Chuck Clement, Vince Schaefer, and Sharon Knowlton make themselves useful and help me deflate Governor Dennis Daugaard's nonsense. A cornerstone of Governor Daugaard's proposal to impose more testing, pit teachers against each other in competition for merit bonuses, and eliminate tenure is his argument that we now employ more people and spend more money to teach fewer students in our K-12 system than we did forty years ago. To the Governor, this looks like spending more money without getting more results and smells of waste and inefficiency.
Reporter Clement asks Madison superintendent Schaefer and high school principal Knowlton to shed some light on that claim. First, let's talk about mainstreaming of disabled children:
From 1899 to 1970, persons who were mentally ill or learning disadvantaged in South Dakota were institutionalized at the S.D. Developmental Center in Redfield. By 1963, the Redfield facility had reached its highest population of 1,199 persons.
By 1970 with the passage of the Developmental Disabilities Act, the center's population had dropped by about 980 "due to the deinstitutionalization of inappropriately placed persons." Today, the center serves about 145 persons.
Superintendent Vince Schaefer of the Madison Central School District said the use of all the state's special-use schools for disabilities in learning, vision and hearing was far different from how they operate today.
"At that time, there were two most-common practices for children with disabilities," Schaefer said. "They were either institutionalized or they just stayed at home" [Chuck Clement, "K-12 School Demands Change Since 1971," Madison Daily Leader, 2012.01.18].
Remember when principal Knowlton pointed out that the high school needed to update the special ed space to provide facilities for changing diapers and bathing students? Those kids used to go to Redfield. Now they go to high school.
Schaefer then points out the additional needs created by Title IX:
In effect, public schools had to provide an equal number of athletic programs and other activities for girls as compared to boys.
"Title IX made gender equity the law," Schaefer said, "so we had more sports programs and that meant more coaches and other employees" [Clement, 2012.01.18].
Governor Daugaard could overcome Title IX concerns by saying we simply need to cut athletics and focus our resources on co-ed academic programs like debate, music, and FFA.
[chirp, chirp, chirp...]
O.K., on to graduation requirements:
According to Knowlton, graduation requirements also mean that schools need more teachers. Thirty years ago, a student might only need 17 credits to graduate from a South Dakota high school. Today, the requirement is 22 credits.
"It's definitely more rigorous," Knowlton said. "The increase in high school credits was directly related to an increase in math and science requirements."
The graduation requirements include four English credits, three math credits (Algebra I and II and geometry) and four science credits (physical science, biology, and chemistry or physics). All of those classes require highly-qualified teachers.
"That's probably the most important change," Knowlton said. "Now we have the state telling (the students) exactly what's required" [Clement, 2012.01.18].
The most important change... the state telling what's required... Oh, Sharon, you can be so good.
Yes, our K-12 system is spending more money on more employees than it did forty years ago. In his selectively narrow view, Governor Daugaard says we're not getting better academic results. Schaefer and Knowlton point out that we may not be getting increases in test scores, but our dollars are paying for a much larger range of services and educational opportunities.
I probably should do more research before firing this off, but Daugaard's use of 1971 for a start date has always bothered me.
I was a freshman in high school in 1971 so my memory may be faulty but it seems to me that Viet Nam and the social unrest it produced affected the rest of the country more than it did the Dakotas.
Also, I think there was a major busing decision in 1971. Busing caused upheaval in schools all over the country. In short, South Dakota should have had higher scores than thea rest ofof the countryyou in 1971 because its schools faced less upheaval.
Also, the percentage of students attending college and, therefore, taking the ACT has risen. The Governor is comparing the cream from 1971 with the cream and some of the milk in 2011.
I'll admit education has problems, but cherry picking data won't help figure out how to ameliorate those problems.
Nobody knew that the federal agenda was driving the public education bus? And implementing Common Core Standards is a change to that?