (TFA) for sending inexperienced young people to teach the nation’s most vulnerable children.  In fact, a study in Arizona in 2002 held that TFA teachers had a negative impact on their students as compared to certified teachers.  Another study Darling-Hammond led with 4,400 teachers and 132,000 students concluded certified teachers consistently produced significantly higher achievement than those uncertified and TSA teacher had a negative or nonsignificant effect. 

 

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February 11, 2013

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Melvin Disingenuous About Education Funding

In the Feb 9, 2013 Legislative Report, Senator Melvin said the Joint Legislative budget committee told Thomas photo med_2him that, during the four “horrendous” years of the recession, the state never let per pupil funding drop below $9,000, when all sources of revenue, including local and federal funds, are taken into consideration. He noted that lawmakers “moved heaven and earth,” including mortgaging state buildings, to protect that K-12 funding. Melvin’s remarks prompted Senator Crandall to interject that the challenge of looking at aggregate numbers is that it “masks the deep cuts to certain districts and charters.” Those were very, very deep cuts but they were masked by new construction we did in other districts or debt service from previous years over time.”

Senator Melvin can couch it however he wants. The #1 truth with regard to per pupil funding in Arizona is that since 2008, our legislature has made deeper cuts than any other state in the nation. Federal funding in the form of stimulus money is what’s kept the funding from falling any further. The other truth is that education performance in Arizona is 46th in the nation.

Our legislators can continue to play a shell game with funding and responsibility for fixing our education, or they can step up to the task of addressing and resolving the problems. We need to hold them accountable for doing the latter!

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February 10, 2013

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Don’t Believe the Pundits, Traditional Public Education Works

Thomas photo med_2Proponents of school choice say traditional public schools are failing our children and choice is the answer.  But, open enrollment has offered school choice in Arizona since 1994 and Arizona has more charter schools than any state in the nation. Yet, Arizona is still 46th in the U.S. in education performance.  The problem isn’t parents don’t have choices.  The problem is our legislature is not focusing resources to serve the majority of our students – traditional public education.  Instead, they play a shell game to give the illusion of responsible legislation regarding education.

Take our state program of education tax credits.  The Individual Tax Credit program favors private schools with two tax credits allowed for donations to school tuition organizations for private schools totaling a maximum of $2,062 (for married filing jointly in 2013) versus $400 for traditional public schools.  The Corporate Income Tax Credit is another private school boon allowing Arizona corporations to take a dollar-for-dollar credit for donations to School Tuition Organizations (STOs), which give scholarships to private schools.

Arizona also has Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs).  Originally created for parents of disabled children, as of 2013-2014, the option will extend to:  students attending a school with a D-F letter grade, children of active duty military, and wards of the juvenile court.  ESAs allow parents to withdraw their children from public schools and receive a portion of their public funding deposited into an education savings account administered by the Arizona Department of Education and the State Treasurer. 

These special programs redistribute state revenue and help hide the truth that Arizona leads the nation in per public spending cuts since 2008 ($3 billion).  Although proponents say school choice saves the state money, this is true only if students who started out in public schools, end up in private schools.  Unfortunately, many tuition scholarships funded by the tax credits have gone to students who would have attended private schools anyway, representing a financial loss for the state.

But don’t charter schools perform better?  Yes, Tucson’s Basis High School was ranked 6th in the U.S. in 2012 by U.S. News and World report.  But, University High School of Tucson Unified School District, was ranked even higher at 4th in the U.S.  In fact, six of the top 10 high schools in Arizona and the top five high schools in the nation are traditional public schools.  There are pockets of excellence in both charter schools and traditional public schools, but by and large, they have no significant performance advantage over traditional public schools.

Charter schools and private schools serve a purpose.  But, they are not designed to serve the needs for the majority of our children.  Traditional public schools are the parental choice for almost nine out of 10 families in Arizona and these schools continue to serve these children well, despite a lack of adequate funding and support.  Just imagine what our schools could be if our efforts were properly focused and funded?