23 Nov 2010

Are You a Mugwump? #

Mugwump is an interesting word with a history of changing meaning. It derives from an Algonquin word meaning “war leader.” It was used to mean officer or duke in the written English of the colonists and transformed to boss or bigwig by the early 19th century. In the 1884 presidential election, a group of Republicans split off to support Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, for president and were called “little mugwumps.” For a time the term meant turncoat, but it soon morphed again and came to mean someone who could not make up their mind on important issues, a fence sitter. My first encounter with the word came as part of an old joke about a person who sat on the fence with his mug on one side and his wump on the other. It is this latest definition that I refer to in the title question, are you a mugwump.

As a parent, teacher, or other citizen without a direct connection to schools, you face a number of serious education issues. Some are listed below. On each, I ask you to carefully consider, “Am I a Mugwump?” If your answer is yes to any of them, it is time to get off the fence and speak up for children.

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, mandates standardized tests be given to students at many grade levels of the public schools. These tests and the prep time consume not hours, but days and even weeks of the school calendar normally given over to instruction. National studies of student achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have shown virtually no improvement over the 10 years of mandated tests. The state of Washington alone spent over $1 billion on the failed WASL without significant improvement on the NAEP. National estimates of cost are in the hundreds of billion dollars. Where do you stand on the continued mandating of standardized tests under NCLB? Are you a Mugwump, or are you actively supporting your position?
The current administration (Obama) has followed the lead of the previous administration (Bush-2), and is requiring the tests described above, stricter accountability rules for teachers (based on student test scores), required local expenditures for certain school programs (e.g. Special Education), teacher qualifications, etc., thus usurping the control of local boards of education. Where do you stand on the Federal takeover of the local schools? Are you a Mugwump, or are you actively supporting your position?
The current administration has provided an unprecedented $4 billion for competitive grants to the states in a program called Race to the Top (RttT). In order to qualify to apply, states had to agree to increase caps on charter schools, base teacher and principal accountability on the standardized test scores of the students (so-called value-added analysis), participate in the implementation of national core standards, and use assessments based on the national standards. Major studies of the effectiveness of charter schools show that they do no better than matched-pair public schools (and with low SES children do worse).Â Value-added analysis of teacher and principal effectiveness has been found to have so much error of measurement that there is a large chance that ineffective teachers will be rated effective, and vice versa. There is no evidence that state or national standards increase achievement level of students or close the achievement gap between high and low SES students despite more than ten years of trying. The same is true of the use of standardized tests as either a carrot or a stick. Additionally, only a few states qualified for the dollars provided by RttT, meaning your local tax dollars only went to the states that were willing to comply with all of the requirements. Washington was not one of them. Where do you stand on using federal dollars (your tax money) to fund so-called innovative programs meeting the requirements listed above? Are you a Mugwump, or are you actively supporting your position?
National, state, and even local requirements are resulting in a narrowed curriculum, lower graduation rates, increased student stress, and lower teacher morale. The federal emphasis on reading, writing, and math has resulted in the loss of opportunity in science, social studies, art, music, and vocational courses as students are trained to pass the 3-Rs bubble tests. Graduation rates for the U.S. peaked around 1980, just before the publication of A Nation at Risk, the document that set the nation on its present drill-and-test course. Current rates are lower than they were in 1992! Many members of the American Pediatrics Association have spoken out against the “No Child Left Behind Act” because of the physical and emotional toll it seems to be taking on many or our children. Study after study in states across the nation conclude that pressures coming from NCLB result in significantly lower teacher morale. Where do you stand on the continued application of NCLB requirements? Are you a Mugwump, or are you actively supporting your position?

Are YOU a Mugwump? Why are you sitting there? Call a school board member, write a letter to the editor, contact your legislator, copy this article and pass it on to friends and colleagues, join KSD Citizens, but don’t let the children down. Get your mug and your wump on the same side of the fence.