I have been Black-Listed

Several weeks ago I wrote a panicky post about my fear of being blacklisted by the Michigan Department of Education. It came true this week.

For the last year or two I've been doing work for the MDE- mostly looking over the standardized tests they give out and assessing whether the content in them is appropriate for students. While in these committees, I've been getting more and more vocal about what I see is the one-sided liberal slant, and how it is hurting students' scores. Last meeting, I argued with the testing company and other teachers about some very shockingly offensive questions, and I think finally started to annoy others on the committee and the people running the committee- all good liberal Democrats. They didn't like me asking questions about their poor (liberal) questions, or questioning the overall slant and bias of the test. When the meeting was over, I was told that we'd be meeting again soon as a group.

So, this week, I got invited by email to come to a new meeting of the committee I'm on, along with a dozen others. I replied within 5 minutes saying I'd be there, and got a confirmation that I had reserved my spot. A week later, I got an email from the MDE saying that I was not in fact on the committee because I hadn't replied quick enough. When I questioned this, I was next told that there was no committee meeting at all. When I questioned this, I no longer got any replies from anyone at the MDE. I doubt that I will ever be invited back to serve on this committee.

Why? It is not because of my analysis- the questions that I objected to were also statistically bad, in that good students did poor on them, no one answer stood out, too much guessing, and other bad numbers. It was not because of my behavior- friendly and nice- or my attendance- punctual and hard-working. I am not being asked back because I asked the wrong kind of questions- questions that liberals do not want asked.

Imagine- a government agency, one that is supposed to be all about kids and education, is black listing any person who disagrees with a liberal agenda. There is a movement that is growing in this country to do this to more and more people, and it is scary.

So, the Michigan Department of Education is now blacklisting me because I asked too many questions about the political slant of their state mandated tests. I really don't know what else to say at this time. Just thought I'd mention it.