In January Davis had decided recall groups could not intervene in a case between the Friends of Scott Walker and the Government Accountability Board.  Davis also determined the GAB had to make an effort to find duplicate and fictitious names in the recall petitions.

The Court of Appeals decision undoes Davis’s decisions.  The case will go back to Davis, where recall groups can now participate, and the case over the verification process essentially starts over.

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The Department of Public Instruction presented their plans to free Wisconsin from No Child Left Behind mandates to the Joint Committee on Education Thursday afternoon. If successful, this waiver could help promote reform in state classrooms well into the future.

Deputy State Superintendent Michael Thompson presented the Department of Public Instruction’s (DPI) latest application to qualify for a waiver from federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) standards. The new program would erase increasingly unattainable national standards for public schools and create a new system of educational accountability in Wisconsin. The program, Thompson argued, will “create a system that raises the expectation of what it means to be career and college ready in Wisconsin.”

DPI’s waiver would tap into the upcoming school accountability program to fairly assess the state’s public schools in a stronger way than NCLB’s “Adequate Yearly Progress” metric. The waiver relies on a dynamic system of goals and measurements to gauge how students within an institution are performing.  Every school and district will have rolling personalized goals that assesses where pupils currently are and what true growth would look like. Their goal is to create a fair and evolving system that holds schools accountable for not just student test results but their achievements in the classroom.

Questions swirled over the role of recently announced education programs like Read to Lead and the teacher grading system. Wisconsin has recently unveiled three reforms aimed at improving the quality of the state’s public schools. Though all three will have an impact when it comes to replacing NCLB, Thursday’s hearing made it clear that these reforms will operate more as Wisconsin programs than as federally mandated legislation.

The school accountability system, a program by which schools will be graded and categorized in Wisconsin, will be the foundation of the state’s NCLB waiver. However, other programs, like Read to Lead and the Educator Effectiveness reforms, exist outside the waiver. While they’ll play a role in accountability in Wisconsin public education, they were not pushed into action by this NCLB issue. Thompson assured legislators that the state’s upcoming education reforms were separate entities aimed at customizing and improving school performance in the Badger State’s classrooms.

These new methods will hold Wisconsin’s students to a higher standard when it comes to graduating from high school. The goal is to eliminate remediation for pupils in higher education and to create a breed of students that are more college-ready than ever before. However, this stricter metric likely means that the state’s testing scores will drop in the short term – an aspect that Thompson stressed won’t be a negative for the state, but a positive in the grand scheme.

The waiver garnered support from legislators, researchers, and teachers’ unions alike, though some were concerned that the program would not go far enough with its reforms in the future. Governor Scott Walker echoed some of the comments made at the hearing. “Continued collaboration with Superintendent Evers and a wide range of education stakeholders including teachers, administrators, and school boards will be needed to refine and submit a waiver to the federal government that will allow us to continue to innovate the way we deliver education in Wisconsin,” said Walker.  “The proposed waiver is a good starting point.”

Legislators also expressed concerns over standardized testing within the program. Past issues with the WKCE seemed to spur these issues. Other issues like teacher training and financial concerns also came up during the hours long public hearing, though the majority of testimony and discussion were in favor of the waiver.

This waiver presents an opportunity for Wisconsin to customize its standards without extended federal oversight. The proposed plans to reform both teacher and school accountability alongside the waiver will both take advantage of that. However, it will be up to DPI to make sure that these standards are stringent enough to raise the quality of education in Wisconsin. While that may be tough and provide some short-term testing disappointments, the effect of higher standards will resonate well into the future and help create a stronger generation of students in the Badger State.

[Madison, Wisc...] The top official at the Government Accountability Board says the GAB  decided not to buy software to transfer handwritten recall petitions into a searchable database, because it’s too expensive.  However, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported more than two weeks ago that the state already bought the software for $100,000.

The Wisconsin Eye public affairs network asked GAB executive director Kevin Kennedy Wednesday about the decision not to create a searchable database that would be available to the public.  Kennedy said they didn’t have the manpower or the money.

“The type of software you would need to convert these PDF files is very expensive,” Kennedy said. “When we do our duplicate review we might have a searchable database but it will be limited only to names.”

So, did they spend money on software that can create a database from scanned handwritten documents?

On January 21, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the GAB will be “relying on newly purchased software that can convert handwritten names into entries in six searchable databases.”

Do they have the software, or not? Are they using it, or not?  If the software can read the printed names and signatures, why can’t it convert the addresses as well?

Why has the GAB chosen not to put  a searchable database online?

Do they have any internal work product that would be useful to independent efforts to validate the signatures?

The MacIver News Service contacted the GAB on Thursday. It has not yet received a response.

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The grades are out – Wisconsin is the worst in the United States when it comes to science curricula in the classroom. In the words of a recent study, our state’s science standards are “simply worthless.”

A 2012 report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute gauged the strength of science programs across the nation. With several different approaches to teaching science in the classroom, every state presented a different challenge to students and analysts. This study, authored by a cabal of notable researchers, broke down the difference in science standards throughout the country. Without a “Common Core” of data standards for scientific studies, each state has a significant amount of freedom with which to determine what their students learn about science in the classroom.

However, many of these state-mandated standards leave students behind when it comes to comprehensive knowledge about the subject. Wisconsin’s is one of them.

The Badger State earned a failing grade when it came to the science standards that students are supposed to be held to, posting a 0/10 score and a “F” grade. This was the lowest recorded score in the entire study.

Wisconsin earned marks so low that they were practically nonexistent. The Fordham Institute study put blame on the state for tying their standards to the outdated National Science Education Standards (NSES) and failing to elaborate or personalize these guidelines to better fit its students.

The authors’ distaste for Wisconsin’s approach is apparent in the study:

Any educator who might hope to create a curriculum from the Wisconsin science material would be stranded in a dismal, content-free desert. True standards are provided for just three grades, and the content provided for those grades is almost nonexistent.

Scientific Inquiry and Methodology

Like most of the content standards, the standards for inquiry and methodology are devoid of any real substance. For example, a fourth-grade standard tells students, “When studying a science-related problem, decide what changes over time are occurring or have occurred.” What this is meant to signify—or what skills are intended for mastery—is impossible to know.

All Content Areas

It’s virtually impossible to evaluate the content of the Wisconsin science standards because almost none is presented. Of the eight strands, only three—physical science, earth and space science, and life and environmental science— address bona fide scientific content. (The other five are devoted to process and inquiry). Moreover, all the content that students are expected to learn at each grade is presented in less than a page. Thus, all the science content Wisconsin students are expected to learn is presented in fewer than ten pages.

These shortcomings were responsible for Wisconsin’s ranking of 51^st out of 51 states and Washington D.C.. The Badger State’s closest competitors at the bottom were Montana and North Dakota.

Science has been a subject that has fallen to the wayside in America. In 2009, only one-third of American students scored “proficient” or better when it came to scientific studies in the fourth grade. By eighth grade, this score sunk to 30 percent, and in 12th grade it was just 21 percent. All figures come courtesy of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as “The Nation’s Report Card.”

However, despite the lax science standards, Wisconsin performed above the national average when it came to NAEP testing in fourth grade, where 42 percent of students taking the test rated out at “proficient” or above. In eighth grade, the state’s results were the same as the national average. State data in 12th grade was not available.

Across the country, only five states and districts – California, Virginia, South Carolina, Indiana, and Washington D.C. – received “A” grades. Wisconsin was one of 10 states to earn a “F,” alongside Alaska, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and others. Michigan and Minnesota each earned a “C,” while Iowa and Illinois recorded “D”s. For the Badger State, this grade maintained the status quo of years past – Wisconsin also graded out at “F” in the 2005 version of this same report.

The Fordham report deals a damning blow to the state’s science standards. While many have often focused on the state’s reading and mathematics results, it appears that science has taken a back seat when it comes to creating a defined and comprehensive curriculum for Wisconsin’s students.

This lack of foundation may have a significant effect on the state’s lagging test scores in the subject. It could be leaving pupils behind the curve as they grow. Though some students will be able to go above and beyond the vague standards that Wisconsin puts out when it comes to science, others will be caught up in a less stringent system that provides little direction in this area of study.

MacIver News Service | February 1, 2012

[Madison, Wisc…] On Wednesday, Governor Scott Walker (R) signed Senate Bill 2 into law. SB2 which extends the open enrollment period from the previous 3 week window to three months.

“Open enrollment empowers parents with additional educational opportunities for students,” said Governor Walker.  “I am glad we were able to put this legislation in place prior to the spring session.  State Senator Olsen and Representative Jacque have done a great job leading this bill through the Legislature.”

This year’s open enrollment period now runs from February 6 to the end of April.

However SB2 further empowers parents to exercise enrollment options in the remaining 9 months of the year as well. The new law changes the process of open enrollment. The law will allow for a freer transfer of students between public schools across districts. This includes provisions for year-round transfers for students that aren’t happy with their current schools.

“This is the single largest expansion of parental rights in Wisconsin public education in generations,” said Jane Kummer Meyer, President of the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families, when the bill passed last week. “Now, if a public school is willing to enroll a student anytime during the year the only way that transfer is blocked is if bureaucrats try to say they, and not parents, have the best interest of the child at heart.”

By creating a free market within Wisconsin’s public schools, reformers believe the new law will foster competition between school districts and increase the influence of parents in areas as far reaching as curriculum development and school operations.

Previously families a three-week window in the beginning of February during which they can apply to attend a public school other than their local neighborhood school. The resident school board could prevent students from leaving by rejecting their application and informing parents by April.

Parents will now have the ability to apply to up to three districts in an expanded timeline for open enrollment transfers. The application period will now run from the beginning of each February to the end of April and families will know whether or not their transfer has been approved by June – in time for the upcoming school year. This means that parents will have a better idea of the options available for their children and in a more timely manner than the previous system.

Moreover, stipulations exist that will allow students to transfer outside of this window as well. If students meet certain conditions parents can apply for their transfer at any time during the year. If the receiving district has room available for the student, then they will be compelled to accept the transfer unless the district and the Department of Public Instruction both rule that the transfer does not have the student’s best interests at heart.

School districts will have to determine the number of open slots for all students – both regular and special education based – in January. These limits will be determined by criteria such as class size, student-teacher ratios, and enrollment projections. Students that are excluded from transferring thanks to these limits will be put on a waiting list, and parents will know whether or not they have been accepted by the third Friday in September.

The legislation had the support of educational groups across the state. In addition to the Virtual School Families, the American Federation for Children, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, and the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators all rallied behind the plan.

WASB and WASDA supported a measure in the bill that extended the annual deadline by which districts had to notify teachers of nonrenewal of their contracts from March 15 to May 15.

WASB Executive Director John H. Ashley wrote a letter to the Governor earlier this week, in which he encouraged swift signing of the legislation.

“Passage of this bill was delayed for several months as both houses worked to agree to adopt a compromise amendment giving students whose outside-the-window Open Enrollment application is not approved by their resident school district an opportunity to appeal to the DPI,” wrote Ashley. “While we have some reservations as to how the process will work in practice, we understand that this was the best compromise that could be worked out at this time.”

Parent advocates boast that this new law amounts to is the passage of year-round public school choice for Wisconsin’s families. Parents will have more flexibility and a greater awareness not only of their schooling options, but also over when their children can transfer if they decide that their neighborhood school is not for them.

“The Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families will diligently follow the rulemaking process to ensure that parental rights remain paramount and that the promise of full-year statewide public school choice is realized,” Kummer Meyer said, in anticipation of a battle in the upcoming rulemaking process over what is now 2011 Wisconsin Act 114.

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[Madison, Wisc…] The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board has not posted scanned copies of the Governor Walker recall petitions online despite promises to the citizens of Wisconsin that they would do so.

GAB staff delivered copies of the scans to the Governor’s campaign late last week. The campaign, with the assistance of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, began reviewing the petitions at satellite offices across the state this weekend.

Once they scanned documents, they were going to make them public, having issued an alert to all media earlier in the day. The revelation was the top of many radio broadcasts Monday.

Such a public disclosure would have allowed the volunteers at the independent VerifytheRecall.com to also begin their effort.

But early this evening the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported GAB staff was going back on their promise, citing alleged privacy concerns by some who signed the public documents.

This is the latest development in a series of back and forth decisions by the GAB that promises more legal challenges ahead.

And it could thwart a massive effort by Tea Party groups to conduct an independent review of the petitions.

“Never before have regular citizens organized in this way to this scale in a nonpartisan sense to uphold the integrity of Wisconsin’s elections,” said Ross Brown,  Founder and President of the Tea Party Group, We the People of the Republic and co-organizer of the Verify The Recall effort before the GAB’s surprise announcement was made. “Our volunteers are anxious to start and committed to the effort.”

Brown said approximately 87 percent of the more than 11,000 volunteers who signed up at his website are from Wisconsin, although they do have volunteers from all but one of the 50 states.

“Verify the Recall has written a new play in the citizens’ playbook as to how we can preserve our clean and honest elections,” Brown said.

With Monday night’s revelation that the GAB was refusing to comply with their earlier public pronouncements, the Verify the Recall process could be in jeopardy.

As previously reported, the GAB had originally intended to only provide a cursory review of the signatures, having interpreted the statutes to put more of the verification onus on the recall targets. They had no intention of putting the signatures online.

In the days after the Senate petitions were placed online, social media sites and talk radio were filled with claims of problems with the petitions.

In late December, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) received a memo from the nonpartisan Legislative Council, which explained the GAB was proactively choosing not to create a database and was not prohibited from doing so.

“The statutes do not impose explicit barriers to the creation of a GAB database that contains the names and addresses of individuals who sign recall petitions or to public availability of the database,” said Katie Bender-Olson, Staff Attorney with the Wisconsin Legislative Council in a memo to the Speaker “To the contrary, the statute enumerating the powers and duties of GAB may support the agency’s authority to create a recall signature database and make it accessible to the public.”

“The A in GAB stands for accountability,” said Speaker Fitzgerald at the time “I would hope this memo encourages them to provide the public with a nonpartisan source of important data that could help root out possible duplicate signatures and fraud.”

The memo continued, “There do not appear to be any specific statutory obstacles to the creation or availability of such a database,” Bender-Olson wrote. “Further, the GAB itself appears to believe that the creation of a recall signature database and the public availability of recall petition signature information are permissible.”

State Republican Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Stephan Thompson had earlier filed suit against the GAB requiring more aggressive verification procedures by the GAB. Waukesha Circuit Court Judge Mac Davis ruled this month that the GAB needed to check for duplicates and obvious fake names.

In the wake of Judge Davis’ ruling, and negative publicity surrounding their own comments regarding the potential validity of signatures of Mickey Mouse and Hitler, the GAB decided to scan the petitions, begin a more vigorous review and place the scanned copies of all petitions online.

On Monday morning they announced the signatures would be available later in the day. As the day went on, the information remained absent from their website.

In addition to the recruiting volunteers to data enter signatures, Brown’s group created a ‘no sign’ list, for which individuals could sign up to be notified if their names fraudulently appeared on the Walker recall petitions.

“Over 50,000 Wisconsinites have protected their name and address against fraudulent petition use by signing up for our “No Sign Registration List,” Brown told MacIver News Service.  “Individuals have also submitted the names of their deceased family members and underage children on this list. Verify the Recall will notify anyone who signs up for this list if their name and/or address is found anywhere on a recall petition.”

Without access to the petitions to create a searchable database, the ‘No sign’ list project would also not be able to be completed.

The MacIver News Service will have more on this story as it develops.

___

Recall petitions were to be posted online at the GAB Website.

Verify the Recall, the project of We The People of the Republic and the Wisconsin Grandsons of Liberty can be found online here.

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Parents in Wisconsin had a tremendous victory last week when the legislature passed a change in the state’s open enrollment law making it easier for students to transfer from one school district to another. The change in the law expands the traditional window for parents to participate in the open enrollment program from three weeks to three months. The change in the law also includes a compromise that allows for year-round transfers of students between school districts if the students are welcomed and if the parents find it necessary.

These changes in the open enrollment law were a tremendous victory for supporters of public school choice in Wisconsin and the victory was the highlight of the annual “School Choice Week.”

The expansion in the allowed open enrollment time also comes at a time of renewed energy in reforming education under Governor Scott Walker and the legislature. Under ACT 10, the school districts in Wisconsin have greater flexibility in setting the work rules, including expected hours in the workday and with seniority.

The sweeping changes of ACT 10 are also allowing school districts to experiment with merit pay. As the MacIver Institute recently reported, the Cedarburg and Hartland-Lakeside School Districts will be among the first to try merit pay to see if it improves student performance.

The governor has also announced new legislation is coming that will rate all schools on proficiency and student progress, create a teacher and principal evaluation system, and implement the Read to Lead proposed reforms.

This is a dramatic change in direction from when school choice was on the defensive during the Jim Doyle era. Then Doyle and the teachers unions tried to prevent public online charter schools from using open enrollment, effectively shutting them down. When that was unsuccessful they capped enrollment just as they fought raising the caps on enrollment in the Milwaukee Choice Program.

The compromise legislation that just passed allows parents to move their children to another school district under the open enrollment program year-round provided the resident school district agrees it is in the child’s best interests. However, if the parents are unable to get the approval of the resident school district, they can appeal to the state Department of Public Instruction whose determination of what is in the child’s best interests would be final.

As a parent of two children in elementary school I understand the need for options. I went through a situation myself when it was no longer in my children’s best interests to continue in our ‘home’ public school district after it became clear that my newspaper columns for the Waukesha Freeman had made some unprofessional teachers hostile toward my kids.

Unfortunately I was not made aware of the situation until well after the open enrollment period had ended. It was too late for us to consider an online charter school in another district or switching my oldest son to a neighboring district. There was no way I could allow my children to be deprived of a proper education with parental involvement in their activities, so I had to make the decision to switch them to a private school. I might have made a different decision had those options been available to me at the time. Thank heavens we were able to afford it.

We can all imagine other scenarios under which a parent may discover, at an inconvenient time for the school bureaucrats, that the school system is inadequate for their child. For example, a child may find that the district’s reading program is incompatible with the child’s needs. While it may work for other children, for some reason it doesn’t work for that child, and the parents discover that it isn’t working after the school year has started. Wouldn’t it be preferable to move that child as soon as possible into a district that has a reading program more tailored to that child’s needs?

Before the passage of SB2, parents would have to wait until the following February to pursue other public school options for their kids, and would have to wait until the following September before their child would get into a new public school.

Thanks to SB2, students will no longer be able to be held captive by arcane regulations or an occasional inconsiderate administrator.

This is at the heart of the school choice movement—giving parents the ability to make the proper educational choices for their children.

There is still work to be done when it comes to educational choice. Just last week the National Alliance for Charter Public Schools ranked Wisconsin 36 out of the 42 states with public charter school laws. Wisconsin was faulted limiting the authorizers of public charter schools to local school boards and a few universities. They suggested Wisconsin needs a board that can authorize charter schools statewide.

However, the latest expansion of public school choice enrollment statewide, year wide is welcome news for parents looking for the best educational opportunities for their children. How fitting that this news came during School Choice Week. Kudos to Governor Walker, who is poised to sign SB2, and to members of both parties to voted for this reform.

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