DALS Lifelong Learning Network

Many thanks to those sports stars who are featured in a new TV ad that is focused on "taking a time out" to stop the hatred in our nation.

Hatred will NOT solve the challenges and problems faced by ALL Americans right now.

Hatred will NOT create more jobs or higher wages or salaries.

Hatred will NOT bring down the prices of food, gas, diesel fuel, rents, mortgages, autos, clothing, etc.

Hatred just begets more hatred, more conflicts and more chaos.

Please, take some time to reach out and to have conversations with other folks about how we can help each other, take care of each other, and listen to each other.

We must reject the politics of hatred, racism, sexism, greed, and violence. It is time to stop the purveyors of hatred, and time to support the leaders who are promoting decency, civility, inclusiveness, humanity, and love. Please take a time out and stop the hatred right now.

New York Times Op Ed by Jessica Grose:

Don't Ditch Standardized Tests. Fix Them.

This opinion piece digs into the causes of why more and more parents are opting their children out of the standardized tests given in our K-12 schools. And the author does a good job of describing why our present standardized tests, that measure student achievement and learning of the Common Core State Standards, are flawed and what needs to be done to "fix them."

What is missing, however, from this opinion piece is a recognition that the growing parental resistance to standardized tests is a symptom of a much larger reality: Our present k-12 school systems are failing and dying, because they are completely disconnected from the learning and performance requirements for success in adult life and success in 99% of present and future jobs and careers.

And let's be very clear: Our present K-12 school systems are also failing and dying because we have experienced over 3 decades of direct political attacks on our K-12 school systems going all the way back to Karl Rove. And those political attacks have intensified in the past decade because of the constant work of so-called Republican politicians like Trump, DeSantis, Abbott, and others, and our K-12 teachers are under constant attack and are forced to abide by top-down political directives, so our teachers are leaving the K-12 school systems in droves and we now have a nation-wide shortage of over 300,000 K-12 teachers.

Fixing or improving standardized tests will not do anything to address these larger systemic realities. We need a completely new model of K-12 education where our children and young adults are engaged, motivated and actively instructed in the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors required for their future success in adult life and future jobs and careers. And our children and young adults need to work on real, relevant, meaningful, value-added projects that are directly connected to learning and performing in their local communities. And our children and young adults need to learn, practice, practice, practice and then perform in their local communities with actual work with local citizens and employers. We shift our measurement of student mastery to actual, real performances in community settings instead of standardized tests.

There are no easy fixes or magic bullets. We must make major investments in our K-12 school systems and we must restore the respect for and professionalism of our teachers, we must end and remove the political attacks on our K-12 schools. But most of all, we must abandon our present one-size-fits-all factory assembly line model of K-12 teaching and learning, and we must replace in with a K-12 education system that delivers high-quality teaching and learning that is personalized, individualized and customized to each individual student learner.

A radical proposal: change the way we finance and fund our K-12 public schools.

Since the pandemic, K-12 public school attendance numbers have been declining across the nation for many reasons. But one of the most important realities is that our K-12 public schools continue to woefully underfunded and because of low teacher pay and benefits many teachers have left education to seek better paying jobs and careers.

Currently we fund our K-12 public schools based upon how many students are in attendance each day. But the daily costs to operate our K-12 public schools remain the same no matter how many students actually attend school on a given day. The teachers, staff, administrators, etc., all have to be paid, and the buses have to run, and the facilities have to be heated or cooled and cleaned.

Perhaps a better way to figure out the financing of our K-12 public schools would be to have a base count day at the end of each September and then again at the beginning of April and then these two enrollment numbers could be averaged to provide the multiplier for funding. And on these two days the count would be of students who are ENROLLED, not students who are in attendance.

Also, in most states a significant amount of K-12 school funding comes from property taxes so students who live in the more upscale neighborhoods have much better schools that those who live in the low-cost housing communities. Why not gather up all of the property taxes and then distribute them evenly, again based on student enrollment, and not on school location or on student attendance.

Our K-12 public schools are struggling and many are closing. We have a nation-wide shortage of over 300,000 K-12 teachers. It is time to consider big changes in how we fund and finance our K-12 public schools.