We are living in a time of monsters, doing battle with wily viruses and putting up kaiju* tracking stations. But tracking does not help when defenses are not erected. The maps are bleeding red, especially in the South, and many people are hardly blinking as county after county goes down. COVID exhaustion is setting in for portions of the population, especially the vaccinated who figure they are safe. Many vaccinated Americans have decided the unvaccinated are not their problem, except for the risk of contagion they may pose.

An M.D. friend of mine recently shared a strategy for outreach that she thought might work to cut through vaccine hesitancy. Forget about oxygen levels, coughs and fever. She wanted to go straight for the test results that might cut through that Tucker-Carlson-glaze of irreality: sexual dysfunction. The evidence is mounting that COVID-19 can cause erectile dysfunction and even possible infertility (SARS-CoV-2 and Male Infertility: Possible Multifaceted Pathology – PubMed (nih.gov)).

For an unfortunate group of COVID-19 sufferers, one manifestation of COVID-19 is hyperinflammation, along with blood clots, little clots and sometimes bigger clots. Tony-nominated Broadway star Nick Cordero died more than 90 days after contracting the coronavirus, essentially from lung damage and clot consequences. His body had long since defeated the virus, but it could not undo the damage the virus had done.

What does this have to do with sexual dysfunction? “Researchers are piecing together that surviving COVID-19 may be associated with erectile dysfunction (ED), the inability to achieve and sustain an erection for purposes of sexual intercourse. The research points to three factors that can lead to the potential onset of ED in men who have had the virus:” (Yes, COVID-19 Can Cause Erectile Dysfunction – Cleveland Clinic)

1. Vascular effects. Erectile function is a both a predictor of and a consequence of heart disease. One hallmark of COVID-19 has been its ability to cause hyperinflammation throughout the body, “especially in the heart and surrounding muscles. Blood supply to the penis can become blocked or narrowed as a result of a new or worsened vascular condition caused by the virus.”
2. Psychological impact. 
3. Overall health deterioration. ED is typically a symptom of another underlying problem, frequently a vascular problem.

Maybe my M.D. friend is right. A lot of so-called tough guys are wandering through short TV segments explaining that they trust their natural immune system to fight off the virus. Unfortunately, that strategy has turned into a literally ultimate epic fail for many young and hearty middle-aged men who will never be old men. Others are getting lung transplants or slowly wandering around their houses lugging oxygen equipment. That guy with the oxygen tank? He’s not having sex, not any version that most of us would recognize anyway.

Let’s add a fact a lot of us know from having grown older: The things we thought we escaped from when young sometimes come back to bite us. A familiar argument of this nature relates to smoking: People who quit smoking decrease their risk of smoking-related illnesses, but the past does not simply vanish. Yes, people should quit but quitting does not erase the past. Not entirely.

Here are the results of a sobering study related to smoking: “Conclusion: There is a strong association between the intensity of cigarette smoking and degree of ED. Stopping cigarette smoking can improve ED in a considerable proportion of smokers. Age and the severity of ED before stopping are inversely related to the chance of improvement.” (Do cigarette smokers with erectile dysfunction benefit from stopping?: a prospective study – PubMed (nih.gov))

Eduhonesty: Readers may be asking, why all this smoking data? What do cigarettes and kaiju have to do with vaccine hesitancy?

The smoking data is great support for an argument that might help convince some men to get vaccinated. The biggest enemy of a solid erection is a damaged circulatory system. In doing research on this topic, I even came across one article where the author suggested that difficulty getting an erection could possibly be used diagnostically as an indicator of possible COVID-19 cardiovascular damage. I also found another study worth sharing that said upfront, “Erectile dysfunction (ED), as the hallmark of endothelial dysfunction, could be a short- or long-term complication of COVID-19. Additionally, “subjects with ED could potentially have a higher risk of contracting COVID-19.” (“Mask up to keep it up”: Preliminary evidence of the association between erectile dysfunction and COVID-19. – Abstract – Europe PMC)

I grant the study itself is a rather technical and wordy read. I’d focus on that ED “could be a long-term complication of COVID-19.” Also, the data suggests people who already have ED may have increased risk of getting COVID-19.

Let’s journey into a little speculative paranoia. The “Mask Up” article doesn’t say definitively that people with ED have a higher risk of getting COVID-19, only that logically the data supports the possibility. But here’s the Godzilla hiding below our sea of overflowing ICUs, the giant creature from the deeps that we should not ignore: That data’s not truly in yet. This monster could be sneaking up on us even now. The shadows are there. Studies show the virus in testicular tissue. Multiple reports of ED after COVID-19 are beginning to come in. The fact that this virus can blast blood vessels is well established.

Godzilla is in this post simply because some anti-vaxxers appear to be living in a monster movie, one where the evil 5G Nanobot kaiju is coming to eat their DNA. The vaccine hesitant often have some unreal or at least unsupported ideas as well. If we want to approach this time as a monster movie, I have a monster of my own to cast in my film: We’ll call him Erectile Dysfunction. I’ll bet that some of the anti-vax crowd will find my monster even scarier than the 5G Nanobot.

Our systems have been overwhelmed since early 2020. Research into erectile dysfunction is in its earliest stages. It’s happening now, but a great deal of more immediate research had to happen first. The ability to get an erection doesn’t rate much strategy-time when weighed against the need to supply oxygen to people on the edge of death. It doesn’t hit the radar when trying to pull people back from that edge before they enter the transplant zone.

Here’s a last article worth reading and sharing: “COVID-19 could cause male infertility and sexual dysfunction – but vaccines do not” at COVID-19 could cause male infertility and erectile dysfunction – but vaccines do not | PhillyVoice.

Godzilla returned to the sea but Tokyo did not just revert to an earlier version of itself. I think my friend is right, too. Many men who are not worried about their lungs or heart will take the possibility of long-term erectile dysfunction seriously because those big, technical words in research articles convey a simple idea — maybe the only kaiju that will rescue some of today’s vaccine hesitant once they catch COVID-19 is Viagra, and Viagra doesn’t work for everybody.

Common Viagra side effects include flushing; headache, dizziness, abnormal vision (blurred vision, changes in color vision), runny or stuffy nose, nosebleeds, sleep problems, muscle pain, back pain, or upset stomach. Users are told not to use this drug with nitrates, and to report severe dizziness, sudden loss of vision, and sudden hearing loss or ringing in the ears to their doctor immediately. Do the vaccine hesitant really want to become reliant on this drug? Viagra may be a port in the storm, but it’s no port I’d choose to visit unless I’d run out of alternatives.

Some things, once broken, can be hard or even impossible to fix. The unluckiest polio victims never walked again. Many of the denizens of this planet still have not wrapped their minds around the idea that this disease dose not operate like a toggle switch — it’s not sick or well, not for everybody anyway. (See When I Could No Longer Walk Up the Hill — And Amber Is Still Sick, Six Months Later | Notes from the Educational Trenches (eduhonesty.com)) Long haulers are real and nobody wants to haul this particular disability around through life. Among the many things masks and vaccinations may prevent: the need to cruise the Walgreen’s drive-up lane to pick up the latest Viagra refill.

Thanks for reading this slightly off-topic post. Masking and vaccinations will keep our students and teachers safer. Readers, please keep trying to reach across the philosophical divide that has developed around vaccinations. We can’t prevent massive misinformation from being shared across the internet, but we can keep supplying facts.

*Word for the day: kaiju [ˈkīˌjo͞o] — a giant monster especially featured in Japanese fantasy and science fiction movies and T.V. programs.

Study: Erectile Dysfunction Is 5 Times More Likely in Men Who’ve Had COVID-19 (verywellhealth.com), Effects of COVID-19 on male sex function and its potential sexual transmission – PubMed (nih.gov)

P.S.S. Studies can be found related to women’s sexual health and COVID-19 but these remain thin on the ground and frequently relate to the effects of quarantining and sheltering rather than direct illness. To be continued…

Hugs, readers. I hope the summer is giving you a chance to relax and regroup. Jocelyn Turner

There’s a rather fascinating “let-them-die” sentiment floating around out here. “They” deserve more compassion than they are receiving in my view. The internet is a hot, steaming mess of crazy ideas right now, not remotely based in science.

People believe in the 5G, nanobot mind control crisis or the pretty-sure-it-will-kill-us-in-a-few-years-because-there’s-DNA-in-it and it’s-rewriting-our-genetic code stuff. Sorting through facts, factoids and outright lies can be a tough proposition for the science-lite. Somehow — and we absolutely must figure out where U.S. education went so wrong — the US is filled with science-lite adults who don’t have the slightest idea how 5G or DNA works. But let’s be clear: Many monster whoppers and pure lies are populating cyberspace right now. Media stars with enough followers to fill a small city post stories they have never checked for accuracy and suddenly hundreds of thousands of lies are getting reposted and retweeted across the universe. How COVID-19 infected the world with lies – CNET

Politics isn’t helping us at all. Florida’s governor DeSantis has been championing the right not to wear a mask even as conventions cancel their Florida bookings and friends of mine decide to vacation in the North instead. “Florida has the country’s highest hospitalization rate and second-highest rate of recent cases, behind Louisiana. Infection levels have been rising in every state, with especially alarming rates in the South. Many of those governors have also been reluctant to impose new restrictions or require masks.” (A COVID Surge in Florida Challenges Gov. Ron DeSantis, Again (yahoo.com))

Almost all of America’s children may be masking up for the next school year. As it stands, “CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky urged all schools reopen to in-person learning in the fall, but with proper safety protocols — and that now includes masks.

‘CDC recommends that everyone in K-12 schools wear a mask indoors, including teachers, staff, students and visitors regardless of vaccination status,’ she told reporters.” (From CDC recommends masks for all K-12 students, even those who have been vaccinated (nbcnews.com))

Eduhonesty: It’s a tiny little mask, not a fifty pound backpack. Unless you have COPD or a serious lung disease, that mask is no big deal. I did a stress test while wearing two masks. I didn’t keel over. In fact, I passed my test just fine.

Here is my suggestion as we go through August. As we post the pictures of our paintings, kitties, puppies and delicious lunches, let’s make it a point to sometimes post the story that explains why children should be wearing those masks. Post the story of the Florida dad who thought he’d be fine because he was a former athlete, the dad sitting in his window with oxygen tubes running out his nose after he spent two weeks in the COVID ICU because his elementary age child brought the microbe home and gave it to the whole family. Vaccinated mom had the equivalent of a cold. The kids recovered quickly. Dad has not been so lucky. Weeks later, he still needs supplemental oxygen just to manage light daily activities.

Post those stories. Yes, many of us are vaccinated and have effectively moved on, tired of endless COVID stories, especially now that only one or two out of 100 COVID deaths are occurring in the vaccinated. But not all of us are living in entirely stratified COVID bubbles. Readers, we have to make sure the information flow doesn’t revert back entirely to puppies and vacation photos. Our science-lite friends need us.

In particular, I’d suggest digging up some of the old mask stories. Here’s a story that provides a start: Do face masks work? Here are 49 scientific studies that explain why they do | KXAN Austin . Here’s a useful picture:

Let’s help the schools to help the parents to help the kids mask up.

Parents who are dubious about masks, here is my simple argument. That mask may work. The evidence strongly suggests it does if you read far enough and long enough. That mask does no harm to a healthy kid. (I acknowledge special cases such as autism.) If the mask is useless (it’s not), still, having your child wear the mask will do no harm. If the mask is useful, you may save your family or others an incredible amount of misery.

As to the civil liberties argument: There are hills worth dying on. This for damn sure is not one of them. We are talking about a thin facial covering versus disease and even death. Please. The idea that we should even balance one against the other sounds … stunningly out of touch with our common humanity. The fact that I can drive though the crosswalk and probably everyone will be able to leap out my way in time to escape serious injury does not mean I should barrel through the crosswalk.

Please, readers, let’s keep the flow of accurate information on COVID going out to our various feeds.

Questions to share with social media friends:

Did you check Snopes?

Have you cross-checked that story?

Why do you believe Fred when most everyone else says something else?

I’ll confess I haven’t always checked out my sources as much as I should in this life. Right now, though, we should all be holding each other accountable. Because we have a long way to go and a short time to get there before the next school year begins.

Hugs to my readers. Jocelyn Turner

Here’s my starting truth: The hare will always beat the tortoise when the race is short and timed.

In the US, students who have grown up with access to keyboards and QWERTY keyboard practice enter the game at an undefined and unquantifiable advantage. Slow test takers can lose points simply because of their need to hunt and peck at keys. UNTIL THE TECH GAP IS CLOSED, WE WON’T BE ABLE TO ACCURATELY JUDGE THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP. One of the best students I ever had — valedictorian for her high school — got a nineteen on her ACT.* That low score was about her typing speed and nothing else but her typing speed. My former student has the ability to be a rocket scientist. But “Esmeralda” got her first, minimal exposure to proper keyboarding skills toward the end of middle school, and her high school only haphazardly emphasized typing speed.

I think it helps to visualize what I am talking about. Reader, your fingers probably automatically hit the keys when you are typing. You don’t think about letter location. I never look at the keyboard unless a mistake pops onto my screen. But suppose your fingers did not automatically find the “p” or “q”? Suppose someone shifted the letters on your keyboard? You would be staring at all the letters on the black rectangle in front of you, trying to pick out what you need. And the problem here is not simply time loss. Yes, it takes a while to find the letter “p” if you don’t know it’s location, but while you are searching you are also multitasking. Your attention has been diverted away from the test problem to the more immediate problem of getting your answer down.

We know multitasking affects performance and work quality. “Indeed, performing several decisive tasks in parallel reduces your overall performance by 20 to 50% while extending the completion time from 30% to 200% and multiplying the number of errors made. All this causes intense and lasting mental exhaustion,” according to Multitasking in Project Management | Reasons to Avoid Multitasking (businessstudynotes.com)

Eduhonesty: I consider it ironically possible that the aggressive push to get technology into the hands of disadvantaged students may help make up for COVID learning loss. For younger students, this push may even end up closing the achievement gap somewhat despite that learning loss. Our younger Esmeraldas are learning to type early enough so that their ability to rocket across a keyboard may only minimally affect their actual final test score results when they are older.

But in the meantime, that push may also create the appearance of progress where progress does not exist. Improved keyboarding skills have the potential to raise scores because students can supply more information more quickly. The speed with which students can get their answers down when testing can make all the difference to scores, especially for students who naturally write more slowly. But when scores go up due to speed alone — the resulting score increase might disguise learning loss.

The GIGANTIC point that gets lost today is that standardized test scores haven’t been close to trustworthy since we went to computerized testing. “Them as Gits” have had those keyboards at home, crawling up into laps to use them before they even started school. In homes with less disposable income, the keyboard was nonexistent and the internet connection was usually a phone. Phones provide information. They do not provide test practice.

Note for teachers as they start attending the year’s staff meetings: How can we get keyboarding skills out front and center as a critical requirement for student success, one that cannot wait? Amazingly enough, those skills still are often treated as adjunct to success, rather than central to success.

Note to the Biden Administration: The nationwide, standardized tests you decided were required to document the status of the achievement gap and COVID learning loss? Those tests will lie to you. And the only way I can see to solve this problem — and get more accurate data — is to return to pencils on paper for now.

*The ACT puts college readiness around 21.

How Often Should I Wash My Face Mask? (webmd.com) WebMD recommends washing after each use. There are washing instructions in the article.

That much laundry may drive teachers and parents to disposable masks. Disposable masks vary in quality, plus you don’t know where or how they have been stored. Strong recommendation from yesterday’s post: WEAR one of your kid’s new masks for awhile. Make sure it has no off odors or other uncomfortable features like a tag that should be cut off. How does it feel?

Putting masks on now should be helpful. I am seeing more parents out with masked children in the last few weeks and I support this summer masking. If the kids are going to have to mask in school anyway, I would not wait for school. That just adds one more level of weirdness to starting school. If masks have become part of everyday life, school masks will seem more normal and less distracting.

Consider spending up for the Disney Princess or Avengers mask. Masks are items of clothing and may be considered fashion statements by some children. Like the annual backpack, the “Frozen” mask may even add to a child’s comfort and confidence.

For children and adolescents who wear glasses, the below items can help with fogging. I believe they are now being called “aluminum nose bridge.” I found them originally in a craft store.

Eduhonesty: Hugs, readers. The world remains wild and we keep adapting. Wishing you all a great week. Jocelyn Turner

Are you getting ready for the next school year, reader? In my daughter’s schools, teachers are already coming back. Other teachers have only weeks before the year begins. Parents are out school shopping and I realize I ought to have written this post sooner.

COMFORT should be the key word when back to school shopping. Many children have sensory processing issues, even those who have not been and may never be recognized as having a “problem.” A definition of sorts will help here, although definitions vary and sensory issues fall into a gray area filled with hazy examples more than concrete science. But sensory processing challenges are very real and clothing does not get enough attention.

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From Sensory Processing Disorder: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment (webmd.com):

“Sensory processing disorder is a condition in which the brain has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes in through the senses. Some people with sensory processing disorder are oversensitive to things in their environment. Common sounds may be painful or overwhelming. The light touch of a shirt may chafe the skin.”

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A tag in the back of a shirt can distract a kid ALL day and, as strange as this may sound, that kid may not say anything for days, months or forever. Some kids will immediately pipe up, “Mom, I hate that white thing! It itches!” But others will simply keep scratching their neck. They will pull the fabric from their shorts or pants away from their skin. They will fiddle with their shirt, maybe pulling it away from their skin. They will do little scooching moves in their desks, shifting their position, one inch in one direction and then another inch to the side. Maybe they will scooch nonstop as the school day goes by. They may often be pulling or pushing waistbands, or simply putting their hands inside those bands to get the band away from their skin. (An act which has definitely gotten a few kids in trouble!) And despite all these subtle and not-so-subtle signs of discomfort, certain children never think to complain. That’s just how clothes work in their minds.

Sensory issues may be far less obvious at home where there are more immediate distractions and less need to stay in one position. Distractions help to distract us from our distractions. Plus students who wear uniforms to school can change out of that uniform, and other children can come home and pull out favorite baseball shirts or other changes of clothing that seem perfectly natural.

A few school shopping suggestions:

Smell the masks! I recently returned a batch to Amazon because the odor was … off. Not enough to make me immediately take off the mask, but enough so that I decided after awhile that I could not identify that faint smell and I was not comfortable using those masks. A child might keep wearing a mask with a faint, unfamiliar smell. I’d take the new box of masks and put one on myself for awhile before I started handing them to my kids.

Watch shoes. Some kids can get attached to shoes that no longer fit. They won’t say anything when their feet start bothering them because they don’t want their favorite shoes replaced. Some kids don’t bother to say anything when their toes are getting pinched because pinched toes don’t much bother them. And feet sometimes grow in leaps and bounds.

You are looking for softness. It helps to shut your eyes and feel the fabric. As the Jedi Masters say: “Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them.”

Take the kids if possible. Have them feel possible future school clothes. Ask them, “Do you like how it feels?” Teaching children to put comfort high on their list for clothing choices will help them for life. While shopping as a family can understandably seem too daunting, shopping together helps with the mystery of sizes. One store’s size six can be another store’s size eight. Seven-year-olds do not run true to size.

That’s the major problem with haunting the end-of-season sales. Yes, that size eight outfit may be a great price and size eight ought to be next year’s size. But some kids just rocket through the size chart. Boys especially can easily go up two or three sizes in one year.

If I had the kids with me, I’d try to get them to sit down in any pants they tried on. Many pairs of pants feel great when upright but are much less comfortable while seated at a desk. Where does the fabric bunch? If trying on multiple pairs of pants, I’d ask, “Which ones are most comfortable?” Kids will resist trying on clothes sometimes. I’d be prepared to say, “I know it’s a pain but I want you to be comfortable all day. I am doing this for you because I love you.”

The internet can be hugely helpful. Just type “sensory friendly” into your Amazon or other clothing search. You might try “soft cotton” and other similar searches, too. Sometimes guessing and maybe returning is much easier than a trip to Target, that’s for sure!

Eduhonesty: Parents whose children have pronounced sensory issues likely don’t need any shopping tips. They are already seeking sensory friendly clothing, even when they have not yet tumbled onto that specific description for what they are seeking. Anecdotally, though, I believe mild sensory processing concerns in children are often overlooked. Even teachers may simply get used to watching the scooching. Because some children will scooch nonstop regardless of what they are wearing — clothed or naked, the average kid is not meant to sit still in any one place for a long period of time.

Here’s a quote for the day: “Once you are comfortable in your own skin, you will become unstoppable.”
― Christine E. Szymanski

I don’t know that Christine is right about that unstoppable part 🙂 but I do know Itching can short circuit thinking. Discomfort is distracting. Discomfort can block learning. Here’s a thought-provoking read that lays out some sensory processing issues and provides a good overview: Understanding Sensory Processing Disorder | Understood – For learning and thinking differences

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And now for something completely different! This blog used to write about many topics that had nothing to do with the evils of excessive standardized testing. I’ll be back to that testing soon because I believe excess testing has become a vicious contributor to the achievement gap. But sometimes we all need a break. Thanks to all my readers! Jocelyn Turner

P.S. Using unscented, hypoallergenic detergent always helped my kids, while fabric softeners and dryer sheets were problematic for us.

Parents, teachers say state plan to increase student testing in Illinois will hurt most vulnerable kids – Chicago Tribune by Karen Ann Culotta, Jun 22, 2021 at 5:36 PM*

In my last posts, I barely touched on the larger question of “Barney’s” morale and self-esteem. What does it mean emotionally to have fallen below grade level — perhaps even years below grade level? Silence on this issue ignores one extremely potent argument against increased testing: Too often, we leave behind a trail of emotional devastation with these nonstop tests, depending on the resilience and obliviousness of kids who may be neither resilient nor oblivious.

Let me pull a few paragraphs from the Chicago Tribune link at the top.

“’During springtime, our units with children and adolescents would fill to capacity during testing season,” said (Katie) Osgood, recalling the years she was a teacher at a Chicago hospital’s psychiatric unit.

“We would see children arriving by ambulance directly from testing sessions with things like self-harm … banging their heads on desks, pulling out all of their eyelashes … panic attacks, and we’d see suicidal ideation,” Osgood said.”

I recall a student who carved a word in his arm after one of these tests — a self-criticism that landed him a psychiatric hospital stay. I knew that boy, a hard-working child who was straddling the categories of bilingual and special education. He was trying so hard, but he could not answer the questions in front of him. He had no chance. That test was pitched years above the academic level where he was actually functioning. Special education and bilingual teachers especially know these kids.

I have seen students break into tears during these tests. I have seen quiet acts of defiance, students who put their heads down on their desks and simply refused to start testing. I watched as a student went from trying to answer questions to writing pure gobbledygook on one form, extended response free-association that made almost no sense.

We break some of these kids.

Eduhonesty: I have said what I wanted to say today. I will repeat: We break some of these kids. The percentage may be tiny, but that percentage is spread across all fifty states of this nation.

We have made these standardized tests the focus of instruction and the only barometers of success. What if a kid can’t do what the test demands? We have millions of failing children across the country. We know this. All we have to do is look at standardized test scores across our schools and our states. Or we can simply look at some of the daily work teachers are receiving.

This yellow unit test page is from the year when I was regularly required to give seventh grade Common Core problems to ALL my students so that teachers had comparable data to use to plan instruction. The problem asked students to determine the probability that a family will create a pizza with pepperoni and black olives if the given meat choices are hamburger, sausage and pepperoni and the vegetable choices are mushrooms, black olives and onions. My picture shows a student’s entire answer. The “common instructional plan” that led to this test was not so much a plan as a massacre for the boy or girl who wrote the answers below.

We keeping looking at the gasping fish at the bottom of the tree and throwing salt on them, as far as I am concerned.

*Reader, if you have not read the recent post about “Fred” and “Barney,” please see Let’s “Math” this problem: Why our Overzealous Testing Disproportionately Discriminates Against the Kids Who Have Already Fallen Over the Cliff | Notes from the Educational Trenches (eduhonesty.com), in which I detailed reasons why increased testing hurts Barney more than Fred.

** Apparently Albert Einstein is not the source of this quote. No one seems to be able to track it back to its source.

The Question Too Many Legislators and Educational Bureaucrats Neglect to Answer: What if You Are Not Hermione Granger?

I want to go sideways today to make a sobering observation, one I don’t recall seeing elsewhere. The people who rise to high office are usually good or even excellent test takers. That man or woman with decision-making power within a government hierarchy? The trauma of test taking may be utterly foreign to that person. While not always true, the ability to do well on standardized tests helps predict a person’s chances of getting into the best colleges, and the best colleges have always made pathways to success shorter and easier. The following example illustrates this fact.

From How many American Congressmen have attended Ivy League schools? – Answers:

“…In the present 112th US Congressional session, there are 27 Senators with at least one Ivy League degree–either undergraduate, graduate or both. More interestingly there are 44 US Senators with at least one degree from an Ivy League school or other comparable elite institution of higher learning. This includes top law schools like New York University, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, and University of Texas. Also included are the top three liberal arts colleges in the nation–Amherst, Swarthmore and Williams –and prestigious institutions like Cambridge, Oxford and the London School of Economics in the UK, and Georgetown (which is heavily represented), Duke, Stanford and other highly regarded non-Ivy universities. Couple this with most Senators being millionaires, and you start realizing how unrepresentative Congress–or at least the Senate–really is.”

Eduhonesty: How do you get into those schools? Especially in the past, ACT, SAT and other standardized test scores were often deciding factors. My point is simple. No doubt we can find exceptions but, overall, the people deciding to test and add more tests cannot viscerally understand the impact of their choices. They may even have enjoyed test days. Back before test score emphasis felt so frantic — back when most of these legislators and top educational bureaucrats were young — that test was an annual feather in their caps, another 90% or higher in most or all categories that resulted in a guidance counselor pointing them toward Stanford, Williams, Cornell or the best their region had to offer.

These leaders do not and cannot understand the impact of their choices to increase testing. Too many of them were the Hermione Grangers, or at least Ron Weasleys, of their student body.

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From my next post: Parents, teachers say state plan to increase student testing in Illinois will hurt most vulnerable kids – Chicago Tribune by Karen Ann Culotta, Jun 22, 2021 at 5:36 PM*

“During springtime, our units with children and adolescents would fill to capacity during testing season,” said (Katie) Osgood, recalling the years she was a teacher at a Chicago hospital’s psychiatric unit.

I’d like to invent some hypothetical math that makes a simple point: The plan by the Illinois State Board of Education to triple the number of annual standardized assessments for students will most hurt the students who are already behind. I can prove this.

Parents, teachers say state plan to increase student testing in Illinois will hurt most vulnerable kids – Chicago Tribune

To start, I am going to invent two students. I will call them Fred and Barney.

Fred is a bit above grade level. In order to be ready for the next year, he requires 150 days of instruction. Yes, I just invented Fred, but there are many Freds in the system. These students tend to test decently.

Barney has fallen a few years behind grade level. To be ready for the next year — that is, to cover the past curriculum he somehow failed to master and then reach grade level — Barney requires 320 days of instruction with supplemental evening and week-end tutoring. Barney doesn’t test well, of course. That’s how we know he is significantly behind grade level. In some Chicago public schools, many members of the student body qualify as a Barney. *

In my above example, Barney needs 320 days to “catch up” to grade level. In real life, that number might be 290 or 510 days. An exact count would be impossible to determine. The concept “grade level” is in constant motion, as is Barney. Grade level can change radically with one sweep of the standards too. Many on-target students stumbled down the stairs toward the basement with the arrival of the Common Core standards and related tests.

A lot of factors are in play and my learning curve is not actually linear. Barney may learn at an average or even faster pace and may have fallen behind due to missing school and moving frequently. Barney may be a slow learner with undiagnosed dyslexia. But whatever the source of his lower achievement, he’s behind. He will require extra instruction to catch up, extra instruction that may not exist for him, especially since we now try to pack every minute of every school day with standards-based instruction.

Now let’s look at the math. I want to show how the three-test-more-testing plan discriminates against poor Barney. My last school year, I lost over 1/5th of the year to testing, but we will assume less loss here. Let’s say days lost to standardized testing and benchmark tests only total 16 days, an optimistic choice of values. When I left off, the actual instructional days in Chicago Public Schools totaled 170 days.

Fred’s fine. He can be fully ready for next year, with the caveat that he’ll have to make up a bit of summer learning loss.

170 total school days – 16 test days = 154 days of instruction available to Fred. That’s enough for Fred, who is already above grade level and a fairly quick study academically. He only needs around 150 to stay at grade level. He will be ready to tackle next year’s subject matter. In numbers, 154 – 150 = +4

Barney may also have 154 instructional days. Sometimes our Barneys go to summer school, but that school is not always mandatory or even available. Barney is already deficit spending where schools days are concerned. In numbers, 154 – 320 = -166. No summer school can begin to fill this gap, especially since summer school often only runs four or five hours a day for four to six weeks.

Let’s charitably assume that Barney receives mandatory summer school for five hours a day for five weeks. We’ll count those days as 3/4s of a regular school day. In math terms, 25 days times 0.75 = 18.75 regular school days. So let’s give Barney 18.75 days credit to get a less onerous estimate: -166 + 18.75 = -147.25. After summer school, Barney now only requires an additional 147.25 extra days ON TOP OF A REGULAR SCHOOL YEAR to catch up to grade level. If this were a word problem, I would ask students what mathematical process we might use to express “on top of,” expecting to hear, “You add the numbers, Ms. Turner. ”

Barney requires 170 + 147.25 = 317.25 days total to catch up to grade level. That’s a mountain to climb — and currently we make almost no provision for our Barney’s when they have fallen that far behind. Where will the time come from to add that missing learning on top of the full, packed curriculum already laid out for his age?

We stole 16 days of instruction from these two students with standardized tests. We stole nearly 10% of the school year. With additional benchmark, AP, ACT and other tests, we may be stealing considerably more. But who feels the loss from those 16 days more?

“It’s only another 3 days or six days or week and a half,” our leaders will offer as justification when the increased time required for added testing hits the radar. But here’s the thing: Fred’s not falling behind. He has a margin of power around his daily academic needs. He might be a little more prepared for college calculus if he had an extra month of instruction instead of new tests during high school. Because of those tests, he might end up going for extra tutoring to help him though his first college mathematics classes. But Fred will be ready to move on to tougher material after he graduates from high school. We stole a few of Fred’s cupcakes, but Fred still has enough cupcakes to keep himself from ever going hungry.

Barney, on the other hand, is starving. He has been for a long time. That’s what phrases like “three years behind grade level” mean. He’s so academically hungry that he’s hurting unless he has decided not to care, a common response that’s sometimes the only psychic self-defense available. Barney never had any cupcakes to spare. He needs every academic week he can get — and a number he will probably never see. Every lost week leaves him more confused, and the more confused he gets, probably the more demotivated he becomes.

There’s a macabre sort of irony here: We test and test to find out where our students stand.

We keep stealing their food in order to determine how malnourished they have become.

Barney needs more time learning mathematics in math class, not more time documenting how much mathematics he does not know so that government leaders can wring their hands in public, published despair about how poor Barney is in such awful shape. It honestly makes me think of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, the mental health problem in which a caregiver deliberately causes sickness in a child, elderly adult, or disabled person. Our Barneys are starving for learning time and are becoming hungrier all the time. Instead of feeding them, instead of teaching them, we give them weeks of extra tests and then trumpet their declining academic health.

Eduhonesty: Damn, this is crazy, and it never seems to stop. Yes, we need testing to gauge student progress, but not weeks and weeks of testing. We ought to be able to produce progress reports with one single robust benchmark test given for two days, three times a year, for a total six-day instructional loss.

We are focusing on America’s score numbers when what we ought to be focusing on is our students’ INSTRUCTIONAL TIME numbers. How much time do our students require to catch up? How can we increase the learning time they receive? We can’t improve Barney’s situation without giving him more time, yet somehow plans by government leaders and educational bureaucrats always steal time away from Barney and other struggling students instead. How hard is it to understand that testing directly steals instructional time — a commodity that the some kids can afford to lose, but others cannot?

I put numbers in this article to try to make that loss more real. This is the testing version of my last post: Them as Has Always Seems to Git More. The privileged kids in privileged districts get more — and they also lose less. Maybe both my boys lost 16 days, but the value of those days was much smaller for Fred, who did not need that instructional time to effectively stay caught up.

Meanwhile, like I said, poor Barney is starving while political leaders and educational bureaucrats keep aggressively raiding his dwindling and already inadequate supply of cupcakes.

*Incidentally, it’s extremely hard to get current information related to student academic progress right now in Illinois. The Illinois interactive state report card used to be a robust source of data. This year, however, the site blames COVID and simply does not provide many numbers. They may not have those numbers. A more sobering possibility: Perhaps those numbers came in so low that no one wants to put them up for public review.

Mostly I only sideswipe the real monster. Why is US education such a mess in some zip codes? We can pepper blogs and news articles with myriad attacks on education’s problems, but a fairly simple bottom line explains the discrepancy between zip codes: Property-tax-based funding is inherently unfair, favoring wealthier neighborhoods, and ensuring that the kids at the bottom of today’s educational pile-up will continue to stay at the bottom.

I believe No Child Left Behind, the Common Core and other “solutions” of the recent past have been attempts at end-runs around this truth: Property-tax-based funding cheats poor children and should be abolished. Looking for Superteacher is one more way to avoid addressing discriminatory funding.

Year after year, children in financially-disadvantaged areas end up in financially disadvantaged schools. Those schools don’t have the money to do many science experiments, which may be for the best if those experiments involve possible showers or eyewashes. They don’t have the money for many afterschool clubs or activities. The lunchroom may serve mystery meat or simply smaller portions of recognizable food. America’s children whose parents cannot easily buy electronics end up in the schools that cannot afford those devices without sacrificing elsewhere in their staffing, infrastructure and curricula.

The US system for funding education has been and continues to be grossly unfair.

Eduhonesty: The current system also works for legislators, almost all of whom live in comfortable districts filled with higher-valued properties that provide greater tax revenue and better-funded schools.

P.S. Charter schools are another end run around the funding problem. When schools are underperforming, the government provides funds to build alternative schools. While those schools may sometimes represent an improvement over local offerings, they also provide a way to avoid reforming funding across the nation — rather like putting pain-killing patches over nerve damage without ever investigating why the patient is in pain.

P.S.S. I am aware I am saying absolutely nothing new here. But somehow this topic seems to have been getting lost lately in discussions of tests especially. Yes, we have far too many tests. But let’s keep hammering away at property-tax-based funding. Want a scary thought to chew on? A Grim Reality of Reopening: More Mold | WIRED Being in a prosperous school district allows for reallocation of funds to fix new problems. What will happen in districts that barely have enough funds to operate? Will the mold be prioritized? CAN the mold be prioritized?

What state do you live in? That’s where you need to start, reader. In some states, as you add years into the teaching pension system, you lose years in your social security benefits. You can end up with no social security, all those payments wiped out by something innocuously labeled an “offset.”

Most states are “safe” for that mid-life change. Where teachers are tied to social security, the benefits don’t disappear because of a career change. However, teachers in 12 states — Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, and Texas — are not using Social Security for teacher pensions. One group of outliers also exists: I have no idea how this works, but in Georgia, Kentucky, and Rhode Island your social security coverage will differ by school district.

So what do you do if you live in the fifteen states listed above? RUN THE NUMBERS. RUN ALL THE NUMBERS AND UNDERSTAND THE NUMBERS. You will have to make some projections, but you cannot simply assume “it will all work out alright.” That’s not necessarily the case. If you have a pension from a job where you did not pay Social Security taxes, your benefit will likely be reduced by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). One very important point: That sheet that social security sends you regularly? It lies.

Social security is not tracking your time or benefits in the public sector. That Social Security statement does not reflect reductions in benefits from the WEP. Not until you file for your social security will the Social Security Administration do the necessary calculations to figure out how much your reduction will be if you appear to qualify for both Social Security and a non-covered pension. In the worst-case scenario, you will lose all or almost all your social security — which may not be problematic if your public pension is good enough, although given that you paid into social security, this whole situation leaves a vile taste in my mouth.

Another term readers should know: Substantial earnings. It’s not enough to have paid $$ into social security during a given year for that to count in your calculations. You have to have made “substantial earnings.” Below is a chart of the substantial earnings by year which would be required to sidestep the WEP. (Teacher’s Retirement and Social Security (2021 Update) – Social Security Intelligence.)

I should note the above-cited website makes the WEP sound like no big deal at times, despite the fact that the WEP has a large impact on some pensions. It’s true that thirty years of substantial earnings into social security and the WEP is eliminated. It starts to be phased out at 20 years. Here’s one takeaway from that fact: If you are at 25 years of substantial earnings into social security and left the private sector to go into teaching late in life, but are not happy with your position right now, it might be a smart move to leave and spend five more years in the private sector to get your full social security benefits. You have to run the numbers to check what the impact will be from returning to your private-sector career choice — but that impact might be worth the move, especially if the stress of your teaching position has been wearing you down.

Eduhonesty: I kind of hate this post. I hate it because I don’t think it will work in many cases. I think Americans often have a regrettable habit of assuming everything will work out somehow when they get older. I remember a discussion I had years ago with my brother about 50-year-old coworkers of his who were suddenly entering a sort of panic mode as they realized that they might be in a world of retirement hurt and they genuinely did not have time to fix their situations. Retirement planning does not allow for last-minute rescues and quick fixes.

Fellow teacher or anybody else out there reading this post?

WHAT IS YOUR RETIREMENT SITUATION?

If you are in those fifteen states listed above, and you will not make it to your full teaching retirement, you should take this month to find out just where you are at. It’s not so simple. Here’s a quirky fact to chew on: Due to my years as a stay-home mom here in Illinois, I would normally benefit noticeably from taking 1/2 of my husband’s social security.* Except I don’t. Due to the WEP, it makes as much sense to use my own benefits because I lose all the benefit from his higher social security due to the size of the offset. I’ll get the same total amount from social security because the extra from his higher benefits gets wiped out. Another little quirk worth noting: Social security uses the time when you apply for social security benefits as the time when they determine the amount of your teaching pension for their offset calculations. That matters because my teaching pension goes up annually. Smaller teaching pension = potentially higher social security.

You have to do the numbers to see how this will play out. One way it might play out is to make retiring earlier under the social security system more attractive. All that talk about how it’s more advantageous to retire at 66 years and two months or whatever the full retirement age will be for you? That talk is for the average social security recipient. The size of your teaching pension affects your bottom-line for social security benefits and in states with annual pension increases, getting your social security sooner may make financial sense.

If all this math seems daunting, reader, who could you ask for help? I’d like to suggest any readers fuzzy about their retirements take June to find out exactly how they are doing. Check with social security once you get underway, but make sure you get the right help. I did not get the same answers from the two people I asked in social security. I trust Guy #2. It’s sobering that Guy #1 — an individual in the social security office — did not get his numbers right.

Readers on the fence about going back next year, especially if you are older and live in those fifteen states, make retirement part of your planning process. Even if you are younger, sometimes retirement should be in the picture. If I were one year from being vested in a solid system, I might postpone my departure from my district for at least one more year.

This post is rather nebulous, but individual circumstances vary so much I don’t see a way around that lack of concrete detail. Illinois has an excellent public pension system (enough so that people worry about the solvency of the state government) and being part of that system for a long enough period of time definitely beats social security, although new tiers of retirement benefits ensure that new hires don’t do as well as hires of the past. States have their own systems. How yours will work for you will take some sleuthing.

If you came to teaching late, though, that sleuthing ought to be bumped to the top of the to-do list for June. This is especially true for those who stayed home or worked part-time while the kids were small. Part-time may not have reached “substantial” earnings. How can you maximize your retirement? Can you avoid taking a deep financial haircut due to the WEP? Who can you ask for help to figure this out? Will more time in either the public or private sector help substantially? How much time? Should you take social security early retirement, given that you are not the average bear, and your pension may see an effective increase from a lower teaching pension before cost-of-living increases? This is a personal quest. No internet article can do it for you. Too many factors are in play — and you ignore those factors at your own risk.

As you do your calculations, don’t ignore health insurance, the invisible elephant that many people do not appreciate when their employer is providing that insurance. The average cost of health insurance varies widely depending on where a person lives and their age. Bridging the gap until you qualify for Medicare can be pricey. (How Much Will Health Insurance Cost in Retirement? | The Motley Fool) Here is one actual number: “For example, a 62-year-old woman living in Charlottesville, Virginia, and earning $50,000 a year (slightly over 400% of the federal poverty level) would have to pay, at a minimum, a premium of $797 per month, or nearly 20% of her income, for a bronze plan purchased through Virginia’s health insurance exchange.” (Health Insurance Solutions for 60+ Year Olds Not Ready For Medicare – PivotHealth.com) It helps to fall below the poverty line. Subsidies can help rescue a low-income person.**

Here is my eduhonesty honest truth: If I didn’t have a supportive family and I hadn’t married the finance guy, I might be living in a little trailer or a one-bedroom apartment right now. Local cost-of-living would force me to relocate. I’d probably pick a small, rural town with fishing and good thrift shops. The urban areas I can afford on my pension are simply unsafe — crime rates are running too high for a petite senior citizen. I’d be getting an occasional beer at the one small tavern in town, trying to avoid the pricey little convenience store, while waiting for the government pantry to give me my milk, cheese and other groceries on Wednesday. I’d count my teacher’s health insurance as a real piece of luck — one that not everyone out there will be able to duplicate.

I’ve heard far worse plans than that hypothetical retirement above, reader, but I strongly recommend you explore your own retirement options sooner rather than later, especially if you live in those fifteen states listed above. June is a perfect time, this June, right now — before it’s too late to make changes that might make your last maybe thirty-some years easier.

Hugs to my readers, Jocelyn Turner

*If you don’t understand what I just wrote, you have a retirement planning emergency on your hands. Please open up Google and start with something like, “how do social security benefits work,” understanding that if you are a teacher in those fifteen states they DON’T WORK LIKE THAT FOR YOU. But get started on learning how the federal and state systems operate.

** The Affordable Care Act is under attack right now, though, so I would not count on ACA benefits. My Twitter feed is filled at the moment with people who are worried about a SCOTUS ruling on the ACA — both because of possible cost increases and because the ACA did away with the ability of insurance companies not to cover pre-existing conditions. Those pre-existing condition clauses can return. What the government gives, the government can take away.