Fresh Eggs post Groundhog Day

1. Every time people talk to me about "failing schools," I ask them how they know. They don't have an answer.

2. Donald Trump doesn't want to destroy public education; he wants to sell it to the highest bidder. And he found Betsy Devos, who has more money and willingness to do the job than anyone else.

3. Playing silly games on my tablet, I find that they often provide events that 'get people around the world working together to accomplish common goals.' How can we get our political leaders to do that?

4. Do not call Donald Trump a fascist or a Nazi. Even Hitler gave the German people health care.

5. I would like to extend an open invitation to Puxatawney Phil to relocate to Jacksonville. Our winter hasn't started yet.

6. About the nomination of Betsy Devos: as we say in the education biz, she doesn't know that she doesn't know.

7. I think we could say the same of Donald Trump. Hey, that's under the 140 character limit, hee-hee.

8. After 30 years of educational reform, the golden age has not arrived. When do people begin to think that it's not working?

9. Opportunity cost is an economic concept that when you decide to do one thing, you lose the opportunity to do something else. Specifically, when you decide to give another test, you lose the opportunity to continue learning in the classroom. Hmm, is there a school district that has lost its way? 'Nough said, I like my job.

10. Anyone else but Donald Trump would have pulled the Devos nomination by now. But the Trumpster always doubles down. We need to stop her, but what will he do in response?

11. Hey, you ask. Why am I so anti-Donald Trump? That would take a long essay, but here's a short answer: He made me vote for Hillary Clinton, something I swore I would never do.

11.5: Unlike a politician or a calculating media type, I will lay it out in the sunshine. This is what I think. I started this blog to let you see inside my hard head, made of stone. Let's crack that stone cranium open and see what's inside.

12. We made it past Groundhog Day. And yet, in an invocation of the famous movie, don't you wish we were caught in a Groundhog Day, in which we kept repeating the day until we got it right?

Will the Adults Please Shut Up and Sit Down

Saturday, January 28, 2017 was the last and culminating event in the new series of meetings that the Jacksonville Public Education Fund initiated this school year: Student Voice.

There are many voices competing to be heard in the Education Arena, but one voice that is often missing or overlooked is that of our students. JPEF sought to change that.

It created a forum at which Duval County students could express their ideas and opinions about their education.

Based on what I experienced this morning, it was a good idea. And Jacksonville, you need to pay attention.

After the obligatory introductory speeches, recognition of VIPs, etc. etc. we got underway. Three high school students spoke to us. Because I didn't take notes but gave my full attention to each speaker, what you are going to get is my gleaning of what the students were saying. If you want to hear it for yourself, go to JPEF on Facebook or check their website for the recordings.

First up, Ron Osorio, Paxon School for Advanced Studies. What do students need? He mentioned group work/projects, resources like replacing the old textbooks that are literally falling apart, and support services for students experiencing the stress of academic pressure and undergoing anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.

Second, Jessica Swint, Terry Parker High School. She spoke of the difficulties of African-American students, especially females, in setting high goals and unapologetically working toward those goals. Of a culture that did not expect or maybe not want successful African-Americans. She spoke of how students like her needed encouragement.She mentioned how programs like AVID and TRIO have helped her during her years in high school.

Third, Devon Singletary, Peterson Academies of Technology. He talked about the motivation students need and how important his family was to his motivation to be excellent, not someone expecting a millionaire's salary for a minimum wage effort.

Afterward, we talked at our tables about our take-aways from the student speeches, what student success looked like, We talked about how the community could support success in our schools. Most of all, we did our best (adults) to keep our mouths shut and listen to what the students had to tell us.

JPEF will compile a summary of the table conversations and put it on their website so I won't try to recapture it here. Check them out: www.jaxpef.org

I did talk about how I would do more group projects in my room if I could kick FSA to the curb (my fellow teacher and Duval TOY--how I hate the acronym, teachers are nobody's toys!--agreed). Later I injected into the conversation as it proceeded about how some teachers didn't want to but succumbed to the pressure to overburden students with academic work because of the test.

Yes, I did it. I told my table that my job was to produce test scores. After a dramatic pause, I added that it shouldn't be. My job should be to teach and educate.

The chair of JPEF's governing board was at my table. She didn't argue. She didn't say it at that point, but it was obvious she agreed. She had already denounced the idea of technology replacing teachers. Although her children attend a private school, she fully supported public education in Jacksonville. Not the charter schools are public schools nonsense, she supported our traditional public school system.

This post is probably reading more like writing down thoughts after the event than an actual coherent essay. Maybe that's okay.

I want to direct your attention to what the students said: group work, alleviate stress and provide support, give our schools the resources they need, understand us and help us on our journey, do not stereotype us, have a heart for our disabled peers (two students spoke passionately toward the end about how an autistic child was treated by peers in the school who did not realize said child was the smartest kid in the room and could help them if only they would change their attitude), our schools need more and better resources (when the books are held together by duct tape, for all that's good and holy, buy us new books!)

You should have been there.

At the end, I was filling out my evaluation form. I was looking at the middle section about whether the superintendent, school board, and JPEF were effective or ineffective in giving students a voice. There was no middle ground, the other choices were very's. I wanted to say I thought the superintendent was somewhat effective, but I couldn't mark that. Full disclosure: I went with ineffective as well as the school board because I simply do not know of any efforts any of those people make to listen to students.

Others jumped up for a group picture so I missed the chance to say to the students what I wanted to say. Therefore, I'll do it here:

Your voices are important. Raise them. Raise your voices. Not only in forums like a JPEF event. Write, email, text your legislators. Tell them what you think about how you are receiving your education. Contact the governor. Call Senators Rubio and Nelson. Write letters to the Times-Union and Folio Weekly. I will not tell you what to say; only to tell you to say it. Your voice will carry more weight than mine. As a teacher, I am often dismissed as pursuing my self-interests in job protection and salary. They cannot say that about you.

Raise your voice ... and be HEARD.

Comparison of Algebra 2 textbooks

A look at Algebra 2 textbooks (as promised a month ago):

	Dolciani (1977)	Heath (1998)	Pearson (2012)
Chapter 1	Vocabulary and the Operations of Algebra (Expressions, operations, solving 1 variable equations)	Review of Basic Algebra (Operations, Solving 1 variable equations, inequalities, absolute value equations and inequalities)	Expressions, Equations, & Inequalities (including absolute value)
Chapter 2	Properties of Real Numbers (including compound inequalities)	Linear Equations (Graphing, slope, 2 variable inequalities, absolute value graphs)	Functions, Equations, and Graphs (linear and absolute value)
Chapter 3	Linear Open Sentences (Graphs, slope, linear equations, systems of equations & inequalities)	Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities	Systems of Equations and Inequalities (linear only)
Chapter 4	Functions & Polynomials (linear functions, direct variation, multiplying and dividing polynomials, synthetic division—optional)	Matrices and Determinants	Quadratic Functions and Equations
Chapter 5	Factoring Polynomials (GCF, quadratics—factoring and solving)	Quadratic Equations and Parabolas (Solving, graphing, quadratic formula, completing the square, complex numbers, quadratic inequalities)	Polynomials and Polynomial Functions (including the fundamental theorem of algebra, remainder theorem, rational root theorem)
Chapter 6	Rational Expressions	Functions (Operations, inverse functions, transformations of function graphs, recursive functions)	Radical Exponents and Rational Functions
Chapter 7	Radicals and Irrational Numbers	Powers, Roots, and Radicals	Exponential and Logarithmic Functions
Chapter 8	Quadratic Equations and Functions (Solving, complex numbers, quadratic formula)	Exponential and Logarithmic Functions	Rational Functions
Chapter 9	Quadratic Relations and Systems (Distance formula—yes, I know! Perpendicular slope, conics, solving quadratic systems)	Polynomials and Polynomial Functions (operations, division, synthetic division, fundamental theorem of algebra, remainder theorem, rational root theorem)	Sequences and Series
Chapter 10	Exponential Functions and Logarithms	Rational Functions	Conic Sections
Chapter 11	Sequences and series	Quadratic Relations (conics)	Probability and Statistics
Chapter 12	Permutations, Combinations, and Probability	Sequences and Series	Matrices
Chapter 13	Matrices	Trigonometric Relations and Functions	Periodic Functions and Trigonometry
Chapter 14	Trigonometry	Trigonometric Graphs, Equations, and Identities	Trigonometric Identities and Equations
Chapter 15	Trigonometric Identities and Formulas	Probability and Statistics
Chapter 16	Circular Functions and their Inverses (Radians, inverse trig functions)	(None)

The largest takeaway is how today’s textbooks rush ahead into more difficult concepts. Quadratic Functions waits for a later time in the old texts while the current textbook pushes them early and moves ahead. It is also noteworthy that in years past, classes rarely reached the last two or three chapters in the book, which were an advance look at the next course. It was no problem back then as there was no standardized test to contend with and the following year, the new teacher picked up where the old teacher had ended.

It is hard to understand the demand of Common Core mathematics looking at these textbooks. They cover all the topics under the Algebra 2 umbrella. You will only really understand what has taken place when we take a look at Algebra 1 (which I will have to do some work to report as I don’t have access to a current textbook.) But here’s the gist: so much of Algebra 2 has been moved to Algebra 1 that most of the year (in Florida) the students are reviewing what they were supposed to learn earlier.

School Accountability

This was a guest post in another blog in October 2015. I repost it here as we need a closer look at school accountability.

School Accountability (Exposing the Lie)

One of the biggest arguments made for the regime of standardized assessment by the States, for the State, of the State’s people, is that we must have school accountability. Without the BS test (Big Standardized test, credit to Peter Greene, Curmudgucation, for coining the term), how will we know whether schools are any good?

We must have school accountability.

Without the test, there is no accountability.

Which must come as a great surprise to the accreditation agencies that have been reviewing schools since the mid-20^th century and longer. Even the federal government keeps track and gives its “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” to the agencies that meet its demands. (http://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation_pg6.html)

Unlike the school grading process inaugurated in Florida under then-Governor Jeb Bush, which relies mostly upon one standardized test result and a few other criteria constantly under revision, the purpose of which is to maintain whatever narrative the Florida Department of Education wants to trumpet to the media, the accreditation process takes place over months. At its culmination, a team of professional educators (unlike the amateurs consisting of politicians, do-gooder philanthropist businesspersons, and anyone else who thinks that having gone to school as a student makes them more of an expert than people who have actual experience teaching) visits each school to observe classes, meet with the administration, talk to teachers and students, review work, and assess the learning environment. Afterward, they review the evidence they acquired and determine whether to continue to give the school accreditation.

It is a serious process. Teams of stakeholders (admins, teachers, parents, and more) meet for months in advance of the visit to make sure everything is up to scratch. If not, corrections are made.

Accreditation is not automatic. In a decision that is still remembered today, Duval County Public Schools lost its accreditation in the 1960s: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=544275

http://www.nytimes.com/1964/11/30/jacksonville-schools-lose-accreditation-over-funds.html?_r=0

It was a galvanizing action. City leaders reacted, the loss was a major motivation behind the city/county consolidation, and after that became a reality, the schools received the necessary support and gained back the accreditation they needed.

Accreditation is a rigorous process.

We have school accountability through the accreditation process. We do not need a flawed, invalid, unreliable test manipulated by bureaucrats, politicians, and profiteers. We do not need a school report card like the one Florida inflicted upon the nation.

Dementia

The long, lonely dark road

Is the one a man must walk

When row after row of curtains

Close upon his mind.

I want to say …

Don’t argue with me …

The road is dark

When my words fly away

And all I am left with is

Confusion.

Once I was great

Now I am brought low

My greatest strength betrays me (my  mind)

Row upon row of curtains close upon me.

I hurt the ones I love

I don’t mean to … but it happens

Row upon row …

Dark, lonely roads.

The Accomplishments of the Obama Presidency

As the year is closing out and with it, the Obama presidency, it is time to look back and list the accomplishments of the 44^th president. In doing so, it is important to understand this is a list of what the president did, whether you think it was good or bad, whether you like him or you don’t like him; controversy will not be allowed about the list. Opinions have been shared widely and freely over the eight years Barack Obama has led the nation. If you have more to say, go elsewhere. All I’m trying to do is to list what he accomplished during his two terms. In that spirit, please feel free to offer suggestions as to what I have missed.

1.       Affordable Care Act. Perhaps his signature accomplishment.

2.       Withdrawal of ground forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.

3.       Authorizing the raid in Pakistan that resulted in the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

4.       Authorizing navy snipers to kill the pirates that held an American merchant marine captain hostage.

5.       2009 Public Works spending on ‘shovel ready’ projects.

6.       Race to the Top and NCLB waivers in education.

7.       Opening to Cuba, reestablishment of diplomatic ties with the Cuban government.

8.       Engineered the treaty with Iran about their nuclear program.

9.       Led NATO (prodded by HRC) to conduct air strikes on behalf of Libyan rebels fighting the Qaddafi regime.

10.   Continued the program of using drones to assassinate Al Qaeda, Taliban, Daesh (you hear them reported as ISIS or ISIL), and other Middle Eastern terrorist leaders.

11.   Allowed the regulatory agencies to publish numerous new rules regarding fuels used by power plants, for-profit colleges, practices of the financial sector, &c.

12.   Prevented leasing of off-shore Atlantic parcels for oil & gas exploration.

13.   Created the Consumer Finance Protection Agency through the Dodd-Frank Bill.

14.   Ended the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and allowed openly same-sex oriented persons to serve in the Armed Forces without threat of sanction or discharge.

15.   Student loans for college now come from the federal government rather than having the federal government guarantee loan repayments for private lenders.

16.   Signed the Paris Accord on climate change.

That’s all I can think of, but I am sure you will want to add others. The only rule is that it must be a direct action of the president. For example, to say he created a million new jobs does not qualify unless he hired a million people for new White House staff positions. Perhaps you think something on the list should be deleted? Explain why. This is a retrospective of what the man did regardless of how we feel about it.

Then versus Now: Geometry

The question I’ve been wondering about is when did we lard up secondary mathematics courses to the point where there was too much content to teach in a year? Or has it always been this way?

Quite honestly, I don’t remember my high school math courses: too long ago.

Thus my mission to acquire math textbooks from the time when I sat in the desk watching a teacher explain math.

Recently, I was alerted to a series of textbooks written and co-written by Mary Dolciani. My correspondents said she was the best. I then turned to Amazon to find used books and scored, that is, I was able to find the books. I had been searching for a year.

Here is the comparison for Geometry between a 1969 Dolciani text and the current Pearson text via the table of contents:

Chapter	Dolciani	Pearson
1	Basic elements of Geometry: definitions and terms	Tools of Geometry: definitions, terms, and initial postulates and theorems
2	Principles of Logic	Reasoning and proof: logic (plus vertical angles
3	Initial Postulates and Theorems	Parallel and perpendicular lines
4	Perpendicular lines, basic angle relationships (vertical, supplementary, complementary)	Congruent Triangles
5	Parallel lines and planes	Points of concurrency and other relationships in triangles
6	Congruent Triangles	Quadrilaterals
7	Quadrilaterals; triangle inequalities	Similarity
8	Similarity	Right triangles and trigonometry
9	Right triangles and trigonometry	Transformations
10	Circles	Area
11	Constructions	Volume and Surface Area
12	Coordinate Geometry: methods	Circles
13	Coordinate Geometry: proofs	Probability
14	Transformations
15	Area
16	Volume and Surface Area

Of all the secondary math courses, Geometry is the least subject to cramming down the curriculum because you can move radical functions from Algebra 2 to Algebra 1, but there is nowhere to push down a topic like triangle congruency, not at least as long as we continue to follow the century-old practice of teaching the branches of mathematics in isolation.

(Yes, Algebra 2 students complain loudly about taking a year off from algebra to study geometry and then we expect them to recall perfectly everything they learned in Algebra 1.)

(No, the rest of the world does not do this. They create integrated courses that move the students through their years of study in which all branches of mathematics are present.)

Two big takeaways:

                One: I was wrong that trigonometry being introduced in geometry was a recent development. It has been there all along. What is added to what had been was additional study of triangles. The points of concurrency do not appear in the 1969 textbook.

The problem with the pedagogy that is pushed upon teachers and students by non-experts is that the non-experts believe that if something is nice to know, it has to be known and therefore added to the curriculum. Or as someone said 10 years ago, Florida has never found an additional benchmark it didn’t like. We are always adding and never subtracting until there is simply too much to learn in a year.

Dopes. Children are not computers; you cannot upgrade the CPU and memory chips and get more capacity.

                Two: The 1969 textbook takes longer to establish the basics before moving onto more advanced ideas. The current textbook throws ideas out quickly and assumes children will make sense of them with little work.

In practice, that is the deadly sin that dooms district curriculums written to satisfy state demands. Math, and Geometry in particular, is sequential. What you did not understand yesterday will hurt you today. If that goes on long enough, despair and failure are the only ends at which students will arrive.

Next Up: A comparison of Algebra 2 textbooks.