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Alec

New Bill Will Legislatively Transfer All Edina Teachers To Minneapolis Public Schools

by Alec on April 1, 2013

Education policy makers at the capital have introduced a widely supported, bi-partisan bill to legislatively transfer all teachers from the Edina School system to the Minneapolis Public Schools. Their reasons are truly compelling. Politicians thought they made progress with the landmark teacher evaluation system they put into place last session. That system called for 35% of a teacher’s worth to be based on student test scores. However, recent trends in other states have shown them that this might be untenable.

 

Michigan recently put in place the most rigorous teacher evaluations in the nation. The result was that that vast majority of teachers were judged as effective or better. Modern education reformers know that, from education factualizers like Michelle Rhee, this cannot be possible. This result has startled our local legislature into bold, impressive action.  Michigan’s evaluations used things like observations, and other metrics, much like Minnesota’s. These holistic approaches cost upwards of $6 million dollars in Michigan. The state’s chief auditor stated clearly, “In these budgetary times we need to evaluate what is cheapest and quickest. Testing beautifully fulfills that promise for the future.”
 
All education reformers know their bedrock factualization by heart. When you disregard all stimulus, impact, and variables on student life, except teachers, it is all the teachers responsibility. You cannot argue against the logic. Therefore, the results from Michigan, and our most likely results in Minnesota just cannot be true. It is just not factually possible that most teachers do a decent job.
 
Read about what the Minnesota policy makers are going to do after the break…..
…READ MORE

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Minnesota Kids Outperform Leading Nations On International Math Tests

by Alec on March 26, 2013

This legislative session will be dominated by the corporate education reform narrative that takes a three pronged approach to education reform.

 

 

1) Our schools are failing cesspools of inadequacy.

2) The evil culprits of this tragedy are lazy teachers and their protective unions. Unions need to be eliminated and teaching needs to be regimented to factory like routines.

3) The final solution is dismantling the current system and replacing it with choice. (Even though Minnesota has had universal choice for 20 years, choice is still the solution.)

 

 

Soon you will be bombarded with a high buck lobbying campaign to RESET the education world. A campaign worthy of a Mad Men extravaganza. The suggestions they make range from condescendingly obvious – things that teachers have been doing for decades – to the barely veiled promotion of privatization through charters. Of course, all of this is backed up by the irrefutable fact that, if you disregard everything that might affect student learning, you can lay the entire blame on teachers!

Meanwhile, in the reality based world, where we don’t have billion dollar corporations promoting us, Minnesota has quietly been near the top in the country and the world in mathematics improvement over the past two decades. I will start by saying our achievement gap is a national shame. We are not doing well enough. However, we are moving in the right direction, as shown clearly by the latest TIMMS/PIRLS international math tests.

Of the top ten education nations, only Korea has out improved Minnesota. Among U.S. states, only Massachusetts achieved higher raw results than Minnesota. As a side note, both of these nation leading states have some of the strongest unions. This might lead one to believe that there is no correlation between union destruction and improved education, but I digress.

 

To sum up, the latest international scores are mostly positive for the U.S. American students scored above the international average on all five assessments of grade-subject pairings. For four out of the five tests, the gains since 1995 are statistically significant.

While our policy makers, “think tankers”, lobby groups, and advertising agencies are taking field trips to the Finland miracle, maybe they should schedule a field trip or two to, say, Minnesota?

Initial story on the TIMMS/PIRLS was in Edweek.

 

 

 

 

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Prayer is protected in public schools

by Alec on February 1, 2013

So, I have been seeing a lot of concern that prayer is not allowed in public schools. There  is an hypothesis floating around that praying in schools would somehow end massacres.  I would just like to clarify this, as someone who works in a public school.

You can, and kids do, absolutely pray in public school. In fact, it is illegal to stop a kid from paying in public school as long as it is not disruptive to the school day or other kids. Pray at lunch. Pray when you go to the bathroom. Pray at passing time. Pray with your buddies. You can pray in school. Our beloved constitution protects your kids from me telling them they cannot pray.

Now, what is illegal is organized religion in public school. This protects all religions. If you want “organized prayer” back in school, then you will also have to accept things like the Junior Varsity Jihadists, The Future Zionists of America, The Chrisitian Crusaders Club, and the Buddhist Battle Ball Team.

When you open the door to government sponsored religion, and we are government employees, it means whoever is in power gets to choose.. You may get the lords prayer today, but your grandchildren may be praying five times a day towards Mecca and it will be your fault because you wanted to break down the wall separating and protecting your religious freedom from government.

Your kids can pray in school. The constitution just makes sure that I, as a government employee, cannot tell them what to pray. I think that is a darn good thing. If you want me to tell your kids how to pray, let me know.

So, please be honest. You do not want prayer back in school. You want your god and your religion back in school.  This should scare all religious folks because it will set a precedent. Whoever is in political power gets to put their religion in your kids’ school.  

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StudentsFirst Issues “Human Resources Office Reform” Ratings

by Alec on January 8, 2013

        The most recent report on world educational excellence came to very few solid conclusions as to what makes great education. Countries from very diverse backgrounds and cultures had similar success, and others similar failure. However, there was one clear, striking, and prominent similarity that all of those countries shared. All successful countries have an overpowering respect for teachers and the teaching profession.

       Then you come to America. A place where Michelle Rhee, StudentsFirst, and the Koch Brothers tell us what makes great education. Her organization just released their most recent Education Deform ratings. Make no mistake, these are not education reforms. They are labor reforms meant to tear down the teaching profession, and privatize the industry.

         In the Top Five of states with the best education policies? Louisiana, Florida, and Washington D.C. Yep, those are the states to emulate. Among states receiving D’s or F’s? States like Iowa, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin. States that consistently perform high in actual educational outcomes. How could it be any clearer that the modern education reformers care nothing for actual outcomes, and more about controlling labor?

        You see, modern education reform is predicated on the idea that there are just too many terrible teachers. The only way to rectify the problem is remove any and all quality of profession protections. It is as if they think, magically, all the teachers in Edina just happened to be fabulous and all the ones in Saint Paul, crap.

       The modern reformers treat teachers in the exact opposite way that is the one common thread in successful nations. In Minnesota, our most prominent DFL education deformer will tell you, with a straight face, that she believes 99% of teachers are excellent. She loves teachers. Meanwhile, her #1 goal was to remove the job protections of those 99% in order to get after those nasty no goods. That is an exact quote. 99% of teachers are fantastic. The best way to honor those 99% is to take away their rights?

    It doesn’t even make practical sense. Why are removing labor protections the number one goal if she was being honest that she thought it was only 1% of the problem? It’s obvious it is not about education. The labor reforms proposed come with a heavy political, emotional, and societal toll that would only be justified if it was the biggest bang for educational improvement. Not only is modern reform not the biggest bang for the buck, it is not even remotely correlated with success. Look at their own grades just published. The idea that the deformers are doing it because they love teachers is Orwellian at best and duplicitous at its worst.


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Top Ten Reasons We Do Not Need Gun Control

by Alec on January 2, 2013

1) Guns Don’t Kill People, Pencils Do

Yes, you can kill folks with lots of different things. It is the exact same thing to be attacked with a pencil as it is to be attacked with a gun. The lethality of of a pencil, hammer, or knife is the same. This is iron clad logic.

2) Registering Stuff Means It Gets Taken Away.

Just last summer I bought a new car. I had to register it. Any day now the guv’ment will come take away my car. I know registering my gun would immediately lead to someone taking it. It is not a paranoid delusion. Just like they are going to take my car, house, and vote. All things I have registered with the government.

3) Speaking of registering, you shouldn’t have to register to do something in the Bill Of Rights.

In fact, I say we organize ourselves and go practice our 1st Amendment Right to Assembly down at City Hall. If you’re in, let me know, and I will go register for a permit post haste.

4) You cannot regulate anything in the Bill of Rights.

The 4th, 5th, and 8th Amendments have already been regulated out of existence, but true constitutional conservatives only really need to protect the 2nd. The guv’ment can spy on you, or lock you away without trial now, but your deer rifle will protect you when the S.W.A.T. team comes.

5) If you outlaw arms, only outlaws with have arms.

This one is just common sense. For decades we have outlawed grenade launches and fully automatic, belt fed arms. I cannot tell you how many times I have had to face down a grenade launcher armed bandit with no machine gun to protect my own self.

6) If you want to regulate guns, it means you are Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao,  Stalin, and another guy I saw in a Facebook picture mash-up.

Those are all the terrible folks that wanted to take away your guns. Regulating guns is the exact same as taking them away. We already discussed that earlier about my car and it’s inevitable guv’ment confiscation.  

7) Regulating assault weapons will lead to a slippery slope of taking my deer rifle.

We have already discussed how all the outlaws have grenade launchers and machine guns. Now the guv’ment even wants to take our deer rifles. Fully automatic weapons have been tightly regulated since 1934, and it is only a matter of days before that slippery slopes down to my deer rifle! Even if you believe in regulating Nuclear Arms it will all slip, slip, slippery slide to my deer rifle. If you believe in regulating Nucler Arms on down you are Hitler.

8) The only thing protecting the 1st Amendment is the 2nd!!

Only my rifle can protect us from a tyrannical guv’ment. If they try to make me register to assemble, I will need my rifle to prove my point. Some think democracy and voting will protect us from a third Obama term, but I know it is my rifle. I can totally take down an M1 Abrams tank or an Apache Helicopter. I got skills. The NRA knows we don’t need any of those other Amendments like the 4th,5th, or 8th. Just the 2nd baby!

9) The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun!

The Sandy Hook tragedy would have been stopped if only there had been a good guy with a gun. His mother was a law abiding citizen who had lots and lots of guns. Some would think that she was a “good guy with a gun, or lots of them”, but she wasn’t a guy. I think the NRA policy says it has to be a good guy with a gun.

10) And most of all, the 2nd Amendment protects your right to own a gun!!

You cannot regulate a right. We’ve talked about that. Even though the Amendment has “well regulated” right in the description, I believe that was an autocorrect quill error.


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Why Can’t We Stop Focusing on the Thing?

by Alec on December 22, 2012

     It seems like, with all our social ills, we are 90% focused on the “thing” and 10% focused on the complex human behavior behind the thing. I get it. The human condition is messy. It’s treatable but not curable. There will never be a perfect solution, nor should there be. There are only best efforts and hope. So we focus on the thing.

    We talk little of why young women have unwanted pregnancies, but blast abortion bullhorns. We talk very little about the human misery that leads to drugs, but wage war on the drugs themselves. And Guns. We should absolutely be talking about guns, but it should be 10% of the discussion. We will never move forward as long as we are too afraid to address the incurable human condition, and try and treat our ailing society.

   When the human body is given nutrients that are against its nature, it gets sick. Too much sugar, too much fat, too much alcohol and the body rejects it. Our society is the same way. Human contact and human interaction are our fruits and vegetables. Collaboration and shared endeavors are our meat and potatoes. We are sick because we are being fed a steady diet of high octane isolation that is tearing us apart.

    We just went through an entire political campaign that was predicated on isolating the human being within our society. The very idea that “we” might have built something together was mocked and ridiculed.

   Recognizing those who have helped you on your path is good for the human soul, and it makes the whole community stronger.  We have not only lost that, but we have made needing help sub-human. Is it no wonder that fewer and fewer folks are reaching out for help when we are taught by an entire political movement that reaching out for help is weakness?

   This radical independence is the antithesis of what we need. It is paradoxically making us weak and tearing us apart. It is not strength. It is weakness and fear. We need to make it okay again to ask for help. Not just because others need help, but because it brings us together. It makes us stronger. It knits us together.

    Ironically, these “real” Americans that call for such radical independence neglect the real growth of this country. We we founded on radical interdependence. I will say that again. This country was founded on radical interdependence.*

    The first westerners to come to this country banded together on ships. As a colony. Not as some swashbuckling explorer. They were families banded together. The westward expansion was not accomplished by lone mountain men skinning beaver pelts. The west was won on wagon trains, with men, women, and children banding together in community. Our independence was gained when men and women banded together to tell King George to go to hell. WWII was won when everyone sacrificed together with war bonds, rationing, and fighting to tell Hitler to go to hell.

    Anything great we have ever done has been in community. It is essential to human health and balance. There is an epic assault on this as exemplified by the conservative and Tea Party movement. It’s not just wrong. It goes against human evolution and our own history.

    There is a lot of talk lately about the decline and lack of treatment of mental health in this country. This is critical to finding a solution to our violent tendencies. I would also ask that you ponder something. What if the sudden epidemic of psychotically mentally ill is synonymous with loneliness.  Loneliness on a small scale, human level, of course, but more so loneliness as a society. Isolation on a grand scale. Isolation and loneliness that is sickening our American body.

     I truly believe the way forward is to address what is making us sick more than the end tools of our destruction. We are a radically interdependent people.  Unless you believe Daniel Boone killed himself a bear when he was only three, the rugged individual myth has to go. I believe it is what is tearing us apart.

*I apologize in advance for all of the oppressed groups that my narrative glosses over. Sadly, they probably had a more healthy societal balance than we do, and we destroyed them.

   

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Why Does Modern Education Reform Dismiss a Crucial Lynchpin?

by Alec on December 5, 2012

       According to the latest global education report from Pearson’s, the United States ranks 17th in educated its youth. We could go on about the validity of the comparisons and Pearson’s role as the largest education profiteer in the world, but that is a post for a different day. What I would like to point out are the unsurprising findings of what makes a great education system.

    The education systems from Finland to Korea to Singapore   have few commonalities, except one. They all have an overwhelming respect for education, and more directly, the teaching profession. Modern American Education Reform is the antithesis of what is one of the few common traits among the top performers. The following video, and the brave teacher speaking, illustrate exactly this point.

    The group the woman is speaking about, ALEC (no relation), walks hand in hand with free market reformers like Pearsons, Students First, Michelle Rhee, and even Arne Duncan. The tragic thing is, groups like Pearsons even know how important teachers are in the education process, yet give them no respect. Instead of supporting the profession, they look to trivialize, demonize, and patronize teachers.

Take a look. This is how modern American Education Reform works. Tell us how it makes any sense. Please.

Link to video of teacher speaking to ALEC education deformers


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Minnesota Looking to Replace Math Exit Exams

by Alec on November 30, 2012

       Minnesota has some of the toughest state math exit exams in the nation. In fact, according to local experts, the expectations on our state exams are more rigorous than the ACT scores required to get into a four year university.  For the first several years, students were offered a waiver if they failed the exam, but took remedial courses. Those waivers end with the class of 2015. If they fail, they do not graduate. Estimates are that about 19,000 students will not graduate.

    Rigorous, and high expectations across the board are critical in improving our children’s education. It is wasteful that so many students have to take remedial courses in college before they can even begin their career path. However, 19,000 students not even receiving a diploma is unconscionable.

     Standards need to be rigorous. Expectations high. However, we also need to address these issues with a bit of common sense.  These tests disproportionately affect those who speak another language at home, come from poverty, or similar underprivileged backgrounds. In fact, English language learners actually have to know more math than native speakers in order to pass, because the math test itself is so language intensive.

    A high school diploma needs to mean something, of course. It is a mistake to think our struggling students are not learning. The expectations are much, much higher than they were even ten years ago. While most of us grew up only needing beginning algebra or maybe geometry, all students must now pass through advanced algebra.

     Raising expectations is great. The level of the consequences, however, is not in balance with building a better education system. Is there anyone with reason that thinks it will actually benefit our most disadvantaged citizens to deny them a diploma because they don’t test well, or their home language is not English? 19,000 citizens without even a high school diploma.

   Of course, the Chamber of Commerce thinks this is a dandy idea. You can pay someone without a diploma less, and they are more likely to be submissive because where else are they going to go? Minnesota’s state education task force recommended dropping the test. I suggest we support their lead.  

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Summer Learning Loss Accounts For 2/3 of Achievement Gap

by Alec on November 18, 2012

     All modern education reform is predicated on one thing.  Michelle Rhee, Students First, Arne Duncan, all Republicans, many Democrats, and even President Obama have based their major reform efforts at one target: bad teachers. You would think the profession is overwhelmed by terrible, terrible teachers, and the only way to fix education is to eliminate any and all professional protections for teachers. The theory goes, that if you discount and disregard all factors that affect a students life except teachers, then you can blame teachers for everything.

  This theory goes double for our poor, urban students and their teachers. Not only do we need to fire those teachers, but we need to close those schools down. Displacing the most disadvantaged students and destroying all of their relationships with teachers is certainly sure to fix the problem! We’ve gotta burn the school to save the school.

   Well, the most recent research out of John’s Hopkins University should throw more cold water on the education deformers out there. It won’t, but it should. The rate of learning increases are almost identical for low income and better off students during the school year. That horrendous achievement gap? It almost all happens during the summer months.  It is not just that underprivileged students are not getting enrichment, but that those already ahead are getting further ahead.

So, John’s Hopkins attributes 2/3 of the achievement gap to something teachers have no control over whatsoever. I am certain we will just add this to the list of factors to ignore so we can continue to blame teachers.  Watch the upcoming sessions for what is emphasized in education reform. Taking away the job protections for the 99% of good teachers will be number #1. Cheap replacements for these teachers, once they have lost their protection, will be the next reform on the agenda.

   Finally, just to head off any idea that unions (teachers) get in the way of reform, my own children attend a year round, public school. It has been around for almost two decades. It’s not new, but it is not a sexy as closing schools and firing teachers. The school is majority poverty, and majority minority. This year round has been supported and staffed by strong union teachers the entire time.

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Vote Yes for Kids!! Our Future is At Stake!

by Alec on November 5, 2012

       Vote No Twice, then flip your ballot over and Vote Yes for Saint Paul kids. Saint Paul has a levy renewal on the ballot, along with a modest increase for technology use. The vast majority of the levy is a renewal going for early childhood education. Minnesota refuses to fully fund early childhood, so Saint Paul has to. Vote Yes For kids.

–It is easier to build healthy kids now than fix broken men later
–It is smarter, cheaper, and more humane to construct a solid ship today, than bail out a leaking ship in the middle of rough seas.

1) Because of this levy, 82% of Saint Paul kids test ready for kindergarten, compared to only 50% statewide!

2) If a poor kid cannot read by grade level in just third grade it is almost too late. They are 13 times more likely to drop out.

3) If they are prepared by 3rd grade, the playing field is more level

4) Minneapolis Federal Reserve estimates at least an $8 to $1 return on investment for early childhood.

Do you want to build strong kids for a bargain price, or fix broken men at a steep cost? The choice is easy.

As an example of how little we are asking for, St Louis Park levies $1985 per student from tax payers. St. Paul is asking for just $646 per student. St. Louis Park chooses to put their money where their mouth is, at three times the rate we are asking for.

Early Childhood is the greatest investment we can make. It is cheaper to build the ship right than fix it later in the middle of a storm.  

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