In Case You Missed It – December 27, 2021

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the new Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column to be informed when our blog posts are published.

CHARTER SCANDALS FROM NPE

Another Day Another Charter Scandal

The Network for Public Education has a charter scandal page up on its website. One more reason to support public schools over privatization...

From The Network for Public Education

Our Another Day Another Charter Scandal page now includes a sorting feature that allows you to search charter scandals by state and by 12 different categories. You can also search by keyword. Just use the ‘X’ to clear search terms and return to the full list of scandals.

1619 IS OUR HISTORY

1619 belongs in classrooms

Steve Hinnefeld, who blogs at School Matters, makes a convincing argument for including 1619 in our history instruction. Race has been a continuing theme in the United States for four hundred years...the nation was built on the enslavement of an entire group of people. Africans were kidnapped and enslaved for 250 years of history on this continent. Race is embedded in the US Constitution (Article I, Section 2). Throughout the 19th and 20th-century laws were enacted to limit the rights of people of color. Laws limiting the rights of people of color lasted for another 100 years. It wasn't until 1965 that a voting rights act was passed to make sure that the right to vote was guaranteed to everyone. Even that is now being threatened.

From School Matters

We remember the canonical years from our American history classes: 1492. 1776. 1861-65. It’s past time to add 1619 to the list. I just read the 1619 Project book, and I’m convinced.

It was in August 1619 that Jamestown, Virginia, colonists bought 20 to 30 enslaved Africans from English pirates. “They were among the more than 12.5 million Africans who would be kidnapped from their homes and brought in chains across the Atlantic Ocean in the largest forced migration in human history until the Second World War,” writes Nikole Hannah-Jones in the book’s introductory essay.

Arguably no event had a more pivotal and long-lasting impact on the United States. As the 1619 Project makes clear, chattel slavery and the accompanying doctrine of white supremacy shaped American history and American attitudes, and they continue to do so today.

INDIANA GENERAL ASSEMBLY READY TO JOIN THE CRT BATTLE

Indiana Republican lawmakers want parents to review school curriculum

According to Indiana's Governor Holcomb, Critical Race Theory isn't being taught in Indiana's schools because it's not part of the standards. The Republicans in the legislature want to pass laws making sure that it's not taught. They likely don't have any idea what Critical Race Theory is. Our guess is that they consider it anything that makes white people look bad, or feel guilty, because of the racist history of the nation.

From Chalkbeat*

In the wake of contentious school board meetings throughout Indiana over critical race theory, leading Republican lawmakers said they will propose allowing parents to have more of a say in what their children are taught in schools.

Critical race theory has migrated from a little-known academic framework, which examines how policies and the law perpetuate systemic racism, into a political touchstone for Republicans nationwide. It has animated debate about how schools teach about the role of race in this country.

Indiana Republicans are drafting multiple education bills for the 2022 legislative session in response to these controversies, without mentioning critical race theory by name.

ESSAY BY MIKE ROSE

New Book Includes Wonderful Retrospective Essay by the Late Mike Rose

Jan Resseger reviews an essay by Mike Rose.

From Jan Resseger

Rose considers the many possible lenses through which a public can consider and evaluate its public schools: “Public schools are governmental and legal institutions and therefore originate in legislation and foundational documents… All institutions are created for a reason, have a purpose, are goal driven… Equally important as the content of curriculum are the underlying institutional assumptions about ability, knowledge, and the social order… Public schools are physical structures. Each has an address, sits on a parcel of land with geographical coordinates… By virtue of its location in a community, the school is embedded in the social and economic dynamics of that community… The school is a multidimensional social system rich in human interaction… With the increasing application of technocratic frameworks to social and institutional life, it becomes feasible to view schools as quantifiable systems, represented by numbers, tallies, metrics. Some school phenomena lend themselves to counting, though counting alone won’t capture their meaning… And schools can be thought of as part of the social fabric of a community, serving civic and social needs: providing venues for public meetings and political debate, polls, festivities, and during crises shelters, distribution hubs, sites of comfort.”

“Each of the frameworks reveals certain political, economic, or sociological-organizational aspects of the rise of comprehensive schooling while downplaying or missing others,” explains Rose. “It might not be possible to consider all of these perspectives when making major policy decisions about a school, but involving multiple perspectives should be the goal.”

*Note: Financial sponsors of Chalkbeat include pro-privatization foundations and individuals such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, EdChoice, Gates Family Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and others.

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In Case You Missed It – December 20, 2021

Here are links to articles from the last two weeks that received the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the new Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column to be informed when our blog posts are published.

FORT WAYNE'S KAREN FRANCISCO ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

Without question, the most widely read post from the last two weeks was the editorial announcing the retirement of The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette's editorial editor, Karen Francisco. Below the following excerpt, there's a link to a post by Diane Ravitch...which, in turn, links to a post that Francisco wrote for Ravitch's blog.

The Fort Wayne area has been lucky to have Karen Francisco as an advocate for public education. While we at NEIFPE wish her well in her well-deserved retirement, she will be missed.

'The quiet and thoughtful voices'

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

This is a good stopping point for a 40-year career in newspaper journalism. In two Indiana cities and at three newspapers, it's been a fascinating and fulfilling job on both the news and opinion sides of the newsroom. Thank you to everyone who has shared your time and stories. Thanks to all who have contributed letters, op-ed columns and comments about what I've written. Thank you to my co-workers and editors and, especially, to Journal Gazette President Julie Inskeep, whose unwavering support for opinion journalism is increasingly rare in this industry.

You can read about my successor on Page 14A. I know he shares my belief that our editorial pages can make a positive contribution toward a better city, region and state.

I'm now looking forward to days without deadlines and to moving close to loved ones. I'll continue to follow the news here and wish the best for all who call it home.

Thank You, Karen Francisco!

From Diane Ravitch

Indianans will miss her.

All of us who believe that public schools belong to the public will miss her too!

In April, when I was scheduled to have open heart surgery, I asked a number of friends to write something original for the blog to keep it alive in my absence.

Karen Francisco wrote this one, which I scheduled on the day of my surgery, April 8, called “Why I Fight to Save Public Schools.”

CHARTER SCANDALS

Another Day Another Charter Scandal

This holiday season, the Network for Public Education is bringing you 12 Days of Charter Scandals to celebrate their new, free research tool.

Look up #AnotherDayAnotherCharterScandal by state, by category, or by search term.

CHARTER SCHOOLS: CAVEAT EMPTOR

When a Charter Network Discriminated Against My Daughter, I Fought Back

Charter schools often claim to be public schools -- when it's to their advantage, but they are not. Charters and private schools and, apparently, have the right to reject some students.

From Public Voices for Public Schools

My oldest had just started first grade when our lottery number came up and I received a call from the charter school. We were living on the north side of Scottsdale, Arizona and had been looking for school options for my then five year old. Great Hearts Academies, a chain of charter schools, immediately caught our attention with their advertising and the claims they made regarding student achievement. And so we joined their waiting list. More than a year later, the school called to tell us we were in. “You have two days to decide.”

Our visit the next day impressed us. Orderly children, all in uniform, seemingly well mannered and happy. We opted out of our district school then and there and enrolled at Great Hearts. And things went well for a couple of years, so well in fact that I hoped to send my youngest, then four, there for her kindergarten year.

That all changed at the start of 2016 when Great Hearts rolled out a new policy targeting transgender kids. Written with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-LGBTQ law foundation with close ties to the charter network’s founder, Great Hearts’ “Biological Sex and Gender Policy” was the most anti-trans student policy in the country. The ignorance of the new policy was striking, but for me, the issue was personal. My youngest daughter is transgender. Thanks to this policy, it would be impossible for her to go to this school, be successful, and be herself.

PRIVATIZATION FORMULA:

• Starve Public Schools
• Claim They Have Failed
• Send Public Funds to Private Schools

Missouri Parent to Legislature: Don’t Defund Our Rural Schools with Charters and Vouchers

Another state goes down the failed road of privatization.

From Diane Ravitch

I tell you the story of rural schools because we are in a fight to keep our public schools funded and open in Missouri. In my state, we are 49th in funding for public schools. We don’t provide public schools with enough for the basics. The state funds just 32% of schools’ budgets, which means that residents must pay for the bulk of their local school expenses through property taxes. That means that our system is highly inequitable. The defunding of Missouri public schools has happened over the last decade, but has been on warp speed in the last five years. The school funding formula was adjusted to lower the amount a few years back, meaning we lowered the funding bar to be able to claim we met the bar. And now, even more bad news for Missouri rural schools: a voucher scheme.

INDIANA GENERAL ASSEMBLY TRIES TO FIX TEACHER SHORTAGE THEY CREATED

The state or districts? Indiana lawmakers weigh who should have the authority to license teachers

Over the last two decades, the Republican-dominated Indiana legislature has enacted a series of laws guaranteed to discourage young people from becoming teachers in Indiana public schools. Teachers no longer have seniority, collective bargaining has been seriously limited, and Indiana's average starting salary, average salary, and per pupil spending are all in the bottom third of the USA.

Last year, the Governor's Next Level Teacher Compensation Commission released it's report on ways to increase salaries which the commission stated was 18 percent below the national average. Among the suggestions were

• Encourage and implement expense reallocation measures, so more dollars currently spent on other needs can be redirected to teacher salaries,
• Increase sources of revenue available for teacher pay, and
• Improve teacher compensation-related policies.

While the Governor has promised Indiana tax payers a refund of $125, there doesn't seem to be enough money for the state to invest much in its public school teachers.

From Chalkbeat*

Indiana lawmakers on Tuesday debated giving school districts the authority to license their own educators as a solution to ongoing teacher shortages.

The Interim Study Committee on Education discussed the topic as part of its charge to recommend ways to deregulate state education policies.

Final recommendations approved on Tuesday ask the Indiana Department of Education to provide input on “streamlining workforce programs and licensing and other regulatory requirements for teachers,” among ten other recommendations.

Also see New Orleans Tribune: No One Wants to be a Teacher Anymore, No-Duh!

LEFTOVERS

Do Not Forget the True Purpose of School
The Tip Of The Weisberg

*Note: Financial sponsors of Chalkbeat include pro-privatization foundations and individuals such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, EdChoice, Gates Family Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and others.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has changed its online access and is now behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is important, and one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/

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In Case You Missed It – December 13, 2021

Due to personal illness, NEIFPE is off again this week. Thanks for supporting Public Education.

Hopefully, we will be back on Monday, December 20. Use the links in the right-hand column to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest in Public Education news.

Be sure to enter your email address in the new Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column to be informed when our blog posts are published.

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In Case You Missed It – December 6, 2021

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the new Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column to be informed when our blog posts are published.

THIS WEEK

We have news about Allen County school systems...gaining students, buses, and pay raises. Read about it below.

Sheila Kennedy takes Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita to task for jumping on the "critical race theory" bandwagon in his attack on public education school boards and his quest for the office of Governor.

Finally, there is an article about school vouchers in Missouri, the banning of books around the country, and a reminder that standardized testing isn't a panacea.

ALLEN COUNTY NEWS

County districts maintain gain

School systems in Allen County are growing.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Calls for a student boycott on fall count day didn't upend Northwest Allen County Schools' decades-long streak of gaining students.

Like the three other Allen County public school districts, NACS saw its average daily membership -- a term used in state code -- increase.

These totals do not reflect student enrollment, stressed Holly Lawson, Indiana Department of Education spokeswoman. Enrollment reflects actual students in attendance Oct. 1, and that statewide data was being finalized as of mid-November.

Fall count day was Sept. 17, but the state Department of Education only recently released the final numbers, which are used to determine basic grant funding for schools.

SACS plans nonteaching staff to get 5.5% raises

SACS provides an increase in salaries for essential workers.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Southwest Allen County Schools is awaiting the board's approval to invest $425,000 in pay increases for nonteaching personnel.

The district can support the across-the-board 5.5% raises for classified staff based on additional funding from the state and the 116-student increase in average daily membership, Business Manager Mark Snyder told the board Wednesday.

“Classified staff”refers to employees such as cafeteria workers, maintenance and custodial staff, bus drivers, mechanics, nurses and support workers.

“We are excited to be able to offer a 5.5% increase for all of our classified staff,” Snyder said, adding these employees have received 3.5% and 2.5% raises in recent years.

SACS driver shortfall to worsen: Busing options considered as district growth expected

SACS is growing and needs bus drivers.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

The houses popping up along Bass Road underscore how today's school bus driver shortage has the possibility to get worse as Southwest Allen County Schools' enrollment grows.

“Bass Road is putting in hundreds of houses – hundreds of houses – so we've got a lot of growth that we have to prepare for,” Steve Lake, transportation director, told the board Wednesday. “We have to be ready for all those new kids to come in.”

The pandemic has exacerbated a widespread school bus driver shortage, officials have said. Locally, this has led to excessive transportation delays at Fort Wayne Community Schools and temporary route cancellations at SACS.

“Do I see an end to the issue of driver shortage? I don't see an end to that right now,” Lake said during his annual report on transportation. “So, we're going to have to get smarter and be a lot more efficient.”

PANDERING IN INDIANA

Rokita Again

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita panders to those who are against teaching history. His choice is to further polarize the electorate in order to increase his chance for the office of Governor. Sadly, it just might work.

From Sheila Kennedy

The entire “Parents Bill of Rights” is a “look at me–I’m with you” message to the angry and misinformed parents who have descended on school board meetings to demand a curriculum with which they can feel comfortable. I will refrain from characterizing their desired curriculum, except to note that historical accuracy and civics education–especially study of the First and Fourteenth Amendments (Separation of Church and State and the Equal Protection clause)– are not what they are demanding.

If we’re looking for the causes of “polarization,” we need look no farther than Rokita, the lawmakers who agree with him, and the parents that they and the other Republican culture warriors are gleefully manipulating.

I would love to believe that the transparency of Rokita’s pandering, along with his other off-putting behaviors, will repel Indiana voters and dash his gubernatorial ambitions. He is, after all, held in considerable disdain among Hoosier politicos– very much including Republican ones.

But this is Indiana.

MISSOURI VOUCHERS

Missouri Parent to Legislature: Don’t Defund Our Rural Schools with Charters and Vouchers

More vouchers...this time in Missouri.

From Diane Ravitch

From Public Voices for Public Schools

I tell you the story of rural schools because we are in a fight to keep our public schools funded and open in Missouri. In my state, we are 49th in funding for public schools. We don’t provide public schools with enough for the basics. The state funds just 32% of schools’ budgets, which means that residents must pay for the bulk of their local school expenses through property taxes. That means that our system is highly inequitable. The defunding of Missouri public schools has happened over the last decade, but has been on warp speed in the last five years. The school funding formula was adjusted to lower the amount a few years back, meaning we lowered the funding bar to be able to claim we met the bar. And now, even more bad news for Missouri rural schools: a voucher scheme.

WHO GETS TO CHOOSE WHICH BOOKS ARE BANNED?

I Teach Banned Books

Should parent groups be allowed to ban books in public schools? Do parents have the right to choose what other parents' students read? What if I want to ban a book that you don't want to? 

That's what we have school boards and book adoption committees for!

From Gadfly on the Wall Blog

If you want people to do something, forbid them from doing it.

As a middle school language arts teacher, that’s always worked for me.

Many of my students are reluctant readers.

If a text is longer than a Tweet or a YouTube description, most of them would rather skip it.

And when it comes to books, many of them wouldn’t intentionally crack one open under any circumstances.

Unless you tell them not to.

Unless you point out a specific book on the shelf and say it’s off limits.

Unless you open it up right in front of them before quickly snatching it away and saying, “Oops! I forgot! We can’t read that one!”

So most of my curriculum is made up of banned books.

The Giver, Silent to the Bone, The Diary of Anne Frank, To Kill a Mockingbird – all forbidden in one place or another.

Just not in my district.

In fact, my school board has included each of these books on the approved reading list.

That doesn’t mean I have to use them.

TESTING, TESTING, TESTING...NOT GONE YET!

A Reminder About The Uselessness Of Test Scores

Do test scores tell us anything? 

From Curmudgucation

As we move through the latest stage of the pandemic in schools, we still get a lot of noise about how we Really Need to get those Big Standardized Test scores collected and crunched, because only then can we address Learning Loss or Pandemic Stumble or general Falling Behind.

In doing so, we once again make the same old mistake of trying to use Big Standardized Test scores as a measure of future success (at its most extreme in the "students will suffer with years or lost earnings" think pieces). There is no particular reason to believe this is true...

In other words, a rich kid who drops out of high school has as much a chance of success as a poor kid who graduates from college.

There are plenty of theories about why this is so. A Georgetown study concluded that early tests scores are less predictive of future success than socio-economic status. Those researchers point to an idea that echoes the issue of social capital that Robert Putnam explores in Our Kids-- that wealthier families have connections that both help locate opportunities for children (My kid really likes ponies, and I know a guy who runs a stable) as well as providing a safety net. As the Georgetown report puts it

When students from affluent families stumble, they have a softer landing and assistance getting back on track, while those in adverse environments are more likely to land on rocky ground and never recover.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has changed its online access and is now behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is important, and one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/

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