Boots & Sabers

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Category: Education

Violence Spreads in West Bend School District

by | 0920, 9 Dec 23 | , | 0 Comments

What is going on in West Bend? Kids fight… I get it… but in the space of a week there have been three major incidents of violence in which the police have been called. The Washington County Insider has been covering it and Mark Belling has been trying to get the district administration to pretend, at least, that they are doing something about it.

Story 1:

December 6, 2023 – West Bend, WI – On 12/05/23 at 6:06 p.m. officers were called to Badger Middle School regarding a physical altercation that occurred between a parent and coach at the conclusion of the 8th grade boys’ basketball game.

Story 2:

December 6, 2023 – West Bend, Wi – West Bend Police and the West Bend School District are looking into an incident that reportedly occurred Monday afternoon, December 4, 2023, at Badger Middle School.

[…]

“The Badger police liaison officer was asked to respond to a disturbance in one of the school hallways during dismissal time. The officer determined that two 13-year-old female students were having an argument in the hallway. A 14-year-old male student inserted himself into the argument and struck one of the female students and pushed the other into a locker or a wall.
I’ve watched the video of this attack. It was a vicious punch to the face where a boy slugged a girl.
December 8, 2023 – West Bend, Wi – On Friday, December 8, 2023, at 2:30 p.m., the West Bend Police Department received a report of a fight in progress in the parking lot of the West Bend High Schools (1305 E Decorah Rd). A 14-year-year-old female student, two 15-year-old male students, a 16-year-old female student, and two 16-year-old male students were involved in a physical fight near the bus pickup area during dismissal.
The fight was broken up by school staff, school police officers, and other responding area law enforcement officers. Five subjects were immediately taken into custody on scene. A sixth subject was located shortly after the incident at his residence and taken into custody.
One of the 16-year-old males suffered facial and head injuries and was taken to a local hospital for treatment via ambulance. The 14-year-old female, one of the 15-year-old males, and the 16-year-old female complained of minor injuries and were also taken to a local hospital for treatment via ambulance. All subjects remained in police custody while receiving initial medical treatment.
During the ensuing investigation, one of the initially detained subjects was determined to have been actively trying to stop the fight and was released to his parents. The other five subjects remained in custody until processed through the criminal juvenile intake system.
Three of the five subjects were placed into secure detention on felony charges of Physical Abuse of a Child. The remaining two subjects were processed, released to their parents, and will be facing a felony charge of Physical Abuse of a Child. Additional charges may be forthcoming.

Asian-Americans Continue to Face Discrimination from Ivy Schools

by | 2125, 26 Nov 23 | , | 1 Comment

Disgraceful. Given what we have seen from the Ivy schools lately, I would serious question hiring any of them. They are not admitting the best of the best and they are putting out a bunch of radicalized bigots.

The admissions consultant described what it takes to get into an elite college: Take 10 to 20 Advanced Placement courses. Create a “showstopper project.”

 

Asian American students need to be extremely strategic in how they present themselves, “to avoid anti-Asian discrimination,” the consultant, Sasha Chada of Ivy Scholars, said at the October webinar to an audience of mostly Asian parents and students.

 

[…]

 

In the first college application season since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, Asian American students are more stressed out than ever. Race-conscious admissions were widely seen to have disadvantaged them, as borne out by disparities in the test scores of admitted students — but many feel that race will still be a hidden factor and that standards are even more opaque than before.

 

[…]

 

At seminars like Chada’s around Southern California this fall, some held in Korean or Mandarin for immigrant parents, consultants reinforced the message — even students with superhuman qualifications are regularly rejected from Harvard and UC Berkeley.

Lowering Standards at Schools

by | 0808, 21 Nov 23 | , | 0 Comments

The Washington County Insider is also covering the DPI report cards today and reminds us that the DPI lowered the standards. They also point out the different spending in local districts and how spending seems to have nothing to do with performance.

November 21, 2023 – Washington Co., WI – The State Department of Public Instruction released results from the 2022-23 report card. Data from public schools across Washington County, WI, is below. Keep in mind, it was the 2020-21 report cards when Governor Evers “changed the metrics” and lowered the accountability scoring range.
Below is the Accountability Rating Category used by DPI prior to 2020. These resources are specific to the 2018-19 accountability report cards, which were released in the Fall of 2019.

Meeting expectations in Wisconsin’s schools

by | 0719, 21 Nov 23 | , | 3 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has released the legally required district report cards for the 2022-2023 school year. If the results do not make you feel shame and anger, then you do not really care about education.

 

The annual report card measures school districts, and the schools that comprise them, on several factors including achievement on benchmarking exams, absenteeism, graduation rates, and relative improvement or regression from the prior year. Most of the score, however, is based on performance.

 

According to the report cards, the Milwaukee Public School District “meets expectations” with an overall score of 58. The West Bend School District also “meets expectations” with an overall score of 68.8. According to the results of the Wisconsin Forward Exam, 45.8% of students in West Bend and 15.8% of students in Milwaukee are proficient at English Language Arts. Similarly, only 55.1% of students in West Bend and 11.5% of students in Milwaukee are proficient in math.

 

Let us focus on the phrase “meets expectations.” Does the fact that less than half of the kids in West Bend can read or write meet their parents’ expectations? How about the fact that one in ten kids in Milwaukee can do math at their grade level? Does that meet their expectations? Do parents, teachers, and taxpayers in those districts look at these numbers, shrug their shoulders, and say, “meh, good enough”? Apparently, many of them do, but why does this kind of abysmal performance meet the state DPI’s expectations? And why do both districts meet the DPI’s expectations when Milwaukee’s scores are so much lower? Does the DPI’s lower expectations of Milwaukee reveal a soft bigotry?

 

The fact is that some of you have lowered your expectations so much that you are willing to accept sending ignorant, semi-literate kids into a world in which they are not equipped to be successful. The fact that that “meets expectations” is a stain on our society.

 

Furthermore, when one compares the spending per student to the report card scores, there is a slight correlation. That is, there is a slight negative correlation. The data shows that the more that a district spends per student, the more likely it is that the district’s overall score will decrease.

 

For example, the Slinger district spends about $13,730 per student and exceeds expectations. The Monroe District spends about $17,793 per student and just meets expectations. The districts are otherwise similar in terms of racial makeup, number of economically disadvantaged students, number of native English speakers, and other factors. Why is Monroe spending almost 30% more per student than Slinger to get worse results?

 

Money is not the answer to making education better in Wisconsin. In fact, the data shows that more money makes it worse. There is one thing, however, that has been providing a better education for tens of thousands of Wisconsin kids and the Democrats are trying to kill it.

 

School choice. For almost 35 years, some kids in Milwaukee have had the opportunity to escape their failed government schools where 11.5% of kids are proficient in math to go to a better school of their choice. That choice was expanded to Racine in 2011 and then statewide in 2013. These school choice programs have opened new, previously unavailable, doors to thousands of kids who are getting an education that meets their parents’ expectations – irrespective of whether or not the educrats in Madison think about their local government schools.

 

With the new leftist majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, a group of leftist Democrats have filed suit demanding that all three Wisconsin school choice programs be ended. The plaintiffs have asked for the Supreme Court to take up the case directly without letting the case work its way through lower courts. Despite the fact that school choice has been ruled legal and constitutional for over 30 years and in courts all over the nation, there is a very real chance that the leftist zealots on the Wisconsin Supreme Court may end school choice in Wisconsin by this time next year.

 

If the Wisconsin Supreme Court kills school choice, they will force tens of thousands of kids back into the government education gulags where ignorance and failure “meets expectations.” I am ashamed of our state’s poor government schools and angry that so many people find that they “meet expectations.” You should be too.

School Districts Look at Consolidation

by | 2038, 15 Nov 23 | , | 1 Comment

Here’s a story about how shrinking enrollments have some school districts looking at consolidating (yes, they should). This little missive caught my attention:

When it comes to funding, Rossmiller says the state legislature has imposed revenue limits on school districts for close to 30 years.

 

“[…] which limits the amount of money that they can receive through a combination of local property taxes and money from the state. Limiting their revenue, obviously, limits how much they can spend. And so school districts continually have to make choices,” said Rossmiller.

The actual data shows that school spending has continued to increase far in excess of inflation even while enrollments dropped. The “choices” that most districts made were to beef up administration and salaries. Heaven forbid that there are “limits on how much they can spend” like the taxpayers that pay for them.

Cell Phone Ban Has Positive Impact in Schools

by | 2031, 31 Oct 23 | , | 0 Comments

More of this, please.

In May, Florida passed a law requiring public school districts to impose rules barring student cellphone use during class time. This fall, Orange County Public Schools — which includes Timber Creek High — went even further, barring students from using cellphones during the entire school day.

 

In interviews, a dozen Orange County parents and students all said they supported the no-phone rules during class. But they objected to their district’s stricter, daylong ban.

 

Parents said their children should be able to contact them directly during free periods, while students described the all-day ban as unfair and infantilizing.

 

[…]

 

The ban has made the atmosphere at Timber Creek both more pastoral and more carceral.

 

Wasko said students now make eye contact and respond when he greets them. Teachers said students seemed more engaged in class.

 

“Oh, I love it,” said Nikita McCaskill, a government teacher at Timber Creek. “Students are more talkative and more collaborative.”

 

Some students said the ban had made interacting with their classmates more authentic.

 

“Now people can’t really be like: ‘Oh, look at me on Instagram. This is who I am,’” said Peyton Stanley, a 12th grader at Timber Creek. “It has helped people be who they are — instead of who they are online — in school.”

GOP to Blame for UWWC Demise?

by | 0806, 27 Oct 23 | , | 1 Comment

I was amused by this letter to the editor in the Washington County Daily News. Look, I get wanting to use events to credit/blame the party you like/don’t, but how, exactly, would more funding have for the universities have made Wisconsinites have more kids 20 years ago? The campus has less than 270 FTE students. How barren does it need to get before the taxpayers can cut it loose?

To the editor: The recent announcement of UWM Chancellor Mark A. Mone that UWWC would discontinue in-person learning after June 30, 2024, is both deplorable and predictable. It is deplorable cutting off a readily available, inexpensive window into the UW System for residents of Washington County. It is predictable because our gerrymandered state Legislature has not backed the UW System for years. It is totally disingenuous of Rep. Rick Gundrum and Sen. Duey Stroebel, who consistently voted to cut the UW System’s budget requests whenever they had a chance, to suggest, as Gundrum recently did in this newspaper, that other factors made UWWC’s mission out of date. What turned UWWC’s existence into mission impossible was systematic underfunding of the state’s stellar university system’s budget, joined with a 10-year undergraduate tuition freeze started by the Legislature in 2013. The canary in the coal mine is the apparent demise of the state’s two-year colleges.

 

I lay the floundering and ultimate sinking of UWWC directly at the feet of the Legislature, including or own Rep. Gundrum and Sen. Stroebel. The citizens of Washington County deserve better. Stop trying to sink the UW System, or we will truly be the flyover zone with little to keep people in or attract people to our state. Maybe, just maybe, it’s not too late to save what remains of the system of two-year state colleges, and indeed the UW System itself, but it looks to be too late for UWWC. That is a colossal pity. Any cobbling with Moraine Park is a fig leaf in my estimation.

 

Carol Pouros West Bend

Student loan repayments restart

by | 2028, 8 Oct 23 | , , , | 0 Comments

Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News last week:

With October upon us, the well-meaning, morally repugnant, and oft-extended moratorium on student loan repayments has finally come to an end. It is not a crisis. It is a return to normalcy.

 

According to Forbes, borrowers owe $1.75 trillion in student debt, including federal and private loans, or about $28,950 per student. Interestingly, the average debt for just federal loans is $35,210 per borrower, indicating that federal loans are granted much more liberally than private loans. In Wisconsin, the average borrower owes $30,778 in federal student loans.

 

That is a lot of money by any measurement. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that many of the people who owe tens of thousands of dollars for their education are not earning enough money to comfortably pay it back. It is difficult for a person earning $36,754 per year (the average per-capita income in Wisconsin in 2021 according to the U.S. Census Bureau) to fit student loan payments into their monthly budget — especially in Biden’s inflationary economy.

 

Student loans have been around for generations, but the issue has become acute in recent decades because of two aggravating factors. First, the cost of a college education has skyrocketed. Between 1992 and 2022, the inflation-adjusted average cost of college at a four-year public university increased by 26.7% according to College Board. A $50,000 education in 1992 now costs $129,000. Over the same period, inflation-adjusted median household income rose by only 17.6%. The price of higher education has been increasing much faster than students’ ability to pay.

 

The reasons for those increases are myriad. The federalization of student loans made for easy money for universities to tap. They took advantage of students flush with borrowed cash to bloat up their administrations and go on a building binge.

 

Meanwhile, the second aggravating factor is that demand has risen as high schools across America portray a college education as the only viable path to stave off poverty. Instead of portraying the military, the trades, entrepreneurship, or other career paths as equally viable, too many high school teachers and counselors — all college graduates themselves — have culturalized kids to think that anyone without a college degree is lesser.

 

Compounding the misleading culturalization, the abysmally wretched financial education provided in those high schools leave prospective students ill-equipped to evaluate the risk/reward of financing a college degree with debt. Ignorant of the power of compounding interest, too many kids are borrowing tens of thousands of dollars to get a degree with little market value. The result is that they are unable to get jobs after graduation that pay enough to easily pay off the debt.

 

It is true that some people are not getting the value out of their degrees that they had hoped for or were promised. It is true that college costs more than it should. It is true that student loan payments make it more difficult to afford other things and that everything is more expensive than it used to be. It is true that lenders were all too eager to dole out money without any consideration of the degree being pursued or potential future earnings of the graduate.

 

All of these things are true, but it does not absolve the borrowers from the obligation to pay off their own debt. It is not a financial question. It is a moral one. If you borrowed the money, then you must pay it back. To fail to do so makes you a shameful deadbeat and a drain on your family and community. Having a college degree does not make you any less of a loser if you renege on your obligations.

 

Furthermore, nobody wants to hear you whine about your student loans. In 2022, less than 38% of adults 25 and older had at least a bachelor’s degree. Three in five adults in the United States do not have a college degree and did not sign up to pay off the debt of people who have one. Most adults who do have a college degree have either paid off their student loans, are paying off their own student loans, or never took out a loan in the first place. They did not sign up to subsidize deadbeats who do not want to pay off their student loans.

 

The college and student loan system is terribly broken and has led far too many people into borrowing more money than they can easily afford to buy degrees of marginal value. Honor, respect, and dignity demand that the borrowers pay it back as promised.

West Bend Removes “Ender’s Game” From 8th Grade Book Club List

by | 0748, 6 Oct 23 | , | 0 Comments

Huh

WEST BEND — On Monday, during the West Bend Special Curriculum meeting, it was announced that “Ender’s Game” would be removed from the Badger Middle School first-quarter book club list for eight-grade English class.

 

The West Bend School District had changed parameters for reviewing book club books during their Sept. 7 special board work session, with an emphasis on looking at three criteria defined in board policy, which are sexual content, graphic violence and excessive obscene language.

 

According to the WBSD, “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card, a 1985 science-fiction novel about a cadet, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, who has trained since early childhood, with others, to win an anticipated third conflict with an invading alien species, was removed because it violates all three district policies.

 

The cited violations were:

 

■ Sexual content: Bug mating described in detail and sexual jokes.

 

■ Graphic violence: Physical fights between children, some resulting in death, and described in detail.

 

■ Excessive obscene language: The use of “hell,” “damn” and “b*****d.”

Usually when we are discussing removing a book with graphic language from the curriculum, it is a book that I’ve never heard of. It’s usually some obscure trans-advocacy book or something that only the activists know about, but they treat it like THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK YOU WILL EVER READ AND YOU ARE A MONSTER IF YOU DON’T LOVE IT!!!!! In this case, I’ve read Ender’s Game more than once – including rereading it a couple of years ago. It’s a brilliant book and legitimately a landmark piece of science fiction. The movie was acceptable. Not great, but decent.

But… it is, indeed, full of obscene language and children fighting (that’s kind of the point). The sexual content is rather benign, in my opinion, but it is there. Would I let my 8th grader read it? Yeah, I would. They probably wouldn’t get it yet, but it would introduce some deep concepts. It would invite the conversation and allow me to develop their minds.

But it is appropriate for an 8th grade book club in a government school? Meh… I could go either way. Could the book introduce or develop inappropriate thoughts without parental guidance? Maybe. I’m neither upset nor happy about the decision. It’s probably not the decision I would have made, but it’s not an unreasonable decision. It’s a great book, but there are millions of other books in the world.

See, liberals? See how easy that was? They can remove a book I like from the book club and I don’t act like they are burning books in the street.

Student loan repayments restart

by | 0731, 3 Oct 23 | , , , | 6 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

Meanwhile, the second aggravating factor is that demand has risen as high schools across America portray a college education as the only viable path to stave off poverty. Instead of portraying the military, the trades, entrepreneurship, or other career paths as equally viable, too many high school teachers and counselors — all college graduates themselves — have culturalized kids to think that anyone without a college degree is lesser.

 

Compounding the misleading culturalization, the abysmally wretched financial education provided in those high schools leave prospective students ill-equipped to evaluate the risk/reward of financing a college degree with debt. Ignorant of the power of compounding interest, too many kids are borrowing tens of thousands of dollars to get a degree with little market value. The result is that they are unable to get jobs after graduation that pay enough to easily pay off the debt.

 

It is true that some people are not getting the value out of their degrees that they had hoped for or were promised. It is true that college costs more than it should. It is true that student loan payments make it more difficult to afford other things and that everything is more expensive than it used to be. It is true that lenders were all too eager to dole out money without any consideration of the degree being pursued or potential future earnings of the graduate.

 

All of these things are true, but it does not absolve the borrowers from the obligation to pay off their own debt. It is not a financial question. It is a moral one. If you borrowed the money, then you must pay it back. To fail to do so makes you a shameful deadbeat and a drain on your family and community. Having a college degree does not make you any less of a loser if you renege on your obligations.

 

Furthermore, nobody wants to hear you whine about your student loans. In 2022, less than 38% of adults 25 and older had at least a bachelor’s degree. Three in five adults in the United States do not have a college degree and did not sign up to pay off the debt of people who have one. Most adults who do have a college degree have either paid off their student loans, are paying off their own student loans, or never took out a loan in the first place. They did not sign up to subsidize deadbeats who do not want to pay off their student loans.

 

The college and student loan system is terribly broken and has led far too many people into borrowing more money than they can easily afford to buy degrees of marginal value. Honor, respect, and dignity demand that the borrowers pay it back as promised.

Student Debt Payments to Resume

by | 1859, 16 Sep 23 | , | 8 Comments

Explain to me again why this is a hardship that America’s plumbers and factory workers should bear.

Mykail James has a plan for when payments on her roughly $75,000 in student loans restart next month. She’ll cut back on her “fun budget” — money reserved for travel and concerts — and she expects to limit her holiday spending.

 

“With the holidays coming up — I have a really big family — we will definitely be scaling back how much we’re spending on Christmas and how many things we can afford,” James said. “It’s just going to be a tighter income overall.”

 

In October, roughly 27 million borrowers like James will once again be on the hook for repaying their federal student loans after a three-year hiatus. President Joe Biden tried to use his executive powers to forgive about $400 billion in student debt last year, but the Supreme Court overruled that decision in June, and payments kick in again in October.

 

Now there are big questions about how those people — many of whom had expected to have at least some of their debt erased — may change their spending habits as they budget for student loan payments again. It could crimp the economy if a large share of consumers cut back simultaneously, especially because the resumption in payments comes just as the retail and hospitality industry begin to eye the crucial holiday shopping season.

Universities Enforce Racism and Ideological Conformity by Any Means Necessary

by | 1314, 10 Sep 23 | , , | 0 Comments

The UW System has retained its Equity Enforcement infrastructure despite having funding for it cut. They prioritize it over all other interests. Our kids are getting a worse education than we did.

Diversity statements are a new flashpoint on campus, just as the Supreme Court has driven a stake through race-conscious admissions. Nearly half the large universities in America require that job applicants write such statements, part of the rapid growth in DEI programs. Many University of California departments now require that faculty members seeking promotions and tenure also write such statements.

 

Diversity statements tend to run about a page or so long and ask candidates to describe how they would contribute to campus diversity, often seeking examples of how the faculty member has fostered an inclusive or anti-racist learning environment.

 

To supporters, such statements are both skill assessment and business strategy. Given the ban on race-conscious admissions, and the need to attract applicants from a shrinking pool of potential students, many colleges are looking to create a more welcoming environment.

 

But critics say these statements are thinly veiled attempts at enforcing ideological orthodoxy. Politically savvy applicants, they say, learn to touch on the right ideological buzzwords. And the championing of diversity can overshadow strengths seen as central to academia — not least, professional expertise.

 

[…]

 

Candidates who did not “look outstanding” on diversity, the vice provost at UC Davis instructed his search committees, could not advance, no matter the quality of their academic research. Credentials and experience would be examined in a later round.

 

The championing of diversity at the University of California resulted in many campuses rejecting disproportionate numbers of white and Asian and Asian American applicants. In this way, the battle over diversity statements and faculty hiring carries echoes of the battle over affirmative action in admissions, which opponents said discriminated against Asians.

Teacher’s Union Boss Sends Kids to Private School

by | 0740, 9 Sep 23 | , , | 3 Comments

Ever notice how the people responsible for destroying our quality of life are walling off their own lives from the devastation?

The president of Chicago Teachers Union has sent her eldest son to a private school in the city, it has emerged – a month after she called those who supported school choice ‘fascists’.

 

Stacy Davis Gates, who in 2018 tweeted that private schools were ‘segregation academies’, enrolled her son 14 year-old son Kevin this term in a Catholic school. Her younger two children attend a Chicago public elementary school.

 

When critics accused her of hypocrisy, she said that she was doing the best for her son, because public schools in her neighborhood were poor quality.

New Houston School Superintendent Pushes Substantive Change

by | 1534, 28 Aug 23 | , | 3 Comments

Doing things the same way will get the same results. Good for him for forcing meaningful changes. I hope he will measure and adjust as needed.

One of Miles’ boldest projects has been a major restructuring of 28 underperforming schools, many of which are located in lower-income neighborhoods. Their teachers must now follow a centrally scripted curriculum, with in-classroom cameras monitoring their performance and pay based largely on standardized test scores.

 

Miles, who developed these ideas as CEO of a charter school network, has said he wants to eventually expand his “New Education System” to 150 of the district’s 274 schools, whose nearly 200,000 students are more than 80% Latino and Black.

 

Miles also has disbanded a team that supported students with autism, although his staff says special education services will continue as part of a restructuring, and filled some vacancies with uncertified teachers.

 

His most criticized change is transforming libraries at dozens of underperforming schools into “team centers” where students will get extra help and where those who misbehave will be disciplined, watching lessons on Zoom rather than disrupting their classrooms.

Another school year begins

by | 1500, 25 Aug 23 | , | 4 Comments

Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News earlier this week:

With the beginning of another school year bursting with hope and promise, it is sobering to pause and reflect on just how bad Wisconsin’s schools are. For generations, Wisconsinites have pointed to the educational system as a point of pride. No doubt there was a time when the state’s schools were great and the pride was justified, but it has not been true for decades. We are lying to ourselves.

 

Yes, there are bright spots, but as a whole, Wisconsin’s education system is failing our children on a monumental scale even as we pat ourselves on the backs, increase the funding, and gaslight ourselves about what a good education our children are getting. If the first step to any recovery is admitting that we have a problem, then Wisconsinites must admit that the schools are failing.

 

The truth is in the data. While some bemoan standardized tests, they are a useful tool to provide objective insight into the outcomes that the schools are delivering. They also provide a longitudinal look at performance to measure the impact of changes in policy. While some kids are better than others at tests, the widespread application of tests provides a statistically relevant view of school performance in the job that matters most — are the kids learning? Are the schools teaching kids to read? To write? Do math? Civics? Science? To reason? To think? Are they teaching kids basic facts that form a base of knowledge from which kids can understand and evaluate the world around them? Are the schools teaching kids to concentrate? Study? Sort and prioritize knowledge?

 

For the majority of kids in Wisconsin, the answer is “no.”

 

Wisconsin began administering the Forward Exam in the 2015-2016 school year. The Wisconsin Department of Administration says that, “The Exam is designed to gauge how well students are doing in relation to the Wisconsin Academic Standards. These standards outline what students should know and be able to do in order to be college and career ready.” The exam is not testing to see if a kid is a genius. It is merely testing to see if he or she is proficient according to the standards for their grade level.

 

The results are appalling. For the 2020-2021 school year, the most recent data available, a mere 39.2 percent of students between grades three and eight were at least proficient in math. Over 57 percent of students cannot do math at their grade level. For the same age group, only 37 percent of students were at least proficient in language arts. Almost 60 percent are not able to understand language at the appropriate grade level.

 

It does not get better as they get older. In the eleventh grade, over 90 percent of Wisconsin’s students take the ACT exam. On that test for the 2020-2021 school year, only 27 percent of students were at least proficient in math. Only 28.1 percent of students are at least proficient in science. 35 percent of students are at least proficient in English language arts.

 

For every three kids who enter a Wisconsin school this year, only one of them will end the year proficient in math or language.

 

Yet, Wisconsin’s schools boast a 90.2 percent graduation rate. Why in the world are we graduating 90 percent of kids when only one in three of them can do math at grade level? How are we looking ourselves in the mirror and telling ourselves that we are equipping our children for the world of tomorrow when we thrust a diploma into their hands despite the fact that over half of them cannot read at an adult level?

 

Wisconsinites should be ashamed and angry that our schools are so abysmal at performing their core duty — educating children. Instead, we shovel more money into the Government Education Complex, celebrate that our kids managed to get a piece of paper, and throw kids into a complex world for which they are debilitatingly unprepared.

 

Our children deserve better, but they will not get better until Wisconsinites stop living in a fantasy and admit that our schools are failing.

Drunk Teacher Removed From Class on First Day

by | 0743, 23 Aug 23 | | 2 Comments

Clearly, she has some issues.

A third grade teacher has been arrested for being ‘drunk on the job’ after staff pulled her out of the classroom asking her to explain why she had a cup allegedly filled with wine.

 

Kimberly Coates, 53, was teaching her class at Perkins-Tyron Intermediate School in Oklahoma when she was taken out of her classroom on the first day of term to meet with the school’s superintendent and a police officer.

 

After drawn-out questioning that saw her take a breathalyzer test and continually deny she had consumed alcohol at school, she eventually admitted she had drunk half a box of wine until 3am earlier that morning.

Another school year begins

by | 0625, 22 Aug 23 | , | 0 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

With the beginning of another school year bursting with hope and promise, it is sobering to pause and reflect on just how bad Wisconsin’s schools are. For generations, Wisconsinites have pointed to the educational system as a point of pride. No doubt there was a time when the state’s schools were great and the pride was justified, but it has not been true for decades. We are lying to ourselves.

 

Yes, there are bright spots, but as a whole, Wisconsin’s education system is failing our children on a monumental scale even as we pat ourselves on the backs, increase the funding, and gaslight ourselves about what a good education our children are getting. If the first step to any recovery is admitting that we have a problem, then Wisconsinites must admit that the schools are failing.

 

[…]

 

For the 2020-2021 school year, the most recent data available, a mere 39.2 percent of students between grades three and eight were at least proficient in math. Over 57 percent of students cannot do math at their grade level. For the same age group, only 37 percent of students were at least proficient in language arts. Almost 60 percent are not able to understand language at the appropriate grade level.

 

It does not get better as they get older. In the eleventh grade, over 90 percent of Wisconsin’s students take the ACT exam. On that test for the 2020-2021 school year, only 27 percent of students were at least proficient in math. Only 28.1 percent of students are at least proficient in science. 35 percent of students are at least proficient in English language arts.

 

For every three kids who enter a Wisconsin school this year, only one of them will end the year proficient in math or language.

 

Yet, Wisconsin’s schools boast a 90.2 percent graduation rate. Why in the world are we graduating 90 percent of kids when only one in three of them can do math at grade level? How are we looking ourselves in the mirror and telling ourselves that we are equipping our children for the world of tomorrow when we thrust a diploma into their hands despite the fact that over half of them cannot read at an adult level?

West Bend School District Changes Course on Inappropriate Books

by | 0656, 16 Aug 23 | , , | 0 Comments

Or do they?

Wimmer is recommending that “The 57 Bus” by Dashka Slater be removed as a choice book from the eighth-grade English curriculum at Badger Middle School, and that the use of “The 57 Bus” and “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, M.D. in the West Bend High Schools curriculum be suspended until the curriculum committee and school board complete their review of the curriculum guidelines and books on the book club choice lists.

 

“The work of our board and their curriculum and policy committees has yet to be finalized,” said Wimmer in a WBSD release. “The books in question will not be used for book club selections until formally reviewed by the curriculum committee and subsequently the full board.”

 

The two books will remain in the West Bend High School Library “until any further board work or action provides direction for removal,” according to a release from the WBSD.

 

Wimmer said the reason for her recommendation to remove “The 57 Bus” from Badger Middle School was due to the book being duplicative in WBSD curriculum, since it was included in both the eighth grade and junior year English book club choice book lists.

 

“Not even looking at content, not even looking at those kinds of pieces, it’s duplicated,” said Wimmer. “It’s a piece in curriculum that’s dually stated, that was not present in the library at Badger, it’s just not necessary as a book club [book].”

Everyone is dancing around the content and trying to litigate on the secondary or tertiary issues. The stated reason by the superintendent is that it is being removed from part of the curriculum because it’s duplicative. Put another way, they push these social issues SO MUCH that they can tolerate backing off a little in this one instance.

Still… it’s a move in the right direction, I guess.

Districts Shift to 4 Day Week to Attract Lazier Teachers

by | 1905, 10 Aug 23 | | 0 Comments

I’m not sure that the people who apply because they only have to work 4 days a week are the people you want teaching your kids. 

Nearly 900 school districts in the United States currently use a four-day weekly academic schedule. That number rose from 650 districts in 2020 to 876 districts, across 26 states, in 2023. While smaller, rural districts have been more likely to favor the schedule, larger districts are now shortening their school weeks in an effort to recruit and retain teachers. It’s a selling point in an era when schools are facing a national teacher shortage.

 

“The number of teaching applications that we’ve received have gone up more than four-fold,” Herl said.

 

Schools in other parts of the country have noticed similar patterns. In Chico, Texas, where the public school district also announced a shift to four-day academic schedules this year, officials said positions that used to receive five applications were suddenly receiving more than 20, CBS News Texas reported in May.

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