May 14, 2013

I will be presenting Motivating the Reluctant Reader Through Technology for VSTE this Thursday at 7pm EST.

The webinar is free and is located at http://vste.adobeconnect.com/vstelive.

Please let me know if you attend.

Rob

Apr 29, 2013

Apr 5, 2013

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Mar 20, 2013

An Educational Conspiracy Theory

Any good conspiracy theory has to have drama, suspense,mystery, and of course a string of famous people to blame for the problems.This theory has all of that, so grab your popcorn and get ready to read about aconspiracy theory that dates back decades. Who knows, you may find some realtruth to this theory.

Go back to 1995 when George Bush was the governor of Texas.They had high stakes testing, which they called the TASS (now TAKS) test. Texasclaimed huge accountability for all educators. After the testing results,schools were made to hang huge banners on the outside of the buildings claimingsuccess or failure.  I actually taught inTexas in 1998 and the TASS test was the primary discussion of any meeting inthe schools. The nightly news had as many reports on schools, students,teachers and/or administrators being caught cheating on the TASS test as theydid anything else The culture of Texas education was to pass those tests at allcosts. Learning to gain knowledge and wisdom became secondary to teaching the test.When I was teaching there, all you ever heard were teachers talking about whatan abysmal failure the high stakes testing concept was in Texas.  It was evident, as an outsider looking in,that education in the state of Texas was a mess.

The only practice the teachers in Texas could embrace wasthat of a textbook curriculum.   You see apparently Texas buys more text booksthan most states combined. So, being the most powerful consumer of text books,the state of Texas flexed their muscles and had text book companies changetheir texts to suit Texas’s TASS tests, and added a few other goodies for thegreat state of Texas. Texas, in fact, had the power to rewrite history. Unfortunatelythose same textbooks (designed specifically for Texas) are sold to many otherschool districts in the United States.

Now in the year 2000, the previous Governor Bush is nowPresident George W Bush, and he brings to the political educational table NoChild Left Behind. This is basically the national version of his TASS testingin Texas, which the teachers in Texas already knew was horrible in so manyways. Now, who looked at this as a good idea? Did anyone go and look historicallyat Texas with their TASS testing results to see if there was any improvement intheir education? Did anyone think for a second that this was going to worknationwide when it couldn’t work statewide? What educator put their stamp ofapproval on NCLB?

One thing we can say for certain is that no true educatorwould ever think to agree with such crazy demands as the NCLB rules imposed.Educators were screaming at the top of their lungs about how NCLB was going tokill public education. They were shouting about the fact that there was no wayeducation would be able to meet 100% proficiency by 2014. Educators were desperatelyexplaining to the GOP-biased government officials that NCLB was setting PublicEducation up to fail and that wasn’t fair. We were given no response and underthe table we heard words of vouchers and charter schools.

Let’s fast-forward 13 years– and here we are. Present day.Teachers are being accosted in the media as failing the children of America.Public education is being blamed for the problems of our society. Publiceducation is being blamed for our countries results in reading and math inrelation to other countries in the world. Public education seems to be gettingblamed for everything.

The conspiracy theory begins.  Was there a plot in 1995 to kill publiceducation? Teachers told anyone willing to listen that by 2013 our globalscores would be terrible. Teachers were telling our government for 13 years nowthat this was going to go horribly wrong. Teaching to a test for 13 years was goingto destroy quality education.  Testnumbers became more important than real learning. It was “get the score or loseyour job.”  It was so obvious. No wonderin 1998 Texas was full of those news casts about teachers, students andadministrators cheating on those tests.  So why did no one do anything about it? Whowants public education to die? Is the problem by state where governors areslicing public educations budgets left and right to attempt to “starve thebeast” as one governor put it? Is it this voucher program or charter schoolsthat they want to pass, and in order to do that they must first kill publiceducation?

Charter schools are hailed as the new order salvation forpublic education. Show me those facts. Here is what I know. They don’t followthe same rules as public education. They only have to have 75% certifiedteachers; they do not have to follow all the attendance rules or specialeducation rules; and they do not have to follow high stakes testing demands aspublic education does. If charter schools are the way, then lets first levelthe playing field.

I don’t have the answers, but only more questions. Was NCLBa government creation to get what they wanted 13 years later? Is this aconspiracy set in motion so far back that it is easy for those in office todayto deny any of these allegations?  Finally, who is going to be our champion? Whowill save public education? It is something to think about. Is it a conspiracytheory or just politics?

Resources:

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/revising-the-revisionaries-the-texas-board-of-ed-loses-its-power-over-textbooks

http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Organizing-a-school/Charter-schools-Finding-out-the-facts-At-a-glance

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/pennsylvania-charter-public-schools-not-always-bound-to-same-rules-648697/

http://yinzercation.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/how-low-can-he-go/

http://www.texaskaos.net/diary/7313/high-stakes-testingthe-scam-that-keeps-on-scamming

Mar 20, 2013

Thank you to the Siie group for choosing me to be a CODiE Judge for the 2013 awards. It was a great honor to be a part of this prestigious experience. I had the opportunity to see some of the latest and greatest educational technology to hit the mainstream. It was an exciting experience.

Feb 25, 2013

I will be presenting on March 16th from 5 to 6:30 at the ASCD Conference in Chicago. My presentation ID is1410. You will be able to use that code to find the room I will be in for the presentation.

I am really excited to see some of my PLN family from Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and more…

My presentation is on Instructional Technology Tools: A Professional Development Plan. I go through the need to educate teachers about technology on their T.E.R.M.s. Come to the presentation to learn more.