Zweifel + Education = a good match

Clint Zweifel is running for Missouri Treasurer, currently a Representative from Florissant. I like what he has to say: responsibility to taxpayers, a better understanding of how policy is affecting Missourians in a rocky economic period, reaching across the aisle to “get things done”, I am hopeful for his support on HB 1886, since it seems to embody all those values in addition to helping an oft-overlooked population of special needs students. He says he wants to make a difference, and in this case it’s as simple as a yes vote on this bill, and many special needs children would be able to get an education that can go beyond what their local districts are able to offer. The cost of private tuition for children with special needs is astronomical, and many parents cannot afford that even though it is essential for many learning and developmental disabilities, especially autism.

St. Louis Public Schools need a clean sweep

It is inconceivable while, over the past few years, the St. Louis Public School District has closed 25 schools,yanking the heart right out of many neighborhoods (see School closings "take the heart" out of urban neighborhoods) that SLPS has also invested over $600,000 in the ludicrous Adequacy Trial trying to sue Missouri taxpayers for more money! While the school boards and educrats in the SLPS would have you believe that more money would fix the problem, in fact, the opposite is true. Stanford Fellow and nationally lauded economics expert extraordinaire, Dr.Eric Hannushek, said recently at a presentation at St. Louis University:

"Now this is where most of the economists in the room start getting a little bit squeamish, at the idea that you develop an incentive system that says: If you fail you get more, and the more you fail the more you get. And if you succeed, you get less."

As long as SLPS remains in the adequacy trial, they continue to commit education dollars that should be spent in classrooms. People in the city should call for more withdraw. Truly people in the city need a clean sweep of their public schools. How long will they continue to cry 'poor' when they are the TOP spenders in the COUNTRY~that's right, in the entire United States of America, SLPS has among the highest per pupil spending and they are actually suing us for more money?

Fair Questions

Here's an interesting discussion on school choice I happened across...One person who supports the idea of choice in schools. One parent likes an academic approach that another one dislikes~all for different reasons.

I think what the mom is complaining about is this idiotic "6 Trait" writing style fad. I looked at writing curricula to use in our family's homeschool and 99% of what I saw was garbage.

Another, this:

Your daughter may be one of those who have good expressive language and clear and organized thinking to start with.

Unfortunately what I see is most children being encouraged to "express themselves" and having absolutely no clue how to go about writing paragraphs (even sentences) in an organized and coherent way. Frameworks like Step Up to Writing, 6 Traits or Four Square Writing allow them to get a grip on a formula (yes, it is a formula) to produce an acceptable result. As with other skills --writing poems in various formats, playing certain kinds of music -- 3-part inventions, fugues, whatever -- mastery of component skills can lead individuals to a degree of proficiency that ultimately enables them to find their own unique voice and style.

Parents know their children better than any teacher or school system could. Parents can and should have the right to choose on behalf of their children the best academic environment. Whether it's a private school, a public, a charter, a virtual school, home schooling~If a parent does not see the match for a child at a school in their zip code, shouldn't they make the better choice? Shouldn't they still have access to the tax dollars they fed into the system? Shouldn't the system serve the parents instead of the government?

I wanna be superintendent, too!

I would like to apply for the superintendant's job in Columbia Public Schools, Hazelwood, North Kansas City, Springfield.... If I could have a job like that, I would clear $200,000.00 annually plus bountiful other benefits and the public would have a hard time knowing quite how much I make and where all the money I'm tossing around on behalf of 'education' is going. I wouldn't be held accountable when my school district's children fail to reach academic achievement standards because I can blame the problems on the state's lack of funding and I could even spend educational dollars on the frivolous appeal of the adequacy trial suing the MO taxpayers for more money (an unlikely successful appeal means a $billion tax hike for MO) to fund me and my huge salary~that would keep my opposition busy and make people want to give me more money...

Then, since school districts, boards, DESE, etc. are not really required to fully disclose all of their expenditures of taxpayers' dollars, I won't really have to listen to those pesky, whining parents who complain that they are not getting the services they need (and are entitled to) out of my school~Really! Those parents don't know as well as I would how best to keep this system running and where to place their child~REALLY...we NEED those tax dollars we get off each kid! I can also count on the support of the teachers unions and the school boards to maintain my position. I'll just have to make sure to keep those teachers busy with forms and stuff..

Now, where do I send my resume?!

The Earser, Please

My sister has three kids. The oldest, Ethan, is a bright boy currently in first grade. Unfortunately, for him, the school that he was to attend was just barely meeting educational standards, with teachers aiming for the middle and barely keeping their classes under control. Because of an imaginary line passing through Ethan’s neighborhood, my sister was told Ethan would have to attend the school that was both further from her house and, for the most part, failing. This, of course, upset my sister, and rightfully so. But since she and her husband didn’t have the money to send Ethan to a private school, there weren’t really any options. She had no choice.

Of course the elementary school that was just down the street, less than a mile from their house, well it was doing wonderfully. Filled with engaged teachers and controlled classrooms, students excelled and exceeded state educational standards. But despite my sister’s reasonable attempts to get her son into the school he deserved, the school system said no. Of course, this was not the right answer. My sister was not going to just passively let Ethan’s right to a good education be thwarted.

Fortunately, for Ethan, his dad’s sister happened to live on the “right” side of the imaginary line. So my sister figured out a way to send Ethan to the better school. She signed over power-of-attorney to her sister-in-law, so that Ethan could attend the best school.

Luckily, my sister and her husband’s sister get along marvelously, so signing over power-of-attorney was really just a formality. Decisions regarding Ethan were still made by his mom. It is, however, unlucky for those millions of kids whom parents don’t have that option.

Millions of kids are affected by these imaginary lines daily. I believe it is time for the lines to be erased.

Choice does work for schools

This opinion piece in The Register Guard caught my attention. The author does a great job of saying what I think. Here is a bit of it...

Why choice? No particular school can possibly meet the diverse needs of all children. To force a child to attend a school that is a poor fit is bad public policy. Having schools that fit children’s needs is important, as is balancing this with diversity and equity.

When a school district introduces magnet schools, parents’ satisfaction increases because they can find a program that better suits their educational preferences. Neighborhood schools likely will need program modifications to remain attractive to parents, and the quality of schools in the entire system improves as a result.

The author goes over the choice program in Oregon. I encourage all readers to read the rest of the article here. The public school system needs help. People need to be open to the idea of change; the schools are not doing well and something needs to happen. For some reason, various unions and school boards like to claim choice is a horrible idea. Their accusations are misleading and could be devastating of all people believe them.

It truly is bad policy to make children attend schools that do not work for them. Shouldn't every child get access to schooling that is actually effective? Bottom line is that something needs to change, for the sake of all the children.

Giant Steps forward

February 13th was a great day in the Capital building in Jefferson City. The House and Senate hearings, packed with people displaying bright red "Have a Heart" stickers, discussed special education tax scholarships. There were dozens of testimony for and against the bills, however I would personally like to add the testimonies for the bills were amazing. Parents told stories of their children that evoked tear-filled eyes in the audience. Basically, they showed how the current system was not working for all the special needs children and something needed to be done. The opponents of the bills gave their testimonies, however, they seemed to be beating a dead horse with their reasoning. While many of the testimonies were provoking, there was also the argument by Dave Roland, of the Show-Me Institute. The Show-Me Institute published Dave's testimony he gave during the Senate hearing. It reflects the reasoning behind why such a program would benefit Missouri, how the program would work, and why it does not go against the constitution. Dave Roland had this to say in his show-me daily blog:

The hearings yesterday included moving testimony from parents who have faced (and, in some cases, overcome) enormous obstacles in trying to help their children, as well as testimony from a number of parents, educators, and administrators opposed to changing the status quo. Unfortunately, this morning's news reports missed the opportunity to note that some of the points raised by those opposing the bills were clearly and thoroughly debunked. Articles in the Southeast Missourian and the Post-Dispatch try to present a relatively balanced picture of the issues, as presented at the Senate committee's hearing. Both of these articles, and the one posted at Missourinet, point out concerns raised by some educators that the programs would take money away from public schools — but (as conversations at the House committee hearing made absolutely plain) it would be impossible for the tax credit bills, as written, to divert any money away from the state's educational funding formula. If the special needs tax credit program is adopted, public schools will receive exactly the same level of funding as they would without the program.

More information on the hearing can be seen in this article as well.

The House committee voted last night and it was overwhelming in favor of it. Now, it will head to the House floor for further debate.

This is a huge step in helping the special needs children of Missouri. Let's hope it keeps going in the right direction.

Engage all types of learning

Edudiva has two recent posts: one a youtube video of students asking some big questions about the relevancy of non-digitally based education in a digital age. I’ve always been a big advocate for more visual and hands-on learning options for students. My younger brother is very gifted, but never excelled at school because our public high school, like many others, is rooted in reading and retaining that information. In visually-oriented and hands-on activities, however, he excelled. He became very interested in culinary arts I think primarily because it was something he could do, and pick up by watching someone else do it, which is the way he retains information best. I’m the reader of the family, so that never bothered me. Once in Physics class as a senior, we had a “Rube Goldberg” project in which we were asked to draw a circle with a certain diameter and incorporate all simple machines. My brother and I sat in a Chinese restaurant after church one day and in an hour had worked out, together, a diagram of what we could do (my brother was still in Middle School at the time). I wonder how many other students would excel if they had a chance at a more visual and hands-on type of instruction.

The second post was about the new KIPP charter schools and their partnership with Washington University in St. Louis. Edudiva is hopeful that Wash U will be an advocate and an active participant as a charter school sponsor, and we can expect a lot of good research and good practices to come out of that relationship. It has become clear to me over the years that more choice is not only good in terms of community impact and the benefits it can have on a group of students, but also on a personal, individual student level. Meeting the individual needs of students is the only way to make a real difference on a population of students, and offering them more choices makes having an individual education possible. Advocates against choice and finding the most appropriate education for each child, be it public, charter, private, virtual or homeschooling, often cite the fact that only public schools are held to testing standards. While that is patently false, in that the only difference is that the state (versus parents or sponsoring entities) holds them accountable, those detractors fail to see state standards as the double-edged sword that they are. A state standard and curriculum has the benefit of setting benchmarks of improvement and success, but it also necessitates a one-size-fits-all education mandate. That leaves many children behind, struggling in classes they might be able to succeed in given different techniques. What’s more, we’re living in a society where the diversity of the job market makes diversity in education and learning styles more and more requisite.

This adjustment requires what I’d like to call a ‘pervasive engagement’; from parents, teachers, administrators, the community, business and civic leaders, universities and legislators. It means being responsive to the needs of individuals.

St. Louis Dropout Summit: more than words

“Dropout” has a terrible connotation. Describing someone, it has an innuendo of “You failed. You gave up.” This weekend, I attended the Mayor’s Dropout Summit at Clyde C. Miller Career Academy in St. Louis, and for the first time I started thinking of that word “dropout” as being about the failures of the school system and the adults and authority figures who are supposed to build and maintain the network of support that will keep students engaged, so to speak. One young gentleman wanted to make a distinction that “engaged” meant interested and involved, not betrothed.

The Career Center is a High School with a career focus, and the students we spoke to seemed pleased to have choices and said their friends and cousins were clamoring to get in after hearing all the pathways it offers—but the waiting list is long.

The Summit itself was more than I thought it would be. At first, I was skeptical that it would be a smattering of adults who think they have the answers and want other adults to know they have the answers. As the speakers came up to the podium, though, students spoke, former dropouts spoke, and one student spontaneously recited a poem that I have posted at the bottom.

There were some powerful thoughts, but what impressed me was that everyone there was feeling the same urgency I was, and was not content to just reiterate the problem. As we broke out into focus groups, I joined one on data systems…I know, sounds boring, right? Well, it was fairly fascinating: the group’s directive was to provide a framework for generating good information, sharing it and mapping results. But where to start? The last Census was in 2000, and data from that is mostly irrelevant 8 years later. We had plenty of questions, like how do we define a “disengaged student” so we’re all talking about the same population? How do we track students between agencies: from school to a juvenile detention center to foster care? How do we pinpoint where students "drop" through the cracks?

It became pretty clear that the info we have available is very unreliable. Depending on your source, somewhere between 19,000 and 23,000 students attend St. Louis Public schools. That’s a pretty large margin of error, and if we are tracking the success of a certain program, how do we know that change has happened, and it’s not just that our numbers were faulty on the front end?

Possibly even more important than that is having longitudinal data—not just on initiatives over time, but on individual students over time. When students drop out, we lost them. We have no idea where they go and what they do. Did they move? Did they get a GED and go to community college? Did they start working? Were they arrested? Did that student seek out help from the agency recommended? How do we share confidential information? How do we map where our dropouts live—many are homeless—and how do we mete out the countless factors that go into one student dropping out of high school?

The questions are daunting, and how to gather it and maintain the privacy of students is a hefty job. But we know that for students to stay engaged we have to plumb the foundation and close the gaps where students fall through. I’m going to keep going back, even though I don’t have a lot of expertise to offer, because I don’t want to be part of the problem of adults recognizing, explaining, bemoaning the rate of kids dropping out of schools, only to turn around and disengage themselves in any concentrated effort to make a difference.

Our Greatest Fear

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson

WHY? But more importantly, HOW?

What is happening with Missouri’s public schools? In Saint Louis, apparently they are being closed. Since 2003, at least 18 Saint Louis Public Schools have been shut down. Now 8 more schools are being slated for closure, leaving concerned parent’s asking “Why?” According to Deanna Anderson, Saint Louis Public School’s Chief Operating Officer, “because there’s 43,000 seats in the Saint Louis Public Schools and we have 28,000 students.” This, of course, only answers part of the “Why?”

http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5739975&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.8.1

Concerned parents also want to know why the Saint Louis Public School district continues to be engaged in a lawsuit that has already cost its taxpayers millions of dollars. Cole County circuit court Judge Callahan has already ruled in favor of the state, but plaintiff school districts, such as Saint Louis, continue to blindly push the case through the courts with money that could be spent on improving the city’s schools. “Why?”

Well, hopefully some of these questions will be addressed at town hall meetings scheduled this week. Concerned citizens, parents, and children affected by these measures will continue to ask “Why?”

Of course, many of the answers given won’t make any sense, in which case we who pay taxes only to see the money meant for our children’s education frivolously thrown at attorneys engaged in a lawsuit bordering on lunacy, will have to retort “No!” The excuses for such erroneous excesses of spending don’t hold up. Isn’t it time we stop asking “Why?” The real question now is “How?”

How do we stop this? Town hall meetings are:

· Monday, February 11 at 6 p.m.

Lexington Elementary, 5030 Lexington Ave.

· Tuesday, February 12 at 6 p.m.

Wyman Elementary, 1547 S. Theresa Ave.

· Wednesday, February 13 at 6 p.m.

Walbridge Elementary, 5000 Davison Ave.

· Thursday, February 14 at 6 p.m.

Blow Middle, 516 Loughborough Ave.

http://www.slps.org/press/feb_2008/p020708_1.html

Columbia Public Schools Are Not Educating All the Same

I have often wondered what the differences were, if any, in the education levels of the various races in Columbia. We are a smaller city than St. Louis and Kansas City and we, overall, have much better schools. Some of our schools are considered "one of the nations finest", while that description is to be debated. Nevertheless, wondered what the differences would be for African American students and white students. The Columbia Tribune wrote an article which summed up this for me, "Bridging The Gap, School Officials Try to Improve Academic Performance of Poor Black Students". Janese Heavin writes how black students are overwhelmingly doing worse than the white students.

So far, they haven’t arrived. A stubborn academic achievement gap exists between black students and their white classmates in Columbia Public Schools, mirroring national trends. Interviews with school officials and the students themselves point to several explanations:

● Poverty erodes a culture of education.

● A transient student population has a hard time learning.

● Peer pressure among the students themselves sometimes gets in the way of achievement.

Closing the achievement gap is a top priority for Columbia administrators.

One solution given by Jack Jenson, assistant superintendent of elementary education, would be to give them access to affordable preschool programs. Other solutions have come about that may be helping some of these students, such as having teachers who can truly motivate the students and the MAC (Minority Achievement Committee Scholars) program.

After reading this article, I decided to do some research in my own. DESE posts everything you can think of on their website, although sometimes it may be hard to find. Well, according to what I found, it is worse than I thought! Reading the article is one thing, but looking at hard data is another. In 7th grade, about 9% of white students were below basic in Communications, while there were about 25% of black students below basic. In 10th grade, 18% of white students were below basic in math, while an astounding 50.9% of black students were. These disparities were shown across the various grade levels.

It is even clearer to me now more than ever we need to do something to fix our education program. We have got to try something different, something drastic, and now.

Adequacy Trial continues at expense of students

Unfortunately, the dreaded adequacy trial still goes on. About half of Missouri public schools districts joined this trial several years ago and many still remain part of the appeals process.

First, I would like to give a standing ovation to those that never joined in the first place. They made the right move there. Secondly, I would like to applaud those districts that made the wise decision to pull out: Ash Grove, Bolivar, Carrollton, Columbia, Community, Fox, Hurley, Liberty, McDonald, Montgomery, Naylor, Richards, St. Joseph, and Zalma. Then I would like to urge the remaining districts to get out now before you waste more of the children's (and the taxpayers') money. Lastly, I should point out the districts that have recently joined...Odessa and So. Reynolds. I could not believe it when I heard districts were decided to join now!

This case has cost millions of dollars and is not over yet. The schools need to learn to be more financially sufficient, and those schools still appealing are not displaying they can do this. The schools (and the boards for that matter) need to realize more money will not fix these schools and they are only delaying a solution.

For the sake of the students, drop this suit now before millions more are wasted!

Survey Says...

Utah has a scholarship program for children with special needs. It's called the Carson Smith Scholarship for Students with Special Needs. Named for a young child who has severe autism. Carson Smith originally attended public schools but it became apparent that Carson needed to be in a specialized environment.

"By no fault of their own, public school teachers are faced with dealing with all kinds of disabilities, let alone trying to figure out what works for my child, who is different from every other child with autism. I have other children who have prospered in public schools. Carson cannot, " his mother Cheryl said.

Carson was encouraged to enroll in the Pingree School for Children with Autism - it offered a lot of individualized services and attention, but at a hefty price - $23,000 a year.

The Smith family and others were determined to help Carson and other children with disabilities in Utah. Cheryl contacted her state legislator and she and supporters didn't stop their efforts until the Carson Smith Scholarship for Students with Special Needs was created.

The Utah state legislature enacted the program in 2005 to provide limited financial assistance to the families of children with special needs. Students meeting the scholarship qualifications could apply for a partial or full scholarship to pay for a portion of the tuition at a private school selected by the students' parents or guardians. Utah currently has 39 private schools in 13 school districts eligible to participate. The special needs child is not required to live in one of the 13 districts to be considered for the scholarship. In the first year of the program there were 108 participating students. That number grew to 361 in the second year. A growth rate of 49% is projected for the third year of the program.

The Office of the Legislative Auditor General was required by law to conduct an audit of the Carson Smith Scholarship program. According to Utah Code, "parents are best equipped to make decisions for their children, including the educational setting that will service the interests and educational needs of their children." Therefore, the best measure for success of the program is gained from parental evaluation. Overall, the parents participating in the program believe it is a success.

Survey Results:

1. My child's private school provides(ed) services for my child's disability. 91% agree

2. The private school's teachers seem qualified.* 98% agree

3. The private school's teachers seem qualified to address my child's special needs. 94% agree

4. My child's needs were/are met at the private school. 91% agree

5. My child's academic performance increased while at the private school.** 89% agree

6. I am/was satisfied with my child's private school. 89% agree

7. The Carson Smith Scholarship should continue to exist for eligible students. 100% agree

*These results were based on responses from 52 parents. One parent gave a response that could not be evaluated for this question.

**These results were based on responses from 44 parents. Nine parents said the question did not apply to them for reasons including their child's private school did not use a grading system or the student has always gone to private school.

Although the program is still pretty young, it seems obvious that parents are satisfied.

Missouri has a similar opportunity with pending legislation this year. Namely, SB 993 and HB 1886, identical pieces of legislation that would create scholarship tax credit programs for special needs students.

Utah isn't the only state with a scholarship program for special needs students. Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio also have similar programs. Read more about their programs here.

We paid for it: $124,000 entry way in Normandy School District

I recently found a You Paid For It segment from Elliot Davis on Fox 2. It seems that Normandy school district paid $124,000 to build a new entry to their high school. The reasoning behind that, according to the interview, was 1) to hide a new AC/heating unit, and 2) to make students feel better about their school. Now, Normandy is hanging on by a thread as provisionally accredited, and they are pitifully below state averages—4% of Normandy 8^th graders were proficient or above in Math compared to the state average of 42%. If I were a student at Normandy, I would rather that expense be spent in the classroom and on teachers. That would make me feel better! Knowing that my school is spending all its resources to give me the best education rather than a swanky brick and iron arch would be a bigger concern, because I can’t take that with me when I graduate.