Don’t Let Billionaires Buy the Louisiana BESE Board

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson could not believe his good fortune. He sent negotiators over to France to purchase New Orleans from Napoleon Boneparte, and instead was offered the entire Louisiana Territory. It started the United States on the path of becoming a world power.

Beware, another group with its vast reservoir of money is attempting to purchase the Louisiana education system. The millionaires and billionaires are busy at work on a Third Louisiana Purchase.

We, the people, were endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, and we, the citizens of Louisiana, number more than the seven billionaires.

They already bought the Board four years ago in the Second Louisiana Purchase. With the help of Governor Bobby Jindal, outsiders poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into numerous races to get the eight votes he needed to hire wunderkind John White, even though he had barely been the Recovery School District Superintendent for a year. The reform agenda firmly controlled the votes of nine members, and only Dr. Lottie Beebe voted against White becoming Superintendent.

The money won the day, and look at what we got.

ACT score averages down from 20.2 to 19.4. A record number of veteran teacher leaving the profession though many had more good years in them. A drastic drop in the number of people entering college as an education major. A botched implementation of Common Core so wretchedly bad, not even supporters have been able to rally around it.

Even Bobby Jindal has turned against Common Core and the Board that blindly supports it. Slowly the make-up of the board has changed, and now the battle lines are usually drawn seven to four in favor of White and whatever he proclaims is good for Louisiana.

Forces are ruthlessly at work to preserve that seven-seat majority on the BESE Board. The Advocate has an article titled “Big money to BESE elections: $3.5 million to PACs and counting,” where it shows in detail how a handful of the über-rich want to buy the votes on the Board.

Eli & Edythe Broad, Michael Bloomberg, Laura & John Arnold, and Alice & Jim Walton are just a handful of the billionaires who essentially don’t want anybody messing with their elitist reform package synonymous with charter schools, merit pay, and value added models. (Just an interesting side-note, John White attended the Broad Academy, founded by Eli Broad, where for a scant six training weekends, you too can be a Superintendent.)

These rich few essentially want to rob us of our individual voices. Their money can buy TV ads and expensive, glossy handouts to distract voters from the disaster of the last four years.

Well, let’s make a stark contrast.

If you are for the state being in the hands of a Superintendent who lowers scores on tests to 22% for a passing grade, let the billionaires win.

If you are for even more testing that robs students of the valuable classroom time to learn all-important skills, let the billionaires win.

If you are for testing kids as young as eight with a test that none of you will ever see or get any indication of how to improve your child’s understanding of it, let the billionaires win.

If you are for punishing kids with all sorts of poorly-written worksheets bought from out of state companies—Eureka Math and Engage New York—let the billionaires win.

If you are for condescending educators-in-the-know and legislators who openly mock and disrespect parents and teachers when they come to legislative sessions, let the billionaires win.

If you are for a curriculum that teaches to a test instead of learning life lessons and how to joy of living, let the billionaires win.

If you are NOT willing to sell your children’s futures to a bunch of billionaires, then STAND UP AND VOTE!  Restore a sensible group of leaders to BESE who aren’t chained to a reformist model. Vote in leaders whose only constituents should be Louisiana children, parents, and educators. Those are Lee Barrios (Dist. 1), Kara Washington (Dist. 2), Dr. Lottie Beebe (Dist. 3), Mary Johnson Harris (Dist. 4) Johnny Fatheree (Dist. 5), Jason France, (Dist. 6), Mike Kreamer (Dist. 7), and Carolyn Hill (Dist. 8)

We, the people, were endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, and we, the citizens of Louisiana, number more than the seven billionaires. We should be outraged that a group of outsiders want to control this fun-loving state.

Don’t let the Gang of Seven Billionaires buy the BESE Board. Stop the Third Louisiana Purchase!

Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Rep. Ivey’s HB 505 Returns From the Grave

When it comes to politics, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck said it best. “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.”

I hope that the concerned citizens return armed with facts, and treat this kind of legislative slight-of-hand with the contempt it deserves. 

In the last two years, I have watched with incredulity at the antics of the Louisiana legislature, whose leaders appear to specialize in somewhat spiteful behavior toward each other, the governor, and the Louisiana people.

During the 2013 legislative session, this behavior was grossly on display. Finding all sorts of problems with the Teacher Evaluation System (TES, my acronym), the House unanimously passed a bill delaying the punitive measures of the TES. In other words, for one year, teachers who received a negative evaluation would not have it count against them while teachers who earned a positive evaluation could keep it. As the system proved to be wildly ineffective, it seemed a remarkably common-sense solution.

Not so, thought the Senate Education committee, chaired by pro-Common Core Senator Conrad Appel. With a vote of 4-3, that seven-member committee killed the bill passed by a unanimous House. Those four members outweighed the concerns of the 100+ members of the House, and the bill died.

Democracy at its finest.

This year, House members have reached different targets: parents and educators.

Representative Barry Ivey proposed HB 505, which would effectively remove any teacher hired after July 2015 from ever earning due process. Any principal could now come into a school and theoretically fire any and all new teachers he or she wished. That might be the way businesses work, but schools do not operate on a business model, nor should they.

Representative Austin J. Badon, Jr. proposed HB 330, which would allow the Department of Education to expand the number of voucher students in some schools if those schools had been in operation for less than two years.

Both Ivey’s and Badon’s bills were scheduled for April 29^th before the House Education Committee, the same day as a planned rally by a contingent of parents and educators aligned against Common Core, voucher expansion, and erosion of teachers rights. These concerned citizens had done research and prepared speeches, only to watch the two representatives suddenly pull their bills.

One week later, with no parents or educators on his horizon, Ivey has resurrected HB 505, essentially exposing all new teachers to discriminatory termination. Did he defer his bill in a craven attempt to avoid any pushback from groups which had meticulously organized to defend Louisiana citizens against a pervasive, pernicious belief that the business model is perfect for the educational system? Probably, though we may never know.

I hope that the parents return armed with facts, and treat this kind of legislative slight-of-hand with the contempt it deserves.

 

My Letter to Senator Conrad Appel… Still Unanswered As Of Today

I thought I might take a chance and attempt to reason with Senator Conrad Appel, the powerful chairman of the Senate Education Committee. I sent this letter, with a requested return receipt. I have not received the receipt, so I’m not sure what that means, but I think it’s safe to say the Senator has not received it. I shall resend it, along with a copy to all the Senators on the Education Committee. We’ll see.

I asked a friend what chance did I have of being heard as compared to the millionaires in America? She said, “None.”

I hope she’s wrong. I fear she’s not.

Dear Senator Conrad Appel,

I am taking this time to write you about your support of Common Core legislation. Please don’t think I am assaulting you and please don’t take this as an opportunity to not read any further. I’m a teacher who wants to engage with you substantially about this important topic.

I understand the desire for strong standards; I even understand the federal push for it. It derives from a completely understandable impulse to make sure that all students—Caucasians and all minorities—get an equitable education, meaning no one falls through the cracks. The quality of an education should not depend on the randomness of skin tone nor the accident of residential zones, though too often it actually has.

I understand the state of education can always use improvement. As an educator, I have often volunteered to become part of a solution process. When my district required all Algebra II teachers, for example, to give a module test to see if we have all covered the material adequately, I have volunteered to write or assist in writing the assessment. I don’t want students to sit through overly-long tests with five questions assessing the same skill, or have them sit through questions that weren’t included in topics we were supposed to teach. Even though I have almost twenty-five years in the classroom, I do not represent an old-guard mentality nor am I thoroughly repelled by modernity and technology. You should see me use my SmartBoard.

I am, however, opposed to reform movements that don’t involve me in the process.

Please, if you don’t read any further into this letter, read one more paragraph and then quit should you decide.

Writing standards is an expensive procedure, and the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers combined, with financial contributions from Bill Gates, to produce a revamped set of standards that states would be free to adopt. Those two groups assembled a team of twenty-four people to work on two committees, one math and one English-language-arts, to design a new set of standards from grades three up through high school. Important things to note about those twenty-four, highly educated people:

• None were present-day teachers. Only six having ever been teachers, five of whom had not been in the classroom in eleven or more years.
• None had any experience writing standards.
• None were experts in child development.

These twenty-four people are listed on the NGA website as the authors, and the feedback from actual teachers was minimal. This process resulted in standards that two prominent people on the Validation Committee with experience writing standards refused to sign: Dr. James Milgram (math) and Dr. Sandra Stotsky (English). Even should you find my experience limited, please research their concerns, which they have made public during numerous testimonies before other states’ legislatures.

People have bombarded you with conspiracy theories, of Obamacare-style education, of federal takeovers, of testing companies being the pawns of foreign countries; the list is endless. I just want to state that the Common Core Standards-writing process concerns me. This flawed process results in developmentally inappropriate material and tests, something an educator can recognize.

My own experience with the math standards has revealed that the math standards writing team has made the standards more rigorous by moving material down by two grade levels. In simple terms, material I have taught to juniors for years is now in the freshmen curriculum, and most freshmen aren’t ready for complicated exponential graphs and detailed quadratic functions. This isn’t what most developed countries do, so why do we?

I want strong standards, but I want them designed by people with a thorough knowledge of brain development. I want accountability, but these PARCC tests don’t even come back in time to show me where I might improve. I have taken graduate courses in developing curricula and want to partake in scaffolding subjects so that they build on each other and eliminate repetition.

I read recently how the Alliance for a Better Classroom Political Action Committee sent fluffy pink and white unicorns to your desk with the message “Unicorns are not real, and neither are most of the things you’ve heard about Common Core State Standards.” Lane Grigsby, one of the major financial backers of the ABC PAC, has millions of dollars to spend, and I make approximately $36,000 after taxes. I was recently talking to the daughter of a US representative who served over thirty years in the US House, and I asked her what chance did I have of being heard as compared to the millionaires in America? She said, “None.”

I hope she’s wrong. I fear she’s not.

I do not wish to hassle you further. I apologize for the length of this letter, but I wanted to emphasize the common sense concerns of parents and teachers. You are a parent who’s raised two children; you know what parents go through. I am not here to attack or insult; I want you to see my side of the story.

Sincerely,

Vincent P. Barras

 

Self-Documentation Is the Worst Form of Self-Delusion

Recently, the Alliance for a Better Classroom’s Political Action Committee paid for over 100 fluffy unicorns to be given to every Louisiana legislator. They had a note attached to them saying “Unicorns are not real. And neither are most of the things you’ve heard about Common Core State Standards.” They included a website Unicornsare notreal.com, which list several “myths versus facts” about Common Core. I decided to explore that website.

It was pretty priceless… and also sloppy documentation.

There are eighteen footnotes documenting what sources they used. Guess where FOURTEEN of the eighteen footnotes came from? Common Core’s own Webpage! TWELVE of those fourteen footnotes came from a SINGLE source on the Common Core Webpage called “Myths versus Facts.” Well, there’s a fountain of unbiased research and reporting! (Sarcasm intended.)

The Alliance for Better Classroom’s Political Action Committee does not make for good independent journalism. The PAC sounds more like a parrot of previously debunked and discredited information.

One such “fact” the CoreStandards.org site loves to peddle is “The Common Core drafting process relied on teachers and standards experts from across the country. In addition, many state experts came together to create the most thoughtful and transparent process of standard setting. This was only made possible by many states working together.”

That is largely a MYTH. The fifteen people listed on the Common Core’s own website as developers of the math standards were not present-day teachers, though FOUR of the fifteen had had been teachers. Three of those four had not taught in a classroom in TWELVE years.

The fourteen people listed on the Common Core’s own website as developers of the English standards were also not present-day teachers, though the same stipulations apply. Some had teaching experience but far in the past.

Five people inexplicably worked on BOTH the English and the math standards. Here they are:
Sara Clough, former biology teacher out of the classroom for 11 years (writing math or English standards?!)
Natasha Vasavada, former social studies teacher (writing math standards?!)
Laura McGiffert Slover, former English teacher out of the classroom for 11 years (writing math standards?!)
John Kraman, NO TEACHING EXPERIENCE (writing math or English standards?!)
Sherri Miller, NO TEACHING EXPERIENCE (writing math or English standards?!)

Common Core repeatedly claims that hundreds and thousands of teachers “helped” in this process, but they rarely provide the names of those hoards nor do they define what “helped” meant.

The Alliance for Better Classroom’s Political Action Committee does not make for good independent journalism. The PAC sounds more like a parrot of previously debunked and discredited information.

The source for the authors of the Common Core Standards: (http://www.nga.org/cms/home/news-room/news-releases/page_2009/col2-content/main-content-list/title_common-core-state-standards-development-work-group-and-feedback-group-announced.html)

The source for the investigation of those authors by Mercedes Schneider (https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/those-24-common-core-2009-work-group-members/)

Unicorns in the Legislature: Never a Dull Moment in the Common Core Fight

Advocate Photo by MARK BALLARD

The Political Action Committee (PAC) called Alliance for Better Classrooms (ABC) has sent in the clowns—er, I mean, unicorns. In an opening salvo for the 2015 Legislative Session, the ABC PAC has sent fluffy unicorns to every Louisiana legislator with a statement attached saying, “Unicorns are not real. And neither are most of the things you’ve heard about Common Core State Standards.”

Just when I thought life without Edwin Edwards would be boring.

Apparently, Common Core supporting groups like Alliance for Better Classrooms felt that buying cute unicorns was money better spent than on actual classroom improvements.

What is this PAC called Alliance for Better Classrooms? I had never heard of them and decided to do some digging. The Internet searches were certainly eye-opening.

Baton Rouge businessman Lane Grigsby, owner of Cajun Industries, organized this new PAC around 2011 specifically to insert money into the 2011 BESE Board elections. At that time, it was widely known that Governor Bobby Jindal wanted to appoint New Orleans Recovery School District Superintendent John White at the Louisiana Superintendent of Education. White needed eight votes to get the appointment but it was equally known that four of the eleven BESE board members signaled their opposition to the underqualified John White.

Bobby Jindal then went to work for the man he once considered the savior of the state’s education system.

Jindal pulled in the big bucks and supported candidates that would vote for John White. Money flowed, especially from the wealthy New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who wrote a check for $5,000 for Kira Orange Jones, a candidate for the BESE Board, who eventually voted for White as Superintendent.

Even more importantly, Bloomberg contributed $100,000 to the ABC PAC. Cajun Industries, Grigsby’s firm, donated another $90,000, and at one point, he stated to the Advocate that he would spend more than one million if need be.

Lane Grigsby is an impressive entrepreneur, starting a business from scratch in the 70s and building it into a successful one topping $200 million in sales. Grigsby, however, typifies the businessman who thinks he has the answer for the education system. He has served on the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, has been a past Chairman of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, and presently served on the LABI Board. Both the Chamber and LABI are staunchly pro-Common Core, despite the fact that both groups had almost no expertise in educational issues.

And apparently, neither does Grigsby. His background, at least the one listed for his internet biography on Louisiana’s Business Roundtable, shows that his educational background is non-existent.

I have no doubt Grigsby is great at construction, and I would never attempt to tell him how to set up a structural steel building. I, however, know what works in the classroom, and I resent being told by businessmen who wouldn’t last five minutes in a classroom how to succeed as a teacher. What Grigsby doesn’t know about education could fill the Library of Congress, and as a lowly teacher with a single voice, I feel extremely apprehensive at the power and sway a man with that much money can hold over the future of education in this state.

In one newspaper article, Grigsby is quoted as saying, “I am not a kingmaker,” but his PAC, financed with some of his own money, certainly influenced the 2011 BESE Board elections. One particular youtube video, which is still available online, testifies to the kind of ads the ABC PAC was willing to create.

It unabashedly assaults Dale Bayard, the District 7 BESE board member, with caricatures of Bayard with red, beady eyes and the slogan “Dale Bayard. He’s BAD for Our Schools!” There’s even a child’s voice opining sadly, “Dale Bayard. He’s the reason our schools are broken.”

Way to keep it classy.

The 2011 election removed two board members who opposed John White, giving him more than the eight votes he needed to get a swanky promotion.

Louisiana probably has Lane Grigsby to thank, in part, for John White. We can therefore subsequently thank Grigsby for White’s inept and wretched rollout of Common Core.

And now it seems, four years later, the ABC PAC is at it again as the legislature meets and the elections draw near.

Recently, Grigsby voiced his disappointment in Senator David Vitter’s reversal on Common Core. In a Greater Baton Rouge Business Report, he is quoted as saying about Vitter, “Once again, political aspirations trump good judgment.”

So, buying a bunch of stuffed toys displays good judgment? If anything, it belittles an extremely important topic in the 2015 Louisiana Legislature.

It never seems to matter to business groups when they are questioned about Common Core. They scoff at inquiries that question why the twenty-five people who wrote the core of Common Core were mostly test-makers. They belittle any concerns about the lack of educators, parents, or child-development experts on the team that wrote the standards. They rebuke any disparaging remarks about the standard writers having no experience writing standards.

In their minds, it’s a done deal. It’s good for our children, our country, our workforce.

Any proof of that? Perish the thought.

It would be nice if instead of spending money to buy fluffy animals for 140+ legislators, people with influence might actually try to find out what is good for Louisiana students—and it wouldn’t hurt to ask the teachers who are in the trenches with those students.

 

Lots of Opinions, Not Many Facts: Judy’s Vail’s Letter to the Editor

Cartoon by Randy Bish in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Senator Patrick Moynihan once famously said, “You are entitled to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts.”

Judy Vail, Common Core Specialist in Calcasieu Parish, wrote a recent letter to the editor. It was riddled with opinions but lacking in facts. Here is my response.

Common Core will never solve the true stumbling block called poverty; anyone who thinks so is simply not looking at the facts.

She claims to know why people oppose Common Core. Considering that she is one of the core group of teacher leaders chosen by John White to promote Common Core, she most likely possesses only the side of the story with which she is comfortable. To claim that people oppose it only due to national infringement of local control only displays the lack of understanding on supporters’ part. Parents are complicated, loving people, and to reduce their valid concerns to only one category is another sign of one-size-fits-all approach CC supporters employ.

As for her statement that Common Core started with the states, that is wrong. The National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) are NOT the states. The individual states did NOT appoint the people or send any members to be a part of the core group who wrote Common Core Standards. With vast donations of Bill Gates’ money, the NGA and the CCSSO appointed the people who designed the standards that some 45 states would originally adopt.

“Common Core standards actually spell out what math and reading skills students should have in each grade…” That’s exactly what the Louisiana Grade Level Expectations (GLE) also did, and they were ranked as some of the better ones in the nation. Poverty, however, dramatically affects our performance on state rankings, but instead of addressing poverty, CC supporters claimed the GLEs were deficient. It’s a perfect example of addressing the symptom while ignoring the disease.

Vail also uses faulty logic. She claims that since less than 20 states have signed up for the PARCC assessments, how can this be a national test? She failed to mention that PARCC is only one of two groups designing such tests; the other is called Smarter Balance that has some 21 participating states. Combined, those two groups represent almost seventy percent of the nation taking tests based on the same standards.

“If Louisiana were to delay the use of PARCC, costs could rise to the millions of dollars.” Actually, the Pre-PARCC tests cost between $8-11 dollars per test, while the PARCC tests conservatively were estimated to cost $29 per test—almost triple the cost—and that’s not including the exorbitant amount of computer upgrades each district must absorb as the tests only run on the latest computers.

How did 45 states somehow think it a good idea to hand over their educational future to a group of people who were not teachers, had never written standards before, and had no grasp of cognitive development in children? What could possibly go wrong?

As for my mathematical experience, I trust the words of Dr. James Milgram, who served on the Verification Committee for CC and refused to sign off on it, and Dr. Ze’ev Wurman who has written extensively on the notable omissions in the math standards: removing Algebra I from the 8^th grade, replacing traditional foundations of Euclidean geometry with an experimental approach, removing topics in Algebra II and Geometry that make a college-ready student really only ready for a two year college; failure to teach prime factorization and least common denominators or greatest common factors; failure to address mathematical induction; barely touches on logarithms; incompletely addresses conic sections; and the list goes on.

Vail lastly states that Louisiana is ready for CC because the state has worked tirelessly to implement these standards. I certainly don’t have Vail’s 40 years as an educator, but in my 24 years, I have never seen such a haphazard rollout of such a poorly-conceived plan. I’ve had five different curriculum maps in the last five years, all significantly different and all implying that we apparently had no clue what we were doing from year to year.

She closes with the usual argument that the state’s 48^th place ranking means we must keep Common Core. As long as poverty remains the real problem, we will always rank near the bottom. Common Core will never solve the true stumbling block called poverty; anyone who thinks so is simply not looking at the facts.

 

Common Core Was Never Right for Louisiana or the Nation

Copied from an article by Mona Charen published January 9, 2015 (http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/charen010915.php3)

Recently, an educator wrote a letter to the editor about not turning back the clock on educational reforms. Here is my response.

The author wrote, “Just like a doctor, when we learn more-effective practices, we replace old, outdated ones.” Actually one of the best medical practices is to first do no harm. New medicines are usually tested on a small sample to see if they work. Rarely would a new drug be subjected to the whole population and then, keeping fingers crossed, watch the results. That’s exactly what Common Core is: a mass trial experiment using students as guinea pigs. It’s unethical.

She also wrote, “Over the past four years, teachers around our state have worked tirelessly to transition our instructional practices to better meet the needs of our students.” My experience has been quite the opposite. I have taught the same math subject for eight years now, but have received five different curriculum maps, each more bizarre than the last. They are all based on a set of standards written by individuals with no experience writing standards. (No matter how many times that is pointed out, reformers blindly ignore this.)

Bobby Jindal’s plan is to return to the GLE program of 2004-05. Those GLEs were evaluated as one of the best in the nation, but that evaluation clashed with Louisiana’s low ranking in the NAEP test results. What no reformer ever seems to understand is that poverty is the crippling factor in the state’s ranking, not the GLEs themselves. It’s the equivalent of saying that when a Louisiana automobile breaks down more frequently, it must be the car’s fault, totally ignoring that the wretched Louisiana roads can wear down even the best car. Address the real issue: poverty, not the standards.

Another statement she made was “This plan reeks of politics….” Anyone who believes the world exists without politics is hopelessly naïve. All education plans go before an elected BESE board. All important BESE proposals go through the elected Louisiana legislature. All legislative bills go before the elected governor. That’s politics. Looking at the real world might adjust people’s perspectives.

“Shouldn’t we allow the actual teachers to evaluate our progress thus far and improve the standards to make them Louisiana’s very own?” What a novel idea, except she misses the whole point. Actual teachers should have been involved in creating the Common Core Standards in the first place. It has been well-documented that the two dozen or so souls who created this albatross were not educators, possessed no experience writing standards, and lacked any knowledge of cognitive development in children. They were mostly test makers, period.

She claims that Jindal’s plan is “a slap in the face to all of the educators and students who have worked so hard to prove that Louisiana can compete academically.” Actually Common Core and its PARCC tests are the real slap in the face: the passing rates for minorities is below 15%. Failing 85% of African Americans on a test is somehow making us more competitive? It’s demoralizing our students, the future of America, in a cold and brutal fashion.

The author should also use logic more rigorously. She combines the graduation rate of 2004 (60%) with the GLEs of 2004, but correlation does not mean causation. GLEs were started in 2004, so they can’t possibly be the cause of a 60% graduation rate that year. Every year since 2004, the graduation rate has increased while the GLEs were in effect, so it must have done some good. And if Common Core is so wonderful, why did Louisiana’s graduation rate DROP in this past year? We have been transitioning to Common Core for four years, so some of that drop must be attributable to that program.

On this quote she and I agree: “To the powers that be, I am asking you to make the right decision to put students first.” Restore Louisiana educational decisions back in our own hands. Only in rare cases does a one-size-fits-all approach ever work, and trying to make every state follow the same set of standards is exactly the opposite of what educators are often told, to individualize the learning for the needs of the learner.

When a state adopts an ill-designed program and needs to pay thousands of teachers to become cheerleaders—teacher leaders—I say scrap the whole thing if it is unsalvageable. When it comes to Common Core, Louisiana and the nation would have benefited from the old saying, you can save yourself a peck of trouble if you do things right the first time.

What Could Students Learn? Conviction, Among Other Things

I recently shared this blog from New York City, but due to my limited capabilities with a cell phone, did not adequately post it to my blog. I am reposting here.

Copied from the Advocate paper (Baton Rouge)

On April 3, the Advertiser published a cartoon concerning the Opt-out movement. Calling it insensitive and insulting doesn’t scratch the surface.

Some background is needed. The cartoon arrives from Buffalo, New York, where the Common Core battles are raging furiously. That state has given the PARCC test for three years now, with huge failure rates for its first two years (70% and 67% respectively.) These poorly-designed tests are confusingly written usually at a reading level two grades above the students. Parents have been justifiably outraged against this intrusion into their children’s lives and have reacted in the only way they have: opting their children out of the test.

And now a cartoon that implies parents are selfishly teaching their children horrible lessons. One cartoonist seems to think himself/herself the expert on parenthood and the inappropriate lessons we might teach children.

Well, here’s my alternative. Here’s what students might learn from opting out.

A. That learning is AWESOME, when it’s not driven by a test. When the test is all important, one gets eleven Atlanta educators convicted for a cheating scandal, because legislators at the federal and state level have made student scores on tests more important than the students themselves. These tests are being used for three purposes: see how a student has scored; rate the teacher on how much the students have scored; and rate the school on those same scores. The last two do not validly gauge a teacher’s or school’s effectiveness, but it’s part of the latest bandwagon of education reformers. They blindly ignore the effect of poverty on children, but choose to saddle the school and the teacher with all the blame. So much for putting the student first.

B. The power on conviction. Long before the Founding Fathers, English citizens had a healthy regard for their rights. American colonists rebelled against attempts to rule them without their input. Ever since declaring our independence, Americans have a long history of standing up against injustice: women’s movement; abolitionists; progressive movement; civil rights movements, and more. Now comes a test too difficult for the students, and the “people in charge” respond to questions with disparaging remarks like your kids are not as smart as you think and soccer moms should just shut up. No they won’t. Civil disobedience allows parents to stand up against the injustice of this testing malpractice and no one, not even a cartoonist, will diminish that right.

C. That students will have to learn how to judge bias. Newspapers are no longer the fountain of impartial information. One must research who is behind the articles or cartoons because the day of the truly independent journalist is long past. It’s disheartening that parents must infuse their children with a healthy dose of skepticism, to not just accept what is presented to them as fast incarnate. Newspaper are a business and must depend on revenue. The supporters of Common Core and PARCC have the deep pockets, from the Waltons to Bill Gates to numerous other billionaires, and we must not allow their money to drown the valid concerns of parents.

D.  Tests are limited in their ability to judge. If properly designed, a test question might ascertain if a student has learned a skill, but not completely. How can the test know if a student had no clue and simply guessed randomly? It can’t. A test provides an incomplete snapshot of one day in the life of a child. It can’t adequately judge creativity or empathy or a handful of other skills way more important to a child’s future.

E.  All of the above.

Just a follow-up note to show how connected the world has become. Facebook alerted me to this cartoon even though I am presently in New York City on vacation. The cartoon spurred me to write a response, which I will post everywhere and anywhere. I composed this in the shadow of the 9/11 Memorial, a symbol of US resolve and determination. When you believe enough in something–country, faith, family, friends, beliefs–you take action to defend it. I defend my students against what I perceive to be an unjust series of tests designed to meet an inept set of standards written by people with no experience doing so. Thanks to this country and the millions who have sacrificed their lives, I have this right to protest. As Winston Churchill once said, I will fight on the beaches, in the trenches, everywhere I can in defense of my students, in defense of liberty.

Supporters of Common Core & PARCC, like John White, Have a Logic All Their Own

News-Star File Photo of Louisiana State Superintendent John White

More than ever, I am convinced that supporters of Common Core and PARCC assessments live in their own little world, a world devoid of logic.

Many of these supporters make terrible debaters. I witnessed a prominent officer of the Council for a Better Louisiana say that no one should believe what the opponents are saying. That’s always a good way to win an argument.

Last week, I pointed out the lack of logical thought in a letter to the editor by Mallory Wall. My response was published alongside the latest salvo from Superintendent of Education John White.

Tackling the problem of poverty, combined with those excellent pre-Common Core standards, is precisely the common sense approach we need. Oh, a competent, well-qualified Superintendent of Education certainly couldn’t hurt.

I have already written extensively about White’s lack of credentials: two years in the classroom and six weekend seminars at the uncredited Broad Academy do not a competent Superintendent make. White’s underwhelming performance has caused a credibility gap reminiscent of the Nixon years, and internet memes of “White Lies” crop up everywhere.

Adding to his insignificance was this letter claiming Louisiana should embrace Common Core. Too bad his logic was just as bad as Ms. Wall’s.

From the very beginning, White proves he’s a novice at debating. He starts with “In 2009, Louisiana education officials recognized that our state’s academic expectations were not as advanced as were the expectations in many other states.”

The Pinocchio meter yells “False!” In 2010, the Fordham Institute evaluated the Louisiana Grade Level Expectations and ranked the English GLEs with a B+. They wrote, “Louisiana’s standards treat both literary and non-literary texts in more systematic detail than the Common Core…”

Even more inconvenient for White was the publication in Education Week in 2005 that stated “Louisiana ranked number one for its standards and accountability for the second time in three years…” We were using those same standards in 2009, so what happened? How did they get so low?

They didn’t. Louisiana had good standards. John White is, as usual, missing the point.

The argument John White could have made—but didn’t—was that despite having top-notch standards, Louisiana students consistently scored near the bottom of the fifty states on the National Assessment for Education Progress (NAEP) tests. That is undeniably true.

With a logic known only to himself, White then links Louisiana’s low performance with the standards. Translation: it’s the standards’ fault.

Elementary logic 101: correlation does not imply causation. Just because Louisiana students perform badly on NAEP tests while we were using GLEs does mean it’s the GLEs’ fault.

White ignores what nearly all of his ilk do: poverty is at fault. Louisiana could have the world’s most outstanding standards, and it won’t do much good against the crushing poverty that Louisiana students face.

If students lack technology, solid home structures, even the basics of food and warmth—all things caused by poverty—then they will not perform well on these tests.

But according to White, the problem is not poverty. It’s the standards.

Now firmly entrenched in his tangent, White goes for broke. He says Louisiana participated in creating Common Core Standards—a dubious claim at best—and gives the usual statement that 100+ educators formed committees to review the standards. With so much misinformation from White, unless he names some people, no one will believe these 100 souls exist.

I do find it interesting that White actually makes the statement that “politics found its way into the mix.”

I agree. Politics DID enter the mix. It’s how White got elected as Superintendent of Education.

Numerous authors besides myself have documented the tortuous path that White took to becoming the State Superintendent. Of the eleven BESE board members, seven were in favor of White, but four were staunchly opposed. Needing eight votes, Governor Bobby Jindal, White’s one-time friend, poured tons of money into the elections which were conveniently near, and secured the removal of two of those opponents, thus guaranteeing White’s selection. We’ve been paying for that political move ever since.

White’s logic again fails when he argues that Louisiana will be able to show a “fair comparison of elementary and middle school student performance in Louisiana with that of states across the country.”

The Pinocchio meter yells “False!” Louisiana can compare its students to NO OTHER STATE. Pearson made the PARCC tests for ten states, and those ten states can compare themselves to each other. Louisiana has no contract with Pearson so students did NOT take a PARCC test. Instead we contracted with Data Recognition Corps, which does provide some questions to Pearson, but how many and who knows are anyone’s guess. Louisiana students took a PARCC-like test, and it would behoove the media to stop reporting it as the PARCC test when it is not. No matter how much White says it, we can compare ourselves to no one.

In closing, I will point out that White said that Louisiana should “embrace a pragmatic approach to the future.” I completely agree. Common Core has become an albatross around Louisiana’s neck, and a sensible approach would be to return to the standards that were once ranked the highest in the nation. Tackling the problem of poverty, combined with those excellent pre-Common Core standards, is precisely the common sense approach we need. Oh, a competent, well-qualified Superintendent of Education certainly couldn’t hurt.

An Educational Titanic, A Louisiana Edsel: Stand for Children Defends PARCC

A spurious web page is circulating throughout Louisiana from Louisiana branch of the organization Stand For Children. On this page, they warn that some parents are trying to convince other parents to pull their children from the upcoming PARCC tests. They urge parents to ignore these pleas and let the students take the tests because it’s the right thing to do for students.

“Parents with the courage to recognize an educational Titanic when they see one are wisely removing their kids from an untested experiment.”

Stand for Children, you want to do the right thing for students? How’s this for starters?

How about declaring how much money your organization accepted from the Bill Gates Foundation, the financial heart of Common Core and its accompanying tests. Savvy parents don’t accept anything at face value, and parents can’t trust you if they don’t know who paid for you. Transparency is all that they ask before you attempt to usurp the role of guardian to the next generation.

Next, how about researching this “new, better test” which your organization accepts blindly and without question. (Oh, yeah, that money issue.) From your tone, it’s obvious you know little about PARCC tests, which New York has used for two years. Do you honestly think a test that fails 2/3 of the New York testers is a “new, better test?” A test where 85% of African-American students and 81% of Hispanic students failed is a “new, better test?” All this proves is that it’s a harder test, or more likely, a poorly designed one, that’s all. In most cases, when people have been able to get test questions, they are worded in a most confusing manner and usually a couple of grade levels above the readers’ abilities. How is this a “better” test?

You claim that students will no longer be mindlessly bubbling, but will be able to show their academic growth. How? It’s the first time using this test in Louisiana, and the questions are not even coming from Pearson, the only company licensed to give the PARCC test. Louisiana has no contract with Pearson, no matter what John White says, so we are not comparing our students to anyone else in ten other PARCC-participating states. (It was once 24, but wiser states have been bailing the sinking ship.) And since it is the first time we’re giving this test, we can’t measure our growth because it’s so new. Only when the test has been given over many cycles can one judge growth or decline.

You claim these tests can help our teachers improve their teaching skills. How? The results won’t come out until next year, when the children will all be in the next grade, so how will this help the teachers better prepare the students they no longer teach? “If only I had tried this last year, I’d be so much better,” said what teacher ever? And why should tests from March take so long to grade, especially if they are so awesome? Even ACT tests don’t take this long, and they are a better indicator of being ready for college than these new, untried tests.

You fiercely defend this test as a great gauge for academic growth, but consider the ramifications of this monolithic test. One parish in central Louisiana has stopped “regular” teaching entirely and has been preparing their students for the PARCC-like tests for six solid weeks. Those six weeks of exploration and fascination over learning are gone as that parish “drills and kills” their students for a test that’s never been proven to do what it claims it will.

Perhaps worst of all is the unfortunate title Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). It’s grossly misleading: what third grader is ready for college? They’re not even ten! Of course they’re not ready. But when they hear that they have failed the test, they clearly understand that they are a failure and will never be ready for college. Who are these leaders designing this mess? Oh, wait, they aren’t teachers, that’s right.

So parents with the courage to recognize an educational Titanic when they see one are wisely removing their kids from an untested experiment. They refuse to lend their children as guinea pigs to the Louisiana version of the Edsel. Stand for Children may think it is standing for children, but it’s unnecessary. Parents are already standing up for their kids, and they do it for the right intentions, and without the benefit of Bill Gates’ money.