Special Ed teacher worries about her class and the SB6 bill.

She is right to be concerned. It is mind-boggling that lawmakers require all students to take and pass the FCAT or whatever new tests are to be added.

From the St. Pete Times:

One special ed teacher's fears about SB 6


DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times SB 6 doesn’t make allowances for students like Liza Johnson’s, who have emotional behavior problems. So she is campaigning vigorously to get Gov. Crist to veto the bill



She thinks the new bill is "beyond comprehension". She is trying to become a National Board Certified Teacher, but SB6 would eliminate the bonus for that.



The comments after her post are just stunningly anti-teacher overall.

The climate for public school teachers has become worse this last year.

I feel our party has a responsibility to step in and show some respect for them.

Schools which have been teaching creationism are getting taxpayer money in our state now.

Will sure keep her away from Florida!

My best friend taught special education there for 10 years before finally surrendering and getting a master's specialization in reading. She was trained to work with kids with learning disabilities, but ended up with a lot of kids with serious behavior issues. After chasing one kid a mile down the road after he ran from the building and all of the bruises she came home with, she just couldn't do it anymore. The rules mentioned here are, AFAIK, a No Child Left Behind thing. And the budget situation in WV makes things even more dire.

I don't know where she'll end up, tho she does like it there and has a guy whose family is there.

She grew up in DC and attended private/parochial schools where the education would be good and we could be paid attention to. Incidentally she herself has learning differences, and it was the principal of her Catholic school who suggested she be tested!

WVU ed school has received funding from recent Fed. legislation, which they (and she) are excited to make use of.

E

Mediocre and lousy teachers will stay, and you know what they will do? They will teach to the test, and frame their entire year-long curriculum around that test. No innovation, no creativity.

There's little learning to learn.

It will be people with a seventh- or eighth-grade education "teaching" kids who won't have any education beyond the seventh or eighth grade, if the World Bank has its way. There won't be any more professionals teaching kids, just any old piece of garbage who can read a script will be hired. Senegal did this, and discovered some 30,000 applicants applied for a mere 1,000 teaching jobs. It'll happen here, thanks to people thinking Obama's scheme of privatization is okay unless it is stopped. It isn't okay, it will never be okay.

Why do you think inappropriate curriculum, such as pre-algebra as early as sixth grade, is being done? It's to track the kids, most of whom can't handle abstract concepts at that age, so that they will be forced either into sped or forced into dropping out of school.

nation don't shut all schools down in protest..after it is ratified here..the other states are next...as are all teachers throughout the country.

and "our party" has done next to nothing to stop this!

This is a disgrace.

Especially when our president praised that supt. for the firing.

which is probably part of the plan to tear apart the school system and privatize it.
It's part and parcel of being told to take our shoes off when we fly and submit to body scanning.
THe US population is being turned into serfs, and our kids will have authoritarian, rigid schools inflicted upon them to lower their expectations.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8138631&mesg_id=8138631

The World Bank is pushing this shit worldwide, and it's no conspiracy at all. It's out in the open.

It would be nice if our party would reverse the ravages that plagued the education field during Bush's time in office.

Instead our party has stepped in and made things many, many times worse, setting a strong course for privatizing our education system.

Unless there is some drastic action taken now to save education, we can kiss it goodbye. We're going to lose at least two generations of kids to this horror before it is corrected.

One wonders what the hell are these people thinking?

They talked about getting them before they get all demified. They intended to transform schools into factories of rethug minting. Then, they intended to hobble the press. Yes, we are in for a dark ages. And if generations of children are schooled on birther, bagger, intelligent design, strict constructionist philosophy and all manor of right wing fables, we will be third world soon. The only thing that seems to stand in the way, are teachers unions. That is why they are under attack. Jeb is revving up in the war now. We need a Dems Templar.

He's in the tank with the World Bank apparently, as is the Democratic Party. Cute, isn't it? We don't need the GOP to carry out this anti-democratic scheme to make sure the vast majority of people have NO upward mobility by limiting higher education.

She has two kids getting close to college age. Her husband is an engineer with a huge salary and they are still worried about being able to afford it for their kids, even in a public university, as are we all.

It is despicably cruel to force students with disabilities to take these tests. They cry, they get stressed, they obsess over whether they will pass or not. One of my kids fell asleep last week during testing. Poor kid couldn't sleep; she was so stressed about the test.

Mind-boggling how they are getting away with it without parents and the public questioning.

Kids are not alike, they never have been and never will be.

No one has fought back on this, and now it may be too late.

Too many of us have not been paying attention.

who has the power to be heard by this administration.

And teachers risk their jobs by fighting back.

I feel so badly for special education teachers-actually all teachers. I was on SSDI well before NCLB reared its ugly head. I saw how some of the bench marks were scored and couldn't believe it. Now it's worse.

who could not pass a standardized test under any circumstances. I think of one 8th grade boy in particular. He doesn't speak. He chirps and waves his arms. He is with an aide all day long who must prevent him from curling up into a fetal position or bolting from the room. He does not focus on anything. Even attempting to give him a standardized test would be completely unproductive. And this bill suggests that his teacher should be penalized for his inability to be tested. Absurd. Only people who haven't set foot in a classroom in years would think this bill had any merit at all. I hope teachers in Florida stay strong and united to defeat this nonsense.

the tests will continue

in education. That is why is it so painful to see it happen. Democrats would not have let Bush do it. But now there is no opposition.

garner support if the GWB administration were implementing this frightening legislation. It seem that Dems just want to bury their heads in the sand and act like everything is going well.

along with the CHILDREN. The very idea of insisting to measure the teacher via a test that a special ed child should NOT be given in the first place is one of the most dishonest concepts I have heard thus far.

Where are the child psychologists/psychiatrists, child development experts, to weigh in on this gross abuse?

It's war on teachers today, but they could be next.

Kids come out of school useless. We have nothing but crime here.Any smart person moves away (my house is paid for and I work out of town for weeks at a time) If I do a bad job,I would get fired. Period. I would not be asked back. I do concert sound so my test is every performance. And if I were to do a poor job, I probably would`nt screw up and children`s lives. I probably would,nt ruin their futures. And yet you whine because we`d like to hold up teachers to a little better standard. Why do you think all those parents send their children to private schools if they can afford it? I think there is a lot of teacher union people posting on these forums.

in many public schools, and here we have you suggesting that teachers are the main culprit. Try other factors, such as
how schools are funded, poverty, etc. The children in question are special needs, you have any idea of what that means developmentally?

If you did, you might be able to recognize that applying a standardized test is not an appropriate measure in and of itself, as these
children DO NOT learn in the same manner as typical children.

This is about busting up teacher unions and the children will suffer as a result too.

And where did you get the idea that "teacher union people" would not post or be welcome on Democratic Underground? You believe they are
considered a subversive group or something?

and if you think for a nanosecond that special-ed kids will get the same test as the other kids,wake up. And finally, if you read my post you will find no reference that I think or implied that teachers or their union are "not welcome on Democratic Underground or subversive group or something"; I implied that pro-teacher-union personnel are posting in order to try to sway opinion of the weak-minded voters out there. Your reply attempts to manipulate my post into something it isn`t. That is a tactic best left to the Republicans. I`m sorry if I confused you or anyone else on this forum or anywhere else on the web.

Mostly autistic students, most severely learning disabled. They take the exact same test as every other student.

testing they are suggesting is indeed those used for typical children. From the OP: FCAT applied to the children with special needs.

If this passes, her concerns are valid, and it is apparent here she wasn't trying to use the union to hide behind to excuse her performance: " For the first half of her career, Johnson shied away from the union. She didn't think it offered her anything she couldn't get herself.

But as Johnson matured as a teacher, she found herself questioning what she felt were some nonsensical mandates that would appear one day and disappear the next." (end)

Your statement here, "I implied that pro-teacher-union personnel are posting in order to try to sway opinion of the weak-minded voters out there." That is suppose to mean what exactly, what is your definition of "weak-minded"?

Your previous statements were not manipulated by me, but they were challenged, that is a difference you seem to fail at recognizing.

In my experience, the only difference is that sometimes they are "accommodated" with extra time to take it. This the point of this article. It's a one size fits all test. And teacher's jobs/careers and schools' reputations and their very existence depend on how well students do. Their is a very good book about how we got to this point. It's Fertilizers, Pills, and Magnetic Strips by Gene Glass, 2008. Read it. Also, Education and the Flat World by Linda Darling-Hammond ( who would be Secretary of Education if knowledge and experience were a prerequisite to having that job), 2010. A little knowledge goes a long way. Once you understand how we got here, you'll be ready to march on Washington.

Welcome to DU :hi:

What a strange statement to make.

There are a lot of union people in general posting on this forum.

Right?

parents can pretty much call the shots and force teachers into changing grades for their precious ones as administrators are afraid they will go elsewhere.

There is no accountability for private schools. They are junk.

By then, most good teachers will have left.

TALLAHASSEE — After weeks of protest and a deluge of messages, Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday vetoed a bill that would link teacher pay to student test scores and wipe out tenure for new teachers.

His decision, announced in a noon news conference at the Capitol, came as little surprise. Although Crist initially voiced support for Senate Bill 6, he had distanced himself over the past week as protests mounted.

"We must start over," Crist said.

Crist explained that the content of the bill and "manner of its adoption" was "significantly flawed."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/article1087675.ece

Shocker a politician listens to his constituency.

Welcome to DU :hi:

cuz it won`t be your fault.

if your job depended on how a bunch of kids did on ONE TEST to determine 1/2 your salary for the year.
I'm betting you would be eating beans out of a can and living in your car, sport.

Sounds like it is all about me me me.

I've been around a long time to watch the decline of education in this country. In spite of the demands for teachers to get higher and higher degrees, the students are graduating with less and less skills. Go by a fast food restaurant -- the computer has to tell these kids what change to give you as they can't do the basic math!

Teachers in FL make more money than more than 80% of the tax payers in the private sector that pay the taxes that pay their salaries. Over 90% of the tax payers make less than the school administrators.

Sure we like teachers, but why should they have special job protection when the people that pay their wages don't have the same luxury? I am tired of the special interests, whether it's Wall Street or the public unions, I and many others are tired of getting the short end of the stick. Where's the fairness anymore?

Fucking fool.

Apparently you feel students are not responsible. How about their parents?

Could you give me some links to your sources for that big talk about salaries?

There is really hatred and resentment toward teachers who might have a semblance of job security.

are growing in number. It appears they are acceptable.

Guess it is ok.

Charlie Crist flunks himself out of the Republican primary

Fla. governor and hard-pressed Senate candidate vetoed a right-wing education bill. So when's he dropping out?
By Gabriel Winant

For conservatives, teachers unions play a role comparable to what, say, Halliburton represents to liberals: a menacing, shadowy influence that is better organized and networked than anyone else around. GOP candidates can always count on applause when they promise to stick it to the teachers union.

Which is why it seems odd that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, in the midst of a now-uphill primary battle for the Republican nomination for Senate, just vetoed a bill that does exactly that -- sticks it to the teachers. The legislation eliminated traditional tenure and linked teacher pay to test scores. These are precisely the favorite prescriptions of conservatives whose diagnosis of problems in education always comes down to blaming lazy teachers.

Crist argues that the bill was shoddily written and overreached, but it’s still hard to wonder what he might be thinking. His primary opponent, Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio, supports the bill, and will use Crist’s veto as a bludgeon from here through the August primary. As Michael Tomasky points out in the Guardian America, this move actually puts Crist to the left of the Obama administration on education reform.

So it's hard not to think that, in keeping with the endless speculation, Crist isn't planning to stay in the Republican primary. If he splits, and runs as an independent, he may well be able to count on teachers union support in a three-way general election thanks to this veto.

Crist's campaign is thus far not talking about an independent bid, and insists that there are good conservatives who opposed the education bill. Said a spokesman, "Not every Republican in the legislature was for this bill and there has been an outpouring from the most conservative of Republicans against the bill as well."


There’s apparently some truth to this. A Miami Herald article earlier this week found Florida Tea Party activists opposing the bill because its administration would require consolidating the statewide education bureaucracy, at the cost of local school boards.

But to say that the veto might actually "aid Crist's Senate bid," as the Herald suggests, is a stretch. And it's simply out of the question that Tea Party types would rally to Crist at this point, even if they did actually oppose this bill. To them, he's the poster child of big-government Republican collaboration. His prominent support of the stimulus bill probably sealed his fate with this group, regardless of the education bill. Besides, the evidence still mainly suggests that the GOP’s right-wing base will be hostile to Crist's action -- in no small part because it comes from Crist. His own campaign chairman, former Sen. Connie Mack, resigned yesterday over the veto.

So either Crist -- long known as a consummate pragmatist -- is actually a remarkably courageous figure, or he's not running in the Republican primary. Place your bets, folks. If you ask me, the campaign must have some game plan for getting out of the race, but this feels like a months-long removal of a band-aid. Just do it already!

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/04/16/crist_teachers_independent/index.html

Crist tried catering to the extremists...witness how he helped them turn the state over to developers the last few months.

This is really the first time he has crossed the extremists.

If he goes independent, he likely might also beat the Democrat Kendrick Meek who is running a DLCish bipartisan heavy campaign. I like Meek, but he is not visible. Maybe he is waiting for the primary to be over?

And if Christ went Independent, it's still a gamble how Independent he would govern, frustrating for Floridians I imagine.

Sink had a petition to sign against it in an email.

Vocal does not describe FL Democrats.

Crist listened to all the good folks who fought back.