Another Voice

Top Teachers Want Pay Scale Revamped

 

According to a Washington Post article, a report, sponsored by the Hillsborough, N.C.-based Center for Teaching Quality, said teachers should be able to advance through three pay tiers -- novice, professional and expert -- and schools should stop paying teachers more just because they have more years on the job.

"If you don't have a career ladder that encourages teachers to advance in their profession -- and be paid accordingly as they advance -- tinkering around the edges by providing $2,000 bonuses for a handful of teachers will not secure the stable, high-quality professional workforce we need," the teachers said.

In particular, the group said, pay plans should "reward leadership, not seniority." It said that "qualified teachers who take on additional responsibilities -- mentoring novices and peers and preparing new teachers, creating family- and community-outreach programs, serving on advisory councils and the like -- should be paid for their time outside the classroom." And the jobs should go not to the oldest teachers but to the ones with the best classroom results, the group said.

Taking North Carolina as an example, the group suggested an annual pay scale that started at $30,000 for a novice and climbed to $70,000 for an expert. But an expert with extra school improvement responsibilities could make as much as $130,000.

The article further stated that the report endorsed the views of many expert panels that teachers should be paid more if they have better results in their classroom, but it pointed out flaws in efforts to do that. The team was critical of a Florida program that limited performance incentives to one out of every four teachers. They also said rewarding only those who teach state-tested subjects, such as reading and math, was a bad idea.

They recommended more money for teachers whose students improved significantly, as long as the results were based on more than just one variety of test. They said systems should be free to target specialties they need. "It makes no sense for an individual community to pay more for a math teacher if it actually needs more art or history teachers," the report said.

The pay scales for teachers definitely should be revamped.  A teacher should not be paid more simply because he/she has more experience in the classroom.  The pay should be based upon successful experience in the classroom.  Certain questions should be asked and answered affirmatively.  Are the students making progress in the class?  Are the students meeting  bench marks set by the school system?  Is the teacher going that extra mile to make sure that the students are performing to  their maximum potential, or is the teacher just there to collect a pay check?

At the same time, if a school system believes that they are going to get the best and brightest by offering beginning teachers a $30,000.00 salary, they are living in a fantasy world.  If our top teachers are suggesting that this be a starting salary for teachers in North Carolina, that explains why they rank 21st in the estimated teachers' salary in the United States.

New teachers earn less than their peers in other professions requiring comparable education and responsibilities. Wages start low, and the gap keeps widening, causing many good teachers to leave the profession for greener financial pastures.  So in conjunction with the revamping of salaries for teachers that are on board, as suggested by Hillsborough, N.C.-based Center for Teaching Quality, we clearly need to step up the salary for entry level teachers. 

 

Technorati tags: Loretta Perkins, education, teachers, salaries, North Carolina, professionals, classrooms

Where There Was Smoke,Prosecutors were Fired!

It is true that U. S. Prosecutors are political appointees and that the President of the United States has the right to appoint and remove as he sees fit.  However, appointed U.S. Prosecutors are supposed to be able to do their jobs freely, and isolated from any political pressures.  For a handful of  U.S.  Prosecutors, this was certainly not the case. 

Eight U. S. Prosecutors were fired by the Justice Department, and there appears to be political reasons for them being fired rather than for performance which has been claimed.

According to the Washington Post, a  U.S. attorney in San Diego notified the Justice Department of search warrants in a Republican bribery scandal last May 10, one day before the attorney general's chief of staff warned the White House of a "real problem" with her, a Democratic senator said yesterday.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in a television appearance yesterday that Lam "sent a notice to the Justice Department saying that there would be two search warrants" in a criminal investigation of defense contractor Brent R. Wilkes and Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who had just quit as the CIA's top administrator amid questions about his ties to disgraced former GOP congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

The next day, May 11, D. Kyle Sampson, then chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, sent an e-mail message to William Kelley in the White House counsel's office saying that Carol Lam should be removed as quickly as possible, according to documents turned over to Congress last week.

David C. Iglesias of New Mexico and five other former prosecutors recounted specific instances in which some said they felt pressured by Republicans on corruption cases and one said a Justice Department official warned him to keep quiet or face retaliation.  Additionally, one Prosecutor was removed so that an aid for Karl Rove who he felt needed the position.

Iglesias's allegations of congressional interference have prompted a Senate ethics committee inquiry. Yesterday he offered new details about telephone calls he received in October from Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) and Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M.), saying he felt "leaned on" and "sickened" by the contacts seeking information about an investigation of a local Democrat.

The article also points out that U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald was ranked among prosecutors who had "not distinguished themselves" on a Justice Department chart sent to the White House in March 2005, when he was in the midst of leading the CIA leak investigation that resulted in the perjury conviction of a vice presidential. Perhaps Fitzgerald would have been next to be fired.

Mary Jo White, who supervised Fitzgerald when she served as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan and who has criticized the firings, said ranking him as a middling prosecutor "lacks total credibility across the board."

Fitzgerald has been widely recognized for his pursuit of criminal cases against al-Qaeda's terrorist network before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and he drew up the official U.S. indictment against Osama bin Laden. He was named as special counsel in the CIA leak case in December 2003 after then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft recused himself.

Fitzgerald also won the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service in 2002 under Ashcroft

"He is probably the best prosecutor in the nation -- certainly one of them," said White, who worked in the Clinton and Bush administrations. "It casts total doubt on the whole process. It's kind of the icing on the cake."

The firing of these Prosecutors is just another example of how emboldened White House officials have been in manipulating  and withholding information, and blatantly attacking, and in the eight prosecutors' cases, removing anyone who voices differing views, or attempts to do his/her job. 

However, now is a new day.  The Congress should make sure that we have a transparent government.  It has been six years coming, and not one day too soon.  

 

Technorati tags: Loretta Perkins, U.S. Prosecutors, CIA Leak, Presidential Election, Justice Department, Washington Post, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Carol Lam, David Iglesias, Karl Rove, Patrick Fitzgerald

No Child Left Behind Law To Be Revamped

One of George Bush's proudest achievements as President is the No Child Left Behind Law.  This law, which had bipartisan backing, has had mixed reviews by proponents and opponents.

And now, according to the Washington Post, more than 50 GOP members of the House and Senate -- including the House's second-ranking Republican -- will introduce legislation today that could severely undercut President Bush's signature domestic achievement, the No Child Left Behind Act, by allowing states to opt out of its testing mandates.

Among the co-sponsors of the legislation are House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a key supporter of the measure in 2001, and John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Bush's most reliable defender in the Senate. Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.), the House GOP's chief deputy whip and a supporter in 2001, has also signed on.

The article goes on to report that some Republicans said yesterday that a backlash against the law was inevitable. Many voters in affluent suburban and exurban districts -- GOP strongholds -- think their schools have been adversely affected by the law. Once-innovative public schools have increasingly become captive to federal testing mandates, jettisoning education programs not covered by those tests, siphoning funds from programs for the talented and gifted, and discouraging creativity, critics say.

Additionally, in extreme cases to protect test scores, some schools have even resorted to cleansing their student population of students who may bring the test scores down.  Such is the case for  Jasmine Boulware, a Myers Park High School student in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

 A Times Magazine article reported that because the student had some disciplinarian problems, and was not performing well in school she was told that she had to withdraw, and would not be allowed to return. When  Jasmine's mother went directly to the Charlotte Mecklenburg district office she learned the school had no legal basis to exclude Jasmine. Suspecting a pattern of forcing out minority students, Kennedy told school district officials that she intended to refer the matter to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Congressional Black Caucus. Jasmine was back in school within the week.

Jasmine is not the only struggling student who claims to have been pushed out or encouraged to leave Myers Park High. Another Myers Park mother, Susan Arnette, claims when she and her daughter Brianna Govan were living in a homeless shelter, Brianna was frequently late or absent. Anderson forced her to leave school, saying she was "not Myers Park material." Documents obtained by TIME and interviews with former students, parents and school employees strongly suggest that Myers Park has had an unofficial policy of ridding itself of underperforming students during Principal Anderson's tenure from 2002 to 2005 and perhaps beyond, by using tactics including listing dropouts as out-of-state transfers.

According to the Times article, like many other high-flying schools with a substantial minority and low-income population, Myers Park has been under increasing pressure to close the achievement gap between students that are white and black, rich and poor. In 2006, only 51% of its black students performed at levels III/IV — proficient and above — on state exams, compared with 90% of white. Under the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, schools that fail to close such a gap are declared "failing schools" — no matter how well the majority are doing — and can face a loss of federal Title 1 funding for low-income students.

District Associate Superintendant Lloyd Wimberley sees a sad irony in the way current national pressures to close achievement gaps can actually work against the neediest students. "No Child Left Behind has resulted in increased resentment toward at-risk and exceptional-needs kids," he says. "It's sad that legislation intended to improve the outcome for these kids is backfiring."

As Congress considers reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act, the GOP rebellion could grow, conceded Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (Calif.), the ranking Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee and a key ally of the president on the issue. "It was a struggle getting it passed last time. It'll be even more of a struggle this time," he said.

 

Technorati tags: Loretta Perkins, No Child Left Behind Law, Congress, George Bush, Roy Blunt, Charlotte, NC., Myers Park, House Education and Labor Committee, testing, Title 1

General Takes A Stand On Morality

The military has always held its members to standards higher than what you find in the civilian world.  Racism, not tolerated;  adultery, sure court martial; homosexuality, dismissal.  So it should not be a surprise that the military wants to maintain their stance on the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy.  However, a top U.S. General is getting mass attention because he supports the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, banning openly gay people from serving in the military.

According to an article in CNN.com, Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Chicago Tribune on Monday that he supports the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The general also compared homosexuality to adultery -- behavior that is prosecuted in the military, he said.

"My upbringing is such that I believe that there are certain things, certain types of conduct that are immoral," Pace told the Tribune. "I believe that military members who sleep with other military members' wives are immoral in their conduct."

Pace also told the paper, "I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral, and that we should not condone immoral acts.

"So the 'don't ask, don't tell' [policy] allows an individual to serve the country ... if we know about immoral acts, regardless of committed by who, then we have a responsibility.

"I do not believe that the armed forces are well served by saying through our policies that it's OK to be immoral in any way, not just with regards to homosexual acts," the Joint Chiefs chairman said.

"So from that standpoint, saying that gays should serve openly in the military to me says that we, by policy, would be condoning what I believe is immoral activity," he added.

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a nonprofit group that represents military personnel affected by the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, says that Gen. Pace's comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops now serving in our armed forces," said C. Dixon Osburn, the group's executive director. "Our men and women in uniform make tremendous sacrifices for our country, and deserve Gen. Pace's praise, not his condemnation."

Asked if Pace would apologize, his senior staff members said the general stands by his statements as an expression of his personal opinion, and he has no intention of apologizing.

 

Technorati tags: Loretta Perkins, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, immorality, homosexual acts, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, General Pace, adultery, openly gay, Chicago Tribune

Those Who Live In Glass Houses......

  China believes that the United States has a lot of gall criticizing their country on Human Rights because its own record is full of blemishes at home and aboard.

The Chinese accusation, in a retort to the State Department's annual human rights report issued Tuesday, called particular attention to what it said were abuses committed by U.S. soldiers and intelligence agents against terrorist suspects in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo. But it also underlined what it described as increased willingness by Washington to spy on its own citizens by monitoring their telephone calls, computer connections and travels.

According to an article in the Washington Post, China:  Bush Has No Right to Criticize Countries On Human Rights, "As in previous years, the State Department pointed the finger at human rights conditions in more than 190 countries and regions, including China, but avoided touching on the human rights situation in the United States," said the report, issued by Premier Wen Jiabao's office. "We urge the U.S. government to acknowledge its own human rights problems and stop interfering in other countries' internal affairs under the pretext of human rights."

 The article further points out that the Chinese response to U.S. human rights concerns has become a fixture over the last eight years. In the first years, it centered on a contention that human rights should be defined to include social and economic improvements, such as health care and education, where the Chinese government can point to rapid progress. These arguments were raised again this year, with charges that racial minorities, women and children suffer disadvantages in the United States.

In a time in our country when we have 47 million Americans with no health insurance, a potential shortfall to the states covering health insurance for children, New Orleans still in shambles with thousands displaced, and a 26 percent increase in severe poverty, the U.S. has a lot of nerve criticizing anyone about how they treat their citizens.

This is clearly another sign of the arrogance of this administration, and the lack of respect and poor standing the U.S. has throughout the world.  

 

Technorati tags: Loretta Perkins, United States, China, George Bush, Afghanistan, Iraq War, Guantanamo, Human Rights, State Department, wire taps, Chinese Government

The American Family..An Endangered Species

Maybe it is just me, but it seems that everything in this country is going haywire.  More and more we are being conditioned as a society to accept the demise of certain values that we have always held dear.

I pick up the newspaper and read about sexual orientation being taught in the classrooms.  It is nothing to hear about a famous actress or entertainer and her boyfriend expecting a baby with no mention of marriage. Music videos are abundant depicting women as objects, and women appearing to accept and enjoy the role.  Our little girls are becoming worldly years before their time. 

An article that I read today, added to my woes.  It was a little political in nature, however it resonated with me because it is something that I have observed myself.

Harold Myerson of the Washington Post reports that as conservatives tell the tale, the decline of the American family, the rise in divorce rates, the number of children born out of wedlock all can be traced to the pernicious influence of one decade in American history: the '60s.  He states that in Saturday's Post, reporter Blaine Harden took a hard look at the erosion of what we have long taken to be the model American family -- married couples with children -- and discovered that while this decline hasn't really afflicted college-educated professionals, it is the curse of the working class. The percentage of households that are married couples with children has hit an all-time low (at least, the lowest since the Census Bureau started measuring such things): 23.7 percent. That's about half the level that marrieds-with-children constituted at the end of the Ozzie-and-Harriet '50s.

Which may explain why the Ozzie and Harriet family -- modified by feminism, since Harriet now holds down a job, too -- still rolls along within the upper-middle class but has become much harder to find in working-class America, where cohabitation without marriage has increasingly become the norm. Taking into account all households, married couples with children are twice as likely to be in the top 20 percent of incomes, Harden reported. Their incomes have increased 59 percent over the past 30 years, while households overall have experienced just a 44 percent increase.

Myerson continues by stating that to be sure, the '60s, with its assaults on traditional authority, played some role in weakening the traditional family.

But its message was sounded loudest and clearest on elite college campuses, whose graduates were nonetheless the group most likely to have stable marriages. Then again, they were also the group most likely to have stable careers.

They enjoyed financial stability; they could plan for the future.

Such was not the case for working-class Americans. Over the past 35 years, the massive changes in the U.S. economy have largely condemned American workers to lives of economic insecurity. No longer can the worker count on a steady job for a single employer who provides a paycheck and health and retirement benefits, too. Over the past three decades, workers' individual annual income fluctuations have consistently increased, while their aggregate income has stagnated. In the brave new economy of outsourced jobs and short-term gigs and on-again, off-again health coverage, American workers cannot rationally plan their economic futures. And with each passing year, as their level of economic security declines, so does their entry into marriage.

The right-wing ideologues who have championed outsourcing, offshoring and union-busting, who have celebrated the same changes that have condemned American workers to lives of financial instability, piously lament the decline of family stability that has followed these economic changes as the night the day.

American conservatism is a house divided against itself. It applauds the radicalism of the economic changes of the past four decades -- the dismantling, say, of the American steel industry (and the job and income security that it once provided) in the cause of greater efficiency. It decries the decline of social and familial stability over that time -- the traditional, married working-class families, say, that once filled all those churches in the hills and hollows in what is now the smaller, post-working-class Pittsburgh.

Problem is, Myerson points out, disperse a vibrant working-class community in America and you disperse the vibrant working-class family.

Which is how American conservatism became the primary author of the very social disorder that it routinely rails against, and that Republicans have the gall to run against.

Myerson ends the article by saying, "The party of family values? Please. If that's the banner that Republicans continue to wave, then they should certainly make Rudy Giuliani, who couldn't bestir himself to attend his son's high school graduation or his daughter's high school plays, their presidential nominee. No candidate could better personify the sham that is Republicans' and conservatives' concern for the American family.

So goes the party of family values.

 

Technorati tags: Loretta Perkins, Family values, family Life Education, Rudy Giuliani, marriage right-wing, Republicans, Harold Myerson, Washington Post, outsourcing

Scooter Libby, The Fall Guy

Well , the Scooter Libby trial is over, at least for now.  He has been found guilty on two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements and one count of obstructing justice, guaranteeing some jail time, pending a new trial or an appeal.

One thing, however, that was verified through the trial process were the lengths that members of the Bush Administration went to discredit anyone who examined too closely, or challenged information that was used to justify the war in Iraq.

According to an article in the Washington Post, jurors believed that Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff had been exposed for a CIA leak that other top White House aides had committed along with him, according to one member of the panel.

"We're not saying that we didn't think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of," said Denis Collins, one of the jurors. "But it seemed like he was . . . the fall guy."

The article further points out that Collins's detailed description of the jury's deliberations, in public comments and interviews yesterday, suggests that Libby's attorneys made headway with one of the themes they emphasized throughout the case: that the defendant, as lead defense attorney Theodore V. Wells Jr. described it, was made a scapegoat by the White House to protect other presidential aides who were complicit in disclosing Plame's identity to reporters.

During the jury's days of methodical deliberations, "it was said a number of times, 'What are we doing with this guy here?' " Collins told reporters on the steps outside the federal courthouse. "Where's Rove, where's -- you know, where are these other guys?" Collins said, referring to Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, and Richard L. Armitage, a former deputy chief of staff who testimony showed had been the first person to leak Plame's name.

Moreover, Collins said, jurors believed that Libby had been carrying out a directive by his immediate boss, Cheney, to "go out and talk to reporters" to tarnish Wilson's reputation.

Democrats have held more that 81 hearings on the war in Iraq in the past two months. This conviction of Libby should spurn more inquiries into whether or not Bush led the nation into war based on manipulated intelligence, and false information.  Additionally, everyone that may be responsible should be held accountable...including Dick Cheney.

 

Technorati tags: Loretta Perkins, Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson, Democrats, Republicans, George Bush, CIA Leak, Bush Administration, Scooter Libby trial

Brown University To Raise 10 Million Dollars For Local Public Schools

In a response to a report commissioned in 2003, that found that slave labor played a role in the University's beginning,  Brown University has promised to raise 10 million dollars for the local public schools and give free tuition to graduate students who pledge to work there. 

According to the Associated Press, the University will also explore creating an academic center on slavery and justice, strengthen its Africana Studies Department, begin planning for a slavery memorial and revise its official history to provide a more accurate account of the school's early years.

The article quotes Ruth J. Simmons, Brown's President, as saying "One of the clearest messages in the Slavery and Justice Report is that institutions of higher education must take a greater interest in the health of their local communities, especially kindergarten through 12th-grade education.

Additionally, the report identified about 30 former members of the college's governing corporation who at one time owned or captained slave ships. It also found that slave labor was used in the construction of Brown's oldest building, and money used to create the university and ensure its early growth was derived directly or indirectly from slave trade.

I am sure that if we were to examine more closely, we would find other Universities that were also built with the assistance of slave labor.

Brown University's response is very commendable, especially when you look at the economic conditions in their community. Of the population of Providence, Rhode Island, 29.1 percent of the population, and 23.9 percent of families are below the poverty level. 

Studies show that poverty contributes to many of the ills of our society, such as poor school performance, prison population, teen pregnancy, to name a few. A focus on the public education of children from kindergarten-twelth grades shows a true commitment by the University to attempt to break the chain of poverty by investing in the future of their most precious resources, as well as the economic prosperity of their city.

 

Technorati tags: Loretta Perkins, Brown University, Ruth J. Simmons, Slavery and Justice Report, poverty, Africana Studies, Providence, Rhode Island

Bush Avoids Talk About Child Health Care

 According to an article in the Washington Post, governors from both parties appealed yesterday for the Bush administration and Congress to provide more money for a health-care program that insures millions of children.

State leaders met privately to discuss the State Children's Health Insurance Program at the annual winter meeting of the National Governors Association.  Georgia and New Jersey are among 14 states expected to run out of money for the program before the next budget year begins in October. In Georgia, a shortfall could happen as soon as March.

The governors want two things: enough money -- estimated at $745 million -- to keep the program float through October, and changes to President Bush's budget. Analysts say the president's spending plan would shortchange the program even if the number of people served does not grow.

Many governors said administration attempts to curb the program would undermine state efforts to offer universal health-care plans. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) said that during their private lunch, many governors were "visibly frustrated" by the administration's approach.

The article further points out that at stake is coverage for 6 million people, overwhelmingly children, as well as the hopes of many governors in tackling the larger challenge of the uninsured. All governors rely on the State Children's Health Insurance Program, intended to aid uninsured working families.

Bush, welcoming the governors after they met privately with several administration officials, did not offer any comments about the children's health program, talking rather about his larger proposals.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) said that during their private lunch, many governors were "visibly frustrated" by the administration's approach.

 

Technorati tags: Loretta Perkins, Health Insurance, National Governors Association, children, President Bush, State Children's Health Insurance Program

Length of School Day Under Review

Many schools are looking at ways to boost students' academic progress, and test scores.  An important impetus for the debate around extending school hours is the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The five-year-old law requires annual testing in reading and math for grades three through eight, and again in high school. All students are expected to be working on grade level by 2014.

Schools that fail to meet annual benchmarks are labeled as needing improvement and have to take steps to address the problem.

A CNN news article reports that Robin Harris, school principal at Fletcher-Maynard Academy, a combined public elementary and middle school in Cambridge, Mass., is experimenting with an extended, eight-hour school day.

The school, which serves mostly poor, minority students, is one of 10 in the state experimenting with a longer day as part of a $6.5 million program.

While Massachusetts is leading in putting in place the longer-day model, lawmakers in Minnesota, New Mexico, New York and Washington, D.C., also have debated whether to lengthen the school day or year.

In addition, individual districts such as Miami-Dade in Florida are experimenting with added hours in some schools.

The article further points out that on average, U.S. students go to school 6.5 hours a day, 180 days a year, fewer than in many other industrialized countries, according to a report by the Education Sector, a Washington-based think tank.

One model that traditional public schools are looking to is the Knowledge is Power Program, which oversees public charter schools nationwide.

Those schools typically serve low-income middle-school students, and their test scores show success. Students generally go from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the week and for a few hours every other Saturday. They also go to school for several weeks in the summer.

That amounts to at least 50 percent more instructional time for students in such programs than in traditional public schools, according to the report.

Up against such a tough requirement, extending the day makes sense, Harris said. "If you want kids to read, and you want to teach them how to read, they have to have time reading," she said

U.S. Sen. Democrat Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Senate committee overseeing education, is considering allowing schools that fail to meet annual progress goals to extend their day as a possible solution.

The idea of extending the school day appears to be catching on.  Lawmakers in Minnesota, New Mexico, New York and Washington, D.C., also have debated whether to lengthen the school day or year.

In addition, individual districts such as Miami-Dade in Florida are experimenting with added hours in some schools.

 

Technorati tags: Loretta Perkins, Education, Senator Edward Kennedy, Knowledge is Power Program, test scores, No Child Left Behind Law, Fletcher-Maynard Academy, Massachussets