An Interview with
Ayn Marie Samuelson and Bea Davis Fowler

April 27, 2011 11:36 am
Michael F. Shaughnessy
Eastern New Mexico University
Portales, New Mexico
http://www.educationnews.org/michael-f-shaughnessy/154890.html

1) You have written a fairly provocative book. What brought this about?
We first met when Ayn, a concerned parent, contacted Bea, a school board member, regarding problems in a prestigious high school program, and we wondered if similar issues existed in other school districts. The question inspired extensive research by Ayn, who found plentiful examples and research by writers from the fields of business, finance, accounting, economics, political science and education, showing that our school district was not unique in its problems. Similar deficiencies were found in schools nationwide.

The motivation for the book was our personal experience with the system's rigid and exclusive control over education. Our partnership resulted when we discovered that the political-bureaucratic education system was at the heart of the failure to educate students. This antiquated system stymies legitimate stakeholders like parents, teachers and communities from collaborating to educate individual students to become competent and productive citizens.

2) Let me start with some general questions, and then focus on the more difficult issues. In terms of general education, what are we doing right, and what are we doing not so well?
Class size issues have been a problem, especially in large city districts, and attempts to reduce the number of students in a class is a legitimate concern. But, it is important to allow discretion on the part of teachers to determine which classes need to be smaller for effective learning. The system approach is the one-size-fits-all approach, which leads to unfortunate unintended consequences. Florida is an example where a class size amendment was passed with 18, 22, and 25 students in classes based on grades/age groups. The costs have been prohibitive, teachers and principals have been left with no discretion, and student achievement on the high school FCAT, Florida's annual assessment test, has remained relatively flat.

Trying to ensure students are proficient in reading, writing and math, subjects that are foundational for other learning, is a positive. Federal laws like NCLB are well-intentioned, but implementation is controlled by the system, which often distorts the benefits that might have been produced for all students. NCLB did point out that some groups of children were not being adequately educated within the system, such as those with special needs. That was important, but frankly not something teachers and parents didn't already know.

It has also been suggested that the system turned the focus on those students who were just below the threshold of being labeled proficient in standardized testing, while so many other students over the proficiency level and farther below the proficiency level were not being challenged to learn. These students were left behind.

The Reading First Program was supposed to help students become proficient in reading. Yet, the actual programs that were selected were alleged not to be research-based and were therefore deemed less able to help students who were struggling with reading. The system was accused of circumventing the intent of the reading program.

The NCLB Act also required parental involvement, but in reality, districts do not encourage real partnerships in decision-making with the schools; generally, they discourage outsiders' involvement in education. That I can say from experience - Having meaningful input in decision-making is like trying to walk through quicksand, which requires great effort with bad results. All stakeholders in education need to be encouraged to exercise their rights and responsibilities as parents, teachers, students and communities to ensure that individual students become competent and productive citizens. As a rule, that isn't happening within the education system, as it regularly resists real partnerships and lasting reform.

3) Now, in terms of special education - this seems to be an area of concern. Do we have to have a different set of expectations for special education or different evaluation standards for accountability?
All children should be expected to learn, but since every child has different abilities, talents, maturity rates and motivation, he or she will learn at different rates in different subjects. That said, as each child is challenged to learn by a competent teacher who cares, students must have curriculum that is geared to them and their learning pace. All students can make learning gains. The word "standards" need not be a word that strikes fear in a teacher's heart, as it is critical that teachers ensure that students are learning through regular evaluations. Such evaluations provide a snapshot of a child's progress. Computer-based programs can be used for individual assessment on a weekly basis, and educators are aware of other methods to ensure that students are learning, whatever their level.

If a teacher is empowered to function as a competent professional (knows the subject matter and can teach it) and is allowed to be flexible and innovate, then this approach can work. But, there are serious problems because the current education system delivers mandates without appropriate input or decision-making latitude for those who are required to do the work of teaching - and well, any rational person knows that just doesn't work well for teachers or students. Besides, all stakeholders should share responsibility for student learning as members of a community team.

4) One sure way to ensure accountability is with what many consider to be anathema - grade retention - but where do teachers draw the line in terms of retaining or promoting, and what if parents do not agree?
Promoting students to the next grade, if they can't read or compute sets kids up for future failure both economically and socially. They must become competent in the knowledge and skills in their subjects if they are to succeed. If a student is not proficient in math but is proficient in all other areas, why can't that child get intensive help in math through regular evaluations that occur weekly or bi-monthly? Why does the problem have to be allowed to build to a crisis level? Do year-end standardized tests ensure that individual students are building adequate competency to pass to the next educational level? Remediation is addressed far too late in a child's academic career, as evidenced by community college and four year college remediation rates. The focus should be on individual student learning through regular classroom assessments.

Could schools be geared to subject or courses rather than age groups? Actually, this was successful when B. Frank Brown was principal at Melbourne High School in Florida in the 1960's, where students were placed in classes according to their knowledge and skills, rather than grouped by age.

Most parents, if they believe a teacher genuinely cares about their child and seeks to help him, will not create an impediment to reasonable placement. But too many times parents are not seriously considered to be part of the educational team. To buy into a plan of action, there must be legitimate collaboration.

In the current system, parents are regularly held at arm's length, despite what schools say they are doing to encourage parental involvement. The bureaucracy is ever so skillful at closing the school door on parents and curtailing meaningful parental involvement in decision-making.

5) I have to tell you that I am accosted in the mail, get phone calls and e-mails from angry, disgusted teachers who are retiring left and right. Are we alienating our best and brightest or most experienced...?
I would ask why these teachers are retiring. Is it because they are not allowed to make decisions in the classroom as professionals for curriculum or craft innovative ideas to meet students' educational needs? Is it because they have no real input into testing policies for which they are held accountable? Are they leaving because of the vast amount of paper work requirements that are politically correct but don't serve to educate students? Are they frustrated with principals who follow the district mantra on looking good without keeping the main focus on educating each child? Is it because some parents are disagreeable to work with, even though many of them are just as frustrated as teachers? Is it because too little funding reaches the actual classroom where it belongs? Or is it because there is too much chaos in the classrooms so that too little learning occurs? Once again, the political-bureaucracy does not encourage teachers to teach individual students or motivate them to innovate and teach more effectively. Expectations of what the system should be capable of far exceed what can be accomplished within it.

6) Now, let's chat about merit pay- good idea, bad idea, or worthless idea?
The term has become an emotional trigger point, and sides have been taken. Implementation of merit pay within the current system would be difficult, as the political-bureaucracy gets stuck on one-size-fits-all, and we know how that turns out - not well.

But, there are other issues involved in the discussion of merit or performance pay, such as the reaction to teacher tenure and pay scales based on seniority and advanced degrees without actual reference to classroom professionalism. The public is attracted to the concept that educational funding, which is taxpayer funded, should be targeted to those educators who know their subject matter and can teach. Those teachers are the ones who are wanted and needed in the classroom, and they should be well-compensated in their jobs.

But we need to take the merit pay dialogue to a higher level: How can we ensure that teachers in the classroom are reaching and teaching children? Isn't that the point? Competent teachers who know their subject, teach it and care about their students are like gold. And how can we find out which teachers meet those criteria? We need to do that for the students.

The issue is not that teachers should be accountable for poor parenting, but there are some common-sense factors that we can extol. For example, gain scores for students are important, and as stated in question #3, regular evaluations should be based on assessing and assisting student learning. This also depends on the student population the teacher is teaching and what type of courses as well. Peer reviews, principal reviews, mentor reviews, support-group reviews, parent reviews and student progress can be measured, some more subjectively than others, but measured nonetheless. Properly designed and fair assessments can assist a teacher in understanding where she needs to improve to become a more accomplished teacher, and she should be held accountable to do so.

7) I also talk with people in the community who are flustered, blustered and flabbergasted at the lack of math skills, people skills, writing skills and spelling skills. Does the high school diploma really mean anything anymore?
Some diplomas do mean something - for those students who pursued high academic goals and courses. But school districts would like to convince the public that each diploma is worthwhile. Students need solid academic goals, and they should expect to work at their daily "jobs" as students. Some are coddled and encouraged to accomplish non-academic tasks like collect soup can labels for extra credit. In some classes letter grades have increased, while the scores on the Florida FCAT, the NAEP and other tests point to a lack of solid learning in the basics in our high schools. In Florida, the average statewide score on the 10th grade FCAT shows only 35% of the students are considered proficient in reading, and the Florida 12th grade NAEP scores mirror that result.

And why do colleges have to teach students the basics? If the public schools were doing their job, re-learning would not be necessary, as basic skills and knowledge should have been learned in high school. The cost of remediation is estimated at $1.4 billion, and that was several years ago. Then there are the social and economic costs to the students, their families and the economy as well. The system fails to carry out the primary task of educating students.

8) You have ten chapters - what does each chapter address?

Chapter 1 - The Education Political-Bureaucracy's Rigid Control
The top-down, rigid control of education under the political-bureaucracy is defined and examined. This sets the stage for an in-depth look at the components of the kindergarten through 12th grade education system's powerful network. It asks and answers the question: Who does this costly education system benefit?

Chapter 2 - Corruption in Education: Who Protects Public Money?
Protection for the proper use of taxpayer money is lacking in the public education system. An investigation into the lack of accountability and transparency, deceptive practices, waste, mismanagement, theft and fraud is presented.

Chapter 3 - Education Reform Flunks Out
An overview of reforms in education shows they have been unsuccessful in changing the prevailing system. Those who benefit from the political-bureaucracy are more powerful in maintaining the status quo than reformers are in altering it.

Chapter 4 - Leadership: Who Runs the Schools?
Those who manage and control school districts are the education careerists, "soldiers" of the status quo. They are not equipped with appropriate leadership or management skills and are adversely affected by the inflexible, political-bureaucratic structure.

Chapter 5 - Funding Public Education: The Root of All Evil
Despite abundant financial support of well over $500 billion annually, the education political-bureaucracy continues to blame its dismal achievement on insufficient funding. The lack of accountability for dollars in the classroom and poor academic results are fanning the fire for change. Solving the funding problem means placing taxpayer-funded resources closest to the children.

Chapter 6 - Families and Communities: Superficial Involvement
Lack of citizen participation in educational decision-making creates a chasm between schools and communities. While school management on the one hand proclaims the need for family input, they erect a wall between "us" and "them," thereby stopping collaboration dead in its tracks.

Chapter 7 - Students: The Real Focus of Education?
The rigid system fails to teach the basics, critical thinking or meet the educational needs of individual children. Students collide with the system as they move into high school where drop-out rates rise and performance scores on standardized tests decline. The 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores for 12th graders showed that only 35 percent of these students are considered proficient in reading.

Chapter 8 - Teachers Wanted: Competent, Caring and Accountable
Teachers' knowledge, skills and relationships with students are the vital in-school factors directly influencing children's learning. Effectively educating students cannot be "imposed" through a top-down, centralized authority. Yet, the political-bureaucracy regularly frustrates teachers in their jobs as instructional leaders, stifling decision-making, problem-solving and innovation.

Chapter 9 - Political Power Supports the Status Quo
Politicians at all levels of government, from school boards to the U.S. Congress, are making laws, regulations and policies that overburden education. Politicians have helped place our education system in peril due to legislation that incurs cost-prohibitive mandates that fail to improve education and benefit special interest groups rather than children.

Chapter 10 - A New Beginning in Public Education
The entrenched and obsolete education political-bureaucracy must be changed. Transforming the system will encourage ordinary people to become involved in educational decision-making at the most local level of all, their community schools. By enhancing direct, citizen participation, reaching and teaching each child will be facilitated

9) I have to tell you that as I travel from New York to New Mexico and to Florida - most teachers say the same thing- there are too many disruptive discipline problems and if you eliminate them (according to many teachers), the classroom is transformed and learning will take place. Are all these teachers way off base, or are they unrealistic or chronic complainers?
These teachers are correct. Disruptive behavior shortchanges learning. How can a teacher effectively teach students if there are regular disruptions in the classroom? Even in prestigious educational programs, a single student can ruin the learning environment for other students.

Schools have the responsibility to provide an environment conducive to learning. Teachers cannot teach and students cannot learn when there is chaos. It is essential that principals support their teachers, but some principals turn a blind eye to discipline problems in the classroom, thereby failing to help teachers teach and students learn. Proper laws and policies also must be in place for the creation of an environment conducive for learning. Must students and teachers either tolerate a disruptive school atmosphere or endure the alternative of police presence? Aren't students also frustrated by being stuck in large, impersonal schools where control rather than learning takes precedence? The system impacts all stakeholders, including students.

10) One other phrase "Lack of administrative support." Are principals simply too busy with the school buses, the cafeteria, the janitor and maintenance man or have they ceased to be educational leaders?
Should principals be educational leaders? Or should they be school leaders, physical plant managers and motivators of professional staff? Each principal should be the school representative who encourages parental and community involvement that focuses on student and school success. Principals are involved in food service, bussing, maintenance and other tasks that might be more effectively and efficiently outsourced, depending on the cost and level of service provided. Effective management means periodic re-evaluation of how the school accomplishes its appointed tasks.

Schools need to get back to the core values of academics, with teachers as curriculum experts and professionals in the classroom supported and guided by master teachers and principals who are well-trained in leadership and management skills. Principals can become entrepreneurs and innovators who focus on hiring competent educators and other professional staff who fulfill their appointed duties.

11) This question will ruffle some feathers, but many, many teachers complain about students with special needs being inappropriately mainstreamed or included. Do you want to address this or call a lifeline?
Finland serves as an excellent example. Finland scrapped its education system of vocational and academically-tracked education in the 1970's. Schools were given the flexibility to choose their own textbooks, design their own curricula and allocate funds. Students with learning disabilities receive the support they require through special education and are mainstreamed into classrooms as possible, when it best serves their needs and works well for other children in the classroom. The most important aspect of their education system is teachers who are well-trained in their subject areas and in their ability to teach. Teacher-education programs at universities are highly competitive, and teachers enjoy prestige in Finnish society. "Finland has the smallest gap between its best and weakest students." That says a lot about what can be accomplished in educating all students when students are put first.

12) What have I neglected to ask?
Exposing the Public Education System: Understanding & Transforming the Failure of Education's Political Bureaucracy is a book that explains how public education has failed us all, as students feel the pain of being under-prepared and citizens endure a lack of accountability. This book explains why the system has failed and shows how the entire system can be transformed, not just one part of it. Our purpose is to lay the facts and evidence squarely before the public, who we hope will assert their right and responsibility to collaborate with educational professionals for the sake of their children to create community schools of excellence.

13) Where can people get a copy of the book?
Amazon.com has the paperback and ebook version, although the book is also available on other sites as well.

14) Any last thoughts? ... Yes, by Ayn
Mike, these questions required a lot of thought. I must say that the focus should be on solving problems, not about drawing a line in the sand on issues. If we are to transform the education system on behalf of individual students, then all stakeholders must honestly and openly reflect on their responsibilities and their contributions. Self-evaluation is painful, but it is necessary if problems are to find solutions.

The Public Education System Flunks Out

by Beatrice Fowler & Ayn Marie Samuelson (November 2010)

Racing Where?

The Obama administration's "Race to the Top," at the cost of $4.35 billion, is the latest of a long line of lavishly funded federal education initiatives, joining "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) and others that have failed to reform education. As is typical, there are high hopes for change but a low probability that any significant or lasting reforms will be implemented.

According to a report in Heritage Press, in April 2006, Neal McCluskey, a policy analyst with the Center for Education Freedom asserted, "Government programs have a troubling way of taking good ideas and ruining them with bureaucracy, unintended consequences and control by special interests."

The NCLB act served to expose the fact that the schools were failing to educate children, as mediocre results were produced over several years, but it also bolstered the educational status quo of special interest groups to the tune of additional billions in taxpayer funding. After the NCLB Act was implemented in 2002, there was an increase from $17.4 billion in 2001 to $22 billion in 2002 for elementary and secondary expenditures, an increase of 26 percent in a single fiscal year.

Students and Taxpayers Lose Out
How many more failed attempts will consume the wealth of the nation before the American public recognizes the resistance of the education power base to change? How much of the nation's wealth will be consumed before we understand that throwing money at the problem, in itself, is not the cure-all to produce increased student achievement?

Acquiring the ability to read well and the desire to read are often missing in our schools today. Students fall far short of the reading levels they need to become successful and engaged citizens. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test is known as the nation's report card and is administered to students all across the country. In 2007, scores showed only 29 percent of U.S. 8^th graders were proficient at reading. In 2005, NAEP reading scores for 12^th grade students showed a decline from 2003 and a proficiency level of only 35 percent. And despite massive federal spending increases in education over those years, those scores failed to improve. In fact scores were lower in 2005 than in 1992.

Statistics found on the federal education website and state education websites demonstrate that despite the huge run-up in revenues during the boom years - when property values and taxes hit the roof and NCLB pumped billions upon billions into the education system - students who were tested near the end of their tenure in the public school system, underachieved in relation to the amount of funding provided.

If there is a high correlation or relationship between increased funding and higher student performance, then why does that not materialize during this time period? In Florida, according to Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), only approximately 37% of Florida's 10^thgrade students can meet proficiency standards in reading, according to statewide testing for the years 2001 to 2009.

Defending the Status Quo
The plaintive demands for more funding is derived from the educational establishment's craving to create additional programs and services, although there is no proof that they directly benefit student learning. Additionally, few of these programs are ever measured or assessed for their effectiveness and efficiency, although they serve to enhance the size, scope, and public cost of the educational bureaucracy. The constant demand for more money fuels the growth of this pervasive bureaucracy.

The current education system with its political-bureaucratic style of school government exerts top-down control through a network consisting of politicians, bureaucrats and numerous interest groups that permeate government all the way up the ladder from local school districts to the national level. They are all interconnected and inextricably linked, supporting and protecting each other while spending funds and enhancing services that augment the entire system.

Education is big government and big business with far reaching impacts into every nook and cranny in our society, as every school age child attends school, whether public, private or home school. Children use textbooks, computers and receive myriad educational services through the publicly funded K-12 program. Thus, there is much to gain to become ingrained as one of the system's cohorts.

Valid and lasting reforms look dim, because those who benefit have proven more powerful at maintaining the system than reformers have been at transforming it. These powerful alliances of teachers unions and professional educators, text book publishers, and others protect and defend the status quo and set up roadblocks against meaningful, system-wide educational improvements.

On the other hand, pseudo-reform is welcomed with open arms because massive sums of money are poured into the system, increasing personnel and power. These faux reforms and fads implemented within the political-bureaucratic education system have this in common: they make no lasting, widespread changes to the education system; they dramatically increase education costs; and they have been unable to significantly improve student performance.

Peripheral changes, such as modifying testing instruments, reinventing curricula and programs, or modifying a grading system, may be instituted, but at a deeper level, the system remains firmly rooted. This inflexible system prohibits genuine change from within and blocks justifiable attempts from the outside.

Dishonesty and Subterfuge
Corruption, with regard to the public schools, is a serious but difficult charge to prove. Facts and evidence are hard to find and document as they can be easily concealed amid reams of paperwork generated by school districts. Likewise, giving the public half-truths and downplaying needed areas of improvement with regard to student performance while never fully answering citizens' questions are deceptive, but common practices.

The FCC charged the Brevard County (FL) School District with "waste and abuse" for using devious methods to deceive the government in its use of taxpayer, e-Rate funds. Many School districts had distorted the purpose of the 1996 Telecommunications Act that was designed to fund technology for schools with high percentages of poor children. Instead, districts like Brevard County, Florida, were discovered using this money for other purposes within the central district office. When caught red-handed,and forced to refund almost a million dollars of government money,the Brevard School District administration fell to its knees to plead with the government not to "punish the children" by denying the district future technology benefits.

School construction is another quagmire where public tax money gets sucked into a black hole. Florida's Constitution requires local governments to get voter approval to borrow long term debt, but the Florida Supreme Court allows borrowing if new construction is leased, not owned. Thus, the Brevard County Florida School Board incurs long-term debt and borrows with little restraint, under the legal cover of "Lease-Purchase."The district never actually owns new school buildings; instead, they lease them from The Brevard County School Board, Inc. This corporation sells Certificates of Participation (COPs) by being permitted to bond future tax revenue within the district.

This process is all very legal, but it is also a scheme to give more control to the school district while circumventing the legitimate voice of the citizens who should be able to vote on the debt they are obligated to repay. Further, what happens to the financial stability of a school district when the future revenue is dramatically reduced in a hard recession?

School board watchers in Florida hailed the state requirement for an independent internal audit, but watched with dismay as professional bureaucrats undermined its effectiveness. In the corporate world, most internal auditors report directly to the governing board.In Brevard County Schools, the auditors reported directly to the Internal Audit Committee, over which the superintendent asserted his control before the audit report found its way to the elected School Board.

Who sat on this committee? The superintendent, two of his chosen staff, the board chairperson, and one lone member selected by the board all sat on the committee. How was the independent audit firm selected? The superintendent's guidance and recommendations are pervasive in the selection. What is the probability the firm, who regularly sought to renew its annual contract would thoroughly investigate issues or concerns the superintendent did not wish investigated?

The Florida legislature, currently in the midst of massive losses in revenue due to the current economic decline, continues to pay out millions of retirement benefits to school personnel who are still employed by the schools, while the recipients simultaneously collect both salary and retirement benefits under the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP). Brevard's deputy superintendent has simultaneously collected retirement pay and a generous salary plus benefits for several years. The state DROP program was initially designed to retain experienced personnel, but it became a bureaucratic welfare program that is unrelated to benefiting students.

Charter schools have shown that they can effectively educate students with less money. However, as long as school districts have control over charters, their natural inclination will be to regulate them out of existence. After all, competition between district schools and charters is growing ever more intense as enrollments decline. Filling the "regular" public school classrooms is a school district priority.

System Breakdown
Mr. Pariser of Moveon.org recently noted that "the current system doesn't work" when referring to Washington policies and politics. Doesn't that denunciation extend to the vast education political-bureaucracy? Mr. Madden, a Republican strategist, spoke of "reforming a broken system and governing ... with public support." Doesn't that call for legitimate reform also refer to the education system where public involvement should be engendered by encouraging vital public input into the decision-making process, rather than blocking input from parents and communities outside the system?

When a system isn't working as expected, looking for a fundamentally different approach is simply good sense. Endless requests for more dollars and more of the same political-bureaucratic agenda fail to benefit children or their benefactors.

No one questions the importance of education in our complex modern society. Education is the process by which we pass on values to the next generation, help them develop their ability to think and give them the information they will need to be productive adults and good citizens in their communities. Historically, education has been the great equalizer of American society, holding forth the promise of advancement. But the political process and the public school bureaucracy have proven themselves ineffective in solving critical educational problems to achieve these ends at a reasonable cost to taxpayers.

Beatrice Davis Fowler, M.A. and Ayn Marie Samuelson, M.S., M.P.A. are co-authors of Exposing the Public Education System, that defines, analyses and proposes a clear solution to transform education.

Ayn comments on Jay Greene's blog on National Standards

August 22, 2011 at 11:15 am
Ayn Marie Samuelson says:
Jay:
"The Gates/USDOE juggernaut is intended to create the impression that nationalization is inevitable, so you might as well get on board."

This concept is related to two points:
1 - Death is inevitable, and while I realize that as a fact, I'm not going to hasten it nor am I going to stop living to the fullest until it occurs. But the Gates/US DOE alliance does not carry through to the same inevitability. So is this a case of True Believers ala Eric Hoffer or personal gain in some form for the participants?

2 - The money, power and influence being wielded by Gates/US DOE and shared amongst supporters of CCSS begs the questions: Who benefits? and Who pays for all of this: the feds and ed elites know best mumbo-jumbo?

http://www.city-journal.org/comments/index.php?story=7186

Ayn Marie Samuelson June 11, 2011 at 1:10 PM
Are teachers' unions the only special interest group found in public education? Definitely not. Any organized group, whether teachers, administrators, school boards (yes they have state and national boards & training), elite reformers and politicians (political parties) work for their own interests. Who are those left without authentic organization or backing? Clearly they are the students - those who are supposed to benefit from education and the parents/communities who are mandated to pay for education, even in its current, outdated bureaucratic condition.

The book - Exposing the Public Education System - explains the system and has a prescription to transform it from the grassroots up within individual communities. Fundamental change will not come for students and taxpayers from groups that benefit so much from the current political-bureaucratic system.

"Any bureaucratization encourages the apparatus to protect its own interests and to forget about the citizens' interests." Alexander Nata, Italian Communist Party