Friday News Roundup

As promised, I’m back. It was tough leaving Vermont. The fall foliage was poppin. If you haven’t visited New England this time of year, make a point to add the destination to your travel bucket list. You won’t regret it.

Time for the Friday News Roundup.

Traditional University Teacher Ed Programs Face Enrollment Declines, Staff Cuts (The 74)

This article appeared in The 74 back in September. Its message is sobering, if you are someone who is interested in keeping the public school system as it’s currently constructed.

“The pandemic has exacerbated a troubling national trend: Fewer potential teachers are entering the profession.”

“Nearly every state lost a large proportion of teaching candidates between 2010 and 2018, according to a Center for American Progress report – and the pandemic has further strained traditional colleges and universities programs, many of which face declining enrollment and were forced to recently cut staff.”

I keep sharing articles like this one, trying to provide a preponderance of evidence that the traditional public school system is broken beyond repair. When a system can’t produce enough human talent to support it, that system is in trouble – serious trouble.

1836 Project Promotes Sanitized Version of Texas History, Experts Say (The Texas Tribune)

According to The Texas Tribune,

“A committee charged with producing a ‘patriotic’ telling of Texas history approved a 15-page pamphlet last month that will now be distributed to new Texas drivers.”

“The advisory committee – named the 1836 Project after the year Texas gained its independence from Mexico – was created last year with the passing of House Bill 2497. The legislation required the committee to tell a story of “a legacy of economic prosperity” and the “abundant opportunities for businesses and families, among other requirements.”

‘We must never forget why Texas became so exceptional in the first place,’ Governor Greg Abbott said when he signed the bill. Abbott, along with Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan, later selected a nine-member, largely conservative group to head the 1836 Project.”

I lived in Texas for 35 years. When I was there, most of us knew Texas, like most states, had its bright history and its dark. And we didn’t need self-serving politicians like Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick to remind us of who we were as Texans.

If there was ever a reason for Texas parents to check their kids out of their neighborhood public school immediately, it would be the fact that the state now has people like Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick making these types of decisions for “the betterment of Texas.”

I’ll put my money on Texas parents to get the Texas story right for their kids.

Don’t Use State Tests ‘Punitively,’ Ed. Secretary Cardona Warns (EducationWeek)

Recently EducationWeek reported:

“As states begin to release results from their 2022 assessments, the U.S. Department of Education has emphasized that the scores must be used for accountability – but also that states should be cautious in how they interpret the results.”

“That’s the message conveyed in a ‘dear colleague’ letter released [the past September] by U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, as the department restarts the federal accountability process that it paused at the start of the pandemic.”

I don’t understand. Secretary Cardona emphasizes that the scores must be used for accountability, but cautions states to be careful how they interpret the results?

I grew up professionally during the height of high stakes testing and its close relative – school district accountability. I’m here to tell you that, even though Cardona wants to offer some support to principals and teachers who might lose their jobs if “scores aren’t good,” the minute you say the word “accountability” to school people, out comes the pacing guides, practice tests, and required tutorials.

Can Teachers ‘Quiet Quit?’ (EducationWeek)

According to a recent article in EducationWeek,

“’Quiet quitting’ has been riling some corners of the business world lately. But below the surface of the term and images it may evoke of burned out – or, depending on your point of view, entitled – employees, the actual act of quiet quitting is not particularly new. Countless employees from multiple industries have long chosen to perform the duties that their job requires – and nothing more. But, generally speaking, that’s not how teachers work.”

When asked by EducationWeek what it would take for teachers to continue doing their jobs, even though they are mostly underpaid and under-appreciated, teachers listed the following as important:

• Setting boundaries
• Acknowledging a need for help
• Building a positive work culture from the top

For those teachers who think these three pleas for a better work environment are going to happen, my experience tells me school districts and most schools don’t know how to accomplish any of these.

Maybe it’s time to create a new adult learning leader?

School Shootings Reach Record Level, Data Show (EducationWeek)

Finally, I read this article today as I returned to my desk to write this article:

“There have been 35 school shootings that results in inuries or deaths so far in 2022, more than in any single year since EducationWeek began tracking incidents in 2018.”

It might be that the reason why we will invent a new system of public schooling for our children is that we will come to realize that there is no way to protect our babies in these places called schools, given our insane inability to regulate guns in this country.

Schools aren’t prisons.

Til Monday. SVB