​Last year myself and others spoke to the board about a few things. I was concerned about class size, especially in Title I schools. No elementary teacher should teach a class of 30, especially in a Title I school. In addition, I suggested that there be an audit of all the assessments given in the district. 
 
Since then, there was an information night explaining all the mandated assessments and an assessment matrix was created. It’s good transparency. In addition, since then, ILEARN results came out and we all discovered that the cut scores the state chose were not ideal, resulting in low scores for many districts. Teachers in lower socio-economic schools were discouraged as they worked so hard. Currently our legislators are determining to hold schools harmless from ILEARN scores for last year and this year. 
 
Last week my daughter came home to tell me she spent the day practicing ILEARN. She is in 6th grade at Binford. All 4 core periods were spent practicing ILEARN. I asked the principal and one of her teachers and they confirmed that the district is requiring ILEARN to be practiced 2x on top of the state mandated practice session. 
 
Parents should know how many assessments and practice assessments their kids are given each year that are mandated—not by the choice of the teacher. A district ought to know how many assessments their employees are administering to children and how much time it takes their teachers to administer. What curriculum is lost due to these assessments? Yes, some assessments are useful but others may just be taking up precious teaching and learning time. 
 
I have given you a spreadsheet based on a very informal survey of the mandated assessments that K-6 teachers give. Some are short, some are long. Some are given in a group, some are given individually. Some are online, some are oral, some are on paper. All interrupt a teacher’s day. If a class is 30, that’s a lot of assessments to administer. 

Worthy bills were filed this session--bills that that would get rid of the third-grade reading test (IREAD), increase charter transparency and accountability, and increase teacher pay. Those bills did not get heard by committee. However, in response to the Red for Ed activism, legislators are moving to decouple teacher evaluations from test scores and to hold schools and districts harmless from the harm imposed on them by a poorly made state standardized test, ILEARN.

Our lobbyist Joel Hand explains: Starting on Monday, most bills that are still alive will switch from their chamber of origin to the opposite chamber (House to Senate or Senate to House). All bills get assigned to a committee in the second chamber and go through the full committee hearing process just as they did in their chamber of origin.

Please contact education committee members (contact info is given at the bottom of this post) as well as your own state senator or representative about the following bills. If you don't know who they are, you can find your reps here. This is not a comprehensive list; there are other bills to be concerned about. But it's a place to start.


OPPOSE
House Bill 1003 (to be heard by the Senate Education Committee on Feb. 12), among other things, would let a school or group of schools apply to the State Board to waive compliance with certain statutes or rules, including on restraint and seclusion, bullying prevention, suicide awareness, discipline policy, and training on child abuse and neglect. We oppose this part of the bill.

Message: Let the study committee established by the bill do its work and make recommendations about how to reduce the administrative burden on schools. Statutes should apply equally to all. It’s not transparent to have exceptions to the rules for some. That undermines the whole idea of a system of common schools. Please amend House Bill 1003 to remove the part that would enable a school or group of schools to apply for a waiver to some state statutes.

Address to: Senate Education Committee and/or your state senator

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OPPOSE 
House Bill 1066 (to be heard by the Senate Education Committee on Feb. 12). We oppose the part of this bill that would extend voucher eligibility to foster children.

Message: We spent $161 million on the voucher program last year. This program is draining funds from the public schools that most foster children attend. Also, most foster children already are eligible for vouchers through income guidelines. We are losing public school teachers, and enrollment in Indiana’s teacher training programs dropped by 55% between 2010 and 2018. Don’t add another path toward a voucher. Eight paths is enough. Please remove the vouchers-for-foster-children provision in House Bill 1066.

Address to: Senate Education Committee and/or your state senator

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OPPOSE
House Bill 1153. Provides that the governor’s workforce cabinet shall make a strategic plan to align education policy with workforce training and employer needs. 

Message: While we all want students to be prepared for jobs, education should be much more than job training. Education should develop our kids’ potential in many directions--including as citizens, scientists, and artists. It should be designed by people who are knowledgeable about child development--educators. The needs of Indiana’s employers should not dictate the education of our children. Vote no on House Bill 1153.

Address to: Senate Education Committee and/or your state senator and Governor Holcomb

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SUPPORT  
HB 1002. Removes the requirement that teacher evaluations be based in part on student test scores.

Message: Across all school types, test scores reflect family income. Evaluating teachers and schools according to test scores punishes those who serve students in poverty. It also pressures teachers to teach to the test, narrowing the curriculum and discouraging creative and innovative educators from persisting in the profession. Vote yes on House Bill 1002--and don’t stop there. Next year, get rid of the punitive, test-score-based A-F system for grading schools.

Address to: Senate Education Committee and/or your state senator and Governor Holcomb

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Senate Committee on Education and Career Development members:
Chair: Senator Raatz, 317-233-0930, [email protected],
Crane, 317-232-0084, [email protected],
Buchanan, 317-234-9426, [email protected]
Donato, 317-234-9488, [email protected]
Freeman, 317-232-9400, [email protected]
Kruse, 800-382-9467, [email protected]
Leising, 317-232-9493, [email protected]
Rogers, 317-234-9443, [email protected]
Spartz, 317-232-9400, [email protected]
Melton, 317-232-9491, [email protected]
Mrvan, 317-232-9847, [email protected]
Niezgodski, 317-232-9491, [email protected]
Stoops, 317-232-9532, [email protected] 
  
House Committee on Education members:
Chair: Representative Behning,  800-382-9841, [email protected] 
Cook,  800-382-9841, [email protected]
Burton, 800-382-9841 [email protected]
Clere, 800-382-9841, [email protected]
DeVon, 800-382-9841, [email protected]
Goodrich, 800-382-9841, [email protected]
Jordan, 800-382-9841, [email protected]
Lucas, 800-382-9841, [email protected]
Thompson, 800-382-9841, [email protected]
Smith, 800-382-9842, [email protected];
DeLaney, 800-382-9842, [email protected]
Klinker, 800-382-9842, [email protected]
Pfaff, 800-382-9842, [email protected]

Mailing address for Governor Holcomb and state senators and representatives:
Indiana Statehouse 
200 W. Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204-2786

Thank you for your attention to education bills in this fast-paced short session!

--Jenny Robinson and Keri Miksza

The following is a guest post from Dakota Hudelson, a 7th grade writing teacher and secretary of the Columbus Educators Association. It is the third in a weekly challenge he is issuing to fellow educators and those who care about public schools. 

Red for Ed Challenge

Your challenge this week is another two-part challenge. Part one is to donate $5 to the NAACP. Part two is to educate yourself on racial injustice in education.

Part 1: Donate $5 to the NAACP 

Did you know that the NAACP has stood strong for public education, even when it hasn’t always been popular?

In 2016, the NAACP called for a nationwide moratorium on new charter schools. In 2014, they came out publicly opposing any attempt to privatize public education or publicly fund for-profit or charter schools. 

Their decision to do this shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. The negative effects of charter schools and vouchers on racial justice in education have been well-documented (we’ll get to that in part two). Please show your support for the NAACP and its mission by sending them just $5 this week.

Part 2: Educate yourself

(Take your time—there are a lot of articles and studies here!)

1.  The first school voucher program in America was a naked attempt to circumvent court orders to integrate schools. In Prince Edward County, VA, following court orders to end segregation handed down by SCOTUS in Brown v. Board of Education, Prince Edward County chose to close all of its public schools rather than integrate them. They then provided school vouchers to students that would allow them to attend private schools, thus creating the first school voucher program in the United States. Private schools were under no obligation to admit students of color or integrate, and indeed, they did not, so the white, affluent students were able to secure an education with public funding while students of color were not. Read more:

• The Racist Origin of Private School Vouchers
• The Overwhelming Whiteness of US Private Schools in Six Maps and Charts

2. There’s substantial evidence that as charter schools have spread, racial segregation in schools has worsened. Please read these articles; you’ll see many harrowing facts about how charter schools have led to worsening school segregation, and students of color are once again getting the short end of the stick:

• How Charter Schools Are Prolonging Segregation
• US Charter Schools Put Growing Number in Racial Isolation
• Choice Without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards
• Nearly 750 Charter Schools Are Whiter Than the Nearby District Schools

3. Do you know the racist and classist history of the SATs and other standardized tests? As educators, we know that testing students to death isn’t the right thing to do, but it’s even worse for our students of color:

• The History of the SAT Is Mired in Racism and Elitism
• The Racist Beginnings of Standardized Testing
• Racism, Eugenics, and Testing

4. I know many educators love their school resource officer. However, are you sure that an SRO program in your school district isn’t being used to disproportionately harm students of color and strengthen the school-to-prison pipeline? I understand that this can be a sensitive topic, and it’s hard to believe that your friendly SRO might be contributing to the underachievement and unnecessary criminalization of students of color, but the facts are clear. Some important studies to consider are:

• Students, Police, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline
• Bullies in Blue: Origins and Consequences of School Policing
• American Bar Association Report on Police in Schools
• Does Policing Make Middle Schools Safer?
• New Studies Point to Downsides for Schools Adding Police

5. Lastly, let’s end with some Indiana-specific studies as they pertain to racial in/justice in education:

• Many Indiana Schools Receive F Grades For How They Serve Students Of Color And Those With Disabilities
• New Study Finds High Levels of Segregation in Indiana Schools

Conclusion

I know that reading all of this can be overwhelming. Your first thought might be, “what in the world can I even do?” Well, believe it or not, educators and their unions are perfectly poised to exert major influence and begin to dismantle racism and white supremacy in education. If you’re ready to take your advocacy for students of color and racial justice in education to the next level, donate that $5 to the NAACP, then look here for more ideas.
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Awesome! THANK you!