I certainly got a civics lesson over the last 15 months.
I have the Washington Legislature, the State Board of Education (SBE), and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to thank for this lesson. April 18 approval actions might be found here.
I am sure there are multiple things to learn from this lesson.
This lesson consisted of three parts.
A. The law and how it is created HB 1906, SB6534
B. What the intent of the law is.
C. Despite the intent of the law what actually happens.
I am going to take a nap. More later.
Key Markers Relating to Organizational Health
12 years ago
15 comments:
From Wikipedia -
A shill is an associate of a person selling goods or services or a political group, who pretends no association to the seller/group and assumes the air of an enthusiastic customer.
The intention of the shill is, using crowd psychology, to encourage others unaware of the set-up to purchase said goods or services or support the political group's ideological claims.
by fighting the lets-discover-10000-years-of-math-in-50-minutes curriculum, you've done more for the kids of the state than many.
Instead of faulting you, or WTM,
I'd fault the math teachers for not organinizing better - grumbling in the teacher's lounges or behind closed doors is grumbling, not changing anything - and I'd fault the union for not providing a mechanism for organizing better.
We ALL have repsonsibility to participate in more than shopping on the weekend.
Do the math - a few hours of month from thousands of math teachers would equal fewer bad 'leaders', hopefully less dumb policy and possibly less wasted time?
anon
Math teachers who did speak out were "disenfranchised". This particular reform has been very ugly in that respect.
It is all about money and where it goes. It also has a lot to do with racism. It has created many hard feelings in small communities.
There are lots of people now without diplomas, skills, or jobs. You can thank Olympia. They should be thrown out of this state for what they've done. This is no better than slavery.
It is hardly about teachers and you can thank lawmakers for creating the hairball they call reform. Who voted for Bergerson three times. What an imbecile. Quall is too.
Washington voters got what they paid for when they hired buffoons to run their schools. I wouldn't teach in this garbage stinkhole. Paint it what you like, it still stinks and the children and parents know it.
Fools think they are only ignorant.
It was said....
It is hardly about teachers and you can thank lawmakers for creating the hairball they call reform. Who voted for Bergerson three times. What an imbecile. Quall is too.
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I object to Dave Quall's inclusion.
While I've been an off again on again WA resident during Bergeson's 11+ year reign, given a one year California sojourn. I have not been an observer of Dave Quall until the Math issue of the last two legislative sessions. Here is what I've found.
Dave Quall is the chair of the House Education committee.
(2007) The house version of HB 1906 was much stronger than what eventually came back from the senate. What the Gov signed after striking sections of it was way weaker than what left the Senate.
Do not slam Dave Quall for what started out as really strong and became progressively weaker.
(2008) SB6534 took math Standards Revision away from OSPI & Dana Center sending it to SBE and Strategic teaching.
Dave Quall showed up early on Friday 4-18-2008 for the SBE special meeting. He stayed almost to the bitter end.
I've found Dave Quall, a former teacher, to be the real deal. He works very hard and is concerned about results. Olympia is the land of relationships. While most idealists would prefer results that must be balanced with the PC relationships or nothing gets accomplished.
I know little about Mr Quall's actions prior to the 2007 legislature. Here is what I've seen in contrast to Dr Bergeson. He has not desperately attempted to continue failed programs while subverting the law.
He is not dedicated to continuing Dr Bergeson's failed expensive experiments.
To paint Mr Quall with the same brush as Dr Bergeson is grossly unfair. Let's get the record straight. Dave had nothing to do with the following:
1... Hiring the Dana Center for $770,000 instead of the low bidder at $130,000. The Dana Center had assisted with earlier OSPI work. Did that make them worth the additional $640,000 ????
2... First draft of Math Standards Revision on Dec 4, 2007 ignored HB 1906 you can't lay that on Dave Quall.
3... Dr Bergeson ignored both recommendations of Strategic Teaching that she was supposedly following (under HB 1906) in her selection of Standards Revision Team members and the 2004 MSSG report. This produced the largely reform math avocacy team for more of the same lousy math and produced the total waste 1st draft of Dec 4, 2007.
4... Dr Bergeson still skirts the law to this day. Do not fault Rep Quall for not being able to hang on to this slippery character.
5... Read the State constitution it sets up the SPI as a monarch with few controls. The fact that most of Rep. Quall's efforts have not been able to produce results more to my liking has little to do with his skill or efforts.
6... If in fact Dave Quall has made significant mistakes in your view in regard to education reform, keep in mind he has at least made significant attempts to fix math. Dr Bergeson on the other hand continues to lead us down the road to expensive destruction despite the efforts of so many others to contain her damaging behavior.
I've also appreciated the communication available through Rep Quall's assistant Ms Rita Sullivan during legislative sessions.
There are a great many legislator's that contributed to HB 1906 and SB 6534 the fact that Dr Bergeson continues to evade the requirements to fix math should be placed squarely upon her and at this point the SBE given Friday's prearranged in the bag action speeding up the time table from 5-15-2008 to 4-18-2008 and subverting the will of the legislature in the process.
Let us not lay any of that on Dave Quall one of the few legislators perhaps the only legislator to actually show up and watch what had become of SB6534 in Dr Bergeson's manipulative hands. The fact that what is now taking place bears little resemblance to the correction and process recommended by either HB 1906 or SB 6534 should surprise no one, except those planning to elect Dr Bergeson to a fourth term.
It should be noted that at the 4-18 SBE meeting there was no verbal input from the Math Panel and yet the SPI special math assistant Dr George Bright accompanied by a few SRT members gave a blatant sales pitch. The math panel members were instructed to communicate by email their input to the SBE. They were never sent each others comments nor encouraged to send each other comments. The idea that the Math Panel Members acted as a panel in making recommendations is without any foundation. This is just another neglect for the law as written by Dr Bergeson.
Dr Bright's comments and behavior seem far more indicative of someone trying to get Dr Bergeson re-elected than fix the math problem. Take a listen to his conversation with Dave Ross, it appears his opinion is that we have more of a testing problem than a math learning problem in WA state.
In addition he said that reform math has improved accessibility for (Black, Hispanic, and Low Income) students who previously had limited access to mathematics. This despite enormous data to the contrary. Spoken more like a campaign manager than someone set on fixing our State's math disaster. Your Tax dollars at work, just another advantage to the incumbent.
Dave Quall, publicly announced he was attempting to pass charter school laws for minorities only.
If I was a minority I'd be filing class action lawsuits all over this state. I'd be protesting school.
Its an exclusionary policy and an attempt to blame WASL scores on minorities. And yes, he runs the House Education Committee.
He is certainly more involved with the reform bosses in this state than you are either not aware of, or fail to acknowledge. Bergerson is a crook - a former union boss. WEA is a piece of s... thanks to Washington private interest groups. Children deserve better.
Here is one piece of an article dated in 2004 that shows how he and fellow politicals have polarized this state.
House Education Committee Chairman Dave Quall, D-Mount Vernon, who supports the charter law, said in the conference that schools gain and lose per-pupil funds every year as student populations fluctuate, and that the effect of larger demographic trends dwarfs the effect of charter school transfers.
As it is, Quall said, the state's Running Start program, which allows high-school students to earn credit at community colleges, effectively transfers $20 million a year from public school districts to the colleges. "Is that a bad thing?" he said. "I don't think so." Just how effective does he think Running Start is?
What has OSPI done to improve curriculum in public schools? Nothing - drop out rates have increased. These statistics are available, but not published.
In my community, about 1/3 of students don't pass high school. If you used WASL scores 2/3's couldn't pass High school. This is a disaster and its because this government refuses to act - its corrupted beyond repair. So what does a democracy mean in this state? Nothing.
Its a white-wash and this group of nits understands exactly what they've done. Siphoned money out of the public sector to finance reform projects they were paid by their pals to help create. I have never witnessed a public policy so damaging and negligent to public education. This is not naivety its grand theft auto. Your tax dollars at work, a shill game.
In Bellingham, a parent told me their school has stopped using books altogether in elementary school. The parents are being asked to make up their 'own' homework for the children. Most of the children are failing school. At my own child's school - the majority of children are taking two classes of math - including cognitive tutor. Most of the children are failing school.
The turnover rates at some schools are more than 40% per year (Burlington).
People in this state should be angry and I hope they pull the rug out from under these clowns. We're being held hostage by a group of undertakers, not teachers. Nothing but plantations, that's what the Seattle superintendent called public schools and your district hired her. Shame on them - I wonder how they ever got elected?
This state is an absolute disgrace.
The issue is poverty and literacy and reformers and bureaucrats are stealing from children.
At our local high school more than half the children are not graduating. The alternative program that was contracted out has a less than 10% graduation rate. The children say they receive no instruction while they attend class. They are made to do nothing more than fill out workbooks. Consequently, they don't finish.
If you haven't noticed, the crime rate in communities involving young adults is up. I have witnessed more car accidents in the past year involving teenagers than I can ever recall. Those kids are not in school, they are out joyriding and getting into trouble. This state has much to lose and its due to the incompetence of the bureaucrats running our government.
I know how schools should be working and this state has much to learn. When will it stop?
Its easy to manipulate people when they've been taught to trust authority. The poor are most vulnerable. I predict the public in the next generation will be less receptive to the types of manipulations that have been pulled off up to now. I think tar and feathers are in order.
If the politicals of this state were serious about improving the quality of education in this state they would take firmer action. It is plainly clear they are covering their bums for the fall out that is about to occur - you will see a massive demonstration, probably not unlike that witnessed in the 70's during the last big down-cycle. When you start having massive layoffs, that's when school reformers are going to get the big shaft.
They have been negligent and wasteful. Its the most under reported story, but I'm sure when its all done and said, some people are going to prison.
Quall is from Mount Vernon. His own district rejected the high school math reform textbooks (cost the sup his job).
There were also racial incidents in the 90's. The community still is not aware of the full extent of the reform - e.g. wasn't aware that CMP and EM were a part of the reform. Why has the district withheld this information and stuck to their present policy of failing vast numbers of students (mostly Hispanics) - ans. they provide the seasonal farm labor in our community.
He knows the Nelson's and they have a big stake in education reform. He's up to his ears in reform, you just don't know it. That's how politics works in this state. Its backhanded and under the table. Its who you know, not what you know.
George D. "Pinky" Nelson
Program Director, Professor, Graduate Advisor
B.S. Harvey Mudd College, M.S. and Ph.D. University of Washington.
Former director of Project 2061 and a member of the senior staff of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. State of Washington Commission on Student Learning, Subject Advisory Committee, Science.
Nelson’s publications include articles in a variety of astronomy, astrophysics, and education journals.
His cousin....regional sales rep for Core Plus (consultant)
http://www.wmich.edu/cpmp/pdfs/04-05WASLReport.pdf
A Matched Study of Washington State 10th Grade
Assessment Scores of Students in Schools Using
The Core-Plus Mathematics Program
House Education Committee Chairman Dave Quall, D-Mount Vernon, who supports the charter law, said in the conference that schools gain and lose per-pupil funds every year as student populations fluctuate, and that the effect of larger demographic trends dwarfs the effect of charter school transfers.
This is a baseless commment. There is no truth to this statement whatsoever and either demonstrates his total ignorance of the subject of how public schools get funded or is a blatant attempt at disguising the truth of the legislation he attempted to pass.
It is discouraging to read comments such as this, that are published every day in news stories that attempt to paint a happy face on school. Shameless propagandism.
Why hasn't Bergerson been prosecuted? Why aren't politicals pressing her for more answers? Its because they're being paid not to.
I like one writer's comment:
"We don't have charter schools in this state."
Yes, we do and it has to do with the funding model this state uses.
Much of it is spun from the Business Department at SPU, Center for Educational Leadership, and the Ed. Depart at UW. (5-point reformed protestants) I think of it more like ed reform sponsored by AA. (Why not? Washington has a history of taking in all kinds of mad habberdashies. Been to a breakfast prayer meeting lately.)
Our political hucksters just call those schools by other names. They used the loopholes in the reform laws to create those schools and there were serious repercussions - including resignations from principals who ethically opposed what they viewed as policies that favored resegregation.
As people digest this year's WASL results, they should not forget that it was their voting which helped institute the racially motivated policies that also caused their own children's test scores to decline as well as the content of what was learned in classrooms. Bergerson definitely represents that group of 'disenfranchised' neoconservative voters.
This state has a score of problems in education that have yet to be resolved. It is not clear whether a new OSPI superintendent will have any impact on finding solutions. His term will be spent undoing the damage that has been caused by 12 years of purposeful negligence.
Three prong attack on public education is a neoconservative attack on liberal democracy:
(Bush policy is a license to steal)
1. Education finance reform to remove safeguards and school accountability.
2. Low Quality Textbooks to discredit public institutions. Introduction of standards-based testing to redirect school funding.
3. NSF sponsored research on education that was politicized to support reform efforts. Later efforts were expanded to include new teacher and administrator indoctrination.
This reform movement is headed for a 'big' train wreck. Look for the rats to start jumping off. These p...heads will be despised as promoters of racist policies, meaning apartheid. Latinos and Af. Americans should be sueing these nits.
Moral for Quall and kind - don't reform things you don't understand - you picked the wrong train to jump on and you will pay...
If people are not ashamed for what I'm writing than they deserve the school system that they have.
If they are satisfied that the school system is doing a damn fine job, then lets see what we have ten years from now. Lets see if they get what they think they paid for.
A democracy does not mean you give your leaders carte blanche freedom to do whatever they feel like doing.
We create rules and regulations to prevent people from stealing and cheating others. In particular, we try to protect the people who are most vulnerable, who have little in the way of exercising their rights.
There is a reason for this, only our current leaders don't seem to have the foresight or education to do what's right. Washington leadership, whatever that is, should be ashamed of what its done to children, especially to people living in poverty.
They need to wake up to the fact that their kids are in serious trouble and its not all their fault. The behaviors that are being observed in school today are not natural - first of all its the same behavior that has evolvd. Initially, its primarily behavior meant to disrupt the learning of everyone. That's a cry for help, not a failure to listen. You aren't going to change kids, but you can certainly change schools and create new opportunities for them.
The current leadership doesn't see it that way - they think failure is an incurable disease and people should hate them for creating the current climate of fear and alienation that is abundantly present at schools. They are responsible for the current failures - they contributed to the stagnation and rampant cheating that is going on in classrooms.
As much as you might be in awe of Quall, don't you think as chair of the House Ed Committee, in a state that is ranked 47th in the union that he might be a little concerned that his reputation as an education expert might be on the line.
This state overall has nothing special to crow about - Bergerson probably thinks about resigning every day, but I doubt she could without starting an internal investigation. The statute of limitations is only five years for misuse of public funds.
Why doesn't Quall start doing what a real politician ought to do and that is investigate where all the money he allocates is getting spent? The state is getting results that deserve to be flushed down the crapper and that includes Treisman and his billion plus dollar entourage (might as well include Carnegie Learning) What a joke. Anybody want more training in "standards"? How about Connected math or Everyday math???
Not me...
Now I'm hearing students at a school protesting by holding mass puking contests with their Core plus textbooks. Can't say I blame them...
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