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January 19, 2007 Update — From Mary Cecconi, Executive Director
If this is your first update from Parents United, welcome! Please let us know if you have questions or experience any problems with your mailings from us. Important Dates (more info. below) Monday, February 12, 2007
In This Issue
The education hearings at the Capitol this week all focused on overviews of information necessary as background for representatives and senators. If you want specific information about future hearings and all the info you need to visit, remember to check our website. Senate Education (meets Mondays and Wednesdays, 3-5pm, Room 15 in the Capitol) This committee intends to take its work out into the community. The chair has offered to all committee members to hold sessions in their communities and at convenient times for parents to attend. This is a terrific way to be part of the process and visit with elected officials. To find out where they will be, check the website. The hearing this week centered on QComp. After voting to re-confirm Alice Seagren as Commissioner of Education, the committee took testimony from Education Minnesota as well as several schools districts that are involved with the QComp program. There is a fair amount of controversy over exactly what the legislation said and its implementation by the Minnesota Department of Education. QComp is a program funded in 2005 with a budget of over $80 million. The original legislation provides for an Alternative Teacher Pay for Performance System (ATPPS), whereas what has always been known as QComp appears to be based on an existing Teacher Alternative Pay program (TAP). The differences are not subtle. Chair Wiger promised further hearings on the issue. Parents United supports using data to determine the efficacy of a program, and the current problem is that there is no evaluative method being used to determine if QComp is increasing student achievement. In its stead, anecdotal survey information is being used for evaluation. This is an $80 million program that the Legislature will have to keep or jettison, and no data is being collected about its effectiveness in helping our children learn. Senate E-12 Education Budget Division This committee focused on getting an overview of P.S. Minnesota, and the hearing was carried over into Wednesday. Very interesting discussions began. P.S. Minnesota is a huge system change in the way we fund schools and will need a great deal of legislative investment. If the way we are funding our schools is to be rationally linked to the costs of learning, there are a variety of policy decisions that need to be made and those will have to be made at the legislative level. One such decision is the use of the Free and Reduced lunch proxy to determine if a child receives at-risk dollars. This proxy has always been used, but is it the right one? Deep and important conversations need to take place around issues at this level. Please come and learn more about this proposed new way to fund our schools. This is the intent of our February 12 Parent Leadership Summit—to include parents in this conversation (see below). House E-12 Education and House K-12 Finance Division Both House committees this week focused on achievement gap research. Several experts, some working in the schools and some academicians, came forward with excellent information based on their research data. The stunning part of the information was how absolutely consistent it was in determining both the causes of the gap as well as the way to close it. The committee heard from both Dr. Dan Mueller of the Wilder Foundation and Dr. David Heistad, Director of Research, Evaluation and Assessment for Minneapolis Public Schools. Also, the U of M College of Education and Human Development presented a truly terrific report at K-12 Finance, Thursday January 18, and if you wish to hear it you can listen to the committee hearing by clicking here.
Governor's State of the State Address The Governor gave his State of the State Address on Tuesday of this week. If you missed it and would like to hear it check it out here. It may be necessary to add a few editorial comments about the governor’s address. The Governor is right about Minnesota needing to have world class schools, but the disagreement will surely come with the details of how we arrive there. It is important to remember that any talk about a surplus needs to be taken with a grain of salt. You may remember that in 2002 the law was changed to include inflation when forecasting revenue for the State, but to NOT include inflation when determining expenditures. This may make it seem that the State has much more money to spend. The governor’s emphasis on high school reform, with less interest in our youngest learners, is totally disconnected from the data and research testified to by the experts who presented this week at the House Education committees on what is necessary to close the achievement gap. They were adamant about the need for early learning opportunities. The Governor referred to Bill Gates defining today’s high schools as obsolete—needing “rigor, relevance and results.” He has even offered a vision where “Three R Schools” will qualify for additional dollars. Just a point of clarification: Bill Gates’ quote speaks of “rigor, relevance and relationships.” Gates speaks of the need for students to form relationships with adults as an essential element of learning. This may be hard to do in a high school algebra class of 44. The Governor speaks of a need for greater online learning? Great idea! How about for all of those kids who are still working on Apple II GS’s? The Governor suggests an increase in funding of 2% on the per pupil formula for all schools and 2% more for those who qualify! The qualifications are certainly easier to achieve if your school has an enrollment of less challenged students. Does that mean that schools dealing with our most challenged children and that miss proficiency with one child in one “sub-group” miss out on the extra dollars? Some schools may qualify for more dollars if they provide more rigor, relevance and results! A full year of college in high schools, work-based learning, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs for all kids--in all grades! But will only some schools have the funding for these programs? World class schools for some? Or all? Yes, I see possible disagreement with the details. This will be interesting to look at this coming week, when the governor presents his budget.
February 12, 2007 Join us at this event – by parents, for parents – to learn and talk about P. S. Minnesota, a new framework for funding our public schools. P.S. Minnesota is an unprecedented coalition of parent, faith-based and education organizations dedicated to meeting the educational challenges facing students in the 21st century and committed to updating Minnesota’s current school funding formula. After the morning event, we will again be heading to the Capitol to speak with our legislative leaders. The intent of this Summit, and all of our work, is to bring the parent voice to the forefront of conversations affecting our public schools. Because this is an event for parents, we have kept the cost at $15.00 for the entire day. You can register and get additional information at our website. If you live further than two hours from the Twin Cities, we have grant dollars to defray your cost of traveling to attend this Summit! We have limited grant dollars for this venture, so if you are interested, please let us know! Questions? E-mail Mary Cecconi. Parents United for Public Schools | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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