SOFG Spreading Around the Country

The biggest public education news story comes out of Houston, Texas which is the largest public school district region in Texas. (The county has 25 school districts.) From Houston Public Media:

Its libraries will be eliminated and replaced with "discipline centers" in the new school year. This was  announced earlier this summer that librarian and media-specialist positions in 28 schools will be eliminated.

Teachers at these schools will soon have the option to send misbehaving students to these discipline centers, or “team centers’” – designated areas where they will continue to learn remotely.

They will have books on shelves but no organization or staff. 

A pre-approved selection of books will be available to students during school hours and to take home, Sam said.

This superintendent clearly does not understand the role of present-day librarians. School libraries are there to support teachers in teaching and learning.

One important key to this story is that the State of Texas took over Houston SD in 2019, appointed a new superintendent, replaced all the elected trustees (school board members) and appointed a new board (this predicated on allegations of mismanagement and possible illegal activity by the elected board members. "This is allowed under state law because one school, out of more than 270 in the system, failed to meet academic standards for several years in a row.")

 Houston's mayor, Sylvester Turner, is not happy. From Houston Public Media:

Turner said the plan would discriminate against poorer, nonwhite students.

"You cannot have a system where you're closing libraries for some schools in certain neighborhoods, while more-affluent neighborhood schools have libraries that are open and stocked with books and other resources," he said.

Miles has a plan:

Miles' New Education System (NES), entails premade lesson plans for teachers, classroom cameras for disciplinary purposes and a greater emphasis on testing-based performance evaluations, among other initiatives.

Most of the 28 schools that were designated for the NES program are in the feeder patterns for Kashmere, North Forest and Wheatley high schools, which are located in low-income communities of color.

What's interesting about that NES plan is that it sounds a lot like SOFG. Know who was an overseer of a district in Texas? None other than SOFG creator, AJ Crabill. I am seeing parents in San Francisco now fighting back against SOFG. Hmmm

And that's not all that Superintendent Miles' is doing. 

- He wants a waiver to allow the district to hire uncertificated teachers.  

- He wants expanded authority to spend up to $2M at a time without board approval. (The current Seattle School Board expanded their permission for the superintendent to spend without oversight from $250,000 to $1M.)  

- He wants a "pay for performance" teacher compensation model. He calls this "the hospital model" with teachers' performance evaluations and salaries based largely on students' standardized test scores, as well as other metrics like "instructional quality."

“The foundation of NES is equity – where the most disadvantaged students in Houston receive the most support,” Miles wrote. “One of the unique components of the NES model is the team center – which is really the hub of differentiated instruction in an NES campus. This is where students who need extra support to catch up and have access to more time with a teacher or learning coach, and those students who are ready to work ahead can take on more challenging lessons and assignments."

This I gotta see.

 No wonder Texas has a severe teacher shortage.

Between this - a lessening of understanding about teaching and learning -  and this - diluting what slavery did to this country and the people enslaved - the United States is going to have students learning very different things.