schoolinfosystem.org
ow much do election-year firewalls cost to build? For the state’s largest teachers union, $1.57 million.
That’s how much the Wisconsin Education Association Council said last week it will spend trying to make sure four Democratic state senators are re-elected – enough, WEAC hopes, to keep a Democratic majority in the 33-member state body.
Although there are 15 Democratic candidates running for the state Senate, and 80 Democrats running for the state Assembly, the latest WEAC report shows that the teachers union is placing what amounts to an “all in” bet on saving just four Democratic senators who are finishing their first terms.
In an Oct. 25 report to the Government Accountability Board, the 98,000-member union reported that it will independently:
• Spend the most – $440,044 – to try to re-elect Democratic Sen. Jim Sullivan of Wauwatosa in the 5th district. WEAC’s pro-Sullivan spending will total $327,939; the remaining $112,105 will be used against Sullivan’s Republican challenger, Republican Rep. Leah Vukmir, also from Wauwatosa.Amazing and something to consider when school spending is discussed.
Chris Gomez-Schmidt (former Madison School Board member) A recent Wisconsin Policy Forum report projects a 20% increase in school property taxes this December, a $883 increase on the average home, driven by the two 2024 referendums and declining state aid. For a city that prides itself on deliberate work to address affordability, this tax increase […]
Larissa Phillips Despite this alarming statistic, some educators believe it’s impossible to teach these adults to read. However, this notion is misguided and requires a different approach. Marian* was in her late 30s when we first met, and she asked me to help her learn to read. This was in 2007. I was the new-ish […]
Will Flanders summary: Last night, the 2024 NAEP was released for Wisconsin and nationwide. The picture it pains of the state of education in America is bleak, and Wisconsin was no exception. Here is a 🧵of some key results. —— Parents overestimate student achievement, underestimate spending Related: Act 10 Did taxpayer funded Wisconsin DPI Superintendent Underly Juice Test […]
WILL School board elections have a big impact on the day-to-day lives of Wisconsin families. Yet they are decided in the least democratic elections. Today, WILL is releasing a new policy report with a proposal to solve this problem. Spring elections have an average turnout of 28% in the last decade, compared to Fall elections where […]
Abbey Machtig: Of those 13 successful referendums, Madison residents still are paying for five of them. If voters approve two proposals from the district in November that together total $607 million, that number would jump to seven. Voters already have authorized the district to increase its spending limit by $72 millionthrough recurring, operating referendums approved during […]
Abbey Machtig: More referendum money would pay for an estimated $15 million increase in health care costs, and for new teaching and mental health staff. An additional pay increase for district employees also is tied to the operating referendum. The district and Madison Teachers Inc. already agreed to a 2.06% wage increase, in addition to […]
Christopher Peak: The educational publisher raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue during the 2010s selling reading programs based on a disproven theory. The company now faces financial fallout, as schools ditch its products. A publisher that once held a commanding shareof the market for materials to teach and test reading has seen its […]
Chris Rickert: Math achievement did not necessarily line up with per-pupil spending in Dane County and Wisconsin’s largest districts. Madison spent the most, for example, of the 10 county districts included in the analysis, or $18,896 per pupil in the 2021-22 school year, according to data from the state Department of Public Instruction. Among the […]
Arthur Jones II, Tal Axelrod, and Jay O’Brien Learning to read isn’t fair. It comes naturally for some students. But for others it’s a frustrating, agonizing process that, if left unaddressed, can cause long-standing academic problems. Ask D’Mekeus Cook Jr., a fourth grader from Louisiana, who was reading at a kindergarten level when he started second grade […]
BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS Across the country, students have been absentat record rates since schools reopened during the pandemic. More than a quarter of students missed at least 10% of the 2021-22 school year, making them chronically absent, according to the most recent data available. Before the pandemic, only 15% of students missed that much school. All […]
Scott Girard: School Board President Nichelle Nichols said in the release that “the state must increase its support for schools” in the upcoming biennial budget. “Without additional revenue, the district will have to make difficult decisions to realign the impact of this budget over the next several years, including the possibility of pursuing additional sources […]
Scott Girard: This year, the two sides are about $11.7 million apart, with MMSD offering a 3.5% increase in its draft budget and MTI, the teachers union, asking for the maximum 8%. MTI, as it did last year, has rallied and spoken out publicly about its concerns should the district remains at 3.5%, including intensifying the district’s ongoing staff […]
Scott Girard: Option A would use a curriculum developed by Savvas for both English language arts and Spanish and dual literacy programs at a cost of $1.17 million. Option B would use Open Up for English and Savvas for Spanish and dual literacy programs for $2.1 million. Whichever is selected, the district will use one-time […]
Dean Mosiman: Reyes, who said she’d seek five recommendations from Finance Department staff to address coming shortfalls, sees a different landscape. “I feel right now we are on the Titanic and we’re about to hit the iceberg,” she said. “We need a strong leader who’s going to be able to make some tough decisions.” How’d […]
The Free Press: Many parents saw America’s public education system crumble under the weight of the pandemic. Stringent policies—including school closures that went on far too long, and ineffective Zoom school for kindergarteners—had devastating effects that we are only just beginning to understand. But, as with so many problems during the pandemic, COVID didn’t necessarily causethese […]
Will Flanders: Recently, results from the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) have caused shockwaves around the country. At least partially-related to teachers’ union-led shutdowns that kept schools closed well past when it was reasonable to do so,[i] decades of progress in scores were erased over the course of three years.[ii] Despite declining scores across the […]
Olivia Herken: We have extended ourselves beyond a balanced budget with this calculated use of fund balance to make this historical investment in our hourly staff,” board member Christina Gomez Schmidt said, “which we have heard is very important. “I do want to recognize that our obligation in the next year’s planning and budget is […]
Ben Chapman and Douglas Belkin: Scores released Thursday show unprecedented drops on the long-term trends tests that are part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” The tests are administered to U.S. students age 9. The test scores reflect more than a pandemic problem, with experts saying it could […]
Dave Cieslewicz: That’s an average of about 3.5 times a day or almost once per day to each school. According to a story in this morning’s Wisconsin State Journal the breakdown is 220 calls to East, 158 to La Follette, 170 to Memorial and 92 to West. In addition to the raw numbers there were […]
Emily Hanford & Christopher Peak: The fact that students who participated in Reading Recovery did worse in later grades than similar students who did not get the program surprised May. [study] “Was Reading Recovery harmful? I wouldn’t go as far as to say that,” he said. “But what we do know is that the kids […]
gao.gov For millions of students, teachers and their families, the last couple of school years during COVID-19 were rife with challenges that disrupted education. But many teachers nationwide reported having students who never even showed up during the entire 2020-2021 school year. We’ll find out more from GAO’s Jackie Nowicki. Mandates, closed schools and Dane County […]
Michael Bloomberg: American public education is broken. Since the pandemic began, students have experienced severe learning loss because schools remained closed in 2020—and even in 2021 when vaccinations were available to teachers and it was clear schools could reopen safely. Many schools also failed to administer remote learning adequately. Before the pandemic, about two-thirds of […]
Evita Duffy: Right now in China, 195 million students K-12 are learning in-person in Chinese public schools. Meanwhile, millions of American public school students are learning in a failed remote system that can’t even keep track of thousands of students who haven’t shown up for class all year. In 2018, 15-year-olds in dozens of countries […]
Molly Beck She said the union has shifted staffing to a “new regional structure,” creating 10 regions to which members belong instead of a centralized location in Madison. Brey would not say how many members are in the union. “After all, our union isn’t a building. Our union is teachers and support professionals who work […]
Liam Dillon: California’s largest teachers union has given more than $13 million to the effort to extend income tax hikes on California’s highest earners, according to newly released state campaign finance reports. The report shows the California Teachers Assn. gave $3 million between April and June this year, in addition to the $10 million the […]
Good teachers are more important than good teachers unions.
That’s worth noting as the Wisconsin Education Association Council loses membership and explores a possible merger.
WEAC has been hurt by Act 10, Gov. Scott Walker’s strict limits on collective bargaining for most public workers. Act 10 means most teachers across Wisconsin are no longer required to pay dues to a union. The legislation also prompted many aging teachers to retire sooner than planned.
WEAC membership has fallen from nearly 100,000 two years ago to around 70,000, with further decline expected as contract extensions in cities such as Madison, Janesville and Milwaukee expire.
Unions actively reorienting themselves – even in states without Act 10-like legislation in place – are mobilizing teachers around curriculum and instruction issues. That could mean organizing teachers to champion what’s working best in the classroom by bringing new ideas to the school board, or working to get the community to support specific practices.
It means working more collaboratively, and offering solutions.
But collaboration can break down over ideological differences regarding what’s best for kids. Or teachers.
For example, while WEAC has supported a statewide evaluation system for educators in recent years, it has resisted emphasizing test scores in such evaluations. Others argue that robust data on test-score performance can say a lot about a teacher’s quality and should be used to make more aggressive decisions in termination or promotion.
Asking teachers to take a more active role in their union could also become an additional stress.
The conversation covered much ground, but mostly we talked about WEAC’s new reality, and the daunting task facing a union that just lost a huge political battle in a decisive way.
Some highlights:
- Did WEAC make a mistake in endorsing Kathleen Falk so early in the process? “She was a strong and viable candidate,” Bell said. “And we needed to make sure there was another voice in the arena.”
- What does the future hold for WEAC? “Every election has lessons,” she said. “Scott Walker is going to be in office for at least two more years, and we have to figure out how we can work with that.”
- Can WEAC sustain its membership in a post-Act 10 world? Burkhalter said membership was about 90,000 before Walker’s strict limits on collective bargaining for most public workers kicked in. Once all the current teacher union contracts expire and individual teachers are free to choose whether to pay dues or not, WEAC hopes to retain 60,000 to 70,000 of that base, he said.
WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators. Much more on WEAC.
Since the collective bargaining measure was enacted last year, WEAC’s membership has dropped from around 90,000 to 70,000, but the remaining membership became energized by the recall. Union leaders are hopeful that passion will continue as the union rallies around issues such as public school funding. The union is working on membership drives this summer.
“I think we will be smaller but stronger,” Bell said.
Burkhalter estimated 25% to 30% of WEAC members voted for Walker in 2010 while on Tuesday about 5% voted for the governor.
“He really united our membership,” said Burkhalter.
Bell said Walker prevailed in the recall partly because many voters don’t like recall elections and some believed recalls should only be used in cases of malfeasance. She admitted public employees were easy targets for the governor and Republican lawmakers because of generous pensions and benefits, which Bell noted were mostly a result of former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson’s qualified economic offer law that gave better benefits in return for salary concessions to public school employees several years ago.
the Recall WEAC website is live, via a kind reader’s email:
Reforming Education And Demanding Exceptional Results in Wisconsin (READER-WI) is a non-partisan organization devoted to reforming and improving the education system in Wisconsin.
We are facing a critical time here in Wisconsin. Where is education going in the 21st century? Will we have an educational system designed to improve educational outcomes for all children in all income brackets and of all ethnicities? Or will we have an educational system designed to maximize Big Labor revenues, and designed to protect the worst teachers while driving out the best?
Click on the tabs at the top of this page to learn more about the crisis we are in. Then, join us in our fight to reform education. Children can no longer be used as political pawns. Let’s make a real, positive difference.More, here, including the beltline billboard due tomorrow.
Al Shanker: Blekko or Clusty.
Related: WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators, Sparks fly over Wisconsin budget’s labor-related provisions and Teachers Union & (Madison) School Board Elections.
Joe Tarr:The quote has been repeated many times, often by conservatives attacking unions as the bane of public education. Joe Klein used it in a June 2011 article in The Atlantic.
However, the Albert Shanker Institute made an extensive effort to find the source of the quote but failed. In a blog post, the Institute concluded: “It is very difficult — sometimes impossible — to prove a negative, especially when it is something like a verbal quotation…. So, we cannot demonstrate conclusively that Albert Shanker never made this particular statement. He was a forthright guy who was known for saying all manner of interesting and provocative things, both on and off the record. But we believe the quote is fiction.”
The Institute speculates that the quote might be a distortion of a speech Shanker gave in the 1970s at Oberlin College, where he said, “I don’t represent children. I represent teachers… But, generally, what’s in the interest of teachers is also in the interest of students.”
The Wikipedia entry lists other quotations from Shanker that are not disputed, including some that would fit perfectly with the stated goals of READER-WI.
Such as this one: “A lot of people who have been hired as teachers are basically not competent.”
And this one: “It is as much the duty of the union to preserve public education as it is to negotiate a good contract.”
“School choice” is a broad term that refers to a wide range of alternatives, including themed charter schools that are entirely under the control of their home school districts. Forty states and the District of Columbia have those in place, according to the American Federation for Children, a national school choice advocacy group.
But it is the voucher programs, in which public funds are used to send children to private schools, that are the focus of much of the energy around the choice movement. Seven states and the District of Columbia have those, and Milwaukee’s voucher program is the first and largest of its kind in the country. That makes Wisconsin a key national battleground.
“Wisconsin has a high level of value to the movement as a whole,” says Robert Enlow, president of the Indianapolis-based Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, a nonprofit group that advocates for school choice. The state, he says, is notable for “the high level of scholarship amounts that families can get.”
Milwaukee’s voucher program had 20,300 full-time equivalent voucher students at 102 private schools in 2010-11, compared to about 80,000 students at Milwaukee’s public K-12 schools. The total cost, at $6,442 per voucher student, was $130.8 million, of which about $90 million came from the state and the rest from the Milwaukee Public Schools.
Critics see the school choice program as part of a larger strategy — driven into high gear in Wisconsin by the fall election of Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans — to eviscerate, for ideological and religious reasons, public schools and the unions that represent teachers.It would be interesting to compare special interest spending in support of the status quo, vs groups advocating change, as outlined in Bill Lueders’ article. A few links:
- WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators
How much do election-year firewalls cost to build? For the state’s largest teachers union, $1.57 million.
That’s how much the Wisconsin Education Association Council said last week it will spend trying to make sure four Democratic state senators are re-elected – enough, WEAC hopes, to keep a Democratic majority in the 33-member state body.
Although there are 15 Democratic candidates running for the state Senate, and 80 Democrats running for the state Assembly, the latest WEAC report shows that the teachers union is placing what amounts to an “all in” bet on saving just four Democratic senators who are finishing their first terms.
In an Oct. 25 report to the Government Accountability Board, the 98,000-member union reported that it will independently:- Wisconsin teachers union tops list of biggest lobbying groups for 2009-10, report shows
The statewide teachers union led in spending on lobbying state lawmakers even before this year’s fight over collective bargaining rights.
The Wisconsin Education Association Council spent $2.5 million on lobbying in 2009 and 2010, years when Democrats were in control of all of state government, a report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Board showed.
WEAC is always one of the top spending lobbyists in the Capitol and they took a central role this year fighting Gov. Scott Walker’s plan curbing public employee union rights, including teachers.
Back in 2009, when Democrat Jim Doyle was governor and Democrats controlled the Senate and Assembly, WEAC wasn’t helping to organize massive protests but it was a regular presence in the Capitol.- Spending in summer recall elections reaches nearly $44 million
Spending in the summer’s recall elections by special interest groups, candidates and political action committees shattered spending records set in previous elections, with $43.9 million doled out on nine elections, according to a study released Tuesday by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
Spending by six political action committees or special interest groups topped the $1 million mark. We Are Wisconsin was the top spender.
The union-backed group spent roughly $10.75 million, followed by the conservative-leaning Club for Growth at $9 million and $4 million in spending from the Greater Wisconsin Committee.- Kansas City School District Loses its Accreditation
A rural legislator who received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from out-of-state school choice advocates took flak back home for supporting expansion of a Milwaukee voucher program when his own school district is struggling financially.
According to a story in the Sauk Prairie Eagle last week, an aide to Rep. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, had to use a gavel to bring order back to a budget listening session at Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital on May 6.
Marklein, a freshman Republican legislator, was asked if campaign contributions were influencing his support for two pieces of recent school choice legislation which provide public tax dollars for families to spend in private schools in Milwaukee. This, at the same time that the River Valley School District, which Marklein represents, has been forced to cut programs and staff and is facing more cuts in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget.Related: WEAC: $1.57 million for Four Wisconsin Senators by Steven Walters:
How much do election-year firewalls cost to build? For the state’s largest teachers union, $1.57 million.
That’s how much the Wisconsin Education Association Council said last week it will spend trying to make sure four Democratic state senators are re-elected – enough, WEAC hopes, to keep a Democratic majority in the 33-member state body.
Although there are 15 Democratic candidates running for the state Senate, and 80 Democrats running for the state Assembly, the latest WEAC report shows that the teachers union is placing what amounts to an “all in” bet on saving just four Democratic senators who are finishing their first terms.Wisconsin Teachers Union Tops Lobbying Expenditures in 2009, more than Double #2
The 14 Wisconsin Democratic senators who fled to Illinois share more than just political sympathy with the public employees and unions targeted by Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill.
The Senate Democrats count on those in the public sector as a key funding source for their campaigns.
In fact, nearly one out of every five dollars raised by those Democratic senators in the past two election cycles came from public employees, such as teachers and firefighters, and their unions, a Journal Sentinel analysis of campaign records shows.
“It’s very simple,” said Richard Abelson, executive director of District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “We have interests, and because of that, we attempt to support candidates who support our interests. It’s pretty hard to find Republicans who support our interests these days.”
Critics of Walker’s budget-repair bill say it would mean less union money for Democrats. That’s because the legislation would end automatic payroll deductions for dues and would allow public employees to opt out of belonging to a union.
Chris Rickert: The Madison School District said Thursday that it is working with the man it hired to be the new principal at Lori Mann Carey Elementary School to make sure he gets the state educator’s license he needs to take the job. The district on Tuesday announced the appointment of longtime educator and activist […]
Geiger summary: Jamie Dimon on Democrats today: “I have a lot of friends who are Democrats today, and they’re idiots. I always say they have big hearts and little brains. They do not understand how the real world works. Almost every single policy they rolled out has failed.” ——- More and more people are realizing […]
Chris Rickert: Gothard used a press conference Wednesday to call on state and federal legislators to provide a bigger chunk of the money local districts need to educate students — or local property taxpayers will be left shouldering even more of the cost of public education. ——— Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average […]
Lauren Greuel and Cory Brewer: It’s not every day that the liberal-leaning Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously sides with the Republican-run Legislature. But that’s what happened recently in a dispute over how $50 million of early literacy funds are distributed to Wisconsin schools. In its ruling, the court rejected false narratives pushed by the governor and his allies […]
Constance Grady: Every month or so, for the past few years, a new dire story has warned of how American children, from elementary school to college age, can nolonger read. And every time I read one of these stories, I find myself conflicted. On the one hand, I am aware that every generation complains that the kids who […]
Ava Menkes: One City Schools, the independent charter school on Madison’s south side, plans to hold a community rally Thursday at The Sylvee to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Over the last decade, One City has raised $50 million to help serve underprivileged students in the area through innovative and unique ways, according to founder and […]
Robert Colvile: A prime minister may now need not just a bulging folder of pre-cooked policies, but something tantamount to an invasion plan to transform the state Indeed, when you talk to people on the Labour side, what is surprising is not just how scathing they are about their own party’s performance — even accounting […]
Daniel Buck: School report cards have become such a farce, glorified propaganda 94% of Wisconsin schools “meet” or “exceed expectations.” Meanwhile, only 37% of Wisconsin students can read at grade level. But if the official report card says all is well, who is to question it? ——— Madison Schools: More $, No Accountability The taxpayer funded […]
Chris Rickert: Under the state’s complicated formula for doling out state dollars to local districts, districts that have lower than average property values per-pupil and spend less per-pupil than other districts tend to receive more state aid as their expenses go up, according to Dan Rossmiller, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards. […]
Kimberly Wethal: The law calls for a multi-faceted overhaul of the state’s elementary school reading curriculum. It aims to improve reading proficiency by emphasizing phonics and prohibits some methodologies, such as one in which young readers use clues to learn unfamiliar words. Critics say that leads to more guessing and lower rates of reading proficiency. The law, known […]
Allysia Finley: All of this will require a higher level of cognition than does the rote work many white-collar employees now do. But as AI is getting smarter, young college grads may be getting dumber. Like early versions of ChatGPT, they can regurgitate information and ideas but struggle to come up with novel insights or […]
Kyle Koenen: This is an alternate reality. The fact of the matter is that those funds would have likely been released long ago if the Governor had not line item vetoed a non-appropriation bill. That action was egregious and has resulted in the delay of long needed literacy reforms. Quinton Klabon: On a related note, […]
Gavin Escott The budget represents an increase of $51.8 million over the previous year and comes after the 2024 operating referendum created a “financial foundation for the future,” Superintendent Joe Gothard said in a letter. The district intends to spend $566.2 million on operations from revenues of $557.4 million, a 3.79% and 5.94% increase, respectively. […]
Jason Riley: The Ford Foundation has spent billions of dollars on poverty initiatives, human-rights advocacy and other selected causes, yet Henry Ford’s most significant achievement was developing the moving assembly line in the 1910s, which transformed manufacturing. Ford made automobiles accessible to America’s burgeoning middle class, expanded job opportunities, and accelerated the expansion of related […]
Liz Mineo: Experts have long known that reading skills develop before the first day of kindergarten, but new research from the Harvard Graduate School of Education says they may start developing as early as infancy. The study, out of the lab of Nadine Gaab, associate professor of education, found that trajectories between kids with and without reading disabilities […]
James Marriott: Writing is the most reliable (and often the most painful) method our species has devised of transforming half-formed notions and stray fancies into rigorous, logical thought. I cannot be the only opinion columnist to have discovered that ideas that sounded impressive when I was declaiming them in the pub have a habit of […]
Chris Rickert: “I will say from general experience and observation that most districts interact with the certified and non-certified group independently,” he said, “but approach annual increases for all employees with an eye toward relative fairness and equity — keeping staff at similar standing in the regional market for like employee groups.” Dan Rossmiller, executive […]
Kayla Huynh: Even with additional funding from the referendum, the Madison school district will also rely on $22.4 million in one-time funds this year to balance its budget. Undernext year’s proposed budget, the school district would spend $9.5 million more than it receives in revenue, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, a nonpartisan, indendent research group […]
by Alarice McPark, age 13 The whole language approach was a reading instruction method invented by Dame Marie Clay in New Zealand in the 1970s, and it gained popularity in other countries by the late ‘90s. In this approach, children were taught to use contextual cues, such as the idea of the story, or use […]
Link: This was the standard curriculum for seventh and eighth grade English classes in Minnesota in 1908. Poems and novels that today would be considered too challenging or difficult. Students were expected to read entire books, where today we teach only snippets. How far we’ve fallen. Meanwhile: Madison Schools: More $, No Accountability The taxpayer funded […]
Jessica Berg: If you had walked into the classrooms at my Rockford, Illinois, elementary school a few years ago, you would have seen something very different from what happens there today. Back then, like many schools, students stayed in their grade-level classrooms throughout the day, and we delivered reading instruction accordingly. On paper, that seemed […]
via a kind email: In this session, we will: You’re invited to a free webinar on Thursday, June 26 at 1:00 PM(CT) to walk through the WILL Model Policy on Act 20 Reading and Retention and the newly released Companion Guide to Implementing Act 20. Under Wisconsin law (Wis. Stat. § 118.33(6)), all school districts must adopt a promotion and retention […]
Chris Rickert: Are you a Madison parent who has enrolled your child in a school outside the Madison School District? The Wisconsin State Journal is looking to speak with Madison parents about their decision to use the state’s open enrollment program to enroll their students in other school districts, such as Monona Grove, Sun Prairie […]
Shane Goldmacher and Reid J. Epstein: The departures of Ms. Weingarten and Mr. Saunders represent a significant erosion of trust in the D.N.C. — the official arm of the national party — during a moment in which Democrats are still locked out of power and grappling for a message and messenger to lead the opposition […]
Corrinne Hess: Milwaukee Public Schools isn’t supporting its teachers and doesn’t have adequate systems in place for student learning at its schools districtwide, according to the second independent audit commissioned by Gov. Tony Evers. The 52-page report, focusing on the district’s instructional policies and methodologies, is as critical as the first audit, which the state released in […]
Chris Rickert: Despite the generally positive overall picture, the foundation also notes that for six of the 15 measures for which data on race are available, “Wisconsin’s racial disparities are some of the largest in the country.” Those measures are: For the first three measures, the gap between Black and white children was the largest […]
Dissident Teacher: With a captive audience, guaranteed revenue, and increased funding for poor performance, public schools have little incentive to ensure any child learns. There’s an enormous disconnect between what parents think public schools do and what the system actually produces. People believe schools exist to educate kids. They don’t. Like so many other systems […]
Chris Rickert: The two had nonetheless remained on the district’s payroll, although amid the investigation district leaders have refused to say what they were doing. Leading Southside have been an interim principal and assistant principal. In the Wednesday email, district Superintendent Joe Gothard says Southside’s current leadership team “will select a group of staff, parents, […]
Vladimir Kogan, Stéphane Lavertu and Zachary Peskowitz: We analyze the most comprehensive dataset on U.S. school board elections. We find that nearly half of races go uncontested and that incumbents are reelected more than 80 percent of the time when they run. Because many incumbents retire instead of running for another term, however, turnover is high […]
Alex Gutentag: On May 17, the Oakland, California, teachers union ended a two-week strike—the union’s third strike in five years. The district offered a substantial salary increase for teachers before the strike even began, but negotiations remained deadlocked for days over the union’s other demands. The Oakland Education Association (OEA) put forward several “common good” proposals that included drought-resistant […]
Dave Cieslewicz: But the district is not holding itself accountable where it matters: student performance. For whatever reason, Madison taxpayers have never demanded that the school board set goals for the results of all that investment. Last November voters overwhelmingly approved two referendums, totaling $607 million, the largest increase in MMSD history. And they did […]
Tim Daly: This isn’t just wrong. It’s a problem. There are lessons for our education community and for both political parties. Edu-Snobbery Hurts Us All • We miss opportunities to help kids. I’m not saying we should go “full Finland” and turn Mississippi into a junket destination and object of hero worship. It’s not perfect. As […]
Chris Rickert: About $478 million, or 20.2% more than last year. It’s a percentage increase that “is more than twice as large as the previous record for the district in our data going back to 1994,” according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum. The increase is being driven by several factors, according […]
Jim Bender and Patrick McIlheran A paper from an insiders’ group offers bad-faith arguments about Wisconsin school choice and the “decoupling” reform that would increase transparency A reform that wonks are calling “decoupling” — an excellent way to simplify school choice funding and eliminate choice’s impact on property taxpayers — is being opposed by the Wisconsin Association […]
Quinton Klabon: Here is who will help set Wisconsin school report card standards. There is not much they can do. The law is specific and key districts would get mad. So, wait for 2029 when DPI updates reading/maths standards, raise test cut scores to NAEP, and remake report cards accurately. ——— Meanwhile: The taxpayer funded Madison […]
TOSA2030 A rigorously documented, independent, community-led report detailing how Wauwatosa’s school governance has broken down over the past several years—academically, financially, and administratively. ——- Meanwhile: The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery… The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or […]
Packy McCormack: My hypothesis is that technology compounds more quickly than the government ossifies, and that entrepreneurship in a broad sense has overtaken institutions as the prime mover of American exceptionalism. One (very oversimplified) way to think of progress is as a vector sum of government and entrepreneurial forces. A vector is a quantity that has both a […]
Daniel Buck: One question persists in American education: How pervasive are the stories of kindergartners learning about transgenderism or high-schoolers waving Hamas flags in hallways? Among the four million teachers in the U.S. there will inevitably be cranks and ideologues who mistake their lectern for a pulpit. Examination of a typical American school district in […]
Quinton Klabon WELL. ——- 2019….. Evers mulligans: My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous Reading Results The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery… The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic” 2017: West High Reading […]
Chris Rickert: Under current district policy, students in fourth or eighth grade who have failed to meet certain academic standards can be forced to repeat those grades, even over the objections of parents. A decision to hold a student back can be appealed to the “superintendent or his/her designee,” but that official’s decision on the matter […]
Carmela Guaglianone A federal judge on Thursday struck down a lawsuitclaiming that “defective” teaching materials had prevented countless students in Massachusetts from learning to read well. “The court begins (and ends) its analysis with the educational malpractice bar,” Judge Richard G. Stearns wrote in his order dismissing the lawsuit against educational publisher Heinemann, its parent company […]
Kayla Huynh: Last year, during the Madison Metropolitan School District’s campaign for two referendums, the district estimated property taxes would increase by about $1,000 for the average homeowner. Voters in November approved the combined $607 million in school referendums, hiking property taxes to fund school building upgrades and day-to-day operating costs. Approval of the $100 […]
Chris Rickert: More than seven months after the principal and assistant principal of a Madison elementary school were removed from their positions amid multiple complaints from parents and staff, the two remain on the district’s payroll. Doing what, exactly, district officials won’t say. Candace Terrell and Annabel Torres remain listed in the district’s online employee […]
Kayla Huynh Lighthouse is now home to the largest number of voucher students in Madison. A majority of the school’s students identify as Hispanic or Black, and nearly all are from low-income households. The school’s website says, “We are facing unprecedented demand with 150 children on our waitlist as of fall 2024.” Lighthouse and other private voucher schools have […]
Tim Vanable: TV: I wonder about the tenability of ascribing a policy like extended school closures to a “laptop class.” Support for school reopenings did not fall neatly along educational lines. The parents most reluctant to send their kids back to school in blue cities in the spring of 2021 were black and Hispanic, research has […]
Patrick Dent: It was 2019 when Jesse Sharkey won reelection to lead the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). A political activist who masquerades as a classroom educator, Sharkey overcame Members First’s slate at the close of the polls. Sharkey’s return to lead the CTU extended the iron grip of the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) over […]
Kimberly Wethal: Many of the students are lagging from COVID-19 pandemic disruptions, they said. Others lack the organizational skills to be successful. An entire generation has lost the ability to do math in their heads. And most just need an adult at school who cares about them. —- The article fails to include total k-12 […]
Chris Rickert: District Director of Early Learning Culleen Witthuhn pointed to a number of reasons for why it saw the increase last year but not in the first two school years the district offered full-day 4K at some sites. ——— Madison Education Partnership: “professional development and evidence-based curricula in 4K Literacy” – Recommendations for the […]
Dana Goldstein: What happened to learning as a national priority? For decades, both Republicans and Democrats strove to be seen as champions of student achievement. Politicians believed pushing for stronger reading and math skills wasn’t just a responsibility, it was potentially a winning electoral strategy. At the moment, though, it seems as though neither party, […]
Tim Daly: This has made it awkward in recent years, as Mississippi has become the fastest-improving school system in the country. You read that right. Mississippi is taking names. In 2003, only the District of Columbia had more fourth graders in the lowest achievement level on our national reading test (NAEP) than Mississippi. By 2024, […]
Notes. —– Meanwhile: The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery… The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic” My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our Disastrous Reading Results 2017: West High Reading Interventionist Teacher’s Remarks to the […]
Marc Eisen: “Those communities are still building single-family homes in places where people can develop generational wealth, which they can’t do when they’re renting. That’s my biggest concernquite frankly. Apartments don’t build generational wealth.” That’s one big reason Bauman thinks the economic inequality gap “hasn’t improved one bit” in the Madison area. The Rev. Alex Gee’s “Justified Anger” essay is a powerful document for exploring […]
Kayla Huynh: The district will reduce the number of half-day classes held at its elementary schools, according to district figures. The district is instead adding half-day programs at four day care sites, including Here We Grow, the Red Caboose, the Playing Field and Pequeños Traviesos, according to Folger. Green said Stephens Elementary is offering four new […]
Chad Aldeman: “The average Black student in Mississippi performed about 1.5 grade levels ahead of the average Black student in Wisconsin. Just think about that for a moment. Tim Daly: Mississippi Can’t Possibly Have Good SchoolsAnd yet it does. Are we ready to deal? Underperforming states escape scrutiny. Our biases prevent us from asking, for […]
Karl Zinsmeister: Administrative resistance to reform has left Washington littered with dysfunctional tar pits. For literally 20 years the FAA has been “rolling out” NextGen, its desperately needed tech modernization of air traffic control, and still nothing is properly automated. The Pentagon has failed its annual audit for the last seven years running, yet no heads […]
Dave Cieslewicz: That led to all kinds of silliness. Here in Madison the culmination of the ludicrousness happened when a student stumbled on the fact that a big rock on the UW campus had been referred to by an offensive name… once… a hundred years ago. So, the UW spent $50,000 to move the rock […]
Matthew Ygelsias: The dumbing of America Nat Malkus from the American Enterprise Institute observes that, to the extent they are available, test scores for American adults are also in decline. In other words, the flagging performance of American students isn’t just about something that’s happening in schools; it’s about something that’s happening in our society […]
San Francisco Chronicle: But for an even bleaker example of how state leaders are failing to rise to the urgency of the moment, Californians should consider the response to AB1121 from Assembly Member Blanca Rubio, D-Baldwin Park (Los Angeles County). The seemingly uncontroversial bill would require California teachers in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade to be trained in […]
Quinton Klabon: Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Act 20 science of reading moment; watch both parts!😭 —— The taxpayer funded Madison School District long used Reading Recovery… The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for graduation at (Madison) East, especially if you are black or Hispanic” My Question to Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Teacher Mulligans and our […]
Heather MacDonald: Disparate-impact theory holds that if a neutral, colorblind standard of achievement or behavior has a disproportionately negative effect on underrepresented minorities (overwhelmingly, on blacks), it violates civil rights laws. It has been used to invalidate literacy and numeracy standards for police officers and firemen, cognitive skills and basic knowledge tests for teachers, the […]
Kayla Huynh: The Madison Metropolitan School District has long calculated high schoolers’ GPAs on a 4.0 scale. A weighted system would take into consideration the difficulty of coursework, assigning higher value to grade points for Advanced Placement or honors classes. Students, parents and staff have shown interest in switching to weighted grades, according to district […]
Victor Davis Hanson: Harvard has refused to accept the orders of a Trump administration commission concerning its chronic problems with anti-Semitism, campus violence, and racial tribalism, bias, and segregation. Yet, unlike some conservative campuses that distrust an overbearing Washington, Harvard and most elite schools like it want it both ways. They do as they please on […]
Chris Rickert The father of a Cherokee Heights Middle School student is facing a felony battery charge for allegedly attacking a security assistant at the Near West Side Madison school. According to a criminal complaint filed Monday: The 44-year-old Madison man went to the school just after 5 p.m. Wednesday along with his son and […]
Joanne Jacobs summary: Only one in three fourth-graders reads proficiently in Georgia, reports Atlanta News First. Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to sign new laws requiring schools to use research-based reading methods and teacher-ed programs to train teachers in the “science of reading,” reports Andy Pierrotti. Two legislators who are former teachers, a Democrat and […]
Alex Crowe: Myers returned to university where she completed a second master’s degree that focused on how students learn, with detailed and specific knowledge of how to teach reading and writing. It has been almost two years since a sweeping review of teacher education recommended 14 reforms to radically reform training courses. Backed by the nation’s education […]
Will Flanders Yesterday, this article was published that talks extensively about Wisconsin’s private school choice programs. It is full of many misconceptions and half-truths about the programs I will address here 🧵. a The article claims that private schools deny admission to students with disabilities. I’ve yet to see a single credible claim that VOUCHER […]