I predicted this back when I testified on the need for accountability in HB 618 that eliminated the cap on charter schools. We needed this measure then and can not continue without it now!

Legislature asked to ban closed charter schools from reopening

POSTED: 12/03/14, 4:47 PM EST | UPDATED: 15 HRS AGO

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For additional information about Michigan Association of Public School Academies and the request to Legislature to prevent failing charter schools from reopening under new authorizers, please visit www.charterschools.org.

As dozens of charter school educators and parents came to Lansing for a Charter School Lobby Day Wednesday, Dec. 4, a state charter school association called on the Legislature to ban schools closed for “academic failings” from shopping for a new authorizer.

The the Michigan Association of Public School Academies announced it will ask the state Legislature to adopt new accountability standards; and one would impact traditional schools as well as the charter schools. .Current state law allows a charter school that has been closed by one authorizer for academic failings to seek a new authorizer.

The charter school association is asking for an amendment to a bill introduced Wednesday by Rep. David Knezek, D - Dearborn Heights that would prohibit “authorizer shopping” among charter schools.

Another amendment it is advocating for would change Michigan’s school accountability system to an easy-to-understand A-F letter-grading system for all schools and require the automatic closure of schools - charter and traditional - that chronically earn failing grades.

http://www.dailytribune.com/social-affairs/20141203/legislature-asked-to-ban-closed-charter-schools-from-reopening 

For teachers, transparency can have a distinctly negative connotation

My doors are always open except when the hall is too noisy. This article points out a lot of great reasons for transparency in the classroom.

How Opening Up Classroom Doors Can Push Education Forward

Katrina Schwartz | February 18, 2014 | 12 Comments

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Transparency is not a word often associated with education. For many parents, the time between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. can feel like a mysterious part of their child’s life. Questioning students about their school day often results in an unsatisfying answer and not every parent has the time to be in constant communication with their student’s teacher.

For teachers, transparency can have a distinctly negative connotation. In the political debate, the word is often used in connection to hot button issues like posting teacher salaries and benefits publicly or publishing test scores. And within the school walls, transparency can feel like judgement. Teachers can see principal visits as inspections, not respectful check-ins to offer encouragement and suggestions. No school is the same and dynamics between teaching staff and the administration are different everywhere, but for many teachers the classroom is a sacrosanct, personal space.

 “I try to become a bridge between the quantifiable and the qualifiable.”

But what if teachers embraced the idea of transparency as a form of activism, a way of shining light on what works in the classroom? “The minute we say, ‘Come look and talk to the students,’ we can show what we’re all about,” said Jose Vilson, an educator and panelist at EduCon in Philadelphia. “If we can do that with a sense of trust and expertise, with respect for ourselves and others, then we can have a pro something instead of an anti-something.”

Opening one’s classroom to public scrutiny isn’t an easy thing to do. “In order for us to get more people involved, some of us are going to have to be twice as involved, go twice as deep and explain what we are doing in the classroom,” Vilson said. That means being vulnerable and willing to defend teaching practices to anyone who asks. But by welcoming a variety of voices into a discussion about what drives powerful learning experiences, and why certain teaching practices work and others don’t, the process becomes participatory. Everyone shares the responsibility for changing a system that matters to the future of the country.

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/02/how-opening-up-classroom-doors-can-push-education-forward/ 

Robotics and STEM

I had the opportunity to speak on Education Nation about STEM, Technology, STEAM, and Innovation

Education shakeup!

This looks  interesting, I wonder how true it is? Is he thinking that removing the profit motive from education may help level the playing field?

Schauer Education Plan Looks To Shut Down Successful Charter Public Schools

By TOM GANTERT | April 23, 2014 |  Follow Tom Gantert on Twitter

Mark Schauer

A 2013 study by Stanford University found that Detroit students in charter public schools were performing far beyond those in the Detroit Public Schools district. The study is the most comprehensive yet done, individually tracking students and holding for race, poverty level, English language learner, special education status and more.

Although many considered the study a success for charter public schools, gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer apparently has a different view on school choice in Michigan. He’s dedicated a lot of his “education plan” if he were to be governor to dismantling charter public schools in the state.

Schauer’s plan wants to stop the “unrestricted expansion of poor quality charters and cyber-only schools” and “provide for strict quality control over new charter and cyber schools.” Schauer also wants to remove “the profit motive” from charter schools. Schauer’s campaign didn’t respond to an email questioning just how that would be done.

All charter public schools in Michigan are authorized by either a public university, a community college or a conventional school district, but they can be run by management companies. If the state was to restrict "for profit" management companies from being involved in schools, many schools rated very highly would be shut down.

Read more at:

www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/20013

I already work in a system that rewards the “proven performers”

http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2013/05/post_12.html 

     I understand why this bill is hard for the critics to understand and accept.  People fear change, the old way worked well for a lot of adults, but none of us became teachers for the salary, and this system is not working for the students.  HB 4625 provides flexibility for school districts to implement a model that works for their teachers and administrators. It does not prescribe a certain model or compensation plan.

     I am on a mission to elevate the profession of teaching to that of other top performing countries.  I dream of the day when our nation puts teacher standards and teacher pay high on its agenda.  I want to restore the trust in America’s teachers by proving that they are statically great at what they do.  Better pay does lead to better teachers when there is a way to measure that growth.

Teacher 'pay for performance' bill approved by House panel over opposition from educators

By Brian Smith | bsmith11@mlive.com 
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on May 22, 2013 at 2:46 PM, updated May 22, 2013 at 2:49 PM

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Winnie BrinksCourtesy 

LANSING - Despite vehement opposition from both K-12 and higher education administrators and teachers, a House bill tying teacher salaries to student performance was approved by the House Education Committee along party lines.The measure, House Bill 4625, amends state education law to require school districts to make student performance a primary factor in determining teacher salaries. Secondary school teachers would be eligible for raises for earning advanced degrees when those degrees are in curriculum subjects they teach, while elementary educators would be eligible for raises for earning advanced degrees in elementary education. Only teachers hired after the adoption of the bill would be affected.
Under the present model, student performance is one of several factors used in determining salaries, along with a teacher's education and experience.
A standing-room only crowd - mostly school administrators, higher education officials and K-12 teachers who opposed the bill - filled a hearing room at the House Office Building.
Much of the opposition was centered on the fact that the Michigan Council on Educator Effectiveness, tasked with developing objective standards for evaluating teacher performance, has yet to make its recommendations on how educators should be assessed.

A Wake Up Call for Middle Class America, We are way behind other countries

"All too often I hear people saying that America's education problems are just in the inner-city.  While we have vast problem there, I think people are ignorant to the fact that we are falling behind quickly in other places.  The good news is that we have schools the got the right touch"

The American middle-class is struggling as its numbers dwindle and families struggle to make ends meet.

For many, a quality education is one of the perks that come with a middle class lifestyle, leading to future economic success and stability. However, times have changed and according to a new study, a large percentage of America’s middle class students are not keeping up with their international peers.

If our nation wants to remain competitive in the 21^stcentury, middle class schools must also be improved.   

Policy discussions on how to close the achievement gap and ensure that low-income students are receiving access to a high quality education often dominate the education reform dialogue, especially when it comes to improving America’s global competitiveness. 

However, after reviewing the 2009 math and science results on the internationally benchmarked Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam, America Achieves found that while leading countries like Singapore, Finland, Korea, and Germany have:

• Raised academic standards,
   
• Elevated the teaching profession, and
   
• Lifted their overall performance,

 America’s middle class students have not kept up.

This study shows that when students in each country are divided into four groups based on socioeconomic status:

• U.S. students in the second highest socioeconomic group are being significantly outperformed by their peers in 24 countries in math and 15 countries in science; and
   
• U.S. students in the third highest socioeconomic group are being significantly outperformed by their peers in 31 countries or regions in math and 25 in science.

But that’s not all. 

“America’s middle class students are falling behind not only students of comparable advantage but also more disadvantaged students in several other countries.”

The good news is that the same study also highlights specific schools that are serving middle class students well. In fact, 4 schools serving middle class students are literally outperforming schools in every country in the world in subjects ranging from reading, math, and science.

These schools serve as models, proving that some middle class American students can, and do compete internationally. Yet ‘some’ is not good enough. Every student in our nation, regardless of household income, deserves access to a high-quality education that prepares him or her for future success.

http://www.studentsfirst.org/blog/entry/a-wake-up-call-for-middle-class-america

Democrats care about Education Reform also

I know a lot of democrats that want change that helps our students, but they get attacked for supporting a position that has previously been only held by republicans. I grew sick of people saying we can't fix education until we fixed parental involvement and poverty. So, I am using education to fix  parental involvement and poverty rather than waiting or making excuses.

Column: It’s time for my party to stand up for students instead of stepping on them

Did you read the headline? Then you are probably already reading this story with a formed opinion, right? You have already said “This guy is wrong! He’s a traitor! He’s not a real Democrat!”

Martin Casas

I’m right aren’t I, that is what you are thinking.

Well, I’ve been a Democrat my entire career. I was the Executive Director for American for Democratic Action in Washington, DC; regional organizer for 5 states for MoveOn.org; staffer at the Democratic National Committee; field organizer in New Hampshire for Howard Dean in 2003; regional field director for AFL-CIO in 2006; president of the St. Louis Young Democrats for over 4 years; deputy field director for Congressman Chris Van Hollen (former head of the DCCC and current ranking member on the House Budget Committee); and perhaps more importantly, an early supporter of President Barack Obama.

If after a career like that, you still want to contend that I’m not a “real” Democrat, then you can probably just stop reading.

However, just because I’m a Democrat doesn’t mean I don’t see some flaws in many of my fellow Dem’s voting records/beliefs. For example, I share President Obama’s frustration over the Democrats failure to alter their stance on education reform.

My wife comes from a family of educators, both her mother and aunts have degrees in education and worked in rural Illinois as educators for over 30 years, her brother is in administration in Rockwood, and she taught in Saint Louis Public Schools for three years. While we lived in Washington DC, she worked at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. We moved to St. Louis so she could pursue her dreams of teaching. After three years, she realized that her real passion was in policy change and she left the classroom to work at Urban Strategies, a community develop nonprofit where she did education and youth policy and programming. When given the opportunity she joined a group of dissatisfied young St. Louisans as the State Director of Policy for the Children’s’ Education Alliance of Missouri.

I watched as Katie and her friends in Saint Louis classrooms struggled with the archaic and broken system. I took her dinner at 8:30pm when she was still in her classroom, I took her students to the museums and zoo on the weekends, and I supported her when she got a second job so she could buy school supplies for the students in her classroom. However, I also watched as the system failed the students that she and her colleagues were literally working day and night to save. It was in those long days and nights helping her and her students that I realized the majority of my party was on the wrong side of the education debate.

http://themissouritimes.com/1741/column-its-time-for-my-party-to-stand-up-for-students-instead-of-stepping-on-them/