Act Now - To Encourage Legislative Reforms for Education
Remember Schoolhouse Rock? Remember the break in cartoons educated us on how a bill becomes a law? "I'm just a bill, yes I'm only a bill, and I started out on Capital Hill..."
A lot has been happening to create schools that rock in Georgia and you can get involved. It is rare that we have times such as these where we can actually make a big difference in our futures.
House Bill 731 - The Parent Trigger Act has been written about in this blog before. This legislation empowers parents to transform low performing traditional schools into high-quality, public charter schools. If the majority of parents in a traditional public school agree that the school is failing, this legislation would allow them to petition its conversion to a "public" charter school.
If you agree that parents deserve this option please help support this bill by:
a) sending an e-mail or letter to your legislator
b) visiting your legislators
c) calling your legislators
You can find your legislators by clicking here.
By the way, I recently met with Rep. Stacy Evans and Sen. Doug Stoner on the issue and I think they'd appreciate your feedback and support.
This bill is especially needed in Cobb. Our demographics are changing and more and more people want to see more variety of choice and flexibility in addressing challenges. We've all heard all of the assertions from school officials that parent involvement, especially in disadvantaged schools experiencing achievement gaps is critical. Yet, recent appeals by parents from Powder Springs, Mableton, and Austell were ineffective at influencing the school board to act on a proposal to help them. Some would say that those parents had no voice in creating a solution for their own kids. The Parent Trigger Act will allow parents the free ability to organize and petition to transition a failing school into a community based, curriculum focused, intervention oriented Public Charter School. Where conversions like this have occurred across the nation, parents and others become invested stakeholders in a school's success. Otherwise, schools continue to be viewed as good only depending upon what zipcode you can afford to live in.
While you are at it, take a look at House Resolution 1162 - A Constitutional Amendment to Establish Alternate State Charter School Authorizerization.
This is a constitutional amendment to establish the shared authority of the state and local schools to create and fund public charter schools. We've got a govenor who supports local school involvement and public charters increase stakeholders in the public system while allowing more flexibility in addressing educational needs of local students in ways that benefit the student and America's workforce and future leadership.
If you would just discuss those two things with your legislators you will be doing your part help to our schools improve. Stay tuned for an Education Roundtable Event in the works for Smyrna/Vinings.
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Other happenings on education at a national level.
Opportunities for Educational Improvement as a Result of President Obama’s Relaxing of the No Child Left Behind Law
The President’s Relaxing of No Child Left Behind Standards is a tacit acknowledgement that the law's main goal, getting all students up to speed in reading and math by 2014, is not within reach with the way schools are currently performing. In the President’s word’s on CNN Thursday:
“The states excused from following the law no longer have to meet that deadline. Instead, they had to put forward plans showing they will prepare children for college and careers, set new targets for improving achievement among all students, reward the best performing schools and focus help on the ones doing the worst.”
So what does this mean? I went to a public policy meeting at The Georgian Club last month and heard it straight from legislators as we rallied at the state capitol. What this means is that Georgia will have autonomy in curriculum development and deployment of resources to improve achievement gaps; how to measure student, teacher and administrator achievement; how to implement general programming; Title 1 Parent Engagement activities, and Community Involvement programming. It now rests with the states how Georgia schools use federal funding for innovative programming. What I didn’t hear is what Georgia is planning to do specifically.
There it is. States and citizens arguing that the federal government should relax control of state schools have won a small victory. No one would argue that No Child Left Behind’s intentions was to motivate states to make dramatic changes in the way they educate, and set an accountability goal in the process, in response to growing achievement gaps across race and class. Now that the goal is removed, what should we now expect as parents and employers? Will the states actually do better? Will the new standards and achievement targets help the schools that need it most? Will the state of Georgia school superintendent lead us to standards and systems that increase reading and math skills by 2014? Will our Cobb County Board of Education be judicious and responsive? Will the State of Georgia do a good job of leveling the playing field with equity in educational resources, accountability and outcomes?
Considering our spotty history with handling educational issues across race and class, some might have been more comfortable with President Obama’s lead, who obviously has ideas on what a good education looks like (he’s a Harvard grad, attended what is basically a selective charter school in Hawaii, and is sending his own children to a faith-based, private Quaker school outside of D.C. Moreover, Hawaii and Chicago both are better than Georgia at keeping it’s schooled citizens out of prisons (where according Senator Doug Stoner, third grade reading level is the best predictor).
But why didn’t he lay more of an education blueprint down for the states? Is he demonstrating educated elitist hypocrisy? Why doesn’t his critique of “Wall Street fat cats” extend to “ivory tower” or “education fat cats?” Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I can only imagine that he, like me, also believes schools should have more local control. Whether that is his intention or not, therein lies the window of opportunity for parents and citizens who want school reform. Relaxed federal standards, is a step in the right direction towards localized standards.
We can now look for the President’s “CHANGE” and Georgia’s “HOPE” to be bridged by action and commitment to the schools that need it most. But oh how the elitism of low expectations might sabotage efforts for educational improvements. More on that later.
Here are some strategies we should consider to have a voice in this opportunity for more localized solutions.
- Know the Process: The Georgia Department of Education will work with local officials such as State and District Board of Education and Superintendents of Schools to develop the alternative to No Child Left Behind. Did you know that the process is already underway?
- Know if your Representatives are Representing: Don’t assume your local official comprehends the challenge of educational achievement. They may be fully informed about the issues only as it relates to their personal experience, their profession, or the input of their constituency. To hold your officials accountable they all, whether in your district/post or not, must know that you not only care, but that you are informed and want to be engaged. To that end, connect with organizations involved as education watchdogs or insiders. Here is a link for stakeholder organizations identified as engaged in the process for educational reform in this waiver request.
- Demand Explanations: When administrators and officials make statements like, and I am making this up, “we will implement more accurate assessments to achievement with the relaxing of NCLB” ask them to give examples.
- Demand and Define Results: One should expect with this relaxing of federal control, a relaxing of the crippling demand on teachers to “teach to the test.” We can therefore expect teachers to improve performance by teaching for results. What results they teach for needs our voice. Do we want more vocational or manufacturing ability results? More technology capabilities amongst youth? More college prep results? The results may differ depending on issues from student aptitudes to state economic and workforce demands. Being a proactive part of this conversation is key.
- Protect the Children More than Status Quo: We must make certain that the industries and stakeholders that have benefited from the old ways of doing things don’t unbalance the playing fields with insular, inflexible systems. Organizations are notorious for holding on to their missions and strategies to the detriment of innovation.
- Ask for Town Halls on this Specific Matter: Ask your school board to have community meetings where you live to share how the NCLB standards and measures will be reshaped by the Georgia Department of Education. There are numerous organizations in Cobb defined as “pro-education.” Ask how you can join in for learning and sharing the knowledge. Ask what will define an “Alert School,” how the board of education will design “Flexible Learning Programs” (FLPs) to select schools, and how federal funds will be disbursed for example.
- Define You Own Issues: Join a group. Write letters. Host community roundtables. Help local officials understand unique challenges your community faces so that they may be informed when making decisions that will effect Cobb, Georgia’s, and America’s future.
See my blogspot blog and stay engaged here on Patch for upcoming articles, Scenarios of Educational Elitism Amongst the Well Intentioned.
Remember - If we want smaller government, we must be bigger people.
Sarah Douglas
8:52 pm on Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Great post Leo. Thanks for all the info -- there are definitely plenty of ways parents can get involved in the process! I look forward to the Education Roundtable. Let me know if I can help you coordinate.
Michelle
11:27 pm on Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Sharing this article Leo with my friends...hoping they will reach out to our representatives. Thank you for the information!!! Looking forward to the roundtable discussions and your next article.
Leo Smith
10:36 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thanks Michelle. BTW - Careful & Beware everyone of confusing ROBOcalls that are not clear about what pressing 1 will do. The best thing to do is call your legislator yourself rather than have a robocall do it for you. You may press 1 thinking it is transferring you to one rep and its actually transferring you to someone else who may or may not already agree with your position. Sheesh!
C.J.
10:47 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Actually, I had recently contacted my representative asking him to oppose HR 1662. I oppose shifting control of these decisions from locally elected school boards, the level at which we pay our school taxes, to an unelected board appointed at the state level.
Also, just this morning, the AJC reported on results of a new study on this topic--a study that doesn't bode well for the charter school movement. This study reinforces the outcomes of nearly every previous study I've found on this subject. "New review of Georgia charter schools finds they don’t outperform traditional public schools": http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2012/02/16/new-review-of-georgia-charter-school-performance-finds-they-dont-outperform-traditional-public-schools/
Leo, I don't seek to be a contrarian or your online nemesis. It's just that the evidence suggests that charter schools (and private schools) are not a silver bullet. Sadly, despite the evidence, many seem to be convinced that they are. Many also seem to be convinced, without evidence, that taxpayers can educate children on the cheap simply by turning control of our schools over to a private organization. (If only.)
As far as I'm concerned, the charter school movement distracts us from the real solutions to improving our educational system--including more highly qualified teachers, smaller classes, more classroom hours, well-maintained facilities, and current technology. All of these things, I'm sorry to report, cost money.
Leo Smith
11:09 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
It is not a "charter school" movement as much as it is a public choice movement.
Leo Smith
11:08 am on Thursday, February 16, 2012
I appreciate your attention to these important matters Chris. Howwe see this depends on the questions we ask how we see this in part. Here are some questions. Feel free to answer.
1 - How Long Did it Take Brown v Board of Education changes to show positive improvement?
2 - Do you see any similarity to HR1662 and the spirit of Brown v Board of Education?
3. Do you think southern newspapers were positive about giving all Americans the CHOICE to attend schools that were deemed better equipped?
4. Do you think that we can say Charter schools are no more effective after a few years of new implementation (and without much support) v/s the traditional status quo system that has had a 40 plus year downward spiral?
Other than that Chris it is easy to make the mistake of trusting sources pulled from the same soup. Don't you think those reviews would be more convincing if they weren't measuring a state new the bottom in nationwide educational performance. I think you'd agree that saying that the pick and roll doesn't work at a juco doesn't mean that it won't work for Dean Smith at UNC. We have to be able to get outside of the box.
C.J.
12:01 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Maybe I'm missing the obvious, but I don't see any comparison between the Supreme Court decision that ended "separate but equal" and legislation to shift control from local school boards to the state. Feel free to help me out.
Leo, the report I referenced wasn't prepared by a southern newspaper. The report was prepared by the state Department of Education.
Also, as you correctly pointed out, our state's public education is near the bottom in nationwide academic performance. Yet, charter schools couldn't even outperform them. The fact that they're a relatively new concept doesn't persuade. Most people fighting for charters are under the impression that they've already figured out how to outperform public schools. They haven't.
The problem isn't limited to Georgia--
"In this analysis, we examine the effect charter schools are having on student achievement generally, and on different demographic groups, in two major urban districts in California. Student achievement results suggest that charter schools are having mixed overall effects and generally not promoting student achievement for minorities."
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119006000234
Leo Smith
12:34 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Chris - regarding your links. This is the kind of stuff we have to be really careful of. The sciencedirect.com link only includes the Abstract. Do you have the entire study? It requires a purchase. Care to share your wealth?
Among other things we need to examine the control group. The comparative group to "minority urban charter schools," should be minority urban non-charter public schools for the study to have any merit. I can't tell from the abstract that they did that. Otherwise, it's not Apple to Apple.
Leo Smith
12:18 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
You aren't missing the obvious Chris. It requires some outside the box perspectuve. There is an argument that:
- providing we acknowledge that there is an achievement gap discernible by race and class (zipcode)
- all schools are not equal
-all Americans deserve equity
- then therefore, equal access, as a measure of equity is facilitated by removing class barriers from the quality of education and cultural exposure.
So therefore, my Mother finally being able to attend a previously "whites only school" gave her exposure to what was at the time a more "equitable" education. The result of that longterm has been my own striding towards the American Dream (self determination and education) and my own escape from generational poverty. Choice legislation allows for that. As an ex NAACP Chapter President (Southwest Va.) I see the right to attend school where your guardian wants you to when the traditional choice does not meet your standard, similar to saying that barring a people for equity in education is wrong. The spirit of the matter is the same.
C.J.
12:21 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
More links--
"After adjusting for student characteristics, charter school mean scores in reading and mathematics were lower, on average, than those for public noncharter schools."
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/studies/2006460.pdf
"On average, charter schools are not performing as well as their traditional public-school peers, according to a new study that is being called the first national assessment of these school-choice options. The study, conducted by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University, compared the reading and math state achievement test scores of students in charter schools in 15 states and the District of Columbia—amounting to 70 percent of U.S. charter school students—to those of their virtual "twins" in regular schools who shared with them certain characteristics."
http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/on-education/2009/06/17/charter-schools-might-not-be-better
Cobb County recently denied the renewal application for an Imagine charter school in Marietta because it didn't meet promised academic benchmarks. Imagine advertises that, under their management, students make significant advances in academic performance. It does not advertise..."Give us a few years, and we'll figure it out." In fact, charters have been around since the 90's, and for over a decade or so, in general, they haven't lived up to their promise.
Leo Smith
12:26 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thanks Chris for being willing to have robust conversation and consider perspectives outside of the norm. Georgia deserves better than what Georgia has. There's that old saying - "if you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten." That's not a rule but it is a "guideline" for evaluating school improvement. You are right that it was a Georgia newspaper reporting on the Georgia Department of Education's reporting. As for the local vs state control issue. I am for local control providing it proves equitable. Like that supreme court issue, there have been times in our history that the state has to step in and do what is right. Remember, in my other posts I present info on conditions where local control is achieved. That is the ideal. But to have more freedom - we must allow citizens more freedom to achieve.
Leo Smith
12:51 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
More food for thought - educational cost per student in Georgia is anywhere from $11,000 to $14,000. A voucher would follow a student in an amount from $3k to 4,800K. If you do the math, the state is left with a surplus if they allow vouchers. That would actually increase the available funds the states could use to support traditional publics. Charters and privates require parent participation and private foundation support. Boards of education feel limited in their ability to "require" community and parental involvement. When parental involvement in a charter fails, the school gets closed. When parental involvement in a traditional fails,......the school stays open.... often becomes a Title 1 FEDERALLY SUPPORTED SCHOOL. Would you rather have state control or federal control?
C.J.
3:33 pm on Friday, February 17, 2012
AJC--
"For the fourth year in a row, state education officials have agreed to waive class size requirements, anticipating that next school year may be the worst yet financially for local systems...School systems are facing more than $1 billion in lost revenues from the state and steep declines in property taxes, an offshoot of the national housing crisis...For students and parents, this could mean more students in some classrooms and fewer teachers...Cobb County is adding two students per classroom at all grade levels, a move that will allow the school system to cut 250 teaching jobs."
http://www.ajc.com/news/bigger-classes-becoming-norm-1351962.html
Larry King
9:22 am on Monday, February 20, 2012
Support Bill 1162
Larry King
7:08 pm on Monday, February 20, 2012
Leo, et al
I intended to pose a question about this bill which I oppose.
Leo Smith
7:24 pm on Monday, February 20, 2012
Hi Larry:
Would love to hear your question. Let me know if you want to skype or otherwise connect.
Leo Smith
5:02 pm on Monday, March 19, 2012
The Constitutional Amendment on Charter Schools (school choice is how I've referred to it) PASSED 40-16.
"For the teachers and for the students. In the end, the stark facts related to school board mishaps, (APS, Clayton, Sumpter to name a few)., years of fiscal waste (the largest expense in the state budget, and less than desired results educating ALL children moved the senate towards allowing teachers to innovate." More on Patch Later.