Search Results for: "Adult employment"
Literacy, politics, taxpayer funds and adult employment
Quinton Klabon It is a bit more complicated than that (dispute over when and what to fund after seeming agree), but I am excited at the prospect of moving past the partial veto and get curriculum funding to schools! ——- Legislation and Reading: The Wisconsin Experience 2004-
“An emphasis on adult employment”; the implications
Karol Markowicz The lives of our children were destroyed by lockdowns — and long lockouts — from school during the pandemic. This policy was largely forced through by Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. But we now know that President Biden and his wife-teacher, Jill Biden, were the ones who overruled their own medical […]
“An emphasis on adult employment”
I think this is broadly correct, but there are strong teacher unions across Europe too. They were overruled by a political consensus in favor of kids. The US lacked this consensus. We don’t put kids first. https://t.co/OqW1XfnWa6 pic.twitter.com/H0jn2VFHUl — Anya Kamenetz (@anya1anya) May 12, 2023 Pre-pandemic test score results (blue bubbles) show enormous district-level inequality. […]
Tech change, learning and adult employment
AI means a brilliant doctor on your phone. Who can diagnose you instantly, for free, privately, using only your locally stored medical records. Do you think the doctors will be happy about that? Or the lawyers? The artists? The others that AI disrupts? They’ll fight it. Hard. — Balaji (@balajis) February 10, 2023
An Emphasis on adult employment
Given the academic and social challenges that students face, many local education agencies are planning to use #Covidrelief money to hire more staff members and beef up training, benefits and pay for those already on the payroll. https://t.co/UiT0INSU8N — FutureEd (@FutureEdGU) January 25, 2022 Mandates, closed schools and Dane County Madison Public Health. The data clearly indicate that […]
“An emphasis on adult employment”; Chicago Teachers Union 2022 edition
NEW: The Chicago Teachers Union says its planned vote tonight would see members refuse in-person work until Jan. 18 or until the city’s COVID-19 wave falls below the threshold Chicago Public Schools set last year, whichever happens first. — Nader Issa (@NaderDIssa) January 4, 2022 Maureen Kelleher: If ever there was a moment to ensure […]
Mandates, adult employment and children’s mental health
School closings and “remote learning” have caused a massive mental health crisis among teenagers. This, and the disruption to their intellectual development, will be enduring and severe.https://t.co/Q3mtWJ9MnR pic.twitter.com/ONrnYIWBPI — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 26, 2021 I think about whenever I (frequently) see children running around outside, masked. Notes and links on Dane County Madison Public […]
“And emphasis on adult employment” – Wauwatosa edition
Open Record: It’s a FOX6 investigation that sparked change before it even went to air. Thousands of tax dollars poured into a school program — but was it for the kids or a school leader’s relationship? In this episode of Open Record, FOX6 Investigator Amanda St. Hilaire explains how she came upon AVID and the […]
Political Posturing, interests and “adult employment” on taxpayer supported Dane County Madison public health ordering schools closed
Wisconsin Supreme Court: For the respondent, there was a brief filed by Remzy D. Bitar, Sadie R. Zurfluh, and Municipal and Litigation Group ̧ Waukesha. There was an oral argument by Remzy D. Bitar. For the petitioners Wisconsin Council of Religious and Independent Schools, et al., there was a reply brief filed by Richard M. […]
“An emphasis on adult employment “
There are no hidden complexities that could possibly explain this misalignment of social priorities. #openschools@GavinNewsom pic.twitter.com/GfPCXWEq8b — Jeanne Noble (@JeanneNoble18) April 3, 2021 Related: Catholic schools will sue Dane County Madison Public Health to open as scheduled Notes and links on Dane County Madison Public Health. (> 140 employees). Molly Beck and Madeline Heim: which pushed Dane County this week not […]
Achievement, Teacher Unions and “an emphasis on adult employment”
The ultimate nightmare scenario for teachers unions isn’t a case like Janus but large numbers of African-American parents rejecting them as legitimate and not viewing them as partners in a shared cause. And this is why the Warren affair is so important. — James Merriman (@JamesMerriman6) November 25, 2019 Item 10.11: $100,000 contract to WestEd […]
Money, Politics and Adult Employment/School Choice
Collin Anderson: Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren raked in tens of thousands of dollars from teachers’ unions before reversing her past support for student vouchers and education reform. In 2004, Warren argued that vouchers “relieve parents” from relying on failing public schools. Her campaign’s newly-released education plan attacks charter schools and school choice. Warren’s reversal […]
Deja vu: 2008 – 2019 Credit for non MadIson School District Courses and Adult Employment
Logan Wroge: To help students make the transition to a higher-intensity setting, two Madison School District teachers spend time at Goodman South instructing courses with solely STEM Academy students and some with a mix of traditional college and high school students. “We thought it was really important to have high school teachers be part of […]
“Rule Making”, achievement, adult employment, mulligans and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Molly Beck: Tuesday’s decision overturns the court’s own ruling just three years ago when a split panel of justices said in Coyne v. Walker that Evers could write rules and regulations related to education policy on his own — without permission from then-Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature — because the state constitution provides him with […]
An emphasis on adult employment
Luca Dellana: The fact that (almost) all degrees have the same duration regardless of the complexity of the underlying field is the best evidence that education has been built around the universities’ needs, not the students’.
Adult Employment: Bay Area teachers hold sickout to support striking Oakland teachers
ABC 7: The Albany Teachers Association is currently in negotiations with its district. Their contract expires in the fall. They feel the real battle though is with the state and plan on addressing school funding with Governor Gavin Newsom. “Because the districts can do what they can do, but the state has a lot more […]
Adult employment and the Madison School Board’s self interest
Chris Rickert: Like the rest of the board, both also voted to approve the 304-page employee handbook that replaced union contracts beginning in summer 2016. District legal counsel Dylan Pauly pointed to two board policies that include provisions related to managing conflicts of interest among board members. One says board members should “avoid conflicts of […]
Feeling the Squeeze: Pension Costs Are Crowding Out Education Spending; The Focus On Adult Employment
Josh McGee Taxpayer contributions to teachers’ retirement plans are expected to grow substantially over the next decade. But the underfunding shortfall is so large that aggregate pension debt will also continue to grow. Retirement costs per pupil are already approaching 10% of all education expenditures. Without meaningful reform, these costs, as well as the aggregate […]
Adult Employment And School District Mission
Andrew Rotherham: School districts around the country are getting ready for the 2017 school year, which for many starts in just a few weeks. Officials are thinking about transporting students to school, what they’ll feed them, health services for them, sports teams and schedules, and all the other things we call on school districts to […]
Adult Employment and Empty Milwaukee Public Schools’ Buildings
Erin Richards: Spurred by a deal gone sour between Milwaukee Public Schools and the developer commissioned to renovate one of its empty buildings — a deal that kept a private school from buying the facility — Common Council President Michael Murphy has introduced an ordinance that would position the city to take charge and sell […]
Heavy Adult Employment Focus in the Milwaukee Public a Schools
Erin Richards But after Tyson made his offer, an MPS teacher who also is a teachers’ union employee submitted a plan to reopen Lee as a district-run charter school. The School Board was said to be considering both options. It was scheduled to discuss the potential sale or lease of several empty buildings, including the […]
Deja Vu: A Focus on “Adult Employment” or the Impossibility of Governance Change in the Madison Schools
The Madison School Board discussed the renewal of Administrator contracts (500K PDF) during their June 10, 2013 meeting (video, about 50 minutes into the meeting). Listen via this 5mb mp3 audio.
The timing and length of administrator contracts along with substantive reviews is not a new subject:
February, 2006: Are Administrators Golden?Lawrie Kobza pointed out last night that 2-year rolling administrative contracts may be important for some groups of administrators and that the School Board should consider that issue. Otherwise, if the annual pattern continues, extensions will occur in February before the School Board looks at the budget and makes their decisions about staffing. Even though the Superintendent has indicated what positions he proposes to eliminate for next year, when the School Board has additional information later in the budget year, they may want to make different decisions based upon various tradeoffs they believe are important for the entire district.
What might the School Board consider doing? Develop criteria to use to identify/rank your most “valuable” administrative positions (perhaps this already exists) and those positions where the district might be losing its competitive edge. Identify what the “at risk” issues are – wages, financial, gender/racial mix, location, student population mix. Or, start with prioritizing rolling two-year contracts for one of the more “important,” basic administrative groups – principals. Provide the School Board with options re administrative contracts. School board members please ask for options for this group of contracts.
Ms. Kobza commented that making an extension of contracts in February for this group of staff could make these positions appear to be golden, untouchable. Leaving as is might not be well received in Madison by a large number of people, including the thousands of MMSD staff who are not administrators on rolling two-year contracts nor a Superintendent with a rolling contract (without a horizon, I think). The board might be told MMSD won’t be able to attract talented administrators. I feel the School Board needs to publicly discuss the issues and risks to its entire talent pool.
Mr. Nadler reported that MMSD might be losing its edge in the area of administration. He gave one example where there more than a few applicants for an elementary school position (20 applicants); however, other districts, such as Sun Prairie, are attracting more applicants (more than 100). The communities surrounding Madison are becoming more attractive over time as places to live and to do business. If we don’t recognize and try to understand the issues, beyond simply wages and benefits, the situation will continue to worsen. I feel the process in place needs to change in order to be a) more responseive to the issues, b) more flexible for the School Board in their decisionmaking processes, especially around budget time.Administrator Contracts – School Board Adds to Agenda
Questions that are not clear to me include: a) is a two-year rolling contract required for all administrators, b) what is the difference between non-renewal and extension of a contract – is the end of January date really an extension?, c)is there a Board policy – if not, does one need to be developed, d) are there options open to the School Board to hold on one-year contract extensions due to upcoming cuts to the budget, e) how can changes be made by moving/retraining staff if needed, and f) can grant money being used to pay for administrators be used in other ways (not including grant oversight/accounting? We’re in the same spot as the past two years – not talking about administrator contracts until one week or so before a deadline.
I feel this information needs to be clear and to be transparent to all employees, the board and the community. I believe a multi-year staffing strategy as part of a multi-year strategic plan is important to have, especially given the critical nature of the district’s resources. This idea is not proposed as a solution to the public school’s financial situation – not at all, that’s not the point.Retired Ripon Superintendent Richard Zimman on the “adult employment focus”.
Additional administrator contract links, here.
It is ironic, in my view, that there has not been much change in the District’s administration from the Rainwater era….
An Emphasis on Adult Employment
This week, President Obama called for the hiring of 10,000 new teachers to beef up math and science achievement. Meanwhile, in America, Earth, Sol-System, public school employment has grown 10 times faster than enrollment for 40 years (see chart), while achievement at the end of high school has stagnated in math and declined in science (see other chart).
Either the president is badly misinformed about our education system or he thinks that promising to hire another 10,000 teachers union members is politically advantageous-in which case he would seem to be badly misinformed about the present political climate. Or he lives in an alternate universe in which Kirk and Spock have facial hair and government monopolies are efficient. It’s hard to say.Related: Madison School District 2010-2011 Budget Update: $5,100,000 Fund Balance Increase since June, 2009; Property Taxes to Increase 9+%, and Ripon Superintendent Richard Zimman:
“Beware of legacy practices (most of what we do every day is the maintenance of the status quo), @12:40 minutes into the talk – the very public institutions intended for student learning has become focused instead on adult employment. I say that as an employee. Adult practices and attitudes have become embedded in organizational culture governed by strict regulations and union contracts that dictate most of what occurs inside schools today. Any impetus to change direction or structure is met with swift and stiff resistance. It’s as if we are stuck in a time warp keeping a 19th century school model on life support in an attempt to meet 21st century demands.” Zimman went on to discuss the Wisconsin DPI’s vigorous enforcement of teacher licensing practices and provided some unfortunate math & science teacher examples (including the “impossibility” of meeting the demand for such teachers (about 14 minutes)). He further cited exploding teacher salary, benefit and retiree costs eating instructional dollars (“Similar to GM”; “worry” about the children given this situation).
Thanks much for taking the time from your busy schedule to respond to our letter below. I am delighted to note your serious interest in the topic of how to obtain middle school teachers who are highly qualified to teach mathematics to the MMSD’s students so that all might succeed. We are all in agreement with the District’s laudable goal of having all students complete algebra I/geometry or integrated algebra I/geometry by the end of 10th grade. One essential component necessary for achieving this goal is having teachers who are highly competent to teach 6th- through 8th-grade mathematics to our students so they will be well prepared for high school-level mathematics when they arrive in high school.
The primary point on which we seem to disagree is how best to obtain such highly qualified middle school math teachers. It is my strong belief that the MMSD will never succeed in fully staffing all of our middle schools with excellent math teachers, especially in a timely manner, if the primary mechanism for doing so is to provide additional, voluntary math ed opportunities to the District’s K-8 generalists who are currently teaching mathematics in our middle schools. The District currently has a small number of math-certified middle school teachers. It undoubtedly has some additional K-8 generalists who already are or could readily become terrific middle school math teachers with a couple of hundred hours of additional math ed training. However, I sincerely doubt we could ever train dozens of additional K-8 generalists to the level of content knowledge necessary to be outstanding middle school math teachers so that ALL of our middle school students could be taught mathematics by such teachers.
llinois considers lowering scores students need to be considered proficient on state exams
Samantha Smylie The Illinois State Board of Education agreed Wednesday to move ahead with a process to change the state’s testing system, though the exact details still are being worked out. That process will include creating new “cut scores,” or the lowest score needed for a student to be sorted into broad categories of achievement […]
Notes on a Madison Choice School
Kayla Huynh Lighthouse is now home to the largest number of voucher students in Madison. A majority of the school’s students identify as Hispanic or Black, and nearly all are from low-income households. The school’s website says, “We are facing unprecedented demand with 150 children on our waitlist as of fall 2024.” Lighthouse and other private voucher schools have […]
A Discussion of Covid Mandates and Closed Taxpayer Funded Schools
Tim Vanable: TV: I wonder about the tenability of ascribing a policy like extended school closures to a “laptop class.” Support for school reopenings did not fall neatly along educational lines. The parents most reluctant to send their kids back to school in blue cities in the spring of 2021 were black and Hispanic, research has […]
2025 Chicago Teachers Union Elections
Patrick Dent: It was 2019 when Jesse Sharkey won reelection to lead the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). A political activist who masquerades as a classroom educator, Sharkey overcame Members First’s slate at the close of the polls. Sharkey’s return to lead the CTU extended the iron grip of the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) over […]
Notes on redistributed federal taxpayer and borrowed funds
Kimberly Wethal: Many of the students are lagging from COVID-19 pandemic disruptions, they said. Others lack the organizational skills to be successful. An entire generation has lost the ability to do math in their heads. And most just need an adult at school who cares about them. —- The article fails to include total k-12 […]
Notes on Madison’s 4K program and achievement
Chris Rickert: District Director of Early Learning Culleen Witthuhn pointed to a number of reasons for why it saw the increase last year but not in the first two school years the district offered full-day 4K at some sites. ——— Madison Education Partnership: “professional development and evidence-based curricula in 4K Literacy” – Recommendations for the […]
Politicians used to care how much students learn. Now, to find a defense of educational excellence, we have to look beyond politics.
Dana Goldstein: What happened to learning as a national priority? For decades, both Republicans and Democrats strove to be seen as champions of student achievement. Politicians believed pushing for stronger reading and math skills wasn’t just a responsibility, it was potentially a winning electoral strategy. At the moment, though, it seems as though neither party, […]
“Officials love to brag about the 84% graduation rate for New York City public-school students”
Mike Dowd But if you thought that was an honest measure of how many kids are passing, I have bad news. High-school grading policies have become so corrupt, class credits have become almost meaningless. In recent years, the Department of Education and many individual schools, have adopted “equity grading” practices intended to benefit disadvantaged students. But […]
The state’s remarkable turnaround is truly remarkable, yet the rest of the country seems uninterested.
Tim Daly: This has made it awkward in recent years, as Mississippi has become the fastest-improving school system in the country. You read that right. Mississippi is taking names. In 2003, only the District of Columbia had more fourth graders in the lowest achievement level on our national reading test (NAEP) than Mississippi. By 2024, […]
A look at Georgia’s literacy crisis
Notes. —– Meanwhile: The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery… The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic” My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous Reading Results 2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks to the […]
notes on k-12 governance and the uniparty
Marc Eisen: “Those communities are still building single-family homes in places where people can develop generational wealth, which they can’t do when they’re renting. That’s my biggest concernquite frankly. Apartments don’t build generational wealth.” That’s one big reason Bauman thinks the economic inequality gap “hasn’t improved one bit” in the Madison area. The Rev. Alex Gee’s “Justified Anger” essay is a powerful document for exploring […]
Expanding 4k in Madison….
Kayla Huynh: The district will reduce the number of half-day classes held at its elementary schools, according to district figures. The district is instead adding half-day programs at four day care sites, including Here We Grow, the Red Caboose, the Playing Field and Pequeños Traviesos, according to Folger. Green said Stephens Elementary is offering four new […]
Wisconsin spends approximately 35 percent more per pupil, yet it achieves worse results
Chad Aldeman: “The average Black student in Mississippi performed about 1.5 grade levels ahead of the average Black student in Wisconsin. Just think about that for a moment. Tim Daly: Mississippi Can’t Possibly Have Good SchoolsAnd yet it does. Are we ready to deal? Underperforming states escape scrutiny. Our biases prevent us from asking, for […]
“we have NOT hired more teachers. We hired support and administrators”
Quinton Klabon: WHY are school districts going to REFERENDUM? DPI just revealed a huge part of the explanation.Since 2020, schools added 2,140.79 staff!Unfortunately, —— Additionally, districts actually –added– staff in the years after Act 10. ——- “An emphasis on adult employment”
A staggering 20% of American adults are illiterate, with 48 million adults in the U.S. reading at or below the third-grade level.
Larissa Phillips Despite this alarming statistic, some educators believe it’s impossible to teach these adults to read. However, this notion is misguided and requires a different approach. Marian* was in her late 30s when we first met, and she asked me to help her learn to read. This was in 2007. I was the new-ish […]
When gradualism fails, coping with stubborn resistance to reform becomes a challenge
Karl Zinsmeister: Administrative resistance to reform has left Washington littered with dysfunctional tar pits. For literally 20 years the FAA has been “rolling out” NextGen, its desperately needed tech modernization of air traffic control, and still nothing is properly automated. The Pentagon has failed its annual audit for the last seven years running, yet no heads […]
“real harm was done when the UW was complicit in trashing the reputation of one of its most accomplished alums”
Dave Cieslewicz: That led to all kinds of silliness. Here in Madison the culmination of the ludicrousness happened when a student stumbled on the fact that a big rock on the UW campus had been referred to by an offensive name… once… a hundred years ago. So, the UW spent $50,000 to move the rock […]
“But it’s not (just) large urban districts that are being lied to”
Will Flanders Last year, (taxpayer funded Wisconsin) DPI changed Forward Exam standards-lowering the bar for proficiency in WI. Curiously after the election, DPI released data that “unrigs” the results to show what trends would have been. We put that data into district-by-district graph. 🧵 —- 14% reading proficiency in Beloit on the Forward Exam turned […]
“Chicago’s good will toward the Teacher union has largely disappeared”
Austin Berg According to polling conducted earlier this year by M3 Strategies – the most accurate pollster in the 2023 Chicago mayoral election – public opinion on the CTU has flipped. For the first time in modern city history, the union is underwater with Chicago voters. Just 29% of Chicagoans had a favorable opinion of the […]
The bad new bipartisan consensus behind falling test scores
Matthew Ygelsias: The dumbing of America Nat Malkus from the American Enterprise Institute observes that, to the extent they are available, test scores for American adults are also in decline. In other words, the flagging performance of American students isn’t just about something that’s happening in schools; it’s about something that’s happening in our society […]
California Governance and addressing disastrous Literacy
San Francisco Chronicle: But for an even bleaker example of how state leaders are failing to rise to the urgency of the moment, Californians should consider the response to AB1121 from Assembly Member Blanca Rubio, D-Baldwin Park (Los Angeles County). The seemingly uncontroversial bill would require California teachers in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade to be trained in […]
Teacher literacy curriculum discussion
Quinton Klabon: Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Act 20 science of reading moment; watch both parts!😭 —— The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery… The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic” My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our […]
“staffing vs enrollment”…..
Chad Aldeman: Oof, look at these staffing versus enrollment trends in Los Angeles Unified. Percentage change from 2012-13 to 2024-25: Student enrollment: ↓ 29%Classified staff: ↑ 42%Teachers: ↓ 11%Other certificated support: ↑ 90%Certificated admin: ↑ 15% Los Angeles Presentation (PDF). ——— “An emphasis on adult employment”
“Meantime, the real cause of disparate impact—the yawning academic skills and crime gaps—was kept assiduously offstage”
Heather MacDonald: Disparate-impact theory holds that if a neutral, colorblind standard of achievement or behavior has a disproportionately negative effect on underrepresented minorities (overwhelmingly, on blacks), it violates civil rights laws. It has been used to invalidate literacy and numeracy standards for police officers and firemen, cognitive skills and basic knowledge tests for teachers, the […]
Madison schools might change the calculation of student GPAs.
Kayla Huynh: The Madison Metropolitan School District has long calculated high schoolers’ GPAs on a 4.0 scale. A weighted system would take into consideration the difficulty of coursework, assigning higher value to grade points for Advanced Placement or honors classes. Students, parents and staff have shown interest in switching to weighted grades, according to district […]
litigation, taxpayer fund$ and education governance
Victor Davis Hanson: Harvard has refused to accept the orders of a Trump administration commission concerning its chronic problems with anti-Semitism, campus violence, and racial tribalism, bias, and segregation. Yet, unlike some conservative campuses that distrust an overbearing Washington, Harvard and most elite schools like it want it both ways. They do as they please on […]
“nobody in the crowded field is taking the opportunity to smartly differentiate themselves on education”, why Underly won – continued
Matthew Yglesias: Democrats often seem reluctant to propose ideas that teachers’ unions don’t like, because they want their support (or at least non-hostility) in a primary. But I’m pretty sure the NJEA is going to back Spiller no matter what Sherrill or Gottheimer or Fulop say, so why not be bolder? Democrats could use fresh […]
Father of Madison Cherokee middle school student charged in attack on school employee
Chris Rickert The father of a Cherokee Heights Middle School student is facing a felony battery charge for allegedly attacking a security assistant at the Near West Side Madison school. According to a criminal complaint filed Monday: The 44-year-old Madison man went to the school just after 5 p.m. Wednesday along with his son and […]
“Many schools in California continue relying on ‘balanced literacy’ approaches that emphasize memorization, guessing words from pictures and using context clues”
Joanne Jacobs summary: Only one in three fourth-graders reads proficiently in Georgia, reports Atlanta News First. Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to sign new laws requiring schools to use research-based reading methods and teacher-ed programs to train teachers in the “science of reading,” reports Andy Pierrotti. Two legislators who are former teachers, a Democrat and […]
Teacher Training Reform: “realised her understanding had been “flipped on its head”
Alex Crowe: Myers returned to university where she completed a second master’s degree that focused on how students learn, with detailed and specific knowledge of how to teach reading and writing. It has been almost two years since a sweeping review of teacher education recommended 14 reforms to radically reform training courses. Backed by the nation’s education […]
Commentary and rhetoric on school choice
Will Flanders Yesterday, this article was published that talks extensively about Wisconsin’s private school choice programs. It is full of many misconceptions and half-truths about the programs I will address here 🧵. a The article claims that private schools deny admission to students with disabilities. I’ve yet to see a single credible claim that VOUCHER […]
Madison East High’s Revived Booster club
Kayla Huynh When Becca Schwei volunteered to help organize a volleyball tournament for East High School last fall, she was surprised to learn the school lacked a booster club. The club had disbanded after the COVID-19 pandemic put organized sports on pause, leaving East High as the only Madison high school without an active booster. […]
8 more states consider legislation to ban ‘three-cueing’
Sarah Schwartz As recently as 2019, three-quarters of K-2 teachers said that they used the three-cueing system to teach students to read, according to an EdWeek Research Center survey. But in the years since, as the science of reading movement has gained ground, the approach has faced mounting criticism. Some popular curriculum publishers have announced that […]
Notes on Wisconsin’s declining literacy performance
Will Flanders That Mississippi–a state with far more challenging demographics–has surpassed Wisconsin on the NAEP in 4th grade reading ought to be a five alarm fire for the education establishment. The answer instead from DPI was to lower student expectations–accepting failure. —— The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery… The data clearly indicate that being […]
On “test free” schools
Karen Vaites: Stellar essay by @cafeteria_duty, published by @HKorbey, on the emergence of “test-free” schools as a quality marker in progressive communities – paired with incurious attitudes about school performance. I had a similar conversation with a pair of Brooklyn friends. They were asking me for advice on finding a school for their Kinder-age son. […]
“For over 60 years, Madison has been implementing programs to close the achievement gap, yet the data shows we’re still facing a crisis”
Summary The report highlights sobering 2024 statistics: only 5.8% of Black 11th-graders in Madison—22 out of 310 students—were prepared for college-level reading and writing, compared to 27% of Black students nationally and 10.3% statewide. In math, just 7.1% of Madison’s Black 11th-graders were college-ready, lagging behind 8% nationally and 6.4% across Wisconsin. Wisconsin ranks last […]
Schools should focus on academics—not environmental activism
Michael Zwaagstra Imagine you were to ask a random group of Canadian parents to describe the primary mission of schools. Most parents would say something along the lines of ensuring that all students learn basic academic skills such as reading, writing and mathematics. Fewer parents are likely to say that schools should focus on reducing […]
“Specifically, these include assurances that the WDPI and its subrecipients comply with federal statutes related to nondiscrimination,”
Chris Rickert: The U.S. Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Both DPI and the Madison School District offer various programs and resources in the DEI field, although whether any of them would violate the Trump administration’s interpretation of federal nondiscrimination law is unclear. Among the resources offered by DPI […]
Parents Don’t Know It but K-12 Students Are Falling Into ‘the Honesty Gap’
Jessica Grose: Florida would join Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Alaska in lowering their testing standards or graduation requirements of late. After the absolutely dismal National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores from 2024, which showed that a higher percentage of eighth graders scored “below basic” in reading than at any point in the test’s 30-year history, you would […]
Notes on Oklahoma Literacy Rates
Ray Carter The results of nationwide testing show that students in Oklahoma lag behind students in nearly all of the 50 states when it comes to reading proficiency. Those results represent more than hardship for individual students or a loss of bragging rights for state officials. According to experts, Oklahoma’s low reading outcomes also translate […]
Notes on illiterate college students
“Hilarius Bookbinder”: I’m Gen X. I was pretty young when I earned my PhD, so I’ve been a professor for a long time—over 30 years. If you’re not in academia, or it’s been a while since you were in college, you might not know this: the students are not what they used to be. The […]
“But what’s so great about the status quo?”
Dave Cieslewicz: Some of my liberal friends have expressed their unhappiness over my endorsement of Brittany Kinser for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. So, let me expand on my reasons. When I was at the city of Madison and there was a managerial opening I always first thought about how that department was functioning. If […]
The Average College Student Today
“Hilarious Bookbinder” I’m Gen X. I was pretty young when I earned my PhD, so I’ve been a professor for a long time—over 30 years. If you’re not in academia, or it’s been awhile since you were in college, you might not know this: the students are not what they used to be. The problem […]
April 1, 2025 Madison School Board Election Candidate Interviews (2 unopposed!)
Simpson Street Free Press SSFP student reporters and local journalists interview candidates for this year’s school board race. If you missed our forum, now’s your chance to catch up! Stay informed and get to know who’s on the ballot. —— The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery… The data clearly indicate that being able to […]
Wisconsin Governor Evers Vetoes AB1; a bill to restore higher K-12 standards
www: WisPolitics summary: Co-author Sen. John Jagler, R-Watertown, said the standards give parents a false impression of how their kids are doing in school. He also said it’s a problem that data can’t be compared year-to-year, which is problematic considering learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the state should go back to the […]
“Grades” and the taxpayer funded Madison school District
Chris Rickert: It’s also laid bare what could be an inequity in the new guaranteed-admission regime because most Dane County public high schools also don’t weigh their grades for difficulty — meaning that, in theory, students who get straight A’s in all regular-level classes could have a better chance at getting in to UW than […]
The Democrat Party, Schjools, Outcomes and Truth
Raul Emanuel “Democrats need to be honest with parents, too: We shuttered schools for too long in response to the pandemic, and we need to stop looking at our shoes and hoping no one highlights our role in the devastating consequences.” —— Covid era Dane County Madison Public Health Mandate and Lockdown policies. Waiting for an analysis of […]
Madison hires a taxpayer funded “sustainability manager”
Lucas Robinson: That’s a massive infrastructure undertaking ahead, and aligning those buildings with the district’s climate change and sustainability goals will be a big part of their development. To coordinate the sustainability component of those projects, the district has hired Bryanna Krekeler to be its first-ever sustainability manager. Krekeler is a Madison native whose work […]
Not a single child tested proficient in math in 67 Illinois schools. For reading, it’s 32 schools. –
Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner But those results are now old news. Wirepoints has just run the new Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) 2023 Report Card data and the outcomes are worse even though the impacts of covid are another year behind us. In 2023, there were 67 Illinois schools where not a single student tested […]
Notes on Legislation And Wisconsin Act 1
WILL: Additional Background: Beginning in the 2020-21 school year, DPI made several changes to Wisconsin’s academic accountability system that have made it less rigorous. These changes were made unilaterally by the Department without any input from the legislature or Governor. These changes included: Earlier this year, WILL endorsed Assembly Bill 1, introduced by Senator John Jagler […]
Five years since the COVID pandemic, Louisiana’s readers are thriving. This is their secret.
Jonaki Mehta: There was one exception: Louisiana. In 2019, Louisiana’s fourth graders ranked 50th in the country for reading. Now, they’ve risen to 16th. According to an even more granular analysis, Louisiana is the only state that has not only made a “full recovery” from the pandemic in both math and reading, but has improved upon […]
Madison Taxpayer funded K-12 Governance and $pending notes
Lucas Robinson: At last Monday’s School Board meeting, Madison Teachers Inc. President Michael Jones called the referendums a “bait and switch.” “I should have known better than to trust a district that spent the equivalent of multiple educators’ annual salary on school logos and rebranding that no one asked for,” Jones told the board, referring […]
Reading Is No Longer Required in Schools
Dissident Teacher Ask yourself: when was the last time you saw your kid reading to prepare for the next day’s lessons at school? Yeah, that’s what I thought. I’m sorry. California schools are required by law to make all required texts available to all students in class and at home. Textbooks are pre-loaded onto iPads […]
“flat earth democrat party members on education”
Angie Schmitt: In fact, this data flies in the face of key Democratic/Progressive talking points on education, which appear to be bordering on flat-earth-level wrong. For example: Claim #1: More money will fix everything!!! Normie Democrats have been insisting that more money would fix everything in education since forever. If ONLY the MEAN Republicans would […]
Political Rhetoric and Wisconsin DPI candidate Underly
Capital Times Editorial:a In contrast, Underly is backed by the state’s most ardent advocates for public-school students and teachers. Many of her backers are Democratic legislators, and she’s supported by the party. But, more importantly, she’s supported by educators who work in the state’s urban and rural schools, technical colleges and universities. American Federation of […]
DPI Political Rhetoric: “Jill Underly is Wisconsin’s strongest champion for public education.”
John Nichols summary The contest pits two people with very different views against one another. Underly — who taught in rural schools before becoming an elementary school principal, school district superintendent, university academic advisor and administrator, and assistant director at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction — was elected to serve as superintendent in 2021. […]
Litigation, “balanced literacy” and our long term, disastrous reading results (Madison?)
Joshua Dunn For several decades, the high priestess of the balanced literacy movement has been Lucy Calkins of Columbia University, who directed the now-defunct Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. Calkins once estimated that her Units of Study reading curriculum had been adopted by as many as one in four U.S. elementary schools. Irene Fountas […]
Notes on the April 1, 2025 Wisconsin DPI Superintendent Election
Dan Shafer: In the upcoming Spring Election, the highest-profile race is the one for Wisconsin Supreme Court, the latest in Wisconsin’s seemingly endless number of everything-on-the-line elections. The undercard, then, is the race for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Elections for this ostensibly nonpartisan office have not always attracted much attention, but this year’s race might buck […]
Meanwhile: taxpayer funded Madison Governance renames schools
Anna Hansen: Now that Southside Elementary has its long-awaited new name, the Madison School District is eyeing its next re-christenings. While district officials draft the necessary paperwork and place their orders for the new Lori Mann Carey Elementary signage, Conrad A. Elvehjem and Charles Lindbergh Elementary Schools are on deck for renaming during the 2025-2026 […]
In Madison, students are 72% behind grade level in reading and 84% behind in math
Kayla Huynh But Wisconsin students remain behind years after the public health emergency disrupted learning, according to a national study on academic recovery this month. The average Wisconsin student is over a third of a grade level behind in math and half of a grade level behind in reading compared with pre-pandemic levels, according to results […]
US K-12 Tax and spending priorities: Only 47.5% of people in the public school system are actually teachers
Heritage From 1950 to today, there’s been a 100% increase in the number of students in public schools, a 243% increase in the number of teachers, and a 709% increase in the number of non-teaching staff, which are largely administrative positions. Only 47.5% of people in the public school system are actually teachers. “An emphasis […]
ongoing: the fate of choice schools in Madison
Kayla Huynh: The McKenzie Foundation and the Boys & Girls Club will instead develop workforce programs for the school district “that combine academic rigor and workforce development,” McKenzie said in the statement. “By leveraging each organization’s unique strengths and resources, we can better serve students and provide them with the skills they need to succeed,” […]
Wisconsin Governor Priorities: “Inseminated person” instead of “mother”
Cathy Kozlowicz: The bill recognizes same-sex marriage by making references in the statutes to spouses gender-neutral. The terms “wife,” “mother,” “father” and “husband” were replaced with gender-neutral terms, such as spouse and person. In one section covering artificial insemination, “the husband of the mother” was changed to “the spouse of the inseminated person.” RGA Executive […]
civics: the “first batch of ai civil servants”
Teo summary China deploys R1 to comprehensively automate their governance. This is probably a bit of a bigger deal than DOGE fights in salt mines. @layer07_yuxi explains that a lot of compute capacity was locked in 1K A100s-level datacenters, useless for training. All that comes online now. —— Where did the DeepSeek team attend university? […]
“So we doubled the budget and the result is 80% of CPS students are illiterate and innumerate”
Patrick J. Bayer (Duke University – Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)) Peter Q.. Blair (Harvard University – Harvard Graduate School of Education), Kenneth Whaley (University of South Florida): Tyler Cowen: I remain happy to provoke my readers: The United States ranks low among peer countries on the ratio of teacher spending […]
The Predatory Dynamic in Madison Schools
Dave Cieslewicz: If you ever wonder what people mean when they use the phrase “word salad”, here’s what they mean: “There is a predatory dynamic of coming into a district like ours and saying that you are going to resolve something as deep-rooted as racialized inequity through a school that pairs young people with professional […]
Aborting another independent Madison Charter School
Abbey Machtig: “I do think that there is a fundamental misalignment in terms of how the school would fit into our more broad district plans and misunderstanding of services that we already provide,” board member Savion Castro said Wednesday. It’s a familiar approach, given the district has fought other proposed charter schools in the past. Documents show […]
Curriculum and Literacy Achievement: Steubenville
Kate Martin, Carmela Guaglianone and Emily Hanford Education journalist Karin Chenoweth visited one of Steubenville’s elementary schools back in 2008 and marveled at the results, which she wrote about in her book “How It’s Being Done: Urgent Lessons from Unexpected Schools.” “It was astonishing to me how amazing that elementary school was,” Chenoweth said in an interview. “They […]
“Changing standards to mask the problem is unacceptable,” Goeben said.
Wispolitics: AB 1 would reverse changes to state testing standards made under Superintendent Jill Underly. Opponents have argued Underly lowered the standards, making it harder to gauge how students are doing. Up for reelection, she has rejected those claims. She says the changes actually provide a better picture of student achievement and were made through […]
Legislation to Improve Wisconsin k-12 Rigor
Abbey Machtig: “If we have our own standards aligned to nobody else’s, guess what: We can fool ourselves into thinking that we are great, because we have no ability to compare ourselves to anybody else,” he said. The bill would require DPI to align scoring methods for the language arts and math sections of the […]
Lawsuit claims schools purchased reading material that hurt children
Andy Pierotti: – A pending lawsuit claims a publishing giant sold defective instructional material to school districts for decades, allegedly hurting children’s ability to read. An Atlanta News First investigation uncovered the same publisher sold its curriculum in metro Atlanta, including Gwinnett County, the state’s largest school district. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two Massachusetts parents whose […]
Notes on taxpayer funded Wisconsin DPI governance (and outcomes)
Jim Bender & Patrick Mchileran: More than a bureaucrat, the superintendent is defined in Wisconsin’s constitution. Wisconsin is the only state in the country that elects its superintendent but has no state board of education. This results in a constitutional officer who reports to nobody except the voters every four years. The superintendent heads the […]
“There are no consequences for bad behavior anymore …”
David Blaska: Those are the everyday accounts that don’t make headlines like the case of six high school students who beat and robbed another student at Madison East high school 02-04-25. The victim was hospitalized for his injuries —— Parents overestimate student achievement, underestimate spending Related: Act 10 Did taxpayer funded Wisconsin DPI Superintendent Underly Juice Test Scores for Reelection? […]
notes on Wisconsin Education standards
via Quinton Klabon This Senator Jagler address connects setting high standards for kids with recent Milwaukee Public Schools troubles. —— Parents overestimate student achievement, underestimate spending Related: Act 10 Did taxpayer funded Wisconsin DPI Superintendent Underly Juice Test Scores for Reelection? The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery… The data clearly indicate that being able to read is […]
A high schooler from Tennessee, Frannie Block reports, graduated with a 3.4 GPA despite having difficulty reading. Now, he is suing his school district.
Frannie Block: William, whose last name is listed only as A. in the suit, first enrolled in the Clarksville-Montgomery County school district in 2016 when he was in the fifth grade. For the next seven years, he scored mostly in the bottom first, second, or third percentiles of his reading fluency assessment tests compared to national standards. […]
$pending more Madison taxpayer funds amidst declining achievement
Dave Cieslewicz But the scores are even worse in Madison where students are 84% behind on math and 72% behind on reading. We did, in fact, keep schools closed for too long, but that doesn’t explain the Madison results because hundreds of school districts kept their schools closed as long as Madison did and they’ve […]
“achievement” and the well funded Madison school district
Abbey Machtig Madison students are 72% behind comparable 2019 numbers in reading and 84% behind in math, according to the report. “education recovery scorecard” —— Madison per student spending ranges from $22,633 to $29,827 depending on the number used (!) —— Parents overestimate student achievement, underestimate spending Related: Act 10 Did taxpayer funded Wisconsin DPI Superintendent Underly Juice […]
