A lot of fake outrage and high-sounding language has been
flying around here in OK after the USDOE chose NOT to extend our NCLB waiver.
Mary Fallin blames Obama…of course she does. She wants to remind the reddest state
in the Union that she is the Republican. Um, Mary…believe us. We know.
Jason Nelson, a co-author of HB3399 that fast-tracked our
repeal of CCSS without adequate plans in place to make the transition a smooth
one, seems unimpressed by the loss of funds to the state.
Barresi continues to push for speed-writing the Standards.
It appears as if she wants to control the direction, even in her position as
lame duck.
OSSBA has shared concern, Joe Dorman has made a statement,
as has Joy Hofmeister. I can find no statement from John Cox on his Facebook
page or his campaign page.
I was reminded of the song from My Fair Lady, "Show Me." It begins with, "Words, words, words. I'm so sick of words." I'm sick of the words that hide intent and values. But I know how to unpack these statements and get to the real message...intended or unintended.
One of my favorite tools for looking at written language,
and the message that may hide from us if we’re not careful is wordle… www.wordle.net
allows you to paste in text and it analyzes the frequency of words used, and
creates a word cloud. The bigger the word, the more times it was used. I have
had students ‘wordle’ their papers and analyze the word cloud, asking
themselves if their intended message became clear. I often wordle political speeches and see the
hidden agenda. An interesting follow-up strategy is to take those larger, more
frequently-used words, and use them to create a theme or summary statement.
Those are the words that reflect the speaker’s true values.
So, for your reading and analyzing pleasure, wordles of
yesterday’s responses to our waiver loss.
What do we see? “Oklahoma” and “Washington”. Two places she
has lived and worked. “Parents” and “Obama” are clear…and look there on the
lower left: “politicized”. Oh, yes, Governor Fallin. This situation is
politicized. Starting with the lack of a plan to certify our PASS standards as ‘college
and career ready,’ whatever that phrase really means. Including your coy game
of ‘Will she? Won’t she?’ sign HB3399. Up to your defiant nose-thumbing at the
very rules you once chose to abide by. Rules that hadn’t changed. In fact, the only thing that did change is
YOUR position on CCSS…as Chair of the National Governors’ Association, you
seemed all for CCSS…then you weren’t. Now, you blame everyone but yourself for
the mess you created. Love that “outraged” and “outrageous” both appear here.
Looking at this one is interesting…no wild political words
jump out…Is she being reasonable in her last months? “Schools” and “Oklahoma”
and “student” and “focus” and “reforms.” Nothing new…but I love the fact that “transparency”
and “rigor” are both smaller. I see the word, “now”, which has been the
Superintendent’s mantra since losing the primary election.
OSSBA weighed in with a statement:
“Change” and “waiver” and “schools.” “Child” and “federal”
and “provide.” This is the first wordle to highlight the word “child”, and I’m
grateful it’s the school superintendents who speak about our children, who are
being “Left” “Behind.” I think I like what this one would communicate.
Joy Hofmeister communicated her concern on FaceBook:
“Standards” and “children” and “administration” and ‘teachers”
and “students.” She manages to hit most of the stakeholders in this statement…”however”
she blames it on “federal” “overreach”. “Confidence” and “waste” are there as
well. What kind of theme statement could we compose here?
My man Joe Dorman shared his statement:
“Waiver” and “Fallin” jump out at us…so does “state” and “Oklahoma”
and “education” and “standards.” I like the little nod to my home state, “Indiana”,
which did get the waiver extension yesterday. Dorman rightly reminds us we have
our current governor to thank for the mess we’re in. Right there, in the middle
of the image is “preventable.” For sure. Preventable.
One last wordle…even though I don’t have the whole text of
Jason Nelson’s statement at his press conference, I do have excerpts.
Look at the inadvertent arrangement of “one” “big”
“loss’! Oh, I agree. I think it’s also telling that he focused on “funding” and
“money” and “spend”. And he pronounces it a “non-event.” Tell that to the
schools that are now at risk of being labeled failing, and are now facing the
horrible consequences that are the centerpiece of NCLB. A friend, a teacher at
one of those schools, asked frantically last night, “What will happen to our
school?” Silence. Crickets. Nothing.
The funding side of the waiver is huge, NOT the non-event
Mr. Nelson asserts. But the other consequences to our schools, nearly all of
which will be deemed to be failing schools, those will be incalculable.
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