Voice of Reason

Cheating was once thought of as a despicable thing. It was not tolerated. Cheating was often caught by teachers, and students were punished for cheating. Parents were glad that the teachers were on the lookout for cheating kids.

Nowadays our view on cheating has changed. Cheaters are looked at as finding loopholes. People don't seem to think cheating is so bad after the fact. Let's look at the No Child Left Behind Act. This act was created because the country saw that the state of Texas showed such great growth of their students when simply threatening the teachers and testing the gumption out of kids. Later it was discovered that many of the teachers in the state of Texas admitted to cheating during the trial period! No one really seems to care. I'm shocked. The entire nation has reformed our education system because of the outcomes that we saw in Texas even though we know for a fact that the scores are not accurate! All this is teaching the country is that cheating is the way to make change and get what you want.

Now let's look at the potential of this cheating trend a little closer to home. I am a public school teacher. Every year I am required to give the STAR test to my students. Each year all of the teachers must cover everything in their rooms so that the students may not get any help from the way that the room is decorated. Administrators check the rooms. Tests are signed out and then back in each day so that no copies can be stolen. They even have to make sure you return all scratch paper that the students have used and the little punch out paper rulers that are given for the math portion of the test. Here's the kicker though. Did you know that the teachers are encouraged to sit in their rooms alone and go over the tests to darken any bubbles, and erase any stray marks?

In this case we are not asking the children to cheat, but the ease in which the teacher could cheat is almost laughable. If we start paying teachers by their test scores, they will find a way to cheat. It is already too tempting for some I'm sure. It was in Texas.

Here is a story that a friend of mine told me last night. It was enough to make me sick.

She is a student teacher at a newly formed public high school. The school is in danger of loosing funding if they are not able to prove that they are producing good test scores and grades. She is teaching a history class that requires a research paper as a major part of the grade. When the students turned in their papers, she spent weeks grading them, and running them through programs to see if they had been plagiarism or not. It turns out that eighteen of her sixty some odd students had copied published work. They had been specifically told that if they plagerized, they would receive a zero as a grade. A zero on this project would mean failing the course. When she told the administration that she caught eighteen of their students plagerizing, they passed the cheaters anyway to avoid the embarrassment, and possible loss of funding.

These kids blatantly cheated! They were caught! And they are getting away with it!

What has happened to the ethics in this country!

What is so sad is that my friend is now mocked by the very students that she caught. They passed the class even though they did not deserve to. They know that they did something wrong. They know they got away with it, and they think it's funny.

The administration doesn't care, because they want their money. They will only get their money if they look like everything is running smoothly.

We need to start looking at educating the entire child. We're talking about people here. By turning the educational system into a competition, we are breeding competitive attitudes and nothing more. Education should be about the love of knowledge and self improvement, not about statistics.

Imagine a kid who is so far behind grade level, that there is no hope of him catching up within the year. Imagine the frustration he must feel when he goes home with his homework only to look at it and know that he can't do it. Now imagine the parent of this kid. The parent goes to the school conference. At the conference the teacher tells the parent that their kid is struggling. The teacher explains many things that the parent can do to help their child. The teacher explains the process for getting extra help for their child. They talk for half an hour. When they get to the end of the meeting the parent asks, "Will my child pass?"

This is a weird situation for the teacher because failing is considered a privledge in California. A child is only held back if a parent requests it. So the teacher tries to explain that the child could have the opportunity to repeat the grade. The teacher might go so far as to suggest retention, but they can not say, "You did not pass." Most parents will not choose to hold their children back out of their own embarrassment.

Now imagine you are a parent from Mexico. You know that if your child were a student in Mexico they could be flunked if they do not perform well. You also know that if they go to school in the United States, they will pass every grade until the graduation test. Wouldn't you rather have your child go all the way through school rather than get flunked out? I wonder how many of our immigrant families would stay here to educate their kids if they would flunk here as easily as they do in Mexico. Think of the money California would save if all of the illegal children got educated in Mexico. The money saved on teacher salaries would be nothing compared to the free meals, free health care, free day care, free pre school, and other free services that we provide through our schools.

Flunking a student at the elementary school level is difficult to do. You can't just say to a kid, "Well, you don't know everything you should know for this grade so you will have to repeat it." No, nowadays a teacher must have three Student Study Team meetings (SST's) before it can even be discussed.

An SST is a complex process. First the teacher must fill out the appropriate form. Then she must gather the appropriate testing data. (This might be difficult to get if the student is new to the school). Then she must get have a meeting that includes the SST coordinator, the special education teacher, the psychologist, and the parent (the most elusive component). At the first SST the teacher must be given new strategies to use in the class to see if the student improves.

The second meeting is to check up on the teacher to make sure that she did everything possible to help the struggling child. This help might include less work, or extra time to finish. These strategies by the way do not make a student suddenly work at grade level, they just don't get as frustrated. At this second SST the team discusses other solutions. This is where the parent can request testing for their child. The tests include IQ tests and academic performance tests. If a student has a normal or high IQ and is performing below expectation for their intelligence, then they are eligible for a Special Education class. There must be a "discrepancy" between the intelligence and the performance of a student for them to get special education services. If the child simply has a low IQ then they got no services. They stay in the regular classroom, and do not get flunked. These students become frustrated, distracting and sometimes even suicidal.

The third SST is for announcing what will be done for the student because of the outcomes of the tests. If at any time the parent can not come to one of the meetings, the meeting must be rescheduled for a different date. If the parent never comes, the child can not be retained or put into special education.

For a student to get special education help their discrepancy must be two years or more. That means that a child must be working two grade levels below their current grade level to get any special help. This is ridiculous because the child needs help when they are a month behind, not when they are two years behind. It is also inane because the test does not test below the Kindergarten level. That means that a student must be in the second grade, and test at the Kindergarten level before they can get into special education or be held back. What is so sad is that in many of these cases all the child really needed was an extra year of Kindergarten. In many of the cases, the parents simply put their child in school too early. Children should enter Kindergarten when they are five, but the state allows them to enter at four years old if their birthday will be before December. Failing a child in Kindergarten when teachers see that there is a problem is probably the kindest thing that a teacher could do. A kid five year old doesn't see repeating Kindergarten as a problem. They don't even know they are supposed to go to the first grade the next year anyway.

If our struggling students were given the chance to repeat Kindergarten when the teachers first identified that there was a problem we would not have as many frustrated students. And boy would those test scores look a lot better.

Most people will agree that learning from your own mistakes is an effective way to learn. In fact many of us remember learning a concept in school, failing a test, and studying so that we don't fail the test again when we are tested on the same concept the next time.

Public school students across the country do not have the luxury of learning from their mistakes anymore. The pace at which students are expected to absorb information is so quick that they have one chance to be tested per concept. If they fail the concept, the class moves on. No, the teachers have not lost their minds. It is called pacing. We must pace ourselves to cover all of the concepts for the year. That means that if Johnny doesn't have his multiplication facts down, that's too bad. He will have to move on to long division anyway.

What is really insane about this process is the fact that the tests are now all graded by computer, so that students never get their tests back. They don't get to see which problems they missed, or what the answers should have been. All they get is a grade. Teachers are put on a schedule. They must scan their tests by a particular date regardless of whether they have had enough time to teach the concept.

"But half of my class had the flu the week we were adding unlike fractions!"
"Your class is failing. You are obviously a bad teacher."

This is not just math tests I'm talking about. It includes the language tests too. I'm also not talking about the yearly exams. I can understand having a schedule to meet on an annual basis. No, I'm talking about weekly, monthly and quarterly testing. After a child takes any test in my class they have nothing to take home to their parents. They simply write the percentage score in a notebook. How can parents help them to correct their mistakes? They can't.

The only advantage I can see in forcing tests to be scored and recorded this way is to make nice neat class comparison charts for administration. All of the teachers scan their tests at the same time so that you can see that everyone is on track. You can also judge the effectiveness of a teacher this way. Or can you? With this much monitoring are the teachers going to remain honest? They are only multiple choice tests. It would be so easy to change a few bubbles. No one would know. No one but the teacher actually sees the bubble sheets. The kids wouldn't even know. Hmmm.

I know, it sounds melodramatic to imply that teachers will soon be replaced by robots, but let us look at some recent facts.

1. Teachers across the nation are given scripted lessons for language and math.
2. Many of these teachers are being told that they should be on the same page as the other teachers in their districts at the exact same time.
3. These scripted lessons go so far as to have "Think Alouds" where the teacher reads phrases that include the words, "I am thinking..." (Yes, the publisher is telling the teacher what to think, or at least what to tell the students they think.)
4. The test scores of the students have no bearing on what the teacher teaches next. Teachers must keep up with the schedule, therefore students do not get re-taught lessons that they did not understand.
5. The more teachers are forced to work within these parameters, the worse they look.
6. The worse teachers look, the more viable robots, videos and computer programs seem.

"So, what's wrong with that," you say. "A kid could just log onto the education network daily, learn at their own pace, and not have to worry about getting stuck in a class with an incompetent teacher."

There are plenty of things wrong with that. Try this on for size.

This past week I "taught" a scripted lesson about problem solving. The students had read a story about a girl (Mariah) who planned a surprise birthday party for her sister. In the story the girl and her friends lied to the sister to keep the party a secret. One of the questions at the end of the story was "Did Mariah have good problem solving skills?" Now I'm not big on teaching ten-year-olds to lie, so I think of this as a time for a good discussion, and a good way to see what kind of kids I have in my class, but the publishers of the lesson don't think like me. The publishers of this lesson write simply, "Yes, Mariah was a good problem solver. She came up with a believable story so that her sister would not be suspicious."

I know, It seems kind of prissy to get caught up on a children's story about a little white lie, but it is not the only story in the textbook that condones lying. There is another one about a little brother and sister who lie about a boy liking their sister so that they can later set them upon a date.

Why does our Language Arts program teach that lying to your older sister is OK?

Could it be that somehow we want to teach that lying to someone you love for a good reason is OK?

Who decides what a good reason is?

Here is where I'm going with this. I know it sounds a little crazy, but think about it. How have most authoritarian societies gained control of the population?

They always start with the pre-teens.

Kids began training for the Roman army at ten to twelve years old.

The communist Revolution in China started by brain-washing in the middle-schools.

The Hitler Youth affected their entire nation.

If we are teaching children that it is OK to lie to a loved one for a "good" reason, and teachers with brains could be replaced by robots, how will our children learn to think? What will they believe? Who will monitor the system? What will they believe?

Should your child have approximately thirty-five different humans with differing beliefs teach them from K-12, or should they have one nationalized teacher for every grade in every school in the nation?

It's true not every human teacher is all that great. Not every human teacher works as well for every type of kid.

But, what might happen if that national teacher (robot) program became corrupted? What if the people who did the programming were corrupted? What if they already are?

Did you know that over half of the Fifth Grade students in California are not only missing the Social Studies and Science education that the state requires, but they actually are spending two or more weeks out of the school year studying stories about kids who lie, and get away with it. These stories actually teach that is it good to lie. I'm not kidding! Check out "Mariah Keeps Cool" and "Yang the Second and Her Secret Admirers" from the Fifth Grade Houghton Mifflin Reading Text. Wouldn't you rather have them learning about the United States Constitution, or Anatomy?

Who decides what your child will learn?
I'll give you some hints.

They are not the teachers.
They are not the parents.
They are not the school administrators.
They are not the district administrators.
They are not school board members.
They are not teacher's union members.
They are not even the state bureaucrats.

Who could it be? Who else would care?

It is the publishing companies. Publishing companies have a monopoly on the content your child learns in school!

How did that happen?

It's actually quite simple.

Step 1. California had students who were not learning the basic skills that they should for each grade level. So, California bureaucrats decided that we should lay down some standards, so that everyone knew exactly what was expected from a student at each grade level.

Step 2. These standards were difficult to meet because many students did not have the background knowledge for success. None of them had been held back for not knowing the things they should have known. So the teachers looked like failures because they were trying to make up for years of having no guidelines of what should be taught at what grade.

Step 3. Two publishing companies (Houghton Mifflin and Open Court) create Language Arts programs that cover all of the basic skills listed in the standards. California "adopts" these programs, forcing each teacher to use one of them, therefore assuring that all kids in California are taught basic skills.

Step 4. The publishing companies have another agenda. They want to sell more books. So they create a Language Arts program that purposefully does not integrate Science and Social Studies Standards. This way they can sell three programs instead of one good one.

Step 5. Most school districts do not have the money to buy additional new programs, so the students get no Science and Social Studies education.

Step 6. People find out that the schools don't teach Science and Social Studies, so they begin taxing us to pay for new texts.

Step 7. The teachers don't use the Science and Social Studies texts because the Language Arts program takes up so much of the day that there is little time for anything besides Language and Math.

The result:
1. No Science or Social Studies being taught in schools.
2. Tax payers paying for something that is not being used.
3. Teachers are teaching some content that they know is not beneficial to their "on level" students.
4. The publishing companies make a lot of money.

The solution:
1. Allow teachers to design classroom curriculum around the content standards.
2. Allow them to integrate Science and Social Studies content with Language Arts skills.
3. Allow them to flunk students who have not learned the basic skills, so that each teacher can teach "on level" skills and content in their classrooms rather than ignoring "on level" students to try to catch up the struggling students.


Give the power to the professionals. Let them do their jobs.

Allow parents to make informed decisions about the education of their child. Allow vouchers.

Every day in public schools around the state, time is being wasted. Most of the wasted time however is not time that the teachers or students are off task. It is state mandated wastefulness that is the true problem. Most fourth and fifth grade classrooms in Orange County have a mandated seven weeks of wasted time each year. Let me explain.

One wasted week. Students have the opportunity to go to a Religious Release Program for one hour a week. While they are out of the regular classroom, the teacher is not allowed to teach any new material. One hour per week equals approximately one week out of the school year. The whole class is missing a potential week of instruction, so that some students can learn about Christianity during public school hours. This really happens.

Two and a half wasted weeks. English Language Learners get a half an hour each day with the regular classroom teacher. This means that the teacher must ignore his or her regular students to work with the English Language learners. This adds up to two and a half hours each week! That's is two and a half weeks each year!

Another two and a half wasted weeks. Extra Support Students (ie. Students who should not be in their current grade level, because they have failed the state exams) also get a half an hour each day of their teachers undivided attention. This is time that is taken away from the students who actually belong in their grade level. Should "on grade level" students really get less teacher time just because they are working proficiently at their grade level? That is like punishing kids for doing well. Nonsense!


One more wasted week. Schools that have received a "Reading First" Grant. Send their teachers to a training for one week during the school year. Although they have a substitute during this time, it is an entire week that students are in a classroom with a non-credentialed adult. Your kids deserve a credentialed teacher.

Before we discuss whether or not schools should dump Art, Music, Science and Social Studies programs because there is so little time for the basics, maybe we should look at the mandated wastes of time, and see what we can do there.

By the year 2020 all students are supposed to be "Proficient" in all academic areas. Sounds great right? The measure for whether or not they are in fact proficient is called the API score. The API (Academic Performance Index) scores are the test scores that compare schools to one another across the state. For more info go to api.cde.ca.govapi.cde.ca.gov. Each school is required to imporove their API scores each year. They are given a goal by the state, and if they do not comply in meeting this goal, the state sends a compliance commitee to the failing classrooms to tell these teachers how to do their jobs.

The scores from each classroom are reported as percentages, and these percentages are organized into pentiles for each subject. For example, if a student knows less than 20% of the questions of a certain type, they are considered Far Below Basic.

0%-20% = Far Below Basic
21%-40% = Below Basic
41%-60% = Basic
61%-80% = Profocient
81%-100%= Advanced

That sounds reasonable until you discover that it is almost impossible to flunk a child who is underpreforming. By the way it is also equally as difficult to get a child into Special Education. Some kids don't even qualify for Special Education becuse their IQ's are too low! So anyway, the average classroom is a group of students that includes normal kids, kids who don't know English very well, kids with low IQ's, and kids who have parents that won't come to meetings to either hold their child back, or put them into Special Education. Don't forget we also have the hyper ones, the emotionally instable ones, and the homeless ones that move around so often that they never retain what they have learned. Yes, this is an average classroom in a middle class neighborhood. Oh yeah, I should mention that the high functioning kids have already been skimmed off the top. They are either in GATE (Gifted And Talented Education) classes or their parents send them to private schools that focus on academics.

Now, this will make you hate the system. Teachers across Orange County and probably California as well have been told to "focus" their teaching on a particular group of students in their class in order to get their API sores up. You see, we have to show constant improvement or we face a compliace review. So, do you focus on the low functioning kids? Not exactly. They might not improve enough to make a difference. Is it the basic level kids? Not really. We have been told by our administrators that the students who are close to moving into the next pentile are the students that we should focus on. That means that if your kid is in the middle of the proficient pentile, they get less teacher attention, but if they are at the top of the pentile they are a priority, because they could earn the scool some extra points if they score advanced the next time. If they are already working at the advanced level, they can just be ignored. If they are struggling in the basic pentile, they should (according to district administration across California) only be helped of they will potentially cross the line into proficient during the next testing.

You could try to blame this all on "No Child Left Behind", but that wouldn't be exactly fair, because it is our state system that doesn't allow teachers to fail students without parent permission. It is our state system that won't allow teachers to place kids in Special Education with out parent permission. It is the state that threatens with compliance reviews, making districts take stupid measures to keep their scores up. It is the state that decides that only students with a "learning diability" can get into Special Education, they don't want to spend the money on kids with low IQ's. No, being stupid is not considered a learning disability. The state of California is reacting to the Federal mandates, but they are not reacting intelligently.

Why don't the teachers spend more time with your kid? Well, your kid is probably in the middle of some pentile, or heaven forbid advanced.

We need to privatize the school system. Get the government out of the classroom. So much of our tax money goes toward the administration of these crazy schemes. The money should go toward educating children, not just more paperwork. Privatization would allow for smaller class sizes because less money would be spent on administration. Privatization would also allow for parents to sign paperwork to allow teachers to prescribe the education that the teacher thinks is appropriate, without all of the additional meetings and paperwork. The parents would no longer need to take time off of their own jobs to approve every step the teachers make. Teachers would be allowed to say to parents, "Your child has not passed this grade, if your child is to remain at this school, he/she will need to repeat this grade, or you are welcome to find a different school for your child." Teachers are professionals. Privatization would allow them to make professional decisions about educating their students. Let the teachers do their jobs!