Just as a reminder about what we’re doing in education, I hope every teacher and administrator will take three minutes and view this video (that allows you some time to boggle).
Surely you know who Tom Peters is. (If not, please confess in comments, and I’ll endeavor to guide you to the information you need.)
Zeno at Halfway There describes a terrible situation in California community colleges — not unlike the situation Texas high schools face. Don’t tell Texas Republicans, they’ll want to adopt it for community colleges, too.
State senator Carol Liu is the author of SB 1143, a measure which would somehow incorporate course completion rates in the formula for computing state funding for community colleges. Think about that for a moment. (Try giving it more thought than our legislators do.) Colleges that pass more students through their curriculum will get more funding. Colleges that pass fewer will get less. At first blush, that might seem reasonable.
Liu forgot, however, to include any quality standards in her bill. Schools that are willing to become diploma mills will prosper under her dollars for scholars program. The pressure to lower standards will be intense.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
You have the tools to compare the party platforms and determine for yourself which part supports education in Texas — I mean, really supports education, as opposed to using Doublespeak to profess support while angling to get a shiv in the back of education.
This post is tenth in a series on the education planks of the 2010 Texas Democratic Party Platform.
This is an unofficial version published in advance of the final version from the Texas Democrats, but I expect very few changes.
DIVERSITY
Texas Democrats support innovative approaches to ensure diversity in every Texas institution of higher education. We condemn intolerance on Texas campuses and encourage universities to develop and offer culturally diverse curricula, student activities, and student recruitment policies that promote understanding, respect and acceptance.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
This post is tenth in a series on the education planks of the 2010 Texas Democratic Party Platform.
This is an unofficial version published in advance of the final version from the Texas Democrats, but I expect very few changes.
COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Democrats recognize and support the essential role of Texas community colleges, where almost 60% of Texas post-secondary students are enrolled. By combining affordability, high quality and responsiveness to community needs, these institutions provide an education to those who would be otherwise excluded.
Republicans have drastically reduced funding for community colleges and that burden has been shifted onto students, their families and property taxpayers. A significant funding increase would be needed just to restore Republican cuts to the 2002-3 state funding level, without adjusting for inflation. Not only do the Governor and Republican politicians again want to shift hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs for employees’ group insurance onto students and local property taxpayers, they have already cut funding by 5% this year. And they are asking for an additional 10% in cuts to Republican budgets that currently allow only 4% of students eligible for Texas Equal Opportunity Grants to receive grants designated for community college students. To maintain community colleges’ role in providing lifelong education, we endorse:
full formula funding of the cost of instruction and of the growth in student enrollments;
fully state-funded full time employee group health insurance and proportional health benefits for adjunct instructors;
funding for new campuses and program expansions, especially in critical need programs, sufficient to meet Closing the Gaps goals;
rolling back tuition and fees that have increased over 50% under Republican control;
sufficient financial aid to cover 260,000 community college students who are eligible for grant assistance but receive none because state funding is inadequate; and
elimination of financial aid rules that penalize students who transfer to universities from community colleges.
To prevent further erosion of community colleges’ ability to serve their communities, Texas Democrats oppose:
proposals for “proportionality” that would shift group insurance costs onto students and property taxpayers;
shifting the basis of formula funding away from actual costs; and
“incentive programs that would discriminate against colleges and programs serving disadvantaged and non-traditional students or against non-degree skill-building and retraining programs.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
This post is seventh in a series on the education planks of the 2010 Texas Democratic Party Platform.
This is an unofficial version published in advance of the final version from the Texas Democrats, but I expect very few changes.
Generally I’ll not comment on these planks just yet, but I must say that I take delight in the perhaps unintentional commentary offered in the title of this plank. I suspect the intent was to point to the bias of the State Board of Education, an imbalance of political views, and not to the sanity of the board. But, I could be wrong — the title may be just an official Democratic labeling of the Board’s actions as unbalanced behavior.
REFORM OF THE UNBALANCED STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
The right-wing Republican extremists who have dominated the State Board of Education have made a laughingstock of our state’s process for developing and implementing school curriculum standards that determine what our students learn. The damage they have done is no laughing matter. In rewriting the curriculum for social studies, English language arts, and science, they repeatedly have dismissed the sound advice of professional educators. Personal ideology, not high academic standards, has guided their work. Their skewed vision slights the contributions of racial and ethnic minorities. Their slanted versions of American history and of science mislead students and violate the separation of church and state. They use loaded language to favor the roles of right-wing organizations and activists. Led by a Rick Perry appointee as chair, this State Board of Education wants to indoctrinate, not educate, the schoolchildren of Texas. Their actions are unlikely to encourage a company to relocate and bring jobs to Texas. Any substantive changes to curriculum must be reviewed by non-partisan experts, and that review must be made public prior to any changes in curriculum by the State Board.
Texas Democrats will realign the State Board of Education with mainstream Texas values, will realign the state curriculum with objective reality and the facts of history and science, and will insist on the exercise of sober fiduciary responsibility for the Permanent School Fund, exposing and prohibiting conflicts of interest.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
This post is sixth in a series on the education planks of the 2010 Texas Democratic Party Platform.
This is an unofficial version published in advance of the final version from the Texas Democrats, but I expect very few changes.
EFFECTIVE TEACHERS FOR EVERY STUDENT
The most important factor in student success is having qualified teachers in our classrooms. Texas has a serious teacher shortage. Teacher pay and benefits are not competitive with private sector pay for occupations requiring comparable knowledge and skills. To recruit and retain our best to teach, Texas Democrats advocate the following:
raise teacher and support staff pay to levels exceeding the national average;
extend quality state funded health insurance to all education employees;
respect and safeguard the rights and benefits of education employees;
guarantee that every class has a teacher certified to teach that subject;
recruit and train teachers who reflect the state’s diversity;
provide a mentor (a master teacher) for every novice teacher;
base teacher pay and evaluations on multiple measures that give a full, rounded picture of student and teacher accomplishment, and oppose Republican plans to use narrow test results instead;
provide retired teachers a cost-of-living increase to restore their pensions’ purchasing power, which has eroded more than 20 percent under Rick Perry and the Republicans since the last increase in 2001;
repeal the federal government pension offset and windfall elimination provisions that unfairly reduce Social Security benefits for educational retirees and other public employees; and
provide tuition credits and financial assistance for college students who become certified public school teachers and teach for a specified period of time in public schools.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
This post is fifth in a series on the education planks of the 2010 Texas Democratic Party Platform.
This is an unofficial version published in advance of the final version from the Texas Democrats, but I expect very few changes.
SOLVING THE DROPOUT CRISIS
Rick Perry may be willing to write off more than a fourth of the school age children in Texas, but Texans can’t afford to pay the price for Perry’s complacency in the face of the dropout crisis. Solving the dropout crisis is a priority for Texas Democrats because it threatens the economic well-being of all Texans, and failure to solve the dropout crisis could write off economic progress for an entire generation. Texas already has more low-wage and minimum wage workers than any other state, and in Texas dropouts earn $7,000 less per year than high school graduates. According to the state demographer, if these trends persist, by 2040, the average annual Texas household income will be $6,500 less than in the year 2000, at a cost to Texas of over $300 billion per year in lost income.
More than one-fourth of Texas high school students fail to graduate on time. For African American and Hispanic students, the dropout rate is more than one-third. Out of all 50 states, Texas has the highest percentage of adults who have not completed high school. However, in response to the Governor’s call for across-the-board budget cuts to address an $18 billion state budget shortfall, his Texas Education Agency recommended cutting programs that have helped keep kids in school and off the street. The economic consequences of such shortsighted policies are stark. Rick Perry’s refusal to address this dropout crisis is making Texas poorer, less educated, and less competitive.
Proper funding of all our schools to meet the needs of students who are most at risk of dropping out is essential. Specific solutions include:
school-community collaboration that brings educational and social services together under one roof to help at-risk students and their families;
expanded access to early childhood education, targeting at-risk students;
dual-credit and early-college programs that draw at-risk students into college and career paths while still in high school;
equitable distribution of highly qualified teachers, to change current practices that too often match the most at-risk students with the least experienced and least prepared teachers;
enforce daytime curfew laws to reduce truancy;
providing access to affordable programs for adults who have dropped out of the education process.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
This post is fourth in a series on the education planks of the 2010 Texas Democratic Party Platform.
This is an unofficial version published in advance of the final version from the Texas Democrats, but I expect very few changes.
EXCELLENT SCHOOLS FOR EVERY STUDENT
To make public education our highest priority, we believe the state should:
provide universal access to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten;
provide universally accessible after school programs for grades 1-12;
provide free, accurate and updated instructional materials aligned to educationally appropriate, non-ideological state curriculum standards and tests;
provide free computer and internet access, as well as digital instructional materials;
provide early intervention programs to ensure every child performs at grade level in English Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, and Science;
ensure that students with disabilities receive an appropriate education in the least restrictive environment, including access to the full range of services and supports called for in their individual education plans;
provide appropriate career and technical education programs;
reject efforts to destroy bilingual education;
promote multi-language instruction, beginning in elementary school, to make all students fluent in English and at least one other language;
replace high-stakes tests, used to punish students and schools, with multiple measures that restore the original intent of the state assessment system–improving instruction to help students think critically, be creative and succeed;
end inappropriate testing of students with disabilities whose individual education plans call for alternative assessments of their educational progress;
enforce and extend class size limits to allow every student to receive necessary individualized attention;
support Title IX protections for gender equity in public education institutions;
ensure that every school has a fully funded library that meets state requirements;
provide environmental education programs for children and adults; and
oppose private school vouchers.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
This post is third in a series on the education planks of the 2010 Texas Democratic Party Platform.
This is an unofficial version published in advance of the final version from the Texas Democrats, but I expect very few changes.
PUBLIC EDUCATION FUNDING
Texas Democrats believe:
the state should establish a 100% equitable school finance system with sufficient state revenue to allow every district to offer an exemplary program;
the state should equitably reduce reliance on “Robin Hood” recapture;
state funding formulas should fully reflect all student and district cost differences and the impact of inflation and state mandates;
Texas should maintain or extend the 22-1 class size limits and expand access to prekindergarten and kindergarten programs; and
the federal government should fully fund all federal education mandates and the Elementary and [Secondary] Education Act.
Republicans have shortchanged education funding every session they have controlled the Texas Legislature. After cutting billions from public education in 2003, the 2006 Republican school funding plan froze per pupil funding, leaving local districts faced with increasing costs for fuel, utilities, insurance and personnel with little new state money. To make matters worse, that same plan placed stringent limits on local ability to make up for the state’s failures.
In 2009, Republicans hypocritically supplanted state support for our schools with the very federal “stimulus” aid they publicly condemned after state revenues plunged because of the Republican-caused recession and the structural state budget deficit they created. They reduced state funding for our schools by over $3 billion. Because our student population continues to grow, the combined reduction in state revenue per student was nearly 13%.
Most Texans support our public schools, yet now Republicans want to cut even more from education and also want to siphon off limited public education funds for inequitable, unaccountable voucher and privatization schemes. Texas Democrats believe these attempts to destroy our public schools must be stopped.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Stark differences show up in the resolutions and platforms of the Texas Democrats, compared to the Texas Republicans. Elections in Texas have great meaning and significance in 2010.
Messy and open to long and loud discussions as the Democrats are, final copies probably won’t be available on line until about Tuesday, after proofing and grammar editing. But you may want to be aware of a few items. In this post I offer only a very, very brief summary of the education planks, holding off on comment until I can analyze the planks further — except to note my delight at the name of the plank, “Reform of the Unbalanced State Board of Education.”
First, the convention passed at least three education resolutions guaranteed to please teachers and friends of education.
One resolution calls for stripping textbook approval authority from the State Board of Education, placing it instead with the education professionals at the Texas Education Agency.
Another resolution calls for fewer standard state tests, higher teacher pay, and repeal of the No Child Left Behind Act.
A third calls for outdoor education, to get students outside and to educate future citizens in conservation and recreation — the “No Child Left Inside Resolution.”
Some of these issues get double attention in the platform. Democrats provides four-and-a-half pages of support for education from pre-kindergarten through graduate school. It is the first series of planks in the Democratic platform, following the preamble immediately, under the major section “Education.”
Public Education Funding first calls for a “100% equitable school finance system with sufficient state revenue to allow every district to offer an exemplary program.” Democrats call for an end to reliance on the “Robin Hood” system, an extension of the 22-pupil-per-class limit, or lower limits, and asks the federal government to fully fund mandates including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Excellent Schools for Every Student calls for universal access to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, and after school programs for grades 1 through 12. Democrats want a focus on up-to-date instructional materials. One plank calls for opposition to “efforts to destroy bilingual education.” Another calls for all students to become proficient in English and “at least one other language.” This section also urges reduction in “high-stakes tests, used to punish students and school systems.”
Solving the Dropout Crisis includes an explanation that dropouts do not get jobs and pay they might otherwise get, and at a cost to all Texas households. Solutions suggested include community-wide efforts to serve at-risk students and their families, including expanded early childhood education to help at-risk students.
Effective Teachers for Every Student calls for a raise in teacher and support staff pay, “exceeding the national average.” Democrats suggest state-funded health insurance to all education employees. There are planks calling for certified teachers in every classroom, an encouragement of diversity in teachers, and teacher performance measures that look at everything teachers do. This is targeted at a Republican plank, described as “plans to use narrow test results instead.”
There is a call for beefed up pension support for retired teachers, and for the repal of “the federal government pension offset and windfall elimination provisions that unfairly reduce Social Security benfirts for educational retirees and other public employees.”
Reform of the Unbalanced State Board of Education offers few specifics, but does complain about the current SBOE’s having “made a laughingstock of our state’s process for developing and implementing school curriculum standards that determine what our students learn.” The plank specifically mentions recent fights on science standards, language arts standards, and social studies standards. Democrats also call for “sober fiduciary responsibility for the Permanent School Fund, exposing and prohibiting conflicts of interest.”
Making Our Schools Safe Havens for Learning calls for students and teachers to be safe from violence in schools, including bullying. Democrats support the Dignity for All Students Act.
Higher Education calls for opportunities to go to college to be available to all students who wish to pursue a higher education. Democrats complain about “tuition deregulation’s” effects, which they say has been to financially burden especially students from poorer families. Democrats want state support to help ease the burdens.
Community Colleges generally supports community colleges, with similar calls for funding, and support of student opportunities.
Diversity calls for support for diversity programs in schools, community colleges and universities.
A quick comparison with the platform Republicans passed at their convention in Dallas two weeks ago shows some clear lines of demarcation between the two Texas groups. The Texas Tribune, that already-great on-line publication, offers a copy of the Republican platform here. Won’t you join me in analyzing it, and the Democratic platform, and discussing the differences? Comments are open. Please do.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Judge Sam Sparks’ rebuke of the Institution for Creation Research (“Biblical. Accurate. Certain.”) appeared in a number of venues, in addition to those I mentioned earlier (go see here); for the record, you ought to go see:
Texas Tribune continues its award-winning coverage of education in Texas at their blog, with post by Reeve Hamilton; it’s good all on its own, and I don’t say that just because Reeve is a cultural nephew, with whose mother I did reader’s theater in Tucson back in the early Holocene. (Go, Reeve!) Included there is the only comment I’ve seen from ICR:
An ICR spokesperson sent the following statement via e-mail:
The Institute for Creation Research has received the ruling of Judge Sam Sparks from the U.S. District Court in Austin in the case ICR Graduate School v. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board et al. The attorneys and leadership of ICR associated with this case are currently reviewing Judge Sparks’ ruling and we are weighing our options regarding future action in this matter. In addition to other options, ICRGS has 30 days in which to file an appeal with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. ICR has no further comment at this time.
Education issues suffered here at the Bathtub over the past several months. Confession: I don’t like to write while angry, and thinking about education generally gets me there quickly. When I write in anger, I like to sit on the stuff and edit when I’m cooled down. But when I get back to edit, I get angry again.
If you watched the follies from the Texas State Soviet of Education over social studies standards, you might understand some of my anger. I’m fortunate in some ways that my students don’t track the news more closely — they tended to miss the Soviet’s gutting of Hispanic history from Texas history standards, and so they didn’t get angry. More than 85% of my students are Hispanic, many related to the Texas heroes dropped from the standards because they were brown (“What’s Hispanic Heritage Month for, anyway?” the Soviet probably wondered.)
Power of Bubbling -- for a scary story, click on the image and go read it at TweenTeacher
Plus, time for thinking about these issues evaporated during the school year. Summer isn’t much better, though a bunch of us had eight great days with members of the history department at UT-Arlington focusing on the Gilded Age, Progressive Era, Age of Imperialism . . . even though reminded every day that the Texas Soviet doesn’t want us to teach that period as it is recorded in the history books. (No, there are not plans for a translation into Texas Soviet Speak, at least not soon. Teachers will have to make do.)
In one of our (too) many testing/oath-signing sessions this spring, a colleague cynically wondered what would be a good job for a kid who does well on the tests, a kid who has “demonstrated mastery of bubble-guessing.”
Bubble-guessing. Wow. Is that an apt description for what many schools teach these days!
I have a few days to put up the periscope and see what is going on out there. A couple of things I’ve noticed, that you may want to follow:
Education has a new god: data. It is believed to have the power to save American education and thus everything in education must be about data—collect more data about our children, evaluate teachers and administrators based on data, and reward and punish schools using data.
Sound familiar?
Zhao points to serious analyses of the Race to the Top applications and rejections which show, among other things, Pennsylvania was penalized for focusing on early childhood education, instead of collecting data.
Why was it we got into this swamp in the first place, and where did all these alligators come from?
Go read Zhao’s analysis, and maybe cruise around his blog. It’s worth your while. He’s a professor at Michigan State — University Distinguished Professor of Education. (One thing you should read there: Zhao’s slides from a recent speech. E-mail the link to your principal. Somebody find a YouTube version of that speech, please.) [Checker Finn, do you ever get over to this backwater? Zhao’s on to something. Zhao’s on to a lot of things.]
Race to the Top is the worst thing the Obama administration has done, in my opinion. It is aimed, or mis-aimed to give us a nation of bubble-guessers. My guess is that aim is unintentional. But the road to hell, or a Republican majority . . .
While we’re looking around, pay some attention to David Warlick’s 2¢ worth. That’s where I found the links to Zhao.
I could have shared some of these new ideas with her, but it would not have helped. The last time I helped my daughter prepare for a test, it was 8th grade and the unit test on the Civil War. When she walked into that classroom, she could talk about and write about the reasons for the war, what the North and the South wanted to achieve, the advantages that the North held and those of the South, as well as their disadvantages. She could tell you who won and who lost and why.
She made a 52 on the test because she couldn’t give the dates of the major battles of the war.
One of our mantras in the old Transportation Consulting Group at Ernst & Young was to understand that “You’re always ready to fight the last war.” For what we were doing, generally we had to change the technology for each assignment.
That’s doubly true in education, in social studies, I think. I constantly remind myself that my students don’t need the same things I got in high school. We shouldn’t equip students to fight the last war, but instead prepare them to understand they need to get ready for the next one.
And what about your tags? Warlick wonders. No answers, but good wonderings.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Social studies curricula climb the scaffold to the gallows set by the “conservative” majority of the Texas State Board of Education today. If they get their way — and signs are they will — they will hobble social studies education for at least a half generation.
As The Dallas Morning News explains this morning, lame-duck board members fully intend to change Texas and American culture with their rewriting of history, de-emphasis of traditional history education, and insertion of what they consider pro-patriotic ideas in social studies.
AUSTIN – When social conservatives on the State Board of Education put the final touches on social studies curriculum standards this week, it will be a significant victory in their years-long push to imprint their beliefs upon what Texas students learn.
We in the part-time blogosphere can’t cover the meeting as it deserves — nor have we been able to mobilize pro-education forces to do what was needed to stop the board — yet.
McLeroy will make the most of his remaining time on the panel. He proposed several additions to the social studies standards for the board to consider this week. One would require students to “contrast” the legal doctrine of separation of church and state with the actual wording in the Bill of Rights that bars a state-established religion.
McLeroy has resurrected the old Cleon Skousen/David Barton/White Supremecist argument that “separation of church and state” does not appear in the Constitution, disregarding what the document and its amendments actually say. Jefferson warned that such discussions poison children’s education, coming prematurely as this one would be as McLeroy wants it.
Watch that space. Tony Whitson at Curricublog will cover it well, and probably timely — read his stuff. Steve Shafersman’s work will be informative. The Texas Tribune offered great coverage in the past. Stay tuned. And the Texas Freedom Network carries the flag and works hard to recruit the troops and keep up morale.
It is discouraging. Under current history standards, Texas kids should know the phrase “shot heard ’round the world,” but they do not get exposure to the poem from which the phrase comes, nor to the poet (Emerson), nor exposure to Paul Revere whose ride inspired Longfellow later to write a poem that children have read ever since — except in Texas.
But under the new standards, Texas children will learn who Phyllis Schlafly is. Patriots are out; hypocrites and demagogues are in.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
I get e-mail, this time from the Texas Freedom Network:
The State Board of Education meeting is next week, and we need YOU to make a difference.
“Am I a religious fanatic? Absolutely. You’d have to be to do what I do.”
– State Board of Education member Don McLeroy
Don't White Out Our History! - Texas Freedom Network
Is this who you want to decide what Texas schoolchildren learn? Or would you rather entrust that task to someone who believes public education is a “tool of perversion,” as board member Cynthia Dunbar believes? Or maybe any one of the board members who believe the separation of church and state is a myth?
If this is not what you want for Texas children, NOW is the critical time to take a stand.
The controversial social studies curriculum process is coming to an end. Public testimony will be heard at the State Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, May 19, and we expect a vote on these standards to take place the following day. We need you to stand up to the State Board of Education by attending our rally on Wednesday, May 19. Or testifying in front of the board. Or both!
Also on Wednesday, the State Board of Education will hear public testimony on the social studies curriculum standards. Since you are already planning to be at the William B. Travis building for the rally, you can also sign up to testify! Read below for more information on registering to testify with the Texas Education Agency. (Testimony will begin in the morning and likely stretch into the evening — so if you wish to testify, be prepared for a long day.)
We look forward to seeing you next week. If you have any questions, e-mail Judie or call us at 512-322-0545.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Or, until that account is unsuspended by the forces supporting Donald Trump: Follow @FillmoreWhite, the account of the Millard Fillmore White House Library
We've been soaking in the Bathtub for several months, long enough that some of the links we've used have gone to the Great Internet in the Sky.
If you find a dead link, please leave a comment to that post, and tell us what link has expired.
Thanks!
Retired teacher of law, economics, history, AP government, psychology and science. Former speechwriter, press guy and legislative aide in U.S. Senate. Former Department of Education. Former airline real estate, telecom towers, Big 6 (that old!) consultant. Lab and field research in air pollution control.
My blog, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, is a continuing experiment to test how to use blogs to improve and speed up learning processes for students, perhaps by making some of the courses actually interesting. It is a blog for teachers, to see if we can use blogs. It is for people interested in social studies and social studies education, to see if we can learn to get it right. It's a blog for science fans, to promote good science and good science policy. It's a blog for people interested in good government and how to achieve it.
BS in Mass Communication, University of Utah
Graduate study in Rhetoric and Speech Communication, University of Arizona
JD from the National Law Center, George Washington University
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 