Just when you thought they couldn’t make the SAGE test worse…

Thank you Sen. Osmond and Rep. Cunningham.

Utah S.B. 204, attractively named “Parental Rights in Public Education”*, among a lot of other things, states:

“(f) providing that scores on the tests and assessments required under Subsection (2)(a) and Subsection (3) [shall] may not be considered in determining:
      (i) a student's academic grade for the appropriate course [and]; or
      (ii) whether a student [shall] may advance to the next grade level.”

Simply put, I will no longer be able to count my student’s SAGE test scores on their grades.  That includes the 8 benchmark tests and the year end test that I am required to give.

Consider these things:

1. I’m supposed to use the data from the benchmark tests to accurately influence my upcoming instruction, filling in gaps that show up in the test data.
2. The data from the end of the year SAGE test is supposed to be used to accurately rate schools and teachers.
3. Students hate tests.
4. Most students only work out difficult problems on tests because it counts on their grade.  (How many times did you ask your teacher “is this on the test?”)
5. Some students will purposely fail a test to spite the teacher that pushes them if they know they will not be held accountable for it.
6. Students hate tests. (Oh, did I say that already?)
7. Most students, if they are not held responsible for it, DO NOT CARE about test scores.

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In case you don’t believe #3 & #6, here is what one of my students drew on his notes today (5/18)

We finished our SAGE tests over a week ago, so this sentiment is a bit removed from his having to take the test.

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I can guarantee my scores will go down next year.  But even worse is that I will be making instructional decisions on faulty data; test results on tests that students have absolutely no investment in.

And finally, I ask you Mr. Osmond and Mr. Cunningham; If it’s not fair to grade a student on their SAGE test scores, how can it possible be fair to grade teachers and schools on them?

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*After all, who could argue that parents should have rights when it comes to their child’s education.

Societal Priorities

For quite a while I’ve questioned the priority of a society that cannot find the funds to improve the situation of their bottom-of-the-barrel education funding, but easily found the money to build the state-of-the-art Rio Tinto Soccer Stadium.  University coaches make more than the people running the academic (primary purpose) of the institution, and as a teacher, if you don’t coach something good luck finding a high school position.  Individually we are willing to shell out a hundred or more dollars to see a live sporting event, but when our property taxes are raised $20 a year for education we freak out.

To me, it seems like we’re playing our fiddles as our society burns.

Raises

I just got back from dropping off the payroll for Free Wheeler Pizza.  I was surprised to see extra money in my pay envelope, with a little note from the owner saying “It’s been a while, here’s a cost of living raise.”

The legislature also gave me a raise on my teaching salary this year. My first raise from them since 2009, which would have been a pay cut if I hadn’t earned my Master’s that year.  And it’s a whopping 0.33%.

⅓ of 1% from my full-time (and a half) job and 10% from the small pizza place I do payroll for.  Now you might think “Yeah, but ⅓% of a teaching salary is gonna be a lot more that 10% of what you’d get paid to process 20 paychecks a month.”

Au contraire, mon frère.  It works out to a difference of  $4⁵⁰ a month.

Yeah, the Utah Legislature respects and values their teachers.  Oh, yeah.  Not more than a struggling local businessman.

P.S. – red is the official Math Department color for sarcasm at my school.

Coupla Facebook finds.

Another Facebook Find

I’ve seen a bunch of these “What _____ thinks” thingies, some of them are pretty funny.  This one hits home for me.

Five and a half days.

     Well, state budget cuts have hit home.  The principal called a surprise staff meeting after school on Wednesday to let us know what she had heard at her district meeting that morning.  Education actually fared pretty well all things considered, ending with only a 5.2% cut for next year.  Most of the cuts are going to be up to the decretion of the individual districts, but the Legislature specifically cut the $77.6 million slated for teacher training days.  That means teacher contracts have been cut from 188 days to 182.5 days, leaving me with a 2.9% pay cut. I'll still have the same 180 days with the students, they were adamant about not cutting that time down, and as of now we have been promised that class sizes will not increase.  That's good. 

     What it does mean is that the week we had before school to prepare for the new year is gone.  No one is sure exactly how it's going to pan out, but either I'll be expected to show up on the same first day as the students, prepared to start the new school year, or I'll be losing most of the time I used to get for grading at the end of each term. 

     Quite a few of the teachers were up in arms about these cuts, fearing that we were going to bear the brunt of these cuts and that administrators and district personnel wouldn't be made to feel the pinch at all.  Not that I trust the powers that be at all, but I figure I'll just wait and see before I go burning things down.  The principal, someone who I have worked with for 7 years now and trust completely, is pretty sure that administrators, custodians and office personnel will also lose those 5 1/2 days.

     In both his acceptance and inauguration  speeches President Obama said things were going to get worse before they get better, and that we'd all feel the pinch.  I just got pinched.  I don't like it, but I know people who have gotten smacked by the economy.  Every other department in the state got hit with 9% budget cuts.  People are losing their jobs.  I'll remember that on those days I'm not getting paid to set up my class and prepare for the new year. 

Note to self: remodel bathroom next.

Well, the the first week back to school (no students) is officially over, even though I have to go in tomorrow if I want computers ready for one of the teachers whose classes rely on the computer. Ah well, c'est la vie, that's why I get paid the big bucks at the STS. (School Technology Specialist, and no, there is no extra money, although I get 2 extra free periods to do the tech work). Overall, not a bad week. There were relatively few technical emergencies, so I got all of my preparing for my classes ready. They moved my STS phone from my storage room, where I rarely was, to my classroom, so I have a phone right on my desk. They also moved my network plug from the back of the room up front at the same time, which means I don't have a long yellow cord wrapped all the way around my room, situated in a way that kids can mess with it. Yea! First faculty meeting went great, I got to make fun at this year's teachers with the worst hall passes. (If you don't remember, last year I had the most damaged hall pass, and the vice principal showed it to the entire faculty in order to stress the importance of taking care of it.) I went with a Miss America theme, and when we got to the Hall Passes in the Policy Manual I came out with a tiara on, said something about how as last year's Mr/Ms Worst Hall Pass I got to announce the new Mr/Ms Worst Hall Pass, announced the first runner up and then placed the tiara on the head of the winner. Yeah, it was funny. Anyway, we did all this up at in Midway, Utah, up in the Heber Valley, very rural area. We got up there the night before and stayed at the Inn on the Creek, a beautiful hotel right on a golf course along, yes you guessed it, a creek. They had the bath tub that I decided I'm going to remodel my entire bathroom for, a spa tub with jets and everything. Hot water, liquid soap and if I'd been sure I wouldn't have drowned, I would have slept there. Couldn't guarantee it so I had to settle for a soak before I went to sleep and then again in the morning. (Just for the record, we didn't waste a ton of the taxpayer's money, the Inn only charged us about 45% of the going rate for the rooms.) We had dinner up at the Principal's cabin, right up the canyon about 20 minutes from the hotel. This was the second year we've done this, it's good for the faculty to get away as a group and bond before the school year starts. Anyhoo, we had the faculty meeting today, were done with the faculty meeting and out of the hotel by 1:30. I was meeting the Principal and a counselor over at Wasatch Golf Course for a little lunch around 2:30 (best hamburgers in Heber Valley. Well, they were good, but probably not the best. So, I headed into "downtown" Midway (population probably less than 10,000, and that's even if you count pets) and checked out "Swiss Days". Not too exciting, but saw some really nice old houses on main street. After lunch I decided to go home the scenic way, up the canyon to Guardsman Pass and over to Big Cottonwood Canyon and back into SLC. I've gone over the pass before, but I've always taken the route that ends up in Park City rather than Heber Valley, so I wanted to check out this route. It was beautiful. Despite being a dirt road a lot of the way, it would have taken me only about 20 minutes longer than the freeway if I hadn't stopped every 10 minutes to check out the sights. At several points you could see over the whole Heber Valley, and the view from the summit was awesome. I got back to SLC right around 5:00, came home, cleaned the car, almost fell asleep watching CSI and then started writing this. Which means I'm pretty much done.

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose..

Which is why it must come to an end. Even though I've been at the school on and off for the last couple weeks, I haven't yet HAD to go in. Alas, after tomorrow that all ends. Bright and early Tuesday morning the school year starts all over again. Well, not for the kids, they don't show up 'till the following Monday. I'm starting my 16th year of teaching, and the two times a year I realize how different this job is from anything else I've done is are the beginning and the end of school. Mainly because not many jobs have an actual ending every year. Accounting, sort of. The pizza business had it's seasons, so did the Chevron. But when you came back to work the next day, it was going to be pretty much the same as the day before. Even when I taught the same thing every year for 10 years, every August I start off with a whole new group of people to work with, and completely different mix of personalities. Yeah, there's always going to be the good kids, the bad kids, the funny ones and the ones that just blend into the flow of the classroom. But every year I have to discover which is which, who will be who and how I will have to deal with them. I still get nervous, wondering if this is going to be an easy year, or will I have a class that pushes the enevelope every day. Last year I was amazed at how much better the first semester was compared to the second half of the year. My 1st semester Psychology class was an incredible amount of fun, and I had some really "hard" kids in it. They talked a lot, voiced their opinions, sometimes loudly, all the time, but it was always about the subject we were discussing. Second semester Psychology was a struggle just to get them interested. I had 3 or 4 pockets of kids that were just too interested in talking about who was doing what with who and what they were going to be doing later that day. First semester was so engaged I never gave a test, we just did projects to show what they learned. Second semester I gave tests just so they would pay attention to the few who were willing to discuss the topics with me. It doesn't matter if you're teaching the same stuff, if you're engaging the class at all you're going to have a different experience every year. (Yes, I've known teachers that have had the same exact year over and over again. Which is why they really shouldn't have been teaching). I think that's what I like so much about teaching, the unpredictability. Meeting new people every year. Ending the year and being able to look back on it and reflect. Starting fresh every August, knowing that this year is going to be the perfect year. No mistakes, no losing my cool, no shoulda-woulda-coulda's. And knowing that no matter what goes wrong, I'll always have NEXT year as the perfect year.

Man, this was supposed to be a lament to the end of the school year, it almost sounds like I'm happy to be starting the new year. Ahhh, must be the little pill I took for my back pain. Good thing I'm not driving.....

Week One down, about 70 more to go.

Week one of the teacher-student-Chevron trilogy is over. It's been a pretty good week, despite being incredibly tiring. For about 70 more weeks, until June of 2009, on Mondays through Thursdays, I'll be getting up to go teach around 6 am and not getting home until 9 pm. Friday's I only teach and Sat & Sun are being kept relatively clear for studying.

Teaching : I had a really good week. We've got a bunch of 9th graders that I taught 2 years ago when I was at the middle school, and it's kind of nice seeing them again. Whenever you change schools, you have to get known again by the staff and student body, and last year I was an unknown. This year, not only do I know the kids that were here last year, but because they came from my old middle school, a bunch of the new kids already know me. My math classes are looking good - Algebra I I'm coteaching with the special ed teacher, who is almost as crazy as I am. The UBSCT class has about 15 kids in it and they are all motivated to pass the test. Psychology is a blast. Last class I had them in groups of 3, gave each group a topic to learn (the different theories were our topics), had them talk about it in their group and then had them go around the room, talking to other students, finding out about the rest of the topice from them. It was cool. They stayed on take almost the whole time, mostly chatting about what they were supposed to. My Web Page class is not as dynamic as it was last year, but they are all interested in learning about it, and were even kind of excited when I told them the big project for the class was going to be a web page for a group in the school that I would actually put on the school's site.

Studenting : One of the classes is Foundations of Instructional Design, the other is Foundations of Learning - both of which are more project based, and not your basic lecture-test type classes. I have both classes with Gibb and her student teacher from last year, Leilani. Both professors have let us make our own teams, so we're working together on the projects, and if the rest are going to be like the first one, they're going to be a blast. We had to develop a design for instruction on changing a tire (and he specifically ruled out "get on the cell phone and call Triple-A") I don't know if you can tell how much fun we were having from the pictures (see post below), but we sure did take a lot of them.

Chevroning : Same-old, same-old. Love the people I work with, love the manager who is so willing to adapt to my school(s) schedule. And the extra $$$ ain't bad either.

Liking a Republican Governor was bad enough - but this is intolerable......

Did you know that if you click on any of the pictures here - you'll get the full sized version? Now you do.

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I've had a hard week this week. First I read about Gov. Huntsman's top three items on his agenda for next years predicted surplus, and the thought "I could vote for this guy" popped into my head. Not only is "tax cut" not even on the list, but teacher salaries, healthcare and pollution are the top 3 things he wants to spend the money on. What? A far cry from "take 2 aspirin and go back to work" Bangerter and backstabbin' Leavitt. If he backs up his words with actions, any Democrat that runs against is going to have to work hard to convince me to vote for them. And that hurts.

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Yesterday I'm looking for parts for my LTD convertible and come across this - the new Camaro concept car. Not a big fan of GM, and since the '70 change have never liked the Camaro. Oversized outside and undersized inside, given one I would have just sold it to get a Mustang. Now they come out with the new Camaro, which is a flashback to the ones of the '60's. (Click here to see the comparisons). This is a Camaro that I could actually see myself owning. If I could get past the feeling of cheating on my beloved Mustang......

"Lawmakers seek to strip school board of it's authority" - SL Trib, B1, today.

Seems we've got some ego maniacal lawmakers that are irked at the fact that the Utah State Board of Education did not buckle under to their demands and immediately implement school vouchers. Despite the fact that the school board was waiting for the Utah Supreme Court to make a decision on it, which ended up vindicating the actions (or in this case inactions) of the school board, there will still be bills up on the hill to strip the board of it's powers. But right v. wrong is irrelevant to these power crazed legislators. "You didn't play by my rules, so now I'm going to take my marbles and go home, pbbbblllttt!" Time and time again these people have proven the wisdom of the separation of powers build into our system. Time and time again they try to circumvent and eliminate these separations, and hopefully, since this involves a change to the state constitution, there are enough level-headed people up there to block this BS. I'm going to e-mail my representatives, you can find yours easily by going to this web site "Legislator Lookup", it will even give you links to their e-mail addresses. I think I'll be a little less, um, negative when I e-mail them than I am here on my blog. Maybe just comment on how important a concept I think the separation of powers is and how I feel that it would be wrong to enact a change in the Constitution that eliminates some, or one, of these checks and balances. Yeah, that sounds good.

Here is what I sent :

Dear Mr. Wiley,

Dear Mr. Romero,

In the Salt Lake Tribune this morning I read an article titled “Lawmakers seek to strip school board of it’s authority”. As one of your constituents I just wanted to let you know that even before I became a public school teacher I firmly believed in the principle of separation of powers, and that too much power in the hands of any one governmental entity is dangerous.

I realize that the next legislative session is still a way off, but I just wanted to express my opinion that the way the State School Board operates should be left alone, and I consider shifting the powers they have from them to the Legislature would be a mistake and contrary to the idea of governmental checks and balances.

Thank you for your time,

I knew it! & Funny Jr. High kids.....

Did I call it or did I call it? I saw Bagley's cartoon today and laughed my butt off (if only I could!). Check it out, click HERE and choose the 6/14 cartoon. That's all I'm telling you about it, check it out for yourself.......
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I'm in my summer school cooking class at the Junior High today. Two of my old students are in the class, Josh and Joey, and ironically both of them have a sister going into 7th grade next year that are in the class too. (I found that out when one of the 9th grade boys said to one of the 7th grade girls "I know where you sleep!". When I made my prescribed teacher comment on being appropriate he said "it's ok, she's my sister". Whew! Not so creepy that way.) Anyway, we're discussing elementary schools and the girls are telling me that their school moved from an old building to a new building on the same block as the district offices. Josh says something like "yeah, and the funny thing is when they're hanging out at the edge of the playground, they're hanging out on the corner of State Street". Not sure he knew that it meant what I know "The Corner of State Street" means in that neighborhood I look at him and ask "do you mean what I think you mean?" and get that semi-embarassed, semi-prideful, 'please don't make me explain this' look that tells me; yes, he does. Ohkay - moving on .... how about checking the enchiladas..........

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And if you want to see some pictures I took last weekend while wandering around Salt Lake with my new camera, click HERE.

School Vouchers : You mean rich people from out of state won't be deciding for us?

Yup, the sad thing is we Utahns are going to have to decide for ourselves. Stupid Supreme Court. Taking the decision out of the hands of the lobbyists and legislators and putting it in the hands of the people. Bad Supreme Court! Naughty, naughty Zut, uh I mean Justices. (Let's not take that Freudian slip to fruition).

Front page of the Salt Lake Tribune : "Vouchers : You decide" In a somewhat unheard of turn of events, the Utah Supreme Court issued it's ruling the same day as it heard arguments. The November referendum WILL decide the fate of school vouchers in Utah; if the people of Utah vote against school vouchers it will kill BOTH bills passed by the legislature. None of this "well, you voted down the one bill, but by some quirky circumstances this second bill, passed just to fix things on the first bill, will stand on it's own and we will still implement the vouchers you voted against. Sorry about that folks."

Just in case my bias has not come through so far - I am against school vouchers. Not just because I'm a public school teacher, or because $3,000 isn't going to help a family of 6 living on $26,000 afford the $10,000 for private school tuition or because (this is a theory of my sisters' that I adopted) we could see a whole bunch of fly-by-night private schools pop up out of nowhere that will "educate" your students for little more than that $3,000. My main argument against school vouchers is that they are supposed to foster competition, but how can you have competition between to entities that play by different rules? Public schools have physical boundaries, in which we are required to take every student that resides there, regardless of their mental, physical, parental and economic capabilities. We cannot say "oh, sorry, our school is full, find some other place for your kid", we have to make the room somewhere. We have to provide services for the students that have special needs, we have to provide free lunches and other financial help for required fees to students that do not have the economic means to pay for them. Private schools may, and I know some do, give this extra support, but they are not required to do it. I could go on all day citing requirements on the public school system that give private schools the advantage in a competitive market, (other than cost, of course), but it boils down to the fact that because of state and federal regulations private and public schools do not play on a level field, giving private schools the overall advantage. Which is why people are willing to pay the tuition in the first place - private schools are less encumbered by the distractions inherent in public schools.

There's your topic - discuss.