Admit its broken and fix it already.

by: lightseeker

Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 17:02:00 PM CDT

Several education stories drew my attention over the last week and deserve some reflection. Their common theme: Texas Education is still broken.

Take for example this piece :
Texas rejects plan to adopt national school standards

wherein we learn that :

Texas has decided to steer clear of a national effort - involving 46 states - to develop uniform standards for English and math instruction in public schools.

State Education Commissioner Robert Scott, with the backing of Gov. Rick Perry, has turned down an invitation to work with the other states in drafting "common core" standards for English and math classes, spelling out what students at all grade levels should be taught in those subjects.

Although the standards will be voluntary.....[snip]
Texas officials are wary of getting involved, largely because of the cost to the state of implementing new standards.
[snip]

"Texas historically has never been supportive of the idea of national standards for our schools," said Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the commissioner and the Texas Education Agency. "We believe most Texans want to see our standards developed in Texas."

State Board of Education member Don McLeroy, the former chairman of the panel, noted that the education board now has responsibility to approve curriculum standards and there is no reason to surrender that authority to a national panel.
[snip]

The MSM could not or chose not , to comment on the irony of the defense mounted by Texas officials in rejecting this voluntary initiative and the potential funds it could bring to the state.  Frist, we rank at the bottom of any and all educational performance ratings and have for years. Thanks heavens for Louisiana and Mississippi , without them we would rank at the very bottom.  

Texas Where We Stand: Education

*   Texas is #49 in verbal SAT scores in the nation (493) and #46 in average math SAT scores (502).
   * Texas is #36 in the nation in high school graduation rates (68%).
   * Texas is #33 in the nation in teacher salaries. Teacher salaries in Texas are not keeping pace with the national average. The gains realized from the last state-funded across-the-board pay raise authorized in 1999, which moved the ranking from 33 to as high as 26th in the nation, have disappeared over the last five years.
   * Texas was the only state in the nation to cut average per pupil expenditures in fiscal year 2005, resulting in a ranking of #40 nationally; down from #25 in fiscal year 1999.
   * Texas is #6 in the nation in student growth. The general student population in Texas public schools grew by 11.1% between school years 1999 and 2005, with the largest percent of growth seen among low income and minority children.
   * Between school years 1999 and 2005, the number of central administrators employed by Texas public schools grew by 32.5%, overall staffing in public schools grew by 15.6%, while the number of teachers grew only 13.3%.

So, what's so great about state generated standards that yield these kinds of results? I guess you have to look at who is doing the crowing and what their agenda is. Given the fact he was denied another term as chairman of the state schoolboard, Don McLeroy - rightwing theocrat, is not the best judge of what this state's students need. Typically, he is a poster child for why national standards might make a lot of sense. Remember his oh so nutty take on evolution? See the videoes here.

Then there were the stories about our Charter School mashup- we don't have any good way to quickly close bad ones - and finally this :

How will Texas compete in Race to the Top?

Texas appeared to have a head start on its competitors when the Obama administration announced it would offer select states huge grants to encourage cutting-edge reforms in education. But recent signals from Washington could indicate the competition might be stiffer than Texas officials thought.

The state has pioneered programs, involving such things as rigorous standards and teacher incentives, that the Obama administration said would be priorities for the education money in the federal stimulus package, including the $4 billion Race to the Top grant program intended to spur innovation.

"Texas is very well-positioned in terms of the work we've done over the past several years to take advantage of this," Education Commissioner Robert Scott told a legislative committee in March, shortly after the program was announced. "We can bring to completion some of the reform work we've been working on."

But as more information has trickled out of the U.S. Department of Education in recent weeks, it appears that Texas might also have some notable strikes against it:

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan warned that states could harm their chances in the grant competition by using stimulus money to "backfill budget holes" while protecting state dollars.

[snip]

The Legislature failed to enact a key charter school overhaul that would have lifted a cap on the number of charter schools in Texas and given the commissioner more tools to hold charter schools accountable for poor performance, both key priorities for the Obama administration.

[snip].

Texas is one of only four states that has declined to participate in a national effort to craft common standards for English and math instruction in public schools.

[snip]

"It's not just Texas that has done exemplary work," said Bill Slotnik, executive director of the Boston-based Community Training and Assistance Center, which helps districts nationwide, including Austin, put in place reform programs. "If you're claiming you're the exemplar, than why wouldn't you want to work with the other states on this?"

[snip]

Jerel Booker, associate commissioner for the Texas Education Agency, said none of the potential strikes against Texas should count it out of the Race to the Top.

"As long as we're meeting these core reforms and improving student achievement," Booker said, "I think we'll be in great shape."

[snip]

But Slotnik said Texas will have to show that its reforms have produced results. "Are the things that you're doing reaching the classroom in a way that is demonstrably benefiting students?" he asked.

[snip]

"We want to reward those states that are willing to lead the country where we need to go and are willing to push this reform agenda very, very hard," Duncan told the Associated Press in May.

[snip]

Booker said Texas will "make a great argument" for the federal government to invest here

I can smell a PR initiative a mile away and the spin on our educational status quoted in this story is breath-taking. I mean if I didn't know the facts I have cited in this posting , I would think that we were some kind of national educational leader, in a good way. In fact , we are the poster child for how to NOT reform your schools. Sadly our mistake, Governor No Child Left Behind, became president and imposed our mistakes on the nation. Given how badly that worked out, why would anyone consider giving us more money to continue a broken system that is now more about corporate money making and ideology than about educating students?

I have blogged about this many times before. Sadly , I do so again, because nothing has fundamentally changed.