The Whole Tony Bennett Thing

I will be the first to admit that I have an overgrown gene that relates to fairness in life.  I taught school for 40 years, dealing with adolescents and pre-adolescents, so I think I know a little bit about how immature minds work.  What I don't understand, and what gets me going, is having to deal with politics in situations where politics should not be a factor--politics that is/are self-generating and generally not fair.  Living in all-Republican Indiana as a life-long educator has challenged me to try to understand the adult, immature, political mind.  I'm not there yet. 

Let's backtrack a bit.  When my ex and I moved to Indiana in 1988, the state had just adopted (as had other states) a statewide testing system--ISTEP--that was supposed to have teeth.  Students were going to have to pass the test each year or face retention in grade, or go to summer school for remediation.  This was a state mandate.  I welcomed it.  I figured that it took the pass/fail obligation out of the teachers' hands and placed it on the students where I thought it belonged.  I even signed on to teach summer school in my district for two or three years, hoping to make a difference.

From a teaching standpoint, several problems were immediately obvious.  First of all, the test was administered very early in the school year.  Every veteran teacher knows that it takes a few weeks of review to bring students back up to speed after their summer break, especially with math skills.  Secondly, the tests at some levels were measuring skills that hadn't been covered in the previous year, so even a period of review wasn't going to help students to pass.  Thirdly, special education students were not exempt from the test, nor were any testing situations modified to meet these students' learning disabilities, except to allow them more time and put them in an atmosphere devoid of regular classroom distractions.  Thus, the scores of kids with dyslexia, attention deficit/hyperactive disorder, Asperger's Syndrome or other disabilities on the Autism Spectrum, were figured in with the scores of the non-special ed. kids in each school.  Lastly, the passing score was changed at the state level each year to ensure that some were assured not to pass.  Passing became like trying to hit a moving target.  No one knew what to expect.  Still, I hoped that the forcefulness of the new test standards would change things.

How wrong could I be???  In all my years of teaching, I simply cannot recall more than two--possibly three--students who were held back for failing the test or summer school, although there were dozens who qualified.  And those were mostly because of non-cooperation and/or disciplinary reasons.  Summer school was quickly abandoned from state funding, requiring local districts to foot the bill--which couldn't happen, since the state wasn't even sending the expectedlevel of tax funds.  Summer school soon petered out.  So much for that.  So much for the "teeth" of the tests. 

When I transferred from elementary teaching and started at the high school level, I was teaching sophomores.  The then-ISTEP+ system dictated that students had to pass the test at this level in order to graduate.  If they didn't, they would have to take it again as juniors, and if that wasn't passed, again as seniors.  (The test changed every year, and the passing level, did, too.)     Later, I switched to teaching seniors.  Students who had not passed as seniors weren't supposed to graduate.    That was a joke, too.  I can only recall one single student whose graduation came into question, and the district requested a waiver for him because he had passed all of his courses with at least a "C" and was a hard-working kid with a future awaiting him--but only if he had a diploma.  Over the years, ISTEP+ became an anvil hanging over our heads, but with no state financial support to help the kids.  In short, it was a joke.  The students knew it.  The teachers knew it.  We were all just playing the game.

Then came George W. Bush, whose first official charge after election was to install his own education reform:  No Child Left Behind.  NCLB created a lot of paperwork and placed responsibility for student learning (aka test scores) on teachers and schools, no matter what the circumstances.  No excuses.  Each year, a school had to show improvement in scores over the years before, even though the passing level was changed by the state every year.  It didn't matter if you had a district full of impoverished students, special education kids, or if your district was in the middle of a drug-infested neighborhood.  Produce or die!  Every teacher spent the first six weeks of school teaching to the test, even though we had no clue what the test would be. 

Then came Tony Bennett.  Dr. Bennett is a Republican in a heavily Republican state that was led by a Republican Governor (Mitch Daniels).  He was elected as the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Indiana.  His whole thing was to offer parents a school choice by offering vouchers by which public tax monies could be diverted to private/charter schools which, he believed, was a better fit for families than requiring them to attend "failing"public schools.  Not surprisingly, public schools were put in a horrible situation in which they could hardly even afford copy paper to carry on the very basics of classroom teaching.  (Fortunately, I retired JUST before this happened!)

Under Dr. Bennett's leadership, schools were given a grade based on test scores.  Those that failed were to be "taken over" by the state.  (I never quite understood what that meant.  Was the state going to move in with SuperTeachers that would change everything?  What would happen to teachers already there?  And what would be the consequences if the state's takeover didn't work, either???)  Dr. Bennett would not hear complaints.  I felt, quite assuredly, that the system would implode.  I was right. 

The National Education Association and teachers in Indiana soon got weary of Dr. Bennett.  In last November's elections, he was ousted in favor of Democrat Glenda Ritz, who now faces the political manipulations of the Republican government of the state.  After his ouster, Bennett was hired by the state of Florida to oversee their schools.  Indiana was stuck with his dictates.  Until a few days ago.

Somehow, this week, the Associated Press unearthed some internal emails from Bennett to his cronies back when he was still an Indiana employee.  It seems that one of his favorite charter schools--Christel House--came up with a "C" on his school grading system.  Not acceptable!  The founder of that school, Christel DeHaan, is a $3-million-plus donor to the Republican party, including Tony Bennett's last election campaign.  As far as Bennett was concerned, nothing short of an "A" would work for Christel House....so he and his underlings scrambled for loopholes and even delayed releasing the school grades for the whole state until they could come up with some.  They tweaked what they said was a glitch in the system, and suddenly Christel House had an "A".  What a surprise!
(Incidentally, the tweaking helped a dozen other schools...something Bennett was quick to point out.)

When this information hit the media, the you-know-what hit the fan.  Within the span of two days of negative press, quoting Bennett's own email words, Bennett resigned in Florida, based on the allegations of things that happened here in Indiana.  He says he resigned because he was becoming a distraction from the mission of educating children.  I maintain that he had no other choice.  He was "hoist on his own petard".  I didn't think I'd live long enough to see it.

In the wake of all of this, Indiana Governor Pence is making political moves to create a so-called independent committee to oversee schools, in an effort to get around Glenda Ritz.  He still supports the school grade system even though it has already proven to be flawed.  He still supports Tony Bennett.  Unfortunately, he could succeed with this new committee because this state is so overwhelming Republican.  Politics at its best.!  Both Indiana and Florida are now faced with questions about where to go from here.  My best guess is that Gov. Pence is publicly supporting Bennett because they are Republican buddies but is privately cursing him for bringing this firestorm to his early-term in office.  If he hasn't already figured it out, the continuance of this blindness to American Public Education will continue to implode until someone in the state figures out that politicians have no business administering schools unless they have been in the trenches. 

Test scores are NOT the measure of success in a community or even a nation.  Saying that a school/teacher has failed because a number of students haven't been able to pass a test is like saying that a dentist has failed because some of his patients have cavities.  There are far too many variables to make that conclusion.  Fund the schools, then step back and let them work.  Pay teachers what they are worth in a society that CLAIMS to value education but actually doesn't, based on what they are willing to pay for.  Give teachers the time and the resources to do what they do well and cut the crap.  I'm scared for our society because of what politicians are doing to our schools. 

Actually, I'm scared for our society because of politicians, period.