So today is a just a little “state of what’s going on” type of post. A good friend of mine, a great teacher, just informed of this, but be warned… you really don’t want to read it.

My friend in Michigan just had a 10% pay cut – RETROACTIVE TO DECEMBER – imposed by the school board (they have been working without a negotiated agreement all year). That means her checks will be 20% less for the rest of the year. AND she has additional health insurance costs now also being imposed! Teachers were told if they don’t show up to work tomorrow they can be fired!

I mean is this really what our nation wants?

I am struggling to even write commentary in a way that I feel good about posting because all of my commentary feels just so dark. And that’s not who I am nor who I want to be.
But how long can this educational levee hold in the face of this current onslaught from all sides

I gotta lotta presents for my b-day on the 15th. Tons of nice notes, some clothes, a hand-painted cereal bowl, (Hey, I like cereal for dinner) but most surprising of all was that my brother and his wife brought twin girls into this world at 7:09 and 7:10 p.m. respectively.

They weren’t due for another two weeks but hey, when it’s time it’s time, right? So my birthday is now their birthday. Just SO cool.

To tell you the truth, I don’t really like hospitals. (Who does?) Except for the maternity ward. The energy inside that wing is always unique. New dads holding their babies as if they are more fragile than Venetian glass. Third-time dads, who have their babies in one arm and a blackberry in the other, texting and rocking all at the same time. Seeing my new nieces was really a spectacular feeling.

And I already made plans for the three of us. VEGAS! Their 21st birthday will be my 65th birthday. Tell me that doesn’t sound like a VEGAS trip waiting to happen.

As an educator, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the people we are trying to serve are other people’s miracles. I’d love to think that the budget nonsense, the red state/blue state shenanigans, the bickering over petty power plays would be halted so that the education of the kids would be exalted… however, that’s probably just the fumes of a bit too little sleep and a bit too much of the good maternity ward vibes running through my brain.

But with each new baby comes new hope, right? And I just got a double-dose.

As much as I have been on the technological bandwagon of late, as we migrate towards online state testing, I see problems and problems and problems arising. This came to the fore for me during a distraught phone call I got from a really keen educator in Indiana.

Apparently, the high stakes state tests are now online. No pass, no diploma, you know the type. And online testing is wreaking havoc on some of her kids. In no particular order…

–Apparently there is a writing section to the test. This means that students who are hunt-n-peck typers are at a distinct disadvantage. Now standardized test makers always claim that the length of your composition plays little to no role on the evaluation of your composition on tests like these. However, every released sample essay of a “not passing” piece of student work is frequently characterized by its shortness of length (its insufficiency of content, if you will). Conversely, every exemplary piece of written work was frequently characterized by a sense of voluminousness (so to speak). One paragraph essays bomb, 5 paragraph essays soar and the middle ground is the middle ground. They are fence sitters.

As the teacher pointed out to me, this means that typing acumen is now playing a role in whether or not students will earn their high school diploma because if you are an 18 word per minute typer who was an academic fence sitter anyway, the chances of you finishing your work is severely reduced due to time limitations. However, if you are a 90 word-per-minute typing fence sitter, your ability to fly around the keyboard gives you more of an ability to cover more ground and thus puts you in a better position to pass the test.

But the school does not teach typing. They figure kids “ought to know”. Is that fair?

Makes me wonder if this was this ever an issue with hand-written essays? I don’t recall it being so. Sure, some kids might have penned their essays more slowly than others, but I doubt that the words-per-minute rate ever approached a quadruple the time difference.

– She also bemoaned the tech glitch at the start of the online test which cost some of her kids 20 minutes of actual test taking time. And being that the state controlled the start and stop mechanism through the software – rendering the teacher entirely disempowered to remediate the circumstance (side note: they love to disempowere the teacher, don’t they?) some kids got shorted time in a way that was never resolved.

–Beyond that, simple test taking strategies such as underlining key words in the passage, X-ing out wrong answers via process of elimination and writing in the margins have long been advocated as habits often demonstrated by strong test takers.

The online tests offered limited ability to highlight and annotate but the software was entirely unfamiliar to the students so that a technical acumen was needed in order to use a variety of the functions which would have allowed students to incorporate the strategies strong test takers frequently use when taking standardized tests. And for every moment a kid fiddled around with the “How do I annotate this or highlight that or strike through this?” question, it was a moment not being afforded to the student to actually answer the questions. On timed tests, this stuff matters.

Plus, it’s distracting to the test takers. And it’s frustrating. Souring their mood and creating aggravation can’t really be expected to actually enhance test performance, can it? And when a student’s diploma is on the line, is this really a prudent way to assess their worthiness?

It sounded to me as if the software engineers presumed all kids had a facility with navigating the online testing terrain, a facility that could really only be had by actually having had some instruction as to how a student was supposed to navigate the online testing terrain – as well as some practice.

These things literally required practice.

Now online testing is most assuredly going to play a larger part in assessment going forward. And I am sure a lot of the “wrinkles” will get ironed out. (All? No way. But we haven’t ironed out all the wrinkles in bubble testing yet – despite the billions of dollars we spend every year administering them – so it would be unfair to hold online tests up to a standard which doesn’t really exist for the current format.

The problems of online testing are, to turn a phrase, starting to “bubble up”.

I met a high school principal of a small campus who hailed from the state of Idaho last week when I was speaking at the National Title I conference in Tampa. Under his arm, he carried an iPad. Soon enough, he began to tell me about how he had written all sorts of grants, done fund-raisers, and basically turned his entire school into a 1-1 iPad environment.

“How’s it going?” I asked. He told me he couldn’t be more pleased and then went on to discuss all the positives one might expect. The students just love them. Engagement is up, dedication is up, genuine inquiry based learning is evident in the classrooms. On and on and on.

“What the greatest drawback you’ve run into?” I asked. I always like to hear the negatives, to hear what the obstacles and challenges are for people who try new things.

He didn’t hesitate.

“Fellow principals at neighboring schools,” he told me. “They keep asking me, ‘So, how are all those toys working out?’”

True story.

Sometimes, it’s just so aggravating. I mean here I am just munching a piece of b-day cake at the party of a neighbor (their daughter just turned 4; my daughter is 4, and on a Sunday this all adds up to daddy asking for a corner piece with extra frosting, damn the torpedoes!) when someone mentions that I happen to have my finger in the world of public education and know a bit about policy and blah, blah, blah.

I mean I don’t really want to talk shop – in truth, I’m trying to take a day off from talking shop and the biggest concern on my plate at the time is whether to refill my plate with another mound of calories – but then the other moms and dads start swirling around, concerned about the well being of their own kids, highly concerned for the state of their local schools. Like bees to honey in a way.

So I put down my fork (gluttony rarely reflects well but damn, did I mention goin’ for a second corner piece – I mean the gloves were OFF right then) and do my best to present a professional demeanor and speak without cake spittle shooting off my tongue.

That’s when th term “public/private” gets thrown at me. As in a dad telling me his kids attend a “public/private” school.
“Uhm, what’s that?” I ask.

Public/private, he explains, is a school where all of the parents kick in $1,000 per family per child to “supplement” all the things they want the public school to have that the state used to pay for but doesn’t any more.
Like it pays for a science teacher who does labs, a PE teacher, a music teacher, an art teacher and so on. Plus, a full time librarian.

And they have auctions, too, at this public/private school where all the parents overbid at events like the Halloween Spooktacular where pumpkins get sold for $100 each and stuff like that.

Just crushed my Sunday. I mean this was a local elementary school in a middle class section of Los Angeles we were talking about. And for middle school, all of the parents were convinced that they were gonna have to try and figure out a way to pay for (and get their kids into) a private school. Unity was fine for elementary but for middle school, their sense was, well…

The elementary school, the community figured, could be saved with sticky tape, glue and gum and parent supplemental cash. The middle and high school? They all seemed to think that it was just a grenade waiting to explode in their lives once their kids were old enough to matriculate.
This is what is going on out there today. No spin. No hyperbole. This is the reality for today’s parents. And if you think about the parents who can’t afford the $1,000 per kid to supplement the public/private option, WHOA NELLY!!

(Note: I asked what happens to families that don’t pay. I mean it’s a public school – the community kids are allowed to attend, right? “Yes, they are,” I was told. But the public pressure and the dirty look I got for even suggesting that someone would not figure out a way to come up with the money let me clearly know that this was like the Godfather asking for a favor – it was a request the parents just could not refuse.)

Hello? The phone is ringing? Is anyone there?

I just learned that a publishing exec with no educational experience was just hired to be the lead leader of New York City public schools?

Makes me wonder, would a publishing company ever hire a teacher with no previous experience as a publisher to run their company?

When ya think about it, I mean that would be like the largest state in the nation hiring an actor with no previous government experience to be the governor?

Wait a sec… that’s not what I meant to say.

Actually, schools have devolved into places that are run by Bean Counters anyway so hey, we might as well hire us some good bean counters.

Can the new NY Chancellor of Public schools manage people?
Check.
Can the new NY Chancellor of Public schools deliver data-driven results?
Check.
Does the new NY Chancellor of Public schools have any children of her own?
Check. (They go to a private school in Connecticut.)

Hey, maybe this will work out?

Actually, perhaps it will. From what I have read about Cathie Black, I gotta say, I kinda like her. She’s a go-getter.

She’s the city’s first female schools chancellor.

She’s a published author (so she’s gotta be smart, right? I mean it’s not like any knucklehead with a computer can just type out a book or a blog or anything like that.)

Heck, she’s a media mogul.

I, for one, am willing to root for her. After all, our schools need all the help they can get and if she turns out to a great – if unconventional – choice then hey… I love unconventional success stories.

Go, Cathie, Go!

Meg Whitman spent over 141 million dollars of her own money trying to get elected as the governor of California.

Wow.

And she lost.

Wow. Wow.

Actually, that second part doesn’t bother me so much. Why? Because here’s a woman who hasn’t voted herself in like 25 years in any election (claims she was too busy) but when she sees the chance to grab onto a very high public office, suddenly she’s got a spectacular belief in the power of politics and elections to do good?

Well, ya know what, Meg. I have a feeling that if you would have spent 141 million dollars not on TV ads and mailers for yourself but rather have done something like build a school, a hospital, a fire station, or so on and said to the voters, “Ya know what… I put my money where my mouth is. I believe in public service, I believe in societal institutions and I am so bleepin’ rich that I am using my money to do something for the good of the people of this state…. And if you make me your governor, I will work hard to do more good things for the people of this state,” you might have scored a few more votes.

Instead, the only impression I ever got was that Meg wanted something for herself out of becoming our state’s governor. She wanted the power, the prestige, the laurel on her biography, whatever.

Meg might have said she was running because she felt she could “serve the people” but a person can say whatever they want – especially when running for office. What she did was show that she was willing drop an exorbitant amount of money in an ego-driven pursuit of glory.

I don’t think this election was about policies so much; I think it was about people not going for the idea that just because you are rich you can buy a public office.

At least not so blatantly.

Now I could be wrong, but if Meg would have built a school or a hospital or so on with her 141 million, at least on November 3rd we would have a school or a hospital. Now, all we have is a few unremarkable media ads.

Meg’s mega-money loss… a loss for what might have been as well.

One question that has longed bothered me about all of the conversation regarding having one set of national standards for all American schoolchildren is, “If we are going to have standards at all, why should these standards be different from state to state?”

Forget the merit of the standards chosen and the text exemplars cited in the latest information released about the Common Core Standards Initiative. (I know, hard to do.) But can anyone explain the benefit to me of Michigan have one set of English Language Arts standards, Georgia having another and then Texas having yet a third?

And this goes on across all fifty states.

Do any two states at all even share the exact same set of standards? Not any two neighboring states like Mississippi and Arizona? Okay, my geography is off — but that’s because I went to school before there were national standards! (Okay, I am straying here…) I think national standards are the solution for this problem. What is the benefit, especially when American families are more transient than ever moving from state to state, of having different content standards in the same content area across the entire country?

Now before I get pounded with criticism of why national standards are bad, I feel the need to say I hear and find some merit in the arguments against them… and am not even going to try and weigh in on those right now. It’s a different question I am asking.

(And yes, I get the nationalizing education is bad for America argument. And yes, I do hear the complaints about how this is a blatant power grab for centralized control of all our classrooms by politicians. And yes, I do see the link as to how this might actually prove to be a chance for monopolistic corporate behemoths to swoop on in and milk every last dollar from the taxpayer kitty with unprecedented efficiency and accuracy — though I think textbook companies are sweating right now much more so than they are jubilant… more on that at another time. All reasonable, solid points to debate and consider for sure.)

But can someone please make a case for why it is better for individual states to have their own individual sets of standards when the gaping holes between the degree of rigor between some states is so wide, and the language used to describe the same basic ideas from state to state is so varied, that to look at all of them on a kitchen table with a bird’s eye perspective would simply leaving you scratching you head?

Forgetting the political implications of it all (and I know, if education is anything, it’s political… though silly me thought it was supposed to be about the kids) why is a state to state to state standards system better than a national standards system?

In essence, am I missing something or doesn’t this put us all on the same page so that Florida doesn’t value metaphors more than Illinois values relationships between main and subordinate characters in a text while Nevada finds value in etymology?

If you agree with standards-based education, the Common Core Standards Initiative seems kinda logical. If you do not agree with standards-based education then certainly, you are in no way going to be a fan of this. But if you agreed with standards-based education yet think that the content standards for math, English, science and so on should vary depending on which side of the state border you happen to be standing on, I’d love to hear your reasoning.