The Huntsville Council of PTAs (or at least the president Mrs. Elise Ferrell, since we still don’t know how the HCPTAs determines its legislative agenda) has been busy over the past week. Yesterday they sent out their second “Legislative Alert” in five days to help drum up even more support to opposed the HB254/SB190 repealing of the Common Core State Standards initiative in the Alabama legislature.

Yesterday, HCPTAs sent out “their” thoughts about the prohibition against Common Core. This “report” has since been republished and dispersed by the Superintendent’s office to “AllUsers@hsv-k12.org.” (If you ever needed evidence that the HCPTAs and the Superintendent march in lockstep with one another, that should convince you.) They are using the PTA’s mailing list as well as the district’s mailing list to push the superintendent’s agenda, I thought that it might be worth while to take a look at what she had to say. You may read the “legislative update” for yourself, if you wish, by following this link. I encourage you to do so, as I will be lifting several quotes from this update to help provide some context and reference to their claims. (It will also be helpful for you to read Mrs. Ferrell’s piece since I’ve noticed that several people are simply quoting her without attribution in their opposition to the bill. If you read the source, you’ll find it easier to follow the breadcrumbs when you hear the same arguments from others.)

This is yet another long post. If you’re interested in just a summary, you can find one at the end of the post.

So let’s jump right in to what the Huntsville Council of PTAs (or at least Mrs. Ferrell) has to say. From the second sentence of the email, the HCPTAs jumps immediately into the hyperbolic mode to make the superintendent’s case for him.

“Academic rigor is being challenged.”

And right from the start, HCPTAs’ claims are questionable. How exactly is “academic rigor” being challenged? There is exactly zero evidence supporting this claim. You see, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are being forced on America entirely without testing them to see if they are indeed more rigorous. You cannot prove that a standard is more “rigorous” simply by comparing one sentence on a page to another sentence on another page. The only way to prove that one set of standards is indeed more “rigorous” than another is to test them in a controlled setting. And this is something that the sponsors of CCSS are steadfastly refusing to do. They are instead, by implementing them nation-wide without trials, turning us into a “nation of guinea pigs.”

“It [repealing Common Core] could severely damage the quality of education in Alabama.”

Again, there is absolutely no evidence supporting this claim. Since the CCSS haven’t been tested, anywhere, there is no evidence that repealing the CCSS in Alabama will damage anything.

What do we know here in Huntsville, though? We know that the incessant testing that has followed the adoption of the standards here. And we know that this obsession with testing is hurting eduction here.

Some readers have mentioned to me that the standards are not tests. In this, they are correct. However, everywhere that the standards have begun to be implemented, standardized testing has expanded exponentially. I have not been able to find one single district that begins to implement CCSS without also implementing some form of standardized testing to “justify” the expense of switching their curriculum. (And by the way, that expense is estimated to be in the tens of billions for the nation as a whole.)

“Legislature would disallow longitudinal data to be collected on students (in lay terms, the data on a students’ [sic] progression in test scores like ACT, SAT, ARMT) and ban a school from applying for any grants that require Alabama to report data on students.”

This isn’t accurate. HCPTAs claims that HB254/SB190 would “ban a school from applying for any grants that require Alabama to report data on students.” This is categorically false. If they would simply take a look at Section 1.C.(2).a, the bill clearly states:

Student or teacher data may be shared with the United States Department of Education only when: 1. Such data-sharing is required by the United States Department of Education as a condition of receiving a federal grant.

So I suppose that Alabama can, in fact, apply for a grant that requires Alabama to report data. I suppose that HCPTA didn’t read as closely as they should.

“The bill goes further stating that the legislature (politicians), and not the State Department of Education (educators), would set curriculum standards for our students.”

This is perhaps the most ironic statement in the entire update. First, no, the bill doesn’t state that the legislature would set curriculum standards. It states:

Any statewide school standard may not be adopted or implemented unless: (1) A public hearing is held in each Congressional District. (2) The State Board of Education solicits input from educators, content experts, parents and other members of the community during  an open comment period of one year. (3) Joint open hearings are held before the Senate Education Policy Committee and the House of Representatives Education Policy Committee. (4) The standard receives a majority vote of the Alabama Legislature.

Remember in 2010 when the Legislature adopted the CCSS? Well, if that decision meant that “(politicians)” and not “(educators)” set the curriculum standards, then I suppose that this process would mean the same. But somehow I don’t think that HCPTAs questioned having the “politician” approve the standards, did they?

But really the best part of this statement is simply HCPTAs’ new-found respect for “(educators).” I seem to recall that the Council nominated and celebrated Dr. Wardynski’s being named Superintendent of the Year just a few short months ago. Perhaps they don’t recall that Dr. Wardynski has far more in common with a politician than he ever will with an actual educator.

But irony has never been a strong suit of the council.

“The Common Core Standards only pertain to Math and English Core classes.”

Wow, we finally came across something that is, at the present time anyway, accurate. It’s true that they currently only apply to math and English, but there are clear plans to expand from these two areas into Science, World Languages and Art (standards for art. That’s right, beauty is no longer in the eye of the beholder. Soon a national coalition will inform and, more importantly, test your students on their mastery of the art standards.

The interesting point here, however, is that by focusing solely on math and English, other subjects will become at best second class citizens. If you know that the test is going to cover only math and English, you’re going to spend the majority of your time focused on, you guessed it, math and English. As Marion Brady writes:

The Common Core Standards assume that what kids need to know is covered by one or another of the traditional core subjects. In fact, the unexplored intellectual terrain lying between and beyond those familiar fields of study is vast, expands by the hour, and will go in directions no one can predict.

When you’re holding a hammer, all the world looks like a nail, doesn’t it?

“The Common Core standards are not a federal mandate . . . “

While this is technically true, Congress has not passed a law requiring the implementation of CCSS, this is disturbingly disingenuous. Without a law being passed by Congress, the Department of Education cannot mandating a curriculum to a schools system; however, the Department of Education can mandate requirements to receive a grant from the Department of Education. And that’s exactly what they have done in this case.

So you see, if you want to receive any of the $4.35 billion that the Department of Education is handing out via their Race to the Top program, you must sign onto CCSS.

As such, this is being mandated by the Department of Education, and the HCPTAs is intentionally trying to deceive their readers/members into thinking otherwise.

You know, telling the whole truth really is the best way to convince someone to change their mind. I wonder why HCPTAs believed it was better to be disingenuous on this point?

” . . . they were written by the National Governor’s Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.”

Once again, it really is better to tell the whole truth. As Dr. Ravitch writes:

They were developed by an organization called Achieve and the National Governors Association, both of which were generously funded by the Gates Foundation. There was minimal public engagement in the development of the Common Core. Their creation was neither grassroots nor did it emanate from the states.

The source of these standards is actually well documented on the web, and it doesn’t take but a moment or two of searching to find additional evidence about their development.

As Ohanian writes a more accurate statement concerning the authorship of CCSS would be the following list:

Here are the significant players in deforming school curriculum and testing and their Gates haul.

• Achieve, Inc.: $25,787,051
• The Council of Chief State School Officers: $71,302,833
• National Governors Association Center for Best Practices: $30,679,116

Chief architects of the literacy content for the Common Core content are a lawyer and David Coleman, an education entrepreneur. Coleman gained the most notoriety as he barnstormed the country preaching the importance of nonfiction and a bastardized form of New Criticism, a literary theory abandoned long ago by just about everybody except Mr. Coleman. In his presentation at the New York State Education Building in April 2011, Coleman declared that teachers must tell students: “When you grow up in this world you realize people don’t give a shit about what you feel or what you think.” Student Achievement Partners, an outfit Coleman co-founded is now churning out Common Core curriculum. They’re bankrolled by $6,533,350 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and $18,000,000 from the General Electric Foundation. Coleman has moved on to head the College Board ($31,178,497 in Gates funds).

It’s good to be a Friend of Bill (Gates) again.

So you see, it would be far more accurate for HCPTAs to say that CCSS were written by Bill Gates rather than trying to imply that they were written by the National Governors Association (I thought we didn’t want politicians writing educational policy?), and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

CCSS was written by a small group of individuals almost entirely funded by Bill Gates. They were then forced on the states in order to receive federal funding. They did not arise from the states at all.

“Representatives from the National PTA office also participated in the crafting of Common Core standards.   National PTA supports the continued implementation of Comon [sic] Core Standards in every state.”

Yes, and they were paid handsomely to do so. You see, when you have more money than god, it’s easy to just buy support from organizations who might oppose you. The National PTA office that they cite as proof that CCSS is a good thing has received up to $2,005,000 in funding from Mr. Gates to “support” the standards. They aren’t alone. Gates has given money to nearly every single cheerleading organization for CCSS.

Here’s a short listing compiled by Ohanian of some of the groups that have received funding from Gates to support CCSS publicly:

The Common Core State (sic) Standards are the result of hundreds of millions of dollars disbursed in carefully distributed grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation accompanied by the threat from U. S. Secretary Arne Duncan to withhold federal funds if individual states did not sign on the dotted line. I looked at two months worth of press citations praising the CCSS –August and September, 2012–and then looked up the Gates money given to those who come to praise CCSS. The list ranges from the American Federation of Teachers ($1,000,000) to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction ($823,637), from the neo-liberal Center for American Progress ($2,998,809) to the neo-conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute ($5,711,462). The PTA got money ($2,005,000); so did the National Writing Project ($2,645,593). And so on and so on. He who pays the piper calls the tune, and with money in their pockets, many are eager to sing the Common Core song and eat the funeral meats.

It’s a new world where private individuals and companies are making decisions from Seattle and Washington, DC for every school child in the nation. If you think you still have a voice in what you child learns, just ask yourself, how much money did you give to the PTA this year?

I think Gates’ voice is a bit louder, don’t you?

“In a nutshell, the standards create consistent education standards for each grade level for everyone across the country.”

As I demonstrated in my last post about the CCSS, a de facto (and amazingly more democratic) standard already existed for each grade level for everyone across the country.

“The common core standards have more rigor than our previous standards; giving our students the skills they need for college, and for a career.”

Again, where is the evidence showing this? Has the PTA run peer-reviewed trials to support this claim? These standards have not been tested in any way. The best “evidence” that exists is anecdotal in nature and limited to one or two individuals. Gates, Arne Duncan and company decided that doing a trial run would cost too much, and so there is no peer-reviewed evidence supporting this claim.

“Students were leaving high school unprepared for college, and would have to take remedial classes or additional classes, adding extra semesters and extra tuition cost.”

And here’s some more anecdotal evidence. True, there are some students who leave high school unprepared for college. Those students who left high school when they were 16 or 17 as a drop out, would leave high school unprepared for college.

Students who did not take advantage of the education that the district provided for them while they were in school, would leave high school unprepared for college.

Student who don’t have a strong parental influence encouraging them to study and prepare, would leave high school unprepared for college.

Students who decided that work, and putting food on the table were more important goals than high school, would leave high school unprepared for college.

Students who blow off the ACT or the SAT because they are sick of taking standardized tests that seem to mean nothing at all, would leave high school seemingly unprepared for college.

Students who blow off the entrance exam they were required to take upon entering college, would leave high school seemingly unprepared for college.

What do all those students have in common? Not one of them would be helped by changing the curriculum to CCSS.

Furthermore, HCPTAs should do some research before making their claims. As you can see from the chart below and a report by the National Center for Education Statistics, first-year undergraduate remedial coursetaking has declined from a rate of 26% in 1999 down to 20% in 2008.

Remediation is declining not increasing.

“Unfortunately, Alabama is not alone in this battle.  The standards are currently being challenged in 14 states, and Indiana has already repealed their standards earlier this year.”

Wow, they’re telling the truth. 46 states adopted Common Core between 2010 and 2012, and now a third of them, after having spent the past two years reviewing common core are deciding that the incessant testing is harming their schools and students. This movement away from these untested standards will continue over the next couple of years.

“Having this legislation come in under the radar was intentional.”

In what way was this bill introduced “under the radar?” It was introduced just as every other bill was introduced.

“What do we stand to lose if it passes? Funding, jobs, students’ futures.” [sic]

Wait, funding? I thought this wasn’t a federally mandated program? Why would we lose funding if the feds aren’t pushing us to do this? Oh, that’s right, we will lose funding, potentially, because this is in practice a federally mandated program. 

“Schools or school systems cannot apply for any grants with any organization that requires historical data on students.”

I’m not sure which bill the HCPTAs is reading, but SB190 actually does allow for data to be shared with the department of Education “as a condition of receiving a federal grant.” It simply provides some guidelines that are designed to protect student information from being collected, distributed and sold, as companies like Pearson are doing right now.

The real question here is why isn’t the PTA supporting a move by our legislators to protect student privacy? I thought they were supposed to be a student-centered organization?

“Huntsville has local business people currently in Washington, D.C. for a conference.  They have been informed that businesses with an Alabama presence are threatening to pull out of our state if we revoke  the College and Career Readiness Standards.”

Really? Which business are in Washington DC.? What conference are they attending? Who has informed them that “businesses with an Alabama presence are threatening to pull out of our state if we revoke” the standards? What evidence do they have for this? Where are these businesses going to go instead since a third of the states that have adopted CCSS have decided that two years later they are a bad idea? Wouldn’t it be nice if the HCPTAs actually provided their members with some, oh, I don’t know, actual data supporting their wildly imprecise claims?

“Most significantly, we stand to lose academic competitiveness with the rest of the country.”

Again, where is the evidence for this? The CCSS have never actually been tested. Where is the empirical evidence support this claim that 30 or so states that are currently still participating in CCSS will have higher standards than the 20 who do not? There is nothing to prevent the state of Alabama from setting their standards higher than CCSS, is there?

But here’s the trap. Who can say that our previous standards aren’t as effective at producing scholarships, college acceptances and career opportunities? No one. Because the CCSS standards have not been tested anywhere.

Once again, HCPTAs offers no evidence of any kind to support their (or again, her) claims.

“Where does National PTA stand on Common Core Standards? They support them fully.”

Yes, they do. But the real question is why? What evidence do they have that these standards are better than previous standards?

The reason that they support them fully is simple: they’ve been paid, and paid well, to support them fully.

Why the Common Core State Standards Should Be Revoked

If you take just four things away from this post, and the HCPTAs legislative update, it should be:

1. The Common Core State Standards were developed by the Gates Foundation and organizations funded by Gates. They have been forced upon the states by the Federal Department of Education via the promise (or threat) of funding via Race to the Top grants. All of the CCSS cheerleaders have also been funded by the Gates Foundation to support the implementation of CCSS.
2. The Common Core State Standards have not been tested in any way. There is exactly zero empirical evidence supporting the claims by their supporters that they will increase rigor, reduce remediation at the college level, or help prepare students for either college or career.
3. The Common Core State Standards are intimately tied to Standardized Testing. They are not implemented anywhere without a dramatic increase in testing. Even the CCSS Q&A page admits that the CCSS will result in “Common Assessments.” They claim that these “common assessments” will “Prepare students for college and careers.” (Shame that an assessment doesn’t “prepare” anyone for anything. At best it “assesses the preparedness.” This fundamental misunderstanding of testing is one of the primary reasons the CCSS should be revoked. As Brady states, “The Common Core Standards are a set-up for national standardized tests, tests that can’t evaluate complex thought, can’t avoid cultural bias, can’t measure non-verbal learning, can’t predict anything of consequence (and waste boatloads of money).” If you believe, as I do, that we are testing our district to death, then you should oppose the CCSS.
4. The Common Core State Standards implementation will cost cash-strapped districts across the nation an estimated $16 billion dollars. Dr. Wardynski claimed that if CCSS is revoked by the state legislature, it will mean that Huntsville City Schools alone will have wasted $40 million in just over a year’s time. If we’ve spent $40 million in less than a year on a midrange sized district in simply preparing to implement the standards, imagine how much more this is going to cost. (Where exactly did that $40 million come from, Dr. Wardynski?)

Many of those who oppose this bill (HB254/SB190) are claiming that those who oppose common core are among the “black helicopter” crowd who fear all things federal. They claim, as the HCPTAs do, that opposing common core means that you oppose education standards.

I am a college teacher. I know that some students come to college woefully underprepared. But the reason that they are underprepared isn’t because they weren’t skilled at taking a standardized test.

They’re underprepared because that’s all that they’re skilled at.

And that’s why I oppose the Common Core standards. Our students need teachers who bring a diversity of approaches to educating our children. What we don’t need is for students to be treated as cogs in a machine.

Common Core is assembly line education. An assembly line is wonderful for building a car. It’s a horrible way to build an educated child. The PTA shouldn’t have to be told this. They sold their soul cheaply.

The post Huntsville Council of PTAs Exaggerates Common Core appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Update: So you know those visits to the classrooms that Mr. Robbins took today? He visited Columbia, Weatherly, and Davis Hills to see the digital curriculum in action. Well in case you were wondering, I’m hearing from parents that those visits were planned for and staged. Parents were told to make sure the laptops were charged and ready to use. The laptops that were relegated to occasional usage in favor of [shudder] textbooks were trotted out for the visiting dignitary. I’m sure that will come as no surprise. The rooms that Mr. Robbins visited today were all informed of his visit, and like nearly every other classroom in this district, those classrooms haven’t made active and regular use of the computers for the past two weeks.

Again, if Mr. Robbins wanted a realistic assessment of the digital initiative, he should have been willing to open tonight’s closed meeting. He should have asked someone other than the Huntsville Council of PTAs to organize his visit.

Tonight, Mr. Michael Robbins “a senior advisor for the U.S. Department of Education” is meeting with a group of “parents” to hear real, honest, and heartfelt opinions about the digital transition. Didn’t hear about this? Of course not. The Huntsville Council of PTAs decided that the only way to get these real, honest, and heartfelt opinions about the digital transition is to have the meeting behind closed doors, out of the sight of the public and that the only parents who are deemed worthy of having a real, honest, and heartfelt opinion about the computers in this town are PTA Presidents. So tonight from 6-8pm at Grissom High, Mr. Robbins will meet with the PTA Presidents and whomever else the Huntsville Council of PTAs deems worthy of attending so that he can hear from people who are not likely to rock the boat by telling him the truth.

PTA Presidents who have spoken their minds about the reality of the digital initiative have been told that if they want their schools to remain open that they had better get on board and stop making waves.

Care to take any bets about how many PTA Presidents will be speaking the truth to power tonight?

The only reason that the digital transition is “working” at this point is because the computers have been replaced with textbooks in the classroom.

But that goes against the sound bite that the Secretary of Education wants to hear. Arne Duncan has long since decided that whatever the education “reformers” like Eli Broad wants is good for American students. Regardless of what research shows. Regardless of what parents have to say.

In fact, they are so afraid of what parents might tell them that they believe that they will hear the truth by meeting with only those parents who are not allowed, either by propriety or under threat of closure of schools, to actually speak the truth.

Mr. Robbins is a native of Huntsville. He was educated at Grissom High, but now he is afraid to hear from parents–who have no agenda other than the health of their children’s education–concerning the intentional ineptitude of transitioning an entire district to computers even though they knew that the network couldn’t handle the load.

The only reason that this year hasn’t been a complete waste of time for our students is because our teachers, despite being beaten down by this administration, have refused to allow the digital transition to destroy their kids’ education. They have stopped using the computers and returned to reliable pedagogical methods.

But that doesn’t fit Mr. Robbins’ plans. And so the meeting remains closed to the people who pay his salary, who paid for his trip, who paid for the very school they are meeting in.

And once again the Huntsville Council of PTAs is doing their best to silence any voice that might point out that the latest pot of gold at the end of the “reform” rainbow is a myth. Unless of course you’re Pearson, HP, Microsoft, or Eli Broad.

For a century we have bounced from one miracle cure to another. And not once have we stopped to ask parents and teacher what they think we should be doing.

As Diane Ravitch said in The Death and Life of the Great American School System:

We will continue to chase rainbows unless we recognize that they are rainbows and there is no pot of gold at the end of them. We certainly cannot address our problems unless we are willing to examine the evidence about proposed solutions, without fear, favor, or preconceptions.

The district, the Department of Education, doesn’t care if there is nothing at the end of the rainbow for students. All they care about is themselves. And that’s wrong.

And the Huntsville Council of PTAs is once again demonstrating that their motto, “Every Child . . . One Voice,” is meant to be taken literally. And that one voice will be used to silence even the very people that the P(arents) T(eachers) Association are supposed to represent.

One voice indeed. All the other voices are not invited.

The post Updated: Huntsville Council of PTAs Restricts Parents’ Voices appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Well, Saturday was a day for celebrations I suppose. Had I known after the girl’s award ceremony that Dr. Wardynski were about to win Superintendent of the Year from the Alabama PTA, I think we might have stayed in Mobile another night to watch.

But since I didn’t find out until after we were home, I guess we missed the opportunity to shake his hand as he had shook the girl’s after her award.

In other words, it would seem that Dr. Wardynski had many reasons to make the drive to Mobile: To celebrate the Reflections award winners (12 came from Huntsville), to watch Huntsville Council of PTAs and various PTA groups win 17 of the 24 awards that were handed out Saturday night, and to be named Superintendent of the Year by the Alabama Council of PTAs after a mere nine months on the job.

[Okay, I'm going to get a bit snarky now. Before that happens, I want to acknowledge that Dr. Wardynski did not have to be at the Reflections Award banquet at 12:30pm on Saturday. That was still a nice gesture as I wrote about yesterday, and he still has my thanks for that.]

It’s a shame that as a member of not one but two PTAs in Huntsville that I wasn’t aware that the Huntsville Council of PTAs was planning to nominate Dr. Wardynski. I suppose that I should have been paying closer attention to the meetings where this was discussed.

Oh that’s right, I wasn’t, as a member, actually welcomed to participate in the discussions to nominate Dr. Wardynski. Those were private meetings of the Huntsville Council PTA Officers and the PTA Presidents who were able to attend the meeting. The public wasn’t asked for their opinion or input.

As I have said before, I do appreciate the PTA. They regularly and often go out of their way to honor and support all of our kids. I appreciate their support for my daughter’s video this weekend.

However, I do, clearly disagree with their decision to nominate Dr. Wardynski for superintendent of the year. And that’s the problem we’re facing here.

While most of the Huntsville Council of PTA’s decisions aren’t controversial in any way, this one clearly was. There are many PTA members, both parents and teachers, who are not in agreement with the Council’s decision on this matter. And while it’s true that this is just one decision, this is a huge decision.

By making this decision to nominate Dr. Wardynski the Huntsville Council of PTAs is in effect telling the city and the state that the entire Huntsville PTA supports and endorses Dr. Wardynski’s decisions. These decisions include:

• Merging and closing, closing, and closing schools.
• Supporting cutting teacher salaries while expanding his own.
• Refusing to reduce class sizes.
• Insisting on hiring unqualified “teachers” who cost more than qualified ones. (By the way, the Council actually wrote in their October Newsletter that this contract would bring “top teachers from across America into our school system.”
• Privatizing our public schools.
• Depending upon high-stakes testing because it’s easier for unqualified teachers to proctor tests than it is to teach.
• Cutting the Special Education Budget to the tune of $7,000,000–which is, not surprisingly the exact amount that Wardynski is claiming we will be in the black come September 2012–and in doing so made our classrooms unsafe.

By nominating Dr. Wardynski for Superintendent of the Year, these, and many more, are things that the Huntsville Council of PTAs are endorsing.

Maybe it’s just me, but I fail to see how endorsing these positions is supporting and speaking on behalf of children and youth in the schools.

As I have said, I support and believe in the goals of the PTA. I like everyone I know involved in our PTAs. Bringing parents and teachers together, to work together toward the common goal of educating our children is not simply noble, it is necessary for education to actually occur. I am not challenging that.

What I am challenging is why such a small group of people should feel free to speak for such a large group (more than 12,000) without even the benefit of a public meeting.

On these issues, the Huntsville Council of PTAs does not speak for me, but more importantly since my daughter is at a merging school and my son is suffering from cuts to the Special Education budget, they are not speaking on behalf of my children.

I hope that my assessment is wrong. If not, I hope that it will change. And change soon.

The post Wardynski Wins Alabama PTA Superintendent of the Year appeared first on Geek Palaver.

I just received a comment on an early post that greatly concerns me, and so I want to make sure that my position concerning the Mt. Gap Elementary School PTA is crystal clear: I greatly appreciate and support the work that our PTA leadership team has done this year. It is in no way my intention to criticize the organization, the leadership, nor it’s members in any of the posts that I have made about the plan to merge/close Mt. Gap Elementary School.

Here was the reader’s comment:

At least three emails were sent out to all parents in the middle school about the meeting. It was also posted on the sign in front of the school. There are only so many things they can do to notify parents. If they send home papers they end up left in the kids lockers. No need to blast the PTA. We don’t need to turn against each other. The elementary PTA president planned the meeting. That was when he said he could come. All three schools were invited. I have three kids at 3 different schools. My husband and I have to split up all the time got meetings and such. It’s a way of life when your kids get to a certain age.

I really appreciate it when readers take the time to comment, or send me private emails. It helps me understand when I haven’t made my self clear enough in my writing.

Clarity in thought and word is the single most important part of being a writer, and it is what I strive for above all else.

Since it seems that I may have been misunderstood, let me make my opinion as clear as I can.

I greatly appreciate the endless and tireless work that the PTA leadership, and in particular our president, has done this year. It has been an extremely difficult year for everyone connected to the school system (including the superintendent and the board even though I believe them to be the cause of most of the difficulty).

Our teachers and administrators have operated under more stress, pressure, and both overt and covert threats from the state and the city leadership than in any year in recent history. Our PTA has been under a similar stress. While their “jobs” and livelihood are not on the line, clearly these are concerned parents, each and every one of them. And when our teachers are stressed, good parents become concerned and stressed as well.

I know for a fact that this is true of our PTA leadership, and it is certainly true of our president. Gwen Lindsey is an excellent parent and a caring leader for our PTA.

It has not been my intention to be critical of the PTA’s attempts to schedule the meeting with Dr. Wardynski. All of my criticism for the delays in scheduling the meeting are directed toward Dr. Wardynski and Dr. Robinson.

I am convinced that Dr. Wardynski intentionally delayed having a meeting with parents in order to be able to approach the meeting as if it was a completed deal.

And that is exactly what happened.

The reason that attendance at the Merger Meeting (it’s difficult to call it that since the vast majority of the meeting was spent talking about everything but the merger) was low was because Dr. Wardynski with the support of Dr. Robinson designed it so.

Why would busy parents whom, as the reader stated, have to “split up” to attend meetings bother to attend a meeting to discuss a plan that was introduced six months earlier, and approved and implemented four months earlier?

Truthfully, as Tuesday is “date night” for my little girl and me, I nearly talked myself into not attending the meeting as well. If I hadn’t been able to reschedule our typical dinner together until after the meeting, I probably wouldn’t have gone.

But you see, that was exactly what Dr. Wardynski intended when he finally agreed to meet with parents. He was counting on people staying away.

So, no, I do not believe that there was anything else that the PTA leadership teams could have or should have done to promote attendance at the meeting.

I am not attempting to “blast the PTA.”

I consider our PTA president to be a friend, and I am not attempting to criticize her or her actions in any way. While I have not had the opportunity to discuss the merger meeting with her since Tuesday, I believe that she, in principal, supports the idea of the merger. She sees it as a way of keeping Mt. Gap open. While we may disagree on the merger, I do not hold any ill will toward her for viewing things differently than I. It is not my intention to “turn against each other” in this discussion.

To the contrary: the only persons that I am attempting to blast here are Dr. Wardynski and Dr. Robinson for pushing through this decision without, as Dr. Wardynski promised, discussing it with parents first. I think doing so was a blatant attempt to disenfranchise anyone who opposes his ideas.

How we do a thing is just as important as what we do. One cannot make a good decision in a bad way. The ends never justify the means.

How Dr. Wardynski is running our system is wrong. It is rife with opportunities for fraud, and I believe that is reason enough to oppose the decisions he is ramming through.

I think he is destroying our school system with his methods, and I am doing what I can to oppose his attempts to hurt my, our, kids’ education.

So, just so we’re clear, I oppose Dr. Wardynski’s plan to harm Mt. Gap Elementary School. I oppose his refusal to answer questions or discuss reasons for the merger.

I do not oppose the Mt. Gap Elementary PTA. These dedicated women and men are the reason that we’re celebrating my daughter’s Reflection video. They are a crucial part of the reason that Mt. Gap Elementary is such as wonderful school, and they have my thanks.

The post Saving Mt. Gap: Wardynski is to Blame, Not the PTA appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Two days shy of six months ago, Dr. Wardynski promised that he would meet with parents and the community to discuss the merger of Mt. Gap Elementary and Mt. Gap Middle Schools into one P-8 school. At the September 15th board meeting, he said:

We’re going to go down and have a discussion with the community, the PTAs and the principals and make sure that that concept fits with what the community would like to see. And then once we’ve got that, John’s already working on some concept drawings, come back to the board with a discussion about how that would unfold for board approval.

On November 3rd, without having a discussion with the community, without making sure that the concept fits with “what the community would like to see,” without meeting with parents at all, Dr. Wardynski brought a recommendation to the board to approve the merger of Mt. Gap Elementary and Middle into one P-8 school.

Tonight, four months and ten days after the decision has been made, Dr. Wardynski has finally agreed to meet with parents of MGES, MGMS, and Whitesburg Elementary to discuss with them the decision that he has already started implementing.

Again, not once has he discussed this “with the community” to see if it is a “concept that fits with what the community would like to see.”

Tonight, in a highly controlled, one-hour meeting where all questions from the public are required to be submitted in writing before the meeting begins, Dr. Wardynski is finally consenting to meet with the parents of these high-performing schools to explain why merger is necessary.

I’m not expecting much of an explanation.

It will likely be something like, “We have to merge the schools because the state is pushing to close them.”

Really? Who, exactly, at the state level is pushing Huntsville City Schools to close Mt. Gap Elementary and Middle Schools? What’s the person’s name? Why aren’t they making this claim/request publicly so that we can ask questions of that person?

In short, this argument is just another form of “the boggy man is going to get you.”

There will be no evidence offered that the State is pushing to close the schools. None, whatsoever.

This is simply another play taken out of the Broad Virus playbook that Dr. Wardynski has been following since he arrived on July 5th.

He wants to merge the schools because it will make them easier to control.

And then, a year from now, when test scores have fallen as a result of the disruption that he has caused, he will use that as evidence that public education has failed and needs to be replaced with Charter schools.

But we should be happy and respectful tonight that he’s willing to offer us even an hour of his time to meet with those lowly parents, who just don’t understand education.

The meeting will begin at 6:00pm and end promptly at 7:00pm. I will be live tweeting the meeting and video recording it. It will be important to preserve this moment for the future.

The post Wardynski Finally Meets With Mt. Gap Parents appeared first on Geek Palaver.

It’s strange what having a relaxing weekend away will do to you. Suddenly you start seeing things in a different light. I love my job. Truly love it. But it’s a far and away distant second when it comes to my family. Everyday, my boy, my girl, and Laurel remind me of just how lucky I am. And getting to spend a weekend at the lake with them just reinforces it for me.

I’m honored to be a part of a group called the Rocket City Bloggers. These are a collection of some really amazing writers who give away their ideas, suggestions, hints and art to anyone who wants to take a look. (Which is, by the way, just another thing that I love about the Rocket City: its diversity and art.)

Every month someone in the group hosts a Rocket City Blogging Carnival that displays the work of the collective group all in one easy location for browsing. It’s a great way to meet new writers and to hear new ideas. This month’s carnival follows the theme of “Huntsville Favorites.”

So I’ve been in positive frame of mind. What of it?

Just kidding. I’m just thankful to have a weekend away from work to unpack some of the ideas that have been floating around like the first yellow and red leaves on the lake.

So this weekend, the PTA has been on my mind, and I realized that I had been negligent in writing about things that make a difference in education by not having mentioned the PTAs by name yet. This is a shame since Huntsville PTAs (in particular the ones at Farley, Challenger and Mt. Gap Elementary) are some of my Huntsville Favorites.

Sometimes PTAs get a bad rap. Occasionally PTAs seem like you’ve stepped back in time and are in grade school all over again. Many of the same battles that you faced in school get rehashed later in life. Jeannie C. Riley had a wonderful tongue-in-cheek hit with it in the late sixties about the Harper Valley PTA which made excellent hay pointing out hypocrisy for humor.

On a more serious note, PTAs are often accused of being an exclusive playground designed to garner special consideration for their own children keeping others locked out.

This is not true of the PTAs here in the Huntsville PTAs. As a member of two PTAs (Challenger Elementary and Mt. Gap Elementary), I can readily say that I’ve never know a group of parents who are more wiling to give up their time, energy, and money trying to make sure of just a few things:

• That our schools are as well supplied, maintained, and safe as possible for all kids;
• That our teachers are supported and appreciated so that they may actually focus on teaching rather than fundraising, maintenance and security;
• That the administration of our schools are constantly aware that the parents in this town are involved, inquisitive, informed, and that we are watching.

This is the role that a PTA plays. When it works, as it does here in Huntsville, it works because people are putting aside their differences and working together toward a common goal.

Our PTAs aren’t Conservative verses Liberal. They aren’t Rich verses Poor. They aren’t the “in crowd” verses “the outcasts.” Despite occasionally ribbing over in state rivalries, (football season did begin on Saturday after all), our PTAs aren’t even divided by cries of War Eagle and Roll Tide.

Our PTAs are places where everyone, everyone can participate.

Everyone can work together for our common goals of putting students first. That’s the beauty of the PTA; it is a democracy at its finest. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, rich or poor, handicapped or able to run freely. It doesn’t matter if you were a cheerleader, the football captain, or the nerd sitting in the library (like me), if you care about putting students first, you’ll be welcomed.

The PTA gives everyone, even those who do not speak often like my son, a voice in the development and direction of our schools.

By holding the car line still just a little longer in the morning, by bringing gluten-free cupcakes to parties, by hosting awareness raising celebrations, by giving a child an extra hand with the hula-hoop until he gets the idea, our PTAs  go out of their way to be inclusive and supportive of those students who have special needs. For this, I say thank you, and the boy offers his high five.

All that having a voice requires is participation at whatever level you’re capable. My experience has been that even those who work full-time can find a way to help out after schools have closed. In short, there is something here for everyone. That is, if (and yes, it’s a big if) we’re willing to set aside our differences, our isolationism, our selfishness to work together for a common goal.

Our PTAs are wonderfully diverse, accepting, and welcoming. Yes, occasionally they have flaws and weaknesses, but they’re made up of humans. It comes with the territory.

But if you believe in making your child’s school a better place, if you believe in putting students first, join your PTA, and share your voice.

You know, for the kids. All of them.

The post The PTA: For All of Our Kids appeared first on Geek Palaver.