Bring Back the D!

Posted on by Mensa Dropout
D -
Ah, memories!

Wow!  Lookee here inside of this blog.  It’s been a while…I’ve been testing.

While I was testing, emails were flying around about credit recovery, summer school, virtual credit recovery for students who were failing a class or who failed a class, and these kids need to graduate (not that I was checking my email during testing; that’s wrong, wrong, I say).

“Our College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCCRPI-the nebulous CCRPI) score needs it!  Our school needs it!  These kids need it!  Our graduation rate depends on it! We’re all doomed if we don’t get these kids help!”

All this hysteria got me to thinkin’ bout things.  It got to thinkin’ bout how much money schools spend on repeat and recovery classes.  Then I got to thinkin’ bout how many kids need them.  THEN I got to thinkin’ bout who these kids were.

A while back during the great rush to be Georgia School Superintendent, one of the seventeen hundred candidates in the clown car for the GOP nomination had this idea to lower the passing cut score for classes…I forget which one it was, as there were a lot of clowns in that car.  To pass a class in Georgia, a child has to earn a 70%.  I thought it was stupid when they made that law in the nineties, but I think a lot of things are stupid, so I rolled with it.  I’m sure the thought process was that Georgia was raising expectations.  I guess the folks down at the DOE didn’t think through the repercussions, but they never do, really.

Anyway

Because I’m like a rabid pit bull when I “get to thinkin’ about things”, I ran some data to see how many of these kids at my school failed classes, what classes they failed, and with what grade they failed.

Ninety four percent (94%) of the students who failed did so with a 62 or greater.  Ninety four! All of those kids were placed in some kind of recovery class or some kind of online computer class if they are seniors; the underclassmen are given summer school, for free.  This takes time, it takes energy, it takes teachers, and it takes the cost of computer education software. All that equals money, lots of money, money that could be used for instruction.

Now before you get all uppity and edusnotty, saying that we are lowering the standards in our schools, I suggest you go back to the second and third paragraphs of this little here post.  We are spending millions on kids to take a short test to pass a class that they failed with an, oh, I don’t know, 68%? And  what’s wrong with not being exemplary in everything?  I sucked at math, but I muddled along with my D, graduated, and became the stellar blogger you see here. My life was not ruined with my D in Algebra II.  And for those who care, Calculus was not offered to the likes of me in the eighties, but in today’s educational world, all students  are expected to take it.

And before you continue with your high falutin’ standards, I suggest you look to our brand new Georgia Owned and Georgia Grown Tests, where the real scores were so bad, we lowered the cut scores, which we swore we would never do.  Then look to our neighbor states to the west and south who have higher grad rates than Georgia (Alabama and Florida), and they pass kids with a 65.  And while we are on it, why can’t we have a grade that all but states, “He’s a nice kid and a bright kid, but should never consider math as a career?”  Why can’t a 65 be good enough?  A 65% is good enough in all states that have graduation rates higher than ours. Iowa and Vermont, the  top two highest grad rates in the country, have a 60% pass rate (I was thinkin’ bout that, so I looked it up).

So!  All five of you who read this, I’m hoping maybe one of you is in with the cool kids at the capitol and can pass along The Mensa’s thoughts:  If Georgia really wants to raise graduation rates and save money all at the same time, bring back the D.

And get rid of all these tests for these youngins.  My AMEX shopping bill is directly proportional to how many I proctor…KIDDING…maybe.

The Art of Walking

Posted on by missyllaneous

abbey-road-beatles

Have you ever braked to let someone cross the street in front of you only to have them stroll or sachet, taking their sweet time while your knuckles clench the steering wheel as you rapidly lose patience and grind your teeth?  We all have.  If you ride with my friend Eric you will hear him say (not-so-under his breath), “Knees to chest, friend!  Knees to chest!”

Recently I attended church with Eric’s girlfriend, Lora.  As we were making our way out of the sun-filled parking lot, we found ourselves stuck at an intersection witnessing what Lora described as The White Woman Waddle:  The Ultimate Display of Entitlement.

Continue reading “The Art of Walking” →

Rules, Shmules!

Posted on by Scarlet Hawk

rulesToday is the last day of the Georgia legislature, and I am ever the optimistic populist.  So if you are watching from home, or from the galleries and have a bit of confusion about what’s going on, I thought it might be helpful to have your own copy of the Rules.

House Rules

Senate Rules

Click on the links above and you will find the rules governing the chambers.  The Senate Rules are online at legis.ga.gov, but the House Rules were updated back in 2013 and never made it back online.  With the gracious assistance of a transparency-loving House member, I scanned and copied the above for your reading pleasure/assistance before you head to sleep.

While these are the Rules governing the chambers, it would also be helpful to note that the House’s parliamentary procedure most closely follows the American version of Robert’s Rules of Order and the Senate more closely follows Mason’s Rules of Parliamentary Procedure.  I’m a fan of Robert’s, but Mason’s was explicitly designed for state legislatures.

Here’s NCSL’s take on the differences.

Now the key portions to pay attention to are terms like “germane”, “engrossment”, and paying attention to which floor votes are performed by a show of hands.  These procedures are what make the action on the floor more interesting and volatile.  Transparency is not the populace’s friend on Sine Die, and so I would encourage all Georgians to come out after work to watch the floors, if you want to really know what happens.

Want real time floor notes?  Twitter is your friend.

Senate Press

House Floor Notes

You can also get feedback from individuals and media on legislation by following #gapol on Twitter.

Happy Sine Die, all!

Young Harold Hills in Education

Posted on by Mensa Dropout

Think men....thinkI’ve been in the education biz for 23 years.  Now that I have officially called myself out for being really old, I have a point to make.  What is UP with districts hiring educational experts who have little to no classroom experience?  We got a bunch of Harold Hills coming into school districts with really nothing more than pretty talk, big ideas, and “The Think System”.

Doctors put in a bajillion hours of field experience, and lawyers work like dogs and tote partners’ brief cases for three to five years before they get a good case.  Business men and CEOs, accountants and others really do pay their dues before they are afforded the corner office with a window.  Even the McDonalds worker has to run the cash register and empty trash before s/he goes into middle management.

Somehow, though, someone decided that school and district leaders don’t really need that.  Someone decided that theory was enough; that The Think System is really going to work in closing the achievement gap.  That’s all it is, too: theory not steeped in practice because no one sticks around long enough to actually make the plan or the practice work. But that is the trend.  Spend, oh, I don’t know, three years in the classroom, and you are qualified to run a school.  And after you run that school for, oh I don’t know, three years, you are then qualified to run a school district, and not even a small one.

Fulton County Schools is doing just that, hiring a superintendent from Oregon with three years classroom experience…in one school and at one grade level.  This guy, Dr. Jeff Rose, is taking the helm at the second largest school district in the state of Georgia with three years classroom experience.  And he’s been hired to close the achievement gap with those three years of experience…in one school and at one grade level. I wonder what Alvin Wilbanks, the patriarch of Georgia Superintendents, thinks about this.

I haven’t asked Dr. Wilbanks, but I’m wary.  No, I’m reticent.  When I was coming up, the principal’s job was something that was awarded teachers who did their time, were excellent in content and pedagogy, and who were steeped in the community.  That’s where the best teachers, who did their time, went to die.  They had the experience in the classroom to understand that teaching is hard, and kids are different.  They had the experience in the schools to know that some parents are just more difficult than others, and the experience to know that some teachers can be straightened out with a stern conference, not a letter of direction.  They knew that central office was only for those who retired and were wooed back from retirement into the fold.  They had the experience to see education for what it is, warts and all.

Nowadays, counties are hiring these young pups who have little to no classroom experience and the same degree pedigree that I have, except my degrees came from real live universities (they didn’t have online education back in the day…and the Broad Institute for Superintendents is sketchy…sketchy I say!).

How are these youngins going to know the ropes or deal with the real life things that happen in school?  How can anyone without boots on the ground, nights in trenches, late practices, rehearsals, mock trials, rivalry games, or open houses know what it’s like in education?  They don’t. They think they do.  They have the theory, the think system.  They come in, make grandiose promises, and then high tail it out of town for the next Professor Hill to come in with a new plan, some new system, with little experience, and with no plans to stick around.

And the achievement gap remains.  And the kids still suffer from grown folk Harold Hills and hubris.

Teach Your Children Well

Posted on by Mensa Dropout

Bullying

Last week, my boy child brought home a flier in his very boy backpack (i.e.: smelly, unorganized, with snacks from before Christmas in there) about bullying and a school-wide effort to stop it.  After smoothing the flier out and flicking jelly off of it, we sat down at dinner to discuss what bullying. We talked about using our kind words and gentle hands and feet; we discussed that everyone is different and special…yes, even his sister.

The next morning I heard a voice from the television that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.  I wasn’t sure if it was Sponge Bob or The Donald, as both have the same effect on me.  So I go to the source, and it’s a news piece depicting some pretty heavy vitriol from The Donald.  The television went off immediately.

After some bickering about being allowed to watch the news on weekdays, I had to explain that it wasn’t appropriate viewing for said weekday.   A pair of big brown eyes looked at me, and a precious little mouth said, “Is Donald Trump going to get in trouble?  I got sent to Mrs. Winters’ office for not using my kind words.  She fussed at me forever! What’S HE gonna get?”

Parenting moment number 875,000 that’s not in books:  How to explain the horrid behavior of an adult who wants to lead the free world but doesn’t use his kind words?  I told my boy that Mr. Trump may not get into trouble like kids do, but that his words would come back to haunt him. “How will that happen?”  I had no idea.  “I’ll get back to you on this, okay?”

The more I thought about my boy’s questions and the actions of the men who want to be the Grand Old Party nominee, the less sage advice I had.  All I could think of was that these men are ruining our kids! And I was party to it by allowing them to watch the news.

We preach being kind, but these guys are bashing each other.

We have no tolerance for violence in our schools, but the news is filming adults hitting each other over politics.

We ask that our kids be kind, but they see adults hurling insults at each other like the neighborhood boys in a pissing match.

I never, in all of my life, would have thought that having my children watch political newscasts would turn into a moral lesson on being kind. I understand music videos, violent movies, and all the other stuff that we shield our kids from, but a political debate???

All of them need to be sent to Mrs. Winters’ office for a stern talking to because they are breaking all the rules that we teach our children in school and in life. We have moved from the POTUS being a position of class and deportment to being a position of thug, to a classless schoolyard brawl, to a debate on the size of one’s penis.

Children hear this, and they see this.  How can any of these Republican Candidates even take themselves seriously if a six year old thinks they are a bunch of bullies who need to be sent to the principal? So I called Mrs. Winters; maybe she can help get these boys in line.

Mike Griffin: The Baptist Who Will Call You Hitler at the Liquor Store

Posted on by Scarlet Hawk

white patentIt seems that Mike Griffin has finally pissed off Baptists other than just me.  Even the white patent shoe wearing, floppy-Bible-toting stock get irritated when you compare them to a totalitarian.

Aaron Gould Shenin of the AJC quotes members from the floor in his post, identifying his comparison of lawmakers to Hitler as beyond the pale.  There are many more Baptists than those quoted at the Capitol, many who have long considered Griffin to be Satan incarnate, but I am rather glad to invite others to the party.  All are welcome at this table!

On the matter of being Baptist: I have been and cannot imagine myself to ever separate from the title of Baptist, no matter how many Mike Griffins, Jerry Falwells, or Westboro Baptists there may be.  In addition to that preference, I also have always loved my scotch neat, I rarely miss a chance to break it down on the dance floor, have been and will forever be solidly pro-choice, and as for my card playing abilities? My middle school girl friends can vouch for the repercussions of our serious games of five card draw.

If you are of the misconceived notion that Baptists are unilaterally characterized by the opposite of the above mentioned actions, I am here to tell you Baptist is a big, broad tent that welcomes sinners of all stripes.  Like all Christians, we believe devoutly in the salvation of our souls given mercifully and unconditionally by God.  There are some who believe in the sacrificial atonement of sins in the death of Jesus the Christ, and there are some who do not.  Yet Baptists go further beyond the belief of merciful salvation and are somewhat unique in our deeply held convictions around full immersion baptism and regarding a term called congregational polity, where every church is self-governed, autonomous from the fold as a whole, and independent.  Quakers, Puritans, and many of the congregational churches created in the American colonies were cut from this cloth.  Unitarian Universalists, some synagogues, and mosques employ a version of this as well, but Baptists are often the denomination to be identified with this in mainstream Protestantism.

For this reason alone I have deeply held convictions against ANYONE saying they represent all Baptists.  We are organized differently for this VERY reason.  So for Mr. Griffin to assert he speaks for “us” is to be not only challenging to comprehend, it is organizationally impossible. Continue reading “Mike Griffin: The Baptist Who Will Call You Hitler at the Liquor Store” →

Testing…Testing…1…2…3

Posted on by Mensa Dropout

Ah, March!  The trees are blooming, the grasses are greening, the azaleas are getting ready to pop, and the dogwoods are budding. There is nothing more beautiful to me than spring in Georgia. But now I have little people, and with the pretty stuff comes the really ugly stuff.  Testing Season (n):  that time of year when all learning stops, when kids have to be quiet all the time, when the “drill and kill” begins, and when students, teachers, and parents shed many tears and gnash many teeth.

There has been so much demand for teacher accountability and teacher blood, really, that our legislators have literally thrown the baby out with the bathwater when it comes all these tests and what they do do to our students and their love of learning.  Does testing make teachers accountable?  Maybe. I believe it shames them more than makes them accountable.  Does it do anything to instill the love of learning in our kids?  Not. At. All. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it makes them hate school.

I believe that on any given day, teachers are doing the best that they can with the materials they are given (students are materials in this, too…blah blah blah; they are).  There are some children who wake up on the morning of test day, pencils sharpened, with visions of sitting for hours on end so they can click some buttons on a test that has not been proven reliable; I haven’t met any of these fine children yet, and I doubt I will.  They may exist…somewhere.

But, what happens if a normal child wakes up and feels badly?  What happens if the alarm goes off late, and the whole house is in chaos just to catch the bus?  What if the milk went bad, the dog is sick, the grandparent is sick, or, god forbid, the parent is sick? What if the goldfish, Sushi, died?  All of these things affect how a child performs on a test, which, in turn, affects how the teacher is evaluated.  And this doesn’t include the apathetic testers like the ones borne to me.

Some personal experience as to how a child can skew ruin a lovely teacher’s test average:  See, the girl child is what educators call “average”.  YES!  MY KID IS AVERAGE.  She’s in the 50th percentile in just about everything when she takes her tests seriously.  When she doesn’t, she pops down between the 2nd percentile and the fourteenth percentile (meaning that pretty much everyone in the free world is doing better than my kid is).  And her poor teacher, who I believe to be one of the best teachers I’ve encountered, is going to be punished because my changeling child may or may not take the test seriously.  There aren’t any repercussions for my kid, either.  Summer school?  Excellent!  Free day care!  That may prove to her that she should try harder next time, but as the wind blows, so does her apathy, and she may decide this summer that she’s not interested in trying then, either.

Who gets punished? The teacher! The student should be punished, really, with those nasty natural consequences, but the state of Georgia won’t punish the kids; they just want to punish the teachers. “The parents vote,” they say (I think they forgot about that little piece of voting in the 90s when Roy Barnes was all but tarred and feathered, but I digress).

While we ponder on testing variables, unreliability, and apathetic fifth graders, we could also bring up the fact that America spends 1.7 BILLION DOLLARS on testing.  That is a boat load of a lot of zeros.  In fact, if we took all that accountability blood money and divided it by all of the states, we would have 34 Million in Georgia’s coffers.  So there’s all this money tied up in testing, and for what?  So that my kid can decide whether to take the test seriously or not?  So that we can put a Scarlet F on teacher certificates and publicly shame them?

I’d just as soon take some Claritin and go outside…with my little people…and let them play the way little people should play.

Crossover Day: Death or Second Chance?

Posted on by Scarlet Hawk

fig_treeIt’s Crossover Day.

For any lobbyist, legislator, and general run of the mill politico, this is a day of significance.  Crossover Day is the 30th legislative day in the 40 day legislative calendar of the Georgia General Assembly.  Each bill begins in either the House or the Senate, and then must go through the committee process on its originating side before “crossing over” to the second chamber- to then begin the process again before being signed into law.  This is dictated by the Senate Rules. If the bill does not successfully cross over (it died in committee, failed on a floor vote, etc.) then the bill is considered “dead” for the remainder of the current session.  Bills remain “alive” even if they do not crossover for two years.

I am going to get a little wonky in the next few paragraphs, so if process discussion is not your thing, skip down until after the definition.

In everyone’s head there is a timeline as we approach Crossover Day.  When must the bill be introduced?  By when must it be favorably recommended by the committee?  Can I get the majority of floor votes that are requisite?

There’s a lot of gallows humor in the week preceding Crossover Day, with terms such as “dead”, “Frankenstein”, “alive”, and “revival” thrown around at will.

For obvious reasons, the House is the more difficult chamber in which for a bill to originate.  It must pass 180 differing opinions before it may crossover.  Have you ever tried to herd cats?  Try passing something in the House.  The Senate is the easier chamber to originate bills, due to sheer fewer numbers of egos people.  However, any bills dealing with funds going or coming from the general fund are constitutionally required to begin in the House.

So what do you do if your bill does not cross over?  Give up?

Oh, no.  You just become more aware of the term “germane”. Continue reading “Crossover Day: Death or Second Chance?” →

In Defense of Common Educational Standards (Common Core, if you will)

Posted on by Mensa Dropout

Common Core Cartoon

It will probably come as a bit of a surprise that the libertarian leaning (little L, please) Mensa Dropout is writing on the strengths of common educational standards. Here’s the thing with standards:  they are just standards.  Standards are different than curriculum, and curriculum is different than instruction.

Common Core Standards, or here in Georgia, Georgia Standards of Excellence (same stuff; different name, and we paid lots of money for that different name) are just that: standards.

Education has a three part thing going: simply put, education is how we teach what we teach to get to what we want our kids to know or do.

Standards are what we want our kids to know and do at a certain level in their education.

Curriculum is what we teach to reach those standards.

Instruction is how we teach the curriculum to get to the standards.

Below is an example from Common Core 5th Grade (I would like to point out that GSE has the exact same standard on page 33…just sayin’):

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.

There’s our Standard:  Students will be able to identify figurative language.  There is a writing component to it where we can up the ante and have students create a piece with figurative language in it.

How DARE we teach kids about metaphors and similes!

So the Curriculum is what venue we use to teach this:  definitions, flash cards, examples, short snippets from speeches, poems, stories, etc., or for the more traditional worksheet kinda person, well, a worksheet.

Can we use The Bible to read and identify figurative language?  Sure!  Can we use an excerpt from Mein Kempf?  Absolutely!  Or we could go middle of the road, and teach a little poem like “Sleep”, which is by a white female writer who was born in Victorian England, in case anyone wants to accuse me of communist brainwashing with my choice of poem.

Instruction is how we teach it:  small groups, giving more complex or less complex poems or speeches to students depending on their reading level or language acquisition.  Listening to the poem, reading the poem, guided reading and response to identify metaphors and similes…sorry; went total educational wonk right there.

Why is there so much antipathy for Common Standards?  I’m not sure. The only argument against standards that I hear is really an argument against the curriculum, not the standards.  It’s important that we understand the difference between the two.  My main argument for standards is our society is pretty transient, and kids move a lot more than they did when I was a kid. Nowadays, younguns may change schools four or five times in their lives.  Is there a reason why the child should be punished because the parents move a lot?  Shouldn’t we all be teaching close to the same standard around or about the same time so that if Transient Johnny does move in his fifth grade year from Kansas to California, he won’t be totally lost or, even worse, completely bored?

The fight over Common Core appears to me to be a fight between grown folks, and it’s the little ones who are caught in the middle and who are punished.   It’s like having divorced parents fighting over what is best simply because they want to be in charge…and the kids always, always lose.

Keep the standards; change the curriculum and instruction to meet the needs of the local community. Put the kids first because they are the ones who will be choosing our healthcare and old folks’ homes.

 

 

 

Trafficking: The Modern Day Slavery

Posted on by missyllaneous

January was National Human Trafficking Awareness month.  I was fortunate to be invited to a panel discussion through Ellevate, a professional women’s networking group, that helped to shed much needed light on this issue.  The fact that hit home the most for this writer was that of geographical rankings for human trafficking, the city of Atlanta was in the top 14.

In 2012 the International Labour Organization estimated 20.9 million victims worldwide, and 26% of them children.  In 2013 atTrafficking In Persons Report it was up to 27 million.

Continue reading “Trafficking: The Modern Day Slavery” →