BESE Report – July 2014 Special Meeting

LFT says suspend high-stakes testing

(Baton Rouge – July 29, 2014) Moments after the state’s highest education board voted today to sue Gov. Bobby Jindal for blocking the funds to pay for Common Core testing, LFT President Steve Monaghan urged the board to suspend high-stakes testing until the controversy is resolved.

Monaghan asked the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to “declare a moratorium on high-stakes testing next year, in fairness to the children who are riding through this uncertainty.”

Judith Miranti, one of Gov. Jindal’s appointees to the board, asked about the ramifications of suspending tests. Superintendent of Education John White said that failing to administer the tests would jeopardize federal education funds, which make up a big portion of Louisiana’s education budget.

However, several other states have received waivers that allow them to continue receiving federal funds even though they are not in compliance with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Nothing stops BESE from requesting a waiver except for the toxic politics that threaten education this year.

Left undecided at the meeting is when teachers will know what testing instrument will be used to evaluate students this year.

Superintendent of Education John White asked the board for patience until the August 18 board meeting, when he said there may be some “clarity” about testing.

Division of Administration Attorney Elizabeth Murrill said that “it is a misplaced trust” to believe that anything will be settled by August 18. Legal issues surrounding Common Core and PARCC could take years to resolve, she said.

BESE votes to sue Jindal over Common Core testing

By a six-to-four margin, BESE voted to enter a lawsuit filed against Gov. Jindal for blocking funds to pay for the PARCC tests that accompany Common Core State Standards. Two of the members voting to sue the governor were his own appointees to the board, Judith Miranti and Connie Bradford.

Board President Chas Roemer urged filing suit because “we’ve exhausted all our attempts to negotiate” an agreement with the Jindal administration.

Last month, Jindal signed an executive forbidding BESE to spend money on the PARCC tests, a move that he said was a step toward removing Common Core from Louisiana. The governor said that BESE broke the state’s procurement law when it contracted for testing services without taking competitive bids.

In response, a coalition funded by the Black Alliance for Educational Options, usually a Jindal ally, filed a lawsuit claiming that Jindal overstepped his constitutional authority by blocking the PARCC funds. The coalition includes the New Orleans charter group Choice Foundation, along with some parents and teachers.

District 1 BESE Member Jim Garvey moved to enter the lawsuit, saying that it was necessary in order to preserve BESE’s constitutional role over education.

Members opposing the motion said that whether or not BESE enters the lawsuit, the courts will determine if the governor has the authority he claims.

“It is a travesty that we are facing a lawsuit against the governor,” said District 3 Member Lottie Beebe. “The courts will render a decision. Why do we have to go on record suing the governor?”

Adding to the confusion is the issue of whether or not BESE can file the suit without getting permission from Jindal’s Division of Administration.

DOA attorney Elizabeth Murrill told the board that the law prohibits it from hiring an attorney without permission, even though a lawyer has offered his services for free. Roemer’s response was a simple, “I disagree.”

Voting with Roemer, Garvey, Bradford and Miranti to sue the governor were District 2 member Kira Orange-Jones and District 7 Member Holly Boffy.

Opposed were Beebe, District 4 Member Walter Lee, District 8 Member Carolyn Hill and Jindal’s third appointee, Jane Smith.

Legal score card: Who’s suing whom over what

Alexander the Great solved the puzzle of the Gordian knot by whacking it with a sword. It won’t be nearly as easy to sort out the legal issues rising out of Gov. Jindal’s recent conversion to the anti-Common Core camp.

It began on June 18, when Jindal signed an executive order prohibiting BESE from spending money on the PARCC tests for which it had contracted. The governor’s reasoning was that BESE broke state bid laws by not seeking requests for proposals for the testing services.

A group of legislative fiscal hawks piled on, filing suit against BESE for violating the state’s Administrative Procedures Act. Lawmakers claim that when BESE adopted Common Core standards in 2010, the board failed to publicly advertise the proposed rule for 90 days, as the APA requires.

Common Core supporters responded with a lawsuit filed by a New Orleans charter organization called the Choice Foundation and some parents and teachers. The suit, financed by the Black Alliance for Educational Options, claims that Jindal has no authority to block funding for PARCC because the State Constitution gives authority over education issues to the legislature and BESE. The administration, however, says the constitution gives the governor authority over state spending.

In the latest chapter, the Jindal administration today filed a countersuit against the BAEO group. The countersuit says that BESE’s Memorandum of Understanding with the PARCC testing consortium “offends state sovereignty.”

Jindal attorney Jimmy Faircloth said that if allowed to stand, the MOU would “commit the development of Louisiana education policy to a private non-Louisiana entity controlled by a ‘governing board’ consisting of individuals who are completely unaccountable to Louisiana voters.”

The clearest statement made at today’s BESE meeting was by Division of Administration Attorney Elizabeth Murill, who said that it could take years to untangle the legal knot that Common Core and PARCC have become in Louisiana.

Come volunteer, visit our office on 1726 Line Ave. in Shreveport, and help strengthen your union.

Red River United is looking for volunteers to help us build momentum and share our vision of Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education. Our strength is in our membership. We will have power in the education landscape around us when we step up and fight for it. Join us. We are looking for RRU members and leaders to volunteer in our outreach and organizing efforts. We will be talking to people at their homes, during orientations, in-services, and other trainings from July 28 to August 9.Giving a single day (or more) will help us reach our organizing goals and grow this amazing organization! Times may vary based on the activity planned that day. Staff representatives will contact you with details and times. We specifically need people from July 28 until the beginning of classes to assist with orientations and inservices. Staff representatives will contact you with details and times.

Click here to sign up for the day(s) you will volunteer with Red River United.

Tragic and unnecessary

Politics and Policy: Irreconcilable differences?

(Baton Rouge – July 18, 2014) The political feud between Gov. Bobby Jindal and Superintendent of Education John White must be resolved quickly so that teachers and their students can get down to the work of education, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said today.

“The state has had since 2010 to discuss standards, to develop curricula and to design assessment tools,” Monaghan said. “That was when Governor Jindal and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education signed on in full to Common Core standards.

“But instead of preparing teachers and children,” he said, “our state set sail on an educational misadventure of faux reforms that disrespected our constitution, vilified teachers, siphoned funds from already underfunded public schools, and resulted in endless legal battles. Political ideology masqueraded as educational reform.”

Those distractions made it impossible to have honest discussions regarding the standards, Monaghan said. The failure to fully inform and adequately prepare led to the inevitable botched implementation of the new standards and associated assessments.

“While there is plenty of blame to be shared, none of it belongs to teachers or their students,” Monaghan noted. “They are the victims of wasted time and wasted funds.”

Perhaps the hiatus in testing resulting from Jindal and White’s confrontation can be the silver lining in the cloud hanging over public education in the state, Monaghan said.

“We now recognize the error of emphasizing the testing of children over teaching them,” he said. “We have an opportunity to make education learning-centered instead of testing-centered.”

“With just weeks left before schools open, now is the time for statesmen to step forward and give public education a badly needed sense of direction,” Monaghan said.

Before schools open, the state has a moral and legal obligation to provide:

• A set of standards that spell out what students need to know at every grade level. The standards should be appropriate for the developmental level of the child, rigorous enough to be intellectually challenging, and aimed at preparing the child for success in life.
• A curriculum aligned to those standards. The curriculum should be structured enough to ensure that all students reach the goals of the standards, but flexible enough that teachers can adapt them to the particular needs of their students and their community.
• The resources that it takes to successfully bring the curriculum to the classroom. That means adequate preparation and professional development for educators, safe and welcoming schools, learning materials and technology that meets current standards, and appropriate compensation for the people responsible for our children’s future.
• Instruments to accurately and fairly assess student progress toward meeting goals. We should replace low-level standardized testing with assessments aligned with rich curricula that encourage the kind of higher-order thinking and performance skills students need. Testing should be a diagnostic tool, and not a threat used to punish teachers and unfairly label schools and students.

Thus far, Louisiana has failed our children, our teachers and our schools on all these counts, Monaghan said. Hope for the future lies in a speedy accomplishment of all these goals.

 

As part of our After Hours program, our free professional development program, Red River United is offering a free group math Praxis tutoring class. It is absolutely free to all members, and a fun way to pass the test.

The first class will be held on Monday, July 28 at 4:00 PM in the Red River United Office (1726 Line Ave, Shreveport, LA 71104).

 

RRU also offers one on one tutoring for all RRU members.

If you are interested in joining the Math Praxis group, or want to learn about other professional development opportunities, call 318-424-4579 or emailredriverunited@redriverunited.org.

Mark Your Calendars! 

The Louisiana Supreme Court will be hearing Oral Arguments in the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT) et al. vs. LA case around Act 1 on September 5, 2014.

Act 1 was found unconstitutional in two lower courts in 2013 and 2014.

Caddo will be reimbursing teachers $200 for classroom supplies and materials for the 2014-15 school year

Bossier will be reimbursing teachers $100 for classroom supplies and materials for the 2014-15 school year.

Studying to become a teacher? Need to Pass the Math Praxis? Join a Math Praxis Study Group for Free!

As part of our After Hours program, our free professional development program, Red River United is offering a free group praxis tutoring class. It is absolutely free to all members, and a fun way to pass the test. RRU also offers one on one tutoring. If you are interested in joining the Math Praxis group, or want to learn about other professional development opportunities, call 318-424-4579 or email redriverunited@redriverunited.org.

Good News!

Red River United is proud to announce that the Caddo Parish School Board passed Agenda Item 8.08 – “Permanent Salary Adjustment to Certified and Classified Employees” at the July 15th school board meeting. This Agenda Item was proposed by District 12 Caddo Parish School Board Member Dottie Bell.

This agenda item will make permanent the one-time supplement allocated during the 2013-2014 school year (you received it last December in addition to your Christmas bonus) based on the MFP.

SCR 55 in the 2014 Legislative Session made the MFP monies a permanent salary increase to be implemented in August.

Unfortunately, the schol board did not say what “percentiles” they will be using to calculate individual increases. Red River United will keep you appraised on the school board’s decision, and work at making sure the maximum amount possible is given to all of the hard working teachers and school employees of Caddo Parish. 

AFT 2014 Convention Update

AFT President Randi Weingarten kicked off the AFT convention July 11 by outlining a bold plan to both fight back and fight forward to reclaim the promise of America and create economic and educational opportunity for all. In her keynote to more than 3,500 delegates, Weingarten outlined the coordinated attack facing working people, unions, public education and public services—by those who starve public institutions, criticize public institutions, demonize workers and unions, marginalize those who fight back, and peddle private alternatives. The centerpiece of Weingarten’s speech focused on the need to reclaim the promise by being solution-driven, community-engaged, member-mobilized and “badass”—a term gaining currency with educators frustrated with attacks on public education and the current direction of education policy. While acknowledging that the promise of America has been more an aspiration than a realization for many Americans throughout our history, Weingarten said that “what’s been enduring and unifying is a vision of America based on a foundation of democracy and economic opportunity.”

Every AFT convention provides an opportunity to look back at the past two years, and especially the challenges the union has faced and the opportunities that lie ahead. Two great ways learn more about how the AFT is fighting back and fighting forward are by reading the 2012-2014 “State of the Union” and watching this video that was shown before President Weingarten’s speech.

Day two of the convention, with general sessions highlighting the themes of fighting back, growing stronger and fighting forward with community, was filled with guest speakers and debates on important resolutions and constitutional amendments. Speakers talked about fighting back in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia; veteran civil rights activist Mark Levy joined 10-year-old Asean Johnson to address the need to continue the struggle; Illinois home care worker Traci Coney vowed to fight back against the Harris v. Quinn Supreme Court decision; and a panel updated delegates on the Reconnecting McDowell partnership.

Day three of the convention, with general sessions devoted to politics and solution-driven unionism, was packed with spirited debates and the passage of important resolutions on topics such as fighting back against attacks on our union, fixing the poor implementation of Common Core, and moving toward an accountability system focused on support and improvement. Other highlights included the announcement of Democrats for Public Education, the moving immigration success story of two sisters, and updates on Share My Lesson and First Book.

AFT vows to fight back against attacks on unions.

AFT convention delegates unanimously passed a special order of business to fight back against attacks on unions and teachers, such as Vergara v. California and Harris v. Quinn. The special order characterizes these lawsuits as “contributing to an escalating and engineered imbalance in our democracy.” Amended from the floor, the order was revised to include strong language on Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who publicly supported the Vergara decision. It derides his promotion of “misguided and ineffective policies on deprofessionalization, privatization and test obsession.” The order calls on President Obama to “implement a secretary improvement plan that will be based upon standing up for public education, supporting teachers and all school workers, inspiring parents and the public to join us in creating the public schools we want and deserve, and leading with us in reclaiming the promise of public education.”

 

Delegates at the AFT convention voted overwhelmingly to re-elect AFT President Randi Weingarten to a third term on July 13. The vote affirms the AFT’s commitment to solution-driven, community-engaged and member-empowered unionism that focuses on uniting union members, the people they serve and the communities in which they live. Also re-elected to lead the union was AFT Secretary-Treasurer Lorretta Johnson, who has held that position since 2011. Joining Weingarten and Johnson as the AFT’s new executive vice president is the president of the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers, Mary Cathryn Ricker. Ricker replaces Francine Lawrence, who plans to retire this year. Ricker has led AFT Local 28 since 2005 and has been a member of the AFT K-12 Teachers program and policy council since 2006. She is a National Board Certified middle school English teacher who has taught in classrooms all across the country and internationally.

 

Visit the AFT convention 2014 page for all the updates.