Kansas City protesters fight against DeVos nomination

NEA; Three reasons Betsy DeVos is unqualified to be secretary of education

In the accompanying video, NEA explains why it feels President Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, is unqualified.

Video- Tour provided for new Joplin High School/Franklin Tech

A Jet 14 production

Sinquefield pushing it, but new study shows using test scores to evaluate teachers doesn't work

It appears likely that Missouri voters will soon decide whether teachers should be evaluated and paid based on scores their students make on standardized tests.

Retired billionaire Rex Sinquefield has poured more than $1.3 million into an effort to put the issue, coupled with the elimination of teacher tenure, on the ballot.

The push across the country to make teachers "accountable" has led to the creation of value-added formulas that supposedly show the contributions that teachers make to the test scores of their students. What most of them have shown is that the highest scores are posted by the teachers who manage to get the best students.

Furthermore, as you might expect, these formulas do not take into account any of the other factors that go into test scores- everything from a student's poverty level to abuse at home, emotional problems, or even being under the weather on the day of the big tests.

Even without the ballot initiative, Missouri has been moving in the direction of basing part of a teacher's evaluation on test scores and the reason is purely financial. The Obama Administration's Education Department has made it clear that if you do not make scores a part of the process, you are not going to be receiving any federal money, and that, of course, is the language that speaks with the most clarity to our state officials. The moves have also been necessary in order for states to receive relief from the horribly conceived No Child Left Behind.

So in order to rake in Race to the Top money and to satisfy billionaires who have made it clear that they are not friends of public education, we continue moving in the direction of a nightmarish scenario where even great teachers can end up losing pay or their jobs because of the luck of the draw on which students they receive. And with the stakes raised for teachers and administrators to improve test scores, we are already seeing increased instances of cheating.

What the "reformers" who are pushing for these so-called value-added metrics are conveniently ignoring is that studies are showing that the system simply does not work.

One such study, released Tuesday by the American Educational Research Association finds little correlation between these value-added measures between testing and effective teaching. The shocker is that the study is based on data from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has been pushing the new methods of teacher evaluation.

One of the researchers who released the study, Morgan S. Polikoff of the University of Southern California, says the results show that value-added metrics are nowhere near being ready to use in teacher evaluations. Yet we are moving full speed ahead.

As long as we continue to believe that all of education's ills come from having "poor' teachers and never address the many other factors that contribute to student failure we are doomed to shortsighted reforms that in the long run will damage public education far more than it will help it.

Video- DESE offers monthly update

Missouri's billionaire and the war against teacher tenure

The lies have already begun and they will be front center now until Missourians vote on whether tenure should be eliminated for classroom teachers

You have heard the lies before.

-There is no way to get rid of a bad teacher once he or she has tenure.

-Schools would miraculously get better if we could only get rid of all of these experienced teachers who have tenure (and replace them with Teach for America graduates with five weeks of training).

-What other job guarantees its workers lifetime employment?

In addition to those misleading and untruthful statements, this ballot initiative would also require that teachers' evaluations be based on student scores on standardized tests.

It is all happening because one man, retired billionaire Rex Sinquefield, who spent most of his formative years in parochial schools and has little knowledge of what actually goes on in public schools (if you remember, Sinquefield is the man who thought the KKK invented public education), is willing to spend whatever amount of mouey he has to in order to get his way.

As noted in the April 25 Turner Report, Sinquefield has put $1.6 million in less than a year into one of his front groups, the misnamed TeachGreat, in his effort to eliminate teacher tenure.

Those fighting tenure will say that you only have to teach a couple of years and then your job is safe for life. They use New York City as an example, time after time. In the first place, it takes five years to achieve tenure in Missouri, far more than the two or three years in most other states.

And that is not five years of teaching- that is five years teaching in the same school system. On the day teachers begin their sixth year in a school district, they are tenured.

By the time that sixth year rolls around, most bad teachers are not in any position to gain tenure. They have already been sent packing by their school districts, or more often, they realize they are not cut out for a classroom career.

We all know an exception or two, unfortunately, and those are the ones whose stories we will be told about over and over again between now and when we vote on the issue.

The myth that the problem with education is hordes of bad teachers who are populating our classrooms and that everything will be better when we have teachers with less experience, but more enthusiasm and idealism, (and I know and have worked with many veteran teachers whose enthusiasm and idealism not only surpass the younger teachers, but serve as inspiration to them), seems to be reserved only for education. We do not see movements to have million dollar lawsuits handled by young, inexperienced lawyers with five weeks of training, and the last time I recall, no one is circulating petitions to get rid of older doctors so we can have our surgery done by enthusiastic youngsters.

What other job guarantees lifetime employment?

None and neither does education. All tenure says is that if you want to remove an experienced teacher, you have to use due process and that due process is heavily weighted in favor of administrators. In stead of fighting due process because teachers have it, we should be fighting to make sure everyone has due process.

The truth, as you can tell by the fact that Sinquefield calls his front group TeachGreat, will be a casualty when the inevitable ads showing fictitious lazy, incompetent teachers and saddened students, who could be succeeding beyond their wildest teachers if they did not have to deal with experienced teachers.

As for basing teacher evaluations and pay on student scores on standardized tests, that may be the most ludicrous idea of all. The major factor in test scores is going to be the students who are in the classroom. If they come from homes where education is valued, they are likely to score higher on tests. If their families have more income,the same holds true.

In a speech made earlier this week in New York, Rex Sinquefield let it be known that he will accept no excuses such as this. After all, he notes, he was poor, he spent much of his youth in an orphanage, and yet he received a solid private school education and became a billionaire.

"We had a bad home life and we did very well in school and so can they," he said.

He never specified who "they" are.

I suppose he is leaving that to our imagination.

Gladstone Republican on Common Core- We need to stand with the moms who are opposed to this

Cape Girardeau official: Those who oppose Common Core Standards haven't read them

I am beginning to see a sameness with all of the statements that have been issued by those who are in favor of Common Core Standards.

-We can't get rid of Common Core because we have spent so much implementing it in our schools

-The people who are criticizing Common Core are ignorant and have not actually read the standards (the implication being, of course, that once you read them, you will love them).

-We are setting our own curriculum. No one else is doing it for us.

-If you are opposed to Common Core, you are one of those paranoid people who think the government is out to get you.

That same attitude is obvious in comments from Cape Girardeau's assistant superintendent in an article in today's Southeast Missourian:

Formative assessments are administered on a frequent basis -- such as daily or weekly -- to ensure students are on track in their learning.

Summative assessments are for the end of a unit, end of a semester or end of a year to make sure students learned what they needed to during those time frames.

(Assistant Superintendent Sherry) Copeland said students are doing much better on the assessments than they have in the past.

"We determine curriculum; we decide what textbooks, if any, we use, [and] what resources we use," Copeland said. Many of those resources are online with the advent of the district's 1:1 initiative at Central High School, where students were given laptops that could be converted into tablets.

That initiative will be moving down to Central Middle School in the fall.

"People who don't understand Common Core and are posting on Facebook and Twitter and really haven't read the standards," Copeland said. "That's concerning to me."

"We are constantly changing and improving as a society and education has to keep up with that. Missouri was right: We want our students to be college and career ready," she said.

It would be hard to fit in any more educational buzzwords in a passage. Districts are spending millions on 1:1 initiatives because Common Core requires that standardized tests be taken online. Even more technology has to be purchased because the tests begin in the lower elementary grades well before keyboarding instruction normally begins. And with the addition of the now-necessary keyboarding classes for elementary students, we are eliminating other instruction that would be far more valuable to them at that age.

The buzz words "college and career ready" are thrown around. Perhaps all of these computers will make it easy to step into the workplace, though I have my doubts, but please stop the nonsense about them making the students college ready. How many colleges and universities do we see that are providing the same kind of technology to all of their students? Not only is it not being done, but for most institutions of higher learning it is not even on the agenda for the distant future.

Cape Girardeau, Joplin, and other schools that have completely immersed themselves in the 1:1 philosophy and are totally changing teaching styles in order to make every lesson about the machines are not preparing the students for college where many of the classes will be done by lecture, a style that is considered disgraceful by the proponents of 21st Century education.

When the Cape Girardeau official talks about constant assessments, she is hitting on another of the problems with Common Core. While it is true that teachers are making assessments all the time and did even in the days before Common Core, this is not what is meant by assessments nowadays.

When it comes to today's educational landscape, everything is about the standardized tests and the testing companies are making a killing off Common Core. The students are being forced to take boring practice standardized tests that not only take away from valuable instructional time and destroy the joy of learning, but they have little educational value. Standardized tests were always meant be just one weapon in the educational arsenal. When everything revolves around them, education suffers. The Joplin R-8 School District, for example, has used McGraw-Hill's Acuity practice tests for years, taking them eight times a year to give the district an idea of where the students are when it comes to preparing for the end-of-the-year tests.

Even worse, I sat in on meetings in which we prepared curriculum based on the Acuity tests. Joplin is not the only school that thought it could game the system by buying practice tests from the company that prepared the annual MAP tests.

Now the entire state is being forced to do this since DESE (the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) has signed an $18 million contract with McGraw-Hill to not only provide the Common Core annual tests, but also to provide its practice Acuity tests to the entire state.

In other words, we will have all state schools building their curriculum around the tests and the practice tests. Missouri's schools will soon follow Joplin's example and not only have practice tests for the standardized tests, but also practice tests for the practice tests (yes, it happens on a regular basis).

With the Obama Administration's Department of Education basing the awarding of millions of dollars on whether states are implementing Common Core and whether evaluation of teachers is being based on standardized tests, you will not only see a sameness in the curriculum of all schools, despite the protests by Common Core supporters who know so much more than the rest of us, but you will also see more and more teaching to the test because the jobs of teachers and administrators are going to depend on it.

History does not look with kindness on Common Core supporters' argument that it would be horrible to eliminate Common Core because so much money has already been spent to implement it.

Suppose the same thing had been said about the integration of America's schools.

In fact, it was. Those who wanted to maintain the separation of the races in southern schools often cited how much money it was going to cost to change things and how much money had already been spent to build the system they had.

When something is wrong, keeping it because you have already spent so much money doing it, is not an intelligent argument.

Missouri may become second state to dump Common Core

This week the Missouri Senate will begin debating a bill that would require a rewriting of state standards. If the bill passes and is signed by Gov. Jay Nixon, it will make Missouri the second state to drop Common Core Standards:

Now the Senate is scheduled to debate legislation this week that would charge a panel of educators and parents with writing new student performance goals to replace Common Core. The House passed a similar bill earlier this month.

Critics of Common Core said lawmakers should have been consulted on the decision when the State Board of Education adopted the standards. They want Missouri to write its own student benchmarks with involvement from lawmakers.

“There was no open and transparent process,” said Sen. John Lamping, R-Ladue. “I think once Missourians found out they had no say on the adoption of those standards, they now want their own.”

State Board of Education President: Everyone is on board for Common Core Standards

Everyone is on board for Common Core Standards.

That is what you might believe if you were to believe the news release issued this morning by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Opposition to Common Core has been broad-based and was presented at Senate committee hearings this week.

That is not the message Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro is selling in the news release, which is printed below, though her name is not mentioned:

More than one hundred educators and business leaders from around the state gathered in the Senate Lounge at the Capitol on Wednesday to show their support for the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in schools. The Senate Education Committee held the hearing to discuss bills that would prevent implementation of CCSS. The vast majority of Missouri schools have already developed or revised curriculum, selected and adopted new instructional materials and have started using the standards.

“These are the clearest, most concise goals that I’ve seen. My kids are now able to read complex texts, think critically about the content and make arguments based on the author’s viewpoint, not their own opinion,” said Cathy Cartier, a 10th grade English language arts teacher in the Affton school district and the 2012-13 Missouri Teacher of the Year. “The standards do not tell me how to get the kids to reach the standards. I determine curriculum. ”

The witnesses testified that the Common Core standards are more rigorous than existing educational goals in Missouri. "I believe strongly in the importance of increased standards for our children over a sustained period of time," said State Board of Education President Peter Herschend. "Since the Outstanding Schools Act of 1993, each time we have revised standards, we have increased expectations of what students should know and be able to do.”

The overall message from witnesses at the hearing was to stay the course on Common Core.

Two Senate bills, SB 514 and SB 798, would bar the State Board of Education, the Department or school districts from implementing the Common Core standards and would make void any current implementation.

From that news release, you would never guess that Common Core is one of the most controversial issues to ever face Missouri education or that its opponents include people on both ends of the political spectrum and everywhere in between.

Another thing should not be forgotten. It was our tax money that paid for preparing this patently false news release and most likely paid for the people who are so stridently in favor of Common Core.

Joplin R-8 School Board candidate failed to pay taxes

During the Joplin R-8 Board of Education candidate forum Monday night at Corley Auditorium on the Missouri Southern State University campus, candidate Shawn McGrew had no problem fielding a question on school finances from KOAM reporter Lisa Olliges.

"A huge part of what we're responsible for is fiscal responsibility for taxpayer dollars," McGrew said, beginning his answer. He ended by noting again that "fiscal responsibility is what we have to be focused on."

McGrew's assessment was correct, but documents on file in Jasper County Circuit Court  indicate McGrew, who wants to be elected to a position where he would be responsible for millions of dollars, has had problems with his own finances.

The Missouri Department of Revenue slapped Nathan Shawn McGrew with a tax lien on August 23, 2013, according to court records. The document says McGrew owed $1,246.14- $1,236.19 for unpaid 2009 personal income taxes and a $9.95 penalty.

An October 28, 2013, filing from the Department of Revenue's Collection Enforcement division indicates McGrew paid what he owed.

The income tax lien was not the only financial problem the board candidate faced in 2013, according to the court documents. Judge Richard Copeland awarded Mid-America Accounts Control Bureau, a collection agency, a $735.96 judgment against McGrew on May 14, 2013. That included $460 McGrew owed and $275.96 in interest. In addition, McGrew was charged $318 for court costs, including sheriff's fees and process server fees.

Court records show McGrew's wages at Freeman Health were garnished until the judgment was satisfied on November 1, 2013.

How Common Core Standards kill creative teaching

The problem with this standardization epidemic that has swept across the nation and brought with it Common Core Standards is that it is forcing an overemphasis on standardized tests and is rapidly eliminating the creativity of classroom teachers, something that has always been a key element in learning.

That subject is addressed in an article in U. S. News and World Report:

To try to live up to the new demands and ensure better test scores, states, districts and schools have purchased resources, materials and scripted curricular modules solely developed for test success. Being lost is the practical wisdom and planned spontaneity necessary to work with 20 to 35 individuals in a classroom. Academic creativity has been drained from degraded and overworked experienced teachers. Uniformity has sucked the life out of teaching and learning.

Good and great teachers leave and are replaced by new and cheap workers more willing to follow fool-proof, factory-like, prescribed lesson plans. In fact, the average teaching tenure has dropped from approximately 15 years of service in 1990 to less than five in 2013.

Imagine your brain surgeon having to "follow the book" while operating on you or lose his job. While you are on the table, he discovers an unforeseen problem that, because of his experience and practical wisdom, calls for a spontaneous change of plan, yet he can't do what he knows will work. You die on the table. So have students. He retires early, frustrated with conditions. So have the best teachers.

Shawn McGrew: We have to be proud of what Bright Futures has accomplished

In an interview with KZRG from earlier in the week, Joplin R-8 Board of Education candidate Shawn McGrew says we need to be focused on "maintaining our best and brightest teachers," but never acknowledges that there is a teacher turnover problem in the district.

The same approach is used with a question on the financial problems facing the district. McGrew notes that it is important to make sure the students have the technology they need and that some of the older buldings in the district be brought up to date, but never acknowledges that the district has a money problem.

On the subject of Common Core Standards, McGrew says he has some concerns about them, including data collection and making sure that all schools have the technology to deal with the online testing Common Core requires. He does not say, however, how he feels about Common Core.

McGrew does get specific about the effect of Bright Futures on the Joplin school district. McGrew, who has been deeply involved with the program, noted the difference it has made to R-8 students, and that the program has expanded to include 22 districts in six states.

"We have to be very proud of what we have accomplished."

Ed Emery: Let's give public schools a letter grade

(In his latest report, Sen. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, argues for a simplistic grading scale for Missouri public schools. Emery rips those who oppose the idea by noting they are all from teacher unions and administrator and school board groups. At the same time, he has no problem with the fact that those who are supporting the measure are the policy advisor for Rex Sinquefield's Show-Me Institute and the Children's Education Council, both of which have nice names, but have demonstrated considerable animosity toward public schools.)

It is time for school success to be measured and reported just as student achievement is measured and reported with clear, concise, understandable letter grades. Why not inform parents about their child’s school by giving schools the same grades - A, B, C, D and F - which students get? Letter grades, due to their straight-forward indication of performance, will encourage better communication within schools and with parents. Last Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee heard arguments for and against Senate Bill 521 which would require most public schools to convert their detailed evaluations into a letter grade to be reported to parents.

In states where grading of schools has been implemented, schools have seen significant improvements in measured performance once these grading scenarios were implemented. In one state, when they initially implemented letter grades for the schools, almost three-quarters of their schools were graded C or below. At the end of a decade about three-quarters of their schools were graded A or B, and in those 10 years they had increased the standards at least twice.

“The academic literature on school letter grades is limited,” said James Shuls, the education policy analyst for the Show-Me Institute, when he testified in support of similar legislation last spring. “However, the existing evidence suggests that school letter grades have a positive impact on student achievement.”

Letter grades for schools address the need for transparency within school districts. Grading systems like this make it easier for people of all backgrounds to look at a school and instantly know how the school is performing. Kate Casas from the Children’s Education Council of Missouri said, “Parents, as well as community members, business and philanthropic leaders need accessible, understandable, transparent information about school performance.”

In the same way student report cards include comments noting their success and improvements, so will the schools. Each report card must identify the school’s performance as having improved, remained the same, or declined based on the prior year in terms of letter grade and value.

Parental involvement is often cited as one of the two most valuable elements of student success, the other being teacher quality. Every parent will understand the implications of their child’s school being graded A, B, C, D, or F and will be more likely to look deeper, ask questions, and become more involved in the entire education system. Removing some of the mystery of public education will invite parental involvement; isn’t that what we all want? Strange that public opposition to SB521 came almost exclusively from teachers’ unions, a school boards’ association, and school administrators’ associations. On second thought, maybe we don’t all want more public involvement?

Video- Chris Nicastro discusses student transfers, teacher preparation programs

Jasper Common Core resolution to be delivered to Missouri Legislature Tuesday

A resolution expressing concern with Common Core Standards, passed 7-0 Thursday night by the Jasper R-5 Board of Education will be hand delivered to the Missouri Legislature Tuesday.

Jasper became only the second school district in the state, following East Newton, to pass such a resolution.

The resolution reads as follows:

On Thursday February 27, 2014 the Jasper R5 Board of Education voted on a resolution regarding Missouri’s implementation of the Common Core State Standards.

Whereas, our concerns are similar to the resolution from the East Newton R6 Board of Education regarding the a fore mentioned standards, we wish to add our voice of concern to theirs.

Whereas, we recognize that MSIP 5 (Missouri School Improvement Plan) puts in to place the four assurances that will make it difficult for Missouri schools to retain local control and

Whereas, we the Jasper R5 Board of Education feel the CCSS initiative, MSIP 5 and the SBAC assessments must be addressed through legislative action, we petition the legislature to address concerns with all due diligence, to avoid further detriment to Missouri schools and local control.

Therefore, we petition the Missouri State Legislature to discontinue funding programs in association with Common Core State Standards Initiative/Missouri’s Learning Standards and any other alliance that promotes standards and assessments aligned to them and petition a return to the statutes that allow curricular frameworks and assessments that align to Missouri statutes outlined in the East Newton R6 resolution.

THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution shall be delivered to the Governor, State Senate and House leadership, the State Education Chairs and the Legislature for executive and legislative action.

This resolution was adopted by the Board of Education
School District of Jasper, R-5.

State may pay part of cost for Kansas City transfers

Video- Common Core panel discussion held at Lincoln Days in Springfield

Springfield area educators like Common Core (at least on camera)

The educators who speak in favor of Common Core Standards in this video are administrators, not classroom teachers.

Nixon urges House to restore $44.1 million cut to K-12 education funding

(From Gov. Jay Nixon)

Gov. Jay Nixon today sent a letter to members of the Missouri House of Representatives urging them to restore a $44.1 million cut to K-12 education funding, made by the House Budget Committee earlier this week.

“Shortchanging our schools is not the way to build an economy of the future,” Gov. Nixon said. “The committee’s refusal to provide our local schools with the resources they were promised is both unnecessary and unacceptable. That is why I have called on members of the House to reverse this $44.1 million cut to ensure our local schools get the resources they need and deserve.”

The Fiscal Year 2014 budget as passed overestimated the revenue that would be available from riverboat gaming, lottery and other revenues dedicated to the school foundation formula. As a result, local schools stand to receive $44.1 million less than what was appropriated for the current school year. That is why the Governor’s supplemental budget request includes $44.1 million in general revenue for our K-12 classrooms to make up for this shortfall. On Tuesday, the House Budget Committee voted to pass a budget that did not include this funding.

A copy of the letter is available here.