Shilling For The Failed Status Quo
SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT’S OFFICE A MOUTHPIECE FOR SOUTH CAROLINA EDUCRATS
FITSNews - May 12, 2008 - Sure, everybody knows that S.C. Schools Superintendent Jim Rex is little more than a shill for the behemoths behind South Carolina’s bloated education bureaucracy, but we had no idea he was spending our tax dollars disseminating their special interest propoganda.
According to an e-mail obtained exclusively by FITSNews, Rex’s State Department of Education recently blasted out talking points on behalf of the S.C. Association of School Administrators and S.C. School Boards Association to dozens of local superintendents and public school communications personnel, part of an ongoing, organized effort to gut academic accountability in South Carolina.
The talking points, which were sent out last Friday to nearly 100 public e-mail addresses by Rex spokesman Jim Foster, include misleading information about the current testing methods used to measure our state’s academic progress … well, if you call this progress.
Rex failed earlier this year in his initial bid to take over the administration of our state’s flawed testing system, which is among the nation’s most ineffective and inefficient due in no small part to the influence enjoyed by those who currently hold the testing contracts.
Our measurements are also non-compliant with federal No Child Left Behind standards, and universally hated by South Carolina school teachers, who are unable to get an accurate gauge of academic progress and gain valuable diagnostic tools needed to fix problems in real-time.
Of course the educrats don’t care about any of that … the only tools they’re interested in are those which allow them to continue ”fudging failure” just enough to keep the tax dollars flowing in.
In fact, among the misleading centerpieces of Rex’s “testing reform” agenda was an effort to change the designation of failing schools in South Carolina to “Schools of Academic Priority,” yet another feel-good attempt to reframe our state’s perpetual poor performance.
The S.C. House of Representatives rejected Rex’s effort, but not surprisingly the left-leaning State Senate has proven to be a willing co-conspirator in the Superintendent’s drive to assume control over South Carolina’s expensive and totally unreliable testing efforts.
Hence the push by Rex’s educrat allies - and the support of his propoganda office - to rally the troops in support of this sham of a bill.
Is Rex’s full-throated advocacy of the educrat establishment illegal? No … it’s just very, very telling of where his department’s allegiance is truly focused.
Comments
By justus on May 12th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
As always, senators can offer amendments to “fix” any component of the bill they don’t agree with. They shouldn’t let one piece of the legislation that they disagree with hold the bill up since almost EVERYONE agrees PACT must go, and the sooner, the better. The Senate has the means to offer up amendments on the floor, and they should do so if they feel so strongly about the change in the school rating designations. To let the entire bill die because of this, is shirking their responsibility to children, parents, and teachers. I’m tired of hearing a few senators complain about what’s wrong with education, and sit there and do nothing when they have the power and responsibility to end PACT this year and bring about education reform!
By Jeffrey Sewell on May 12th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Talking points, PSA’s, Politics ad nauseaum, Democrats don’t care about education cause that is there base the illiterate, down trodden and those dependent on the social systems and entitlement mentality put in place by Democrats to keep those same folks right where they are!
By foxybloggers on May 12th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Are we really so surprised that the malicious wizard behind the curtain will do anything and everything to continue to uphold his monopoly on the Department of Ministry and Failure? Our government schools have been failures at educating, but prodigious successes at political indoctrination.
Wake up and smell the ignorance “sheeples”
By R2 Parent on May 12th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
As all parents of PACT-age children know, once PACT arrives, the school year is over. No homework the week before.. no class work the two weeks during.. and nothing at all once PACT is completed. The supposed accountability has basically robbed students of five weeks of education each year. And for what? For NOTHING. An eighth grader who scores Below Basic in English and Math is still promoted to high school where he will more than likely drop out.
And now explain this one — in the Richland 2 high schools, end of course tests are starting tomorrow. There are still THREE WEEKS of school left! Guess what the students are doing for the rest of the year? Studying for makeup tests to replace bad grades from earlier in the semester. Wouldn’t want little Johnny to get a bad grade, would we?
By baker on May 12th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Will — I’m not following you on this.
First of all, are you sharing the e-mail with you readers? Did I just miss the link?
Second, is Jim Rex trying to change our testing system or not? Your post seems to suggest that he is — and that you agree that PACT needs an overhaul. But then you’re criticizing Rex for wanting to take over administration of the test? Again, I’m just not following (could be poor reading comprehension on my part).
A couple other thoughts that I hope you’ll consider — could help make for a more reasoned and civil discussion:
1. Again, maybe I’m not reading carefully enough, but you seem to be characterizing the superintendents association and “dozens of local superintendents” as representatives of the “behemoth bureacracy.” I think you’re wrong about this. Districts run by “local superintendents” vary widely: some have hardly any administrative bureacracy, while others may indeed be somewhat loaded down administratively. In my experience, it’s the largest districts that have the most bureacratic layers and clutter….interestingly, hasn’t your guy Mark Sanford pushed for a one-district-per-county consolidation system?
2. If superintendents around the state are in agreement that our testing system needs changing — which, again, you seem to agree with — then why wouldn’t the state superintendent help them coordinate “talking points”?
3. You note that our testing and accountability system isn’t aligned with NCLB. The fact is that SC’s standards are a good deal higher than most of the rest of the country. That’s exactly what some educators and politicians would like to address. You might label it “dumbing down” or whatever else, but my understanding is that they’re trying to align our state’s standards to the rest of the nation, which would actually help SC have an easier time meeting NCLB criteria. I’m confused as to where you come down on all this.
4. I kind of agree with you on the labeling thing. I’m not big on all the labeling altogether, but it does seem that education folks (your “educrats”) are constantly looking for new terminology to describe the same stuff. Still, I think there is a reasonable point that it may have a negative impact on children for their school to be called “failing.” That may sound too soft/liberal for some, but it’s certainly not an unreasonable argument….if the point is to help children. But I think reasonable people can disagree on that.
5. What’s the deal with this Jeffrey Sewell character?
By Trey on May 12th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
#5 - Whoa buddy, I think you’re expecting way too much in the way of intelligent conversation on this blog with a post like that!
By Betty on May 12th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Baker:
It is one thing to change the system to create more accountability and give parents and teachers more info about students that helps them fix their learning problems. It is quite another to change the standards so that the results simply make everyone look better.
I am sure your heart is in the right place, but let’s be honest about who is sensitive to labels — it is not the children, it is the well-paid administrators who manage the schools. Think about it — those kids will learn one way or the other that their schools have failed them, right? They will know it when they cannot finish high school, get a job or even read on a proficient level. So if a little tough talk makes the folks in charge nervous, well….consider that a job performance evaluation and step up to fix the problem. Anyone who really cares about those kids’ feelings should worry less about stigma and more about solutions.
The school board association is not a small group of folks gathering for a covered dish at the local gym. It is well organized, very secretive and largely funded with public money — the association has lobbyists on the payroll, the benefit of a huge database and state employees whose job it is to spin and hit send all day long. Honestly, Baker — do you think poor parents in failing schools have that kind of voice at the Statehouse? Trust me — they don’t.
It is true that our standards on paper look good, but they are not applied the way they were meant to be. Think about it — if our standards were among the highest in the nation, and half the kids dropped out because they couldn’t meet them, then presumably the ones left should be among the brightest in the nation, and certainly the 60-something percent of those who take the SAT should truly be elite. They score at the bottom. So much for the high standards.
This might sound a bit negative, Baker. Sorry. But we have to stop defending failure. We have to encourage those who are in the system to fight for change within it, and to be a part of the solution instead of perpetuating the problem. We know too much to let this mess keep on getting worse. We have no excuses not to be honest about where we are, and open minded about what we have to do to make real progress. The tougher the test, the more we know about what we should be teaching to make sure our kids are at the top for a change. If Jim Rex wants real progress, he needs to focus on real reform instead of superficial talking points.
By Hmmmm.... on May 12th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
R2 Parent,
Be careful with the “all parents know.” My kids had homework last week, one had homework today. And they will be receiving classroom instruction during the next two weeks. I will agree with you that once PACT is over, the last week is meaningless.
By Believe It Not (a.k.a. Sic Willie's Stalker) on May 12th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
#5, our friend #6 has a point. Don’t expect intelligent conversation from wee willie about voucher scam issues.
sic(k) willie is a butt boy for the voucher scam..darn typo..sorry. We intended to say willie is but-a-water-boy for the out of state fake “grassroots” voucher scam lobby group(s) known as SCRG, Voice for School Choice or whatever other phony names they come up with.
They’re “grassroots” like a dog t@rd thrown over your fence by your cowardly neighbor who thinks he can get away with it because he thinks you’re not looking. We’re looking willie. We see your scam.
Vouchers are a scam and stink.
By Not only that on May 13th, 2008 at 5:27 am
“that is there base.” Um, that would be “their” base. Republicans must be illiterate too.
By Rob W. on May 13th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Jeffrey- I totally don’t believe that’s actually the schotline guy. Who would post a class-warfare rant about how Democrats hate education and then improperly spell and punctuate it? Too much ignorance and irony to be true.
Just for the record, looking in broad strokes at Red vs. Blue states disproves his point. Blue states consistently come in looking better in literacy, education, poverty, teen pregnancy, and other indicators. Not saying Dems are more educated than Republicans, just saying it’s hard to believe that Republicans are more educated than Dems.
By baker on May 13th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Betty — I don’t think my post defended failure in any way. Mainly, I was just trying to understand Will’s commentary better — Was he for or against changing PACT? If the state Superintendent of Education isn’t the one who should be in charge of statewide testing, then who should be? And why? Was Will advocating alignment of our accountability system with No Child Left Behind?
And I was trying to clarify a few things, as well:
**Districts run by “local superintendents” don’t amount to a monolithic entity representing a bureacratic behemoth. Some districts — larger ones, especially — may fit this description or something close to it, while other districts may operate with a very thin administrative structure.
**Alignment of our accountability system with NCLB would, in fact, mean lowering our standard of “proficiency.” We can debate every angle of this matter, and I wasn’t stating advocating a position one way or the other; I just offering a point of fact since Will noted that our accountability set-up isn’t in line with NCLB.
Finally, I’m not sure I think the “failure” or “unsatisfactory” label on a school motivates elementary age students. But, again, reasonable people can disagree on how to label schools based on PACT or some other test.
Oh, and I am in no way asserting that school administrators are above criticism. I have worked in public education and certainly have my frustrations with those folks. But I think the notion — that you hear around here and in other pro-voucher circles — that principals and superintendents generally don’t care about success of children is pretty preposterous.
By palmetto pwn'd on May 13th, 2008 at 11:08 am
big expose on the Rex-DRC relationship at VFSC today:
http://thevoiceforschoolchoice.com/
By Earl Capps on May 13th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Hmmmm … in looking at our state’s inability to recruit and retain quality jobs, I would argue that much of what the present public education system does is meaningless.
In serving on the regional Workforce Investment Board, I help allocate millions of your tax dollars for training and adult ed programs that attempt to get right what the public school system didn’t.
But in all fairness, I can’t put all of the blame in the laps of the school system. Even the best teachers can’t exercise one-tenth the influence that their communities and mass media wield over the minds of school children.
I support school choice, and don’t buy the “taking money from schools” lie. If the child leaves, the money leaves, but so does the overhead associated with educating that child. Obviously, they don’t know math or business.
But I disagree with those choice supporters who say that choice alone will solve the problems. While some kids will certainly benefit by the opportunity to attend a more appropriate school, but the deeply rooted negative cultural influences that undermine the efforts of parents, educators, taxpayers, legislators, etc. will still be there.
Name-calling, as is evident from some of these remarks, is just more proof of what I’ve believed all along - some people are far more concerned about being “right” than doing anything about the problem itself.
By baker on May 13th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Earl — That’s a fair and reasonable post, on the whole. It’s good to hear folks like yourself making such points.
This, however, is simply incorrect: “If the child leaves, the money leaves, but so does the overhead associated with educating that child. Obviously, they don’t know math or business.”
If students leave in really large numbers, it could be the case that schools will be able to cut overhead. But I think it will generally not work that way. Here’s a scenario:
There’s an elementary school with 60 fourth graders split among 3 classrooms. If 6 of those students leave for a private school “choice,” then there are 54 fourth graders left. That’s a 10% transfer rate — pretty high, I would think — but wouldn’t be enough to cut a teacher’s job….unless you wanted to have 2 fourth grade sections with 27 students apiece. In that case, the “choice” program means that the students “left” in the public school must be in significantly larger classes.
If there was huge movement into private schools, then money could probably be saved in the public system. But if the movement is slight or only on the margins, then the public districts would clearly lose money.
Who knows what the transfer rate would be, of course. Choice proponents tout supply-and-demand forces. Hard to say how it would go in this arena, though the supply of private school seats is awfully small in most areas of the state. That’s a whole other argument that doesn’t need to be hashed out here…..mostly, I was just trying to get a handle on where Will was coming from on this business of PACT and NCLB and the e-mail that came out from Jim Rex’s staff.
By Jeffrey Sewell on May 13th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I just love you blog grammar mongers (translation idiots), you probably will be lucky to ever make over 100k a year if half that, you are missing the point and here it is:
With the exception of the less than religious extremist folks that wish to nuke the U.S., education is the most important issues impacting our country, local economy and quality of life here in SC. We cannot put folks to work because they can’t read, write et cetera… We have one of the worst graduation rates in the country, this affects the quality of life for all and if we don’t do something about it and soon you will realize this personally via increased rates in crime, higher taxes for more social welfare programs, more prisons.
So if you care about people period demand choice and real choice in education, demand are lawmakers on both sides of the isle do something about illegal immigration that steals good jobs from the poorer and less educated of Americans.
By smart kid Grant on May 13th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Hey foxy, long time no see.
Everything that you just said sounds right from my perspective, but my perspective is kind of skewed in that I am actually affected by it. I would like to say that the PACT tests were not helpful, and were much more like Painful Actions of Consistent Torture than anything that I have experienced up till now (though AP tests are annoying, they are decievingly easy) I would finish the test in less than half the ammount of time allotted, about 20 minutes before everyone else, even though the test usually takes up 2-3 hours. Also I would like to point out that No Child Left Behind is leaving me behind with all of the extra homework that I would not have had originally (that includes you foxy). I cannot wait until I have all of my AP Tests done, and most of my homework goes away, even though we “must continue working after AP exams are over.”
That’s my 2 cents.
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