About Those Higher Graduation Rates.....

Economist Dr. Walter Williams' latest piece on Education paints a bleak picture of the value of "Higher Graduation Rates"

Monday's PNJ print edition had an article that was published last Wednesday by economist Walter Williams.

It is a stark assessment of our nation's public school performance as measured on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) aka the "Nation's Report Card"

The reason this caught my attention was that recently our local graduation rate has soared to heights we've never seen before--however I have a hard time squaring that reality with the problem that business owners I have spoken with complain about.....Many High School graduates (some of them--NOT all of them) locally have difficulty in written-communication skill and basic arithmetic.GRADUATES. 

It is true, a higher and higher percentage of our students locally and nationwide are "graduating" from High School.  So what does this mean? 

Could this be a lot like the discipline referral numbers going down- lauded by administrators as "progress" toward better behavior in our schools-when in actuality behavior expectations AND punishments are being watered down to produce such numbers?

I know to some this sounds awfully cynical--but I'm sorry.  The hard truth is that there is honesty in this hard hitting column--like it or not. 

from the piece:

"Only 37 percent of 12th-graders tested proficient or better in reading, and only 25 percent did so in math. Among black students, only 17 percent tested proficient or better in reading, and just 7 percent reached at least a proficient level in math. The atrocious NAEP performance is only a fraction of the bad news. Nationally, our high school graduation rate is over 80 percent. That means high school diplomas, which attest that these students can read and compute at a 12th-grade level, are conferred when 63 percent are not proficient in reading and 75 percent are not proficient in math. For blacks, the news is worse. Roughly 75 percent of black students received high school diplomas attesting that they could read and compute at the 12th-grade level. However, 83 percent could not read at that level, and 93 percent could not do math at that level. It’s grossly dishonest for the education establishment and politicians to boast about unprecedented graduation rates when the high school diplomas, for the most part, do not represent academic achievement. At best, they certify attendance."

But What Does Today's Document Dump from the Federal DOE on Absenteeism, Access to Counselors, and Disciple--- Mean?

The Office of Civil Rights within the Department of Education has released a large compilation of data today, data that was collected from more than 16,000 public school districts nationwide for the 2013-2014 school year.

The first look report can be read here.

Initial articles about this data are all negative, like this piece of tripe from the Washington Post.  And this garbage from the LA Times

To read these articles apart from perusing the report independently might lead a reader to believe there are no successes whatsoever for the massive yearly expenditures we are making in public education as a nation.

The report itself sheds some light on some interesting, albeit rarely discussed topics, such as the following:

--Asian students represent nearly 5% of the schools' populations, but only 1% of suspensions.

--Latino and Asian Boys and Girls, as well as Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, are NOT disproportionately expelled from schools.

--English Language Learners are NOT disproportionately expelled from schools.

--White Boys make up 26% of schools' populations, but 35% of the expulsions without continuing educational services.

--American public school students reached an all-time high percentage of on-time graduations in

Federal Discipline Schemes, Dictated Downward To States Through DOJ, ED, and OCR Increase Violent School Incidents Nationwide

I've talked about this problem for years.  I finally had enough so I wrote an honest viewpoint on the subject of the negative consequences of weak discipline----and I received massive support from people that work in schools!  I heard from teachers, parents, and yes, administrators that are frustrated with this situation.

Then I got beat up by ideologues that are detached from reality and have a flawed, incomplete understanding of the issue of violence, bullying, and harassment that is happening in our public schools.

Most rational thinkers see right through the flimsy, weak arguments these apologist partisans make; most correctly point out that these naive rubes would not last a week --or even a day-- in some of our district classrooms!

So Tuesday night while flipping channels-- the subject of weak discipline nationwide, being dictated downward from Eric Holder, Barack Obama, and Arne Duncan, appeared on one of the news programs I watched. The segment   was entitled "Chaos in our public schools".

violence in schools is demoralizing teachers and leading to more staff churn and student flight to private schools nationwide. Some liberal, feel good restorative justice models are exacerbating this problem.   Imagine that!?!  I've been saying this for years and nobody listens as we continue to acquiesce on this issue and water discipline down in our schools more and more while simultaneously "wondering" why enrollments are stagnant and staff churn is a constant problem at some schools.

Breitbart did a piece on this, describing the political correctness that drives many of these kinder, gentler programs that sound an awful lot like what we've implemented here in Escambia County over the last 6 years.....

From the article:

"The new “restorative” policies often suggest that teachers are to blame for the high rate of suspensions and discipline actions among black students.In Portland, Oregon, Sperry reports, where millions of dollars have been spent on restorative justice and “courageous conversations about race,” a black high school student repeatedly punched his white teacher in the face, sending her to the emergency room. Subsequently, the teacher was reportedly counseled by the assistant principal not to press charges against the student, and was “lectured … about how hard it is for young black men to overcome a criminal record.” Additionally, the teacher said, according to the Willamette Week, the administrator told her to examine what role she, “as a white woman” with white privilege bias, played in her 

New York Schools on Reducing Discipline "Problems"

New York City Schools under Mayor Bill DiBlasio are taking the kinder, gentler route on student discipline.  In order to make the numbers look better, DiBlasio has instructed his education chancellor to strictly limit the types of infractions for which principals in NYC schools can administer appropriate, firm discipline.  Fighting, cursing, defiance--any discipline for students engaging in these behaviors requires "approval" from downtown.  Sounds familiar to me...minimize the significance of the misbehavior, water down the consequences, marginalize what impact such disturbances have on class learning time----then claim victory and "mission accomplished" when the "numbers" are lower.

Like he did for crime rates in NYC by eliminating proactive policing and "stop and frisk" policies that worked- leading to escalating crime rates--DiBlasio is now socially engineering schools to fulfill a campaign promise to make discipline more "fair."

And now he's claiming victory.

Appeasement does not equal solution, though.

from Staten Island Live:

"The system will basically bend over backward to cater to those who disrupt lessons and break the rules. The kids who actually behave and do their work be damned. It will also remove a measure of local control from borough schools and consolidate more power in the hands of the central authority, the DOE.

De Blasio is pushing the plan in response to data that indicates that minority students are more likely to be suspended or arrested. So it's basically a DOE version of stop-and-frisk reform. The message will be a powerful and simple one for disruptive kids, no matter what race they are: Don't worry. They can't touch you."

The administrator's Union has filed a protest.

Teachers hate this plan.

Parents are appalled.

Media have panned the plan.

But the numbers for school discipline, not surprisingly, are looking better!

The New American Educational Aristocracy

Is inequitable educational opportunities in America leading to a calcification of an elitist class?

This is the interesting opinion with lots of very valid points in yesterday's edition of The Economist.  from the article

  "A young college graduate earns 63% more than a high-school graduate if both work full-time and the high-school graduate is much less likely to work at all. For those at the top of the pile, moving straight from the best universities into the best jobs, the potential rewards are greater than they have ever been…None of this is peculiar to America, but the trend is most visible there.America is one of only three advanced countries where the government spends more on schools in rich areas than in poor ones. Its university fees have risen 17 times as fast as median incomes since 1980, partly to pay for pointless bureaucracy and flashy buildings... Many schools are in the grip of one of the most anti-meritocratic forces in America: the teachers’ unions, which resist any hint that good teaching should be rewarded or bad teachers fired. To fix this, and the scandal of inequitable funding, the system should become both more and less local…Dollars should follow pupils, through a big expansion of voucher schemes or charter schools. In this way, good schools that attract more pupils will grow; bad ones will close or be taken over. Unions and their Democratic Party allies will howl, but experiments in cities such as battered New Orleans have shown that school choice works…Finally, America’s universities need an injection of meritocracy. Only a handful, such as Caltech, admit applicants solely on academic merit. All should."

Read     America's New Aristocracy

Is Better Teacher Training Really the Solution--- Or, is it the Convenient, Politically-Correct Solution?

...That is the question that needs to be answered.  Secretary of Education  Arne Duncan is making this a big push on his swing out to California, rolling out fresh mandates from DC that will eventually trickle down....  From this morning's L.A. Times story:

"U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Tuesday announced new guidelines to improve the preparation of the nation's teaching ranks that will require states to rate the performance of training programs and shift federal funding to those that receive high marks.
The proposed regulations would allow states broad flexibility to develop measures of performance but demands that emphasis be placed on teacher outcomes, such as employment, retention and success in the classroom. That could include evaluating training programs based on the test scores of K-12 students taught by their graduates, a model that provokes heated contention in the education community."

I've heard this sentiment locally and at national conferences-it is a story about how teachers are coming out of education school unprepared for the realities in the American K-12 classroom of 2014. 

But is an intensive focus on these schools of education really the solution?  Or, is it the convenient solution, absolving local districts, parents, students, current teachers, current administrators, unions and everyone else practically of any responsibility for the current state of American public education?

Joel Klein agrees with this sentiment, that teachers need better preparation.  He stated it at a recent conference I attended.  In NYC, with its Union dominated schools--there are many applicants for every opening.  The pay and benefits are really good, people compete for jobs there to get into that system--so that district can be selective.  I get that.

Similarly, in other countries like Finland, there are 9 applicants for every open teaching slot according to a fascinating presentation I recently watched from Andreas Schleicher.  Teachers there ( and in many other high performing systems worldwide)  are valued by their society, they enjoy great salaries and esteem--so they can be selective, too.  (Schleicher gave an amazing presentation comparing different educational systems worldwide.  Unfortunately, this video is not published online anywhere.  I found a similar presentation he gave from Missouri in 2012, which is linked here )

So what is going on here in America?  We don't pay teachers enough, apparently.  We don't provide them with enough professional development, apparently.  Last but not least, we don't prepare them well enough in education colleges in the U.S.  Yes, that is the new clarion call to fix the issue.  Start punishing the Education Colleges.  Could a changing society be a bigger factor in why teachers are leaving the profession and their replacements are not coming forward in sufficient numbers?  Could the real problem be much more simple, yet infinitely more controversial?  I think so.  Nevertheless- the convenient, PC fix du jour is, let's demonize colleges!

....But wait.  Fewer students than ever are going into education.

 I'm all for holding the bar high, but won't this exacerbate shortages if we start shuttering education schools?  How will those shortages be fixed?  We already cannot recruit enough candidates locally to fill our classrooms.  Minority hiring? we're lucky to get a handful each summer to take contracts--and we're trying really hard!  I mean, even though nobody can give me a cogent rationale for why having a teacher force that mirrors the population they serve, is ABSOLUTEY ESSENTIAL!!  I'm told by everyone, and everything I read, says that's the problem.  But I don't buy it.  Until someone can logically answer the question "Why does it matter if Asians teach whites, Blacks teach Whites, or Whites teach  Blacks--what difference does it make if all teachers are qualified and effective?" I will not buy that politically expedient, liberal talking point that I feel is a disingenuous, fallacious lie.  Rubbish.  Regardless, even though we