Dr. Rocky Killion, superintendent of the West Lafayette Schools, has an op-ed in the Lafayette Journal & Courier prompted by the House Education Committee’s proposal to raise teacher salaries by diverting money away from other school funding necessities such as custodial, maintenance, secretarial, health, special education and other supports services for students and teachers. Rather than increasing the burden on teachers by diverting money away from those supports, Killion identifies $180 million wasted on school testing mandates and private school vouchers that the General Assembly should eliminate, freeing up money for teacher salaries: $100 million on standardized testing; $10 million on I-READ 3 testing; and $70 million on vouchers.
My favorite line from the column was with respect to I-READ 3, “Teachers do not need this test to determine whether or not a student is reading at a third-grade level. The best, most efficient way to find out if a third-grade student is reading at a third-grade level is by asking a third-grade teacher.” Dr. Killion also points out that 60% of students who are using taxpayer dollars to attend a private/religious school have never attended a public school.
I have a slightly less dignified take on the current proposal:
Teachers: Hey, General Assembly, . . . hey! How about a little something, you know… for the effort, you know?
General Assembly: Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.
So, they’ve got that going for them. Which is nice.
Killion is one of the best, and too smart for the average legislator to comprehend. An SNL writer could write a hilarious cold opening with Killion and Sen. Koch in the same room.
As luck would have it, Rocky lives next door to me. He’s a good neighbor too!
My wife worked with him in the Boone Grove district when he was a music teacher.
Man, the budget better have REAL money increase in there for public education.
They never listen to reason or intelligent people. He has great ideas, but instead we let florists dictate how we test kids. He knows all about education you know. I am so glad I retired from teaching this past year, but I will always fight for students and teachers!
I saw Killion for Governor!
I just posted about this yesterday. Teachers hate the testing and it takes time away from actually TEACHING.
There has been an ongoing attempt by the @indgop since 1996 to privatize public education, which in Indiana, means religion based schools.
Public schools build our neighborhoods and our communities. #LetTeachersTeach
Assessment is important for any ongoing activity. We talk about two types: formative assessment, which is the ongoing every day check on progress or some variable, and summative assessment, which is done at the end of an activity or a period of time. The literature has shown, over and again, that formative assessment actually improves learning and quality of an activity. Summative assessment serves a very different role, but it’s not necessarily quality. NASA engineers are very aware of these principles. You never put your money into summative assessment, hoping that it will influence quality, but legislators do not have a clue about that and put millions of dollars into summative assessment. Practical advice for everyone: If you have an employee, everyday honest and specific feedback has infinitely more impact on that person’s job performance than an end of the year conference. Keep a record of your formative comments during the year and simply report them during the end of year conference. The excellent employee acted on every one of your comments and suggestions.
I think some key legislators are aware of the distinction between formative and summative. Certainly educators have tried mightily to explain the distinction. But they don’t care because their stated reasons for the tests are often pretexts. Their goals are to break unions, channel education money to friends & well-wishers, and subsidize private, religious education. Summative tests serve those purposes better than formative assessments.
Excellent. Like I say, summative serves a different role. In this case it’s totally noneducational for the purpose of corruption. I think people need to be clear on that. It sure is a big waste of money for people who sound like they are fixated on saving it.