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Bottom line in all cases I think everyone here would agree, is that we do what is best for the children. In certain cases in which you may find yourself in, a charter school scenario seems better to achieve that, than that situation’s public school alternative.
I guess the opposing point to your argument, would be that instead of allowing charter schools to siphon funds away from public school systems, hard changes are now needed to be implemented inside the public schools. Raise the revenue, invest in quality, and make the public school system move itself forward to do what is best for the children.
Then, the charter’s group counter-argument to THAT…, is: that is exactly what existed before charter schools were brought in! What you suggest didn’t happen then! Instead as situations got worse, administrators were told to deal with it; use good judgment. Charters are what brought in the necessary competition and now therefore they are responsible for today reforming public schools.
The retort for THAT, would be of what I spoke before: that too many mouths at the trough make thin pigs. No one benefits from too many hungry mouths fighting over too scarce resources…
And that is where this argument seems to lie. Am I seeing our differences now as question of perspective? Sort of like from where one is looking, sort of determines how one sees this problem?
Let me elaborate. charter supporters speak of charters making positive inroads on children lucky enough to attend their schools … So from the perspective of those particular kids (our number one priority) the charter moving in and siphoning resources from a neighborhood dying entity, is a very good thing… Seen from that perspective I’ll agree….
However,… as a society one has to have the broad approach. One has to look for the Ying that corresponds to the Yang… In this case, that Ying would be…. what is happening to those children NOT being put into a charter school?
The answer is….. drumroll…… that they are doing worse then when public schools alone ruled the educational fiefdom. And shockingly, students at charter schools seem across the whole to be doing worse than when public schools alone ruled the educational landscape as well….
And this is where we have to be careful… we can say, look at this Charter… see how well it is doing?
But we must first know … is it doing well comparatively because it is teaching superlatively, or because the students it takes in were originally more highly motivated to succeed in the first place? Had those same students been in public schools, would they now be boosting the public school’s results upward?
So from a theoretical perspective, it appears that the only sane way to determine whether charters have a positive or a negative impact upon societal education as a whole, is to use the numerical data to see how well students are responding now.
Doing so is a lot more complicated than this upcoming explanation, but using a simpler model will allow me to communicate it more easily. … Think if we were to give each student a number based on whether they graduated or not, and make those numbers either a +1 for graduating, or a -1 for not…. and then add up all of an entire city’s students, we would have a number for that district. We could then compare that number with numbers of the past, and also have the future come back to compare with us…
If with Charter schools in the equation, our success (graduation) number for ALL combined Public and Charter students is lower than it was before the time that Charters came in, then despite lots of individual success stories, the concept of starting charters is over the total system, … disruptive… On the other hand, if with Charters our comprehensive success (graduation) number is higher than it was before Charters came in……. then thank heavens, someone brought in charter schools…..
Does that make sense? If we took all of Delaware and compared all the numbers of students who meet the graduation standards before Charter Schools came in to disrupt, and compared that with all the numbers of students who meet the graduations standards now, … we would see, flat out, if that disruption was a positive one, or a negative one! Is that clearer?
I think what has always quantified the difference in perspective between the two camps,… charter versus non-charter, is that one side is adding the negative numbers into the equation, and the other side is strictly only looking at the positive spectrum…
As in positive: … “look this kid was failing but now in a charter he is graduating… Isn’t that great”. Versus,“look over here, these two kids are dropping out of public school while one person graduates from a charter, that’s a combined score of a negative one… We should switch priorities, fund public education and then at least, should the charter wither and fail, we’d have a score of a positive one at the very least. Positive three if the kid in the charter succeeds!”
And if I’m a good writer, I’ve led you right to the solution that should be forming in your mind right now as you read this… The real solution is to refund education, period; allowing for both the successful existing charters to continue, and for adequately funding public education to provide increased opportunities to close the gaps still existing among our students. Remember again, our goal is our children.
Public education thrived post second World War! Only when the tax revolt began and people even considered lowering property taxes and cutting spending, did quality levels of education start declining. We once had a very robust educational system… How can we tell? Our nation today is the byproduct of that intergenerational system stretching beginning and end across the 20th Century.
But somewhere in the 80′s we began to make a conscious choice as a society that we would benefit more if we gave the wealthy more wealth and gave public education and other things… less..
Somewhere in the past we as a society made a conscious choice to allow our nation’s leaders to put less money into education, and keep more for themselves and their friends…. ( of course in fairness, we thought we were going to get some of it too…. Psyche!)
And the longer and longer I look at today’s educational problem and all the millions of pieces that need to be glued back together, the more and more I come to the inevitable conclusion that we simply really need to take that money back, invest it where it should have been all along, and still, keep that same fire in our bellies which we have now, and make education fun again so that great things can happen…..
Just like it probably did for each and every one of us… After all, we’re reading blogs for heaven’s sakes… Where on earth did THAT curiosity come from? Does that make us all sort of weird? lol.
I’d never thought I’d write that. How could anyone in their right mind be against raising teacher’s standards… After all it is our kids we are talking about who will suffer….
Exactly, Passing SB 51 with S/A 1 Amendment attached, will cause our kids to suffer. That’s how I can write that. Otherwise I’d be full force behind this bill just as was every senator who voted for it….
You ask, how can raising standards on teachers, hurt our children?
I will ask you back; ”How would you like to take your brand new car you just purchased to Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop and have him work it over? How could that possibly hurt your car?”
Basically that’s what this law does for education. It is as if we passed a law for cars that said every new car purchased had to be re-certified by Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop. The entire premise on this auto legislation lies in this one single question: gee, who is Joe?
If Joe is someone who is the world’s best mechanic, factory trained by every car manufactured, a man or woman who can analyze myriads of problems by just with listening with a fine-tuned ear, then maybe this bill could possibly be ok. But if Joe has no knowledge of electronic computers, but learned his mechanics back in the days of steel and oil, and is a complete loss when he sees a car with no distributer cap, then taking your car that runs perfectly to Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop, can damage your car pretty darn bad.
And THAT is the problem with SB 51… We don’t know who Joe is….
What we do know, is that our car is purring perfectly, heck we just bought it, everything was tuned at the factory. Since it is straight from the factory, it is running very well, no play in the wheel, clean car smell, all items are working, and even our factory tells us to make sure we take it back to a “factory approved shop” for all repairs in order not to void the warranty…. But our government is making us take it to Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop.… And we still don’t know who Joe is?
And we are not too enthralled by all the junk cars piled up in its back lot…….
That is what is wrong with SB 51….
Our great educational training program that is functioning very well, is going to be tested and inspected by someone who doesn’t know crap…
That should scare the hell out of every single parent….
The educational system of America over the last 13 years has been disrupted. Good teachers have been fired, to be replaced with bad ones. Students used to read literature, and now they are handed “packets” and read test questions. Schools that have been opened for a century, have been closed…. The educational system is in disarray; a disarry that appears to have been forced down from the top.
We’ve all been there… The new boss walks in, and yells “things are going to be different now”. Some are excited, some are afraid, but this boss is out of control… He arbitrarily fires, can’t hire fast enough, and the business breaks down. It becomes broken. He came into fix, and it got put… into a fix. So he storms out, blaming all those left for his need to make an exit. And then everyone is asked to put it back together, and they do, then the next boss is hired… If you work in America, you’re guaranteed to have been through this scenario.
We are going to do that with teachers? Who’s this guy, Joe again? Is this test going to be made by the same ones that lowered Delaware’s results? Is this test going to be like those 5th grader tests loaded with 7th grade questions using letters a,b,c in algebraic math?
As that car owner, we have the best educational system bar none. Delaware educators have among toughest standards in the country. Counting every school, even the most stringent Ivy League schools, the University of Delaware is ranked 37th in the nation. That’s ahead of Rutgers, Temple, and even Boston University. Delaware State University is solid Tier 2 school.
Currently in Delaware’s educational programs, only one third make it through the tough gauntlet into teaching. All students graduating from UD, DSU, and WU have passed Praxis I and II; have logged hundreds of hours of observation and additional hundreds more hours of supervised teaching under the watchful eye of master teachers in our public schools. Compared to the standards even 10 years ago, new Delaware teachers graduated by these universities are the best prepared to enter the classroom in our history.
Delaware should be pretty damn proud. Instead we appear to be on the verge of committing a rash act full of unintended consequences. Our head is in the sand. Ok, the argument may go…. “If we’re so good, what possiblE harm can befall us if we take our new baby to Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop?
Apart from the fact that we do not know who “Joe” is or will be when we get there, there are these reasons. The changes in SB 51/SA-1 actually lower some credentialing standards rather than raise them [see the section on now accepting Composite Scores].
Currently all Delaware student teachers take the Praxis One and the Praxis Two. No pass, no teach. These are the factory cars in the educational equation. There are composed by NCATE, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. This is a very solid organization. If you go to their website right now, you will see that they pre-published their accreditation standards for public view and comments. They also dropped Wesley College’s accreditation for not living up to the standards.
This bill would replace these standards with ones created by the Delaware Department of Education. Returning to the Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop analogy, one has to wonder how a 3 year Phys Ed elementary teacher, can do better than a national organization that accredits schools.
Delaware has the 37th BEST teacher school ranked in the nation. And after this bill is passed, we are going to completely gut our entire program out of all we do so well, and have a 3 year elementary Physical Education Teacher rebuild our entire program from scratch….. One who has never gone through the RTTT testing he inflicts on others? One who quite questionably doesn’t meet the minimum 5 year requirement necessary to be a DOE?
It’s in the bill. that is what it says.
Would we let someone who has never been a doctor create the state’s medical certification program? Would we let a non-lawyer create the state’s Bar exam? Would we let a manager of McDonalds create our state’s nutritional guidelines?
With this administration and this Senate, I really don’t know. We just might, based on what I’m seeing right before me!
So, you are saying you would really take your BMW, Rolls, or Cadillac to Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop to be certified to drive it in Delaware? Wouldn’t you be afraid he’d mess it up, especially since it is working rather well right now? Ranked 37th!..
I can hear “Joe” now… “What are all these damn stupid wires for. (Rip,rip,rip) My old Model T never had this crap”…
It’s our kids. We can’t rush this, and this bill has been rushed far too fast through the Senate. The House needs to slow down and debate this one…
We can’t afford to lose our 37th top spot in the nation for which we worked so hard and so long to get….. We got to stop this bill that will make our cars all go to “Joe’s” .
The point behind the article was that charter schools do some great things too.
It reminded me of a middle aged executive who fell in love with his secretary, and had carried on an affair over years while maintaining his family status, buttressed with a wife and two sons. Who, now that the news was out was sitting with her on her bed, head in hands, looking at losing all in a divorce settlement, being banned from his kids, losing his job on a morality clause, and now, with no future in front of him, for the first time, accepting his responsibility in what he’d done…. Looking at the tears streaming down his face and through his hands, his young, voluptuous secretary tries to console him… “Well, it’s not ALL bad.. Look at it this way… At least the sex was good…”
Kendall Massett’s assertion that we must continue Charter Schools because some good may come out of it, in itself is a losing argument. It ignores the bad. When making decisions, one can’t ignore the bad.
I have found the best way to explain the “charter school versus public school problem” is with a parable. Go figure, but most people will grasp a parable when facts, figures and numbers roll off their eyes and out their ears.
“Once upon a time, there was a loving single dad. A dad who was blessed with one child. He was poor, still paying off the funeral bills for his former wife and the kid’s mother. But they got along ok. There was enough to live on and that’s what they did. However one thing bothered this dad. Being with only one child, the dad had nothing to compare that child to. He questioned himself. Was this dad doing everything he could for his child? So the dad, had a great idea. He would adopt another son of the same age, so they two could compete together. Which ever was the best, would get rewarded first and through the competition his son would eventually get the best upbringing he possibly could. What the Dad did not figure upon, was that feeding two kids cost more than one. He only had enough to feed one. So he came up with a plan that which ever son did better at running around the block each morning got to eat first, and the other got to eat what was left over. Every morning, rain or shine, at 5:30 am, the race would occur. Knowing what was at stake both sons tried their best. Sometimes one won. Sometimes the other. But the Dad began to grow concerned because he was timing the races. Originally he had to rush to get the food ready before the first one burst in. But over time, the found he had more and more and sometimes plenty of time to set the table before the first would come through the door. For some unknown reason, they were running slower and slower and slower. He invited an expert in to see why? The expert asked what he fed the first kid when they were alone. It amounted to 1000 calories. The expert said… “Ah Ha” You are feeding two people on what you fed one. No matter how much running they do, together they can never do what originally one was able.
Kendall Massett doesn’t cover this issue. Obviously common sense would decree that if we are going to have charter schools, we need to fund them independently and not take away the funds from public schools. Trying to make someone do better with less resources may be possible on a percentage scale, but the overall result, will be a loss. If charter schools want to experiment with private or parochial funding, and people want to go there, excellent. We have choice. Likewise, if we increase taxes on the top 1% just to pay the entire budgets of charter schools so that then we can experiment, great, let’s do it and have choice. But to expect better results on half the calories, is impossible. And that is the expectation of what charters will do.
This study of next door Philadelphia, shows that test scores in Philly were collectively higher when there were NO charter schools, then when there were. Meaning that allowing Charter schools to come in and compete with Philly public schools, lowered Philadelphia’s cumulative test score average…. Simply put, in any other venue when two teams compete, they both have independent sponsors. Splitting ones resources to fund two teams competing against each other, well… common sense tells you that when they go up against other teams whose funding was unlimited… they are going to lose badly…
Finally one other factor in Kendall’s piece that burns. When an scientist does experimentation, he throws out all those episodes where something goes wrong and his hypothesis doesn’t work. When you experiment in education, all that “stuff” you throw out, is our own children.
“Here are the guts of SB 51… The cuts are in one color, and the add ons are in another….
” …has achieved a passing score on both a content-readiness exam and a performance assessment as specified by the Department no later than July 1, 2015,” Added.
, except that this provision shall not apply to applicants seeking an initial license to teach in a core content area. For the purposes of this section, “core content area” means any subject area tested by the state assessment system, including Mathematics, English/Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. ”Added
”an initial license may be issued to an applicant who meets all other requirements for initial licensure except for passage of the PRAXIS I exam, provided that the applicant must pass PRAXIS I within the period of time from the date of hire to the end of the next, consecutive fiscal year. If proof of passage of PRAXIS I has not been provided during the time period specified, the initial license will be suspended unless the superintendent of the school district submits to the Secretary of Education a written request for a 1-year extension. The request must also document the effectiveness of the applicant.” Cut
An applicant seeking an initial license to teaching the secondary content area of Math Mathematics or English/Language Arts must also meet the achieve a passing score on the corresponding section of Praxis I. The Department may also require that an applicant achieve a passing score on both a content-readiness exam and performance assessment. The assessments and the passing scores shall be approved by the Department, and shall be developed or identified in collaboration with Delaware educators. ” added.
” This requirement shall apply to all applicants teaching special education in a core content area, as defined in § 1210 of this title, in secondary schools” added.
The Department shall recognize a professional status certificate or standard certificate that is otherwise valid if issued prior to August 31, 2003. The Department shall also recognize a limited standard certificate or a temporary certificate issued prior to August 31, 2003, provided that the educator successfully completes the requirements set forth in the limited standard certificate or the temporary certificate.” cut.
And this entire passage was added….
Subchapter VIII. Education Preparation Programs
§ 1280. Educator Preparation Program Approval.
(a) Consistent with § 122 of this title, no individual, public or private educational association, corporation, or institution, including any institution of post-secondary education, shall offer an educator preparation program for the training of educators to be licensed in this State without first having procured the assent of the Department for the offering of such programs. A program approval process based on standards adopted pursuant to this section must be established for educator preparation approval programs, phased in according to timelines determined by the Department, and fully implemented for such programs in the State. Each program shall be approved by the Department based upon significant, objective, and quantifiable performance measures.
(b) Each teacher preparation program approved by the Department shall establish rigorous entry requirements as prerequisites for admission into the program. At a minimum, each program shall require applicants to:
(1) Have a grade point average of at least a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale or a grade point average in the top 50th percentile for coursework completed during the most recent two years of the applicant’s general education, whether secondary or post-secondary; or
(2) Demonstrate mastery of general knowledge, including the ability to read, write, and compute, by achieving a minimum score on a standardized test normed to the general college-bound population, as approved by the Department.
Each educator preparation program may waive these admissions requirements for up to 10% of the students admitted. Programs shall implement strategies to ensure that students admitted under such a waiver receive assistance to demonstrate competencies to successfully meet requirements for certification.
(c) Each teacher preparation program approved by the Department shall incorporate the following:
(1) A clinical residency component, supervised by high quality educators, as defined by the Department. The clinical residency shall consist of at least ten weeks of full-time student teaching. Clinical experiences shall also be interwoven throughout and aligned with program curriculum.
(2) Instruction for prospective elementary school teachers on research-based strategies for childhood literacy and age-appropriate mathematics content;
(3) Ongoing evaluation of students, consisting of no less than an annual evaluation, aligned to the statewide educator evaluation system;
(d) Each teacher preparation program approved by the Department shall establish rigorous exit requirements, which shall include but not be limited to achievement of passing scores on both a content-readiness exam and a performance assessment.
(e) Education preparation programs administered by institutions of higher education shall collaborate with the Department to collect and report data on the performance and effectiveness of program graduates. At a minimum, such data shall measure performance and effectiveness of program graduates by student achievement. The effectiveness of each graduate shall be reported for a period of 5 years following graduation for each graduate who is employed as an educator in the State. Data shall be reported on an annual basis. The Department shall make such data available to the public.
(f) The Department shall promulgate rules and regulations governing educator preparation programs pursuant to this subchapter in collaboration with Delaware educators.” Added.
Section 3. The effective date of this Act shall be July 1, 2014.
Here is the bill in full….
And here is the Delaware code for that same passage as it stand now, before any changes get wrought…..
Ok, done… Sounds good right? Well for most it does. But… some of us have inquiring minds. and since there are no National Enquirers on newstands this time of night, these changes here will have to be the object that absorb our attentions….
For example…
At first glance it appears that before one could still teach first and take the Praxis later. Now one must take the Praxis first, period. My problem with this is that if a super-great student teacher trains in one school, and that school is aware of an upcoming vacancy and really wants that teacher to fill it, they can’t until the Praxis is first taken. Now one doesn’t walk in to take the Praxis, … or do they? One has to wait, like we did back when we took our SAT’s, until the test is being offered. That means this school which had a great chance at acquiring an awesome teacher, one they knew and wanted, must hire someone else who is a complete stranger to them, and who may not have as good of qualifications as did their own student teacher who they hoped could get that job. Under the old bill, she could have worked and taken the test when it was offered. Now, she can’t. An amendment could solve this!
Secondly. It appears that the old bill grandfathered anyone who has a certificate from before August 2003. With a stroke of a pen, those are no longer valid. I see some issues here. I see a home economics teacher, who is impossible to replace (who learns home economics in college anymore?) now at age 63 having to take todays recertification exams. As a normal human being, I can barely remember most of my education because I don’t use it. Today I pride myself on still being able to figure out my kids algebra. Woo Hoo! Back in class our exam was to start from scratch and prove Einsteins theory of General Relativity; I can’t even begin to start it now…. Forgive me for being cynical here, but this just looks like a vehicle to remove someone before retirement sets in. At most, a person in this capacity has been teaching for 10 years. If you didn’t fire them in ten years because they were so good, you are planning on firing them now? Is it because they make too much and you can hire someone cheaper? Is it because if you remove them before retirement, you can cut back on the pensions they have saved up? I don’t know this so I’m asking, but do we make Doctors take their MCAT’s over again in their old age? We don’t? Why not? They are dealing with life and death. What if they made a mistake and gave us 40 milligrams because they added 2.0 plus 2.o and missed the decimal points, giving us 40? We don’t test them for a reason. Because they know more already than the tests can check. And why don’t we make lawyers take their LSAT’s over again? Our OWN Attorney General had to take his Delaware Bar exam 3 times before he squeaked in over the 154 benchmark. He’s our Attorney General for heavens sakes!!! Surely we should test HIM once a term maybe? If he’s good, he should whiz through it… Hell, give him the Delaware Bar right now and let’s pull him if he doesn’t get a passing score… After all, if he can’t muster it, he shouldn’t practice law, ..right? I don’t know this so I’m asking… So why don’t we test lawyers, like we are going to do teachers?
Because its just plain stupid that is why. You test those to determine who gets in, and once they get in, their time needs to be spent on the tasks at hand, not focused on retaking test they’ve already taken…. Requiring ongoing multiple tests is as sensible as selling your stock and buying it back yourself just to say you don’t have any old stock… It’s costing you a lot in commissions to do so.
Passage of this bill allows for the removal of tenured teachers who after teaching all this time, can’t pass the exam….. Something none of us could do, no matter how successful we are in our current careers. By the way. Did Mark Murphy have to pass a competency test as would these teachers, before he took office? Let’s give him the Praxis today and make his position dependent upon its passage. If he fails to accept the challenge, then obviously, there is something wrong in this bill. Although set in talk of raising standards, there belies intent behind this bill to arbitrarily remove people the Department does not like…
Again, an amendment grandfathering this group, similar to the one before, can solve this problem.
Thirdly… and forgive me for going into this, but flat out… this is vague. ”Each program shall be approved by the Department based upon significant, objective, and quantifiable performance measures.” And that’s it. No explanation. What are or will be the performance measures? As Steve points out, we have considerable measures currently in place. We receive excellent teachers from our current crop of schools. So what exactly will be the significant, objective, and quantifiable measures? ( Playing devils advocate here, but the language is so vague, it could apply) Do you have to be white? Do you have to be a woman? Do you have to be willing to work for $15,000 a year? Do you have to be willing to work with no pension? So how are you going to rate Del Tech’s teaching, Del State’s teaching, UDel’s teaching any differently than you do now? If someone comes from Harvard, how do you measure that, without telling us how you are measuring that? We used to have to measure intelligence at the polls to vote. We thought is was funny to ask a white boy who was the president of the United States, and a black boy what the square root of 32 was to the 4th decimal place… yes, it created lots of laughter. But that is exactly what this legislation is creating. An impartial, willy-nilly, capricious standard that can let some through the door, and close it on others… Where is the standard? If we don’t have it, why are we voting on something we haven’t seen? Who here would sign a contract with a bank that was blank? (Good thing I switched that around; that was going to be a Wilmington Trust jibe)…
Fourth, and again forgive me for asking, but what is the reasoning behind passing super high standards … then creating a back door so 10% of those below standard can walk in and join the party? Isn’t that an exercise of futility? The result is going to give you exactly the same results one has now. Today 90% are 3.0 and above; 10 percent are just under. Perhaps quantifying it could be their excuse… That’s the way it is so we’ll put it in writing. Or maybe its trying to set a minimum so at some point in the future, generations not yet born, will not be tempted to go to 80/20 or 70/30 ratios. Still, it just seems futile. Of course we all know what happened was the original standard got offered, then the 10% was added to insure the objections raised were met, but still, the final piece now lacks credibility. It was as if we said, “ok, you must follow the no text rulings, no texting or hand held phones… Except 10% of you will be allowed. No problem for you.” As an old corporate dog once advise me: “If you’re going to make a ruling you can’t enforce, don’t make it. It gives you personally only one option, and that is to lose.”
Fifth: As noted by Steve, Delaware already utilizes far more than ten weeks of student teaching this bill requires. By dropping the levels required to just 10 weeks, Delaware student teachers will be overqualified and should easily get jobs here in this state. Is this lowering of the requirement to allow us to recruit and bring in cheaper teachers from other parts of the country, parts whose educational departments are perhaps not as thorough as is Delaware in its requirement for teachers? I do know in some states, teachers tell their students that dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time. Is this an attempt to whisk “those kind” into Delaware? .. Our standards are already higher than that, so why are we lowering them while pretending it is raising the bar higher? Do we need to start warning our children to beware of teachers who talk with funny accents?
Sixthly: What do you mean when you say this: Instruction for prospective elementary school teachers on research-based strategies for childhood literacy and age-appropriate mathematics content. Excuse me for asking, but “whose” research will you use? I’m sure you are well aware that the now accepted failure, No Child Left Behind, was attempted at all because of faulty research. I’m sure you are well aware, the the school voucher program pushed forward in some states is failing desperately because it too, was based on faulty research. I’m sure that you are well aware, that the entire charter school program is failing across this nation, and taking all its children down with it…. was based on faulty research… So when you say research-based strategies, the hair sort of goes up on the back of my head… Uh oh. As every single working teacher will tell you, each year there is a new, proven, brand-new strategy that will finally, finally magically transform all students into a model classroom,…. and each year afterwards, … there is a new, proven brand-new strategy to replace it… All costing the state millions of dollars to implement I should add. And furthermore, each time there is a top personnel change there is also a new research-based strategy to go along with it. And as you know, each strategy takes up weeks of a teacher’s time they could spend with students, and if there was any redeeming value in that strategy, it is only discovered in the final weeks of the year, but alas it is too late. Next year there will be a new strategy and teachers get to start all over. And as reports of the tests come filtering back, there are multiple issues of where 7th grade material ends up being on 5th grade tests. Who is determining the age appropriateness of the mathematics? Surely not the same people who are making the test? And while I have your attention… what really is the point of putting a question on a test that no one taking it has been trained to answer? Why give a student who has passed algebra and trig and geometry and done well mind you, a Galileo equation? As adults, none of us are tested on things we should not know? I mean would we really put complicated questions of Ugandan history on Beau Biden’s Bar Review that he must pass to pursue a career? Of course not… That is torture. To do so would just be mean and nothing else. So why are we torturing little children?
Again, there is no definition of standards. What are they? Can they be misused like almost the exact wording was put in law back during the Southern Segregational Era? Do you know how many research strategies their are? Google gives you 56,700,000 in under a second. There have been at least 10 used in every school over the last 10 years… So out of all of them, which one is right? Isn’t that an extremely arbitrary decision?
Seventh: As has been frequently pointed out, we currently have standard that must be met to teach. They are rather difficult to achieve. Most schools have a final exam. After four years of college it is nice to get a score to see where you stand. And heaven forbid, if beer was your major and you failed to meet the standard of the college on its final exam, you couldn’t represent that college as alumni. No problem there. But I’m curious, how one expects to discern the educational aptitude of teachers coming from a variety of locations, like George Fox University, or the University of Central Arkansas, or Concord University, or Everglades University, or Franklin Pierce University? Sure they pass their tests, they got their degree, but can they even be close to as good as someone coming from a much more difficult regimen at a Delawarean university or college? So we say No to someone to entering college got a 1400 combined on their SAT, because they didn’t pass Delaware’s stringent test, and say yes to someone from Everglades University, who entered college with a combined SAT of 1000, and was taught the test and passed it with a high score. How does that benefit children?
That question could be fixed with an amendment requiring the GRE to be part of the assessment. Otherwise, this action is pointless because of so many standards nationwide.
Eighth. And here is the crucial point. After graduating the bar of success or failure will be data collected from testing students. When a new teacher joins a district, where do you think they will be placed? In the best classrooms with the best students? Or in the classes after every current teacher has been given the opportunity to move up, that are left? Obviously the latter. So a great teacher, one who would teach suburban students amazingly, finds themselves in a classroom of students whose lifetime ambition is to get a good rep in what was once Gander Hill, but is now the Howard Young Correctional Center… ”I’m sorry miss, but your scores are embarrassing. You can’t work in Delaware anymore.” Likewise a teacher who doesn’t give a damn, who luckily is in a great environment, gets raises year after year. Tests do not measure students accurately, so using them to fire teachers is just plain wrong. If you’ve read this far… you had good teachers. None of them were tested into the ground like we are doing to ours today. What? How can that be? How on earth can you have great education, one that make America into a world power, without testing 3 times a year, and again, many times between that? How can it be?….
Obviously it was. And in the real world, that alone would put an end to this policy of testing ad nauseum.
But we don’t live in a real world anymore, do we? It seems not.
Ninth. And there is one important thing that is missing. How much will this cost? Any estimates? Who will get the contracts? Pearson? ETS? College Board? The ACE? Someone’s getting wealthy… But how much will this cost, and will that be supported by a tax upon the wealthy to pay for it, or will it be culled from existing programs now doing a great job today?
These issues need to be addressed before the House passes the bill…. As i said at the beginning, it all sounds nice… “higher standards for teachers? Sure, why not?” But then, a year later…. “What! They fired Ms. Jones! Are they effin’ crazy? She’s the best teacher in this school!” and two years later, … “Mr. Principal: your scores are down. You failed.” Then at three years later: “ladies and gentlemen, we are closing this school.”
Perhaps it’s time to look at bills closely before passing them unanimously.
Astra Zenica is closing out 1200 jobs. Just think if the Port of Wilmington was going to be losing jobs as well?
Corporate entities are one thing. but good old fashioned labor unions are what provide stability to an entire city.
Although the year is barely out, we do have our first nomination for the spot to be announced in December 2013. With the Kinder Morgan Deal now on hold semi-permanently, even they are pointing to our hero of the year as the man most responsible for allowing the port to remain state owned….
I can say it was Julius Cephas who was behind almost every move to combat the loss of good jobs at our port. He is being pointed out as the villain by the capitalists at Kinder Morgan. In Delaware’s eyes, that elevates his hero’s stature even more…
In truth, he is no villain and knowing him, he will probably shun the acclimations being made by us common folk as being our hero. In his eyes, he was just doing what needed to be done because no one else was there at that very moment to do it, and as that task swelled, it took a lot out of him….
Capitalists always need a villian. But it was the “truth” which actually is what killed this deal. Kinder Morgan WAS going to cut back on jobs, and their change of heart and blaming Julius instead of others, points exactly to the core of their problem with our port… …
People in Texas, do not understand unions. They simply can’t fathom or understand how there can be an actual law that lets people strike and shut you down, whenever you try to pay them less.. In their eyes, you work for what they want to give you and if it is too little, ..humph. go elsewhere….
The second culprit (after the “truth”), was our office of economic development. We gave Kinder Morgan too many “eager” signals that set us up as being seen as an easy pick. They truly thought they could waltz in, pick up a top notch East Coast Port for a song, and we would eagerly give it up… Again, that was because everything was done in secret. Had a meeting been forthcoming in the very beginning, Kinder Morgan might have moved on earlier when it became readily apparent, that southern Texas practices do not bode well in the Northeast…
Of course, being a corporation, they will blame the whistle blower. (Ironic since the whistle blower of Enron works for them).. Of course. It is not like they find anything immoral in taking a state asset for a song, in firing those skilled dock workers, and replace them with some Spanish speaking Texans who never even heard of a union….
And Julius did blow that whistle. . Like Rose on the Titanic, he took the whistle off of Jack (pun intended), and blew softly at first, then harder, and harder. Gradually the sound registered on others ears….
Without Julius, Bob Marshall would not have pushed through Senate Bill 3. Without Julius, most of the links showing up in everyone’s blog, would have not been found. Without Julius, the case for protecting workers would not have even made the rounds of the Norman Oliver show….
There were many helpers. Bob Marshall, Nancy Willing, Norman Oliver, Norinda, Helene Keeley, Al Mascitti, Liz Allen, John Kowalko, and (an other blogger too shy to be mentioned here). When one looks back through all of them one sees from everywhere, there in the center of the universe, stands a normal human being just like us, known to most … as Julius.
There will come a time when a better deal will arrive. Could even be this year. There will come a time when a suitor who does care about Delaware, who does care about unions, about human beings, about those businesses on the outside, and who will want to upgrade the port for everyone’s interest, not just their own… And that suitor in this day and age, could even come from abroad. Germany is very committed to union labor, to the environment, to being a good neighbor…. There are a great many possibilities out there that are immeasurable…. We definitely dodged a Texas bullet with this one….
When that suitor arrives… Julius’s stature will be set in cement…. For he did nothing really Herculean, except argue the truth… He didn’t lie. He didn’t connive, He didn’t threaten….
That was done by our office of economic development. Instead and unlike them, Julius told the truth. He told the truth to anyone who would listen. He told the truth enough, so many “did” listen….
And that is why, he deserves this nomination as Delaware’s Man of the Year. I know it is early into 2013, but great things just do not wait!!….
You will hear smears that Julius tubed the deal… I saw the letter and it is already out on WDEL and the Delawareonline’s News Journal… But as an impartial blogger, I can tell you exactly what killed this deal.
It was “the truth”. The truth of what this deal would cost us Delawareans….. is what turned the tide and caused the outcry that rose up against it….
If Kinder Morgan really wanted this deal, they could have easily said… “we are expanding and putting 5 new berths out into the river. We are buying the port for the bargain price of $5 billion. We need those businesses outside the fence because the jobs we get, will soon be too big, we can’t do it ourselves. We will keep the union just as it is; Wilmington needs good jobs and we are going to do our part…. We are also going to contribute into an emergency fund to be used for any spill or environmental accident that takes place under our tenure….
Kinder Morgan could have done any of those things, … and didn’t…. The blame doesn’t lie with Julius after all…. Especially when you consider the following…
This Economic Council erred on Fisker Automotive. Then it erred on Bloom Energy. Then it tried to Kinder Morgan us out of our port….. Someone rushed in with a save to make sure that last one didn’t happen.
That person is now hereby nominated for Delaware’s Person of the Year…….
Courtesy of Wikipedia
However, the longer the period between two concessions, the less information the regulator may have on cost and demand conditions. Therefore, there is a trade-off between incentives and information for regulating a concessionaire optimally…..
50 years is a long time. Most people over 50, won’t see the end of the lease. Only 6% of those now between 40 and 50 years old, will be around go see it revert back to the state. An egg, fertilized tonight, will be moving around as a 50 year old when this port lease expires…..
Can a lot change in 50 years? Let’s look back… 50 years ago was 1963… Let that sink in…. If our ancestors had leased the port in 1963, while John F. Kennedy was president, while Lyndon Baines Johnson was Vice President, while Robert Kennedy was Attorney General, it would still be in the lessor’s control…. What would it be? Would it have grown as it did as as public entity? Kinder Morgan is an energy company… How many of these are still around? Amoco, Getty, Esso, Sinclair, Atlantic, Texaco, Gulf, Pure, Phillips 66, ….
A quick reminder of our local refinery may drive home the point. Originally Delaware City refinery was started in 1956 and as of 1963 was owned by Getty… In these 50 years past, it has gone through a progression of Texaco, Star Enterprises, Motiva, Premcor, Valero, and after a brief shut down, it is now run by PBF Enterprises… I wonder how many of the original promises that Getty made to get approval and the refinery built, are still edified in the practices of the current owner?
Kinder Morgan says it has no plans for Liquid Natural Gas… but, what about its third owner, its fourth, its fifth? The only thing constant is change…. When people tell me Kinder Morgan is going to be around a long time, I tell them that early last year, El Paso Gas was saying exactly the same thing….
Bottom line, none of us would lease our house out for 50 years locked at today’s low rent prices, yet that is what we are doing with Kinder Morgan. We are giving them a cut throat bottom rate for 50 years with no renegotiations….. And speaking strictly for myself, if I were Kinder Morgan, … those last 15 years I would put as few pennies as I could into my investment, knowing full well, I’d soon just be turning it over to the state in 2064…
Which means, that after the end of 50 years the State receives an beat down, unmarketable entity, and not the same shining port we are giving up today: the number two largest fruit port of the entire world…..
So, what do other ports lease for?
http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/64583/2181seaport.pdf
As one can see, only one port is leased out for 50 years: La Harve in France. The average lease on the chart above, is 23.3 years. Furthermore, in such agreements it is very common to have penalties and fines to guarantee adequate compliance with the terms of a concession agreement… Concession contracts have long lives, and therefore it is important that port authorities are able to establish strong positions from the start of the concession, and be allowed to perform regular inspections to verify assets are being kept in top condition. The potential threat of fines must be written into the contract to ensure compliance.
Bottom line, the excessive length of this contract for this small port is odd, and is definitely laid out in the favor of the renter, who in this case will be Kinder Morgan. At this point, without balance embedded deep within the contract, we are really doing nothing more than selling our first born daughter to the very first man who comes along….
On Delaware Politics, Mike Protack put this up for humor. Warning: it isn’t really funny. However, it is a very useful tool which can be used to describe the difference between the two parties. Or more specifically, one decrepit party versus the rest of humanity. One can definitely see in its original tone, that Republicans feel they are the entitled ones. They feel they should not have to work for their wealth, but it should be handed to them. They assume they are entitled to exist at the top fo the food chain, and all others, who are on this planet, are here only for their pleasure or benefit…. So, I sincerely thank him for posting this, so the historians of posterity can come here to browse, whenever they ask: …”btw, what ever happened to the Republican Party?”
If a Republican doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one.
If a Democrat doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.
If a Republican is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat.
If a Democrat is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.
If a Republican is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a Democrat is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.
If a Republican is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
If a Democrat is down-and-out he wonders who is going to take care of him.
If a Republican doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
A Democrat demands that those they don’t like be shut down.
If a Republican is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A Democrat non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.
If a Republican decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
If a Democrat decides he needs health care, he demands that the rest of us pay for his.
If a Republican reads this, he’ll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.
A Democrat will delete it because he’s “offended”.
That is how they wish it was…. Now… here is how it really is….. if you notice above, Mike Protack’s joke is phrased as if it is the Republican who is the one doing something of which all Republicans don’t approve . Everyone knows, that is not how Republicans are! For this to be a true, accurate depiction of how things truly are and perceived by Republicans, we need the Republicans to be the ones controlling everyone else… That is the reality and that is why the Republican party has lost 50% of its base since last November.
If a someone doesn’t like guns, a Republican threatens them with bodily harm.
If a someone is a vegetarian, a Republican taunts him for being a tree hugging commie pinko fag..
If someone is homosexual, Republicans and his friends, attack him and drag his body behind their pickup around town.
If someone is down-and-out, a Republican jeers, taunts, and punches them in the face.
If a Republican doesn’t like a talk show host, he beats the crap out of his wife.
If someone is a non-believer, a Republican gets on his knees, and leads the Sussex County Council in loud, obnoxious prayer.
If a Republican decides he needs health care, he quits his job, runs a meth operation, and uses the money to pay off his doctors….
If a Republican reads this, he will say it was written by a bigot.
Obviously this of course has been done as a public service so those insensitive Republicans who are still unaware of how they appear to society when they express their views in public, can finally get the idea. I hope this helps us all to move forward and treat each other with mutual respect…..
But, I doubt…. that they have it within them to rise to the challenge…. 
Photo courtesy of Disney Productions
Just reading Jack Markell’s advice on sequester, loosely translated, it means “no growth for that”; “no growth for that”; “no wiggle room for that.”
The entire Sequestration is being caused by the shrunken Republican minority’s refusal to accept higher taxes on the wealthy. As proven earlier, the $85 billion for the Federal Sequester could easily be raised by taking income over $1 million dollars one more penny per dollar… None of this would have to occur.
Currently Jack Markell proposes a cut in taxes on the top marginal rate of Delawareans. Almost all are registered Republicans. Their rates are to be reduced from 6.95 to 6.75. Initially in better economic times this was deemed to cost the state $8 million the first year, and $15 million the second year it goes into effect.
With the Federal Government pinpointing $15 million of Federal Aid being cut because Tea Party Republicans won’t raise taxes, the idea of cutting taxes on the wealthy here in Delaware had better now be dead in the water.
As has been mentioned many, many, times here and elsewhere, when you have oodles of more money than you can keep track of, whether the state tax rate is 6.75, 6.85, 6.95, or even 7.95 concerns you not… only 3 out of every 10 voters are Republicans. Only 1 out of 10 of Delaware’s general population, both voting and non voting, are Republicans..
The man behind the tree, is now a republican… He is the one who needs to pay for the Republican caused sequester…. It is time we implement a Republican Donation Tax. A surcharge tax equal to the amount donated to the Republican Party, that gets slapped onto any other assessments by law.
We tax tobacco to pay for the harm tobacco causes. We tax liquor for the harm liquor causes. We tax gasoline for the harm gasoline causes…. ‘Bout time we tax Republicans for all the harm they’ve cause us….
Photo Courtesy of newshopper.sulekha.com
NRA Says Having Piles Like These Outside Every Courthouse Door Would Have Prevented Today’s Shooting
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