Education Week: Texas Battle Looms on Class-Size Limit

“It would give flexibility to superintendents. It strengthens local control and gives them the opportunity to save some dollars,” she said, noting that school officials could decide to keep some classes at 15 students and others at 22 or 25.

Well, she’s got to say something. It was her constituents that were up in arms about UT’s top ten percent rule since their kids couldn’t get into UT while poor minorities or kids from rural schools were. What do you think is going to happen when her constituents find out that their schools are going to be laying off teachers even though they moved into the neighborhood because of the it’s quality schools?

Not that I feel sorry in the least for her constituents. These are the same people who elected Perry and have cheered every time he points out that Texas is doing great because businesses and voters like our low tax rates. In the meantime, the amount of state funding for public schools has been decreasing. And Texas can’t even get help from the federal government because last time Perry used the money to fund other state services instead of education.

Yep, elections have consequences…

Valerie vs. Jay on Teach for America, KIPP, etc.

Ultimately, I think I have to side with Jay Mathews on this one. I think Valerie Strauss misses the point. Teach for America isn’t saying that you need “elites” in public schools to be good teachers. It’s about getting the “elites” to be aware of and even value the role of public school teachers. I see it kind of like the argument that if we had a universal draft, maybe our political leaders wouldn’t be so eager to send troops into combat, or at the very least, be willing to provide them with the necessary equipment to do the job and the appropriate services for when they come home.

Robbers Target Elementary School Teachers | WOAI.COM: San Antonio News

Northside ISD told News 4 WOAI that burglars, who may be trying to pose as parents, are sneaking into classrooms at the end of the school day and stealing teachers’ wallets and purses.

Technorati Tags: teachers, Northside ISD, safety

Need a job? The Northside Independent School District needs to hire 800 teachers before the fall semester.So, if you’re qualified and you have teaching credentials, you could have a new job by summer.

The teachers are needed because 4,000 new students are expected to enter the school district this year.

“We’re going to open three more schools on top of the four that we opened last year, and the five we opened the year after. So, the need for new teachers is almost overwhelming,” said Pascual Gonzalez, spokesman for NISD.

“Northside school district is only interested in teachers of very high caliber, who can pass a criminal background check, and who are licensed by the state,” Gonzalez said.

There is a special need for candidates licensed in bilingual education, science, math and speech pathology.

Did you know that Northside ISD has a five to one student to teacher ratio? You see 4000 new students divided by 800 teachers is equal to five. Given that 4000 divided into an average classroom size of 20 calls for 200 teachers, I suspect Northside needs new teachers for reasons other than new students.

Now I’m sure that the teacher attrition rate at Northside is less than the state average but answer this question: would you take a job where for the first six years you would only receive less than a 0.5% pay raise and that chances are that you would never receive much more than a one percent raise over your career? That’s significantly less than the average yearly inflation rate.

Northside Independent School District
2005-2006 Step Pay Schedule
Classroom Teachers, Librarians, and Nurses

Given all the calls for experienced teachers from NCLB and the Governor’s Business Council, you would think that someone might start paying attention on how to keep experienced teachers. Make that effective experienced teachers. That would require teachers accepting that not everyone is going to get the same raise. Don’t most businesses have ranges for pay scales and raises? Why should I knock myself out when I’m going to get the exact same pay as the person who does the minimum to get by?

And for all of those who are quick to point out that there are lots of people that would love to be paid to work for only ten months a year, go for it, Northside is hiring. There’s a reason why people who become teachers through alternative training programs don’t stick around very long.

Star-Telegram | 03/03/2007 | Report: Future rests on teachers’ shoulders:

“Five years with an effective teacher, not just an average teacher, is sufficient to close the achievement gap between middle- and low-income youngsters,” said Sandy Kress, an Austin-based lobbyist and author of the report.

As former chief education adviser for President Bush, Kress helped construct the federal No Child Left Behind Act. He is also education adviser to the Governor’s Business Council, a nonprofit organization of Texas business leaders.

So it takes five years for a student to catch up? Is that with the same teacher or within the same subject? Is the improvement distributed evenly over the five years or does it start off slowly and then accelerate? How do they match the students and the teachers? If it takes five years, why are schools expected to get students on grade level within a year? And most importantly, how is a poor school district going to keep these effective teachers from moving to wealthier districts and better teaching conditions?

Star-Telegram | 03/03/2007 | Report: Future rests on teachers’ shoulders:

The initial cost of implementation, Kress said, would be between $125 million and $150 million.

Which will be funded how?

MySA.com: Metro | State:

As outlined by Kress, the system would develop over several years, take into account factors such as test scores, test score growth, principal and peer evaluations and ultimately allow the state and school districts to offer higher pay to teachers who demonstrate better results and take on more challenging assignments.He said no new money would be tied to the legislation this session, but that business leaders would endorse bonuses for teachers once a fair evaluation system was in place.

Are these the same business leaders that refuse to disclose the selling price of property to avoid paying their fair share of school property taxes? Until these business experts get real and address school finance, why are we even listening to these people?

Apple CEO Jobs attacks teacher unions | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle:

AUSTIN — Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs lambasted teacher unions today, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers.Jobs compared schools to businesses with principals serving as CEOs.

“What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in they couldn’t get rid of people that they thought weren’t any good?” he asked to loud applause during an education reform conference.

“Not really great ones because if you’re really smart you go, ‘I can’t win.’”

In a rare joint appearance, Jobs shared the stage with competitor Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Inc. Both spoke to the gathering about the potential for bringing technological advances to classrooms.

“I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way,” Jobs said.

Regardless of the situation in other states, public schools have more than enough authority to get rid of bad teachers in Texas. I would love for Jobs to give one example where a Texas public school could not fire a teacher even though they have documentation to prove the person is incompetent.

Notice, I used the word “documentation.” I think Michael Dell is much closer to the truth.

Apple CEO Jobs attacks teacher unions | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle:

Dell also blamed problems in public schools on the lack of a competitive job market for principals.

If a principal does her job appropriately, she can get rid of an ineffective teacher. We’re not talking about mounds of documentation here. Does Steve Jobs just walk up to an employee and fire him without first notifying him of performance problems? Surely he expects his managers to notify employees there is a problem and give them the opportunity to improve before being fired?

Or is Apple so successful that it can afford to train and invest in new employees to replace those fired without trying to improve performance and protect the investment already made in that employee? After all, what kind of person is going to be willing to work for a company that fires employees with giving them a chance to address their short-comings? I thinkI would go apply for a job at Dell.

Let’s pretend that you run a plant nursery. You sell a healthy, well-kept tree to your customer. You give them fertilizer and detailed instructions. You might even go out and check on the tree every so often. If the tree fails to grow because it doesn’t receive enough fertilizer, who’s fault is it?

Or maybe you’re a mechanic and you get a new customer who had been taking his car to another mechanic. The car hasn’t been maintained so you do a tune-up and explain basic maintenance tasks. The customer takes the car home and it breaks down. Are you a bad mechanic?

How about being a doctor and you’re treating a child for asthma and the child keeps having asthma attacks because the parent continues to smoke around the child. (Okay, I’m winging it here since I don’t what all can cause asthma attacks.) Would your treatment of the patient be considered successful?

Of course, in most cases your customers hold up “their side” of the transaction. Even so, as a manager you would need to take account such problem customers as the ones described above when evaluating your employees. You would have to figure which employees have had truly difficult customer situations and which are just using it as an excuse for poor performance.

However, if you were to use the methods suggested from the Texans for Excellence in the Classroom report, you would simply provide the mechanic with three more sessions on how to be a good mechanic. And if the customer’s car breaks down again, fire the mechanic. The doctor would be given special training on dealing with asthma patients and if the child continued to have attacks, her license would be revoked.

As much as people would like to believe otherwise, education reform isn’t going to have a simple, easy solution. It’s not true in business, why should it be in education?

I don’t think all teachers are against being evaluate in their performance. I do think they want and deserve to have extenuating circumstances considered in their evaluations.

You can’t “make” people into good parents by passing laws to make them go to teacher conferences or feed their children five vegetables a day. There is no licensing process you have to go through before you can be a parent even though there are plenty of parents out there who are walking advertisements for such a system.

As long as there is such a large uncontrollable variable that effects the results, it’s not only unfair to the teachers to apply a one size fits all to education accountability, it’s unfair to the student as well. Schools that take the time and energy needed to truly address education deficiencies that originate in the home are penalized.

Do businesses succeed when they focus on short-term earnings for investors or investment in infrastructure and training? Both? It all depends? Do businesses succeed when they take a “one size fits all” approach? Can you think of a better way to set up public schools to fail than demand that “no child be left behind?”

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT relating to the failure of a parent to attend a public school parent-teacher conference; providing a criminal penalty.
???????BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: ???????SECTION?1.??Chapter 26, Education Code, is amended by adding Section 26.014 to read as follows: ???????Sec.?26.014.??FAILURE TO ATTEND PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCE.
(a) A parent of a student commits an offense if:
?????????????(1)??the parent receives written notice by certified mail of at least three proposed dates from which the parent can choose for scheduling a parent-teacher conference between the parent and the student’s teacher;
?????????????(2)??the parent:
???????????????????(A)??fails to respond to the notice; or
???????????????????(B)??schedules a parent-teacher conference on one of the dates proposed in the notice or on an alternative date agreed to by the parent and teacher and fails to:
?????????????????????????(i)??attend the scheduled conference; or
?????????????????????????(ii)??before the scheduled conference, notify the teacher or an administrator of the campus to which the teacher is assigned that the parent will be unable to attend the conference; and
?????????????(3)??in the case of a student with more than one parent, another parent of the student does not attend a parent-teacher conference scheduled in accordance with this subsection.
???????(b)??An offense under this section is a Class C misdemeanor.
???????(c)??An offense under this section may be prosecuted in a court in which an offense under Section 25.094(b) may be prosecuted.
???????(d)??It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the parent had a reasonable excuse for failing to attend the parent-teacher conference.
???????(e)??The clerk of the court in which an offense under this section is prosecuted shall transfer the proceeds of any fine collected by the court under this section to the school district that employs the teacher with whom the parent was scheduled to meet in the parent-teacher conference. The district may use funds collected under this section only to: ?????????????(1)??provide additional compensation to classroom teachers in the district; or
?????????????(2)??purchase school supplies other than textbooks as defined by Section 31.002.
???????SECTION?2.??This Act takes effect September 1, 2007.

I don’t believe that I’ve ever been one to hold teachers’ solely accountable for student achievement since parent involvement is obviously a significant factor in the equation. And while I’m sure that there are many teachers who think that parents need to be held accountable for their actions (and many parents who deserve it), I’m not sure this is the way to do it.

Besides the various legalities involved and the burden it might place on a parent to present an affirmative defense, I don’t think this will really accomplish anything except maybe collect some additional funds for the classroom.

Think about it this way. A teacher schedules a parent-teacher conference. The parents don’t show up because a: their cultural or economic situation affects their ability to respond to the summons appropriately or b: they think it’s a waste of time. Now if the case is a, you have just added another burden on the parents to defend themselves. They can’t get time off of work (I’m sure there’s a bill to address that as well) but they will have to take time off to appear before a judge to explain why they can’t attend the conference.

Then there is case b. You now have a law that forces the parents to show up if for no other reason so that they avoid a fine. What do you think will be accomplish during that conference period? They will see the light and make sure junior does his homework every night? They will start enforcing a reasonable bed time for their kids or turn off the tv? Talk about a hostile audience.
I can just see this progressing until we have some version of NCLB for parents. As in the case of students, they will first be forced to spend a certain amount of time receiving “instruction.” Then someone will realize that it would be a good idea if they were to actually learn something from the instruction and will implement some sort of “no pass no play” rule for parents.

This may seem like such a simple solution to the problem of the lack of parental involvement. However, if we have learned anything in education reform, there are no simple solutions.

I think it’s time we start looking elsewhere for explanations of poor education performance. Why do ineffective teachers remain in the classroom when it is so easy to get rid of them–not enough administrative positions to move them to? Okay, low blow but I couldn’t help it.

So this story from Houston is my first example of why Texas has ineffective teachers in the classroom.

Battle likely over Houston school board chief post | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle:

Next week’s selection of a new Houston school board president is threatening to produce an acrimonious showdown between the body’s current No. 2 officer and a high-energy neophyte.

Both Manuel Rodríguez, Jr., the board’s first vice president, and Natasha Kamrani, who was elected in late 2005, want to replace trustee Diana Dávila as president.

An unwritten rule of sorts dictates that the president hold the office for just one year. What’s not as clear is whether the board will follow its recent protocol of promoting the first vice president to the higher office.

Don’t you just love “unwritten rules?” Do you think anyone could say why this “unwritten rule” exists? Theoretically, you would think it somehow improves the functioning of the school board but who knows? Now, its purpose is certainly more along the lines of “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” And who would want to go against protocol?

Let’s listen to the voice of the status quo:

Battle likely over Houston school board chief post | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle:

Veteran board member Arthur M. Gaines Jr. said he thinks Rodríguez has earned the post.

“He’s been a good vice president. He relates well to everybody. He’s a leader in his community. He’s a successful businessman,” the 81-year-old said. “We have every reason in the world to make him president.”

How exactly has he earned his post? He’s been a good vice president. What did he do? What is it that the vice president does anyway?

He relates well to everybody. And he has used this skill how? Has he brought consensus to the board, been a key member in getting reform accepted by the community, teachers, or administration?

He’s a leader in his community and he’s a successful business man. So he knows how to get himself elected and he brings “business sense” to the running of the district. Kind of like the Governor’s Business Council members?

Then there is the question as to what has Arthur Gains contributed in his 16 years to the district. If anyone should be answerable as to why there are still ineffective teachers in H.I.S.D., it should be him.

The story gets better:

Battle likely over Houston school board chief post | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle:

Kamrani and Rodríguez have been at odds since she announced her candidacy.Rodríguez and Dávila campaigned for Kamrani’s opponents leading up to the November 2005 election. It was a contentious race in which some in Kamrani’s main challenger’s camp — though not Rodríguez and Dávila — publicly called on voters to elect one of their own in the predominantly Hispanic district. Kamrani was born in Ohio to an Iranian father and an Anglo mother.

If this is an example of Rodriguez’s leadership and relating to the community, no wonder Houston has problems.

Battle likely over Houston school board chief post | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle:

Rodríguez said he thinks he’s earned his turn during more than three years on the board. He said he’s championed teacher quality, technology improvements and middle school reform. He’s represented the district at a number of national conferences and on state and local boards.Serving as president would allow him to continue the initiatives already under way, Rodríguez said.

It sounds like this basically comes down to “I played by the rules and now it’s my turn” rational. Isn’t this what everyone accuses teachers doing with claims of tenure (in other states, not in Texas!)

I think it’s time to ask what exactly makes an effective board member? For all I know, Rodriguez may be the best person for the job but how would you know? All I can say is that acrimonious showdown” for school board doesn’t inspire confidence.