History Of Alberta Education Illustrates A Slide To Cowardice

Alberta education, notably the choice, charter and school-based management model, has been written up in Economics textbooks. Noted is that competition not only enabled innovation but also resulted in measurable positive results for the whole system — all schools demonstrated improved scores.  http://truthinamericaneducation.com/education-at-state-level/school-based-management/

For 4 decades Alberta was noted for highest scores in Canada as well as in international reports. Serious slippage in ratings, however, was seen in the last round of international reports.

Internationally, teacher unions are renowned for solidarity with each other and with left wing politics — equality, fraternity, but NOT liberty. I had read that ATA (Alberta Teachers’ Assoc) had been sponsoring, or co-sponsoring, gurus in the last 5 years — change-agents, turnaround consultants, the promoter of the Finnish style of education.  This did not bode well for high-achieving Alberta Ed.

Was the tall poppy to be cut down to size?

There was the story that Alison Redford was elected to premiership because of an influx of teacher voters to her campaign.  It was said she had made 3 promises — to immediately restore $107 M to education funds (done), scrap standardized testing in Gr 3 & 6 (done), and repeal parental veto to withdraw their children from controversial lessons (not done — opposed by parents). http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=422b83a5-51cc-4442-a86e-d5e90e9c07ec&sponsor;=

Well, the tall poppy has been cut down.  The left campaign has been successful.  Alberta is now more equal than ever. 

But, parents and some education supporters are rising up to restore some sense to at least the straightforward task of teaching Mathematics. 

But, we are seeing, Math is no longer clear-cut and up-front.  There are hidden agendas.  A textbook in the field is titled:  “Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice”.  Perhaps this is the personal constructivist preference the Minister of Education is committed to instead of research evidence and the informed preferences of thousands of parents.  Seems like his stance is simple subservience to the establishment and their vested interests.

Accomplices and cowards, it seems, are running the show.  This episode in Alberta history fully illustrates that while there are clear political masters they are still slaves to a philosophy that is ineffective, dysfunctional and counterproductive.

Wikipedia reporting is ominous: “Discovery learning, personalized learning and reform mathematics are being implemented by the education ministry, accompanied by much controversy.”

Who will break away and tell us how this shaping of the Discovery Math agenda happened? Then maybe commonsense can be prevailed upon to give parents at least a choice in the matter.

Part 1 of 2

I prefer Zwaagstra version - “an unstoppable force has met an immovable object. ”  It is much more hopeful, than a stoppable force meets an immovable object. The unstoppable Dr. Nhung Tran-Davies, reminds me of myself. I was unstoppable no matter how many times I was thrown back by the the solid wall that is called the public K to 12 education establishment. I often wonder if the K to 12 wall built by the education intellectuals is actually meant to keep the educators in to prevent being infected by the outsiders with the diseases of capitalism, commercialization, standard algorithms, and other supposedly neo-liberalism threats. The wall is meant to keep the inmates (the educators) inside the prison that the education intellectuals have built since the 1970s.

Earlier today, I read what is a typical reaction by the educator inmates, the personal attacks of other intellectuals that are not towing the line of the progressive education intellectuals. ” Nothing could have prepared me for what came next: she was verbally attacked and insulted by the “educators” at the table, all of whom were proponents of the whole language theory of reading. The comments weren’t professional; they were a venomous and vitriolic personal attack. Jo-Anne sat stoically as the Ph.D specialists in the room heaped scorn upon her and the entire theory of Phonics.
I’m sure Jesus got a warmer reception from the Pharisees. Evidence and results went right out the window; tightly held personal beliefs were the basis of every remark. ” http://ritagracesmith.blogspot.ca/

How does anyone put up with, and remained civil? Joanne’s response - “She sighed and replied, “I think of those kids, those boys, who will get passed on from grade 1 to grade 2 to grade 3 to grade 4 without ever learning to read. By grade 6, they are ‘behaviour problems.’ By high school, they are drop outs on drugs. I try to think of them. That is why I am here.”  Likewise, in 2001 being told by an educator with a PHD that I had poor parenting skills, not enough education and a whole host of derogatory adjectives, I sat there without raising my voice, and kept at it, asking my questions that any other parent would asked, but were afraid to asked about the crazy math curriculum of 2001 and dubious reading instruction. When I finally requested an assessment to check for learning disabilities, that is when the educator voice went up, for all the parents standing outside the door to hear. I really pissed off the PHD educator, and now my youngest child was being attacked. If the educators can’t conned or seduce the parents, than the child is called developmentally slow based on their education expertise, and whatever documented evidence that a parent might have are dismissed because they don’t have an education degree. I am sure that Dr. Nhung Tran-Davies and Joanne Gross knows the experience of meeting the unmovable wall.

The whole wall is built upon the personal beliefs and biases of the K to 12 educators, nurtured by the K to 12 education intellectuals from the schools to the regional to the province/state to the national and to the global level. I followed one such intellectual, and no doubt she won’t be please to see her name being taken in vein, but someone has to voice it out loud. I never knew my requests that I made in advocating for my dyslexic child was political statements that supposedly strikes against the public K to 12 education establishment. Apparently, as a parent I can be easily dismissed as being deluded that my child can go beyond low achieving without acknowledging the neo-liberalism forces who are preventing my child from becoming a good reader. Who knew eh?  No wonder the K to 12 educators get a wee bit upset when a parent is requesting education services beyond the inclusive (the not so inclusive) classroom. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CC8QFjAB&url=http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National_Office_Pubs/edultd3.pdf&ei=6rFOU-HcD4eW2QXP8IHwCg&usg=AFQjCNEzflxxHPcvBdTPdhxXojIrRwF9tg&sig2=YI-ySrZYa1UDPw7O6xi4yg&bvm=bv.64764171,d.b2I

I followed Erica Shaker this afternoon. Rather easy to do when she works for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. https://www.policyalternatives.ca/authors/erika-shaker  Some more articles, mocking CEOs and all sorts of other groups of people who don’t hold educator degrees.  http://behindthenumbers.ca/2014/03/03/problem-ask-a-ceo-thats-chief-expert-officer-to-you-buddy/  Shaker is also chief bottle maker in a publication for educators - Our Schools Our Selves - https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/ourschools-ourselves

Part 2 of 2

Shaker is also involved in the Summer Institute - a brief bio - “Erika Shaker is Director of the Education Project at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The project has monitored—among other education-related issues—the impact of the neo-liberal agenda on education and its effects on and in schools (specifically with regard to surveillance, free speech, standardization and evaluation) as well as the connections between and ramifications of the war on youth and the war on progress. In addition, the education project has monitored (from early childhood education to post-secondary) corporatization, commercialism and privatization in schools; testing and standardization; technology; activism, anti-racism and social justice education; and education finance. Erika Shaker’s seminar at the Summer Institute will be focused on the way in which higher education debates are being situated in Canada in the context of a war on social progress, and the impact of such developments on youth specifically, and wider society more generally. “
http://mcspi.ca/summer-institute/2013-the-war-on-youth/facilitators/  And the War on Youth -
2013 – The War on Youth
Summer Institute 2013 - July 15–26

Now you know, that the public K to 12 education intellectuals has declared war without telling the public. Shaker certainly shows her true colours when she is being quoted in the news media. In the Toronto Star, 2009 - “Erika Shaker, director of the education project with the Ottawa-based research group the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, says it’s bad for everyone when families feel they have to pull out students “who pose a challenge to the system.”
For her, the answer is not diverting those kids but in strengthening the public system with more funding, shifting away from the focus on standardized testing and a one-size-fits-all approach, and a commitment to addressing a range of learning styles.” http://www.thestar.com/life/parent/2009/06/13/twotier_system_evolving_for_special_ed.html

Now here is a twister, especially when I have gone through 12 years of hell, by a public K to 12 establishment that constantly discriminated, and wanted to keep my child dumb in the 3 Rs. “In this lecture delivered at the 2013 “War on Youth” Summer Institute, Erika Shaker, the current Director of the Education Project at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, considers how the relentless—yet ideologically bankrupt—onslaught of neoliberalism has critically impacted civil society by repeatedly reminding young citizens to keep their expectations (for social progress, for democracy, and for equity) low.”  http://mcspi.ca/posts/videos/conversations/erika-shaker-lecture-scapegoating-youth-in-the-war-on-progress/#top

Well, I have news for Shaker I have an eighteen year old that would like to give Shaker a piece of her mind. Shaker would likely never to forget if she was confronted by an assortment of LD/Dyslexia/Autism university students that it is the public K to 12 education system and the K to 12 establishment who are preventing social progress of society and moving the needle to a more vibrant, healthier democracy.

What I would like to do if I had magical powers, to transformed the education intellectuals into poor readers and writers but allowed them to keep their knowledge banks. They would not last 2 hours, let alone a week trying to navigate the world with low literacy and numeracy skills. Yet year in and year out, the pubic K to 12 education establishment produces outcomes to approximately 60 % of students, graduating after 12 years of schooling with various levels of low literacy and numeracy skills. The K to 12 establishment must be so proud of themselves, increasing the number of teachers’ jobs at the college level for remediation of the 3 Rs and the basic fundamental knowledge banks that are not taught or taught poorly.

What is even more confusing and illogical, is their need to transformed students to change agents without the requirement of students having solid skills in the 3 Rs!  And then the education establishment expects social transformation???  If it was not for my excellent skills in the 3 Rs, as a parent I would have given up. If it was not for my wide and deep knowledge banks acquired over the years, I would have not known I was ceding my rights to the educators to educate my child according to their beliefs and biases of the educators with low expectations. If one wants to transformed the world, one needs to educate ALL children to their full potential with a good skill sets of the 3 Rs, so they can correct many injustices and inequalities of the 21st century, including the globalists of hidden agendas.

Rex Murphy has recently observed on the dumbed down baaaing which has come to characterize intellectual and moral leadership in our universities.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/04/12/rex-murphy-on-ayaan-hirsi-ali-universities-have-become-factories-for-reinforcing-opinion/

More evidence of the type of “freedom of expression” which is resonating from the mouths of the young graduates of the current educational regime can be sampled in this article by Robyn Urback..

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/04/15/robyn-urback-if-this-is-the-new-womens-movement-its-no-wonder-girls-dont-want-to-call-themselves-feminists/

We have the bullying put down. The self righteous youth have learned their lessons learned well from previous 20th century totalitarian regimes on how to squash dissent. All this happening on a university campus with no comment from the administrators.

It is no longer about open and free intellectual discourse, it is about conformity and castigation of dissenting opinion at whatever cost.  Not dialog but no holds barred, knock down bullying, .  Can Animal Farm be far behind ?. Mr. Doug’s quick quips are little more than “4 legs good” “2 legs bad”.  Coming from someone who postures/pro-ports to be an education leader, I am appalled at this conformist lockstep response.

Disdain for, and dismissal of civil constructive dialog seems to be the modus operandi for today’s’ educratic leadership and their sycophants.

Who/how will the large and growing vacuum of moral and intellectual leadership be filled ? 

Mr. Zwaagstra suggests that Alberta’s moe has math ed types on their side, who are arguing along with their fellow educrats that discovery math is the be all and end all tool for teaching children math.  A math ed is someone who has a bsc in math, plus has gone to teachers’ college.  I honestly wonder how many math ed’s there actually are, and why, with their knowledge of math, that they would advocate such a terrible math curricula that is going to do so much damage!  I suspect that they are few and far between, and that the charlatans in Alberta’s moe have taken over. 

Also, Mr. Zwaagstra seems to feel that he has to support the parents by explaining that some not only have backgrounds in math, but that they have research to back them up; yet he doesn’t think that he has to do any research regarding the backgrounds and research of the people at moe who are defending discovery math.  Shouldn’t it be the other way around?  Isn’t if important that these people whom we hire to educate our children are qualified?  For me this demonstrates that we still believe in these people—even though over and over again they make very bad decisions when it comes to educating our young ones.  Writers should use much more scrutiny, because the more knowledge we parents and taxpayers have, the more pressure we will put on educators to do their jobs properly.

Bev, I have some more bad news. Just try looking up the degrees of the teachers of the local school’s web site. You won’t find them, and its up to parents to do all the leg work or dare to ask the educator. The educators are no longer willing to provide their educational background, and no wonder. Quite a few educators leaving the education faculties have precious little in what counts, but they sure know a lot about social justice, and how your kid is disrupting the classroom. What is the kid doing?  Just acting like a kid who is not learning due to the curriculum and instructional methods.

I figure the only way is a lawsuit….......perhaps a class action lawsuit to go after the poor curriculum/instruction and knowledge bases of educators.

Thanks, Nancy.  The teachers and administrators who don’t want their educational background made public know that they’re charlatans.

Frank, you made me think.  I’ve noticed what you’re talking about, but had not put it into words quite so well…

Tunya makes me think as well, along with many other good bloggers.

The question by parents often comes up in SE and as well as in the pull-out programs for literacy remediation. The so-called reading specialist is a specialist in the Reading Recovery program, and has not the foggiest idea of how to work with the dyslexics, Often the SE letters comes after the teachers’ certificate where the educator gains her or his SE status letters by taking the online courses, so they can get a pay raise along with the privilege of making decisions for the SE students based on their so-called expertise. The SE teachers do get so touchy discussing their educational backgrounds and more so, asked about their success rates. Out comes the edubabble on how each child is different and than the parent goes in for the kill, by asking what is little Suzie’s score for phonemic awareness…....has it improved? 

The above is just a compilation of parents noting the questionable educational levels and whether it has anything to do with the subject at hand, reading expertise. Or another way a parent will compare, you don’t see a medical doctor taking an online course to update his training, and get an automatic raise in his or her salary? 

Another thing that I learned yesterday but still exploring is a term critical analysis. There is an actual sub-field of specialization that connects the pedagogy to other fields outside of education. Sure get the people conditioned so when education programs are developed, the pedagogy come first. I am having a tough time in pinning it down, because the description of courses are so brief, that tells nothing what lies behind the course. So for now, the simple version is this one until I find something that will improved it - “At a broad level, Critical Thinking and Critical Pedagogy share some common concerns. They both imagine a general population in society who are to some extent deficient in the abilities or dispositions that would allow them to discern certain kinds of inaccuracies, distortions, and even falsehoods.”
http://faculty.education.illinois.edu/burbules/papers/critical.html

You ought to see how this is transformed into the everyday practices and policies in curriculum and instruction practices. I am planning to put this link in today’s link about all-day kindergarten, but it fits in the discussion here. Its the first link, and starts on page 45 - Critical thinking and Critical Literacy - http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/kindergarten.html

Oh my, my kids would be deem failures. Two of my kids would be deem non-academic, slow for not getting with the program. My oldest would probably be tagged as a behaviour problem, especially when she would openly defy the teacher and question the teacher’s reasons. Thankfully, all of them adults and I shudder to think what will be in store for the Pre-K to grade 3 students, as they make their way through the K to 12 system.

“Critical literacy is the capacity for a particular type of critical thinking that involves looking beyond the literal meaning of a text to determine what is present and
what is missing, in order to analyse and evaluate the text’s complete meaning and the author’s intent. Critical literacy goes beyond conventional critical thinking by
focusing on issues related to fairness, equity, and social justice. Critically literate children adopt a critical stance, asking what view of the world the text advances
and whether they find this view acceptable, who benefits from the text, and how the reader is influenced.”

Where would my kids get in trouble, as most kids would?  By pointing out how unfair the teacher is, and my oldest child would be tossed out by getting herself suspended. It be my oldest, who was able to read before she arrived in K, and was the typical bored kid, who should have been moved up to grade 1. I can imagine my oldest if she was 5 years old today,  her answer would be, it is totally unfair making me read this baby book. Does anyone have young kids that can critical analyzed by connecting it to the fairness, equity and social justice premises?  No wonder kids are so screw up with rights, constitutional rights and the fairness principle. It is not being taught in today’s school, which puts a big wrench into the democratic legs, and hobbles the democratic legs.

In Ontario you can look up any teacher you want on College of Teachers website. All qualifications arr there.

https://www.oct.ca/findateacher/memberinfo?memberid=127601

Here is me. Took 2 minutes. Suspended because I Won’t pay them any money.

Well Doug, it tells very little of the education backgrounds of educators. Certainly would like to know if a teacher has a grade 10 background, when he or she are telling parents with accomplished levels in math, that they are unfit to teaching their children in math.

You might like to know but unless yoh go back to the teachers high school with their permission to get a transcript nobody knows.

If I had a choice of having my child taught math by a certified teacher with grade 11 math or by an engineer I would certainly choose the former.

Only teachers can teach.

The ministry just inspected our school A++++

She says you are killing these other schools in the same market because you hire only certified teachers and give them small classes. No class over 15.

The other schools hire unemployed engineers and give them classes of 30. They just have no clue what they are doing and are all in trouble.

Doug is talking about his private inclusive private high school for rich Chinese students. It cost $28,000 plus to attend. Doug wouldn’t bother with the government inspections but it is a selling point for wealth Chinese parents trying to buy their way into Canada using their kids as the stepping stones.

In fact, across Canada and United States, growth for private high schools for the international wealthy students of the Asian type is a growth industry for the professional certified education class. Beware of the K to 12 education set when they talked out of both sides of their mouths. Private high schools for the rich Chinese students is good and chartered schools for ordinary Americans and Canadians is bad - the evil must be stopped according to the K to 12 education establishment. But private high schools for the rich Asian students are approved by the K to 12 education establishment.

The ministry officer that just did the inspection was clear. You have an outstanding school because you hire only high quality certified teachers and give them small classes.

Our competition uses unemployed engineers and gives them large classes. They is why they are all in trouble.

There is something different this time.  For once, the parents’ voice is coherent and unified, and its magnitude is becoming more evident to the powers that be.  You’re right that they are very intransigent but notice the degree to which they feel they must make public statements.  In contrast to the past times of discontent, they have not had this level of accountability, and they are getting a lot of rather instant feedback—which as you know is a key to effective learning.  I’m optimistic ... cautiously.

Alberta is not Ontario.
We had the one of the best public school systems on earth, based on an intense focus on the teaching of knowledge and testing for it.
Parents here aren’t going to give this up without a fight, and we have a great ally on our side, one that may well take power in 2016, the Wildrose Party.
I’m not at all pessimistic on how this is going to turn out here.
We’ve got it right in Alberta in the past. A great number of our most excellent teachers support us.

We will get it right again, no matter if the constructivist faction wants to dumb down the curriculum, get rid of standardized testing and have us no longer teach the basics in elementary school.