Tony Bennett said he is “pushing for change,” that is obvious, the question is what kind of change and who benefits from this change. As I listened for 3 hours to the sub-committees go through their articles, I was amazed and appalled at some of the processes.
First, the amazement, the sub-committees for Articles 1, 3, 4, 5, 10, 12 and 8-2 went through each article and allowed other members of the board to comment and question what was meant by particular wording. This was a long, tedious and very important process. George Van Horn and Carrie Cate-Clements were especially careful to implement and voice the input they received from the testimonies and emails of concerned teachers.
Kudos to Ray Graves from the Indiana Department of Education for stating that he had not seen any evidence that the Indiana Professional Standards Advisory Board had indeed followed the DOE Standards to make any REPA changes, nor had the Board said this in any forum! Change yes, but for whose benefit???
Now for the appalling part, Article 8, Curriculum was breezed through by David Holt in a flat 3 minutes. Carrie voiced concern that she had not been part of that sub-committee. David said that some members of the sub-committee agreed on some of these changes, and some did not, some people won, some people lost! The method this particular sub-committee operated under was voting for each change and whichever change had the most votes, it carried!
Well, that is one way to make changes…How about the fact that this article was about Curriculum and David asked, “What is scientifically based reading anyway?” I am shocked that he was the leader of this sub-committee without having any knowledge about the content in this article!!
After his 3 minute presentation, Carrie asked a question, David chided her that he was far past that section and going on. Another board member stepped in and asked that this process be slowed down. Additionally, board members continually said that they could not hear each other from one end of the table to the other….well, why wasn’t that taken care of?
I am affirmed by some of the members’ work, especially Carrie Cate-Clements and George Van Horn, I am appalled by the antics, decision making and way David Holt conducted himself and his sub-committee’s work or lack there-of.
A Very Concerned and Perturbed Citizen of Indiana
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