Moscow Education (Idaho)

As reported in today’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Lineberger becomes first titleholder from school other than Moscow High School

Naphtali Lineberger made history Saturday night, when she was awarded the title of Moscow's 2009 Junior Miss.

It is the first time in the local scholarship program's history that a participant from a school other than Moscow High School took top honors.

"I'm shocked," said Lineberger, who attends Logos School in Moscow. "I didn't expect to win with so many other talented girls around me."

The competition included 16 girls from Moscow. Participants were judged on talent, fitness, self expression, interview and scholastics. Awards were given to two participants in each category.

Lineberger received a $2,500 scholarship and a medallion in recognition of the honor, as well as $500 in scholarships for winning both the talent and interview portions of the competition.

Lineberger played an excerpt from Johann Pachelbel's "Canon in D" as her talent. Other displays of talent during the evening came in the form of choreographed dances, vocal solos and instrumental solos.

Lineberger said she is "very happy and very grateful" to represent Moscow as Junior Miss. She succeeds 2008 Junior Miss Sarah Nielson.

"I especially want to thank my parents for pushing me to do my best," Lineberger said.

 

 

So much for all of the Intoleristas’ attacks on Logos School a few years ago. If you read the Venom2020 archives, you will see their call for and claim that Logos would be belly-up by 2007. And today it’s in a better financial position than ever before with the highest enrollment ever.

As reported in today’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Logos School to expand playground, parking areas

A car wash on Baker Street in Moscow will be torn down at the end of next month to make room for additional parking spaces and a larger play area for Logos School students.

The school leased the lot above the TLC Car Wash earlier this year to provide a grass-covered playground for its students, and recently purchased the land for roughly $300,000.

Superintendent and Secondary Principal Tom Garfield said the school has wanted to buy the land for the past 15 years but it wasn't for sale until last year.

"Now that we've purchased the land, the former owner is taking out what he wants to keep (and should) be done by the middle of April," Garfield said.

Garfield said the school already has a playground that's located behind the gym.

The new playground will be specifically for younger students because it will be enclosed with a wall that will be built at the end of April or the first part of May, Garfield said.

"The board felt that it was worth it to add (the land) to our campus," he said. "We're very pleased with what we have now. This was a good time to purchase and it was about the only land we could add to the campus."

Garfield said Logos also bought a house on Short Street last year, which it uses for marketing and developing projects.

As reported in yesterday's edition of the Daily Evergreen:

An ’80s themed prom, designed for those who were not able to have the prom of their dreams in high school, is set to grace the Palouse at 9 p.m. Saturday at the Pullman Moose Lodge.

Sponsored by WSU’s GLBTA, University of Idaho’s Gay-Straight Alliance and Inland Oasis, the Queer Prom is open to anyone who wants to attend.

“The overall concept stems from some people’s high school experiences (in which) a lot of them couldn’t bring who they wanted to,” said Rebecca Polak, GLBTA president and a senior social studies major. Mason Fry, a GLBTA committee chairman and freshman psychology major, said he wants the event to help the community accept the queer community as people.

The openness of the prom’s regulations concerning sexuality and gender-bending is supposed to do just that.

“The dance-goers can bring a date of whatever gender they wish, and they can dress however they wish,” said Chris Bidiman, President of UI’s GSA and a senior community health major.

The dance will include a prom king and queen, prom photo opportunities and a drag show. Prom king and queen applications can be found at the GLBTA MySpace page, or on their Facebook group. The drag show features the Local Queens from around the Palouse area, including eastern Washington and western Idaho. There will also be an open bar for everyone 21 and older, and a section roped off for those underage. The DJ is set to play continuous ’80s music for the dancers.

If these polling results are even close to remotely true, it’s time for a school choice initiative in Idaho!

• Friedman/IVA Poll on Educational Choice in Idaho
• IVA Press Release on Friedman/IVA Poll

From Bryan Fischer, Executive Director of the Idaho Values Alliance:

FRIEDMAN/IVA POLL: ONLY 12% OF IDAHOANS WOULD CHOOSE REGULAR PUBLIC SCHOOL IF HAD A CHOICE

A poll commissioned by the prestigious Friedman Foundation and co-sponsored by the Idaho Values Alliance and Education Excellence Idaho found that only 12% of Idahoans would chose a "regular public school" if they had a full range of options.

Even more striking, this figure drops to just 4% among Idahoans age 36-55, who are the chief consumers of public education services in Idaho.

This is an astonishing number, because it tells us that the more Idaho's parents use conventional public education, the less they like it.

This is the most powerful argument possible for increasing school choice in the Gem State.

The survey revealed that 25% of Idahoans would, however, choose charter schools, which are public schools free from much of the bureaucratic red tape that hampers education reform in conventional public schools.

The favorability rating of charter schools number jumps to over 70% among the 36-55 demographic.

This tells us that we need to make it easier for charter schools to open in Idaho, and lift the cap on charter school expansion, which currently limits the number of charter school startups to no more than six per year.

The survey also reveals that 39% of Idahoans would choose private school options if that alternative was accessible to them. This is a compelling reason for the legislature to consider education tax credits, which would allow Idaho's parents a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for the money they spend on private school tuition.

Education tax credits would make private school options more accessible to Idaho parents, and would cause genuine school choice to flourish.

Is it another sign of the times that Boise State University gets 26% more than the University of Idaho?

It really seems that the education mantle has been passed down to Boise.

Via the Associated Press:

A report by the Chronicle of Higher Education says Idaho colleges are getting more than $20 million that Congress has approved on collegiate earmarks.

That's part of a record high of $2.25 billion approved for institutions nationally, representing nearly 900 projects, four times as many awards given in 1998.

The Idaho Statesman reports that Boise State University will get $9.4 million and the University of Idaho $7 million.

Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig, who is retiring at the end of the year, sponsored 25 Idaho higher education earmarks last year.

Craig serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and some Idaho school officials are concerned that the state might not get as much earmark money once he retires.

Here’s something interesting: it’s cheaper for college professors at the UI to educate our high schoolers than it is for MSD to do so.

Perhaps we should outsource the entire Moscow High to the UI?

As reported in today’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Moscow High School students who thought they couldn't afford to take dual-enrollment classes through the University of Idaho might have reason to reconsider.

Moscow High School Principal Bob Celebrezze told school board members at their Tuesday meeting that dual-enrollment offerings for high school students will cost significantly less than what UI students pay for the same classes.

Dual-enrollment classes give students the opportunity to satisfy high school requirements and obtain college credits at the same time.

"The advantages are plentiful and the disadvantages are zero," Celebrezze said.

Celebrezze said classes that will be offered as soon as next fall will likely include U.S. history II, speech, government, crime and justice, psychology and drama. The classes will cost Moscow High School students $65 per credit versus the $212 paid by UI students.

"I do believe this will be a springboard for additional classes, too," Celebrezze said.

Students will have the option to take college-level courses taught by teachers at Moscow High School, or enroll in classes at the UI. Classes taught at Moscow High School will be free to students who aren't seeking transferable college credits.

Why would someone want to take a “college-level course” by a MHS teacher that are not college credits? Isn’t that another way of calling these Advanced Placement classes?

Celebrezze said he and Moscow School District officials are trying to determine what can be done for students who can't afford the $65-per-credit fee.

"I believe that is a very important piece, and we have not gotten there yet," he said.

Celebrezze said the UI also has offered two on-campus parking spaces for high school students who take dual-enrollment classes.

Moscow High School students presently can only enroll in dual-enrollment classes offered through Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston.

"I'm very optimistic that this will only increase opportunities" for the students, Celebrezze said of dual-enrollment offerings through the UI. "The number of students taking concurrent classes, historically, has been quite low, but this is about to explode." 

From EIA:

"For anyone keeping score, that breaks down to $1,400 for each hour Mills was married to the former Beatle – or $33,600 per day during her marriage to McCartney. By comparison, the average teacher in Alabama earns $40,347 a year according to the National Education Association. That means Mills would have earned more than half of an average Alabama teacher's salary in just 24 hours." – from an Access Hollywood story on Heather Mills' $49 million divorce settlement with Paul McCartney. (March 17 Access Hollywood)

 

The lesson is clear: If someone offers you a job teaching in Alabama, you should turn it down and, instead, marry Paul McCartney. 

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

From EIA:

The late American Federation of Teachers President Al Shanker may have been the one to introduce the charter school concept, but teachers' unions have been the staunchest opponents of charter school laws ever since the first one was passed in Minnesota in 1991.

 

With a few exceptions, charter schools can now be found from sea to shining sea, and beyond. Hawaii enacted a charter school law in 1994, and now the territory of Guam has introduced the Guam Charter Schools Act of 2008. And, like clockwork, the Guam Federation of Teachers announced its opposition:

"Guam Federation of Teachers President Matt Rector claims they never, ever work, citing a U.S. Department of Education study that shows public schools do as well or better than charter schools. He adds the schools union-bust because GFT would have to negotiate a contract for every individually chartered school."

Well, as any good union activist knows, the charter school concept was hijacked by corporate interests, privatizers and political conservatives to do away with public schools. But is this just projection on the unions' part?

 

Across the other ocean, there is a proposal to abolish schools. But it's to abolish private schools, and the idea comes from Bill Greenshields, president of Great Britain's National Union of Teachers.

 

Greenshields told union members at a meeting in Manchester, "Let's consider our own direction of travel – from private to public, towards bringing all schools into the state sector. Then we would soon see some urgent improvements in our state system."

 

The story is deliciously headlined, "NUT head Bill Greenshields wants nationalisation of private education."

 

Like the courtiers of King Canute, the unions believe a royal command should be sufficient to stem the tide. But it comes in, all the same. 

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

From EIA:

 One would think that with all the technological and statistical tools at their disposal, school districts and state agencies would be able to make reasonably accurate predictions of enrollment and, therefore, hiring needs.

 

However, in state after state we are seeing layoffs and marked competition for the job openings that do exist. In Florida, for example, the need for new teachers is about half what it was just two years ago. In the public school labor market, as with many other human endeavors, we often treat the problems of shortages and gluts as if they never existed before.

 

Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, we can see plainly that these problems existed before, and a lot of the same solutions were applied. JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive allows us to take a look at what the best minds in education research thought about problems way back when, and for our purposes JSTOR provides some access to old issues of Educational Research Bulletin.

 

The bulletin ran an annual feature of investigations of teacher supply and demand, co-authored over the years by R.H. Eliassen, Earl W. Anderson and Margaret A. Vesey. The articles not only furnish information about shortages and gluts of the past, but challenge our current assumptions about their causes.

 

For example, teacher shortages today are often blamed on increased opportunities for women compared to the past. Certainly today women have a much wider choice of careers available to them, but as it turns out, 2.0.CO;2-1&size=SMALL&origin=JSTOR-reducePage" href="http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1555-4023(19430512)22:5%3c126:IOTSAD%3e2.0.CO;2-1&size=SMALL&origin=JSTOR-reducePage">back in 1942 it was a combination of new choices and a lack of choices that contributed to a teacher shortage:

 

"Numerous causes – the exodus into more remunerative positions in industry, government work, or business, the calls into military life, and the marriage of women teachers – contributed to this situation. Some married women left teaching to live near their husbands who were in military camps. Others resigned because their husbands had increased their incomes, and a few left teaching in the effort to keep their husbands from being drafted for military service."

 

The war years saw extreme shortages in teachers of subjects traditionally taught by men, particularly math and science. The 2.0.CO;2-J&size=SMALL&origin=JSTOR-reducePage" href="http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1555-4023(19440216)23:2%3c46:TSADIR%3e2.0.CO;2-J&size=SMALL&origin=JSTOR-reducePage">1943 2.0.CO;2-J&size=SMALL&origin=JSTOR-reducePage" style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Bulletin indicated a need for between 150,000 and 200,000 teachers – greater than the current alarmist predictions with a much smaller population base. Measures taken to mitigate the shortage included "sharing circuit teachers" and issuing special certificates to teachers of "substandard training."

 

By the early 1950s the war was no longer causing shortages, but the baby boom was. The 2.0.CO;2-S" href="http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1555-4023(19540512)33:5%3c128:IOTSAD%3e2.0.CO;2-S">1953 2.0.CO;2-S" style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Bulletin cites this quote from a leading researcher:

 

"This cumulative deficit of qualified teachers stretches back a decade or more and seems destined to worsen as far as we can see into the future. It is like a creeping paralysis!"

 

By the following year, the problem had grown to the point where it was a subject of an 2.0.CO;2-4" href="http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1555-4023(19550413)34:4%3c85:IOTSAD%3e2.0.CO;2-4">Edward R. Murrow news broadcast:

"There are too few teachers, too many teachers who are not fully qualified to teacher, classrooms are too crowded, some schools will be working three shifts, holding classes in cafeterias, churches, synagogues and in at least one case a converted chicken coop."

 

By 1956 the crisis had crested somewhat, with 2.0.CO;2-O" href="http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1555-4023(19570410)36:4%3c144:IOTSAD%3e2.0.CO;2-O">the 2.0.CO;2-O" style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Bulletin reporting that instructional staff had increased by 55,000 while enrollment increased by 1,197,000. That's about one new instructor for every 22 new students. Compare that ratio with the most recent estimates from NEA. From Fall 2005 to Fall 2006, enrollment increased by 165,037 while instructional staff increased by 65,494. That's one new instructor for every 2.5 new students.

 

All of this provides a useful perspective, both to those who think of the post-war years as the good old days and those who see current problems as unique and insurmountable crises.

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

I really want to brag about my #1 daughter.

At the Idaho State Mock Trial competition in Boise this week, she was able to pull of something that no one has in memory — she got an outstanding attorney award in all three consecutive rounds — Friday evening in the Ada County Court prelim competition, Saturday morning at the Federal Court semi-finals competition, and Saturday afternoon at the Idaho Supreme Court finals competition.

I’m so grateful for and honored by my daughter’s performance that I’m about to pop — and I just had to tell the world.

Well done, darling!

And I hope that her performance and the performance of the other Logos Varsity team lady lawyers will once and for all put a nail in the coffin of Rose Huskey’s vile comment:

I just wondered if any of the young women on the Logos legal team actually argued the case, or, were they limited to the role of witnesses or nonverbal support staff?

I also want to congratulate other team members who won awards as well:

• Tyler Evans: outstanding attorney
• Jessica Blakey: outstanding witness
• Elliot Dickison: outstanding witness

Well done to the Logos mock trial teams!

When the Logos Varsity and Junior Varsity Mock Trial teams both made it to the final round of competition before the Idaho Supreme Court on Friday, my daughter had the opportunity to participate in something very special for only the second time.

The first time was her first year on the team (2005) when she was a freshman. She was on the Junior Varsity team that year and got to argue against her senior class before the Idaho Supreme Court.

Now this year, she is the senior and got to debate the underclassmen. And this year she was the one who had to sweat. My #1 son gave the defense opening. The Logos Junior Varsity team is always their stiffest competition. And four years ago, the JV team actually beat the varsity team.

As it turned out this year, the varsity team only won by 11 points (out of 600 possible points).

This is quite an honor for Logos. There were 40 schools that participated in the Idaho mock trial competition. Only 12 of those went on to the state competition. Only 4 of those went to the semi-finals. And only 2 went to the final competition — both from Logos School.

Here are some pictures from the competition. More shortly.

The Logos Varsity Mock Trial team won the Idaho State Mock Trial championship.

I’ll post pictures of the teams shortly.

Well done, Knights!

Both the Logos Varsity and Junior Varsity Mock Trial Teams won their rounds at the semi-finals this morning before the Federal Court.

The two teams have the opportunity to debate the case before the Idaho Supreme Court this afternoon. Supreme Court Justice Joel D. Horton is presiding over the case. Justice Roger Burdick was also judging the case.

This is an enjoyable treat to have both teams debate each other before the Supreme Court. The last time that happened was 2005 (my daughter’s freshman year).

Regardless of who wins, Logos will for the 5^th year in a row be representing the State of Idaho at the National Competition.

Go Knights!

As soon as students have a union that represents their interests over against the interests of the teaches union, we may see education improve.

"When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children."

—The late Albert Shanker, the AFT's longtime president, famously remarked in 1985

From Jon Berry:

Since its launch on Tuesday, TeachersUnionExposed.com has been making all sorts of news. USA TODAY, America’s most widely circulated newspaper, ran an article that called our Ten Worst Union-Protected Teachers contest “breathtaking in its political incorrectness.” The New York Post turned in an article on our campaign that opens, “Give us your mean, your inept, your lazy.” The United Press International and Cybercast News Service both ran stories on the launch.

We’re glad that our campaign is bringing much-needed attention to how hard it is to get rid of bad union-protected teachers, so we’re especially pleased that the Associated Press’s story, “Critics Hope to Teach Unions a Lesson,” has run in over two hundred newspapers since Tuesday.

The following article ran in today’s Lewiston Tribune.

It won't get easier to fire public school teachers this year, after the last vestige of the much-debated iStars plan died in the Idaho Senate Education Committee Thursday.

Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, chairman of the education committee, pulled back a bill to "streamline termination" of teachers because the Idaho School Boards Association withdrew its support.

"I hope I don't ever have a school board trustee complain about the cost and time it takes to fire a teacher ever again because I'll remind them of what happened today," Goedde told the committee.

Goedde worked with the Idaho Education Association, which is the teachers' union, and the school boards association for a month to craft the compromise. School boards and administrators have contended it is too hard to fire bad teachers, who can drag out their firings for years in court.

Goedde, and other conservative Republicans, have cited the issue as a reason to reform teacher pay and employment standards. His bill would have created an option of binding arbitration to avoid time and expense in court.

"There were no time frames in the bill," said Karen Echeverria, executive director of the school boards association.

…

Instead of Luna's pay plan, the state budget committee has approved $24.7 million for teacher salary increases. That includes raising the minimum starting wage to $31,750 and boosting all other pay by 2.5 percent.

If that passes the Legislature, the pay increases would go into effect July 1.

More pay for the same mediocrity.

Priceless.

Here’s a picture of what it takes to fire a government school teacher.

This again from a famous UW graduate: M.J. McDermott of KCPQ. It appears that UW is on the bandwagon to increase math skills in Washington.

This is how “double digit multiplication” is now taught. And they have the nerve to call it “Reform Math”!

There’s little wonder that kids cannot do simple math when they get to middle school.

This reminds me of “new math” that was being taught in the late 60s/early 70s. I cannot repeat on this family website what my father said when he was trying to help me with my math in the 5^th grade.

Give me that old-time religion math: the “Singapore method” called the “standard algorithm.”

Cliff Mass, professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington, discusses UW’s take on the lowering math quality.

Look at the results of the pre-calculus placement exam at UW for the past decade.

These are not anecdotal stories but hard data.

Anyone who has worked in the math and science academic world (such as I have) can vouch for what he says here.

12 Idaho high schools competed today in the state mock trial competition. Those 12 schools were whittled down to four for the semi-final round tomorrow.

Both the Logos Varsity and Junior Varsity mock trial teams made it into the semi-final round of the Idaho State Mock Trial competition.

The semi-finals will be argued at the federal courthouse in Boise tomorrow morning (Friday).

That will be a double-elimination, with the final two teams arguing before the Idaho Supreme Court on Friday afternoon.

Four years ago, the Logos Varsity and Junior Varsity teams had the opportunity to argue before the Idaho Supreme Court against each other. That only happens when the two teams don’t play each other in the semi-final round (which is the “luck of the draw”).

I’m hoping that in my daughter’s senior year, she’ll have the opportunity to go to the national competition.

And it would be great if my two oldest were able to argue against each other in the Supreme Court!

As I mentioned previously, in 1983 a blue ribbon commission did an exhaustive review of the US government schools and published A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform.

They made quite a few recommendations, and I want to summarize these for you.

Here is recommendation #5 concerning leadership and fiscal support. As you read this, ask yourselves — have any of these recommendations been implemented?

Notice how more and more control of the local schools has been transferred away from parents and to the State and Feds.

Implementing Recommendations

1. Principals and superintendents must play a crucial leadership role in developing school and community support for the reforms we propose, and school boards must provide them with the professional development and other support required to carry out their leadership role effectively. The Commission stresses the distinction between leadership skills involving persuasion, setting goals and developing community consensus behind them, and managerial and supervisory skills. Although the latter are necessary, we believe that school boards must consciously develop leadership skills at the school and district levels if the reforms we propose are to be achieved.
2. State and local officials, including school board members, governors, and legislators, have the primary responsibility for financing and governing the schools, and should incorporate the reforms we propose in their educational policies and fiscal planning.
3. The Federal Government, in cooperation with States and localities, should help meet the needs of key groups of students such as the gifted and talented, the socioeconomically disadvantaged, minority and language minority students, and the handicapped. In combination these groups include both national resources and the Nation's youth who are most at risk.
4. In addition, we believe the Federal Government's role includes several functions of national consequence that States and localities alone are unlikely to be able to meet: protecting constitutional and civil rights for students and school personnel; collecting data, statistics, and information about education generally; supporting curriculum improvement and research on teaching, learning, and the management of schools; supporting teacher training in areas of critical shortage or key national needs; and providing student financial assistance and research and graduate training. We believe the assistance of the Federal Government should be provided with a minimum of administrative burden and intrusiveness.
5. The Federal Government has the primary responsibility to identify the national interest in education. It should also help fund and support efforts to protect and promote that interest. It must provide the national leadership to ensure that the Nation's public and private resources are marshaled to address the issues discussed in this report.
6. This Commission calls upon educators, parents, and public officials at all levels to assist in bringing about the educational reform proposed in this report. We also call upon citizens to provide the financial support necessary to accomplish these purposes. Excellence costs. But in the long run mediocrity costs far more.

As I mentioned previously, in 1983 a blue ribbon commission did an exhaustive review of the US government schools and published A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform.

They made quite a few recommendations, and I want to summarize these for you.

Here is recommendation #4 concerning teaching. As you read this, ask yourselves — have any of these recommendations been implemented? And would the teachers unions ever allow any of these to be implemented?

1. Persons preparing to teach should be required to meet high educational standards, to demonstrate an aptitude for teaching, and to demonstrate competence in an academic discipline. Colleges and universities offering teacher preparation programs should be judged by how well their graduates meet these criteria.
2. Salaries for the teaching profession should be increased and should be professionally competitive, market-sensitive, and performance-based. Salary, promotion, tenure, and retention decisions should be tied to an effective evaluation system that includes peer review so that superior teachers can be rewarded, average ones encouraged, and poor ones either improved or terminated.
3. School boards should adopt an 11-month contract for teachers. This would ensure time for curriculum and professional development, programs for students with special needs, and a more adequate level of teacher compensation.
4. School boards, administrators, and teachers should cooperate to develop career ladders for teachers that distinguish among the beginning instructor, the experienced teacher, and the master teacher.
5. Substantial nonschool personnel resources should be employed to help solve the immediate problem of the shortage of mathematics and science teachers. Qualified individuals, including recent graduates with mathematics and science degrees, graduate students, and industrial and retired scientists could, with appropriate preparation, immediately begin teaching in these fields. A number of our leading science centers have the capacity to begin educating and retraining teachers immediately. Other areas of critical teacher need, such as English, must also be addressed.
6. Incentives, such as grants and loans, should be made available to attract outstanding students to the teaching profession, particularly in those areas of critical shortage.
7. Master teachers should be involved in designing teacher preparation programs and in supervising teachers during their probationary years.

As I mentioned previously, in 1983 a blue ribbon commission did an exhaustive review of the US government schools and published A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform.

They made quite a few recommendations, and I want to summarize these for you.

Here is recommendation #3 concerning time. As you read this, ask yourselves — have any of these recommendations been implemented? And would the teachers unions ever allow any of these to be implemented?

Implementing Recommendations

1. Students in high schools should be assigned far more homework than is now the case.
2. Instruction in effective study and work skills, which are essential if school and independent time is to be used efficiently, should be introduced in the early grades and continued throughout the student's schooling.
3. School districts and State legislatures should strongly consider 7-hour school days, as well as a 200- to 220-day school year.
4. The time available for learning should be expanded through better classroom management and organization of the school day. If necessary, additional time should be found to meet the special needs of slow learners, the gifted, and others who need more instructional diversity than can be accommodated during a conventional school day or school year.
5. The burden on teachers for maintaining discipline should be reduced through the development of firm and fair codes of student conduct that are enforced consistently, and by considering alternative classrooms, programs, and schools to meet the needs of continually disruptive students.
6. Attendance policies with clear incentives and sanctions should be used to reduce the amount of time lost through student absenteeism and tardiness.
7. Administrative burdens on the teacher and related intrusions into the school day should be reduced to add time for teaching and learning.
8. Placement and grouping of students, as well as promotion and graduation policies, should be guided by the academic progress of students and their instructional needs, rather than by rigid adherence to age.

As I mentioned previously, in 1983 a blue ribbon commission did an exhaustive review of the US government schools and published A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform.

They made quite a few recommendations, and I want to summarize these for you.

Here is recommendation #2 concerning standards and expectations. As you read this, ask yourselves — have any of these recommendations been implemented? And would the teachers unions ever allow any of these to be implemented?

Implementing Recommendations

1. Grades should be indicators of academic achievement so they can be relied on as evidence of a student's readiness for further study.
2. Four-year colleges and universities should raise their admissions requirements and advise all potential applicants of the standards for admission in terms of specific courses required, performance in these areas, and levels of achievement on standardized achievement tests in each of the five Basics and, where applicable, foreign languages.
3. Standardized tests of achievement (not to be confused with aptitude tests) should be administered at major transition points from one level of schooling to another and particularly from high school to college or work. The purposes of these tests would be to: (a) certify the student's credentials; (b) identify the need for remedial intervention; and (c) identify the opportunity for advanced or accelerated work. The tests should be administered as part of a nationwide (but not Federal) system of State and local standardized tests. This system should include other diagnostic procedures that assist teachers and students to evaluate student progress.
4. Textbooks and other tools of learning and teaching should be upgraded and updated to assure more rigorous content. We call upon university scientists, scholars, and members of professional societies, in collaboration with master teachers, to help in this task, as they did in the post-Sputnik era. They should assist willing publishers in developing the products or publish their own alternatives where there are persistent inadequacies.
5. In considering textbooks for adoption, States and school districts should: (a) evaluate texts and other materials on their ability to present rigorous and challenging material clearly; and (b) require publishers to furnish evaluation data on the material's effectiveness.
6. Because no textbook in any subject can be geared to the needs of all students, funds should be made available to support text development in "thin-market" areas, such as those for disadvantaged students, the learning disabled, and the gifted and talented.
7. To assure quality, all publishers should furnish evidence of the quality and appropriateness of textbooks, based on results from field trials and credible evaluation. In view of the enormous numbers and varieties of texts available, more widespread consumer information services for purchasers are badly needed.
8. New instructional materials should reflect the most current applications of technology in appropriate curriculum areas, the best scholarship in each discipline, and research in learning and teaching.

As I mentioned previously, in 1983 a blue ribbon commission did an exhaustive review of the US government schools and published A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform.

They made quite a few recommendations, and I want to summarize these for you.

Here is recommendation #1 concerning content. As you read this, ask yourselves — have any of these recommendations been implemented? And would the teachers unions ever allow any of these to be implemented?

We recommend that State and local high school graduation requirements be strengthened and that, at a minimum, all students seeking a diploma be required to lay the foundations in the Five New Basics by taking the following curriculum during their 4 years of high school: (a) 4 years of English; (b) 3 years of mathematics; (c) 3 years of science; (d) 3 years of social studies; and (e) one-half year of computer science. For the college-bound, 2 years of foreign language in high school are strongly recommended in addition to those taken earlier.

Whatever the student's educational or work objectives, knowledge of the New Basics is the foundation of success for the after-school years and, therefore, forms the core of the modern curriculum. A high level of shared education in these Basics, together with work in the fine and performing arts and foreign languages, constitutes the mind and spirit of our culture. The following Implementing Recommendations are intended as illustrative descriptions. They are included here to clarify what we mean by the essentials of a strong curriculum.

Implementing Recommendations

1. The teaching of English in high school should equip graduates to: (a) comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and use what they read; (b) write well-organized, effective papers; (c) listen effectively and discuss ideas intelligently; and (d) know our literary heritage and how it enhances imagination and ethical understanding, and how it relates to the customs, ideas, and values of today's life and culture.
2. The teaching of mathematics in high school should equip graduates to: (a) understand geometric and algebraic concepts; (b) understand elementary probability and statistics; (c) apply mathematics in everyday situations; and (d) estimate, approximate, measure, and test the accuracy of their calculations. In addition to the traditional sequence of studies available for college-bound students, new, equally demanding mathematics curricula need to be developed for those who do not plan to continue their formal education immediately.
3. The teaching of science in high school should provide graduates with an introduction to: (a) the concepts, laws, and processes of the physical and biological sciences; (b) the methods of scientific inquiry and reasoning; (c) the application of scientific knowledge to everyday life; and (d) the social and environmental implications of scientific and technological development. Science courses must be revised and updated for both the college-bound and those not intending to go to college. An example of such work is the American Chemical Society's "Chemistry in the Community" program.
4. The teaching of social studies in high school should be designed to: (a) enable students to fix their places and possibilities within the larger social and cultural structure; (b) understand the broad sweep of both ancient and contemporary ideas that have shaped our world; and (c) understand the fundamentals of how our economic system works and how our political system functions; and (d) grasp the difference between free and repressive societies. An understanding of each of these areas is requisite to the informed and committed exercise of citizenship in our free society.
5. The teaching of computer science in high school should equip graduates to: (a) understand the computer as an information, computation, and communication device; (b) use the computer in the study of the other Basics and for personal and work-related purposes; and (c) understand the world of computers, electronics, and related technologies.

   In addition to the New Basics, other important curriculum matters must be addressed.

6. Achieving proficiency in a foreign language ordinarily requires from 4 to 6 years of study and should, therefore, be started in the elementary grades. We believe it is desirable that students achieve such proficiency because study of a foreign language introduces students to non-English-speaking cultures, heightens awareness and comprehension of one's native tongue, and serves the Nation's needs in commerce, diplomacy, defense, and education.
7. The high school curriculum should also provide students with programs requiring rigorous effort in subjects that advance students' personal, educational, and occupational goals, such as the fine and performing arts and vocational education. These areas complement the New Basics, and they should demand the same level of performance as the Basics.
8. The curriculum in the crucial eight grades leading to the high school years should be specifically designed to provide a sound base for study in those and later years in such areas as English language development and writing, computational and problem solving skills, science, social studies, foreign language, and the arts. These years should foster an enthusiasm for learning and the development of the individual's gifts and talents.
9. We encourage the continuation of efforts by groups such as the American Chemical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Modern Language Association, and the National Councils of Teachers of English and Teachers of Mathematics, to revise, update, improve, and make available new and more diverse curricular materials. We applaud the consortia of educators and scientific, industrial, and scholarly societies that cooperate to improve the school curriculum.

As I mentioned previously, in 1983 a blue ribbon commission did an exhaustive review of the US government schools and published A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform.

They made quite a few recommendations, and I want to summarize these for you.

Realize: these recommendations are from 25 years ago and involve a study of the state of government schools for the previous 10+ years. As you read this, ask yourselves — have any of these recommendations been implemented? And would the teachers unions ever allow any of these to be implemented?

There are 5 groups of recommendations. I’m going to break those up into 5 posts:

1. Recommendation A: Content
2. Recommendation B: Standards and Expectations
3. Recommendation C: Time
4. Recommendation D: Teaching
5. Recommendation E: Leadership and Fiscal Support

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results."

— Albert Einstein

When it comes to education, we’ve been demonstrating national insanity for the last 25+ years.

If you’ve never had a chance to read the 1983 findings of the blue ribbon commission’s A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform, I encourage you to take a look at it. If nothing else, read the recommendations. They are amazing, and nail the problems that have existed for generations. I’ll post a summary of those shortly.

From Family Security Matters:

The headline in question: “Survey Finds Teenagers Ignorant on Basic History and Literature Questions.” And this time around it’s not farce, it’s still tragedy. Because the same headlines announcing the same deplorable facts appeared 25 years ago, and nothing seems to have changed in the intervening years.  Yes, there have been many kinds of changes in the schools since the mid-1980s, but improvement in what  really counts – what young Americans know about their country and their world – is not  among them.

Anxiety about the state of schooling in America was launched in 1957 with Sputnik, the USSR satellite program that served to warn that the U.S. was falling behind in the technology race. Finally, in 1983, a blue-ribbon commission was created by the Reagan administration to investigate the question of what had been happening to America’s schools. The result was a brilliant report titled “A Nation At Risk,” which declared,

“Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world” and identified the dimension of the problem “that undergirds American prosperity, security, and civility…. the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people…. If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. 

As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves. We have even squandered the gains in student achievement made in the wake of the Sputnik challenge….We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament. Our society and its educational institutions seem to have lost sight of the basic purposes of schooling, and of the high expectations and disciplined effort needed to attain them.” 

A gauntlet had been thrown down before the educational establishment, and plans for reform seemed to come from all directions.  But before settling on the diagnosis and cure, the symptoms have to be identified.  This was the purpose of a ground-breaking book by education historian Diane Ravitch and policy expert Chester E. Finn, Jr., titled “What Do Our 17-Year-Olds Know: A Report on the First National Assessment of History and Literature.” Analyzing the results of a test administered to a sample of high-school juniors of different races, sexes, income levels and geographic regions, Ravitch and Finn revealed some shocking numbers. Little more than half could answer the questions on literature or history.  Only 20% could identify Joyce or Dostoevsky, fewer than 25% could identify Henry James or Thomas Hardy, only one in three knew Chaucer was the author of The Canterbury Tales, 65% did not know what 1984 or Lord of the Flies is about.

It gets worse. One third of these American high school students could not identify the phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as coming from the Declaration of Independence and even those who identified the phrase correctly could not articulate the document’s significance; some who found the phrase familiar thought it came from the Gettysburg Address. 

Three quarters of the students did not know when Abraham Lincoln was president; three of every ten could not place the Civil War in the proper half-century. More than a third could not place the writing of the Constitution in the proper half-century. Map questions revealed only the most elementary knowledge of American or European geography; many girls, black and Hispanic students had trouble locating Great Britain. For the most part what information or misinformation students had about world events and great works of literature seem to come from movies and television rather than from school.

Fast forward to last week’s New York Times article. Twenty-five years after the wake-up call of “A Nation at Risk,” twenty years after the depressing answer to “What Do Our Seventeen-Year Olds Know,” the news in 2008 is that our schools still aren’t doing their job and that our high school students remain ignorant of basic U.S. and world history and literature. The familiar story reported by the Times: Fewer than half of today’s American teenagers today asked questions from the 1986 survey knew when the Civil War was fought, and one in four said Columbus sailed to the New World “some time after 1750.”  (The Times adds to the last sentence “not in 1492,” in case some of its readers might not know the date either.  After all, they are products of America’s schools.)

Other results were equally appalling when one considers that these are the citizens who will choose the next generation of the country’s leaders – and who might even be among those leaders themselves.  About a quarter of today’s high school juniors were unable to identify Hitler as Germany’s leader in World War II. The rest guessed he was a munitions maker, an Austrian premier or the German Kaiser.   Roughly half knew Job as the Biblical figure embodying patience in the face of suffering. The other half thought he might have been a builder, a warrior or a prophet. While the past and its great works remain a mystery to most American teenagers, what they do know illustrates the emphasis on race in today’s curriculum. Although uncertain about Abraham Lincoln, most were familiar with Martin Luther King, Jr. and knew the plot of To Kill a Mockingbird.

HT: Dave G.

Read about it in USA TODAY

Today they launched the Center for Union Facts teachers union campaign: TeachersUnionExposed.com.

At TeachersUnionExposed.com you can learn how teachers unions:

• block education reform;
• hamper school quality;
• protect bad teachers; and
• misuse teachers’ forced dues money.

There’s completely original research into how local teachers unions keep bad teachers from being fired.

See the listing of profiled unions here,

You’ve got to read this one really carefully to get the full impact of what’s happening.

Recall when I said that kids won’t get a good education until they are unionized and pay dues themselves? Here’s an example in spades. Why the progressives cannot see that teachers unions are saying “screw the kids; it’s all about us” is beyond me.

From today's Spokesman Review.

A grant that would pour millions of dollars into three Spokane-area high schools to boost participation in Advanced Placement courses may not be awarded because of opposition from local teachers unions over the funding.

The unions for Spokane and Central Valley school district educators say the privately funded grants violate collective bargaining agreements by paying teachers a stipend for students’ passing grades on the College Board’s AP exams.

Students could also receive up to $100 for each test passed.

“One of the tenants of collective bargaining is that salary and benefits are negotiated; pay for performance is not one of the tenants,” said Maureen Ramos, president of the Spokane Education Association.

…

But Ramos argued that the grant funding would only affect two of Spokane’s six high schools, creating an equity issue. And the union doesn’t agree with the idea of “pitting one teacher against another,” she said

The way the funding would be allocated to staff is restrictive, and “keeps professional growth from happening in the entire school,” Ramos said.

…

“Is the intent of having more AP classes and more access to those classes not good? Of course that’s good,” Ramos said. “But the pay for performance issue; it’s something that is nationwide and not where we want to go.”

Of course you don’t want to be accountable for the performance of your students. Get tenure after three four years; earn $65+ with benefits for 9 months of work; and never have to actually teach anyone. What a deal.

As reported in today’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Palouse Prairie Charter School officials still hope to open their doors in fall 2009 despite having their charter application denied last week in Boise.

The Idaho Public Charter School Commission turned down the proposed Moscow charter school's application Thursday. It was the second time Palouse Prairie officials had applied for a charter from the commission.

Commission Chairman Bill Goesling of Moscow said the proposed school will receive official notification by the end of the week, declining its application.

He said there were two major areas of concern - the school's budget and the lack of a suitable facility.

"When they made the first application, we (also) mentioned those concerns," Goesling said.

Idaho Charter Schools Program Manager Tamara Baysinger said the commission was pleased with Palouse Prairie's educational program, but there wasn't sufficient evidence that the school would succeed financially.

"The commission acknowledged that the petitioners did a lot of work," Baysinger said. "Unfortunately, there still wasn't an adequate facility."

Baysinger said although it's possible the school still could open in 2009, that is unlikely.

The petitioners would either have to go through the appeals process or start over with a new charter petition, which could take eight months to a year, she said.

 

Mark J. Perry discusses the fact that the college tuition rate has been rising significantly faster than oil prices.

And he asks: why are there no congressional hearings about “tuition gouging?”