The "middle skills" shortage: The common core will make it worse

Sent to the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 11, 2014

"German robots school U.S. workers" (Sept. 10) is the most recent of a series of reports in the Wall Street Journal on the substantial shortage of job applicants with "middle skills," requiring less than a college degree but more than high school. Instead of increasing apprenticeships and investing more in vocational education for young people interested in this path, we now have the common core standards, which will make things much worse.

Schools should include literature, but as Susan Ohanian points out, the common core elitist language arts standards are clearly designed for college English majors. Forcing all high school students to read and dissect works such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses will be useful and interesting only for a tiny minority.

John Gardner, Former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, tried to warn us years ago: “The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”

Stephen Krashen, PhD
Professor Emeritus
University of Southern California

The Common Core Dissertation on 9 + 6

Primary Common Core Math Terms

from Boerne County, TX ISD:

BC Unions Rally Behind Teacher Strike

British Columbia Teacher's Union (BCTU) Stands Firm

B.C. unions rally behind teachers' strike

ANDREA WOO

VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail

Published Wednesday, Sep. 10 2014, 10:28 PM EDT

Last updated Wednesday, Sep. 10 2014, 10:28 PM EDT

Cash-strapped teachers who have so far lost four weeks’ pay to the strike will be able to apply for a loan from their union after workers from across the province agreed to inject $8.5-million into the union’s hardship fund.

The B.C. Federation of Labour on Wednesday announced it would lend the B.C. Teachers’ Federation $8-million. The B.C. Nurses’ Union (BCNU) topped that up with a $500,000 gift – not a loan. BC Hydro workers are also voting on whether to lend the union another $100,000.

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“This has been difficult,” said Nigel Reedman, a graphic design teacher at Vancouver Technical School. “We have to get by on smaller things. Even food, we can’t buy as much.”

(Connect with our B.C. teachers' strike live blog for the latest updates on the strike.)

The loans and donated money will go into a general hardship fund from which teachers facing financial difficulties can apply for a loan. Smaller amounts from the fund – say $100 for groceries – are sometimes distributed without the expectation of them being paid back. The union’s executive committee will decide how the money is accessed and distributed, said spokesman Rich Overgaard. The money will not go toward strike pay.

At the announcement Wednesday, outside of Vancouver Technical School in East Vancouver, B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair said the federation – which represents 54 unions in B.C., including some from the private sector – is proud to stand with teachers.

“Again, we say: It’s not going to be money that will end this dispute; no one will be starved out here,” he told a crowd as passing cars honked in support. “It will be Christy Clark who must end this dispute by going to arbitration and solving the problems.”

Some of the unions that contributed include the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, the Hospital Employees’ Union, United Steelworkers and Unifor.

BCNU president Gayle Duteil said the union’s provincial council was unanimous in its desire to make a sizable contribution.

“We believe this significant sum will help teachers stand strong against a government trying to bleed them dry,” she said in a statement.

The BCNU is still in contract negotiations with the provincial government, and Finance Minister Mike de Jong says he is worried that giving in to the teachers’ wage demands would inflate the cost of settling with other public sector unions such as the nurses.

Meanwhile, the union representing about 1,800 BC Hydro workers is voting via mail-in ballots on whether to set aside a $100,000 loan for the teachers’ union.

Local 378 of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union says a fund to support its own job action currently stands at $200,000 but a new contract has recently been negotiated for BC Hydro members so they won’t be needing the money any time soon. The voting deadline is Sept. 22.

With such wide support from other unions, some have raised the idea of a general strike. Asked about the possibility on Wednesday, Mr. Sinclair said the goal is to open schools – not close other work sites – but that the B.C. Fed has not ruled anything out.

The BCTF would not disclose how much it has spent on legal or advertising fees, saying only it has not advertised since picket lines went up in the spring. The union had $6-million in its strike fund – enough to cover three strike days – and that was exhausted by the end of rotating strikes, Mr. Overgaard said. A $2-million donation by Ontario teachers in the spring paid for a fourth strike day.

Meanwhile, many teachers have had to take on second jobs to pay the bills as the strike drags on.

Science teacher Leanne Brown, whose partner is also a teacher, said the two have taken on painting contracts to earn an income. Her brother, who is a teacher in Surrey, has started working in construction, “hauling five-gallon buckets of concrete for eight hours.”

Carolee McGillivray, a guidance counsellor, had to cancel her summer vacation with her son. She says she has had to refinance a number of things and expects to dip into her line of credit next week.

Mr. Reedman, the graphic design teacher, said teachers’ willingness to continue the strike despite financial hardship shows their resolve.

“Because we’re fighting for the good of the public education system, which we really believe in, we’re willing to go,” he said. “I’m willing to have to eat beans and rice for a month if that’s what it takes.”

Follow Andrea Woo on Twitter: @andreawoo

 

Huffman and Barbic Targets of Lawsuit in Tennessee

Kevin Huffman took just one month after his appointment as Commissioner of Education in April 2011 to choose former CEO of YES Prep Charter Schools as Superintendent of Tennessee's new Achievement School District, the State office that would coordinate the charterizing of Memphis and Nashville schools. 

At that time, the betting started on how many months it would take for Yes Prep, where Barbic had been CEO prior to coming to Tennessee, to claim a piece of the action in the lava-hot charter market in Memphis. 

It took just over 24 months, and in September 2013, YES Prep announced plans to open six (6) new charter schools in Memphis. 

Now it looks as if one of the jilted would-be profiteers who missed a cut of the action is suing Huffman and Barbic in Shelby County's 30th Judicial District of Chancery Court.  Stay tuned.

The following report is from TNParents.org:

A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR CIVIL LAWSUIT HAS BEEN FILED AGAINST KEVIN HUFFMAN, CHRIS BARBIC, TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, TENNESSEE ACHIEVEMENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHARTER SCHOOL AUTHORIZERS AND YES PREPARATORY ACADEMY

Rodney O. Ursery, J.D. and Clara D. West, Ph.D. are the Plaintiffs Who Filed the Lawsuit In Pro Se

Memphis, TN (September 8, 2014) – Rodney O. Ursery and Clara D. West, two former applicants for a charter operator’s authorization for the 2014/2015 school year, have filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Kevin Huffman, Commissioner of Tennessee Department of Education (“TDOE”); Chris Barbic, Superintendent of the Tennessee Achievement School District (“TASD”); as well as the TDOE and TASD; along with two other defendants: the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (“NACSA”) and YES Preparatory Academy (“YES Prep”).

Among the thirteen causes of action, the complaint alleges unfair business practices, violations of Tennessee Consumer Protection Act, civil conspiracy, and violations of constitutionally protected rights. The lawsuit seeks a court order prohibiting YES Prep, a charter school enterprise headquartered in Texas, from opening schools that it illegally obtained in Memphis, Tennessee. The civil action, which also requests a jury trial, was filed in the 30th Judicial District Chancery Court, Shelby County, Tennessee.

Ursery states, “For far too long, it has been recognized and stated in the court of public opinion that Huffman and Barbic have utterly abused the power of their positions when it comes to regulating the Tennessee's school system. Now, I’m confident that their reign of terror, which has been plagued with conspiracies among crooks and cronies, will finally be revealed in a court of law, that is, if justice prevails.” West added, “It's as if we have to fight Brown v. Topeka Board of Education again. Our proposal offered equity in education through student-centered learning using individualized learning plans and iPads, just like the countries that consistently outrank the U.S. in education. We were unfairly denied the opportunity to help educate the lowest-performing students, who the system has already left behind and identified as the future prison population. It's all about leveling the playing field.”

According to the complaint, the defendants deliberately designed and implemented discriminatory selection and approval practices, customs and procedures to deny Plaintiffs’ application. The lawsuit further alleges that during the time when TASD solicited Requests for Qualification to apply for a charter operator’s authorization for the 2014/2015 school year, Barbic, TASD and NACSA conspired to approve charter operator’s authorization(s) for the 2015/2016 school year, an opportunity, which was made available only to YES Prep. It is alleged that Barbic, founder and former Chief Executive Officer of YES Prep, illegally authorized YES Prep to seize nearly 6,000 elementary school students in Memphis, TN.

Moreover, the lawsuit alleges that NACSA, who “partnered with” TASD to provide support and management services for the application process, is not a “professional” organization. NACSA does not have any government-approved, professional standards of operations; nor state licensing or certification; and it is not subject to any government agency, review board or code of ethics to govern its acts. Finally, the lawsuit states that Huffman and TDOE enacted a regulation which granted Barbic and TASD carte blanche to deny due process to applicants who are denied charter operator’s authorizations as there is absolutely no redress, grievance or appeal process to review any of the defendants’ actions.

For more information, contact the plaintiffs at: ru4justice@facebook.com or 901.300.0162.
This lawsuit is brought by two individuals claiming $10 million in damages because they were denied charter operator authorization by the ASD. $10 million dollars!!!  Those damages are a clear-cut case for how profitable a charter operator authorization can be.

Interesting how a potential charter school is suing some big guns in TN over unfair business practices, isn't it?

We've heard for years how there is a severe case of the good ol' boys club, "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine," nepotism within the TN DOE between other self-serving high-dollar organizations like the Chamber of Commerce and SCORE.  

It is hard to ignore the evidence of that nepotism when you read how:

• TN pays more than any other state for Teach for America temporary teachers through a $6+million NO-BID contract signed by Kevin Huffman, who formerly had a cushy job at Teach For America.  
• Our public schools are strangled, teachers and administrators are cut, and then the students, buildings, and tax dollars are handed over on silver platters along with generous grant dollars and tax incentives to their buddies' charter chains (like YES Prep, where ASD Superintendent Chris Barbic has very close ties and has richly profited from).
• The ASD schools have worse results than the public schools they killed ever did, but the ASD schools aren't feeling the wrath of the TNDOE's micromanaging and bullying like the public schools.
• Charter schools are making some people very, very rich. 
• Charter schools get preferential treatment within districts and the state:
  • charters are exempt and/or given waivers from TCAP score accountability (especially if they are friends and/or donors to politicians)
  • charters are exempt from giving the expensive and time-consuming benchmark RTI2 assessment tests that public schools are now being forced to do by the TNDOE.

When we allow corporate greed to infect public education, it is to be expected that profiteers will attack each other over business practices. We hope that this lawsuit will shine a light on these shady practices.

Perhaps this isn't "dog eat dog" but more like a pack of dogs attacking public schools.  If the plaintiffs win, where will that $10 million come from?  Public school funding???
 

Winners = lawyers + charter operators
Losers = students

Interesting legal tidbit:  This suit has been filed in Shelby County in the 30th Judicial District Chancery Court. Jim Kyle, former TN Senator, is a new chancellor in that court.  A new chancellor will be appointed to fill in for Kenny Armstrong, so there is quite a bit of turnover in that court right now. 

Outraged at the core

Sent to the Washington Post, September 9, 2014

The Post says that progressives are "uncomfortable with the role of the Gates foundation and new tests associated with the (Common Core) standards" ("Common Core 2.0: Common Core by another name," Sept. 10).

Uncomfortable? More accurate would be "outraged."

Outraged not only at Gates' role in the Common Core, but also because the Common Core imposes a sequence of standards totally unsupported by research,  with no plans to test it.

Outraged because the Common Core is requiring more standardized testing than we have ever seen on this planet, despite research showing that increased testing does not increase student achievement.

Outraged because there is no need for this expensive boondoggle: Studies show that the real problem in American education is poverty: When researchers control for the effect of poverty, American students score at the top of the world on international tests.  

Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus
University of Southern California

Original article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/common-core-20-common-core-by-another-name/2014/09/09/

Amount of testing: Krashen, S. 2011. How much testing? Posted on The Answer Sheet, Valerie Strauss’ Washington Post blog: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/
Increasing testing: Nichols, S., Glass, G. and Berliner, D. 2006. “High-Stakes Testing and Student Achievement: Does Accountability Pressure Increase Student Learning?” Education Policy Archives 14 (1). (accessed October 14, 2013).
Control for the effects of poverty: Payne, K. and Biddle, B. 1999. Poor school funding, child poverty, and mathematics achievement. Educational Researcher 28 (6): 4-13; Bracey, G. 2009. The Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/Bracey-Report. Berliner, D. 2011. The Context for Interpreting PISA Results in the USA: Negativism, Chauvinism, Misunderstanding, and the Potential to Distort the Educational Systems of Nations. In Pereyra, M., Kottoff, H-G., & Cowan, R. (Eds.). PISA under examination: Changing knowledge, changing tests, and changing schools. Amsterdam: Sense Publishers. Tienken, C. 2010. Common core state standards: I wonder? Kappa Delta Phi Record 47 (1): 14-17. Carnoy, M and Rothstein, R. 2013, What Do International Tests Really Show Us about U.S. Student Performance. Washington DC: Economic Policy Institute. 2012. http://www.epi.org/).

John Oliver's Takedown of Online Diploma Mills

Must see!!



from the Consumerist:

What would it look like if you condensed all our hundreds of stories about student loans and for-profit colleges into a profanity-filled, hilarious rant that takes a brief detour to discuss Lyndon Johnson’s scrotum? John Oliver answered that question on Sunday night.

Just like it’s recently done with the payday loan industry, Dr. Oz, and net neutrality, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver took one of our favorite topics and made it much funnier than it has any right to be.

You can watch the whole video above, or just read the highlights below:

On the near-inevitability of leaving college shouldered with debt:
“Essentially, student debt is like is like HPV — if you go to college, you’re certainly going to get it, and if you do, it will follow you for the rest of your life.”

On the growing pervasiveness on student loan debt:
“It has surpassed Bob Marley’s greatest hits album as the thing seemingly every college student has.”

On slashed education budgets and skyrocketing tuition:
“In recent years, states have slashed funding for higher education by 23%. Public institutions have responded by raising tuition rates, forcing students to take out ever-larger loans. Why else do you think that colleges have many f*ing a cappella groups? They know they sound stupid, they just can’t afford instruments anymore.”

On a former University of Phoenix executive’s explanation that marketing expenses are often double the amount spent on professors: 
“He’s basically saying, ‘Hey teachers — we’re not saying you don’t matter; we’re just saying that ads about you matter twice as much.'”

On for-profit college recruiters being taught to emotionally manipulate potential students through “pain points“:
“The only people that should be doing that are dominatrixes… or emo bands.”

On the fact that only 27 out of 115 people enrolled in one ITT engineering program graduated and only 13 (11.3%) of them ended up working in the field they studied:
“Everyone else would have genuinely been better off studying engineering at Hogwarts, because at least that way they’d have a f*ing owl to show for it.”

On allegations that recruiters at for-profit educator Ashford signed up veterans suffering from brain injuries, some of whom could not remember which courses they enrolled in:
“I will say this for for-profit colleges: They’ve just given us all an education in the depths of human depravity. We all have a diploma in that now.”

On obvious but effective lobbying by the for-profit college industry:
The Dept. of Education has been ordered to come up with a so-called “gainful employment” rule that requires colleges to prove that a minimum number of a school’s graduates are able to find gainful employment after they graduate.

In response to the initial attempt at creating the rule, lobbyists at the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities bombarded regulators with the following form letter, which many people submitted without even filling in the blanks:

“I am a career college student at [INSTITUTION] studying [PROGRAM]. [INSTITUTION] is providing me with the education and training necessary to obtain the job I’ve always wanted as a [CAREER].”

As ridiculous as it is, the efforts of APSCU were successful in scuttling the first go at a gainful employment rule. The Dept. of Education is taking another go at it, and APSCU is still trying to fight against the regulation.

So Oliver has drafted the following form letter, which he’s suggesting that people send to apscu@apscu.orgwithout filling in any of the relevant information:

To Whom It May Concern:
I am [NAME HERE], a human being with [DESCRIBE AT LEAST SOME LEVEL OF SENSE] who is sick of your [SYNONYM FOR BULLSHIT].
Whatever the benefits of for-profit schools, your trade group is protecting the worst actors, and [ADDITIONAL INSULTS]. [IDEAS FOR PLACES TO CRAM THIS LETTER ONCE ROLLED UP]. [PROPOSALS FOR HUMAN WASTE PRODUCTS TO BE EATEN].
Thank you for your time,
[NAME HERE AGAIN]

Oliver’s advice to current college freshmen with student loans:
“You need to stop watching this show right now — you don’t have time for this! Get out there and enjoy the f*ck out of your college experience because you may be paying for it for the rest of your life.

“I’m serious: Drink beer from a funnel, kidnap a mascot, find out if you’re gay or not, and even if you are not, have some gay experiences. Do it now; it doesn’t count.

“Become that weird guy on campus who rides a unicycle from class to class, find out whoever the Winklevoss twins of your school are and steal their idea for a website, and shoot fireworks out of every bodily orifice you can f*ing find. Do it now, please!

“Make sure your college years are the best ones of your life because thanks to the debt that we are saddling you with, they almost certainly will be. Get out there and do it! Go nuts! Go crazy!”