VIDEO: Village Idiot At George Scott Reports Prescribes ‘Academic Lithium’ For Frailey’s Center Of Truth Common Assessment And Test On Failure Demand Policies

The next several months are going to be more fun than a person should be allowed to have writing about the Alton Frailey Center of Truth and Convocation Headquarters world that he is creating at the complex once ill-named for former superintendent Leonard Merrell.  We now have a reason to take that ugly Merrell sign down and put up another ugly one for Alton Frailey’s Center of Truth.  No sane person will object to a sign about the Center of Truth.

After all, having a gaudy sign that acknowledges the advancement in the human condition at central command since Merrell left will be a lot more intriguing to I-10 motorists than a simple eductional support center.  Trust me.

It will be just like that baseball field from the movie. Put the sign up there and people will stop; people will come.  Open up the employee cafeteria to the public and start selling truthburgers, truth hotdogs, and truth cokes and coffee.  We can put a picture of the commander in chief with his ‘truthers’ on shirts, sweaters, buttons, pencils.  There is no limit when it is truth that is being marketed.

In short order, this district can raise all the money it needs to build schools.  After all, what does Roswell have on us now that Alton Frailey has established the Center of Truth in our community? Perhaps he would consider changing the number of his office to 51. Can a television reality show be far behind?  51 Center of Truth. We could see them function under pressure.  There’s so much pressure when you make so much money and have so much responsibility.  I like the sound of that.

So with that as a background, let’s quickly revisit a brief video clip that serves as the foundation of Frailey’s Center of Truth before we begin the process of exploring one aspect of Center of Truth academic policies - the re-testing of all students who fail a major exam during the year.  First the video from our leader about the truly, truly, truly, truly difficult and complex world of public education:

 

Do you remember that guy that changed his named to the “Artist formerly known as Prince?”  Well, that’s kind of how I am going to start referring to Frailey’s leadership team.  They are Assistant Truthers or ”Educators formerly known as Assistant Superintendents.”

Trust me, we are going to dig deep into this grade re-testing issue over the next weeks, but this column is just to serve as the introduction.

First, let’s listen to Assistant Truther Dr. Linda Menius who was quoted in a press release as saying:

According to Dr.  Menius, the district’s newly-adopted grading policy provides “an opportunity to think about learning, assessment and grading in a new way.”… “We know that all students can learn, but in different ways and at different rates,” Menius said.  “We want to provide more opportunities for students to relearn and retest; allowing more than one attempt to show mastery of a subject.”

 I am absolutely convinced that the policy that will finally emerge throughout the district will be much different than what was originally intended before George Scott Reports put some sunshine on the issue with help from InstantNewsKaty.com.

Truther Menius says the district wants to think about learning assessment and grading in a new way in deference to the fact that students learn in different ways and different times.  That requires they be given an opportunity to relearn and retest.

Well prior to Frailey’s Center of Truth ‘Road to Damascus’ conversion on this subject, what was the old viewpoint.  To a large degree, it was called ‘common assessment.’

That means that teachers are required to give all the same tests to all students on the same day or same cycle.  The flexibility of teachers to prepare their own tests for their own students varying from school to school was ripped away from them by administrative fiat. One can only wonder if teachers will now have ‘common retesting.’

The district went to great expense to inculcate (train) staff that common assessment was the best way.  The point is that this was not a teacher-driven POLICY.  It is true that at some schools teachers chose to implement that policy on their own prior to administrative fiat.  In these cases, teachers made individual judgments about what was best in their circumstances with their students.

The giant elephant in the room on this whole issue is the fact that the broad-based policy of a serious effort to ability-group students in classrooms has been thrown out the window in public education and in Katy I.S.D.  There are exceptions of course for elite students and students who are in danger of failing TAKS tests.  These students are commonly grouped.  However, the broad range of other students are thrown together like a plate of spaghetti hitting the wall.

So when Assistant Truther Menius says that students need to be tested and retested everytime they fail a test because they learn at different rates, she is doing so in the context of a typical classroom that is helter-skelter in terms of the requisite academic skills of the students in that classroom.  The range of academic skills of students  in too many classrooms in Katy I.S.D. is wildy disproportionate.

Thus, their policies are trying to solve a problem that the curriculum administrators, other top level administrators, and the school board have created.  The administration with the school board’s acquiescence has created a monstrous academic problem in direct proportion to the classroom environments they have thrust upon teachers.

Having created a deep and systemic problem that goes to the heart and soul of the delivery of instruction, they throw one philosophical mantra after another at the classroom to ’solve’ the problems they created. The end result of these kinds of arbitrary impositions of policy upon the classroom is to impose yet one more burden upon the classroom teacher based upon a false premise of why most students fail a major test.

Parenthetically, (I have written about this before) if you wonder why we sent our children to Duke to take their algebra courses 10 and 15 years ago, this is why.  I am very glad we did.

Typically, it is throwing a solution at one problem while pretending it will solve another problem.  What is tragic about this situation is that it will become very clear as the story develops that your school board is a de facto ’ship of fools.’  The Board has adopted a policy on a consent agenda without conducting even a minimal discussion of the issues involved.

Common assessment.  Different learning styles.  Relearn and retest.  Differentiated instruction.  Professional Learning Community. These are phrases that  truthers turn into administrative fiat disguised as brilliant educational policy.  This village idiot prescribes some ‘academic lithium’ to pull these folks out of their philosophical tailspin before they do any more damage to our school system.

Here’s my challenge to Assistant Truther Dr. Menius:  Lincoln Douglas Debate with cross examination in front of your school board.  After all, you have a doctorate and I am just a village idiot.  Can’t you handle a village idiot in a discipline in which you have a doctorate?  We have had private conversations.  You know I won’t bite.  Don’t tell anyone, but I am actually a nice guy who has had very cordial discussions with you and Elizabeth Clark in private.

If the Center of Truth is the depository of truth, then what threat could a village idiot have in debating you in front of your school board?

Here’s the audio link to this column.