This and That, June 27, 2023

 I just found this online form for comments to the Board. It may have existed for awhile and I just didn't know but it might be more useful than sending one from your own email account. They do have a breakdown of topics, asking if it is a question, comment, suggestion, concern or compliment.  They do say:

Board Office staff aggregate feedback submitted here weekly for Directors to review.

Directors receive a high volume of messages and will not respond directly, but will receive and review your feedback from Let’s Talk.

There's also this page that has all the departments and online forms to contact each of them as well.

Big news from SCOTUS this week via Politico:

Supreme Court won’t hear charter school dress code case that promised broader fallout

Justices denied a petition to hear Charter Day School, Inc. v. Peltier after conferring over the case last Thursday. Religious liberty groups, some school choice organizations, plus 10 attorneys general in Republican-led states had asked the justices to intervene after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a charter dress code that required girls to wear skirts. 

The appellate court’s ruling will stand, including its determination that North Carolina charter schools are “state actors” that work on behalf of the government.

“We are pleased that the Supreme Court has declined to hear the case, allowing the Fourth Circuit’s decision to stand,” said Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools, in a statement. “Charter schools are public schools and are, in fact, state actors for the purposes of protecting students’ federal constitutional rights.”

Yet the legal fight has now extended beyond dress codes to entangle public religious charter schools and constitutional limits between church and state, after Oklahoma authorities’ landmark decision this month to approve a public and directly taxpayer-funded Catholic school that teaches religious principles like a private institution. 

I know that in Seattle this might not be a big deal because charters have never really caught on in Washington State. However, just because Seattle and Washington State seem to stand outside of the charter school and vouchers problems, don't believe it won't get there. 

What is important to know is:

1) This refusal by SCOTUS leaves standing a ruling from a lower court that yes, charter schools ARE state actors (meaning, they are public schools subject to the Constitution).

2) Upholding that lower court ruling may spell doom for any kind of religious charter school but again, that may take another case to SCOTUS. What IS already happening (sadly in my Arizona) is that vouchers are a huge problem to both public schools and public charter schools. Those student dollars will flow whatever direction a parent wants which means to private schools that have zero oversight and can legally discriminate against homeless, ELL, Special Education and LGBTQ students and their families. It is odious to know that public dollars can be used in this manner. On Twitter, it's "choice, choice, choice" for families but I bring up this point on discrimination, those people go silent. Because they know it's true and they don't care.

From the Diane Ravitch blog:The Misinterpretation of NAEP Data (bold mine)

As Diane Ravitch explained, the decline in scores during the pandemic was a “duh” moment. Rather than publishing panicky headlines, these predictable drops in scores should be seen in the broader context of the decade of declines which followed the implementation of rushed and simplistic corporate school reforms. And, as we should have done previously, we must acknowledge what reformers should have previously understood – meaningful increases in learning require inter-connected, holistic team efforts, as opposed to metric-driven instructional shortcuts.    

And we should also listen to Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which administers the tests. “The new data, she said, ‘reinforces the fact that recovery is going to take some time.” Carr and other experts also warn that the “academic decline is part of a broader picture that includes worsening school climate and student mental health.”

Chalkbeat properly quoted Peggy Carr, “There is nothing in this data that tells us there is a measurable difference between states and districts based solely on how long schools were closed.” Yes, Covid closures led to an unprecedented decline in test scores, but many commentators should look more deeply at public relations spin dating back to the Reagan administration that inappropriately used NAEP test scores when arguing that public schools are broken. scores when arguing that public schools are broken. 

 

A common error among journalists, critics, and pundits who misunderstand the achievement levels of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEO). "Proficient"on NAEP is not grade level. "Proficient" on NAEP represents A level work, at worst an A-. Would you be upset to learn that "only" 40% of 8th graders are at A level in math and "only" one-third scored an A in reading?" 

On the other hand, the admittedly unprecedented (but expected) fall in NAEP scores during COVID followed a decade of stagnating or decline NAEP scores. Moreover, the recent release of falling history scores should lead to an open discussion about why the U.S. History scores have declined by 9% since 2014.

From the "what's happening to teachers" file, from the Chalkbeat blog:

Teacher turnover is up. Morale is down. Fewer people want to become teachers. High-needs schools face persistent teacher shortages.

I take a data-driven look at the confluence of challenges — some new, some old — facing the teaching profession.