Around the Education Horn

 From KIRO TV, a story about not one but two elementary school principals in the Northshore School District who were caught at a QFC high on cocaine in late April. And with a loaded gun. Wonder if the Northshore School Board is gonna sit on their hands and say nothing to their superintendent. Just like the Seattle School Board would do.

The incident has now led to two elementary school principals in the Northshore School District – husband and wife, Michael and Meghan Griffin – to be placed on administrative leave.

Michael Griffin is the principal at Sunrise Elementary, while Meghan Griffin is the principal at Moorlands Elementary.

She wrote in her opening line, “Our recreational drug use began about a year ago while on vacation. It increased recently.” She went on to detail her husband’s worsening paranoia.

“Michael and I went to see our primary care doctor on March 22, 2023. The doctor told us we needed to stop the use of cocaine and that at the next check-up, the doctor would do a full workup to check for anything else that could be causing the delusions,” Meghan Griffin wrote.

Redmond police said no criminal charges were filed, but officers did apply for an Extreme Risk Protection Order, and now Griffin’s firearms are in police custody.

A couple of interesting stories from the education blog, Chalkbeat. The first is about a thoughtful discussion within Denver Public Schools on the issue of police officers in school buildings. There were two competing ideas presented but no vote. I like Idea #2 as a middle ground.

Idea #1

The first version of Marrero’s safety plan would have allowed building principals to decide whether police should be stationed at their schools. After many principals said they didn’t want that responsibility, Marerro asked the Denver school board to make a long-term decision.

Board member Scott Baldermann’s proposal would allow Marrero to decide when, where, and for how long to station police at Denver schools. The proposal says police would not get involved in discipline but would be present for ensuring safety, deterring crime, mentoring students, and building community. 

I have doubts about this one because it would be hard for the officer to not intervene in discipline (or have teachers or staff ask for help).

Idea #2

Esserman backs a proposal from Vice President Auon’tai Anderson to direct the superintendent to negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the Denver Police Department to create community resource officers who would receive special training and get to know schools within regions of the city — without being stationed inside buildings. 

Anderson called it a “third way” between having school resource officers on campus and the recent status quo, in which school leaders called 911 when safety issues arose and any on-duty officer responded.

 

The second story is about the age-old question in public education - Does money matter? Here's what one economist thinks.

Eric Hanushek, a leading education researcher, has spent his career arguing that spending more money on schools probably won’t make them better. 

His latest research, though, suggests the opposite. 

The paper, set to be published later this year, is a new review of dozens of studies. It finds that when schools get more money, students tend to score better on tests and stay in school longer, at least according to the majority of rigorous studies on the topic. 

“They found pretty consistent positive effects of school funding,” said Adam Tyner, national research director at the Fordham Institute, a conservative education think tank. “The fact that Hanushek has found so many positive effects is especially significant because he’s associated with the idea that money doesn’t matter all that much to school performance.” 

Despite his new findings, Hanushek’s own views have not changed. “Just putting more money into schools is unlikely to give us very good results,” he said in a recent interview. The focus, he insists, should be on spending money effectively, not necessarily spending more of it. Money might help, but it’s no guarantee. 

Are there any guarantees in teaching and learning? No. But we know that many things that can help and most of them cost money.

The group, Moms for Liberty (who clearly don't understand the meaning of the word), have come out with yet another bold and stupid thought.  

An anti-LGBTQ Moms for Liberty activist told MSNBC that she believes LGBTQ students should have separate classes from straight and cisgender students in schools.

The kids that do have their, you know, they’re confused, or they are gay or whatnot,” said Moms for Liberty Miami-Dade member Crystal Alonso, “that the way they’re trying to go about it is to make it an open conversation and an open thing in classrooms.”

“But like for example children with autism, Down Syndrome, they have to have special IP meetings with a counselor, they have to be put into separate classrooms. I understand, because it’s a different type of education for children with those disabilities, but I think that for children that identify differently, there should also be like a specialized… something for them, so that they feel that they’re important enough that they’re being counseled.”

Moms for Liberty gained notoriety during the pandemic as they attended and protested school board meetings to oppose mask mandates and LGBTQ inclusivity in schools. The group’s past exploits include offering bounties for people who turn in teachers who discuss “divisive topics,” attacking the Trevor Project for trying to prevent LGBTQ teen suicide, trying to get a book about seahorses banned for being too sexy, and saying that two girls briefly kissing at a school function is “lewd” and “traumatic.” The group lobbied in Florida for the Don’t Say Gay bill.

In what I would call good news (or better yet, I predicted this), from The Hill:

After School Satan Clubs have been steadily increasing in popularity and are not likely to slow as their supporters rack up media attention and legal wins fighting for free speech. 

The clubs, associated with the Satanic Temple and offered only in primary schools, began at the beginning of 2020 and quickly gained attention from parents who wanted an alternative to religious clubs, according to June Everett, campaign director of the After School Satan Club.

Last Monday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of the Satanic Temple and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which sued when a Northampton County school district would not allow the club to meet on its grounds. 

While the clubs are controversial, mostly for their name and association with the Satanic Temple, students are not actually getting proselytized or instructions in devil worship. 

The Satanic Temple was founded in 2014 and says its mission is to “encourage benevolence and empathy, reject tyrannical authority.” A member should also use “practical common sense” and stand up for justice, according to its website.  

She added that a new partnership with the Secular Student Alliance should help expand the After School Satan Club’s reach. 

“[Secular Student Alliance’s] specialty is really college level and high school kids. So with their partnership, we hope to use them to help us get into more high schools and colleges,” Everett said.

 Bill Gates never ceases to amaze me (and not in a good way).  

Soon, artificial intelligence could help teach your kids and improve their grades.

That’s according to billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who says AI chatbots are on track to help children learn to read and hone their writing skills in 18 months time.

“The AI’s will get to that ability, to be as good a tutor as any human ever could,” Gates said in a keynote talk on Tuesday at the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego.

I have no doubt of the usefulness of chatbots and there may be cost savings to doing it (leveling the playing field for those who cannot afford a human tutor) but for him to make a big blanket statement like that is dumb.