Special Session Brouhaha

Here are some of my random and not so random thoughts on what has been happening with #oklaed lately……..

• Governor Mary Fallin has called a special legislative session to plug the $215 M budget shortfall, address consolidation and other government efficiencies, to make sure the trucking industry doesn’t get included in the new motor vehicle tax, and address a needed teacher pay raise.  

I really don’t know how to respond to this.  Well, that is not true; I have lots to say, I just don’t know which response I want to have first.  So here it goes.  My initial reaction to this was to laugh.  Think about it……. Not only will the State Fair be going on in Oklahoma, but now the circus too.  At 23rd and Lincoln Blvd (the big top), we will have not one but two ringmasters trying to tame the lions, get the elephants to march in single file, while the high wire act tries to walk the tightrope.  And yes, there will be clowns.  

On a serious note, we shouldn’t forget we are in this mess because of bad choices and politics.  Everyone is to blame.  Some don’t want to raise the Gross Production tax, but those same people do want to  raise the tax on cigarettes.  Others won’t even consider a cigarette tax unless we raise the tax on gas.  Others just want to continue with the tired line of “government is growning” and the only way to slow it down is to starve it.  People are not government! Mental health services are necessary.  Child welfare advocates are needed.  Yes these things cost money, but the cost to the people needing these services who aren’t getting them is exponentially greater.  

• Just a quick side note…….. does Gov. Fallin suggesting #okleg look for ways to increase teacher pay remind you of Lucy trying to convince Charlie Brown she won’t yank the football away from him THIS TIME!  

• Speaking of looking for Government Efficiencies……….if you really want to look for ways to save the government some much needed cash, could we please start with our #okleg? How many bills are heard each year, which everyone knows, is a purely partisan endeavor? (see abortion and guns) How about the ones the courts have already found unconstitutional? (see above abortion bills)  Just in education, #okleg has taken up the “zeros” bill a half dozen times, and the famous suspend students for making their pop tart look like a gun (yes, that one made national news).  Surely we can’t forget the “women are hosts for men’s babies” bill.  How much could we save the taxpayer if we simply stopped paying for these types of inefficiencies?  

I’m not sure exactly what efficiencies Gov. Fallin is looking for, but since I’m in education, I’ll assume she is looking at #oklaed. Being efficient is a funny thing.  Whose efficiency are we concerned with:  the taxpayer or the consumer?  To maximize our efficiency, why wouldn’t schools hire 1 teacher to develop all the lesson plans and a bunch of temps from Express Personnel to carry them out?  This could save taxpayers millions?  Who needs a qualified teacher in the classroom to teach them frivolous concepts like reading or Geometry?  Let’s consolidate districts so we don’t have the extra costs associated with being inefficient in child nutrition, administration, or other important things like facilities (who needs 2 elementary buildings when we can have 1 big one).  How much would that save the taxpayers? Of course it will cost the families who have to drive further to school events or drop their young children off at school and cost students whose time will be spent driving back and forth to distant schools or riding a school bus instead of spending time with their friends, stay afterschool to get help with homework, enjoy an evening with their parents, or go hunting or fishing with grandpa.   

• Some thoughts not associated with the special session:
• Why is it school choice advocates are the same people wanting school consolidation?  Isn’t a small, rural school a choice too?
• Can it really be called school choice if the final decision to allow a student to attend rests with the school?
• Why is it when it comes to school accountability, some think parents of public school students need a single summative A-F grade to understand if their child is getting a good education, but parents of private school parents just automatically know?
• Why is it many in the #okleg continue to erode state support of Oklahoma Colleges and Universities while research suggests a greater need for Oklahomans to obtain more college degrees and career tech certifications?
• Just remember when our recalibrated state test results are made public, that for the majority of our students in Oklahoma, the test result is the least important aspect of their lives.  Check out these facts regarding students in Oklahoma

A Poverty War; which side are you on

America loves to declare war.  We used to declare war on other nations (the last formal declaration of war was by FDR on December 8^th, 1941). Now, we just declare war on social issues.  Lyndon B. Johnson gave us the War on Poverty in 1964.  In the 70’s it was the War on Drugs.  In 1980, Ronald Reagan challenged incumbent Jimmy Carter in what was a traditionalist vs progressivist political campaign and thus began what is commonly referred to as the Culture Wars of the 80s & 90’s.  The Culture Wars were temporarily put on hold as a renewed wave of patriotism overtook Americans as President Bush declared a War on Terror immediately after the cowardly acts by terrorists on what is now simply known as 9/11.   However, that wave of patriotism was quickly replaced by cultural war rhetoric during the presidential campaign of 2004.

Culture Wars are fought by politicians for political gain.  The purpose of any cultural war is to draw attention to the issue to win campaigns --not to solve problems.  These culture wars are fought over things like minimum wage, social security, health care, abortion, and education.  Battle lines are dictated by ideology and not by personal experiences. Ideology is established at the national level by looking at the size of campaign donations or the impact on voter motivation, but it is sculpted and applied at the state level where ideological outcomes affect everyday citizens. Making matters worse is the current concept where your ideology is judged for purity of conviction and not whether it is applied for the benefit of society.  The war on poverty is a prime example of how ideological purity means more to some than the benefit to others.

If you have been paying attention to any of the Oklahoma education policy lately, you might have noticed another type of War on Poverty.  This is a silent war, but one happening just the same.  This war is not a war against poverty, but a war against poverty.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Let me explain it another way.  Oklahoma, along with other states with extreme far right leaning governments, has long engaged (and now joined by the Trump administration) in a war not to end poverty, but a war against the impoverished.  There has been no formal declaration, just a constant landslide of economic and education policies aimed at hurting children who qualify for government assistance.  Need proof?  Oklahoma has had 6 straight years of reducing state investment in common education -one stat where Oklahoma leads the nation.  Higher education has been cut 23% in the last 2 years.  When I went to college state support for higher education was 40% and today it stands at 15%.  Think of it this way; our parents and grandparents paid taxes to help send the majority of us to college and we pay it forward by cutting our own taxes so our kids have to foot their own tuition bill? Lawmakers have tried for years to siphon money away from public schools for private school tuition.  Trump's first proposed education budget slashes 21^st century grants and other after school programs, along with federal support for special education and Title 1.  Who needs the most support in education? Kids from impoverished homes.  Which programs are being targeted for cuts? Programs helping students in poverty.

This is much more than just paying less in taxes and more for services.  Some services are priceless.  Don’t you think any of the mothers of teenage kids who are addicted to drugs or bullied into suicide wouldn’t gladly pay more in taxes for social workers or mental health professionals?  How about less crowded emergency rooms or better staffed veteran centers?  How about school counselors who are trained to help students with everyday decisions like identifying a career or dealing with a problem?  Counselors play vital roles within a school and are more than the “administration overhead” argued by those in the culture wars. Character education, bullying prevention, testing, scholarships, graduation, career planning, are just some of what they do for our children.  Not to mention just being a good listener and building psychologist for students, teachers, and parents who need help.  And it is not just counselors……kids in poverty need before and after school programs  to help them and their parents who work non-school friendly jobs.  Kids need teachers who pour themselves into their work and won’t let poverty be the issue preventing success.  Kids need library books, textbooks, computers, internet, custodians, bus drivers, crossing guards, reading specialists, and classroom teachers who know them as people and not just another body crammed into an overcrowded classroom.  Don’t let the ideologues draw your attention away from the solution by claiming educators just want to “throw more money” at the problem.  Textbooks are more than money. After school programs are preferential over being sent home to an empty house. Teachers are much, much more than the salary that shows up on a financial statement-they are people who are trained to fight the war on poverty.  The war trying to overcome poverty, not the war declaring it government waste.

1,2,3,4,5

Kelly Husted challenged me to this 1,2,3,4,5 blogger challenge.  You can read his blog here.  He obviously has a higher opinion of my writing than my writing deserves.  I hope I live up to his (and yours) expectation……

 What has been your ONE biggest struggle during this school year?

My biggest struggle was not to scream and throw things at our Political leaders this year.  Anyone else almost throw up at the CCOSA legislative conference this January when the politicians on the panel started talking about how tough their year was going to be because of the budget!  I was fighting mad.  Are you serious…… they created this cluster (fill in the blank) in the first place with terrible economic policies and reductions to general fund revenue streams.  State agencies just found out about a revenue failure, and I didn’t sleep for a week wondering which of the families I was going to devastate by telling them they no longer had a job right when all the Christmas bills were due - AND they wanted to complain about their job being difficult!  You have got to be kidding me!  Then my secretary did a wonderful job removing all the usual suspects of things I could throw in my office when I heard the Governor’s State of the State Address.  I just want to ask her what she has against locally elected school board members because any consolidation bill will do nothing but get rid of the local board of education, not the people working for the school!   Geez.  Then she wants to take more of our already ‘spread too thin’ tax dollars to send to private schools who don’t have any state accountability!  Standards….. they don’t use Oklahoma standards……. Seat time………. Nope, they don’t have to meet time criteria to get to those tax dollars…….tests………. kids don’t take them.  Private schools do not have to prove they do anything with the tax dollars given to them by the state.  I almost understand what the now infamous pharma company thug Martin Shkreli meant when he tweeted “Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people”!  

I’m getting all worked up just typing this.  This has become insane.

Share TWO accomplishments that you are proud of from this school year.

1.  I’m proud of the $18.7 million dollar bond project approved by the stakeholders of the Alex school district.  We are currently drawing up plans to create a new 5 – 12^th grade center to replace our 97 year old high school building.  Alex students will also be gaining a new track around a new football field and a monolithic dome Gymnasium to act as an Auditorium and to serve as a community storm shelter.  If anyone thinks that public schools are failing, they should check the record for bond issues in this state.  By the way, our community voted for this 10% tax increase with a whopping 80% approval rate. 
2. I’m also proud that the Board of Education sought to show our teachers some much needed appreciation this school year by distributing $1,000.00 retention bonuses at the beginning of the school year.  On the first day of inservice, each returning staff member found a $1,000.00 check attached to the 2015-2016 contract.  I’ve got to be honest, I had tears of joy running down my face as I saw the impact on the staff.  I’m so proud to work for this district; Alex community cares so much about the wellbeing and the educational accomplishments of their students and teachers.  Our staff is like a family.  For the life of me, I can’t understand why any legislator would want to close this type of environment; we should be trying to spread it around not kill it due to some stupid political rhetoric.

What are THREE things you wish to accomplish before the end of the school year?

1. I want to make it to the end of the school year without having to cut a person or a program from my district.
2. I want to make coming to work at Alex a more enjoyable endeavor for my staff and our students.
3. I want to hear the Republican Leadership & Governor admit that their economic policies and the budget was a complete disaster for Oklahomans this year.

        Give FOUR reasons why you remain in education in today’s rough culture.

1. To be honest, I have come too far to start over in another state!  I’ve got 18 years in with another 15 to go before I can even dream of retiring……..
2. My mom is a retired teacher living alone, and I don’t want to be too far away…….
3. I’m a Republican Educator, and we might become extinct if I leave the state.
4. I just love the fact that I am part of what they call the Oklahoma standard.

      Which FIVE people do you hope will take the challenge of answering these questions?

1. Claudia Swisher – Isn’t she Amazing?
2. Rick Cobb – One of the most influential bloggers out there.
3.  Joy Hofmeister – I know she is super busy saving the #oklaed world, but wouldn’t it be awesome to read things from her perspective!
4. Rob Miller – He writes one every day, just helping him with a new topic……
5. Any one of the legislators who want to go on record with their thoughts on #oklaed……..

Logic Loopholes

Does anyone remember the Arsenio Hall Show from the 90’s?  He used to do a segment on his late night talk show called “Things that make you say hmmmmm”.  So here goes some random thoughts and questions regarding our current educational situation:  

• Why is it that Oklahoma politicians insist on reducing the income tax rate so as to remain competitive with surrounding states, but they don’t seem to want to remain competitive with surrounding states on teacher salaries and educational investment?
• Why is our Governor remaining absolutely silent on the current financial crisis? 
• The Governor and the DOK want everyone to believe a low personal and a low corporate tax rate was the cause for General Electric to move their corporate headquarters from Connecticut to Boston Massachusetts.   https://www.cga.ct.gov/2013/rpt/2013-R-0301.htm If this is true, then why didn’t GE move to Oklahoma?  Oklahoma’s personal income tax rate is lower than both of those states (http://taxfoundation.org/state-tax-climate/oklahoma), and in Oklahoma GE could have qualified for a 5 year tax free exemption?  If not Oklahoma, then why not any one of the 7 states with zero personal income tax?  http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/04/26/these-states-have-no-income-tax/8116161/

• Why does the Governor automatically discount the quality of schools in Massachusetts as a reason for why GE moved its corporate headquarters?
• Why is it that proponents of school choice think the only way to get people to choose better schools is to give them money, but they think that giving schools money is the worst way to improve a school?
• Why is it that some politicians want close schools based on the number of students instead of the quality of education inside those schools?
• Why is it that some politicians want to close rural schools but expand charter schools?
• Why is it that politicians lament about “off the top” money and tax incentives being problematic for Oklahoma but have yet to vote to stop “off the top” money or end any tax incentives?
• If Educational Savings Accounts (AKA Vouchers) are so important to the expansion of school choice options and the improvement of educational opportunities for low income students, then why won’t politicians find a funding mechanism outside of stealing money from public schools to pay for it?
• Speaking of ESA’s (it’s still a voucher), why is it politicians feel the need to change the name to make it sound better for Oklahomans?  If people didn’t want to spend public dollars on private schools who do not have to follow public accountability practices when they were called a voucher, why do politicians think calling them an ESA makes for better policy?
• If a private school doesn’t have to follow Oklahoma public school law, then what makes people think private schools will accept public school kids?

Things that make me go hmmmmmm….how about you?

Teacher: The New Endangered Species

My grandfather belonged to what Tom Brokaw described as “The Greatest Generation”.  My grandpa was raised during the great depression and went on to serve his country in Patton’s 3rd Armored Division in World War II.  But my grandpa’s greatest accomplishment wasn’t growing up poor or surviving the perils of the European theater.  My grandpa’s greatest accomplishment was seeing to it that my father got an education.  My grandpa was a high school dropout.  Just like many of America’s youth of the Greatest Generation, my grandpa quit school to join the Army.  He did what he thought he had to do at the time; but he never stopped pushing my dad to go to college. 

One of my fondest memories as a young boy was watching my father graduate from Cameron University with a degree in business that was paid for with my dad’s G.I. Bill.  My dad earned his college tuition by surviving the jungles of Vietnam.  When he returned home he met my mom, got a job, got married, started a family (I’m the oldest of two), and went to college at night.  My mom was a teacher’s aide who later went back to school to become a teacher.  She retired from Cyril Elementary school last year after 30 years of service.  When my dad died, I was a sophomore in college; it was my grandpa who made sure I went back to finish my degree.  I told you all those things about my family to set up my point: Education is not just something my family believes in, education is what we do.

This brings me to the purpose of this blog: my family is a family of educators;  I married an educator from a family of educators.  I’m the son of a teacher, and my wife is the daughter of a teacher.  However, our daughters don’t want to become teachers.  And what is worse is I don’t want them to be teachers.  This is the root of the teacher shortage in my opinion.  Teaching used to be a profession just like cops or lawyers; sons and daughters following in the family footsteps and carrying on the family business.  But not anymore.  Why?  It is because there is another American tradition that my grandpa instilled in the family:  work hard and work smart to make sure the next generation has it better than you.  The current educational climate and culture has made it impossible for the next generation of teacher to have it better than the one before. 

Although the direct cause of the teacher shortage can be blamed on many things.  Teacher pay, lack of autonomy, adverse work conditions, being blamed for societal ills, being branded as part of the problem and not viewed as a resource for any of the solutions, teacher pay (yes, I meant for it be listed twice), high stakes testing, or any of the other various reasons are contributing to teachers leaving our profession.  However, the real reason we have a teacher shortage is because no one is entering our profession.  Teaching can no longer support and sustain itself as a profession.  We are becoming extinct. 

To fill in the gaps, we are applying for emergency certifications, alternative certifications, filling teacher-less classrooms with adjunct teachers or other non-highly qualified adults.  What we aren’t doing is solving the teacher shortage issue.  Not only are our political leaders not doing anything about fewer and fewer college students entering teacher prep programs, very few of them are even interested in having the discussion about teacher shortage. 

Our political leaders are more interested in scoring political points by advocating for closing small rural schools because we have too many public school districts while at the same time clamoring for more “school choice” in the form of online charter schools, vouchers, ESA’s, and private school options.  What we aren't doing is:  

   We aren’t having conversations about changing the culture for teachers, so more college students enter teacher prep programs. 

   We are not having enough discussions about raising teachers’ bring home pay to the average salary of other college degree professions in Oklahoma. 

   We are not working day and night to make teacher’s jobs less of a struggle. 

   We are not making the profession of education a job in which today’s teachers will start encouraging children to one day grow up to be a teacher. 

Education will never be a destination for those students who only dream of being a millionaire.  But teaching should be a career choice for those students who are just like Tom Brokaw’s greatest generation and just like my grandpa:  for those who want to make the world a better place.  

Pride Goes Before the Fall

Lately, in Oklahoma, the Republican GOP stands for Glowering Offensive Party.  It has been a rough several weeks for the state Republican Party.  Although my writing may be satirical in nature, the topics I’m writing about couldn’t be more serious.  The Republican Party in Oklahoma is out of control.  The conservative political machine fears nothing except an attack from the farther right.  The moderates are being shut out and the party is becoming prideful.  How else can you explain the last several weeks’ worth of actions?  Don’t know what I’m talking about?  Let me explain with three examples of how people in leadership positions within the Republican Party put personal or political will above the laws of general decency and above the laws of the land.

The Oklahoma GOP started with hiring an Executive Director who had plead guilty to not one, but 2 misdemeanor counts of domestic abuse.  Domestic abuse is one of those “in-tolerable” acts one has trouble recovering.  I don’t want to talk about the Executive Director.  I want to talk about the person who hired him.  What was he thinking?  Was he thinking?  In Oklahoma, we still teach the chivary code of holding women in the highest of regard.  We still stand when women enter the room, open the door for little old ladies then help them across the street.  How could hiring someone convicted of abuse toward women not be showing contempt for Oklahoman values?  But it is not just hiring him; it’s galling by thumbing his nose at those who questioned the cronyism.  Randy Brogdon, the person responsible for this debacle, has a habit of talking down to those who question him.  Brogdon repeatedly stood by this hiring even in the face of criticism from other Republicans.  If you think this is just one bad decision by Brogdon….. think again.  It took less than 3 weeks for Brogdon’s questionable decision-making to fail him again.  This time with an offensive Facebook post.  It was either comparing poor people to animals or saying poor people aren’t worth supporting, but either way it was damaging.  When asked about the post, Brogdon’s first reaction was to defend the post by saying those who were offended must have “misinterpreted” the post’s meaning.  So, from Brogdon’s point of view, it’s not just about poor people and animals, it is the rest of us are too stupid to comprehend what he meant!  If this isn’t prideful arrogance, I don’t know what is.

Brogdon’s actions are simply irresponsible and reprehensible.  Even the Daily Oklahoman Editorial board called for his removal.  (I know, once in a blue moon they get something right.  Shocked me too.)  If Brogdon’s actions were the only failings of the week I’d have just railed about the failed leadership of one man.  However, the coup de grace comes from Governor Fallin.  Governor Fallin couldn’t let Brogdon stand alone in the Failure of Leadership Department.  After two years of litigation the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the Blaine Amendment of the Oklahoma Constitution was violated by the 10 Commandments Monument and ordered its removal from the Capitol.  Agree or disagree with their decision, but they are the highest court in Oklahoma.  The legislative branch wrote the law, the judiciary branch ruled it is unconstitutional, but our executive branch won’t enforce the ruling?  That is not how our government works.  As an educator this could have been a real teachable moment about how governments in America work.  Instead, it is a lesson on failed leadership; it is a lesson in one person in government who gets to disagree with the law and then do what they want.  Not good for Oklahoma.  Not good for the Republican Party.

Governor Fallin’s disappointment with the Supreme Court is understandable.  I’ve long thought both the US Supreme Court and the Oklahoma Supreme Court get more things wrong than right.  However, my personal feelings do not change the fact that the court has spoken.  You don’t like what they say, change the law.  However, you can’t ignore their ruling and do what you want.  No one is above the law.  We established a country to ensure no one was above the law.  Gov. Fallin refusing to comply is not what leadership is about; leadership is about working hard to preserve the rule of law and the function of government, not to ignore the actions of our Republic when we don’t get our way.  Fallin’s leadership failed her party and the State of Oklahoma through her words (3 forms of government: the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and the vote of the people?) (Yes, you read correctly) and by her decision to not uphold the constitution. Brogdon’s leadership just failed the human decency of people.  Both chose political gains over doing what was right.  Both sit in their perspective leadership positions comforted in the fact that Oklahoma is the reddest of red states for the Republican Party.  Pride goes before the fall.

Legislative Lunacy

It’s the first week of May and sirens are going off in many of our Oklahoma communities.  I’m not talking about the tornado sirens.  I’m talking about the alarms warning #OKlaED educators about all the legislative lunacy taking place this week.  None of it makes sense to me.  Maybe, and I highly doubt it, but maybe if some of our legislative leaders read this, maybe they will realize how insanely idiotic some of this sounds to us regular people…..

·       For the first time in my educational lifetime a seemingly unlikely group of people have formed a coalition in an effort to make some sense out of our state testing program.  As it has been told to me, the Governor, the State Chamber of Commerce, Higher Education, School Board members, Administrators, Teachers, Parents, the State Superintendent, and Oklahoma Business officials have all agreed that EOI tests are useless, time consuming, expensive, and not an accurate portrayal of student skills (for the record, those are my descriptors and not theirs) and want to move to a more valid & less expensive test.  In Oklahoma, our college acceptance test is the ACT and as Stephen Crawford likes to say “shouldn’t our HS exit exam align with our college and workforce entrance exam?”  You would think this was a “Slam Dunk” for our legislators because the stars have aligned (The Governor, Higher Ed, & Business were enough), but NO the House of Representative leadership is taking a page from Charlton Heston – “you can pry your ACT test from my cold, dead hands”.  It doesn’t make any sense to me why they would draw this line in the sand.  If it is because of Common Core, then they are uninformed.  If it is because they think it will water down our graduation requirements, then they are woefully uninformed.  If they say they want to wait until Oklahoma adopts its educational standards, then they just don’t understand the purpose for education: ACT assesses skills necessary for college success & WorkKeys assesses skills necessary for workforce success.  Both of these are what common education is tasked with accomplishing regardless of the name we call our educational standards.

·        Information coming out of the Speakers office will remove parent input in the retention/promotion of 3^rd grade students.  Yep, you read that right… if the Speaker has his way, he will end the Parent Committee.  Educational stakeholders wanted to strengthen the RSA bill by making parent input a permanent part of the law.  Legislators were willing to extend parent involvement for 5 years, however they wanted to include students who scored Limited Knowledge AND add in more services for students in 1^st and 2^nd grade.  Great idea – right up to the point where the bill gets in conference, and then the Speaker decided to keep the language adding in all the educational stuff while removing the parent committee from the bill.  So if the Speaker gets his way, all the Representative and Senators who voted to override the Governor’s veto last spring will have to flip flop and will now vote to make the parents of children irrelevant into the educational decisions of their children.

·       Educators thought we had an agreement with proponents of charter school expansion allowing for school boards to sponsor charter schools wherever and whenever local communities felt there was a need for charter schools.  This agreement was quickly challenged by some members of the legislature who wanted to bypass educators altogether to allow city councils to sponsor a charter school.  This makes as much sense as allowing cigarette and fast food companies to sponsor hospitals. 

·       We passed laws which prohibit the use of tobacco on school property 24/7 365 days out of the year.  We already had a law which prohibited tobacco use on school property, but apparently we needed a new law.  Additionally, they passed laws allowing for schools to allow trained school employees to carry loaded guns on school property even though Federal laws says you can’t.  We had an Attorney General send us a letter saying he will stand behind schools who violate multiple US Supreme Court rulings regarding Religion and schools.  It seems to me we pass a bunch of laws that have no effect on improving education yet ignore and prevent the laws that will.

As we rush headfirst into the final days of the legislative session, I feel my frustrations growing as an educator.  We seem hell bent on passing legislation that makes no sense to educators, or at least this educator.  Which brings me to another issue:  If the legislative session is officially over by May 31^st by law, then why do legislators get to declare “Sine Die” or adjourn early?  Can you imagine the outcry if the public schools just declared school over after testing even though there were nearly 2 weeks of school left?  But then again, with the legislative track record recently with education policy, I say they can’t adjourn fast enough.

If I was King for the Day

If I were King for the day, the first thing I would do is solve more than 1 or 2 problems.  Seriously I’m shocked my other blogger buddies didn’t think of this first!  Didn’t you learn anything when you were a child and you were given 3 wishes?  Wasn’t the first thing everyone wished for was unlimited wishes”? 

The intent of this question was simple: To demonstrate that educators have some great ideas on how to improve public education.  Education reformers do not have a monopoly on the desire to improve public schools.  If we want to improve education we have to tackle both sides of the education coin:  instruction and attainment.  Maximizing one without improving the other is just a recipe for failure.  Here is my list without any thought to priority:

·       Society has to get better to minimize outside factors which hinder student learning.  Yes, outside factors hinder student learning.  Maslow’s hierarchy of needs tells us student learning is affected by hunger, fear, acceptance, being loved at home, and a multitude of other physical and psychological factors.  Don’t believe in Maslow’s?  Try teaching a group of kids a new math lesson the last 15 minutes before lunch.  Even the teacher wants to time warp to lunch!  Hunger is bad enough when you get 3 square meals a day, but how about the student on Monday whose last meal was what the cafeteria served on Friday?  Add in kids who are abused, scared, bullied, or neglected and you have a bunch of students who care less about the lesson and more about survival.  If you want to improve student learning, Oklahoma must invest in social services to provide for the children whose parents won’t provide for them!

·       Every classroom should have a highly effective teacher.  Notice I didn’t say highly qualified teacher.  There is a world of difference between effectiveness and qualified.  Let’s face it, some members of our profession should be doing something else.  Some members of other professions should be teachers.  If I was King, I’d create a compensation package ensuring the profession of “EDUCATOR” is competitive with other college degreed professionals.  I’m not saying Teachers should be paid like Doctors, but we should be paid better than convenience store managers, truck drivers, burrito makers (see Supt. Hofmeister’s #OKhigh5 plan), and 2014 HS graduates who work in the oil field.

·       Under my rule, Oklahoma would test less and teach more.  Standardized testing isn’t the answer to measuring instructional practices.  In theory, standardized testing should measure student attainment.  However, it cannot measure the impact on student learning.  The depth of understanding, the magnitude of human impact, the creativity of the mind, nor the breadth of critical thinking can be measured by a standardized test.  Let’s face it, the instant you create an assessment is the instant when you limit the scope of learning.

·       Make teaching a 240 day job.  Before everyone goes crazy and claim I’ve lost my mind, let me explain.  I’d require students to come to school 200 days per year.  The other 40 days would be professional development days in which teachers worked at becoming better: by analyzing student data and collaborating with their peers.

Can you imagine a world where beginning teacher pay is $40,000 plus benefits and 25 year veteran teachers make $75,000?  Where beginning teachers are given a highly effective mentor teacher for the year and they work 40 additional days at becoming better for their students?  Can you imagine what our students could accomplish if they came to school ready to learn and was always taught by an effective teacher?  Can you imagine what students could do if lessons were relevant to them and lessons could be created independent of some worthless standardized test?  If I were King for the day, this is what school would look like.

ACT: The Time is Now

There is a growing movement in Oklahoma to change how we assess student achievement.  For years, many educators, including myself, have worked diligently to persuade our Senators and Representatives to move to the ACT and ACT Aspire as a better option over the current End of Instruction Exams and their 3-8 counterpart, the OCCT.  Yesterday, ROPE (Restore Oklahoma’s Public Education) wrote a blog opposing this movement.  I have a lot of respect for ROPE and the work they do educating parents about Oklahoma’s education policies and their blog does an excellent job of stating why they oppose the movement toward the ACT suite of assessments.  However, I felt compelled to share with #oklaed why moving to the ACT is the very best option for Oklahoma students if we are to maintain a high stakes testing culture in Oklahoma. 

In ROPE’s blog, they outlined 2 major reasons why Oklahoma shouldn’t move to the ACT (Yes, Mr. Hime I know you are not supposed to write a rebuttal blog, but I couldn’t help myself):  1) The ACT is aligned to Common Core and 2) Oklahoma needs to maintain its sovereignty over test questions and state academic standards. Noble goals, but both needs to be clarified.  First, the ACT test is standardized (meaning all students answers the same questions), criterion referenced (meaning its questions measure student knowledge against a specific learning target), and norm referenced (meaning it compares student answers to students from around the nation). ROPE would have you believe the ACT is aligned to Common Core.  Actually, the ACT is aligned to the College and Career Readiness standards.  CCR standards are nationally recognized academic learning targets American high school students should know if they are to be successful post-secondary education.  This is the very same goal of Oklahoma’s public education system: College and Career Readiness. Recently, the Oklahoma Regents of Higher Education certified that PASS standards were aligned to College and Career Readiness Standards.  We should not claim PASS, ACT, and Common Core are the same thing just because they are all aligned to a minimum set of knowledge standards we want all high school students to know when they graduate.

The idea that Oklahoma should maintain sovereignty over its standards is right on the mark.  Oklahoma teachers should have autonomy over the learning activities in their classrooms.  Oklahoma teachers should work together to develop rigorous standards for Oklahoma children.  No one is denying the necessity for sovereignty over standards.  However, there are only a few companies which are proficient in writing, developing, and administering assessments to measure Oklahoma student achievement.  ROPE mentioned the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the Stanford Achievement Tests as viable options.  YES, they both are standardized, norm referenced tests.  YES, both are not aligned to CCR or Common Core.  And YES, neither are developed by Oklahoma teachers nor controlled by Oklahoma standards.  And YES, neither are used for college admission.  Isn’t the purpose of our testing reform movement to find an assessment that has practical application to our students?  The ACT is the basic test used for college entrance.  Using the ITBS or the Stanford 10 would be just like the EOI – providing us information about student achievement (after the fact mind you) but not having any validity toward post-secondary life.   

The ACT and its ACT Aspire tests would provide Oklahoma teachers a comprehensive assessment program to provide formative data from grade 3 through graduation.  The test would satisfy college entrance requirements for those students who wish to seek a college education.  The work keys aspect of the ACT suite of exams would provide our business and industry organizations with vital information about a student’s ability to go to work.  Both of those are key components to Gov. Fallin’s goals of increasing more college degrees and career tech certifications.  It only makes sense we use a test aligned to Oklahoma’s College and Career Ready goals.  It only makes sense we use a test which is more cost effective (putting more educational dollars back into the classroom).  It only makes sense we minimize the time needed for testing (thus maximizing instructional time).  It only makes sense we use an assessment which benefits our students in the pursuit of their post high school goals.  The ACT is the right assessment to meet all these goals.  Join the movement.  Make Oklahoma education better for ALL our students.    

The Slogan War

I know it has been some time since my last blog and I hope you will forgive my absence from the blogosphere.  I’ve been a little busy, but mostly I’ve been just trying to keep my head down and my mouth shut (I have the right to remain silent, but not the ability).  Furthermore, with bloggers like my friends Claudia Swisher, Rick Cobb (formerly OKeducationtruths), Rob Miller, Brett Dickerson, and Blue Cereal banging away at the keyboard all the really good topics where completely covered.  That was until today.  I, and a bunch of other first year superintendents, attended the State Board of Education meeting fulfilling a requirement in what Dr. Ann Caine of Stillwater calls Superintendent’s Kindergarten.  I didn’t know what to expect; I didn’t think it would be as contentious as it was four years ago, but I also didn’t know it would go so smoothly.  My friends….. what a difference leadership makes.

I have said all along that Oklahoma public education has been losing a slogan war.  The anti-public education crowd has had us playing defense for the better part of my 17 year career.  It started with “All kids can learn” and then morphed to “No Child Left Behind”.  From there we have heard politicians bloviate with “hold our schools accountable” so that now they claim without fear from reprisal that “our schools are failing”.  The school choice people have now started referring to public schools as “government schools” instead of public schools.  Why?  Because it is a better slogan and allows them to refer to public schools as “monopoly schools”. Some even go to calling us “drop out factories”.    For far too long, Oklahoma public education officials have played defense in the slogan war.  But our silence has stopped as Supt. Hofmeister openly embraced social media with her #OKhigh5 slogan. Declaring once and for all that every Oklahoma child deserves to have the very best education provided by the very best educators. #OKhigh5 calls for the end of the shortest educational calendar in the region and shines a spotlight on the more than 500 classrooms with an emergency certified teacher …..what a difference leadership makes.

I refer to this onslaught of words as the slogan war because its sole purpose is to destroy public schools and not to help the children of Oklahoma.  It is a carefully crafted money grab.  I firmly believe that the majority of education reformers are less interested in helping your child get a better education and more interested in helping their child get a cheaper education.  But I honestly believe the tide is changing.  Oklahoma now has a leader….an advocate for ALL of Oklahoma’s children.  Supt. Hofmeister has always held firm to the Oklahoma conservative belief that parents not only have the right, but an obligation to make a quality educational choice for their child.  The difference here is that she doesn’t think you have to destroy one to make the other better.  What a difference leadership makes.        

The New AMERICAN way

We live in a time when it is perfectly acceptable to shape the news instead of simply report it.  I know the realities of the time in which we live; talking heads and entire staffs of "think tanks" operating with an agenda.  My problem is not with the media, the think tanks, or the "staff" editorials which seem to be all the rage in the information age, but with today's consumers of information.  As consumers we have gotten so wrapped up in this "fast food" world of neatly packaged, instantaneous information we don't even recognize that our ability to decide for ourselves has been stolen from us - we don't even get to think about what we are being told because think tanks, talking heads, and editorial staffs are there to tell us how we should feel or what we should think.  Here are some examples and my thoughts on some recent events in Oklahoma.

• Sexual Assault Protest at Norman - The Oklahoma media reported this story as if a Norman High School student was going around assaulting girls in the hallways and then his friends were harassing the girl for going to the police to report the crime.  Never mind the incident happened during the summer and the school took every action allowed to them by law in removing the alleged rapist from attending school.  The media formed the story to make it look like the school was turning a blind eye to the safety and security of female students instead of reporting the delay in prosecution within our legal system or the limits the law places on schools when these situations arrive.  
• Superintendent elect Joy Hofmeister's education survey - The Daily Oklahoman editorial staff slams Hofmeister for seeking input on educational issues. This just shows how far education and teachers have fallen from grace in today's society.  If you want to fix a bridge, shouldn't you seek input from bridge builders? If you want to design a better airplane, shouldn't you seek input from pilots, aerospace engineers, and people who travel on airplanes?  If you want to improve education, you would think it would reasonable to talk to teachers, counselors, principals, parents, and STUDENTS. Apparently not. The DOK just trashed the effort based solely on the fact teachers were included in the survey.  The DOK hates teachers and educators so much it tries to convince its readership the people who know education the best can't be trusted to be included in the planning of better education.  If you wanted a legit criticism of the survey, it would be the limited number of student responses. In Oklahoma we have internet and computer labs in every school in the state; why didn't schools take 10 minutes out of the day to allow students an opportunity to respond? I'm guilty too.  If Mrs. Hofmeister wants to open up her survey again, I think every student should get to answer it.  I promise the students in my school will.
• The think tank OCPA decries the education spending policy in Oklahoma.  OCPA, a conservative think tank, uses an effective infographic to convince its members of all the fraud and tax money waste going on in public schools.  They use the Federal, state, and local average of dollars per pupil spent ($8494) to grossly exaggerate the money not being spent in the classroom.  If you believe their example, students in Oklahoma must be taught in an open field without a building, heat, light, books, desks, chairs, paper, libraries, cafeteria, food, or a bus since the OCPA didn't calculate any money for these necessities.  Because the OCPA uses Federal money, I hope none of the students in their example have a learning disability, is gifted, has any parents, needs to talk to a counselor, or wants to eat anything while they are at school.  Because the OCPA uses state monies, the open field must have Wi-Fi so the kids can take state required exams on their personal computers because the OCPA didn't calculate any money for that.  Not to mention the requirements for RSA Reading, Art, Physical Education, and Foreign Language.  So if you believe the OCPA numbers to be accurate, we have a group of students who live close enough to a public park where they walk to school every day carrying their breakfast and lunch in a backpack with their laptop computer.  Their classroom teacher is a Special Education teacher who is highly qualified in Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies, Foreign Language, Physical Education, Gifted Education, and Art.  Furthermore, the teacher must be the counselor, test coordinator, and be responsible for all the paperwork required of both the Feds and the State of Oklahoma.  

To be fair, pro education organizations can be just as guilty.  OEA zealously advocates for all teachers, even those who need to find another profession.  The Huffington Post, CCOSA, OSSBA, OKpolicy.org, and others use information that is beneficial to them and their specific cause.  However, most of the time these groups do not over sensationalize the story to try to sell you on a point of view.  Do we need to improve education? Yes. Do we need to look at ways to eliminate waste in our schools? Yes.  Should we reduce the number of schools in Oklahoma, increase the number of days taught, should we get more money into our classrooms, and do we need to look at the factors causing a teacher shortage in our great state? These are serious questions educational stakeholders will have to decide.  Wouldn't it be in the best interest of the students if the consumers of education policy actually took the time to gather all the facts and decide for themselves?  Our future depends upon it.

Purpose: We don't need no stinking Purpose

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

John F. Kennedy

JFK could spin a phrase. I love this quote because I believe education has lost its purpose.  Maybe lost is not the best way to describe it.  Maybe education hasn't actually lost its purpose in so much as we have been given multiple, conflicting purposes.  I think the plethora of educational purposes are at the root of today's problems.  Is our purpose to prepare every student for college? Their Career? To become a good Citizen?  Is our purpose to get kids to pass tests and graduate high school?  Is common education's purpose to produce a suitable workforce for Oklahoma's industries? Is the school's purpose to teach students good manners, good character, and other necessary social skills?  If you said yes to each purpose, then you are right in line with the College, Career, Citizenship BS being shoveled by politicians trying to appease everyone while accomplishing nothing. 

Let me ask you C3 believers a question: How do we accomplish all 3 when all the punitive aspects of education are centered around test scores?  Every reform aimed at making schools better has been concocted straight out of the "lets get more kids to pass standardized tests" point of view.  TLE was created to give teachers and principals a grade on how well their students do on tests.  A-F comparability was created to let parents and businesses know how well the students do on standardized tests.  Kids have to pass 4 out of 7 standardized tests to graduate high school, so therefore graduation rates are just an indication of how many students can pass tests.  You think a teacher who might be fired at the end of the year because of their TLE score is going to take a day away from instruction to teach students about any of the mandated "citizenship" lessons? How many music programs, field trips, science experiments, class projects, and other valuable learning activities have been cancelled or made to wait until "after testing" all in the name of increasing test scores?

It is no secret Oklahoma public education is at a crossroads.  Academic achievement, as measured by standardized tests, has plateaued. Students are unhappy.  Teachers are unhappy.  Parents and other educational stakeholders are unhappy.  All this unhappiness has led to stagnation in the system; students are not motivated, teachers are leaving the profession faster than they can be replaced, and parents are searching for the right fit for their children. Adding to the stagnation are a series of reforms which are meant to "jolt" the system, but which is actually perpetuating the problem.  Education is being pulled in multiple directions by multiple groups of stakeholders.  How can we improve the system when we are spending all our time fighting with each other?  How can we improve student experiences when we focus so much on passing a test and not the understanding of the material?  How can we expect our best teachers to stay in the profession when all that seems to matter is the passing rate on the end of the year test?  How can we expect parents to understand that a 70% passing rate school might be a better school than an 80% passing rate school?  

 College, Career, and Citizen ready is a worthy and lofty purpose for our teachers.  I think it is a purpose worth our courage and effort.  But if we want to improve education in this state, we have to stop talking about one purpose while passing legislation that creates another.  Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. If Oklahoma wants to be a great education state, we must focus our efforts and courage toward a purpose that is not bound by the number of students who pass a test.

Accountability vs. Comparability: Its a big difference

There it was in all its glory.  Beaming with pride and begging for someone to take up the challenge.  As a matter of fact, I was beginning to think it was a set up; a trap placed on twitter by the ed reformists trying to bait an unsuspecting educator into a war of words.  For those who don't know me personally, I have never been short of words.  In my family, those who use 5 words instead of 50 to answer a question simply aren't trying hard enough.  But I digress..... The bait, the trap, the question was "Can schools be held accountable without standardized testing?" Challenge accepted!

If my keyboard could scream, it would have as I typed "High Stakes, Standardized testing isn't accountability, it is comparability."  Schools are held accountable everyday of the year without the need for a standardized test.  Does anyone believe there is a shortage of mad mommas waiting outside the principal's office?  Parents avail themselves of their right to conference with teachers, administrators, and make phone calls to board members everyday.  I call that local accountability.  Almost every school has an online grade book where parents and students can see in near real time the "grades" and assignments being used to assess learning.  I call that academic accountability.  On almost every board meeting agenda is an item giving visitors a chance to address the board of education during a public comments period.  I call that stakeholder accountability.  Multiple times per year a State Department of Education Regional Accreditation Officer sits in my office and interviews our staff regarding our accreditation compliance.  Their checklist has gotten so long, it now takes up the front and back of 6 pages.  I call that organizational accountability.  Every year the board of education hires an expensive accounting firm to comb thoroughly through the financial records of the school and report such findings to the board of education, the State Department of Education, and the Oklahoma State Auditor's office.  I call that financial accountability.  If schools are held "accountable" to the parents on a daily basis, the community on a monthly basis, the SDE and State Auditor on a yearly basis, HOW ARE SCHOOLS NOT ACCOUNTABLE WITH OR WITHOUT YOUR STUPID TEST!

The answer was not shocking.  I didn't expect the argument to work because high stakes standardized testing has never been about accountability.  The ed reformists views what they call "government schools" through tinted glasses. The lens through which they view public schools is clouded in either mistrust of educators or through the greed of potential profits.  It is not hard to tell from which paradigm they are making their argument if you know their basic vocabulary.  Mistrust of teachers reformists want to talk about accountability systems such as A-F grading, Value Added Measures, or other statistically manufactured data as a way to COMPARE one school/teacher/student to another.  That is why everything has to be measured and reported has a single metric..... so they can COMPARE one outcome to another.  Greed driven reformists use manufactured COMPARISON to convince people schools are failing and there needs to be some "product" introduced into the school which will help get them back on track.  They like to use the phrase "return on investment" to persuade stakeholders to one of two profitable decisions..... The school needs to purchase "test prep" or other "curriculum" from them to be better at the outcome or the state needs to allow more taxpayer funded school choice.  

Standardized tests are just the "product" being purchased by schools to satisfy the ed reformists greed.  Standardized tests are the means to an end which the "mistrust of educators" crowd uses to invent bad teachers and identify schools who need to do better.  This entire accountability reform agenda has never been about making sure Alex Public Schools teaches math or reading.  The whole accountability craze has never been about "seeing the academic growth" of students in reading and math.  The accountability movement is a cleverly disguised ruse to compare my school to your school.  They want to perpetuate the myth that public schools are failing.  They want what they want, and it has nothing to do with accountability.

Hanta Yo

Hanta Yo! It's the Sioux phrase which can be roughly translated into "Lead the Way".  Essentially, Hanta Yo is a meditative state of mind in which one calls on a higher power to provide them with the strength, faith, energy, ability, etc to accomplish what is necessary, but difficult or nearly impossible to accomplish on one's own.  Hanta Yo is fitting for Oklahoma's Public Education; our task is difficult and to accomplish what we think is best for students, we need all the guidance, energy, focus, ability, and faith we can get.  

Earlier this week, Kevin Hime of Clinton Public Schools wrote an excellent blog about the upcoming legislative session.  If you haven't read it yet, you can read it here. Although, Kevin doesn't come right out and say it, he is telling us stop being reactive to the Republican legislative agenda and start LEADING Oklahoma education policy.  Educators can LEAD us toward better ed policy by working with the Republican legislators to create policy educators know works best for students.  Think this is impossible - it is exactly what we did for the right to local control on the 3rd grade retention law.  Think that was a one time event? Not even close.  Last January I sat and watched a panel of legislators tell a room full of administrators they couldn't even consider ACT and its battery of assessments as a possible upgrade to the End of Instruction catastrophe we have now.  Last month, Senator Ford stated publicly he was open to legislation removing EOIs in favor of the ACT and Aspire to measure academic achievement.  

Is this ideal?  No. Does this end the terrible reign of over testing?  Not even close.  However, it does remove the policy of using a worthless test, and, at a minimum, gives our students the chance to take a test colleges actually look at when making college acceptance decisions.  Should we accept this policy as an end result?  No, but it is a step in the right direction for our students.  And it all came to fruition because educators decided the cause was more important than ideology.  

Let's consider the RSA law for a moment.  Remember Gov. Fallin and Dr. Barresi worked the vote hard to override the local control of parents and schools to make decisions regarding student grade placement.  The override failed.  Children and parents won.  How? Because parents, teachers, and administrators worked with the Republican majority to author a bill that was beneficial to #OKlaED AND could be supported by Republicans in the legislature.

Hanta Yo! Lead the Way!  Educators need to stop being ideologues and accept guidance from our association directors so that we can move education forward.  As educators we should pray for the strength, energy, ability, and perseverance to make Oklahoma public education better one policy at a time.  We should educate ourselves as to what is possible and what is a pipe dream; we should start with acknowledging what is mandated by SDE rules, Oklahoma legislation, and what is required of us through the federal law.  We should not waste precious energy and political capitol trying to change what is not within our state's power to change.  Thus, we can't end testing, and we can't rid ourselves of accountability.  We should work with legislators to make better policies for our students.  We should allow Joy Hofmeister the chance to change SDE rules to make things better for us.  We should lead the way for a better Oklahoma.  Hanta Yo!