Education – Page 3

December 3, 2014December 3, 2014

Condition of PVD schools: ‘a kind of slow, horrible violence’

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I recently wrote a short op-ed for Providence Journal about the state of Gilbert Stuart Middle School demanding action be taken with regard to the physical state of our local schools.

A recent RI Future article published pictures from inside of this school, which show – even if only in part – how poor the conditions of the physical school buildings actually are in urban Rhode Island.

Having been inside this school in particular, I’d say these are just an additional glimpse at the many physical problems the school has.

Beyond the asbestos curtain, peeling paint, and falling roof tiles, I find myself concerned about the prospect of the leaky roof and the resultant mold, as well as the state of the school’s potable – or perhaps non-potable – water.

The photos do provide a much more accurate depiction than Linda Borg’s Aug. 23 article for Providence Journal (“Superintendents say deferred maintenance in Rhode Island schools is driving up costs”) I wrote the critical op-ed in response to an article that seemed more like acquiescing political coverage and a public relations stunt than an honest consideration of how bad the schools are. These are public buildings occupied by students and teachers and they are being left to rot because of poor budgetary management.

The RI Future article also was beneficial for pointing out the school’s score on the 2013 RIDE report, where Gilbert Stuart received 2 out of 5, on a scale where 5 is the lowest score (2 being considered “generally good condition, some system needs. Minor renovations.”).

Looking at the photos, and having actually been inside of the building itself, makes me question the report itself, and how honest it is being about the living conditions inside of schools. I tend to think leaking roofs, likely mold, and an asbestos curtain puts the school in a category that’s much worse than just being in need of “minor renovations.” One wonders if the people grading the schools have looked at so many bad schools, so many schools so much worse than Gilbert Stuart, that their sense of what is acceptable has become clouded.

What struck me the most about the report, is that the average condition of schools in urban and rural locations is worse than the condition of Gilbert Stuart according to the organization’s grading scale. Urban schools received an average condition rating of 2.25, and rural schools received an average rating of 2.19. Suburban schools were only slightly better on average than Gilbert Stuart, receiving an average rating of 1.85. In other words, Rhode Island has many schools in just as bad, if not substantially worse, condition than Gilbert Stuart.

It is also worth noting that these schools are worth a lot of money (the report values Gilbert Stuart at $18,466,300) and they’re being left unrepaired in ways that are detrimental to the buildings themselves. But that feels besides the point, as these are public buildings being occupied by people, and I tend to think that moldy buildings with asbestos in them are detrimental to the people occupying them.

There is a kind of slow, horrible violence being done against the students and teachers expected to occupy these buildings. This is not just some minor budgetary hiccup: something drastic needs to be done about the condition of these schools for the sake of the children and teachers who spend their days inside the schools.

December 1, 2014March 24, 2015

Does racial injustice still exist? Look at our schools

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Some people still ask if racial inequalities exist, or if they have a negative effect on society. The question that should be asked instead is why are the people in power making matters worse by turning a blind eye to the obvious problems at hand.

There are many forms, levels, and degrees of racial inequality, but preying on children and sabotaging their education so that they will eventually become easy victims of the judicial system must be the lowest form.

Ordinary people who harm children are punished by courts and despised by society, while politicians who harm children by ignoring the inequalities in public schools are not held accountable for their actions (or lack thereof). If kids are our most precious resource, why aren’t they treated as such? There is an abundance of learning tools, like new books, computers, and dedicated teachers in some public schools, while students of schools in low-income areas are sharing outdated books, have no computers, and are being taught by the worst teachers in buildings desperately needing renovation.

Photos show PVD middle school in disrepair

Lack of money is the common excuse, but I find this extremely hard to believe when there’s no lack of money in low-income areas for new handcuffs, police cars, and jail cells. Lack of money is a sorry excuse to deny public school students an adequate education.

The quality of education should not vary depending on each district’s budget. What would be so hard about collecting all the money from each district and putting it into a single account, to be distributed equally among public schools? This would give struggling schools access to money desperately needed to ensure all students receive an equal and adequate public education. I have attended inner city as well as suburban schools and observed the differences firsthand.

How can you tell a student to do their best if the people in charge of their education won’t do the same? The future of our society is in the hands of our children, so making sure they all have the best education possible needs to be a priority.

November 30, 2014December 1, 2014

Will Deborah Gist keep her job?

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“School systems that have successfully ignited reforms and sustained their momentum have all relied on at least one of three events to get them started: they have either taken advantage of a political or economic crisis, or commissioned a high-profile report critical of the system’s performance, or have appointed a new, energetic and visionary political or strategic leader.”

Rhode Island’s “energetic and visionary” leader, Commissioner Deborah Gist, wants to keep her job when Gina Raimondo takes office next year. The Board of Education meets tonight and it’s not on their agenda, but you can bet it’s on their minds.

The passage above is from an influential McKinsey & Company report, quoted by Gist in her doctoral dissertation. Although she was not initially interested in being our education commissioner, she recounts in her research, she was actively recruited by Angus Davis, who painted a rosy picture of Rhode Island as a reform-ready state.

In many respects she found this to be true and she is generous in her praise for the work of ex-Commissioner McWalters and ex-Governor Carcieri’s Board of Regents for creating a base she could build on. A founding member of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change and a graduate of the Broad Academy, Gist was warmly welcomed by Rhode Island’s business community and its Republican governor.

RIDE ‘s development and implementation of a new teacher evaluation system is the focus of her self-study dissertation: “An Ocean State Voyage: A Leadership Case Study of Creating an Evaluation System With and For Teachers”. Most teachers are not with and for Gist. Her dissertation discusses her difficult relationship with teachers through the firings in Central Falls and Providence and teachers’ strong resistance to the use of student standardized test scores in their own evaluations.

Now that the Common Core has arrived in the suburbs, there is growing discontent with her leadership among parents as well, which is likely to flare up with the the first administration of the PAARC (Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) test in the spring of this school year.

Gist regarded Carcieri as “reform-minded and open to taking aggressive steps to bring about the necessary changes to Rhode Island’s education system” and, although she didn’t have the same rapport with Governor Chafee, she made her peace with him after a difficult start.

Given Governor-elect Raimondo’s celebrity as a pension reformer, some assume that she is committed to the entire union-busting privatizing program of corporate reform. The Fordham Institute’s Michael J. Petrilli, for example: “Of particular note is Rhode Island—Rhode Island!—which just elected a pro-education reform, pro-pension reform Democrat as governor and a bona fide charter school hero as lieutenant governor. All while voters in Providence rejected a union-backed convicted felon in favor of a charter supporter. Remarkable!”

Governor-elect Gina Raimondo and her husband, Andy Moffit, are parents of children attending school in Providence and Raimondo has said positive things about public schools and public school teachers. Moffit is a senior consultant in education with McKinsey & Co. He had a hand in the report, “How the world’s best school systems keep getting better,” that introduces these comments and that Gist quoted in her dissertation.

He was a principle author of Deliverology 101: A Field Guide for Educational Leaders, which Gist admires. After Governor Chafee’s election, the Board of Regents changed significantly which worried Gist. It must also have dismayed Moffit, who was nominated to the Board by Carcieri but decided not to serve under Chafee. Both Gist and Moffit have interests in large-scale change of school systems and educational organizations. Like Gist, Moffit has serious corporate-reform credentials. If the two don’t know each other well, at the very least they are professional acquaintances with common contacts.

I don’t know if this connection will work for or against Gist and I’m not even going to guess how the next lieutenant governor’s opinion might figure into the decision. Certainly Raimondo will not want to add to the the anger and distrust that Rhode Island educators feel over pension issues by retaining an unpopular Commissioner. Nor will she wish to create the impression that her husband’s career has undue influence on her decision. On the other hand , her sensitivity to the business community, the input of pro-corporate reform campaign contributors, and a shout-out from Washington could work for Gist.

November 17, 2014November 18, 2014

Providence students speak out

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Past and present Providence public school students spoke at Brown University Thursday night about the difficulties they face in their determination to do well, attend college, and “elevate” themselves and their families out of poverty. They spoke of good teachers, bad teachers, and resource inequality.

“It’s not the teachers’ fault and it’s not the students’ fault,” said Raycily Castillo, who attends the Paul Cuffee School. “It’s where they come from, what’s going on in their homes. No matter how good it is at school, they all have to go back home every day and face a wave of negativity.”

Francois Nduwumwami, from Del Sesto Middle School, added, “Children these days are failing school because of depression.” Mental health crises such as self-mutilation, he said, are common, even at the middle school level.

The panelists’ engagement in extra-curricular programs as well as their obvious pride in being from families who are supportive of their educations, set them somewhat apart from the majority of the city’s students, but they were clearly concerned about their peers and eager to offer advice about how to help more students.

Garren Jansezian, a graduate of E Cubed and now a freshman at URI, emphasized the need for teachers to know their students and care about them. “Advocate, advocate, advocate!” was his immediate response. But he also observed that there needs to be a societal shift in the way families do and do not support their children’s educations: “Parents’ impact on kids is so huge.” He talked about his own personal history with very young parents and how that made life challenging for all of them.

Several of the panelists addressed the difficulty of getting urban students involved in programs that would benefit them. Central High School student Destin Bibimi’s advice was to “get students you’re already working with to talk to their friends.”

“Food helps,” said Sidi Wen, from Classical High School. “Just say, ‘I’m gonna be there, pizza’s gonna be there, you should be there!'”

“We kids are really hungry,” Garren added. “Many of us go home to empty cupboards, especially the last few days of the month when the family is just trying to make ends meet. Snacks are so important. If you don’t eat, you can’t do homework.”

The panelists said they wanted teachers who care enough to build individual relationships with them, who are passionate about their subject and are well-prepared. Teachers need to know how to control their classroom, make the subject interesting to the students, and have faith that each and every student can learn.

The controversy over high-stakes standardized testing came up briefly. Garren, whose senior project last year was on the effects of income inequality on test scores, was strongly opposed. He cited as reasons for his opposition the difference in family resources, the cultural bias in standardized test questions, and the degradation of education in urban schools as a direct result of the high-stakes testing. “Teachers continuously teach to the test,” he said. You may pass the test, but then you go off to college and flunk out because you’re not prepared.”

The nine panelists are participants in Brown University student-originated programs that work in Providence middle and high schools: The RI Urban Debate League, Generation Citizen, Providence Student Union, and BRYTE (Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring and Enrichment).

“While this event is the brainchild of the coordinators (of the four programs), Ashley Belanger, of the RI Urban Debate League, said, “the Swearer Center has encouraged and supported us throughout the planning of the panel. The Swearer Center, Brown University’s center for public service, has increasingly encouraged (Brown’s) students to take an interest in the city in which they live. I think that the Rhode Island Urban Debate League, Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring and Enrichment, Generation Citizen, and the Providence Student Union are all evidence of the increased engagement.”

November 15, 2014November 17, 2014

Photos show PVD middle school in disrepair

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Gilbert Stuart Middle School in Providence has perhaps bigger issues than just one bad teacher, as evidenced by photos provided to RI Future.

The building was built in 1931, and some consider it to be among the most dilapidated schools in the city. A 2013 RIDE report rated it a 2 out of 5, with 1 being the highest score (2= “Generally good condition, some system needs. Minor renovations.”). From the RIDE report:

ridechart_gilbertstuart — From RIDE report.

According to the Feb. 2013 RIDE “Public Schoolhouse Assessment”: “Most children spend a significant part of their lives inside public school buildings, so the condition of those buildings is of great concern to the State of Rhode Island. Aside from the physical safety and well-being of school children and the adults who work in school buildings, it has long been accepted that the condition and design of school buildings has a direct impact on academic performance. As the state strives to prepare its public school students for success in college, careers and life, facilities must be part of the equation.”

RI state law (16-7-35) requires “adequate school housing for all public school children in the state.”

The pictures below were sent to Providence Public School Department on October 6 by RI Future with a request for comment. That email, as well as subsequent follow-up emails and phone calls, have not be returned.

November 12, 2014November 13, 2014

Providence students, in their own words

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For those who wonder what is really going on in those big old high schools in Providence, Brown University is hosting a discussion about them Thursday, featuring as speakers the very students who experience or have experienced them on a daily basis.

It begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, Room 001, the College Green. Twelve current and former high school students from Central, Classical, Hope, Alvarez, E-Cubed Academy, The Met and Paul Cuffee, will contribute their perspectives on a number of issues confronting their schools, such as their schools’ reputations, graduation and college admission rates, what students are offered for lunch, and what they believe makes a great teacher.

There will be a half hour of facilitator-generated Q&A and then 45 minutes of interactive audience Q&A. The discussion is sponsored by Generation Citizen, BRYTE, Providence Student Union, and the Rhode Island Urban Debate League.

October 28, 2014

Providence Student Union is hiring

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Spread the word – PSU is hiring!

The Providence Student Union (PSU) is a youth organizing and leadership development organization that brings high school aged youth together to build student power and fight for young people to have a fair say in the decisions impacting their education. PSU has school based, citywide, and statewide organizing campaigns, and is recognized as a national leader in the fight against high-stakes testing, among other issues.

PSU seeks a full time Youth Organizer who is skilled, flexible, devoted to PSU’s mission and committed to building student power.

If you know of anyone who should take a look, please share with them. Thanks so much for the help!

October 26, 2014October 28, 2014

About Andy Moffit

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Both candidates for governor are enthusiastic about the union of education and business. One of Republican Allan Fung’s proposals is to have a “Jobs and Education Cabinet” in which business and education leaders would work together to make sure that graduating students are employable, while Democrat Gina Raimondo would work from a different angle, concentrating on community college job training programs.

Another difference between the two is that Raimondo has an expert coach in her corner. Her husband Andy Moffit is deeply involved in the business of education reform.

Moffit is a Senior Practice Expert and co-founder of the Global Education Practice at McKinsey & Company— consultants to CEOs, governments, companies, national foundations, and non-profits. He taught for Teach for America for two years, studied education law and policy at Oxford and Yale, and served on the board of Jonah Edelman’s Stand for Children.

In terms of corporate education reform, one prominent McKinsey-watcher and follow-the-money researcher puts the firm in a class by itself:

“They have been the leaders in crafting the dominant narrative of an education crisis for decades, and now deeply entrenched in education reform policies, they are reaping the financial and political benefits of marketing solutions to the problems they manufactured in the first place.”

Lacking a genuine crisis, various crisis-mongering claims about the failure of American schools will do, especially since these are generally supported by Arne Duncan’s Department of Education and widely publicized by the well-funded reform advocacy groups that promote charter school choice as an alternative to traditional public school education. McKinsey & Company are masters of packaging crises in high-profile reports, which they “launch” with prominent guest speakers and great fanfare. One education example is “How the world’s best school systems keep getting better” (2010) is focused on PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) test scores and what can be learned from the high scorers. Though not an author, Andy Moffit was credited for his work on this while Arne Duncan and Rhode Island’s Deborah Gist were panelists at its “launch.”

Along with Paul Kihn and Sir Michael Barber, Moffit was one of three authors of “Deliverology 101: A Field Guide for Educational Leaders” – a how-to-get-things-done manual for school districts and systems based on the management techniques Barber developed for British Prime Minister Tony Blair (1997-2007). Barber, former McKinsey Partner and head of their Global Education Practice, is now the chief education advisor for Pearson’s—the international giant of testing and educational materials and the preeminent beneficiary of the current testing mania. Paul Kihn left McKinsey’s in 2012 to serve as William Hite’s deputy superintendent in the Philadelphia school district, a position he held during the recent tumult of school closings, draconian budget cuts, and union wars, while Moffit has remained with McKinsey.

As Raimondo and Fung speak of getting business and education together, it is clear to those of us with an eye on the corporate reform movement that they are already together. It is naïve or disingenuous to discuss educational policy without dealing with the profit motive. Big data and standardized tests are at the core of an ever-expanding industry rife with new start-ups, collaborations, and consultations involving tests, testing materials, hard-ware and soft-ware, real estate, no-bid contracts, tax benefits, and venture philanthropy. Budget cuts to public education, combined with privatization, union-busting and the deregulation of schools and teaching credentials are the order of the day.

It would be interesting to know specifically which consulting projects Moffit worked on for McKinsey over the years but there is surprisingly little about him on McKinsey sites. Although he was nominated to serve on the R.I. Board of Regents by ex-Governor Carcieri, that was when the General Assembly was no longer approving such nominations. He withdrew his name after Chafee was elected, apparently because of differences in views. He withdrew from the controversial Stand for Children board very quietly, without comment, and he has kept a low profile in both Raimondo campaigns.

We know more about Raimondo’s deceased father than her husband. Of course because Moffit makes a living as an education consultant/reformer, supporting various Obama/Duncan initiatives, reorganizing urban school systems, and developing sustainability plans for the new Common Core tests, does not mean that Raimondo has the same opinions. But how would we know? Has she ever been asked?

September 29, 2014September 29, 2014

Why PVD Teachers Union is wrong to support Cianci

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Maribeth Reynolds-Calabro, the president of the Providence Teachers Union, says her group is [sic]”progressive and solutions-driven and steadfastly committed to teacher’s rights.” You could have fooled me.

Based on its recent endorsement of Vincent A Cianci, Jr for mayor of Providence, the labor union’s executive board seems blind to the past, and ignores the present. Some connected teachers may well get better perks from Buddy (while many others grow jaded, leave the profession or fight like hell for their kids) but Providence has every reason to assume that Cianci will be bad for children, families, and dedicated teachers, as he was before.

Between 1989 and 1999, child poverty in Providence increased from 35% to 40%. During the same time, if you look at South Providence and the West End in particular, child poverty increased from 42% to 49%, and the city’s median household income declined by 7%.

Not enough numbers? Records from the RI Department of Education are hardly uplifting. In the 1997-1998 school year, the Providence high school graduation rate was 68.46%. In the 1998-1999 school year, the graduation rate was 71.4%. In 1999- 2000, the graduation rate was 63.04%. In 2000-2001, the rate was 63.74%. In 2001-2002, the rate was 72%. At best, Cianci’s record is dramatically inconsistent, as graduation rates were marked by rapid fluctuations between the low 60s and low 70s.

According to RI Kids Count, “the high school graduation rate among Hispanic youth in the class of 2010 was 66%, lower than the overall Rhode Island high school graduation rate of 76%.” Children and families need this to move forward. What in Cianci’s record shows he has the skills to do so consistently?

For a dedicated teacher’s point of view of the Cianci era, check out Carole Marshall’s memoir- Stubborn Hope, about her time teaching English at Hope High School.

What about facilities? Can we trust Cianci to champion and oversee a true overhaul of city facilities? As Mike Stanton once wrote in the Providence Journal, “Since 1991, the Providence School Department had leased ..[a] former body shop at 400 West Fountain St. as a registration center for new students. The lease had generated controversy. The city’s impoverished school system paid more than $1 million for a building that was drafty and dreary, with concrete floors and inaccessible bathrooms. Critics pointed out that the city could have bought a better building for a fraction of the inflated rent it was paying. A reform-minded School Committee member tried to get out of the lease when it came up for renewal in 1994. But she was told not to buck City Hall.”

Do I need to mention the police testing scandal and repeated complaints of abuse?

For any group of professionals, with a straight face, to claim that Cianci “clearly understands the needs of our district” willfully ignores the real damage and hurts caused by his actions and inactions in neighborhoods where thousands of public school children live.

Remember, this “teacher” endorsement doesn’t come from a vote of union members, but a vote of the 13 person executive board. Not a single member of the executive board has a Latino or Asian American surname despite the fact that 68% of the current student body and families are Latino and Asian American. This PTU executive board is not reflective of, or reflecting on, the reality of Providence today.

Providence teachers deserve a union responsive to their needs and the needs of students and families. Providence residents need a responsive teachers’ union interested in actual solutions. Hitching on to the Cianci train is a ticket to nowhere good, and fast.

September 12, 2014September 15, 2014

Help the Providence Student Union win $100,000

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If you’re a fan of the Providence Student Union (PSU) and our work to build student power and fight for stronger public schools, then we need your help!

PSU has been nominated for the Nellie Mae Education Foundation’s Larry O’Toole Award. If we get the most online votes out of the six groups nominated, we will win $100,000.

You read that correctly – $100,000!

But we got a late start on voting and need your help: please take 10 seconds now to vote for PSU here.

PSU’s student leaders have accomplished so much on a shoestring budget. They’ve stopped a school closing, expanded student bus passes, led the successful campaign to pass a moratorium on high-stakes testing, and much more. So think about what we could achieve with $100,000!

Winning the Larry O’Toole Award would allow us to expand our organizing work and strengthen our youth-led movement for student-centered learning across Rhode Island.

We would use these funds to support students at every high school in Providence, and to increase our capacity to work with students elsewhere in Rhode Island who want to form their own student unions.

In short, this award would allow PSU to create an unprecedented foundation for youth voice in education policy-making. If that sounds like something you support, here’s what we need you to do:

Take 10 seconds right now to vote for PSU!
Forward this link to 10 friends who also support student voice!
Share this with any groups or organizations you’re involved with who have a stake in improving our public schools!

Thanks so much for your support.

May 5, 2014May 6, 2014

State Supreme Court: no guarantee to adequate education in RI

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Friday was a sad day for the children of Pawtucket and Woonsocket, and for disadvantaged children across the State, when the Supreme Court decided that Rhode Island’s Constitution does not protect them from receiving an inadequate education. These children, whose only failure is to live in the wrong ZIP code, are being denied a quality public education without any realistic chance of relief, even though Rhode Island’s current Constitution contains an education clause.

While the Supreme Court missed an opportunity to interpret that clause to help these innocent children and our state as a whole, the Court’s decision squarely places upon our shoulders the opportunity and the responsibility to amend our Constitution to redress our state’s denial of this fundamental civil right.

This case began in 2010, at a time when the General Assembly debated and approved an education aid funding formula. The formula was enacted amid great fanfare, but the school committees of Pawtucket and Woonsocket knew the hype far exceeded the new formula’s actual merit. Four years into the new formula, the children in Pawtucket and Woonsocket still suffer from inadequate facilities and textbooks, insufficient staffing and personnel, and other deprivations which, as the Supreme Court found, results from a “funding system that prevents municipalities from attaining the resources necessary to meet the requirements” of the State’s educational mandates. In fact, these children’s harm will rise (or sink) to a new level this year, as the state is poised to deprive them of diplomas on the basis of NECAP testing, even as the state deprived their schools of the resources needed to prepare them adequately for the tests.

The Supreme Court was candid about the state’s failures, noting that these children “make a strong case to suggest that the current funding system is not beneficial to students in Pawtucket and Woonsocket, especially when compared to other municipalities.” Despite these deprivations and inequities, however, the Court decided it was powerless to intervene, ruling that “the General Assembly has exclusive authority to regulate the allocation of resources for public education.”

Unfortunately, these children cannot realistically pin their hopes on the General Assembly, which already has been told by the Commissioner of Education that the 2010 funding formula made Rhode Island “the state with the best funding formula in the country.” While accepting the value of positive thinking, the simple fact is that if the Massachusetts border moved a few miles south, the children of Woonsocket would benefit from a funding formula and State support that put Rhode Island’s to shame. That is why the great majority of states (including Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont) have constitutional protections that empower courts to break through political stalemate, to provide our children with what many call the key civil right of the 21st

By hewing to a “strict construction” of the Rhode Island Constitution reminiscent of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Rhode Island Supreme Court’s decision is a valid exercise of a particular school of legal reasoning, but also a massive missed opportunity to move our State forward in the fields of civil rights and economic development.

With that said, the Supreme Court’s decision speaks with admirable candor concerning the specific ways in which the State’s public education program fails the children of Pawtucket and Woonsocket. In this way, the Court’s decision, even as it denies relief for these children under the terms of the State’s current Constitution, helps make an overwhelming case for amending and improving the Constitution to redress this wrong. Currently, there is pending legislation in the House (H7896) and Senate (S2397) to place a question on the ballot permitting voters to approve a Constitutional amendment to establish a right to education that can be enforced in court. In the four years that it has taken for this case to be decided, both the General Assembly and the courts have made it indisputable that such a Constitutional amendment is the only way to protect this vital civil right.

Over the past month, writers on this blog and representatives of the civil rights community have expressed concerns about how a constitutional convention may compromise civil rights that the current Constitution protects. Friday’s Supreme Court decision makes clear that the current Constitution fails to protect a vital civil right that is harming tens of thousands of Rhode Island’s children every day. With this in mind, I wish to offer an invitation to civil rights leaders and progressives statewide. Please join Rhode Island’s children and urban communities in their effort to convince the General Assembly to place a stronger Constitutional right to education on November’s ballot. If the General Assembly allows voters this chance, you can help advance the civil right of education in Rhode Island without the risks you see in a broader Constitutional convention.

Four years ago, Pawtucket and Woonsocket brought their case to the Rhode Island courts. Last Friday, the Supreme Court passed the baton to the General Assembly, the civil rights community, the progressive community and the people of Rhode Island. Please do not miss this opportunity. Rhode Island’s children (and, by extension, Rhode Island’s future) are depending on you.

March 20, 2014March 22, 2014

Rhode Island’s regressive way of paying for infrastructure

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Gina Raimondo proposes allocating $60 million to fix up schools. As Sam Bell writes, she doesn’t say where the money will come from, only that the legislature will find it somehow.

Gina Raimondo’s campaign manager, Eric Hyers, tells Phil Marcelo of the Providence Journal:

“This $60 million figure we’re talking about? To put it in context, we’re talking about 0.7 percent of the budget. What is more important than building schools that are new, safe, modern and help kids learn?”

Eric’s experience is in federal campaigns, so we can excuse the fact that he is obviously unfamiliar with the ferocity of fights at the State House over far less money than this. So here is a helpful list for him to consider of things that people might consider to be as important as building new schools:

Staffing existing schools,
Buying books and desks in those existing schools,
Funding food stamps,
Helping homeless or threatened children find a place to sleep,
Paying unemployment benefits,
Taking care of the psychiatric patients in the state’s care,
Keeping bridges from collapsing,
Reining in tuition increases at URI,
Cleaning up sewage overflows,
Keeping the lights on at the state hospitals,
Keeping the state police on the highways,
Staffing the prisons,
Running the DMV,
Keeping drinking water safe,
Providing flu vaccines,
Providing speedy trials to defendants

The fact is that you don’t get something for nothing. Repairing schools is a worthy goal. Pretending you can do it for free is how we got ourselves in the fiscal crisis we’ve been in for a decade. If someone has an idea about where the waste is, then let’s hear it. In the meantime, let’s not waste more time with magic money proposals.

Again, Eric’s strong suit is not the state budget, so here are some suggestions he could recommend for paying for this new expense. Some people would even consider items in this list to represent waste. Maybe he’ll mention them to Gina.

Establishing combined reporting would raise about the right amount of money from big corporations doing business in Rhode Island. And
According to last fall’s report, we pay $45 million to only 18 hedge funds to manage pension funds, out of $70 million in fees annually.
According to my calculations, going back to the income tax rates of, say, 1996 would raise around $100 million per year.
State tax credits (film and historic) waste tens of millions of dollars each year, money that goes to cutting the taxes of a rich person or corporation without any public benefit.

The last one there deserves special attention. When the historic tax credit program was ended a few years ago, our state borrowed money to repay those credits. The total amount borrowed was $150 million. Given the way the tax credits work, around $30-40 million of that was borrowed only to lower the taxes of people who had bought tax credits. That is, we borrowed to make a tax cut. If that’s not waste worth cutting out of state government, what is?

March 12, 2014March 13, 2014

Is equal equitable on state education funding?

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Is equal equitable with regard to state education funding? As it happens, even a progressive state funding formula isn’t equitable when it comes to helping Rhode Island’s economically diverse cities and towns provide an adequate education to all.

That’s what Pawtucket and Woonsocket are arguing before the state Supreme Court in a case that claims the state is unconstitutionally depriving these two school districts of its ability to properly educate its children.

The Department of Education says that the state constitution doesn’t obligate it to provide an adequate, equal or equitable education – only that it “promote” public education. Furthermore, many suburban school committee members, policy analysts and small government activists have pointed out that Rhode Island already imposes a progressive (i.e. not regressive) formula for funding local school districts based on need.

Comparing per-pupil spending between some of Rhode Island’s richest suburbs and poorest cities, it seems they are correct. Barrington and East Greenwich get about 10 percent of their per-pupil education budget from the state and Woonsocket and Pawtucket get more than 60 percent per pupil from the state. In 2014, the state will pay $8,562 per pupil in Woonsocket and $8,270 in Pawtucket. Conversely, the state will pay $1,056 per pupil in Barrington and $987 in East Greenwich. (Ed. note: RIDE does not keep per pupil state aid data, according to RIDE spokesman Elliot Krieger, but you can do the math by dividing column H of this spreadsheet by column A of this spreadsheet, according to RIDE’s Office of Statewide Efficiencies Director Cynthia Brown.)

“At an order of magnitude difference Rhode Island’s funding formula sure does a lot of work to equalize spending,” said Jason Becker, who helped author the 2010 funding formula that Woonsocket and Pawtucket are challenging in court. “I don’t see how the state could do more without dramatically increasing the amount of state funding for education. With our budget and revenue issues I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”

But even with a progressive funding formula (the previous formula was not dramatically different for the richest and poorest communities) the results have been unequivocally regressive.

Take NECAP test results, for example. Barrington and East Greenwich 11th graders both scored 70 percent proficient on their math NECAP while Woonsocket 11th graders were 21 percent proficient and in Pawtucket 20 percent were proficient.

Perhaps the answer lies not within how much the aid the state gives each district, but how much aid each district needs. As Becker notes, the state funding formula equalizes spending. Even though Woonsocket and Pawtucket students have vastly different educational needs than East Greenwich and Barrington students, all four educations cost roughly the same.

In 2011, the most recent year I was able to find data on RIDE’s website, (Ed. note: still waiting to hear from RIDE Statewide Effeciencies Office if there is more recent data elsewhere), the average Woonsocket student cost $13,485 to educate and the average Pawtucket student cost $13,007. Meanwhile, the average East Greenwich student cost $13,973 and the average Barrington student cost $12,708. UPDATE: 2012 comparison here, courtesy of Elliot Krieger.

That may be equal. But considering the affluent suburbs seem to be able to do much more with a similar amount of money, it doesn’t seem equitable. Not even close.

East Greenwich recently built a brand new, “state-of-the-art” middle school building and also completed three major construction projects at the high school including an astroturf football stadium, a new entrance facade and new science labs. And next year, the EG School Committee plans to give every high school student their own laptop computer and add a staff member to facilitate the new program.

Meanwhile, this is what Providence City Councilor Sam Zurier, who is litigating the equitable funding lawsuit on behalf of Pawtucket and Woonsocket, said about the situation in Pawtucket:

“Pawtucket cannot afford to issue a separate text book for every child in some of its schools. You have laboratories with mold in them, the plumbing doesn’t work. You have classes in the elementary school that has two grades being taught by the same teacher. It’s often the case that schools run out of paper this time of year.”

March 3, 2014March 4, 2014

Sam Zurier explains Woonsocket, Pawtucket lawsuit against RIDE

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The school districts of Pawtucket and Woonsocket take their lawsuit against the Department of Education to the state Supreme Court Tuesday. They feel the 2010 school funding formula unfairly deprives their districts of the resources needed for an adequate education, said Providence City Councilor Sam Zurier, one of the lawyers representing the two districts.

He detailed some of the ways these districts are failing to provide an adequate education experience:

“Pawtucket cannot afford to issue a separate text book for every child in some of its schools,” he said. “You have laboratories with mold in them, the plumbing doesn’t work. You have classes in the elementary school that has two grades being taught by the same teacher. It’s often the case that schools run out of paper this time of year.”

The lawsuit was dismissed by a lower court. And Zurier’s co-counsel, Steve Robinson, has been fighting in court for more funding for Pawtucket since 1991. This may be the second such suit, but the first since the state tried to address the issue with a new funding formula in 2010. Zurier said the new funding formula caused more problems for Pawtucket and Woonsocket.

“The 2010 funding formula is actually less adequate than another funding formula the state developed in 2007,” he said. “If the state had implemented the 2007 formula then the school districts of Pawtucket and Woonsocket would be getting several thousands dollars more per child and and that would be adequate funding to allow them to meet the standards.”

Zurier said the 2010 funding formula sends money to every school district in the state, rather than only the most needy districts – “that means there is less money in the pot to go to the poorer communities,” he said. He also said the 2010 funding formula doesn’t account for English language learners, an anomaly among state education funding formulas “and that’s obviously an issue for Pawtucket and Woonsocket,” he said.

‘They watered down the distribution,” Zurier said. “And what you are left with is the poor communities don’t get what they need.”

You can listen to my entire conversation with Zurier here:

March 3, 2014

Why it’s harder to get a better score on NECAP math retest

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Now that we are in the period of NECAP retesting for seniors who failed the test as juniors, it would be good to take a look at how the math test is constructed. Because that, after all, is the test most juniors failed in the first place. In the chart below you can see how students did, item-by-item, when they took the NECAP grade 11 math test in 2012.

$2012 necap math test$

The thing that shoots off the page is that the curve shown in the chart doesn’t look much like a normal curve. If you remember, a normal curve is described as a “bell shaped curve”, meaning it is symmetrical, highest in the middle, and slopes downward to the right and left. To see a bell curve, look at the reading test results shown below the math test: it’s not a perfect curve, being squished a little on the left, but at least it’s some version of a normal curve.

What we see above is definitely not symmetrical, nor does is slope downward to the right and to the left—to the right, yes, there is a long, straight slope, but to the left there is a precipitous drop. Altogether, it looks like a wedge with its thin edge to the right.

What does a wedge shape mean to a student taking the test? The numbers below the bars tell you how many students got a particular item correct and you can see that very few students only got item “1” correct. But thereafter, things change dramatically and the numbers of students getting very low numbers of items correct stacks up like 95 at rush hour. In fact, in the math test, the scores the most students got were between 7 and 11 items correct—out of a possible 64! More than 300 students only got 9 items correct.

What this tells us is that the math test has no lead-up of items that gradually get more difficult. Instead, it begins with difficult items and then makes each item more difficult, which accounts for the almost straight line of descending scores to the right. This design—hard items and then harder items—makes it difficult for students to do better without putting big resources into remediation efforts of doubtful long- term value.

Defenders of the NECAP math test say the problem is not the test but the education system—bad teachers, essentially. Part of their defense rests on showing questions that students who fail the test get wrong. Adults who see these items tend to solve them and think that of course most students should get them right. But this is a bogus exercise–the adults who see these items are never in the pressurized testing environment where students encounter them, so it should not be taken seriously as a defense of the math test.

Instead, look at the reading test, shown below. It’s hard to look at the two graphs and believe the reading and math test are constructed using the same design. In the reading test, the long tail to the left indicates a run-up of easier questions and, in this situation, improving performance between tests would be a much less difficult task. The remediation might not be any more educationally meaningful, but there would be less of it, it would be less difficult to provide, and it would divert much less time, energy and money. Indeed, that is what happened.

$2012 necap math 2$

February 26, 2014

Common Core, high stakes tests are under attack locally and nationally

As a General Assembly committee considers today a bill that would suspend high stakes test graduation requirements and reevaluate Rhode Island’s commitment to Common Core, there is a debate raging both here and across the nation about whether such accountability measures account for more harm than good.

“The Common Core State Standards were hailed as the next game changer in education,” wrote NEA President Larry Purtill on this blog recently. “Unfortunately, the way it is going, they may ruin the game, not just change it.”

Time was perspectives like Purtill’s were easily dismissed as a special interest. But other special interests in Rhode Island – parents, students, taxpayers and civil libertarians – have also organized to fight these corporate-backed “reforms” to public education.

The ACLU of RI and underfunded urban school districts in Rhode Island have long fought these measures first implemented by George Bush and heavily backed by both corporate and Wall Street interests. But then something new happened here.

The Providence Student Union made national news when they made adults take the test teenagers face as a graduation requirement. And following their inspiration, a parent group from East Greenwich is fighting against these kinds of education “reforms.” That group is led by a former Moderate Party candidate for lt. governor who was an enemy of organized labor as a member of the East Greenwich School Committee.

Opposition to high stakes testing in Rhode Island has brought together the formerly disparate interests of tax-obsessed suburban parents, underfunded inner city students, social justice activists and educators.

“The current misuse of and over reliance on standardized testing in education is nothing short of unethical and immoral,” according to Parents Across Rhode Island’s website. “Standardized tests like the NECAP are simply not able to accurately measure the knowledge and skills of all students, yet they are being used for major decisions such as graduation, promotion and teacher evaluation.”

And it’s not just happening here in Rhode Island. All across the country (please read: “Education Uprising: the Myth Behind Public School Failure“) education activists are preparing to step up the fight from peaceful street theater and strongly worded blog posts to direct action and what might be considered civil disobedience.

A new national coalition known as Testing Resistance and Reform Spring made national news last week.

“The emergence of the alliance represents a maturing of the grassroots testing resistance that has been building for several years locally in states , including Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois,” wrote Washington Post education blogger Valarie Strauss. “Though many supporters of Barack Obama expected him to end the standardized testing obsession of George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind when Obama was first elected president, many now say that the Obama administration has gone beyond the excesses of NCLB to inappropriately make high-stakes standardized tests the key measure of achievement by students, teachers, principals and schools.”

According to the group’s website, it supports “a range of public education and mobilizing tactics, including community meetings, boycotts, opt-out campaigns, rallies, petition drives and legislation. TRRS will help activists link up, communicate and learn from one another. This will build a stronger national movement to overhaul assessment policies.”

The new umbrella group has affiliates all across the nation, including Rhode Island. The RI affiliate offers a detailed blueprint for opting out of the NECAP test and graduation requirement for parents and students.

“The RIDE policy does not allow exemptions based on a refusal to test,” according to a pdf on the site. “Therefore no exemption’ will be granted on these terms. Parents/student will have to state that they are REFUSING the test rather than requesting an exemption.”

It says so far, no Rhode Islanders have opted out of the NECAP test. But there was this comment on the site from a student: “Hi, I am an 11th grader in RI and I need to take the NECAP’s to graduate even though I and my parents are HIGHLY against high stakes testing. With the opt out, would I be able to not take the test and still graduate?”

February 21, 2014February 21, 2014

Four years later: Student achivement and Central Falls’ transformation

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As we approach the four year anniversary of the tumultuous firing of the the teachers at Central Falls High School (CFHS), regarded nationally as a watershed event in the Obama administration’s school reform efforts, we must once again consider the success or failure of what followed (and preceded).

Progressives and ed reform skeptics are somewhat hamstrung in this process, as we tend to discount the validity of reformers’ goals and metrics. It often seems like wiser strategy to not accept their premises. Yet, if we ignore this data, we risk unilaterally disarming our own arguments or simply lessening our own understanding of the situation.

With that preamble, consider some charts tracking Central Falls High School 11th grade NECAP proficiency rates, compared to the statewide 11th grade proficiency rate to provide perspective on overall trends. 2007 through 2013 covers all the years the 11th grade NECAP has been administered statewide, all data from RIDE’s website.

In all these charts, CFHS is in red, RI public schools statewide in blue, where applicable, CFHS transformation plan goals in yellow and RI statewide Race to the Top goals in green.

RIDE triggered the crisis in Central Falls following the application of the 2009 NECAP, either immediately before or after RIDE received the 2009 scores (it is hard to say which would be more irresponsible). As you can clearly see above, CFHS was named “persistently low-performing” after two consecutive years of double digit growth in reading proficiency, with a higher proficiency rate and lower achievement gap compared to the rest of the state than they have achieved since the transformation.

CFHS’s transformation plan hoped to “to sustain the rate of growth experienced in the past few years” while focusing their attention on math and other issues. This clearly did not work, and it has taken the school four years to approach the status quo ante in NECAP reading proficiency.

We all still pay to administer the NECAP writing assessment, but since it was not used for No Child Left Behind accountability, it has mostly been ignored by RIDE. Despite the lip service they may give to “multiple measures,” they cannot even be bothered to consider all the tests they administer. Regardless, as a relatively low-stakes, straightforward and authentic ELA test, it helps to corroborate trends in reading scores.

While both CFHS and RI writing proficiency jumped in 2013, the gap between the two is still 8% greater than it was pre-transformation.

Increasing math proficiency was the academic focus of the transformation plan.

While the authors of the plan stated “we are confident that our targets are reasonable” after consideration of “historical CFHS NECAP data… the proportion of students on the cusp of proficiency levels, and… statewide NECAP averages,” in retrospect, that was wishful thinking (or a politically necessary exaggeration). In reality, getting CFHS up to 14% proficiency is a substantial improvement based on a tremendous amount of hard work by students and teachers. But it is not what reformers projected after repeatedly citing CFHS’s 7% proficiency rate in 2009 as a justification for firing all the teachers.

For the NECAP science exam, I shifted the year label back a year to match with the fall test cadres above, and included the goals from RIDE’s strategic plan. The results are depressingly similar to the math test.

Taking a longer perspective on the CFHS data, a few things seem clear:

The school’s academic performance prior to the transformation was not as bad as reformers thought or presented it.
Rushing the process did not “save” the students in the school. The test scores of the student cohorts in the school during the process clearly suffered. They were worse off in reading and writing achievement according to the NECAP scores.
In the four years since RIDE named CFHS “persistently low performing,” the gap between CFHS and RI state proficiency rates has increased on all four NECAP tests.

CFHS has had success improving their graduation rate, but it is important to note that while the four year graduation rate jumped 20% between the classes of 2010 and 2013, when most students in those cohorts took the NECAP in the junior year, the class of 2010 outperformed 2013 in NECAP reading and writing (in fall 2008 and fall 2011, respectively). The class of 2013 did outperform the class of 2010 by 3% in math and science, but there is no evidence that the 20% improvement in graduation rate was driven by increased student learning as measured by NECAP.

In short, dramatic changes have not created dramatically different results on RIDE’s NECAP assessment. It does not mean that nothing can improve urban high schools in Rhode Island, in fact, our recent track record includes some notable successes, including some all too fleetingly implemented at CFHS in the past twenty years, should we choose to re-examine them. But the “fire ’em all” Central Falls transformation has not worked, on its own terms, by its own standards.

February 20, 2014

What do teachers think: Susan Weigand

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Susan Weigand, 2nd grade teacher at Hugh Cole Elementary School in Bristol-Warren, punctuates nearly every sentence with “I could go-on about my students all day.” Her dedication to her young students was evident throughout her sit down with RI Future.

“Where is the safety net for the children that come to kindergarten ill prepared for what they have to do,” she said. (Read the first part of this three-part series here on Jen Saarinen)

But there was a stark contrast between her excitement for her students recent policy changes. She said that changes in policy and budget have affected her teaching style and her students.

“Work I’m asking students to do is significantly more challenging,” she said. “In that comes the question of whether or not it’s developmentally appropriate. There are several situations where it’s not, I’m being told to ask my students things beyond what they’re capable of doing.”

Weigand said that budgets for teachers aren’t what they once were either. There was a time where teachers could buy supplies that weren’t provided for them by the district. Those times are long gone.

“We don’t really get a budget,” Weigand said. “The district provides us with certain supplies but there’s no discretionary fund for teachers to buy things for their classroom. When I was first hired in this district 16 or 17 years ago, we had a budget to go purchasing for our classroom.”

Budget cuts affect those on the elementary school level differently than others. Weigand explained the uniqueness of the situation. “The difference is we teach everything and we teach multiple levels, so if I’m doing science activity about states of matter I have to have different levels of books because each of my kids are at different levels –well my district doesn’t provide that.”

During her time as a teacher, Weigand has noticed major changes within her field. The greatest change she has seen is the shift away from viewing students as young adults.

“We have somehow forgotten that these are small children sitting in our rooms,” she said. “I think we have forgotten these are little people – 6, 7, 8 – we very much have forgotten these are little kids and we treat them like tiny adults. Where does that creative thinking of being able to come up with the answers themselves come into play?”

February 19, 2014

What do teachers think: Jen Saarinen of Warren

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Jen Saarinen was thrust into a changing, tumultuous profession when she started teaching ten years ago.

“When I graduated from college, No Child Left Behind was just getting underway,” she said.

Saarinen is a math teacher at Kickemuit Middle School in Warren, and she spoke to RI Future about the many changes that she and her students have been inundated with over the past ten years.

“The major changes that have resulted in the classroom as a result of the state standardized tests have been more testing situations that our students are forced to go through,” she said. “We now track our students three times per year using NWEA for progress in addition to completing a “Common Assessment” per core subject at the end of each quarter.”

She voiced her concern by saying “The number of days that are spent on these tests, not to mention NECAP soon to be PARCC, we don’t truly have a full year to instruct the students to make this progress!”

While she does has her qualms about the proliferation of testing, Saarinen believes that some policy changes are a step in the right direction. One of these was the implementation of an evaluation model for teachers. “I do believe that there was a need to have an evaluation model for educators, however I do not feel that the one that Rhode Island is using is the most effective evaluation model,” said Saarinen. She went onto say, “Compound the demands of the educator evaluation and the assessments, many teachers are no longer in love with their profession.”

Some teachers have fallen out of love with their profession, and Saarinen has noticed a similar phenomenon in students. “I feel that my students don’t have the love of learning that they once had. I can’t imagine that the amount of testing/pre-testing/re-testing plays into this. Teachers have made jokes about their school name being changed to a ‘testing center.'”

February 9, 2014February 10, 2014

Inch by inch, we will stop commodifying kids

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The great Pete Seeger recently passed away. For a few days following his death I listened to just about everything he sang that was available. He was by no means a perfect human being. Many have pointed to his controversial support of the Soviet Union during Stalin’s Regime. He later recognized this as a mistake. A complex and courageous individual, he was never afraid to voice an opinion or stick up for the underdog. Seeger’s rendition of the Garden Song has always been a favorite. The words ‘Inch by Inch, Row by Row’ reflect the feelings I have about how we educate and care for our nation’s children. From time to time there are those who wish to skip a few steps in the process. That is a shame when considering something so important.

For many years now I have been expressing some concerns about how we enculturate and educate young people. The most salient of these concerns being an over emphasis on technology, a proliferation of prescription medications and the scripted, standardized test based education that is offered young people at present. These opinions, while mine, might also be backed up by many in the counseling and education fields. Despite such view points many folks continue to advocate for the very Kool-Aid that is hurting our kids. Why? Some think that individuals like me are way off base and that problems are to a large extent fabricated. Others dismiss warning signs due to politics, power and perpetual motion. Whatever the reason, kids are the ones who are impacted most. What is that about children being our future?

In some ways we have created a cottage industry for testing companies, the Pharmaceutical Industry, some Educational Theorists and a number of business leaders. All of this has led us to view kids as receptacles waiting to be filled with data. The pace of the world has significantly changed over the last 15-20 years. During this time, kids have become plugged in to technology so much that they have little time to interact with each other. During this time, play has become organized, education standardized and anxiety, depression, ADHD along with a sense of alienation, have become common concerns. Don’t believe me – just ask a School Nurse, Social Worker or Guidance Counselor. Most teachers would concur as well. Many remain quiet for fear of retribution from those higher up. It is not Rocket Science. In fact, it is really about stuff like money, reputation, politics, power and perpetual motion. It is also about the wrong people driving educational policy.

Fixing matters is actually quite simple. Bring back things like recess and study halls to start. We should also advocate that mom and dad encourage their children to get unplugged and go outside to play. Then let us follow up by having districts drop out of the Standardized Testing as a graduation requirement, along with Common Core and we are showing some progress. These few modifications would create opportunities for kids to interact, as well as for schools to emphasize a broader spectrum of courses.

Another modification I would encourage would have to be in the area of technology. We need to slow down a bit. I realize that espousing such a belief is heresy these days. It goes without saying that technology has a prominent place in today’s world. In the future it appears that it will hold an even greater place. While the advantages are obvious the shortcomings are as well (or should be).

This is not a call for the elimination of technology. That would be absurd. This is more a call to infuse social skills dynamics into our curricula in order to enhance the use of technology. Unfortunately there are those who consider such views as technophobic. Caution, promoting mental health and seeking to advance social interactions represents the thinking of dinosaurs to them. More Kool-Aid please!

The technology schools purchase today is antiquated almost immediately. Because of this, requests for the ‘newest’ equipment will appear on school committee’s budgets frequently. Without question technology can advance education in extremely positive ways. I applaud our schools for constantly seeking to challenge and support young people. Technology can play a role. Keeping up will be a challenge. It will eventually force school officials to choose between technology and other services. All of this at a time when kids need support and human contact more than ever. Seeking a balance is going to be tricky. Not finding a balance will help to maintain a cycle where kids spend less and less time developing social skills.

Parents can help here as well. All too often, kids spend hours staring at computer screens. All too often, kids are plugged in to some device. Again, technology can do great things. So can a walk, discussion with friends and a family vacation.

I know that none of this is going to happen anytime soon. As a matter of fact, our present course is headed in the opposite direction. The messages the general population get, regarding the country’s youth, centers upon our being behind many other nations (especially in education). This causes panic for some. It represents opportunity for others. While our education system certainly has issues, it also exhibits significant strengths. What are they, you ask?

Folks come from all over the world to US Schools. Why’s that? Our Colleges and Universities are pretty good. Folks leave their homes to come to this country for a reason as well. Again, we have problems–lots of them. We have prejudice, poverty and way too much violence. Sometimes we stick our noses in other people’s business and far too often the country’s political system gets bogged down. Still, people come here in droves. That is because we have a system that can change and evolve. That is because there is flexibility here. There also are multiple possibilities. Kids who struggle with school can still catch up with GEDs, junior college, technical schools, job trainings and later on, 4 year schools, if they choose. That is of course, if they can survive High School. That does not occur everywhere. Kids in this country can get back into the game (in most instances).

What is happening now is a step backwards for young people. We have created a herd mentality that often denies diplomas, promotes stress and encourages conformity. In many ways we have reverted back to a mentality that views kids as mini adults. Maybe it is not quite Oliver Twist, but ‘reviewing the situation’ might find us wanting in terms of understanding child development. In fact, our culture spends more incarcerating people than educating them.

Today, business leaders influence the Educational Powers to enact subject matter that produces workers, rather than capable thinkers and citizens. We have also created a system where kids from poor neighborhoods, those with special needs and many English Language Learners are negatively impacted due to educational policies. Worse still, the education folk have let this happen. Welcome to the K-12 Matrix.

My final modification (in terms of this article) concerns recognizing the uniqueness of childhood and adolescence. While it is imperative that children be taught skills, discipline, socialization and responsibility, they should also be encouraged to explore, have fun and use their imaginations. In recent times much of this ‘stuff’ has been curtailed. The end result is the perfunctory form of learning we have today. That might be great for test scores and getting accepted to college, but for critical thinking, social skills and long-term relationships, it is a disaster. Did you ever think that we would have to teach people how to sleep, concentrate and be mindful? We are so busy multitasking that few of us are in the moment.

Don’t you think we should try to find time in our curriculums for moments of meaning? Don’t you think we should help kids discover life’s ‘whys’ along with the ‘hows’? The schools cannot be asked to carry these burdens alone. Parents are essential. The community plays an important role as well. When adults tell young people that they matter good things often happen. This needs to be infused into our messages far more often. Choosing to matter should be an everyday theme so that making kids matter comes into fruition.

I am confidant things can change. No need to give up on technology and accountability. What needs to occur is balance. What also needs to occur is for us to check our priorities (and who our influences are). Somehow we have come to believe that preparing kids for work is more important than for life (including possible career options). If only Charles Dickens were around today. He would recognize the exploitation that comes in modern form. Rest well Pete Seeger. When will we ever learn?

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