You Don’t Take Sides Against The Family

Tarek Ibn Ziyad Academy – an Islam-based charter school in Inver Grove Heights – is  taking the state education bureaucracy to court over its curious penchant for choosing bureaucratic ticket-punching over children, education and results:

Officials at the Minnesota Department of Education told Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA) last month that they would recommend withholding $1.4 million in public funding from the school as a result of licensure violations, according to a lawsuit filed by the school Thursday in Ramsey County District Court.

But TiZA claims that state officials have refused to provide the school with public records related to the state’s investigation of the alleged violations, and that without them the school can’t properly defend itself as it appeals the decision.

About a dozen TIZA teachers are not, it is claimed, properly licensed.

Well, shut that place down.

Of course, in the last round of No Child Left Behind testing, 93% of TIZA’s kids passed the Math competency test – about double the rate at the Saint Paul or Minneapolis public schools – and 68% the reading test (compared to about half in Minneapolis and Saint Paul) – even though they’re all duly licensed, just like any good plumber or barber.

And yet 93% of TIZA’s students passed the Math test, and 68% the reading test – compared again to Saint Paul (46 and 52% for math and reading) and Minneapolis (48 and 51%).   And yet 80% of its students are low-income, and 68% speak English as a second language – vastly “worse” than both of the major metro school districts.

But who cares about results, when the big secret – teachers licensing is worthless – could be getting out?

24 thoughts on “You Don’t Take Sides Against The Family

  1. I have never considered that teacher licensing was worthless, but public school teacher performance is measured by how many years they can keep their butt in a chair. Hmm …

  2. I think you are framing the question wrongly; it is not either / or. The school should not need to choose between proper licensing and performance; it is possible to have both, and having both should be insisted upon – and not just TIZA, but all of our schools, public and private.

  3. It’s a state funded madrassa. They shouldn’t get one penny of public money.

  4. I may not have framed the question completely enough.

    What IS a “teaching certificate” or license worth? What does a piece of paper tell you that an interview, experience and results don’t?

    As my dad – a 40-year teacher who also taught college-level education courses and still, if memory serves, observes student teachers – once said, all it does is ensures that a prospective teacher has taken “Theory Of The Eraser 352” in college.

    The license, like most state occupational licenses, is a turf-guarding exercise by the state unions (charter schools are not generally unionized) enforced by government.

    So someone – and I guess I’m looking at you, DG – tell me; what DOES a teaching license actually get you?

    Kerm,

    I dunno; the “madrass” bit is being sorted out. If they follow the letter of the law, I don’t care if they fudge with the spirit of it.

    And have you read the results? They do a great job of educating kids. So do the schools Nick Coleman bagged on for being tied to Bill Cooper – the various “Friends of Education” schools, some of which borrow heavily from Catholic school traditions (albeit without the actual Catholicism); Eagle Ridge, Aspen, Beacon, Nova, Minneapolis Academy; they all do spectacularly well.

    By the way – TIZA was one of the few schools that didn’t run afoul of MN2020’s little hatchet job on accounting practices last month, either.

  5. They hold the busses until afternoon prayers are complete. Is that the letter of the law?

  6. Teaching certificate is worth less then the paper it is written on. It is all about the teacher’s union. Consider that neither Albert Einstein nor Stephen Hawking would be allowed to teach physics at Minnesota centers for liberal indoctrination, I mean public schools.

  7. A teacher’s license does much the same as a hair cutter/stylist’s license… it limits competition to some extent.

    Folks who simply weave extensions into existing hair need a license. To teach a kid how to add 2 and 2 together requires a license.

    Seems odd.

  8. Is that the letter of the law?

    The ACLU would seem to think not. We shall see.

    But like I said – leave that out for a moment. Seen the results?

  9. Results are what management want them to be. I wouldn’t be surprised if a little taqiyya was being applied.

  10. Results are what management want them to be.

    Kerm, duck! There is a black helicopter behind you!

    Even in TIZA’s case (whose charter should be revoked because it is NOT a “public” school per se, I believe), I doubt very much results are fudged. If they were, reading results would have been reported much higher then 68%. BTW, 68% mark does not surprise me, especially with a high quotient of ESL students. As an ESL’er myself, I did a lot better in English class then most of my fellow native-born students.

  11. Mitch cautioned: “But like I said – leave that out for a moment. Seen the results?”

    What blog are you reading? They can’t “leave that out,” Mitch. They’re narrow, xenophobic kooks. Angryclown knew one of the Mitchketeers would call it a “madrassa” or claim it’s some publicly financed Terror Academy. The only question was when and who. Whoever had Kermit the Frog and 9:20 a.m. wins!

  12. Xenophobic. Heh. As opposed to narrow-minded and bigoted ala Clownie.
    I suspect what the Clown knows about TiZA could easily fit on the top half of am 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. And he’d have to research it.
    Doesn’t stop him from expressing an ignorant opinion, though.

  13. They’re narrow, xenophobic kooks.

    Well, wait, AC: weren’t you one of those guys who said “NO VOUCHERS EVER, BECAUSE ONE MIGHT FALL INTO THE GRIMY PAWS OF A GOD-BOTHERER?” Not to put words into your mouth, but I believe you were.

    The actual presenting issue with TIZA is not that they are an Islam-focused charter school (meaning privately run, mostly-publicly-funded), but that they allegedly incorporate Islamic education directly into their curriculum, which, as you know, means the Republic will fall.

    And those xenophobic wingnuts at the ACLU (MN chapter, ergo even more liberal-wacko than any ACLU chapter between Berkeley and the Village) are pondering a lawsuit against the school for precisely that reason.

    I’ll assume that being from elsewhere you are not aware of that, and being the Clown you don’t care anyway, but I’d feel remiss in not clarifying.

  14. Mitch accused: “Well, wait, AC: weren’t you one of those guys who said “NO VOUCHERS EVER, BECAUSE ONE MIGHT FALL INTO THE GRIMY PAWS OF A GOD-BOTHERER?” Not to put words into your mouth, but I believe you were.”

    Gee Mitch, I don’t remember that. But then it’s your blog. I’m sure you can find that comment. And provide a link.

    Just so’s nobody thinks you’re talking out your ass.

    At least they have a 90% pass rate on car bomb making, eh?

  15. I don’t remember that. But then it’s your blog.

    I was talking about at our previous mutual remuneration-free web employer, where the arguments about “School Choice”, um, developed a name of their own, if you recall?

    If I remember wrong, I remember wrong…

  16. Mitch asks:
    “So someone – and I guess I’m looking at you, DG – tell me; what DOES a teaching license actually get you?”

    I’m not entirely sure I can answer that, but I’ll take a whack at it; if it doesn’t seem to adequately address your question, I’ll dig into it further and take a second whack at it.

    I answered as I did about licensing in the context that I had excellent public school K-12 teachers who were licensed, AND who produced students with competitive test scores, and good graduation rates. What I would expect from any kind of licensing, in this case teachers, is a baseline education from an accredited institution (college or university) that actually has more content than eraser 352, particularly in their area of specialization. I would also expect it to ensure continuing education, that they not just stop after the minimum qualifying class work. And lastly, I guess I would expect that a license should also give some assurance that there had been a minimal background check to make sure that the teacher is not some kind of danger to the school staff, the students, or the other teachers. Its sad we have to think in that way, but apparently we do.

    What I don’t think a license should be is a guarantee that they continue to be employed if they don’t do well at their job. Performance should be the OTHER requirement, in addition to a base qualification of the license / minimum educational requirement.

    Which I take to mean AND not Either / OR in defining the question. I never noticed that my teachers were LESS capable because they were licensed or belonged to a union — and I have stayed in touch with some of those who taught the various honor courses, etc., even though they are now retired. I was very fortunate, and continue to be grateful that they really were educators in the best sense of the word. It may sound hokey to put it this way, but I feel a need to honor them in my comment here. I can’t ignore them; they were too important to my life.

    If our measures of performance indicate a decline, and our graduation rates are going down steeply, we should look at all possible causes, including things like changes for the worse in curicula. I am – respectfully, especially of your father’s contribution to this discussion – just not quite convinced that the greatest cause from what is presented here is licensing.

  17. What I don’t think a license should be is a guarantee that they continue to be employed if they don’t do well at their job.
    How about membership in Education Minnesota?

  18. “At least they have a 90% pass rate on car bomb making, eh?”

    Well, AssClown, it is generally common knowledge that the Twin Cities area probably has more Somali terrorists than NYC. Fortunately those terrorists are “practicing” in Somalia and not the US.

    *pats assclown on the head*

  19. Your teachers may have been licensed, and you may have had good teachers, Dog Gone, but the act of acquiring a teaching license did not make them good teachers. Satisfying the minimum requirements is what licensing is all about.

    You said:

    “I never noticed that my teachers were LESS capable because they were licensed or belonged to a union”

    Less capable than what? Do you have any experience with unlicensed and/or non-union teachers to compare them to?

  20. Troy makes an EXCELLENT point when he asks:

    (quoting me“I never noticed that my teachers were LESS capable because they were licensed or belonged to a union”

    Less capable than what? Do you have any experience with unlicensed and/or non-union teachers to compare them to?

    Well, yes. I had finished up my K-12 requisite credits by 11th grade; I was looking outside of the standard school offerings for additional education in some instances. While there are people who excel in their fields of expertise, they are not necessarily very good at teaching what they know to others. Teaching is a skill separate and additional to expertise in a subject.

    I’ve been giving this a bit of further thought, which took me back to those teachers of mine that I thought were so very good. All of them – ALL of them left teaching early, before reaching retirement. The reason was not that they stopped caring about teaching, but frustration. The way they explained it was that they ran up against an increasing passivity, apathy, failure to engage, and inertia.. They had no explanation for why where before they could get students to respond, to interact with them, it tapered off and finally prettymuch just disappeared in their classrooms. They did not stop being good teachers (who happened to be licensed and members of the teachers union).

    Mitch has written here very eloquently about how much more charter schools have engaged their students in some instances.

    The discussions here about high drop out rates, failures to graduate statistics would suggest that there is a problem with engaging these students.

    I don’t intend this to mean we should be blaming students for failing exactly, but it suggests to me that this is the place to begin in understanding the problems. Education is NOT something that teachers do TO students, it is something that teachers do WITH students.

    I don’t know if this is related or not to the apathy problem with students, but the other factor mentioned by my teachers about why they liked us, but subsequently got out of teaching, is that we were ‘not mean.’ They described a quality of nastiness between students that we didn’t have, and indeed did not tolerate.

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