Accountability

There are so many who want education reform based on “running a business” and accountability that I think it’s time to explain the situation in language they should understand.

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?”

No, really?

MySA.com: State Government:

At least half of all high school students in the state’s major cities are dropping out of school, creating a crisis that state leaders are not doing enough to address, some education experts say.

This was true when I did my masters report in the 1980’s. This problem spans generations in terms of “alarm” over dropout rates. All of the dramatic reforms of the past thirty years, no pass-no play, increasing requirements, teacher reforms, etc, have proven to be only tinkering on the edges of the problem with no real results. I suspect things won’t change until the state is willing to go to some sort of equitable state wide funding mechanism while allowing more control at the local and parent level.

Right.

What do we have right now–does 4 by 4 ring a bell? No child left behind? Or how about how we handle charter schools?

MySA.com: Metro | State:

Shapiro’s proposed bill would make the closure of a charter school after two years on the academically unacceptable list automatic, removing intermediate steps that have slowed enforcement and helped spur courtroom battles. It would also set an absolute standard that a minimum of 25 percent of a school’s students must pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests in reading and math. If a school misses that mark two years in a row, it would have to shut its doors.

MySA.com: Metro | State:

Shapiro’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Ransom Rice, said there has been discussion of adding a caveat to the proposed bill that would allow such schools to prove that students are making considerable progress, even if their TAKS scores are sub par, thus saving themselves from closure. Rice said even if that measure is added to the bill, however, it would likely be a one-time-only second chance.

The logic behind this “reasoning” is astounding. First, you have schools taking kids who have managed to fall several/many grade levels behind over ten or eleven years and the school gets two years to bring them up to standards.

Then there is the whole “school choice” aspect of it. No one is forcing parents to send their kids to these schools. If these schools are doing such a terrible job, why are the parents still sending their children there? There are two possibilities.

One, the parent believes that the child is benefiting from the school regardless of what the state standards say. After all, they probably do take into account that their child is six years behind when he started the school.

Or two. The parents really don’t have a clue as to how their children are doing which is probably indicative of their own education experience. Can anyone say “culture of poverty?”

How will increasing standards reduce the dropout rate when part of the problem is that the students can’t meet the existing standards to begin with? How can shutting down a school because it doesn’t meet average yearly progress improve students’ performance if they are simply placed back into the situation that generated the problem to begin with?

Why do we still have a 50 % dropout rate after 40 years of alarm over the issue? Because no one is willing to come out and say resolving it would require spending more on students from poor economic backgrounds compared to those from wealthy, suburban districts. Because it would mean that people in a wealthy district would have to recognize that spending money on poor students is a necessary investment for their own children’s standard of living. It would mean letting go of the idea that somehow “those” students are in such poor schools because they deserve it.

HB 557: Holding Parents Accountable

80(R) HB 557 – Introduced version – Bill Text:

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.

Scott Parks Public Education Wish List

Scott Parks of the Dallas Morning News has a wish list for Texas education. Some highlights follow:

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Education Columnist Scott Parks:

• Thought leaders in public education will abandon the zany notion that all children must be prepared for college. They will refocus on how to provide solid vocational education programs for students who want to start careers after high school.

And spare us new competitiveness initiatives such as 4×4.

• Every student will get a textbook as required by law. Secondary schools will stop withholding textbooks because they fear too many students will lose or damage them.

Maybe even in El Paso

• Lawmakers blinded by the computer hardware and software lobby will stop advocating the idea that laptops should replace textbooks.

You know what’s funny, as computer programmer I probably have more invested in books on programming than the related software.

• Parents will stop jumping to the conclusion that the evil teacher is to blame when little Johnny gets a bad grade or gets disciplined. Instead, they start with the assumption that the teacher is right and go from there.

Well, Parks is from Dallas, land of the wealthy suburban districts so I can see how this would play in his area. Around here I’ve seen too many cases of parents being intimidated by “professional” educators in accepting situations that should never be accepted. It seems to me the parents in question tend to be those expecting their kids to go to college and no teacher is going to stand in their way. The perfect example was the parent who came in to complain about his daughter’s failing grade in her German III class. The parent expected the teacher to change the grade because otherwise she wouldn’t be able to go to A&M. It didn’t matter that the student didn’t lift a finger all semester.

• School board members will reject Texas Association of School Boards brainwashing. They will regularly bypass the superintendent to visit campuses and to speak with teachers and staff to find out what’s really going on in schools.

Ohhh, like the Frisco Board members who never deviated from their support of Rick Reedy in regard to the whole Sydney McGee mess?

• School boards, the elected representatives of the people, will reject the TASB concept that they are on “a team” with the superintendent as “quarterback.” Instead, they will act like bosses and treat the superintendent like a valued employee. The conceptual difference is small but important.

I would argue that the difference is even more important when you consider the financial costs of having a superintendent that isn’t accountable for his or her actions. Or are lawsuit settlements just added into the personnel costs of superintendents?

It’s a good column, definitely worth the time to read.

You can only whistle-blow if you go through channels

Another case of “you’ve got to wonder why” proposed legislation?

80(R) HB 362 – Introduced version – Bill Text:

� A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT

relating to the ability of public school employees to communicate with members of a school district board of trustees.
�������BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
�������SECTION�1.��Section 11.163, Education Code, is amended by adding Subsection (f) to read as follows:
�������(f)��The employment policy may not restrict the ability of a school district employee to communicate directly with a member of the board of trustees regarding a matter relating to the operation of the district,

The bill is sponsored by Rob Eissler, a former school district board trustee, so I kinda figure he doesn’t believe that board members will be inundated with frivolous issues by district employees. So which districts are trying to make employees go only through organizational channels to control complaints and/or whistle blowing?

Will 4 by 4 Solve Ysleta’s Problems?

El Paso Times – 90% of YISD students need remedial college math:

Students in the 12th grade will take the Accuplacer test and administrators hope to improve on past performances.According to Ysleta records, more than 90 percent of the students taking the Accuplacer would need to take remedial classes in math before enrolling in college level courses. The figures are better in English and reading, but the percentages are still high.

So does this mean that only 10% of Ysleta students are taking advanced post Algebra II math? According to the advocates of the 4 by 4 plan for Texas high school graduation, all those students would be ready if only they had taken a fourth year of advanced math. Do you think anyone is interested in finding what percentage of students who took the fourth year of math fall into the 90%?

El Paso Times – 90% of YISD students need remedial college math:

District officials said theAccuplacer will help them gauge readiness and develop intervention plans.

Silly Ysleta officials. Don’t they know that defining a problem is so not the Texas approach to education issues?

El Paso Times – 90% of YISD students need remedial college math:

Ysleta this year developed an Accuplacer Academy with the help of the University of Texas at El Paso. It also started other partnerships with El Paso Community College that officials hope will help improve scores.The academy provides training for teachers, counselors and other administrators to help students be ready to take on the exam and have the knowledge necessary to tackle college-level courses.

Now this is a waste of money since we all know all they have to do is require a fourth year of math for the students.

4 by 4, a Solution in Search of a Problem

Looks like high school students are going to have to take more math and science in order to graduate. Now I’m not saying this is a bad thing, I just want to know why did the legislature require it?

Having not really paid attention to House Bill 1 at the time, I’m assuming it has something to do with “college readiness.” I figure some legislators got together and figured out that Texas students weren’t doing so well and that increasing the requirements would address the situation.

So just what was it that told the lawmakers that something had to be done, although as usual, they don’t seem that interested in paying for it? The number of high school students unable to graduate because they hadn’t pass the TAKS? Oh, wait, it couldn’t be that since according to recent newspaper reports, we don’t know how many students fall into that category.

Maybe it was the number of students requiring remediation when enrolling in college? But did anyone actually check to see what courses these students have taken?

It could be that they were reacting to a change in the admission requirements of Texas state colleges and universities. The colleges could have been demanding a more rigorous preparation and increased the number of credits required for admissions. Except, there hasn’t been any such increase. Texas A&M requires three science units and only two have to be Biology, Chemistry, or Physics. UT only requires two science credits although it recommends three. I couldn’t find the requirements for UTSA, apparently all they require is a certain SAT or ACT score.

In general, I would say that taking more math and science would be a good thing. But here’s my problem with this “solution,” I don’t think anyone can actually say what it is a solution to. In other words, nobody can say when we have 80% of high school students passing the science TAKS test, we have solved our problem. How many people are passing the test without taking the extra classes? As usual, the fact that the state has implemented a solution is more important than whether or not it actually solves anything.

It’s kind of like saying that if all basketball players practice free throw shots 30 minutes a day, they would have a 90% accuracy in making free throws. There are going to be some players who can achieve that with only five minutes a day and some that still wouldn’t make it even with a hour a day but still somehow make it to the NBA. And then there are those who will never play in the NBA anyway.

Not all math classes are created equal

Texas has the solution to poor math scores–require more math classes for graduation. It’s part the new “4-by-4” curriculum that’s supposed to raise standards and better prepare students for college.

Tougher classes may await Texas’ college-bound | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle:

In September, the board gave a tentative nod to a plan that would allow students to choose from a variety of courses, including some lower-level math and science classes, for their fourth credit. But many in the business community and some concerned parents are stepping up pressure on the board to require more-difficult courses for seniors.

Inevitably, you’re going to hear about how students are going to college not prepared for majors that require advanced science and math. Something like this:

Tougher classes may await Texas’ college-bound | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle:

“A lot of key occupations like engineering and nursing are suffering because we’ve taken our eye off the prize and watered down the curriculum so much that it builds very little skills in students by the time they’ve graduated from high school,” said George Edwards Jr., a former trustee of Cypress-Fairbanks ISD who favors requiring challenging courses such as physics and pre-calculus.

Edwards, a certified public accountant with Exxon Mobil Corp., represents the 160-member Cy-Fair Minority Parents Association in his demand for tougher standards.

And someone will also say something about how high school graduates are surprised to find that they need remediation once they get to college.

Tougher classes may await Texas’ college-bound | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle:

Board member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, said he thinks the 15-member elected board will go with the tougher standards. He said something has to be done because half of entering college freshmen require remedial instruction in math or English.

With a solution this obvious and such a catchy name, how could it not succeed? Even Bill Gates is on the standards bandwagon. Well, some educators have pointed out that not everyone is going to be an engineer and schools need some flexibility in addressing varying needs among students.

Tougher classes may await Texas’ college-bound | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle:

John Folks, superintendent of Northside ISD in San Antonio, hopes that the State Board will let districts count a variety of math and science courses for the fourth year.”The bottom line is, kids have different skills, different abilities, different interests,” said Folks, a former math teacher. “We don’t need to put every kid in the same box.”

Good point. People tend to forget that these international comparisons of student achievement don’t always compare apples with apples.

But ultimately, this solution will only have minimal affect on math scores because it doesn’t actually address the problem of course content and standards. Let me give you an example. Recently, there was an article about a high school student who graduated with honors and found herself taking remedial math classes in college. She was shocked and disappointed.

For all we know, she took four years of math and still needed remediation in college. Apparently, she didn’t have to take the SAT or ACT to get into college or if she did, no one explained to her what her scores mean. Of course, not all colleges require such entrance exams so she may have never had a clue.

Then there is the case of students taking Algebra I from one teacher who gives them an easy A and then find themselves hopelessly unprepared for Geometry or Algebra II. Not all Algebra teachers are created equal.

In either case, will adding a class called “Pre-Calculus” really improve the student’s math ability?

So before we mandate a fourth year of “tough” math and science, I think it might be useful for someone to take a look at all of those people taking remediation classes. If someone were to take the time to look, I bet they would find a group of students who do very well in college having only taken three years of math from competent teachers and others who need remediation even though they took “Pre-Calculus.”

Actually, that’s not fair to the many teachers who are assigned to teach a class titled “Algebra II” and expected to have a certain passing rate no matter what level of skill the students have when they enter the class at the beginning of the year.

As much as I loath even suggesting more testing, I think end of year course exams would be a better first step to improving math and science preparation rather than requiring additional courses. I’m sure that there are all kinds of preliminary investigations you could do with existing data and testing scores before you would even have to mandate course exams. In any case, until the powers that be can demonstrate that students how have passed an Algebra II class have actually mastered Algebra II content, I think we should hold off implementing “tougher” standards.

Bill Gates’ Standards or This Explains a lot about Windows

According to Bill Gates, Texas is a model education system because we require more math and science credits to graduate than Washington state.

KGBT 4 – TV Harlingen, TX: Bill Gates’ education proposal: Be like Texas:

Twenty-seven states require students to take three or four years of math to graduate from high school. Washington requires only two years of math. The science requirement is also two years.

Gates says Washington should take a look at Texas.

He says to get a high school diploma, Texas students need to pass four years of math, science and social students and two years of a foreign language.

For a college dropout, Gates seems to be putting a lot of faith into setting and meeting standards. Maybe becoming a billionaire does that to you.

Now I’m sure after everyone’s experience with NCLB and it’s Texas origins, the people of Washington state will take a closer look at what is actually going on before deciding Texas has a better education system. Just in case people get to busy, I would like to point out a few facts.

According to the College Board, the mean Math SAT score for Texas students in 2006 was 506. The mean Math SAT score for Washington students in the same year was 532. Also, the average number of years of mathematics taken by test takers in Washington was 3.8 compared to 3.7 years in Texas.

But that’s not necessarily comparable since as the percentage of students who take the test increases, the average scores decrease. Well, the population of Texas is approximately 3.6 times that of Washington while the number of students taking the test in Texas was about 3.8 times that of those Washington.

Who knows if these scores are statistically comparable. There are all sorts of other factors that need to be accounted for such as race, gender, income, and so on. My point is that we don’t know. Just because Texas is requiring more math and science classes for its students to graduate does not indicate a more effective system. It’s like saying that the Mac OS is superior to Windows because it is attacked by fewer viruses or that Windows is superior to Linux because it has more applications.

Another $5 milllion might do it

MySA.com: Metro | State:

James Leininger spent nearly $5 million this year trying to elect voucher-friendly lawmakers to the Legislature, but now the retired San Antonio businessman and physician is farther from his goal than ever.

This wasn’t a case of money being distributed over a number of different organizations and candidates. It was more like, $50,000 here and $100,000 there, directly to candidates’ campaigns. No restrictions on campaign contributions in Texas.

MySA.com: Metro | State:

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, who fended off a Leininger-backed candidate in last week’s election, said he’s never seen a well-crafted school voucher bill. Voucher supporters don’t want student achievement measured by the same standardized tests applied to public schools, Castro said.

“You can’t have different standards if everybody draws from the same source of money,” he said.

astro’s opponent, Nelson Balido, spent about $179,000 trying to defeat him, with $100,000 coming directly and indirectly from Leininger.

I think this is the crux of the matter. Many voucher supporters want parents to be able to remove their children from failing schools into private schools of their choice. In other words, because too many of a school’s students are failing a test, the students should be allowed to go to another school that doesn’t have to prove it is actually better than the school the students leave. They’re denying funding to public schools that don’t meet standards so that private schools can receive funding without proving they can meet standards. Until voucher proponents can remedy this inconsistency, vouchers will continue to face stiff opposition.