Plenty of great advice on freedom-theme blogging just came my way.

At the last minute, I got and accepted an invite to a Web2.0-for-freemarketers conference hosted by a group http://americansforprosperity.org/illinois

We had an absolutely wonderful and diverse group of people. One thing I noticed immediately was the large number of women in the group. I thought the political blogosphere was populated mostly by men. I was obviously wrong.

Close to half the room were women. Granted, most of them did not have a blog yet, but all wanted to start one. I am really looking forward to the viewpoint of the better half of our planet!

We had Joe the Plumber, fair and engaging as always.

Steve Moore from WSJ who originally hails from our own not-now-but-maybe-soon-great-state. His presentation about the state of our economy was eye-opening in the extreme. I hope to see his illustrations soon.

The workshops were great, but the best thing was the networking. We took enough time to go around the room to introduce ourselves. Let’s all thank our host Erik Telford from www.rightonline.com for giving us the space and time to meet each other.

It was a pleasure to meet the wonderful ladies and gentlemen active in education politics and policy.

More to come soon. I have yet to go through all the wonderful contacts that clicked today.

See you soon!

From reading my earlier posts you might notice I’m NOT a fan of ISAT (Illinois School Assessment Test). ISAT is seriously deficient in two areas. 

1) It is designed to be nice to the Chicago Public School system.  Thus, the test is pretty easy and many suburban schools handily meet its requirements, especially if they are not a destination for English Language Learners.

This encourages parents to think highly of their schools and compare this relative measurements among neighboring districts. The real problem is that the system diverts their focus away from the absolute decline of achievements of their children and their schools.

2) The results are disseminated to the parents in fuzzy relative terms. Thus parents learn that children in their school exceed (or meet or fail to meet)  ”the proficiency level on the ISAT”. It does not report the school’s actual average ISAT score for the tested grades. Please note that the high school report cards do report bluntly the actual average ACT scores for each school.

Another secret of the ISAT is that the “proficiency level” on the Math portion has been drastically lowered in 2006. It used to be that a 66% score on the Math portion was “meeting proficiency”. Now a 33% score “meets proficiency”. The administrators, teachers and students in Chicago Public School can take a breather. My personal opinion is that otherwise the whole CPS system would fail under NCLB and be forced into handing out vouchers for kids to go to Catholic and charter schools! Meanwhile the suburban schools glide along.

Finally, check out this study on the ISAT:

http://peoria.k12.il.us/msmith/isu_cohort/soc465/reading_packet/07%20-%20Rau%2C%20et.%20al%2C%20Dark%20Engine%20of%20Illinois%20Education.pdf

It was written in 2001, thus just before NCLB. It does a good job of predicting the negative effects of this super-important test in which our Illinois govt can change the rules anytime.

What is my idea for this? In short, it is to redo or restart the Illinois test so that it matches the standards of NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress). That would certainly be tangibly embarrassing to most of our schools in the first several years. I believe it’s worth the embarrassment for the long-term success of our kids.

Why do people keep wondering why “the kids today” can do less than the kids of 30 years ago?

No, they are not locked out of bathrooms or denied lunch. If a school did such a horrible thing, we would rightfully tear down its walls. This one is a sneaker – we think the school is doing a good job, but it’s really putting up a veneer of competence.

How much more transparent can it get?

U of C study says ISATs set 8th-grade math bar too low 

http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1251850,school-report-cards-univerity-chicago-103108.article

The study is great, by the way: 

http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/content/publications.php?pub_id=126

It’s written well and easy to understand. Basically the point is that middle-school ISAT is a “low-skill” test where it’s easy to drill for it. High school classes and ACT are “high-skill” tests that you cannot drill for. The student must study well in class and at home to gain complex learning and thinking skills.

Surprisingly enough, the Chicago Public School system is going all out on drilling. Maybe it is not surprising at all. The scores are flat.

I’m grateful to live in a great suburban school district. The ISAT scores “exceed expectations” by far. What does it really mean? How important are those scores anyway?

Note to all: The best way to meet your extended neighbors is to run for your local school board.

When someone opens his/her front door at 10am, what can you best say other than “Hi, I am your neighbor and I am running for our school board”?

What happens then it up to you and your new conversation partner. This is one of the world’s most wonderful opportunities to connect with people who value your neighborhood just like you do. It’s worth missing the TV and the shopping and the errands. We have many reasons for loving where we live, and stepping into your neighbors shoes for a minute is half the fun.

The other half is getting their votes and support.  www.learnthinkdo.com

Borrow or rent on Netflix, Blockbuster or in your library!

It starts as a basic suburban tax referendum story and ends in a powerful crescendo. Please remember, I am the possibility of love, balance, integrity and leadership.

I looked up districts with online check registers from forthegoodofillinois.org. Found a slightly unusual story about this little school district. http://www.forthegoodofillinois.org/News/2008/11/10/RIDGELAND-TAX-REFERENDUM-REJECTED-BY-VOTERS/

Ridgeland School District 122 wanted to raise property taxes on Nov 4, 2008. It failed twice and this is the third referendum in 19 months. Maybe ObamaMama will put it over the top. No good. Got shot down by 2062 for  : 4720 against.

This forgettable local journalist’s excerpt has a slight hint: http://www.southtownstar.com/neighborhoodstar/oaklawn/1260625,elect-ridgeland122-110508.article 

Before the last failure in February, the district had threatened to close a school and convert to grade centers, in which students are assigned to schools by grade level not neighborhood.

The school board decided instead to implement some modest cost saving measures, raise some fees and ask voters for a third straight year to approve the tax increase. The district plans a strategic meeting for next month to decide the district’s direction, Sodaro said.

Something isn’t quite right… Why are the residents so set against the district? When a district really needs the money it never has a problem communicating it. So I look up the original in southtownstar.com site above.

Voila, a single comment to the article is incredibly valuable. Impossibly incredibly priceless! First, it’s by Bob Sheldstrom, a fairly well known anti-tax activist. He has several posts at another wonderful lady’s blog: http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com/2008/02/06/ridgeland-school-district-122-referendum/

Second, it’s a call to action! I AM taking him up on his invitation.

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bob shelstrom wrote:

This was the best thing that could happen.

The teachers union is currently in negotiations for their new contract, and if this huge tax increase was passed, it would be “on the table” for negotiations and the new funds would be gobbled up before they could get to the children.

Now the Board and administration are in a better position to negotiate a fair “cost of living” top end raise schedule, then spend any additional tax or bond revenues reducing fees and reinstating programs if the referendum is approved in April.

By the way, I understand that teachers are making noises about walking out on the children if they don’t get an AVERAGE 5%+ raise in the first year.

With step and “end of career” raises, actual raises could be much higher.

I suggest parents let their teachers know that this greed and irresponsibility would not be tolerated by the community, and life could become very difficult for them if they hurt the children and families this way.

Considering that returning teachers just received real raises of 15% and 11% a few years ago (check it out at www.thechampion.org under “Project Accountability), the intiating event for the district’s financial troubles, walking out on the kids would brand the union as perhaps the most selfish and ungrateful such union in the Southland.

Board elections are next April, and petitions are now available at the district. They need to be submitted no later than Jan 20. It only takes 50 “good” signatures to be put on the ballot, so you really should get about 150.

Are there any concerned parents out there who are willing to take on the unions for their children, and regain the trust of the community by showing they can put the children first when it comes to economizing while making the best interests of the childrena nd families their top priority?

E-mial me at bobshelstrom@yahoo.com if you need any info about how to run for the Board.

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One easy way to guess quality of a school district is to see how much money it collects from local taxes vs. from State and Federal transfers.

You know – customer is always right.

Local tax percentage = more local control. More fear of residents moving out. More desire to keep the schools in good shape to keep the parents happy. Next thing you know – school principal gets off her butt and meets the parents.