#oklaed benefiting from edcampok

Last night I was lucky enough to benefit from a wonderful twitter chat. In Yukon this weekend was an opportunity for educators and others to get together for edcampok. During those meetings some wonderful people came up with the idea to have a twitter chat. So mark your calendars, set an alarm, and drop everything at 8pm on Sunday nights. Dan Krutka,PhD was moderator for this chat. The moderator will change as each passing goes along. 

The twitter chat involved those that commonly use the hastag #oklaed on twitter. The hashtag has become quite popular and has been an excellent way for educators to get together and talk and share ideas to common problems in education. It is also a great way for us to all celebrate each others success. I know I enjoy getting to retweet other schools news as much as I do my own school. 

The process is really simple. At 8 o'clock on Sunday nights just get on twitter. Each person that is on just quickly introduces themselves. The moderator will then propose a question to everyone. Each person takes a turn answering the questions. After that is when all the good stuff happens. As people answer we get to engage in amazing conversations about how each person feels on a topic, or how they address issues that might be similar to our own. I enjoyed it so much the hour absolutely flew by for me. It was over an hour later before I knew it. 

So much great information came out I don't even know where to begin. Tammy G. Parks created a Google doc contact list so we will be able to share and connect later Contact List Here. Wesley Fryer, Ph. D put up a list of educators that are on twitter list here.  There was just so much that came out of the meeting. I really want to encourage anyone that has an interest in Oklahoma Education to join us. You don't have to be a teacher or administrator. We need input from all people. We  need parents to join, activists to join, students, legislators, and just anyone who cares about Oklahoma students and wants to make their education the best it can be. The state is filled with so many compassionate people for education. Lets all get together for one hour on Sunday nights and share ideas. Trust me you won't regret it one bit!!

Parent Trigger Trouble

Yesterday I saw a couple of tweets for links and comments about the upcoming parent trigger legislation. They were positive of course. I am truly hoping this legislation goes nowhere. In its current form it makes no sense if your basis is school choice. I have more than one problem with this legislation.

My first problem is it is not truly choice that it is about. When you have one option for one group that is not choice. If this legislation to truly be about choice then private and charter school parents should have the option to make their schools public if they have D's or F's. By the way these schools fail as well. We obviously don't get private school info but on SDE website one can go to A-F and type in charter to see the charter districts. Well guess what, 30% of their schools have D's or F's. This is compared to 9% for public schools, would be 5.4% if State Board of Ed had used growth formula the Superintendents asked for. So why legislation to turn schools in a system that fails at a greater percentage? Because perhaps its not about choice but the decay of public schools.

My second issue it is goes around an elected body. That's as undemocratic as it gets. I am all for parents having say, I love teacher organizations and parent involvement. We have a system for parents to get involved. We have a democratic process to follow. We need parents and patrons that care about schools on school boards. But that is where the decisions need to be made. You should not be able to get around an elected body. Just so you can divert more money away from public schools.

Another issue I have is the 50% rule. I brought this up during my meeting with Rep. Nelson. How come everything takes 50% passage but bond passage doesn't. He didn't have an answer for me. How come it takes 50% to radically change a school but 60% to build facilities, infrastructure  and plan for the future. State questions don't take 60% but they can alter education or take away funds. Officials get elected at 50%. It just makes no sense to me.

Lastly my final issue is, what if that doesn't work. What do the parents do then? As I pointed out charters fail at a higher percentage. Is they a way for parents to transform that school? Can it go back to public? Go private? What happens when they  find out its not that it is a public school that's the problem? There has to be measures to address this issue. If not, then it truly is about just chipping away at public schools.

This legislation just doesn't have enough thought. It doesn't because it comes from national "Think Tanks" like ALEC or FEE. Its not about kids, its about corporate reform from big business, financial institutions, and non educators. Please defeat this bill. The kids of Oklahoma need you too!!

Rep. Jason Nelson Meeting

On February 1st in the afternoon I had the pleasure of meeting with Rep. Jason Nelson-okc in his office.  We have used twitter several times to have discussion on education. I offered to talk anytime and he took me up on that as he scheduled a meeting. Mr. Nelson and I had never met previously, and we live in very different worlds. I gripe about driving in the city every time I go up their. I like having my option to slowly roll through most 4 ways. But it was a good opportunity for us to exchange thoughts on education in the state of Oklahoma. I wasn't sure what to expect when I arrived at the capitol for sure. For the record I wasn't the one that called in the bomb threat either. What transpired was a good conversation on education.

Mr. Nelson and myself will never agree on all points education. We have  different backgrounds. We wont see eye to eye on school choice, parent triggers, or SOS laws. But for our time we we were able to put aside those differences and just talk education. I shared with him my thoughts on A-F, High Stakes testing, technology, funding, etc. He was very gracious in our discussions and asked my opinion. Which I shared openly and we were never terse with each other. I hope that I was a good voice for rural and small schools. We face so very different conditions from large urban or suburban school districts.  Mr. Nelson seemed to value my opinions and often jotted down notes on his laptop to either check for information or to just make a note of for further discussion.

Mr. Nelson mentioned two things that I definitely agree on with him. The first was that we need to really look at our funding formula. Do the research and see what it takes to truly fund schools, each kid, each difference that they bring whether that's autism, ELL, or poverty. Look at our funding sources and get them stabilized. He mentioned how he has learned why schools have carryovers, because we never know whats around the next bend. I hope our school leaders and legislative leaders can get together and look what it takes to fund an Oklahoma kid. He mentioned he didn't care about what Texas or Kansas funds we should look at Oklahoma and that is a point I repeatedly make. I often make it with reform too. I don't want to look at Florida I want to take the best of Oklahoma. We are different, unique, and special. I think that should be the same for funding. 

The second point he made was discussion. He mentioned a few things he has done to get discussion going on education. We need that. We desperately need for the SDE, legislature, and education stakeholders to be able to sit down and talk education. Not griping through media streams. We need to be able to sit down and listen to what each other is saying and have open and honest talks. I hope it can happen. I hope we can set aside the "I know best" and work together. Our Kids deserve it!!