Friday, March 4, 2011

A Slightly Different School Finance Discussion

It’s lonely in the middle…

I’m going to state up front that I am a fiscal conservative who is an actual advocate for public education. In every general election, I vote a split ticket. In other words, I occupy the middle ground. I believe that in the current economic crisis, the answer is in the middle. Unfortunately, the extreme actors on both sides of the equation seem to be locked in an ego induced death roll. A death roll that produces collateral damage that can be easily measured in the currency of lost student opportunity. And do not kid yourself; the economic repercussions of lost student opportunity can linger for a generation or longer.

So where is the middle? The middle recognizes that times are tough. And in tough times, labor has to make some concessions. This is new to educators, because we traded the risk of the private sector (job volatility) for less reward (lower pay). And for the past two years, the education sector has been safer than the private sector. This is no longer the case. Sorry, I don’t like it either. But not liking it doesn’t make it go away.

The middle also recognizes that if we want someone to provide a service, we have to pay for the service. Educators, like most public servants, give extra of themselves freely. But they still need to get paid, and trained, and supported. So how does the public pay for the service of educating the next generation? Through taxation. Does the middle like to pay taxes? No. Is the middle willing to pay taxes if it is for the greater good? Yes.

Unfortunately, the right has discovered that there is political hay to be made by constantly stemming the flow of taxes. There does not seem to be an understanding that once we quit investing in future (and education is an investment in our collective future) the future becomes a much scarier place. And the left has wrapped itself in the mantle of labor rights. Student centered school operations, which has always been more of a dream than a reality, continues to be crushed between competing adult interests.

So here is what I propose:

1. Remind labor, that tough times require concessions.

2. Remind those in power that under-funding schools is even a worse proposition than over-funding (by the way, I’ve been in education for over 20 years now, I'm still waiting to see a case of system-wide over-funding).

3. Cast your votes based on dialogue and leadership, not sound bites.

4. Change your litmus test. For me, the critical candidate issue is not immigration, gay marriage, abortion, taxation, etc. The key issue is now public education. This is not a “liberal” position. It actually is the position advocated by John Adams, one of our most conservative founding fathers. He wrote and I believe, “It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.”

Finally, we have to quit having knee-jerk negative reactions to any discussion on either taxation or budget cuts. The taxpayers before us paid for us to go to school, paid for the security we enjoy, and paid for the infrastructure that we still use daily. We turned out pretty good. Now it’s time to stand up and shoulder our part of the load. That’s what we do in the middle.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Follow Sean Cain at www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Thursday, March 3, 2011

A Reader Writes... (Go on a Field Trip)

In response to the 12/16/2010 post, “Go on a Field Trip,” a reader writes:

What is the Fundamental Five?

SC Response

The Fundamental Five are the five instructional practices that magnify the effect of every other high yield instructional practice. Essentially, the Fundamental Five represent the blocking and tackling of quality instruction. Execute them at high frequency and high quality and student performance skyrockets. Ignore them and the job keeps getting more stressful and difficult.

The book, The Fundamental Five: The Formula for Quality Instruction, will be released by the publisher in late May, early June.

The practices are a game changer!

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

A Teach In?

There is way too much coverage of educators abandoning their classrooms and schools to make their point. The message of their actions is not helping their cause, “I’m important and to prove it, I will take an instructional day from children.” As an educator who can count the number days of work I missed on one hand, I am not impressed and you have lost both my sympathy and the morale high ground.

Instead I propose the following, instead of a walkout, stage a “Teach-In.” Spring break is coming up, on one of the days, have teachers come to school and teach any student that shows up. Publicize it, alert the media, and show the community that when times get tough, we won’t abandon their children. Selflessness in the face of adversity just might be the example that everyone needs in order to move forward.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Follow Sean Cain at www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

A Reader Writes... (Question What You Do - Part 2)

In response to the 12/15/2010 post, “Question What You Do,” a reader writes:

I agree with assessments and using them to gauge the areas of strength and weaknesses. I have done this for years. However, I do not agree that when teaching ELL students we must use the same methods that a mainstream class uses. Scaffolding is necessary for these students. And at this time we are not able to do this at our school. I am directed to teach with worksheets and common assessments; and stay up with the rest of the mainstream classes. That is unfair! This is not equal educational opportunity for ELL students.

SC Response

One of the strengths of U.S. public education is the expectation that we educate every student at a high level. It is a noble endeavor. We teach at full speed to push and pull our students to levels of performance that exceed their expectations. I can’t speak to your specific situation because I don’t know what district you are in or what campus you are on, but I would hope that the instructional resources you use are similar to the ones that non-ELL students have access to. As for common assessments, I would expect your student to participate and I would expect to see growth over time and a shrinking achievement gap. The goal for your classroom must be the same as it is for every other classroom; it just might take a little more time to reach it.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Monday, February 28, 2011

Top LYS Tweets from the Last Week

Embrace bootleg technology. You will be hearing that from me a lot in the upcoming months. If fact, I was asked this past week (and accepted) to lead an additional session at the June TASSP conference addressing this very topic. LYS’ers we need to get in front of this. Bootleg technology will be a game changer.

So who activated a Twitter account last week? If you did, welcome aboard. If you didn’t, find a student and have them help you set yours up. To let you see what you are missing, here are the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of February 20th, as tabulated by the accountants at Price Waterhouse.

1. Thoughts while at Stanford: Prior generations sacrificed for the greater good. This generation takes and wants more. Where is the leadership?

2. Embracing bootleg technology means that schools need to rethink cell phone policy. Not that the policies were well thought out to begin with.

3. If mandatory union dues were re-directed to fund health and pension benefits, what would be the effect on the education budget deficits?

4. The fallacy of swapping teachers in a low performing school is that it ignores the issues of providing infrastructure support.

5. Still don’t understand the pure hate for NCLB. I for one take pride in all of my students performing above the expectations of other schools.

6. Improving school performance by changing the mix of kids is shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. Bad instruction remains bad instruction.

7. I don’t want to say the school discipline policies show favoritism, but overall, students with connections and means face fewer consequences.

8. It’s not news that many early college high school grads go to college. That’s why they exist. Like reporting many Exxon station customers buy gas.

9. Hate the fact that many (majority?) of educators still believe that we need to fight NCLB. I believe being held accountable is good for all.

10. When Texas districts start cutting athletics, state senators and representatives will have a difficult time getting re-elected.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Follow Sean Cain on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation