Petitioning Trump: Integrity for Ed

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Common Core, DFER, Donald Trump, Eva Moskowitz, Gerard Robinson, integrity, Jeb Bush, Michelle Rhee, petition, Pondiscio

(click on image to go to petition)

Missouri Education Watchdog by Cheri Kiesecker

BigMedia and BigData lost their bets when Donald J. Trump was elected the next President of the United States. Our nation surprised and divided, bloggers wrote So now what? and What happens to education?

The last few days have seen a flurry of announcements concerning who President Elect Trump might appoint as Secretary of Education. Truth in American Education wrote about Trump’s short list, which sources say, includes Pro-Common Core folks like Eva Moskowitz , who co-founded her Success Academy School with Common Core friendly (DFER) Democrats For Education Reform board member, John Petry. Trump’s list also names Michelle Rhee as a potential candidate for USDoE Secretary. Rhee has definitely promoted Common Core and was less than transparent when reporting Common Core test scores. President Elect Trump’s education list also names Common Core supporter Robert Pondiscio of Fordham Institute, who not only props up Common Core and aligned tests, but also labels parents as misinformed. Gerard Robinson of Jeb’s Digital Education Now! is also in the running, and would be a double whammy of Pro-Common Core and edtech student datamining. We all know that during the election, Trump promised to get rid of Common Core. Some of the names on his education short list concern grassroots parents, teachers, education experts and leave them hoping that President Elect Trump sticks to his word and doesn’t give into Corporate cronyism, edtech special interests, and Pro-Common Core reform groups.

In fact, a petition was started today, asking Trump for integrity.

We hope you will sign-on in asking President Elect Trump for integrity and to keep his promise[…]

Continue Reading — Petitioning Trump: Integrity for Ed

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#NoCommonCore #integrity4ed

New Florida governors education reform plan hits all the major targets

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Education, Florida, Florida Education Association, Jerry Brown, Michelle Rhee, National Education Association, Rick Scott, Steve Gunn

Since the midterm elections last year, the teachers union is up in arms as municipalities and parents throughout the country is taking them task for failing our children, tenure and greed. There is a lot at risk.

Received the following email from the Education Action Group Foundation.  The email is long but worth sharing.

New Florida guv’s education reform planhits all the targets Scott ready to deal some heavy blows to teachers union and its allies By Steve Gunn EAG Communications TALAHASSEE, Fla. – It’s amazing the difference one election can make. About six months ago, Florida residents who care about quality education were crushed when former Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed an overdue tenure reform bill. The bill’s sponsors in the legislature hoped to increase professionalism and accountability in K-12 teaching by taking away some of the absurd protections that keep bad teachers in the classroom. Crist, a Republican, might have been expected to sign the bill. But he stabbed his party and his state in the back by killing the measure. And just to add insult to injury, he accepted the endorsement of the state teachers union in his independent bid for a U.S. Senate seat. Luckily Floridians elected a new governor in November who obviously means business when it comes to improving schools and increasing parental choice. Gov. Rick Scott, who took office last week, comes armed with an in-depth and aggressive education reform plan authored by his Education Transition Team. The plan is thorough and bold, to say the least. While governors in many states have nipped around the edges of school reform in recent years, approving some measures and rejecting others, Scott’s plan hits all of the major targets. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, since Scott announced in early December that his Education Transition team would include former D.C. School Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Her fingerprints on this plan are not difficult to pick out. The plan is too long to report in its entirety, but highlights include a provision to allow parents to use state education dollars at the school of their choice, full development of cyber education options, implementation of a “parent trigger” law to radically alter failing schools, and requiring parental consent to place students with sub-par teachers. We’re certain Scott’s education blueprint has the Florida Education Association shaking in its boots, and that’s a very good sign. We’re hoping we can count on the new Florida Legislature, with Republican majorities in both houses, to give quick approval to all or most of the agenda. Florida’s families and taxpayers would certainly emerge as the winners.

Scott’s to-do list In a recent statement, Scott said “I will work with the legislature, business and parents to develop a more comprehensive program that will allow all of Florida’s children to have the best possible education experience that meets each child’s unique needs.” Here are a few examples of what he has in mind: Parents could receive 85 percent of their child’s per-pupil grant to use for private school tuition, virtual schooling or private tutoring. Since those options typically cost less per pupil than public education, the state would conceivably save 15 percent. Students would be allowed to take online classes full-time, part-time or by individual courses. A new classification of charters – High Performing Charter Schools – would receive greater operational flexibility, equitable funding, expedited approval processes and flexibility in enrolling students. High performing charters could increase enrollment by 25 percent. Any charter school with a waiting list could increase enrollment with students from schools that do not outperform that charter. A new teacher evaluation system would be implemented to ensure at least 50 percent of the evaluation is based on student progress. A new salary schedule would give effective teachers, and those who teach in low-income, low-performing schools, more money. It would also give teachers the option of dropping tenure protection in exchange for higher salaries. Tenure would be eliminated for newly hired K-12 teachers. Individual contracts would never exceed three years. Seniority will not be a consideration when reducing staff. The design of teacher evaluation procedures would be removed from collective bargaining. Parental consent would be required before a student is placed with a teacher who is determined to be less than effective. The A-F school grading system would remain in place. Schools would provide annual individual student achievement growth charts, to show parents how their kids are progressing versus predicted growth and college-ready standards. Parents of students at failing schools would be empowered with a “parent trigger” law which would allow a majority of the parents to radically alter the administration of the school. Parents would receive an annual statement detailing their school’s revenues, how the money was spent and overall academic outcomes for the year. The results would have to be compared with results from other schools.

A STEP BACKWARD IN CALIFORNIA As some may not know, California’s new governor, Jerry Brown, is also the state’s old Gov. Brown. He left office back in the ’80s and has been bumping around as mayor ofOakland and state attorney general since then. But now he’s back, and he’s trying to bring the ’80s back with him. This is definitely not a good thing. Brown got huge support in his election campaign from the California Teachers Association, and he wasted no time on paybacks. One of his first official acts was to fire 7 of the 11 members of the state Board of Education, including four members with strong education reform backgrounds. One of the replacements is a former lobbyist for the teachers union, while the others are suspected of being protectors of the status quo. Good going, Gov. Brown. You’ve just dealt a huge blow to the growing movement for quality education in California. And real reform was just starting to take root in the Golden State. As we noted in a press release earlier this week, California recently made national headlines by enacting the “parent trigger” law, which allows a simple majority of local parents to unite and reinvent failing schools. The Los Angeles Board of Education is trying to make student test scores a vital component of teacher evaluations. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who once worked for the teachers unions, recently blasted his former employers for standing in the way of reform efforts. But for old timers like Brown, old-time politics are obviously more important than quality education. The unions scratched Brown’s back during the election cycle and now he’s scratching back. “No doubt about it, this is in part looking at the November election first and foremost, and then of course upcoming elections,” said state Sen. Gloria Romero, a Democrat who supports reform and is angry with Brown for his move. We just hope this isn’t a sign of things to come. We hope Brown doesn’t join the union in an effort to force children to attend their local public schools, regardless of the quality of education available. We hope he doesn’t fight efforts to hold teachers more accountable for student learning, or efforts to make it easier to fire bad teachers. But we’re not holding our breaths. Gov. Brown is the product of an era when the unions ran public education in virtually every state, and their “wisdom” regarding all things school-related went unquestioned. It’s obviously going to be very hard to teach this old dog a few new tricks.

NATIONAL TEACHER STRIKE? We knew the unions were upset about the results of the November elections, and the threat of education reforms being passed by new lawmakers throughout the nation. But we never knew how far they might go to defend their traditional turf. National Education Association Executive DirectorJohn Wilson gave a strong hint this week, when asked by an online news service if a national teachers strike might occur if tenure is revoked in numerous states. “I would not take that off the table,” Wilson told the reporter from the The Lookout, a Yahoo news blog. “If teachers felt like politicians were doing harm to them, they would rise up and let them know that.” If a national teachers strike occurred, NEA members would certainly be making a statement, but not the one they wanted to make. They would be telling Americans that they are more concerned about their traditional perks and protections than they are about their students. We’re pretty sure most Americans would not be impressed. As we stated in a national press release earlier today, “It’s easy to understand why the teachers unions are acting so defensively. The NEA and American Federation of Teachers have presided over the decline in American public education. For decades the unions have dominated the national discourse about how to best educate school children. The union leaders presented themselves as ‘education experts’ who knew which polices were needed. “But the results tell a different story. There is broad agreement that the teachers unions and their political surrogates have steered our public schools into an iceberg. Not only is student academic achievement embarrassingly low, but it is clear union members have been busy feathering their own nests with automatic pay raises, lavish pension and health benefits and tenure protections. “Now, all of those things are in jeopardy as new governors and lawmakers get down to business in state capitols across the nation.” In other words, the unions are about to panic. We’ll see if they’re desperate enough to walk out on the kids in the middle of the school year, just to protect their traditional goodies.