No reform without trust...no trust without the truth

the tricks and spin continue from Bennett.....this guy has no shame and has got to go.  Luckily a few reporters like up in Fort Wayne and concerned citizens are starting to speak out.

No reform without trust

In Washington, public school teachers are reeling after the revelation that a multimillion-dollar deficit used to justify the layoffs of 266 educators last fall was actually a $34 million surplus.

Not unreasonably, the union questioned the credibility of the schools’ leader, placing on hold a contract agreement that would have changed the way they are paid and evaluated.

“We want to have a first-class school system,” Frazier O’Leary, a 40-year English literature teacher, told National Public Radio, “Reform is needed, but reform without trust doesn’t work.”

Sadly, that’s the same climate created in Indiana, where Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett has attacked the Indiana State Teachers Association and the Indiana Federation of Teachers for refusing to sign off on the state’s application for the second round of federal Race to the Top funds.

He issued an ultimatum this month:

“While the labor unions have bemoaned the difficult financial status of Indiana’s schools, it doesn’t appear they are willing to support any change that could bring an additional $250M to our state,” he stated in a news release. The superintendent goes on to invite leaders of ISTA and IFT to discuss “specific reform plan components.” Bennett has invited the media and states that he will post video of the meeting on the department’s website after the session.


It’s a well-staged publicity stunt, given that he’s set up conditions to ensure the unions won’t play along. Bennett wants the organizations to endorse legislation requiring teacher evaluations based on student test scores. Those evaluations would be the basis for decisions on hiring, salary, retention, transfers and layoffs.

Evaluating teachers based on student test scores is a complex issue. The task of developing sound evaluation procedures isn’t impossible, but teachers would be foolish to trust the process sight unseen to the Indiana Department of Education, which eliminated more than 100 positions last year and is struggling to handle its current responsibilities.


Union representatives met with Bennett and his staff in at least four two-hour meetings before the first-round application, but each side left with a different impression of what the teachers’ associations had agreed to support. ISTA President Nate Schnellenberger said the union believed it had “sort of an umbrella agreement.”

“Our intent was always to sit down and hammer out details,” he said Wednesday.

“He (Bennett) thinks there were some tenets we agreed to that we really didn’t. For example, in order for a (Race to the Top) proposal to be considered by the U.S. Department of Education, it would require 51 percent of evaluations to be based on test scores. That’s not even the case with the states that won.”

Schnellenberger said Bennett’s directive for him to attend without any ISTA staff suggested the state superintendent wasn’t serious about working out the details.


“I do not believe a single meeting in your office, with the media in attendance, can begin to produce the kind of work that needs to be accomplished to create a viable plan for funding in the program’s second round,” he wrote in a letter hand-delivered to the superintendent’s office.

In a letter to ISTA members, Schnellenberger explained that the state, in spite of repeated requests, never shared with ISTA or any other education organization the contents of Indiana’s plan to overhaul education.

“Yet now, when time is short and pressure is deep, Dr. Bennett expects me to give an unequivocal agreement on his (Race to the Top) demands,” Schnellenberger wrote. “In Delaware and Tennessee, the two states that received round-one funding, state education leaders solicited and included meaningful input from their teachers’ association leaders through collaborative meetings and work sessions at every step of the process. That type of collaboration did not occur in Indiana.”


Bennett made an end-run around the unions and sent an e-mail message to all Indiana teachers, criticizing the ISTA president and attacking union rules regarding reduction-in-force. If Bennett’s intent was to divide the teachers association from its membership, it’s not working.

A Fort Wayne teacher said his co-workers are “incensed” by Bennett’s remarks about teachers.

“When you treat teachers and their representatives badly, do you think we will trust you more?” wrote another teacher in response to Bennett’s request for feedback. “When you insult veteran teachers, do you think tens of thousands of private-sector people will quit and line up and replace us so they can receive that kind of abuse?”


Indiana’s poor showing on the first round of Race to the Top funding – 23rd out of 40 states – can’t be blamed entirely on the unions, as the scoring clearly demonstrates. Bennett is wrong to use the promise of federal money to force an agreement with teachers.

As the individuals in the classrooms and closest to students, they deserve a bigger role in developing key policy. Bennett needs to restore a broken trust before any reform can take place.

More on Race to the Top & Bennett's Failure

Tony Bennett has been alienating and berating folks in education since he got elected and the Feds have noticed.  Indiana will never get the massive federal money if all the stakeholders aren't working together--given the reckless and misguided approach, it doesn't seem like this is even possible.  As for the Union response, when the DOE misleads the public and uses the media to spin and distort the truth, speaking back to the abuse is the only recourse.

Bennett, teachers take fight outside

Public spat threatens 2nd chance at stimulus funds for state schools

Relations between the state Department of Education and the state's two teachers unions have never been cozy, but they have been cordial. These days, a better characterization would be outright war.

That war is taking place mostly in public: press releases with ultimatums, attacks in local newspapers and an exchange of e-mails landing in the inboxes of every teacher in the state.

And the potential loss could be very high: The state's second chance at a piece of $4.4 billion in "Race to the Top" stimulus funds might be in jeopardy.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett said he is passionately making a case for reforms he considers crucial to improve the well-being of the state's children.

The presidents of the Indiana State Teachers Association and the Indiana Federation of Teachers say Bennett is trying to steamroll teachers in the process and is using unfair tactics. Both have increased their own rhetoric against and criticism of the state.

The debate has come to a head over whether the unions will sign on to the state's second attempt to win stimulus funds.

Bennett has advocated tying job reviews for teachers to their students' test scores, and he has advanced policiesthat would allow teachers to be paid or dismissed based on job performance rather than years of experience.

The unions find that onerous.

"We've never been invited to be full partners," IFT President Rick Muir said. "I hope he wakes up and changes his course of action, but I'm not holding my breath."

Read More: IndyStar

Dear Dr. Bennett.....

A concerned educator, parent, and citizen responds to the misguided efforts coming out the Indiana Department of Education.....

Dear Dr. Bennett,


You have invited teachers to give you thoughtful feedback, and so I am taking you up on your invitation. I do agree with you on one point: there should be no filter between you and the teachers of Indiana. I am disappointed that you have chosen to present your questions in an either/or format when in fact the situations that you describe are complex, nuanced, politically charged and far too important to reduce to such inflammatory questions. If you are sincerely interested in open, honest and thoughtful dialog with teachers, you will first have to create conditions in which it is safe for teachers to tell you what they honestly believe and up to this point, I see no evidence that you have done this. In fact, I find myself having to face the possibility that writing to you will result in negative consequences for me personally and professionally, but I cannot remain silent in good conscience.

I have attended many sessions over the last year in which you professed to be hosting an open forum, but the reality was the forums were created to give the illusion of openness. I attended each and every one of the REPA Advisory Panel meetings and hearings in Indianapolis. Each time I have left feeling an increasing sense of despair for schools, administrators, teachers, and most importantly, students. I have seen first hand the consequences of the increasing pressure to perform on standardized tests as the State of Indiana dumps millions of dollars into McGraw-Hill's coffers at the expense of authentic teaching and learning. Schools have become spirit-killing sites of compliance, of drill, skill, and kill test preparation, and of joyless memorization of "facts."

Our brilliant, talented, creative and thoughtful students in Indiana deserve schools that will allow them to read deeply, engage in meaningful dialog, write inspiring works, and imagine a future beyond lock-step uniform compliance and worksheet completion. I want this kind of school for ALL Indiana children, and for that to happen, you will need teachers who understand how to create those conditions for teaching and learning. If you really want Indiana to lead the nation, as I have heard you profess, then Indiana will have to boldly break away from the mindless plodding toward the insanity and chaos that could potentially break out in states like Florida. You are our State Superintendent and I believe your primary responsibility is to lead schools, administrators, teachers, and students into a renaissance of authentic, meaningful, and exciting teaching and learning. I hope right now you are asking yourself how to begin. You could begin by sitting down with teachers and listening to them, really listening to understand what is happening in schools. You could also listen to students and to parents. Listening to highly-paid consultants and "experts" does not seem to be leading us to a shared vision of excellence.

Please, I beg of you, take seriously this moment in which we stand poised on the brink. An entire generation of students and the careers of dedicated professionals depend upon your next moves. This is bigger than politics and more important than relinquishing everything and anything to compete for federal dollars. For some students and their families, these impact of the decisions you make will literally be the difference between life and death.

Sincerely,

Citizen, life-long Resident, and registered Voter of Indiana
Licensed 9-12 Spanish and K-12 ESL Teacher
Parent of 3 Indiana High School Graduates and current Indiana college students
Teacher Educator and Professional Developer

Daniels & Bennett Try to Mislead the Public on Education Reform

The Indy Star has been trying to piece together the intricacies of this but the bottom line is this: Governor Daniels and Superintendent Bennett are trying to claim a victory when they don't have one. In other words, they aren't telling the truth.  This does close to nothing to Schools of Education as those programs have been content rich and accessible to second-career teachers for a decade.  This is all political smoke-and-mirrors but misrepresent so blatantly is clearly a sign of things to come.  Shameful.
New rules for teacher licenses are signed

Daniels touts the effort, but some educators say not much will change

Indiana educators will have to know more than how to teach under new teacher licensing rules signed Tuesday by Gov. Mitch Daniels.

They'll also have to master the subjects they want their students to learn.  The regulations, which take effect July 31, "will transform dramatically what is expected of new teachers in Indiana to receive a teaching license," Daniels said.

However, some educators downplayed the effect of the new licensing rules.

"Most of our students already have the equivalent of a major (in the subject they'll teach), if not more," said Robert Helfenbein Jr., assistant professor of teacher education at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. "To claim that this is a major reform is rather hollow."

The rules, approved unanimously earlier this year by the state's Professional Licensing Board, still lets teachers for Grades 5-12 major in education, as long as the program's requirements meet or exceed the course requirements for other degrees in the subject they plan to teach. Or those teachers can major in the field they intend to teach while getting a minor or second major in education.

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