CURMUDGUCATION: Bad Administrator Field Guide

CURMUDGUCATION: Bad Administrator Field Guide

Bad Administrator Field Guide

Is there a lousier job in the world than that of a school administrator. For the past twenty years, it has been all of the responsibility and none of the power. Yet a building principal (and to some extent a superintendent) have enormous control over a teacher's workplace-- how miserable is it, how safe is it, and how hard is it for teachers to do the job they signed up to do?

Administrators come in all shapes and sizes these days (though they are still mostly men), especially since the last twenty years of reformy baloney has done some bad things to the hiring pool. But there are still good ones out there who somehow find a way to fulfill the basic function of an administrator-- that is, to provide the tools, setting and processes that encourage your people to do their best work.

But there are other  admins out there. Bad ones. This taxonomy is by no means complete, but here's a quick introduction to some of the species you might find yourself dealing with:

The Conflict Avoider  

I just want to go through the day without any yelling, either from me or at  me. If you run into my office screaming that the building is on fire, the first problem I will want to solve is that you are in my office screaming. If you are screwing up, I will not call you into my office; I will just send an email scolding everybody. My go-to response in a crisis is to suggest we all  just shut up about it and wait for it to go away quietly on its own. If I must pass on bad news, I will do it in an email on Friday afternoon at 6:00 PM.

The Cruise Director 

I'm hoping that my principalling duties don't become so demanding that I don't have time to put a fun puzzle or quiz in your mailbox every morning. I think a good way to maintain morale is to have fun contests, with prizes to be awarded from the bag of Oriental Trading goodies I have in my office closet. If you insist that you would rather be treated like a grown-ass professional adult, I will alternately freeze you out of important work stuff and tease you in annoying ways that you can't push back on without being insubordinate. It's your own fault for not being a team player. I don't  know why you're such a grump-- I'm pretty sure the kids think I'm cool.

The Boss, And Don't You Forget It

I don't have any particular educational philosophy or guiding management principles other than CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Bad Administrator Field Guide

NCES Releases School Choice in the United States Report | Cloaking Inequity

NCES Releases School Choice in the United States Report | Cloaking Inequity

NCES RELEASES SCHOOL CHOICE IN THE UNITED STATES REPORT

A new report the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) “finds that charter school and public school students have the same academic performance in testing conducted at the fourth- and eighth-grade level.” (See Charter School and Public School Students Have Same Academic Performance, Report Finds)

I went through the report this morning on the plane and here are a few interesting tables I thought you might want to check out.

JulianVasquezHeilig@ProfessorJVH

Interestingly the largest proportion of students attending charters are Latinx (33%) then Whites (32%) then Blacks (26%) https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019106.pdf …

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9% of public schools are 50% or more Black, while 23% of charters are. 16% of public schools are 50% or more Latinx, while 26% of charter are. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019106.pdf …

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New NCES study finds that students are now more likely to report being bullied at private schools. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019106.pdf …

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CONTINUE READING: NCES Releases School Choice in the United States Report | Cloaking Inequity

Kochland: Inside the Koch’s Vision for Public Education – Have You Heard

Kochland: Inside the Koch’s Vision for Public Education – Have You Heard

Kochland: Inside the Koch’s Vision for Public Education

In the latest episode of Have You Heard, we talk to Christopher Leonard about his bestselling new book, Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America. Leonard spent seven years delving deep into the rise and reach of Koch Industries. He gained an inside perspective into how the Kochs see the world—and why remaking public education is such a priority for the family. Complete transcript of the episode is available here. And if you’re a fan of Have You Heard, please consider supporting us with a small donation.

Kochland: Inside the Koch’s Vision for Public Education – Have You Heard

Metaphors for School Change | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Metaphors for School Change | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Metaphors for School Change

For a quarter-century, I have taught graduate students, teachers, principals, superintendents, and school board members about the complexity of the word “change.”

The embrace of planned change (one can substitute “reform,” “progress” or “improvement”) as an unvarnished good, particularly in public schools, is understandable in the U.S. The idea of change in of itself is highly valued in the culture and daily life (e.g., fashions, music. and automobiles get re-worked annually. Reinventing one’s self is common. Moving from one place to another is a national habit. Standing in line overnight to buy the most recent technology is unremarkable. Change is equated with moving forward to material or spiritual success (or both). Opposition to whatever planned change is proposed in a family, workplace, school, or community is often clothed in negative labels such as “resistance” or “supporting the status quo.”

Moreover, most Americans do not distinguish between different kinds of planned change such as incremental (or first-order) and fundamental (or second-order). The latter term is also called “transformational” or “radical”. Surface and deep changes do differ (see here, and here).

While getting most adults to grasp the concept of change as being highly prized CONTINUE READING:Metaphors for School Change | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Heads Up, Parent on Drugs That May Be Circulating

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Heads Up, Parent on Drugs That May Be Circulating

Heads Up, Parent on Drugs That May Be Circulating

From Facebook:

Make sure your kids know not to take Rx pills not prescribed to them (no matter the circumstances). 

I'm an addiction researcher at the UW and we are seeing some deaths among teenagers in King County taking fake Rx pills that are actually fentanyl.

From Public Health Insider:

Ongoing monitoring by Public Health — Seattle & King County using King County Medical Examiner’s Office data has detected a recent increase in drug overdose deaths.  Between mid-June to mid-September 2019, 141 suspected and confirmed drug overdose deaths have occurred, compared to the 109 overdose deaths that occurred in this same period in 2018.

“This increase in fentanyl-associated deaths among people using illicit opioid pills and powders is alarming,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, Health Officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County. “Fentanyl is a drop-dead drug — anyone using illicit opioid pills or powder should seek treatment for opioid use disorder and take precautions to prevent a fatal overdose.”  

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Heads Up, Parent on Drugs That May Be Circulating

Peter Greene: Betsy DeVos Gets Kellyanne Conway to Help Push a $5B Voucher Program | deutsch29

Peter Greene: Betsy DeVos Gets Kellyanne Conway to Help Push a $5B Voucher Program | deutsch29

Peter Greene: Betsy DeVos Gets Kellyanne Conway to Help Push a $5B Voucher Program

Peter Greene is a retired Pennsylvania teacher who contributes education-related articles to Forbes magazine. I find his writing style both informative and engaging.

Today, I share with my readers excerpts from Greene’s October 02, 2019, piece, entitled, “Betsy DeVos Enlists the Help of Kelyanne Conway and American Enterprise Institute to Sell $5 Billion School Choice Program.”

School choice is DeVos’ raison d’etre.

The sale is not going well.

From Greene’s article:

On Tuesday, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway sat down with Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute to make one more pitch for DeVos’s Education Freedom Scholarships. The program seems unlikely to succeed on the federal level.

What Is She Selling?

The EFS are what’s known as a tax credit scholarship. Several states have them, and they work like this: a donor gives money to a scholarship organization, then that program issues a scholarship for a student to attend a school, while the government credits some portion of the donation against the donor’s tax bill. In the case of DeVos’s program, the amount would be 100%. If I donate $100,000 to a scholarship organization, I pay $100,000 less in federal taxes.

What Are The Problems With Her Program?

DeVos has been plugging the program with variations of the following quote from Tuesday’s discussion:

“Our Education Freedom Scholarships proposal…doesn’t grow the CONTINUE READING: Peter Greene: Betsy DeVos Gets Kellyanne Conway to Help Push a $5B Voucher Program | deutsch29

Public Comments for New World Languages Framework AND New Arts Education Framework- Year 2019 (CA Dept of Education)

Public Comments for New World Languages Framework - Year 2019 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces Public Comment Period Open for New World Languages Framework

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent Tony Thurmond announced today that the draft of the 2020 World Languages Framework for California Public Schools, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve is now open for review and public comment, an important step for California to lead the way for comprehensive world languages education for all students.

“California is ready to expand opportunities for its unique and diverse student population to acquire world languages, develop intercultural competence, and become global citizens,” said Thurmond. “Students who are successful will be those with the ability to navigate the international market­place. This framework provides guidance and support for instructional approaches intended to bring about optimal performance among students in world languages classrooms.”

The new World Languages Framework is aligned with the most current documents that inform language and culture teaching communities. The framework is based on the innovative 2019 World Languages Standards for California Public Schools, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve located on the CDE World Languages Standards web page. The World Languages Standards and World Languages Framework can help schools bolster opportunities for all students through access to high-quality, well-articulated world languages programs.

The public will have until December 1, 2019, to review the draft World Languages Framework on the World Languages Framework web page. Comments may be submitted using the 2020 World Languages Framework online survey or via email to WorldLanguage@cde.ca.gov. The public comments will be presented to the Instructional Quality Commission for review and possible inclusion into the final World Languages Framework in the spring of 2020.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Last Reviewed: Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Public Comments for New World Languages Framework - Year 2019 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Announces Public Comment Period Open for New Arts Education Framework

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent Tony Thurmond announced today that the draft 2020 Arts Framework for California Public Schools, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve has been released for public comment. California is leading the way to ensure an inclusive and relevant arts education that supports creative personal realization and develops competencies needed for career and college readiness.

“An arts education develops artistically literate citizens who are engaged, creative, responsive, and prepared to contribute to civic life,” said State Superintendent Tony Thurmond. “With this new framework, California demonstrates a commitment to ensuring schools support the development of creativity and appreciation for the arts as an essential component of our students’ education. Arts education also boosts school attendance, academic achievement, and college attendance rates; improves school climate; and promotes higher self-esteem and social-emotional development.”

The new Arts Framework provides guidance for implementing the 2019 California Arts Standards for Public Schools, Prekindergarten Through Grade Twelve located on the CDE California Arts Standards web page, which include standards for teaching dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts. The Arts Standards and Arts Framework will help educators and schools ensure all students have access to high-quality, sequential, standards-based arts education.

The public will have until December 1, 2019, to review the draft framework on the Arts Framework web page. Comments may be submitted using the CDE 2020 California Arts Framework online survey or via email to VAPA@cde.ca.gov. The public comments will be presented to the Instructional Quality Commission for review and possible inclusion into the final Arts Framework in spring 2020.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Last Reviewed: Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Public Comments for New Arts Education Framework - Year 2019 (CA Dept of Education) - https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr19/yr19rel66.asp

New Orleans Education is Inefficient Expensive and Sad | tultican

New Orleans Education is Inefficient Expensive and Sad | tultican

New Orleans Education is Inefficient Expensive and Sad

By Thomas Ultican 10/2/2019

New Orleans’s public schools were targeted by the destroy-public-education (DPE) movement even before hurricane Katrina struck. Today, they are the national example of a privatized school system. DPE operatives like Neerav Kingsland, the former chief executive of New Schools for New Orleans and Managing Director of the secretive City Fund, use New Orleans to promote the portfolio management theory of school governance and to attract philanthropic dollars to their cause. However, the reality is that New Orleans’ schools are inefficient, undermine communities, have extremely high management and transportation costs, and still struggle academically. They are a sad but typical example of market-based education reform.

In 2002, George Bush signed into law the update of the Elementary and Secondary Education act known as “No Child Left Behind.” Alfie Kohn published a 2004 article, “Test Today, Privatize Tomorrow; Using Accountability to ‘Reform’ Public Schools to Death.” In it, he discussed the idea that the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability measures were purposely designed to open a path for privatizing schools. He wrote,

 “We now have corroboration that these fears were entirely justified. Susan Neuman, an assistant secretary of education during the roll-out of NCLB, admitted that others in Bush’s Department of Education ‘saw NCLB as a Trojan horse for the choice agenda – a way to expose the failure of public education and blow it up a bit’’’ (Claudia Wallis, ‘No Child Left Behind: Doomed to Fail?’, Time, June 8, 2008).”

George Bush Signs NCLB Law January 8, 2002 – Ron Edmonds/AP-File

In 2003, Louisiana state government passed a school take-over law aimed at the low scoring schools in New Orleans. The law created the Recovery School CONTINUE READING: New Orleans Education is Inefficient Expensive and Sad | tultican

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Two Videos of Note

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Two Videos of Note

Two Videos of Note

The first is this one from NE Dad:

SPS in 2019 is where satire and reality meet

https://youtu.be/64PKoAiWhjE?t=103

Again I gently say - public schools cannot be all things, even for children.  Just trying to provide SEL to all children is huge but when you have the number of students in our schools who are either in a low-income household and/or have experienced trauma in their lives, it becomes ever harder even as it is more urgent.

Doing feel-good stuff won't necessarily = better academic outcomes. That said, when children feel safe at school and learn to believe in themselves, it makes for better learning.

But it has to be kept in mind that whatever the home situation is, schools cannot fill in for all of it.

The second video is the one with Chief Financial Officer , JoLynn Berge, and Superintendent Juneau that seems to be about mitigating the recent missteps on high school enrollment and staffing.

From a reader comment: CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: Two Videos of Note

The confessions of Karen Lewis | Bleader

The confessions of Karen Lewis | Bleader

The confessions of Karen Lewis

Karen Lewis was in a confessional mood at her appearance last night at the Hideout—at least she confessed to having a nice word or two to say about her old adversary Mayor Rahm.

This is understandable, since she was sitting on the stage with Jen Sabella and Erika Wozniak, hosts of the Girl Talk, the monthly talk show at the Hideout that manages to get guests to open up—usually with a laugh or two.

The idea is that you never know what people will say if you put them in a barroom among friends. Obviously, the cocktail Lewis was nursing didn't hurt either.

The room was filled with teachers, activists, and a journalist or two, interested in hearing what the Chicago Teachers Union president had to say about a potential strike. The rank and file authorized a walkout a few days ago with a resounding vote.

Lewis didn't offer much news on that front, other than to say negotiations continue.

Instead, she jokingly complained about how pissed off she was for having had to turn down a ticket to Hamilton to keep her word about appearing on the show.

That is—I think she was joking.

\

She also made a nasty comment or three about the Tribune editorial that compared CTU to the North Korean government of Kim Jong-un.

That was pretty low on the part of the Troncsters. But, c'mon, Karen, what do you expect? It's a freaking Tribune editorial!

She praised house speaker Michael Madigan—speaking of people the Tribune loves to hate—for holding the line against union-busting legislation.

And she answered a question originally framed by Beyonce: What's worse, to be jealous or crazy?

"Crazy. Because you don't know you're really crazy when you're crazy."

At least Karen and Beyonce see eye to eye.

Then she got around to praising Rahm.

When asked what she'd do if she were mayor, Lewis sighed and said Chicago's problems may be too great for any one man or woman to solve.

"Listen, Rahm Emanuel is not stupid," she said.

OK, I didn't say it was high praise.

"If I were mayor I don't think we would be in a much better place," she continued. "The job is impossible to do well."

She said Rahm's easier to get along with than he was in his first term. They CONTINUE READING: The confessions of Karen Lewis | Bleader