This blog post is by Jenny Robinson, a member of the Monroe County branch of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education. It appeared as a guest column in the Herald-Times on February 20, 2017.
Test scores of K-12 students are an appealing metric to Indiana’s lawmakers, who are nine times more likely to be business owners than educators (Herald-Times, Jan. 29). The reasoning goes like this: 1) schools should be teaching reading writing, and math, 2) standardized tests measure achievement in those areas and 3) good teachers and good schools will produce students who perform well on standardized tests. Therefore, lawmakers use test scores to decide how well our schools are doing and to assign them A-F grades. Performance grants are meant to reward the “best performers” and motivate the “low performers” to work harder. Just as this carrot-and-stick approach demeans the motivations of our teachers, the focus on standardized tests ignores much of the important, multifaceted work our public schools do. Most of us have high hopes for our children’s experiences in school that include, but are not limited to, acquiring competency in reading, writing and math. We want our children to learn to work with and respect other people; to gain a love of learning; to grow as artists and explorers; to study science, history, and world languages; and to play an instrument in a school band, perform in school plays, or compete on school sports teams. But let’s pretend for a perverse moment that the sole goal we have for our schools is to produce students who can demonstrate achievement on standardized tests of reading and math. We would still have a problem. Test scores do not mainly describe schools’ ability to educate. They reflect the affluence and educational attainment of students’ families more than anything else. Since Indiana’s A-F grades for schools are based largely on test scores, their distribution follows a predictable pattern. Schools serving affluent families, with low free and reduced-price lunch rates, are much more likely to receive A’s than schools serving economically mixed populations. The correlation between scores and free lunch rates is consistent and strong. (Journalist Steve Hinnefeld has documented this for years at INSchoolMatters.wordpress.com.) It is as mathematically clear in our own county as it is across the state. The yearly release of scores brings praise for high-scoring schools — whose students tend to have secure income, housing and food — and shame and consequences for low-scoring ones. The recent distribution of Indiana’s 2016 performance grant money (aka “merit pay”), based on a formula passed by our Legislature, adds insult to injury. Reporter Brittani Howell graphed the amount brought in by each school in the Monroe County Community School Corp., arranging schools in order of their free and reduced lunch rates (Herald-Times, Jan. 28). The 12 schools serving the poorest populations brought in a combined $20,257. The other eight schools with the more affluent populations brought in a combined $258,916 in grant money — a difference of more than 10 to 1. While MCCSC chose to distribute grant money equitably among teachers from all its schools, districts with lower overall wealth received less to give out. Wayne Township teachers received about $42 each, compared with a state high of $2,422 per teacher in well-heeled Carmel Clay — a difference of more than 50 to 1 (WFYI, Dec. 15). Indiana’s “merit pay” formula, like its A-F grading system, rewards the wealthy and punishes the poor. Look away, Hoosiers, and keep walking. Nothing to see here. ICPE-Monroe County chair Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer gave the following speech at the Celebration & Rally for Public Education at the Indiana statehouse, February 20, 2017. We are here once again to celebrate and rally to protect public education. We’ve been here before. Four years ago, we rallied to stop the spread of vouchers. Back then, in 2013, in the name of “school choice,” 37 million of our public tax dollars were siphoned away from public education to private, mostly religious schools. Today that number is near $134 MILLION. Two years ago, we were here protesting the move by Gov. Pence and the state legislature to strip our then-superintendent, Glenda Ritz, of the role and responsibilities we elected her to perform. Today, there is a bill here in the statehouse that would now make that moot. The superintendent of public instruction will now be an appointed position instead of allowing the voters to decide. This is democracy in Indiana. Now, in 2017, we are living in a Brave New World. Governor Pence is now Vice President Pence. And we have at the head of our nation’s education department a billionaire lobbyist, Betsy DeVos, who has no public school experience, no education background, and who has made it her life’s mission to destroy our system of public education. She has been quoted as saying that we must open up the “education industry because it is currently a “dead end, a monopoly.” She said, “government truly sucks.” Now she IS the government that she despises. A Brave New World, indeed. We’re familiar with this rhetoric here in Indiana where DeVos’ friends in our legislature, as well as those donating to their campaign coffers, have said similar things. This is the narrative of corporate education reformers who disdainfully call our public schools “government” schools and who have been passing ALEC legislation for the past several years in order to dismantle it. When we object, they accuse us of “defending the status quo” and argue that our schools are “failing.” They pass laws to void our votes while saying they want POLITICS out of education. SO: How do we fight back? First, we must turn these words around and take back the narrative! We need to celebrate our successes in public schools, but we also must point out that the purpose of education is not to produce workers in the interest of the corporate world. My children are not widgets in a factory. I send my children to public schools to learn to become citizens for a democracy. They learn to respect people who think differently from them, who come from different backgrounds, and they find common ground. They find friendship. It’s not about a parents “right” to “choose.” We don’t ask for choices—we ask for healthy, vibrant public schools. No child is more deserving than another. The focus on personal choice distracts us from our collective, social responsibility for educating ALL of our country’s children. It also covers up the fact that “school choice” is actually about schools choosing the students—and creating separate (but equal?) systems of education that are not accountable, increasing the disparity in education outcomes and dividing our communities. This goes against our democratic ideals. Second, we must organize and act. The outcry and controversy around the confirmation of DeVos should give us hope. Our country supports public education! SO: Write letters to the editor, call your elected officials, form your own chapter of ICPE! We have some amazing parents from the Washington Township Parent Council in our midst and I’d like to give them a shout out for REPRESENTING all parents at education committee hearings and testifying. Thank you for standing up for public education. They are a great example of what engagement looks like. We should all do the same in our own communities. Third, we must engage politically. There is NO WAY to take politics out of education. Many people are reluctant to get “political.” Politics is not about Republican or Democrat. Politics is about your relationship to power. We are in the middle of one of the greatest power struggles for control of our public community schools that we have ever seen. I think they WANT you to feel disenfranchised and hopeless about politics. Why else do they talk about government with such disgust when they are sitting in government seats? When we stand up for our schools, our teachers, and our kids—they accuse us of being political. Okay… LET’S OWN IT. YES. We ARE political. Because in a democracy, power is found in the collective and in our votes. We may not have enough money to buy ourselves a cabinet seat, but we have local positions for which we can run. I am here speaking to you as a mother, and as the chairperson of the Monroe County ICPE, and, although I am not speaking in my official capacity as one, I am also a new school board member. Do you want to help ensure that we fulfill the promise of public education and equity? Run for school board or help get someone elected. If we improve public schools for our kids, we are improving them for ALL kids. None of us can pretend to be neutral politically. As Desmond Tutu has said: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Finally: we must remember: We are not defending the status quo. We are defending democracy. P.S. JOIN ICPE-Monroe County if you are down here in South Central Indiana. Elsewhere in the state or close to Indy, join ICPE (of Vic Smith’s statehouse notes and Joel Hand our lobbyist) here. Interesting in starting your own ICPE group? Email me: tojanama.cathy at gmail.com. TIME TO ORGANIZE. These bills are the bills the committee did not get to or resolve on Tuesday. HB 1384 was suppose to get a hearing last week, but didn't.
HB1130 Protections for student journalists. Provides freedom of speech and freedom of press protections for kindergarten through grade 12 and state educational institution student journalists. Requires school corporations and state educational institutions to adopt policies concerning student journalist protections. Provides that a public school, school corporation, or state educational institution may not suppress school sponsored media unless the content is libelous or slanderous. At the moment ICPE does not have a position on this bill. HB1383 Elementary school teachers. Requires the state board of education to adopt rules to require an elementary school teacher who initially receives a license under this chapter after June 30, 2021, to specialize in a specific content area. Provides that the department of education may not issue a general education elementary school teaching license to an individual who initially applies for a license after June 30, 2021. One should ask, why would a general elementary education teacher need to specialize in a single subject? What is the benefit? HB1384 High school graduation. Changes the definition of "graduation" for the high school graduation rate determination by specifying that students receiving a Core 40 diploma, a technical honors diploma, or an academic honors diploma are counted as graduates. Provides, for purposes of calculating a school's graduation rate, that in the case of a high school student who has not attended the same school within the school corporation for at least 90% of a school year and has exited high school without a regular high school diploma and without transferring to another high school that grants a regular high school diploma during such school year, the department of education shall assign the student to the high school at which the student was enrolled for the greatest proportion of school days while enrolled in grades 9 through 12. Requires the state board to include student mobility rates for purposes of calculating a school's category or designation of school improvement. While ICPE does not have a formal opinion, many local parents are concerned about the general diploma not being included in the initial version of the bill. The bill further goes on to create other provisions about calculating a graduation rate for students who don’t attend a high school full time. The Arc of Indiana strongly opposes this bill as it removes many students who receive special education services and earn a general diploma from the graduation rate. We need to make sure that every student counts. Students who earn a diploma should be counted as graduating. Federal law permits the general diploma and Indiana currently reports graduation rates based on the federal definition. Why would we begin to purposely decrease graduation rates and exclude those students who earn a general diploma? We want to continue to push schools to set high standards for students but for students who cannot satisfy the requirements for a Core 40 or Honors diploma, they should be allowed to earn a general diploma if they satisfy those requirements and should be counted as graduating. For any student to be told that they don’t count is shameful. For students who have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), if they attain the education goals outlined, they deserve to earn that diploma and be counted as a high school graduate. It has been rumored that the version of the bill to be heard today will include the general diploma, but the online digest does not include any amendment to indicate this. Please contact Rep. Behning and urge him that ALL students should count who earn a recognized diploma. To not count students who earn a general diploma sends a message that only certain students count and education for these students will be diminished. Contact all members of the education committee today! Call: (317)232-9600 or (800)382-9842 or email: Chairman Bob Behning h91@iga.in.gov Rep. Tony Cook h32@iga.in.gov Rep. Woody Burton h58@iga.in.gov Rep. Ed Clere h72@iga.in.gov Rep. Dale DeVon h5@iga.in.gov Rep. Jack Jordan h17@iga.in.gov Rep. Vernon Smith h14@iga.in.gov Rep. Ed DeLaney h86@iga.in.gov, ed@delaneylaw.net Rep. Sue Errington h34@iga.in.gov, errington@comcast.net Rep. Sheila Klinker h27@iga.in.gov HB1449 Teacher induction pilot program. Makes changes to who may submit a plan to participate in the career pathways and mentorship program. Establishes the Indiana new educator induction program (program) to give new teachers, principals, and administrators mentoring support. Provides that grants for the program may be made from the system for teacher and student advancement grant fund. Provides that, not later than July 1, 2018, and each July thereafter, the state board of education shall submit a report to the governor and the general assembly regarding the status of the program. Provides that the program expires July 1, 2027. Urges the legislative council to assign to an appropriate study committee for study during the 2017 legislative interim the topic of whether it is appropriate to require teachers to participate in a new educator induction program before being eligible to receive a practitioner license. At the moment ICPE does not have a position on this bill. More details on these bills can be found here. Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to let you know that ICPE-Monroe County has been busy, even if you haven't heard much from us lately! We are trying to keep up with the state and federal education policy and it's been pretty crazy, as you know. Today the senate education committee heard that dreaded bill, SB534 or Special Needs Savings Accounts bill. I hope that you all have signed up for our blog so that you are receiving these calls to action. If not, please let us know and we will help you to do so. Here's the scoop: The good news: it did NOT PASS out of committee. The bad news: it will likely be back. But probably not this session. However, you never know with this legislature. And there's still HB 1591 out there which will be heard tomorrow (I think) and is the universal voucher-type bill (it's actually universal education savings accounts). Here is the background on the special needs savings accounts: The bill heard today in the senate education committee at our statehouse would allow precious funding to leave public schools into, well, nearly anyone's hands in the name of a child with special needs. The parent would waive his or her child's FEDERAL RIGHTS under IDEA to then get a debit card of sorts (overseen only by the state treasurer and not the dept. of education) to pay for "education services" for their children with special needs. Can you imagine what this opens up? No oversight. Perhaps some kind of tutoring service being considered "education" for these kids. The kids would not have to receive these services or this education from teachers trained in special education; in fact, they may not be teachers at all. With the massive amount of oversight or red-tape that might be involved in having oversight, one can imagine how this could be greatly abused. Opiod crisis? This is another way to open up the market for educational services that profit off of our public tax dollars. This is not okay. The potential cost? $144 to $206 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR. This from our state legislature that can't fund schools well enough to ensure teachers get a raise or professional development, etc. This while we are pushing for preschool for Indiana's most vulnerable children and they are saying it is too expensive! (or they are trying to put private school vouchers inside of the preschool bills to further drain money away from kids with highest needs). If you haven't already, please call Senator Kruse and other members of the senate education committee and tell them that you do NOT support these special education vouchers (SB534) nor do you support ANY expansion of vouchers at this time. Let's support preschool and support funding our professional teachers, not redirecting our money to unaccountable "service" "providers" or what-have-you. For more information, please read this great post by our friend Steve Hinnefeld: https://inschoolmatters.wordpress.com/…/latest-voucher-gim…/ Or see our ICPE-Monroe County blog and sign up to receive it: http://www.icpe-monroecounty.org/…/education-bills-to-be-he… You can calll Senator Kruse, chairman of senate education committee, and Senator Raatz who authored or sponsored the bill at this number: (317) 232-9400 Tell them not to bring it back. and email the education committee members and ask them to keep vouchers OUT OF THE PRESCHOOL BILL (like it is right now, SB276) : s1@in.gov;s3@in.gov;s14@in.gov;s17@in.gov;s20@in.gov; s24@in.gov;s27@in.gov;s32@in.gov;s39@in.gov;s40@in.gov; s42@in.gov THANK YOU FOR YOUR ADVOCACY! MORE NEWS--We are helping with a "community conversation" or "discussion" tomorrow (Thursday) night at the public library in Room 1B on state education policy...planned by the IU School of Ed graduate students with the Social Foundations of Education dept. There will be a noon event in the atrium of the School of Education building, also. We'd love to have your expertise and enthusiasm at the discussion tables if you can make it. Please try to join us. I want to thank the Monroe County Community School Corporation for having us partner with them in bringing the Legislative Update event to our community last week on Tuesday evening. It was really interesting to hear from the many panelists--on the heels of Betsy DeVos' confirmation. It's clear that we are going to have to focus on what we can do to support and strengthen our public schools locally and statewide because the federal government appears to be on the attack. We are grateful to those of you who attended that event and we are so lucky to be in a town where the schools are working to inform their community about education in order to empower them to act. MONDAY is the rally for public education brought to you by ICPE and in partnership with public education organizations and advocates from all over the state! "A Celebration of Public Education" will take place at the statehouse and speakers begin at 2:00. I will be speaking, too. Please share this information. I suggest you get there early... there may be many more people than last time (2015). Hopefully, this time the weather will hold out--if you recall, last time it was a snowstorm. The forecast for Monday looks lovely. (Fingers crossed). Many of us are feeling overwhelmed, but I recommend you just take time once a day to try to do some advocacy. Make a call to the senate or house ed committee members. Write a letter to the editor. And then just get out in nature or have fun with friends. We need you energized. THANK YOU! Cathy |
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