My message to the House Education Committee - Pass policy that helps our schools - stop the micromanagement!

Over the past two years our legislators have passed numerous bills which supplant our local school board’s authority and the Michigan Department of Education’s authority with that of our State Government.  They’ve passed so many rules and regulations that teachers have little flexibility to be creative with their day.  Administrators spend increasing time filling out forms, scheduling testing and ensuring compliance with regulations instead of what should be their main responsibility which is to help teachers and our kids. 

I’ve written before that we need to let our legislators know that it’s they that are failing our children, not our teachers.  Now more than ever, we need to send this message.  Policy makers should focus on the big picture and let our schools make the decisions about how to teach.  We need smaller class size and additional services, not new labeling systems, mandates and more red tape!

This week, the House Education Committee reviewed HB5111 and HB5112 which, if approved, will continue to erode local control of our schools.  Lisa Lyons chairs the House Education Committee.  Her contempt for teachers is well-documented.  Instead of working on policy that supports our schools and students, her legislation has focused on eliminating teachers, programs and support staff and labeling schools and teachers as failing.  Wednesday’s proposed bills continue this agenda.

HB 5111 is a 13 line bill.  That’s it.  149 words.  Basically, it states that if a third grader doesn’t “achieve a score of at least proficient in reading on the grade 3 state assessment” the pupil will be held back.  That’s it.  No limit on how many years we can keep a child in third grade.  No recommendation as to how we should help the child.  No exceptions for ESL students or students with an IEP.  No pressure on the test, kids.  Don’t worry – you’ve got it covered.

Then there’s HB5112 which Lyons introduced.  This bill changes the color coding system to a letter grade system.  (The MDE came up with the color coding system in order to obtain a waiver under NCLB.  It’s been in place less than a year.)  Lyons says the following of the current system:  It is just too hard to understand and parents can’t figure it out; she has friends who come up to her at football games and ask what a yellow or orange means; it would be easier and clearer to have a grade.  My response – maybe.  But, isn’t that for the MDE to figure out and not our legislators?  My number one problem with this bill (besides the fact that our legislators are wasting time and OUR MONEY on silly issues like this) is that it mandates that no more than  10% of schools will receive an A, approximately 28% a B, approximately 31% a C, approximately 28% a D and “at least” 5% an F.  So that means 64% of schools will receive a C, D or F.  Let me state this again:  Page 14 of HB5112, line 5, states that “at least 5% of public schools are assigned a grade of F”.  When they do, they’ll be transferred to the supervision of the “State School Reform/Redesign Officer”.  The school then prepares a redesign plan, etc. etc. etc.  If the plan is not approved, the school will be placed in the state school reform/redesign school district.  Current legislation dictates the superintendent of public instruction hires the “officer” and this “officer is exempt from civil service.”  Which means, if your school is taken over, you lose all ability to manage it.  So 5% this year.  5% next year.  After 10 years, the state government could have control of 40% of our schools.  Now that’s a business plan worth pursuing.

It’s worth asking whether the state government is also mandating that teachers’ evaluations be distributed based on a bell curve – do we have to have X% of teachers rated Highly Ineffective?    What about students?  The concept that someone must always be failing and not too many can be highly successful doesn’t make sense to me.  Don’t we want all children, all teachers and all schools to be successful?  Is it fair to establish a bell curve that mandates that a certain percentage of the population receive a C, D or F regardless of percentile performance, and doesn’t this type of system conflict with the mission of properly preparing all students to be career/college-ready?

To discuss the bills, an expert was called in.  I assume the state pays to bring these people to the table.  The expert brought in for this session was Christy Hovanetz from The Foundation for Excellence In Education.  Yep – you heard that right.  This is Jeb Bush’s foundation.  Why wasn’t there an expert there that could speak to the opposing view?  Where’s the open dialogue in our state government?  Re HB5111, she stated that 25 states now hold back children in the third grade, based on test scores.  She did recommend adding wrap around services for the children that are held back – set up uninterrupted reading blocks of 90 minutes or more, provide summer school, provide tutoring, don’t repeat the same teaching methods the second year around…  At least these suggestions are ways which might help improve reading.  But nothing of this nature is in the bill.  Nor is there any appropriation in the bill to help cover the cost to repeat third grade for the approximately 33,000 kids that are currently not proficient.  And that gets us to another point – proficient according to whom?  The MEAP?  The SRI?  One day.  One test.  The expert said we might want to consider using multiple evaluations to determine proficiency.  Our legislators?  Children can pass the test, as LONG AS THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TEACHER.  What? Pete Lund said it best himself – when he was in school all his teacher had was a blackboard, a piece of chalk and a book.  The 33,000 children that can’t read up to snuff – IT’S ALL THE TEACHER’S FAULT.    Some of the legislators pointed out that certain experts have stated that holding back a child is the worst possible way to improve performance.  Of course this was dismissed as too soft.  They’re worried about self-esteem?  Pishaw.  Children are resilient.  They’ll deal.  If they’re 12 when they get out of 3rd grade, they’ll be 23 if they graduate.  Good plan.  Hovanetz’ testimony re. HB5112 was primarily that letter grades are easy to understand and so we should adopt this bill.  She also stated that it eliminates consideration of sub groups which, she thinks, is a good thing.  There was a question as to whether the reform district is the same as the EAA and Lyons said no.  I don’t see how it is not the same.

The micromanagement of the education system has got to stop.  It’s demoralizing.  Our children aren’t benefitting one bit from our state legislators’ continued message that teachers don’t know how to teach, the Department of Ed doesn’t know what they’re doing, and parents are too stupid to figure out which schools are strong unless our nose is pointed in the right direction. Lyons should get to work and figure out how to reduce class size.  This is what children need – they need extra help.  They need arts and gym and music.  They need extra-curricular activities.  Some need summer school or after school tutoring.  Some need advanced classes in grade school and beyond.  Others need individual attention. Our children are our state’s greatest resource; our investment in their education should reflect this fact. Put more people to work at a living wage with benefits.   Boost our state up – don’t break it down.  This is YOUR JOB, Lisa Lyons.  I ask that you do it.