Two very important town hall meetings on Common Core

Two very important town hall meetings will be held in St. Tammany. One in Covington hosted by Representative Schroder and one in Slidell hosted by Senator Crowe. It is so important that everyone against cc attends. It is past time to show that we are way more than a vocal minority.

How to tell if they really “Stand for Children”

Here is a hint: Follow the money.

How to spot a fake ‘grassroots’ education reform group

And

Stand For Children Doesn’t

Special School Board Meeting to discuss curriculum

STPSB will be holding a special meeting September 25, at 7:00. It is being held because of concerns parents raised at the previous meeting about the curriculum being used in St. Tammany parish. Please attend and voice your issues with what and how our children are being taught. Even if you do not want to speak, just being there will go a long way.

STPSB meeting Sept 11

I attended the STPSB meeting last night. My first in several months. Many parents spoke during public comments about the awful math curriculum being used in St. Tammany parish. After the comments, board member Neal Hennegan requested opening the agenda to add a vote on holding a special meeting in order to discuss these concerns before the regular October meeting. The request required a vote on opening the agenda which needed a unanimous decision. All members voted in favor except board member Elizabeth Heintz. When questioned by parents as to why she voted against, her reason was that Trey Folse and Cheryl Arabie need time to prepare. What about the children and parents who are dealing with this???

Hello

I have been neglectful in writing posts on this blog. I am sorry. It is not because I gave up or that things have changed. My mom was diagnosed with end stage cancer in March and I took that time to spend every minute I could with her. She is now in a better place and I miss her greatly. I want to thank all of those who have been active in my absence. I appreciate what each and everyone of you has done to try and rid our schools of this mess. You will be seeing a lot more of me again.

Louisiana teacher, Mercedes Schneider, speaks at NPE conference

“No Child Left Behind morphed into Common Core” “Common Core, if not removed, will morph into something else unless it is completely destroyed”

Watch St. Tammany teacher, Mercedes Schneider, speak at Network for Public Education conference in Austin, TX.

Stand for Children Louisiana: Teachers “Like” Common Core

Thanks Mercedes! Two things that caught my eye right away were the 90% with “some or comprehensive knowledge” of CC and the ridiculous graph that you pictured in your post. Doing my best to determine the percentages from the graph, I came up with about 150 “supporters”. Still less than half of the teachers surveyed if I round up. My favorite was the 100% of one percent of 12th grade teachers. It boggles my mind that they would even put it in there. I look at that graph and it tells me that the majority of teachers in the majority of grades are not supporters of CC.

Some reasons why I oppose the LDOE Common Core Transition Plan released Nov 21

If you have not seen it yet – Video from press conference

1. My child will still be taking a CC aligned test this year. As I stated yesterday, there are at least two states that have administered tests aligned to CC and both of those have had significant drops in their proficiency rankings. Those drops were predicted. They have been predicted for every state. Why should I think that Louisiana will be any different? I do not feel that children should be subjected to these tests until we can have more assurance that they have been more prepared for them. To give a child a test when you know he will likely be considered not proficient due to lack of proper preparation (by no fault of his own) is wrong.

2. The ability for a district to waive LEAP test results in 4th grade concerns me, also. I cannot wrap my head around the idea that these tests are supposed to be an indicator of what a child has learned, but if the school work shows that the child is indeed ready to advance they will be allowed to do so. Why are we making this exception this year, but not in previous years??? The only thing different this year will be the content of the test. It is still pencil and paper, so concerns about computer format are not applicable this year. If children who would normally pass the old LEAP test are deemed non-proficient this year it is solely because they have not been prepared in the classroom. If they have not been prepared how can we pass them to the next grade and expect them to succeed?

3. I also am concerned about the burden the waivers will place on districts having to make decisions on a case by case basis for a multitude of non-proficient results (again thinking along the lines of 60-70%). It seems like it could develop into a nightmare.

4. Holding off on computer testing for 3^rd graders on the first PARCC assessment is a nice touch, but it does not address the question of how will we know if they will be able to do it in following years. Are there any studies being done to determine if 8 year olds are able to become proficient enough at typing so that it will not hinder their performance on assessments?

It sure sounds good to say that LDOE is working to alleviate concerns, but that is not the way I see it. I see it as a stalling technique to appease some of the opposition, all the while allowing Common Core to become more entrenched in our schools, because in reality Common Core implementation is not slowing down one bit.

Who are the members of the Accountability Commission?

Meeting held November 21, 2013:

The meeting began with John White giving his presentation from the press conference earlier in the day and asking the Commission to recommend the proposal to BESE. The floor was opened to the members to comment and ask questions.

Here is a list of the members, with their final votes (a vote of yes means a recommendation of the proposal). I have also added some notes on what they talked about during the comment portion. See for yourself –

• Patrice Pujol (left before voting took place) – Superintendent representative, Ascension Parish

­   Brought up concerns about PARCC readiness (school technology, children being academically ready, PARCC tests being ready). Ms. Pujol was the ONLY member to mention children in the entire meeting.

• Debbie Schum (Yes) – Principal representative – LDOE’s Deputy Superintendent of College and Career Readiness; former Chief Academic Officer of New Orleans RSD

­   Spoke about the grade 8 – 9 transition plan, concerns about drop out rates.

• Lee Ann Wall (Proxy not allowed to vote) – Proxy (did not find out for whom), Teacher

­   Spoke at BESE meeting supporting CC, involved in creating the Classroom Toolbox for teacher, member of the Louisiana Believes Teacher Advisory Committee.

• Brandy Thomas (Yes) – Parent representative

­   Her only concern was keeping school letter grades so that parents would be able to see where their school stood.

• Judy Vail (Yes) – Teacher?

­   Involved in creating the Classroom Toolbox for teachers. Ms. Vail point blank asked Debbie Meaux and Steve Monaghan why they do not support CC when the unions at the national level support them.

• Steve Monaghan (Abstain) – Louisiana Federation of Teachers

­   Called White out on not being provided the plan in enough time to review before meeting, why collect VAM data on teachers if not going to use it?, holding school grades stable will cause concerns about LDOE manipulating data.

• Debbie Meaux (Abstain) – Louisiana Association of Educators

­   Concerns about VAM, school grading, teachers not being prepared.

• Stephanie Desselle (Yes) – Vice President of Public Policy for CABL
• Brigitte Nieland (Yes) – LABI
• Mickey Landry (Yes) – Charter School representative

­   Director of Choice Foundation, Feb 2013 (Lafayette Charter Academy and 2 other charters), former principal of Lafayette Charter Academy

• Carol Price (Yes) – Teacher

­   Louisiana 2007 Teacher of the Year

• Kyle Falting (Yes) – Teacher, Lincoln Parish

­   Involved in creating the Classroom Toolbox for teachers, member of the Louisiana Believes Teacher Advisory Committee. Some of you may remember him from the BESE meeting. Mr. Falting is the one who, when questioned by Garvey about teacher attrition due to CC, said that it was a good thing because it meant the “bad teachers” were getting out of the system.

• Jeanne Burns (Yes) – Board of Regents
• Brett Duncan (Yes) – Committee Chairman

­   Tangipahoa Parish School Board

The public was then allowed comments limited to 3 minutes each. There were 2 other speakers besides myself. In my comments, I pointed out that no one mentioned the children during the entire meeting. I gave the results of CC assessments done NY (only 30% proficient) and KY (40% proficient). I told them that tells me that the children have not been fully prepared to take these tests and questioned how that will affect them. I also told them that there was too much emphasis on the standardized testing in schools, using the example of my child beginning to worry about failing the LEAP test in 3^rd grade.

The vote was taken. The recommendation passed and the meeting was adjourned.

Washington Parish School Board takes stand against Common core

Thank you Washington Parish School Board!

Thank you for putting children and their education first. Hoping other parishes follow theirs and St. Tammany’s lead.