My last piece did not have concrete suggestions for how to improve education and how to make life better for teachers. So, I should go through my credentials first. This is my 25th total year in education. I have taught Social Studies and English in high schools and intermediate schools. I have taught in public and private high schools. I was also an elementary counselor for a few years. I’ve spent the last ten years as a special education teacher, support facilitator, and case manager. I haven’t done it all, but I’m close.

1. No more STAAR and any other state equivalent.

As George W. Bush once said, “is our children learning?” The idea behind standardized testing is okay in theory. We want to know if we are teaching the same stuff and if our students are learning that stuff. Using a company to complete that exam is wasteful spending (to tune of well over a billion per state). Not only that, but these tests take four and five hours. This is especially cruel at the elementary level. You aren’t measuring reading skills, writing skills, or math skills. You are measuring endurance.

Most districts have instructional coaches or what we call instructional specialists. They can write local exams for the district.  These tests would measure those same things but in far less time. If I can sit for a test for 30 minutes to an hour then the chances of me concentrating throughout that entire increase geometrically. What most citizens don’t get is how many days we lose to these exams. You have four different days lost to five STAAR exams. You have a mock exam for each one of those as well. That’s another four days. Then, each class has common assessments usually once a six weeks on average. There are six days right there in that particular class. Then, you get the SAT and PSAT. Seniors will take something called the TSIA. Last year we took a field test for the STAAR that lost us another couple of days. Look up and you are losing a month. That doesn’t even count the days where we specifically cover STAAR strategies.

2. Let Educators Write the Curriculum 

For a brief moment let’s ignore critical race theory and issues specifically related to social studies. Focusing on Texas for a second, we have stuff we call Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Each course has over 20 with some as many as 30. How in the hell does anyone expect to adequately address all of those thoroughly in a school year? Remember, we are losing a month to standardized testing. We miss more class time with lockdown drills, fire drills, shooter drills, and all of the other nonsense that normally occurs.

Teachers have been trained to identify those things which we would call “power standards.” In other words, they are non-negotiables that we want every kid to know. Each course will have between 6 and 12 of those a year. Focusing on those allows each kid to demonstrate mastery and people to grow up actually knowing and understanding things. Collectively we know a lot about how people learn. We know what they need to know and what is more trivial. We’ve been trained to do this. Let us do it. You don’t call a carpenter to fix your toilet. You don’t go to a podiatrist to remove your appendix. Politicians don’t know what we do. They may have reading skills, writing skills, and math skills but they don’t understand how you effectively teach this to children. Don’t tell us what to teach. Don’t tell us how to teach it unless you happen to be an expert.

3. Pay Veteran Teachers More

This will be an unpopular opinion, but rookie teachers are fairly compensated. I mentioned this yesterday, but I get less than 15,000 more than a rookie teacher 25 years in. I have a masters degree and a special education stipend that augments my salary. The “steps” between years end up being about 600 dollars a year. When I get to year 25 in most districts I no longer get steps. In short, the difference between me today and me when I was a rookie is night and day. I knew a lot about my content but I knew very little about how to get that knowledge to the students. Furthermore, there is a ton of accumulated wisdom that has nothing to do with teaching directly, but makes me far better at my job.

If a teacher gets a masters in their teaching field I would give them an extra 5000 a year instead of just one. I would double the gap between steps. Teachers normally bail before their fifth year. I’d give bonuses at five year intervals to reward teachers for staying. In short, you want wiser and more experienced teachers. Youth and enthusiasm is great, but we need teachers to stay. They will stay if you reward them with something more than jeans days and breakfast tacos in the lounge.

I know JJ was really disappointed when I left Bitchin’ Betty and the Sequined Backhoes without a marimba player way back in 2007 for the bluer pastures of the Pacific Northwest. But I put all those skills I learned to good use here, including joining an actual marimba band. We even hatched a plot to meet up at the 2012 Convention in Charlotte as delegates, and succeeded in our quest. Anyone who has attempted delegate status knows this is not easy! All my activism paid off in a (surprise to me) Governor’s appointment to the Columbia River Gorge Commission. The CRG is a National Scenic Area. I live smack in the middle of it. But for the next 8 years, I had to kind of back off on my political activities to be one of 13 Commissioners from 2 states, 6 counties and 1 federal agency driving policy and land use for the NSA. Being 2 term limited, I am now free to blab away as I wish. So from time to time I might just grab an open chair at the WMDBS and let y’all know what’s happening here in my neck of the woods, White Salmon (purple), Klickitat County (red), Washington State (blue, baby, blue). We have a few exciting things going on that have made national news, though your news back in Texas is much more interesting/disturbing. I can’t compete with that. So stay tuned for stories about a couple of CD races (I get redistricted back and forth between them) where the two incumbent Rs voted to impeach TFG and got primaried by outrageous cultists. Maybe a story about our problem ‘constitutional’ sheriff, who also likes the national spotlight and is up for reelection. And whatever else I can scare up, maybe even what the heck is the front office doing to my Red Sox? With that, I’m getting to work on the CD3 race, because the incumbent just conceded to a Trump backed crazy.

El Jefe took over the management of the beauty salon when getting out of bed was all I could do and, bless his heart, he continues to be The El Jefe around here.

I asked a few of my real life friends to join in the fun.  Today you met Half Empty, who I have known for many, many years.  He was Mark’s favorite political blogger so it’s great to have him back griping about stuff.

You will also meet Fenway Fran.  She and I go back to the Tom DeLay days when she would sneak into local Republican events and bring me back all the great gossip and stoopid Republican quotes I could use in the newspaper. Like Half Empty, she retired to the left in politics and living locations.

Da Chipster says he will come back and pitch in a hand.

Anna the Geek added a button at the top about Mark’s social schedule. We’ll only keep it up there for a month or so.  She added a comment box so go there so snark away.

It’s still hot as a Cadillac bumper on a Houston parking lot in hell around here.  We finally got some rain last night after two 10 weeks of not a drop. Of course it came with 60 MPH winds and enough thunder to wake up two cemeteries. It’ll be back to three digits next week so pray for us.

Think of it this way: I still plan on working here but I brought in some pole dancers to make it more fun.

Oh, one more thing: Anna the Geek will be updating the website so we may be offline for thirty minutes or so while she does it. If you can’t get on, wait some minutes and then try again.

I’ve always had a pessimistic view of the world. Hence my handle, Half Empty. It’s also the name of a political blog that I wrote while I was based in Texas a few years back. A few of Juanita Jean’s readers might even remember it. Anyway, she decided to increase her stable of contributors at the beauty salon, and I thought I’d help out. Heck, I can at least sweep the place out from time to time.

Living out here on the Left Coast, gives me an opportunity to share blue state news to warm the cockles of lefty hearts. Ironic, isn’t it? I was always one to expect the worst. And the news out here isn’t all that good either, but it beats the H-E-double hockey sticks out of what is news in a still red state in the deep red South.

So as The Former Guy said to a completely different audience, stand back and stand by. See you in a few.

Just in case you think you’re having a bad day …

At least you ain’t TFG …

CNN has the story.

Okay, so this has nothing to do with the search (I refuse to call it a raid because I get queazy when TFG plays victim) yesterday.

They need to check his hand to see if anybody wrote 5th on it to help him remember.

A lot has been said about the coming year and what is happening with education throughout the country. There is a teacher shortage as thousands nationwide leave the profession. Some governors have attacked this sitting down by forming commissions and committees to study the problem.

Greg Abbot’s first commission included only one teacher. That notion would be like polling 50 white guys about the black experience or women’s issues. A number of people have mentioned teacher pay. Give teachers a substantial raise and I’m sure more would stay. No one is going to turn down more money. However, that isn’t the main problem. Most teachers knew they would never earn a lot of money. So, to say pay is the main problem is overlooking a ton.

I wish I could say that the problems impacting teachers are unique, but they aren’t. In essence, you have a group of people that are trained professionals but aren’t treated as such. Obviously, this can vary depending on local administration in the district and campus, but as a whole this is where things are. My wife is fond of saying two things about educators. First, we love to complain. It’s like an Olympic sport for us. Secondly, she has marveled at how poorly we are treated in terms of professionalism. We have to ask to leave campus. We get 25 minutes for lunch. If we miss multiple days we need to provide a note or ask for permission in advance. She protects our astronauts and still has far more freedom than we do.

What has happened in recent years has been a nationwide breakdown in how subject area experts are treated. Think about how Dr. Fauci has been treated. Suddenly, whether you place your faith in a specialist that has been doing it for 50 years identifies your politics. Do your own research. Here, watch this YouTube video. Listen to this pediatrician that may not even be accredited. Here comes somebody that’s an eye doctor. They know more than stupid Fauci. The obvious problem is that this distrust of subject area experts spreads to other subjects. Now, various states are changing curriculum to remove the parts they don’t like. Teachers don’t have the collective wisdom or skills to teach those things even though that’s what we went to school and hours of professional development to do.

There is a dark irony in watching people argue that we shouldn’t teach certain things because it will make their children feel bad or will be propaganda, but we should give those same teachers guns to protect those same children. Which is it? Are we qualified to be Clint Eastwood or Wyatt Earp or are we just baby sitters that can’t challenge our students to think?

The cold, hard truth is that people don’t do their own research. They never have. So, the question is who you trust for information. That didn’t used to be a problem. We generally accepted the word of experts. Sometimes they were wrong, but they were right more often than not. Now, there is an attack on intellectuals in this country. We happen to be a part of that group. People now look for someone that says something that echoes what they want to hear.