What
This Is…
Issue #84- October 21,
2012
In this issue: Politics,
Public Schools and Hope for the Future
MMSD now has a website for
Spanish speaking families!!
Style
Over Substance…
We are nearing the end of
another heated election cycle (for those of us in Wisconsin it has been over a
year of near-constant campaigning) and politicians everywhere are providing us
with examples of "style over substance" as they trade one liners and
air advertising aimed at convincing voters to "buy their
product". As a society we face many
very difficult issues, issues that can't be summarized in a brief ad, speech or
other campaign communication. Unfortunately,
those short, limited communications are what many citizens use as a basis for
deciding what candidates and policies to support.
The reality is that the
solutions to our challenges and problems can't be generated by bumper sticker
slogans that oversimplify a problem or vilify a particular stance on an issue. By relying on the "packaging" of a
candidate or party we ignore the substance of their positions on important
issues. It reminds me of my childhood
(and embarrassingly, my adulthood as well) where I would buy a cereal for the
prize in the box, not necessarily the cereal itself.
The obvious danger to our
society is that by voting on style, we put politicians in place who don't have
the knowledge, ability, skills, and/or desire to work to find reasoned,
moderate solutions to issues. Our
elected officials are often beholden to special interests, or products of a
flawed system where they have been able to essentially purchase their
office. This is certainly not true of
all politicians, but an alarming number of them do fall into this type of
category.
Voters in our nation are
swept along in a mass wave that is generated by propaganda with little basis in
fact. Thus we see Russ Feingold's
statesmanship replaced by Ron Johnson's demagoguery. We also see people casting ballots based on
incomplete information. Scott Walker's
call to balance the budget resonated with voters, would it have had the same
support if he had proposed eliminating public employee's collective bargaining
rights during the campaign?
The policies that result
from these elections mirror the elections themselves. Candidates that are elected based on glitzy
campaigns find themselves mired in a process that is far removed from the
"glamour" that the campaign trail offered. When done well, our democratic process is not
a thing of beauty to most of us.
Meetings, compromise, debate, meetings, debate, communicating,
discussion, compromise… the process of creating positive policy and legislation
is a tedious one that offers few opportunities for publicity. Yet, our politicians need their "moments
of glory" so that they can get re-elected every election cycle.
Elected officials find
themselves looking for issues and policies that will allow them to stand out
and gain support among the electorate.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, we want those who represent us to do
just that, represent us. We elect them
to stand up for us and to protect our interests while shaping policy that will
allow our entire society to prosper. Unfortunately, along with the need for votes,
our modern candidates need significant financial support to "package"
their "product" for the next election. This leaves them vulnerable to influence by
wealthy donors who may not be interested in promoting socially just, or
economically fair policies. In the end,
we lose the substantive debate that our society's current, and future issues
deserve and get a "sugary treat" that can end in decay.
Public
Education- Policy vs. Reality…
Public education is an
area that has been significantly damaged by the lack of informed debate and the
poor policy decisions that result from "Bumper-sticker Politics". Too many of the people making important
decisions about public education have too little knowledge about education in
general and our public schools specifically.
This has resulted in decades of poor policy and obviously has damaged
our public education system.
This damage has
accelerated exponentially in the last couple of decades. Legislation like No Child Left Behind and
numerous other "Education" bills have created an atmosphere where
real education reform is stunted and resources are drained from our public
schools. All while touting privatization
and attempting to funnel public money to for-profit schools.
The actions of GOP leaders
like Governor Walker have expanded the attacks by attacking not only public
education (record budget cuts), but also by directly attacking public educators
(Act 10 and the effort to eliminate collective bargaining for public
employees). This combination seems to
have awakened many public educators and their supporters in states like Wisconsin. We are realizing that we are involved in a
struggle that goes beyond contracts, wages and benefits. The future of our public education system is
in jeopardy if we continue on the paths mapped for us by those claiming to want
to "reform" our schools.
The false reformers rely
on their ability to simplify a problem and to create what appears to be a
"common-sense" solution that will gain popular support. They create and publicize a
"crisis" and use the public concern to take control of the debate
surrounding education. The GOP has been
very effective in their efforts to set the tone of discussions about public
education. So effective that Democrats
echo many of the sentiments that Republicans have initiated.
The "reformers"
have used a few basic arguments to attack public education and have been very
effective in delivering their message. I
have no problem with the supporters of these "reforms" touting their
ideas, nor do I have a desire to stifle debate that could lead to positive
results for our public schools and the students they serve. The proposing and advocating of ideas is a
vital part of our democratic process.
Concepts and ideas like the Madison Prep proposal focus attention on
issues and generate more involvement from all sides of an argument.
However, there is a more
sinister side to these discussions that appears all too frequently. It is up to all of us involved to make sure
that we don't allow a small number of individuals with specific interests to
manipulate and control the debate.
We are seeing discussion
in Madison about a proposed change at Toki Middle
School that could result in a charter school
program replacing the existing, more traditional school model. More discussion needs to occur in a positive
way, but discussing changes allows for growth to occur. As Frederick Douglass said, "If there is
no struggle, there is no progress".
My problem with education
"reform" as it is currently presented in America is twofold. First, I don't believe that a significant
number of the "reforms" proposed are really designed to improve
education. Many of the proposals are
simply efforts to funnel money to a new recipient, usually a private company or
individual.
My second major problem
with education "reform" is the fact that policies based on
simplifying issues or hyper-focusing on specific issues results in flawed
policy. If these policies were simply
broad, generalized and relatively harmless that would be one thing, but instead
these policies result in specific damage to schools and students. Every piece of legislation or educational
policy implemented has an impact on students or educators somewhere and we
can't ignore the realities of the impacts that they have.
A couple examples…
Accountability- We've been hearing it for some time, our schools are failing and we
need to hold them accountable in order to compete with other nations in a
global marketplace. In order to know
whether our students are succeeding or not we need to assess them. We can use the data generated by these
assessments to evaluate school districts, specific schools, programs and
individual educators as well. In
addition there are key concepts that, if understood, will predict a student's ability
to be successful in future activities.
That's what "reformers" would have us believe.
It is true that assessment
is a vital part of the educational process.
Assessments can be used to guide instruction and to determine a
student's understanding of a subject or skill.
However, the best assessments are not single events based on a small
number of responses on a standardized test.
Instead, a professional educator is able to assess a student in multiple
formats on a number of occasions and monitors student progress over time.
The results of the flawed
"reform" policies are things like the upcoming DPI School
Report Cards. These evaluations focus on
a small number of specific criteria and standardized testing. The results will be released on Monday,
October 22nd and I predict that turmoil, finger-pointing and confusion will
result.
You see, in order for a
report card to be effective, everyone involved needs to understand what is
being evaluated, how it is being evaluated and what the significance of the
evaluation is. None of these things is
true with the school report cards and most people will simply look at the
number and use that as a comparison of what schools are "good" and
what schools are "bad".
Families will see a score and wonder what it is that they are missing
when they think about the education their child is receiving.
The report card is only
the most recent, and most visible, example of the flawed policies involving
schools and accountability. I've written
quite a lot about the problems with testing and other accountability measures. The reality is that students lose valuable
instruction time, educators find their curriculum limited to
"testable" skills and topics and families are frustrated by the
different numbers and results that are shared after assessments are given.
If another example is
needed, it comes from many Madison
educators who are just finishing their initial rounds of required
assessments. Now they are ready to start
teaching, but wait, November is "Standardized Test Month" here in Wisconsin. This narrows many educators instructional
time to a few weeks in October and early November sandwiched around 2
professional development days and Halloween.
No worries though, we will get back to instruction just in time for
Thanksgiving, Winter Break and the assessments necessary to complete our end of
semester report cards. No wonder so many
educators are frustrated. Policy makers
just don't understand what damage they've done to our students.
Of course there are always
those who resist these reforms.
School Finance Reform/The Schools as a Business
Model- Reformers argue that our
public schools are like "money sponges", just soaking up dollars and
not releasing much of value. They point
to the test scores and rising costs of educating students and claim that it
could be done more efficiently and more effectively if we just cut costs,
trimmed staff, and ran our schools like businesses.
The best example of this
rhetoric, turned into policy should be obvious.
Scott Walker's budget trimmed the "fat" from public schools in
Wisconsin to
the tune of $1.85 Billion over two years.
In return for the loss of state aid, he gave local school boards
"tools" to offset the cuts.
Act 10 and the changes in rules regarding collective bargaining for
school district employees was supposed to make up the difference by having
employees pick up more of their health care costs, pension contributions and
eliminating the unions that supposedly cost the system so much money.
Here's a sampling of
articles from the past week or so, showing just how successful this idea has
been.
Then there is the reality that
if you combine high stakes testing with school financing you will get a
business model. Corners will be cut and
changes made in order to insure success.
Unfortunately, we aren't talking about discontinuing a product line, or
changing hours of business. We are
talking about someone's child.
As budgets are cut,
students and families are also impacted as they look ahead to their college
careers. We are seeing a huge rise in
student loan debt that is making a college education "unprofitable"
for many Americans.
Forming
a Partnership Between Schools and Communities…
The current climate surrounding
public education may be gloomy, but there is always hope. An example of this occurred last week when a
small group met at a local Madison
restaurant to discuss public education and what can be done to defend it. The group included a couple of educators and
several community members who have students that attend Madison's public schools. Discussion ranged from testing, to charter
schools to curriculum and more.
We talked for almost two
hours and decided to meet again in the near future. Each of us will try to bring a few more
people in to the discussion group and we will look for topics that are of
interest and importance. We don't know
where the group is headed and what will come from our meetings, but I have hope
that it will be the beginning of a larger effort here in Madison to connect our schools and educators
with the larger community.
I am participating in a
couple of other efforts to facilitate communication around issues involving
public education and public educators.
These initial efforts to expand communication and to share information
about what is happening to/in our public schools gives me optimism for the
future. I hear from other educators
about their efforts to connect with the communities they serve and my "Hope-Meter"
jumps more in the positive direction.
As Ralph Ellison said,
"Education is all a matter of building bridges." Along the same lines, Isaac Newton stated,
"We build too many walls and not enough bridges." The survival of public education depends on
the number of walls we knock down and the number of bridges we build. The time to start construction is now.
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