Blog #15: Express yourself in Oregon...well, not just yet.

Does your school enforce a dress code on you? Maybe it is business attire or maybe business causal or maybe just plain causal on jeans day. Whichever it is it is an issue that has a long history in the state of Oregon. Recently, in a USA Today article, House Speaker Dave Hunt, D-Gladstone, said he will push to "allow teachers to have the same religious free exercise rights as every other Oregonian" when legislators meet in February.


The issue at hand is a 1923 law that was put in place to keep Catholics from attending public school. The law was taken to the courts in 1986 and upheld by the Oregon Supreme Court. The ban outlaws the wearing of religious clothing or “garb”.

There are many interesting points to consider to this story. The first one is that the law is still in place and only 3 states of such bans on the books. Is your state one of them? The second item that caught my attention is that, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, which has long supported the ban, said the Legislature should not end it without enacting additional protections for Oregon students, according to the article. In a related issue the ACLU is fighting for the rights of students in Florida that were dismissed from school for wearing, “Islam is the Devil” t-shirts to class. The ACLU issued a statement that it is their right under the Bill of Rights and their freedom of speech, to wear such clothing. The Florida school district disagrees. We will see how that case plays out.

The last item that I found interesting in the Oregon case is that the “Oregon Education Association has not taken a position on the issue”, a spokeswoman said.

So what are your thoughts? If you were a teacher in Oregon which way would you push for? A ban on wearing religious clothing or no ban but I would assume then that teachers would have to follow some dress code. The dress code could be one that the students follow as many of you have said are in place at your schools OR it could be a professional contract stating what business causal is. I know from a previous blog by a classmate that some younger teachers don’t understand what business casual is but for the sake of agreement let us say they do.

I feel your employer has some rights to enforce a dress code on the staff and the students. I worked at a refinery and we had to wear safety boots, hard hats, and jeans or we wouldn’t have a job. It was a requirement that our company put in place. Why is it different in education? The district hires you to be a professional so why shouldn’t they be able to set the guidelines as to what they THINK a professional is? In this story I guess the people of Oregon are still trying to figure that out.

Blog 14: Advisor, “I need a fitness class to graduate.”

Do you remember which classes you needed to graduate from college? I do and physical education wasn’t one of them. In a aggressive move to curve the obsieity epdicmic facing the youth of our country, specifically the black community Lincoln Univeristy is requiring overweight students to take a fitness class. According to the USA Today article written by the AP, “Officials at historically black Lincoln University said Friday that the school is simply concerned about high rates of obesity and diabetes, especially in the African-American community”.

The requirement is a three credit fitness course that what put in place four years ago for all incoming freshman. It requires students to get tested for their body mass index, a measure of weight to height. If students are above a healthy weight then they are required to take a class that consist of , “Walking, aerobics, weight training and other physical activities, as well as information on nutrition, stress and sleep” said, James L. DeBoy, chairman of Lincoln's department of health, physical education and recreation.

In the article it stated that certain health experts agreed that something needed to be done but felt the move by the college is, “distasteful” because issues such as healthy choices in the vending machines could be addressed by the college.

Tiana Lawson, a 21-year-old senior, wrote in this week's edition of The Lincolnian, the student newspaper, that she "didn't come to Lincoln to be told that my weight is not in an acceptable range. I came here to get an education."

Again, I ask do you remember what requirements you had to take to graduate? Is this discrimination? Is this being proactive? Many colleges require students to take a diversity credit to enrich their minds so why not make requirements to improve the body?

I applauded this college for taking a stand on a sensitive issue, but I want to know what you think.

Blog # 13: Is out of state tuition for illegals a thing of the past?

In 10 states a student that is undocumented and/or illegal can be given in state tuition and the Common Wealth of Massachusetts is now considering a bill to do the same. What does this mean to higher education? Well, it means millions of dollars pumped back into colleges that are in and economic downturn. According to USA Today article, “The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation estimates that 400 to 600 students might enter Massachusetts schools as a result of the bill and that it likely would result in $2.5 million of extra revenue”.

The issue is a hot one in Massachusetts and a similar bill was voted down in 2006. A reason given by Rep. Demetrius Atsalis, D-Barnstable, “believes it will make the state's college fee structure meaningless and will take away the incentive for undocumented students to legalize their status”.

Recently, bills in states like Georgia (where some of our classmates live) have passed legislation that bans undocumented students to enroll in colleges using in-state rates. Steve Kropper, co-director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform, a group that seeks immigration restrictions, has stated, “"It doesn't make economic sense to us," Kropper said. "If they can't get a job when they're done (with college), then it doesn't make sense for the state to invest in them,” referring to the fact that they are not allowed to have drivers licenses in his state which makes employment difficult.

Since most states that have passed some sort of bill allowing in-state tuition to illegal’s are in conservative controlled states people cannot argue that is it a political issue for the left to gain votes. It really is an issue that both parties are tackling with illegal immigration at the fore front.

So what does this mean to you and me your wondering? Well, I see it as an unfair advantage given to undocumented individuals so colleges can cash in. It is no secret that colleges can make huge profits from out-of-state students attending. For example at Bismarck State College, residents pay $112 per credit hour while non-residents pay $299. The money made from non-residents cover a lot expenses for higher education.

On the other hand, one could argue that undocumented students need assistance to lift themselves up and start a new life in American and this is one way to do it. If that is the case shouldn’t citizens that are non residents be able to use the same agreement for improving their lives?

This isn’t about discrimination it is about what is fair to all students that want to attended college , tax dollars, and politics.

What do you think?

Blog #11: Should Bill Gates be deciding where the money goes?

Some individuals, teachers, teacher unions, state educational boards and maybe even some within the Department of Education are wondering how his influence and more importantly his money will effect education. Of course Bill Gates won’t be the next Secretary of Education but his ideas, founded through The Gates Foundation, might push his agenda for a better educational system into the states that you teach. The Foundation has spent $200 million on elementary and secondary schools in the forms of grants already.


The co-founder of Microsoft, “Is taking unprecedented steps to spend millions to influence the way the federal government distributes $5 billion in grants to overhaul public schools” according to Libby Quaid and Donna Blankinship of the Associated Press.

How it works is state educational agencies can apply for the sum of $250,000 from Bill Gates to help them go after federal stimulus dollars set aside for education. The catch is that if your state is awarded federal money you will then follow guidelines setup by the Gates Foundation.

Don’t worry because the Obama Administration and the Gates agree on many similar strategies to improve education like, “Paying teachers based on student test scores, among other measures of achievement; charter schools that operate independently of local school boards; and a set of common academic standards adopted by every state”, the USA Today article said.

How do you feel about your pay being based on student test scores? Or charter schools? Or common academic standards?

Obviously many organizations and unions are questioning this agenda and many think that since two of Bill Gates former employees sit on the Sec. of Education inner circle there is some wrongdoing.

“It's no secret the U.S. education system is failing," Gates said. "We're doing all kinds of experiments that are different. The Race To The Top is going to do many different ones. There's no group-think,” was his response to these accusations.

If you’re unfamiliar “The Race to the Top” is the government program, not the Gates Foundation program.

Another issue is, “The foundation's rising profile comes as the recession has gutted state and local budgets, which spend more money on education — roughly 35% — than anything else. Many states and districts can't keep all their teachers on the payroll, let alone spend money on a high-stakes application for federal money that includes some 44 pages of rules.”

The most interesting part of this article for me was that when the Gates Foundation started this program it was only open to 15 states but other states found out and complained that they needed money also to apply for federal dollars so Gates opened it up to, “any state that meets eight criteria, including a commitment to the common standards effort and the ability to link student data to teachers.”

Finally, I think Bill Gates heart is in the right place for trying to help schools acquire more money and if he wants to set guidelines for it and the schools are willing to accept them so be it, but I worry about the schools that don’t want to follow his guidelines, they will be a huge disadvantage when the stimulus money is doled out. I am not sure what the solution is but why not try this and see what the results are.

Did your college train you well enough? The Government doesn't think so!

Are teacher colleges producing results or just cashing in? The new secretary of education, Arne Duncan, believes universities are making a ton of money off of the college of education and not reinvesting it back into the department. He believes most teacher colleges are putting out poor products and is ready to tie stimulus money to force colleges that train teachers in two key areas.
One area is classroom management, which happens to be our topic this week. The other complaint Duncan said he heard from recent graduates was they, “were not taught how to use data to improve instruction and boost student learning". These two areas were continually brought up as Duncan talked to hundreds of young teachers in the Chicago area.
The report in USA Today by the Associated Press cited A 2006 report found that three of five education school alumni said their training failed to prepare them to teach, the report was by Arthur Levine, a former Teachers College president. A couple of questions to my fellow bloggers are:

1. Do you feel your teaching college prepared you to teach in the area of classroom management, especially in high-needs classrooms?

2. Do you feel your teaching college prepared you to use data to improve instruction?

In response to the first one, I do not feel my teaching college prepared me as well as they could in the areas of classroom management, especially in the high-needs sector. One of the classes I had when I was student-teaching had 17 students with IEP’s with behavioral problems, low academic skills, and some that spoke limited English. It was a nightmare. Of course I had two teaching aids in there to help keep them on task but I was never trained for a classroom like this. I was told in theory by professors how to develop lesson plans but not what to do when one calls you a white F---er and I definitely wasn’t trained on what to do when you are waiting for security to come and remove them.
For the second question, I will admit my teaching college did require us to research topics and provided us with some examples of how to find data on educational topics. I cannot remember how or if we learned how to use it to improve instruction because I don’t recall doing a lot of “teaching” to my classmates for practice. To me that should have been in every college teaching class.
Moving back to the report Duncan did not solely blame the universities for the lack of well prepared teachers. “The government is also to blame, he said. Most states have paper-and-pencil licensing exams that measure basic skills and knowledge but not readiness for the classroom, he said, and local mentoring programs are lacking”.


The Secretary has an interesting solution to this problem. Duncan noted the administration is using stimulus dollars to reward states that tie student achievement data to the education schools where their teachers had credentials. His department also is helping to pay for an expansion of teacher residency programs in high-needs schools. I think this could be hard to track and I hope for the sake of future teachers the government does this fairly and then provides the colleges an opportunity to improve themselves.
Self-reflection is something every teacher learns to do at the end of the day and in this case so should some of institutions teaching that concept.  I am not asking that we tear apart our former alumni but they should be open to suggestions because in the end we all want great teachers in the classroom helping students.

Blog #9: Can I work 4 days too?

Most of you have heard people say how easy teachers have it because most do not work in the summer, but can you image the grief the teachers in Hawaii are getting for voting in favor of a four day work week? I can’t. The teachers union in Hawaii recently passed with 81% in favor of shorting the school year to 163 days, instead of the regular 180.
The reason for this school day shortage is money. Big surprise! The economy is hurting Hawaii which according the AP, “More than a quarter of the state's general budget goes to the state Department of Education”. The governor, “withheld 14% from estimated salaries, or $227 million,” the article from USA Today stated.
The teachers union, “ probably wouldn't have voted for the contract if they had to work the same amount for less pay, paving the way for the shorter school year, said Hawaii State Teachers Association President Wil Okabe. He also said the state couldn't get the necessary savings if teacher furlough days were scheduled for holidays — or workdays with schools kept open. By accepting the shorten days the teachers also accepted concurrent pay reduction and postponed layoffs and random drug testing for two years.
So my first question to my classmates is, “would you have voted in favor of this?”

It is a very tough call because you have a feed yourself and your family. Nobody wants to be laid off and no one wants to take a pay cut. I can’t image being put in a situation like this. On one hand you are thinking of yourself and on the other you are thinking of the educational opportunities the students will be missing by the shorten school year.

Students and parents in Hawaii are voicing their thoughts on the issues. "It's just not enough time for the kids to learn," said Valerie Sonoda, president of the Hawaii State Parent Teacher Student Association. "I'm getting hundreds of calls and e-mails. They all have the same underlying concern, and that is the educational hours of the kids." The article does mention that some parents concerns were along the lines of not finding daycare for younger children and parents of special needs children not finding the proper services.

The state Hawaii has some other problems that many of you are familiar with, the No Child Left Behind Act. The Act set standards that states must meet in order to continue to receive federal funding. Hawaii is, “already ranked 47th in the nation in eighth-grade reading and math, according to 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress test scores.” This is a real problem and by cutting more learning time how can Hawaii ever catch-up to other states? It won’t and might fall to last place which might take years or decades to recover from.
Since Hawaii is all one district the chance that this problem will go away is limited. I think the state is doing what it thinks is best for the budget, so we don’t have another California on our hands. I think the teachers are taking cuts to keep their jobs. What I wonder is what is the federal government doing? We are being pushed to nationalize healthcare which will cost at some estimates $860 billion dollars but the federal government isn’t concerned that the young people will be missing out on an education. Ironic, since Hawaii is the President’s home state don’t you think?

I am not taking a political jab, I am frustrated becasue students are going to suffer and some tend to have no problem bailing out GM or investors, then why not give the state short term loans to keep the schools open?

Students Wanted for Colleges - Welcome to the USA

I figured since my last blog was about middle school I better talk about higher education this week. The current economic downturn in the United States has caused many American families to rethink sending Jonny and Sally to college right now. This in turn has caused a financial shortfall for many community colleges.

Some community colleges are going as far as Vietnam to recruit students to help bring the money in for their institution. According to a USA Today article, “about 23 U.S. schools participating in last year's Asian recruitment tour organized by the American Association of Community Colleges.”

Why do you ask are they visiting a communist country? It is simple. The middle class in this Southeast Asia country is growing. The country of Vietnam is roughly of the twice the size of Arizona and, “more than 5,000” visas are issued to students that attend two-year colleges. If that doesn’t entice a recruiter to travel half way across the world nothing will.

So the question I am posing is should U.S. recruit foreign students?

In my opinion there are two major issues. One, are American students losing tuition scholarships and housing on campus to foreign students? Second, if colleges stop recruiting outside the U.S. does the diversity experience of college life lesson?
First, there is no evidence that indicates that housing is being loss to foreign students and even though colleges do provide scholarships the economic impact that, “International students contribute more than $15.5 billion in tuition and living expenses to the U.S. economy, through their expenditures on tuition and living expenses, making U.S higher education one of the country's largest service-sector exports”.

From my own experience the Millennials would rather live at home if they can and as far as scholarships go our community college has had trouble giving money away because students won’t take the time to fill out a simple one page form. It drives me crazy. I even make copies of easy $500 general scholarships to my students and get this; many say they don’t care, “because mom and dad are paying for it.”

My second question, concerning the learning of diversity at college and does it lessen the experience with few foreigners there. According to Patricia Gurin’s, “Students come to universities at a critical stage of their development--a time during which they define themselves in relation to others and experiment with different social roles before making permanent commitments to occupations, social groups, and intimate personal relationships”. She goes to state, “In addition, for many students college is the first sustained exposure to an environment other than their home communities”.

I tried to find some information on colleges or a student body that might be against foreign exchange students and couldn’t find any facts. I have heard rumors that some student body governments complained that colleges were losing their identity but I couldn’t find the details for sure.
I am in favor of colleges recruiting foreign students to study abroad because it sends a positive message of the United States and democracy back with them to their home countries. It also brings money into the U.S. which allows faculty and staff to have jobs. Lastly, it gives American students the opportunity to visit with other students and learn things about their cultural differences.

On a side note, I should mention that background checks for visas are extremely tough to get for the U.S. since 9/11. This should make us feel a bit safer that the State Department isn’t just handing them out.