The Cost of Failure: Why failure is not an option

After spending 2 years as a High School, educator/mentor in a Credit Recovery/e-Learning program as well as over 12 years as a public school educator, I have made some observations, some of them disturbing, some of the hopeful. I want to begin by making a disclaimer in that I did not do any absolute scientific discovery and there may be components that are in fact missing. My attempt at improving the well-being of our students and the financial health is at the forefront of my following commentary.

Cost of Failure

Emotional Cost

“Our desires for our future determine what our past would have been.” m.rapier

That idea came to me in 1998 while I was doing an pre-service observation at  local HS. I noted that the achievers were focused, engaged, and goal oriented, with their goal being college. I also noted that the under-achievers were focused, engaged and goal oriented with their goal being in the "moment." Both had a purpose, a goal, but, their goals were fundamentally different. Student “A” had established a habit of completion, most likely an above average passing - mindset. Whereas student “D” or “F” was led to believe that he/she was a failure and not as smart as "A," long before the second or third grade. Far too often this is also associated with minorities or the marginalized populations. Children are indoctrinated into a belief that they are their circumstance and become focused on the failure aspect of society, even their home life. The emotional strain on children and families who fail courses in school is long-lasting. While we cannot avoid it, we need to circumvent it. How do we avoid failure? We avoid failure by focusing our efforts on failure avoidance, individualized instruction, blended learning, and most importantly holistic, the "whole" child, instruction which identifies “Highly Effective,” “Proficient,” “Working.” (it is also time to focus on multiple intelligence and sound research, which was thrown out with NCLB and a push for increased standardization)

Financial Cost

Simply put, when you fail a course, you throw money out the window. While NCLB eliminated the act of “holding” children back a grade, it did not impact the secondary reality. Secondary school, also known as high school, is a credit based approach towards graduation. Many schools have even gone so far as to segregate students based upon what courses they take and how many credits they can cram into a four year period of time.

How many credits a student needs is independent state to state. You can see anywhere from 38 required credits in Michigan, to a proposed 48 in Indiana. According to the NCES, “Nation’s Report Card” students today now need 3 more full credits to graduate than their millennial peers in 1990. Compare that to Baby Boomers and you are looking at the equivalent of almost an additional semester of school. The very people who are governing have been able to do so on less education than they are requiring of generations behind them. This is in fact putting an undue financial strain on taxpayers and families.

Cost Analysis

By looking at an average required courses needed in order to graduate and the annual average cost per HS-student we can begin to breakdown the overall cost of failure. The average cost in 2014 to educate a college student nationally was just over $9,000. While the cost to educate a high school student nationally is just over $11,000. Every district has a different cost per students. Let's take a look at a school district in Indiana, since that is where I reside. This school corporation had an average cost per pupil of $11,000 in 2009. It is currently at over $15,000 per pupil, based upon their own statistics. High School students are required to take 44 to get an Academic Honors diploma. So, divide that over four years. Students need at least 11 credits per year. That breaks down to: $15,000/11= $1,363.63 per credit. Or should they keep the cost to $15,000 over a 4 year period of time, $60,000/44-$1,363.63 per credit, but as you can see, the costs do not stay stagnant. So, every time a student fails a course $1,363.63 is lost. Taking the example from a school where over 450 students failed math in one semester, that school district lost 450 x $1,363.63 = $613,636.36 in funding. That is just one content area. Now multiply that over 4 years, considering the failure rate in the math department remains steady: 4 x $613,636.36 = $2,454,545.45.

In the past two years I have had the pleasure of helping students overcome those failures through a blended, e-Learning approach towards recovery. In each case when given enough time and proper resources they were able to overcome their failure identification and attain proficiency status or higher. The number of credits that my department recovered equals over 800. But, it barely scratches the surface. Many times we see students entering their senior year with credit deficits. The law says that all children must attend school. NCLB attempted to ensure that all would graduate. Without significant changes in education we will not break down the failure fence that keeps our kids constrained in a belief that they are failures.

Why Standardized Testing Does Not Prevent Failure

Standardized testing costs the states over $1.7 billion a year. That is money that could be used to significantly impact approaches that work, that prevent failure. Standardized testing does only one thing: It looks at how districts are doing from a comparative perspective, not individualizing learners or their educators. It is a measurement that has no real purpose.  The information gleaned from Standardized testing could be done in increments of every 3-4 years. Standardized testing should only be used to identify an overall census, not an annual analysis. Rather, money should be used to look at the statistical rate of breakdown in learning bases upon teacher and program efficacy. While I do believe their needs to be checks and balances, the current trend which believes more is more effective, the grim reality is, most of our curriculum is outdated, misses the point of State standards-based curriculum and does not ensure strong pedagogical approaches.

The cost of failure is a huge problem and it continues to plague taxpayers from local communities to the federal level. How do we move beyond an antiquated approach towards educating our children at the same time identifying what the cost is when we fail them.  

Sleep Deprivation and Low Test Scores

Mobile Devices Are Damaging Learner's Attention and Possible Learning Outcomes

‘Such behavior is typical of “behavioral addiction” and “diminishes our ability to maintain attention'. 

After being in education as a professional for 15 years and as a parent well, let's just say, I am now a grandmother, I have seen the trends and identified what works and what does not work. First of all, let me stress, the old belief that ¨I learn better when I watch television. Or, I learn best when I have loud music blaring!¨ Is a bunch of bologna. While there are many people who come up with whatever excuse they can to justify distraction away from a required task, the truth is our brains are wired in particular ways. If you are using a computer with limited data space and you start opening multiple tabs, stream a video and play a game of (albeit free) online poker, the likelihood the system will run slower and possibly even clog up. So it is with the brain. the younger the brain, although flexible, the greater likelihood that confusion will be an outcome and altered understanding will emerge. 

¨Introduce behavioral addiction principals to our young and you have got a lifetime consumer.¨ Whether it is Saturday morning cartoon advertising which convinces every child what toy to beg for, or it is beer distributors giving it away on college campuses, to now the smartphone revolution, our kids have been groomed to be consumers, NOT, producers.

By the time our kids get into sixth grade, we have convinced them that they cannot survive if they do not have their cell phones on. It isn't just the communication with peers that becomes so important. Parental obsession with communicating with their kids is out of control. As a classroom teacher I cannot tell you how many times I have been in competition with Mommy or Daddy as they are disrupting their own kid's learning by texting them appointments, literally arguing with their kids by texting or even asking why they got a certain grade on a test that just showed up in the online grade books. Kids are texting parents in real time about what is happening in the classroom. I have even had student recording and sending incidents in the classroom out to parents. How this isn't a violation of FERPA, I have no idea! Add into all the parental fanaticism that is rampant these days, facebook, twitter, friend to friend texting and you have little to no learning taking place. Don't even get me started on the boyfriend/girlfriend drama! 

¨NO, it isn't okay to just have it on vibrate in your pocket! Turn it off, put it away and enjoy your smarth phone on your free time, which happens to be before school, lunch and after school!¨ I can tell you the vast difference between the learning outcomes of the kids who do not have their cell phones on their person, or who do not have them on. The vast difference between the kids married to their cell phones and those who do not own one is even bigger. Sadly, what I have witnessed is that their is a racial/socio-economic leaning to the cell phone overuse as well. Could that have been the motivation? Keep the learning gap ever widening by distracting our minority and poor kids? 

If you want to improve the graduation rate, literacy, and mathematics, then focus on teaching students to become producers and leave the consuming to non-academic hours. ¨I just had a great thought, but my text alert just went off and I lost it, sorry!¨ 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3160514/Why-phone-driving-distraction-sound-text-alert-divert-attention-reading-it.html

A Must Read on Education Reform, "Rhetoric Trumps Reality"

Market-oriented education reforms’ rhetoric trumps reality

"Reforms fail when they ignore the poverty related causes of achievement gaps."

:High turnover rates harm students." As is evidenced under Michelle Rhee's leadership in DCPS. Tom Carroll, The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future indicates that like in any profession, experience matters. "As Tom Carroll, president of the commission, notes, this figure ignores “what may in fact be the largest costs of teacher turnover: lost teaching quality and effectiveness”

Commentary by, MELaLuna, the greatest problem that I have with Michelle Rhee, the reformers, congressional leaders, publishing companies all the way to Marzano, Hunter, and the other "leaders in education" is that if you look deep into their portfolios, financial supporters and CV/resumes, you will discover that they spent little time in the classroom and/or have not been in the classroom for so long that they have lost touch with what a classroom today looks like. Then follow the $$$.Many of them have never felt or seen poverty first hand. I equate it to someone I knew who was on her 3rd marriage in 15 years. She had known her new husband for less than a year before they married. They had only been married for less than 2 years. They had both been married 2 times before and all 4 marriages between them had failed. As I was sitting eating dinner with them one night they shared that they were going to write a book on marriage, what works. I had to keep myself from choking on my food as I wanted to laugh hysterically. I had been married for 17 years at that time, and had known the man I married 3 years before we married. I knew then that there was no way these 2 could possibly write the perfect "how to" book. They never wrote the book, and 8 years later their marriage ended tragically as she discovered he had been cheating with her contemporary for over a year. The moral of the story is...people who have little working knowledge of the profession have no business imposing their concept of reform on a system that has been evolving for over 200 years in the United States and for centuries before that. If you want to know what teaches human beings, spend some time with Moms and Dads who are their children's first teachers. Go back in history and explore how the greats before us and without formal education evolved to become president, scientists, discoverers and leaders. Then look at our classrooms and ask if we are possibly doing anything to develop the next generation.

In short, do a reality check, the reform is not all you think it is. The scandal that Michelle Rhee was involved with is not unusual and has happened in numerous school districts under fire, seeking to prove that their way works. I witnessed it happening at a school I worked and I had to report it. It is a huge part of the problem and maybe one of the reasons why so many schools seek inexperienced, alternatively trained teachers. Those of us who when through traditional programs were developed over time to keep to a certain standard and we have years to figure out what school looks like.

Governor Mike Pence Is At IT Again! Or, playground bullying isn't isolated to grade school?

Abuse of Power is an Epidemic So It Seems;Too Many Selfie's Maybe? 

It seems that White House isn't the only place where there seems to be a misuse power in order to steamroll an agenda. Indiana Governor Mike Pence is at it too. Our state openly and honestly elected Superintendent Glenda Ritz, yet it seems that Mike Pence is doing everything in his power to remove her power as head of education in Indiana.

I personally believed in Ritz as she embodies everything that is right in education and stands against everything that has gone wrong. She represents the possibility that a person can be chosen for a position regardless of political connections, or correctness. Public education, like most government run agencies has become a cesspool of nepotism, political ties, and what is most pervasive cronyism! Glenda's appointment was refreshing because it sent a message to people everywhere. That message simply stated is; do a good job, be a good person, and you can move to the head of the class. Her appointment embodies what public education is!

Well, it seems that whether you are dealing with State level education or a local school yard, bullies do in fact troll the halls and playgrounds just waiting to find someone to bully and minimize. I truly believe that Glenda Ritz is being grossly disrespected by Governor Mike Pence. Is it because she never held a local superintendent position or is because she is a woman, she supports public education and republican Governor Mike Pence is misogynistic? My suspicion is that it is both. Please read a letter sent to me by the Indiana State Teacher's Association. It is time for union members across the nation to stand together and demand the badgering against public educators stop!


ISTA has learned that the State Board of Education intends to further diminish Superintendent Ritz’s role as Chair of the board and transfer some responsibilities to the board’s staff at the Center for Education and Career Innovation (CECI). The actions will take place at the board
meeting on Wednesday .

The board will propose dramatic new board procedures through approving a resolution that will form a one-time, ad hoc committee that will approve the new measures intended to cut into the Superintendent’s traditional role as Chair.

It’s no secret that the Governor and the CECI have wanted to remove Superintendent Ritz as Chair of the State Board of Education. In December, it was disclosed in a leaked CECI memo that Ritz being the Chair was perceived as a “problem” that should be addressed by the legislature. The goal then was to have the Chair appointed by the Governor.

This latest move coincides with efforts to seemingly make the Department of Education a minor administrative bureaucracy folded within one agency under the Governor’s office. 

Efforts first began when the Governor, with the stroke of a pen and without legislative approval, created and diverted funding for his duplicate education agency, the CECI.

We learned just weeks ago that the Governor’s Indiana Career Council has adopted a new strategic plan that includes consolidating more than 30 state agencies and programs, including the Department of Education, totaling more than $650 million, under one lead agency directed by the Governor.

This new resolution brought forth by the governor-appointed state board of education members is the latest in this fixation over gaining singular power at the expense of the authority of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Please contact the members of the State Board of Education and urge them to work WITH Superintendent Ritz instead of continuing on this path of disrespect for her, the office she holds and the 1.3 million voters who elected her.

Tony Walker - tony@walkerlawgroup.biz

Dr. Brad Oliver - brad4education@gmail.com

Dr. David Freitas - drdavidfreitas@comcast.net

Daniel Elsener - delsener@marian.edu

Cari Whicker - cwhicker@hccsc.k12.in.us

B.J. Watts - bj.watts@evsc.k12.in.us

Sarah O’Brien - sobrien4cd@yahoo.com

Troy Albert - talbert@wclark.k12.in.us

Andrea Neal - aneal@inpolicy.org

Gordon Hendry - education@gordonhendry.com

“Reflections on Teacher Appreciation Week 2014; a Letter to Congress”

As we enter Teacher Appreciation Week throughout this nation, I cannot help but reach out to you and implore you to intervene on behalf of Teachers, communities, and most importantly our children.

I currently work with Michigan City Area Schools. I moved here in 2008 and purchased a home with my partner, Steve Champagne. We have evolved to the point that we consider Michigan City our hometown. That concept speaks volumes in this day and age. It also speaks volumes as Michigan City and many parts of Northwest Indiana have developed a reputation as not one of the best places to live. While many seek out Valparaiso, Chesterton, etc., we chose to live here. I chose to work here. We have invested into our community. Today I celebrate as I was not RIF'd or "non-renewed." I feel for my fellow educators who did not make it past the chopping block. However I languish in rumors that my investment will take a nose dive over the next year due to economic woes of the district, not brought on by me or my fellow employees. WE did our jobs. WE worked tirelessly to raise our student's scores, morale, as well as raising the morale of our community. Our Administrators will be forced to impose, not a well earned salary increase for dedication, but, are being forced to ask us to absorb the loss of funds. I, along with my co-workers will be forced to take the economic hit.

While many are saying it is only a 2% or so cut, it is actually a 4% as we are not getting a cost of living increase, plus we will take a cut. We will have higher premiums on our insurance because of changes due to *ObamaCare* and other government mandates. (In order to maintain the same level of health care coverage, I will be paying an additional $50.00 per month)WE have already committed to investments with our 401 programs for the coming year with less income. What does this really mean?

• Lower retirement investment, so there is a long term loss.
• Lower credit ratings, because our earning power has been diminished.
• Lower investment in the local community.
• My spending at restaurants, shops, donations to local endeavors, etc., will all be diminished as my income is being diminished.

The local community will be impacted by the unfortunate economic imposition.

Will our scores continue to rise if morale is low? Will our scores continue to rise if some of the best and brightest see this as an time to leave the community? When will that loss ever be regained? How many years will it take until those of us who have little time left before retirement reclaim our loss? Will we ever without leaving the community?

These are realities that I am sure you are very much aware of. As a dedicated veteran educator I am asking you to help change the direction of education in this country. The current direction has a rapidly spiraling downward effect for your constituency. With 1/3 of all new teachers leaving the profession within the first 3 years, how does this nation and local communities reward those of us who have stayed in and demanded the best for our kids?

What costs are the State and Federal entities imposing upon our learning communities which time and time again, yet, do little to prepare our kids for careers and a sound future? Can we depend upon you to help secure our future along with the future of our schools? Without a sound, logical/pragmatic approach towards fixing the problem, there is little future for our kids.(By the way, standardized testing does not teach children, and it actually costs the United States' taxpayers, over a half a billion dollar annually and that is a minimum! There is only one entity that is reaping the harvest off of our kids test scores: THE PUBLISHERS!)

A Letter to Congress On The First Day of Teacher Appreciation Day, 2014!

As we enter Teacher Appreciation Week throughout this nation, I cannot help but reach out to you and implore you to intervene on behalf of Teachers, communities, and most importantly our children. Show us appreciation!

I languish in the rumors that we will take a financial hit due to economic woes of the district, the community, eh state and more. not brought on by me or my fellow employees as,WE did our jobs. WE worked tirelessly to raise our student's scores, moral, as well as raising the moral of our community. Our Administrators will be forced to impose, not a well earned salary increase for dedication, but, they are being forced to ask us to absorb the loss of funds. They are put in a bad position as well.

While many are saying it is only a 2% or so cut, it is actually a 4% as we are not getting a cost of living increase, plus we will take a cut. We will have higher premiums on our insurance because of changes due to Obama Care, and other government mandates. What does this really mean? My district is no different than many other districts or industries. What does it all mean?

*Lower retirement investment, so there is a long term loss.

*Lower credit ratings, because our earning power has been diminished.

8Lower investment in the local community.

My spending at restaurants, shops, donations to local endeavors, etc., will all be diminished as my income is being diminished.

The local community will be impacted by the unfortunate economic imposition. My Administrators who believe in public education, who believe in this community are being forced to do what so many families are doing. "Robbing Peter to pay Paul." "Old Mother Hubbard's cupboards are bare!" "Where has all the money gone?" All cliches aside, we need transformation! It is broke system and I cannot help but believe that governmental interference is to blame! Throwing a test at something that is broken is like throwing an anchor to a drowning man. (look to publishing companies, pie in the sky programs, and standardized testing along with Federally mandated programs that are in actuality unconstitutional!) TESTS DO NOT TEACH! It is time and money lost on nothing more than a game of witch hunt! After decades of testing, your way doesn't work!

Will the only thing that matters to congress, our test scores continue to rise if moral is low? Will our scores continue to rise if some of the best and brightest see this as an time to leave the learning community? When will that loss ever be regained? How many years will it take until those of us who have little time left before retirement reclaim our loss? Will we ever without leaving the community?

These are realities that I am sure you are very much aware of. As a dedicated veteran educator I am asking you to help change the direction of education in this country. The current direction has a rapidly spiraling downward effect for your constituency. With 1/3 of all new teachers leaving the profession within the first 3 years, how does this nation and local communities reward those of us who have stayed in and demanded the best for our kids?

What costs is the State and Federal entities imposing upon our learning communities which time and time again, does nothing to prepare our kids for careers and a sound future? (I welcome the opportunity to speak with you about these wasted programs, etc.)What cuts can be made now by the Governmental bodies that will ensure more teachers, good teachers? I challenge you imagine this simple truth! One good teacher can have more impact, than any textbook, reader, computer program, pie in the sky program, and a standardized test will ever have. I stand on this reality. Our nation has been built upon the shoulders of teachers who had only one thing in their satchel...passion for knowledge and a desire to share that passion! The current means of financing schools is as antiquated.

I trust that we can depend upon you to help secure our future along with the future of our schools. Without that, there is little hope. Show how much you appreciate teachers, LET US TEACH!

Mary E. Rapier, Founder of PBL3 Initiaitives

We are facing a dilemma currently in our global society. It is a one that we have never truly had to deal with entirely before and it is one that will be with us from this era forward. We as a nation have taken a half-hearted approach towards, it. “It” is illiteracy, and literary incompetence. We have witnessed an increase in the investment into our schools in the area of literacy, but this is actually because of the identifiable shortcoming of our students graduating out of our public school system. This is not to say that there is an ever increasing upwards movement towards higher education. It is to say that even with all of those efforts we are still falling short with regards to communicating effectively through the written word. The NCEE, National Center on Education and the Economy has spent a time and money to create a program that fills in the gap and prepares for the future students who are capable of producing thoughtful, succinct executive summaries. In an ever increasing movement via the internet the dominance of the written word is further ahead than any mainstream individual could have ever imagined fifty years ago. Our founding fathers desire to establish an educated society was an insightful desire, however we have created a dual dynamic in that there are so many that are graduating from halls of universities, colleges, technical training schools without the ability to communicate effectively through the medium of written text, that however they understand concepts, they cannot effectively translate that into documentation. One must ask then is writing a learned skill or is it an art? Is need outpacing ability? Regardless of what the individual belief is, the necessity for a strong written document is central to the promotion of idea, product, emotion, a securing of both the tangible as well as the intangible. Word weaving as I like to refer to it is fulfilling that Very need. My life experience when melded with education, art, the weaving of the importance of the written word, provides you the client with the documentation necessary to get your message across. A real world, pragmatic approach to allocation of concepts is what you will find in my work. While there has not been formal education in the area of mar-com, I do have experience in writing for a purpose, Executive summary, research, curriculum development, web-text development, essay, as well as non-professional documents. All in all, my ability to transfer ideas in written form is a strength that I have been developing over the course of many years. The role of educator, coach, developer, volunteer, director, consumer, has given me the ability to identify the needs of those that I am serving. As the individual shares a need, a preferred outcome can be isolated. My goal oriented nature seeks ways in which to fulfill the desired results. Articulate, direct, passionate, encouraging, are all words that can be used to describe my approach. When approach is coupled with the an idea or product there will be results coming forth as a result of the written word. The market and the needs of the individual will change as we evolve into a global community. Having someone with a diverse background identifies their ability to grow and change with the needs of those around them. The diversity of skill sets provides a canvas of adaptability and modifiable form to deliver a product to you the client, that meets your need as well as your client’s needs. For further information feel free to contact Mary E. Rapier with maryerapier@gmail.com