Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, November 2, 2015

Financial Woes Plague Common-Core Rollout - WSJ

Financial Woes Plague Common-Core Rollout - WSJ:

Financial Woes Plague Common-Core Rollout

After 45 states adopt educational standards, many have second thoughts



EDMOND, Okla.—Educators in this Oklahoma City suburb jumped into action when state leaders in 2010 adopted the Common Core academic standards that were sweeping states across the country.
The Edmond school district has a big military population that moves frequently, so officials liked the idea of using the same standards as other states. They also saw Oklahoma’s old standards as inferior. They spent about $500,000 preparing teachers and students, collaborating with educators in other states and buying materials and computers for a new Common Core test, finishing a year in advance.
Then state politicians backtracked, for reasons both financial and political. They dropped plans to give the new test, and during an election campaign in which the standards were hotly debated, they repealed Common Core. Edmond employees came in at the end of the summer last year to rewrite their curriculum again.
“The cost for me in time and training was phenomenally huge,” says Tara Fair, Edmond’s associate superintendent. “That’s one of the things that made me really sick when we went back to the old standards.”
Five years into the biggest transformation of U.S. public education in recent history, Common Core is far from common. Though 45 states initially adopted the shared academic standards in English and math, seven have since repealed or amended them. Among the remaining 38, big disparities remain in what and how students are taught, the materials and technology they use, the preparation of teachers and the tests they are given. A dozen more states are considering revising or abandoning Common Core.
One reason is that Common Core became a hypercharged political issue, with grass-roots movements pressing elected leaders to back off. Some conservatives saw the shared standards as a federal intrusion into state matters, in part because the Obama administration provided grant funding. Some liberals and conservatives decried what they saw as excessive testing and convoluted teaching materials. The standards are a hot topic in the Republican presidential race. Last month, Barack Obama recommendedlimiting the amount of class time students spend on testing, saying excessive testing “takes the joy out of teaching and learning.”
Money trouble
But politics isn’t the only reason for the turmoil. Many school districts discovered they didn’t have enough money to do all they needed to do. Some also found that meeting deadlines to implement the standards was nearly impossible.
The total cost of implementing Common Core is difficult to determine because the country’s education spending is fragmented among thousands of districts. The Wall Financial Woes Plague Common-Core Rollout - WSJ:

Obama’s regret: “Taking the joy out of teaching and learning” | Seattle Education

Obama’s regret: “Taking the joy out of teaching and learning” | Seattle Education:

Obama’s regret: “Taking the joy out of teaching and learning”



pop-quiz
Obama’s call to reduce testing to 2% of the school year still requires students to take standardized tests for an outlandish twenty-four hours.  And it isn’t even all the time directly spent taking the tests that’s the biggest problem.
The real shame, which Obama never addressed, is that as long as there are high-stakes attached to the standardized tests, test prep activities will continue to dominate instructional time.
By Seattle’s own Jesse Hagopian

Obama regrets “taking the joy out of teaching and learning” with too much testing

In a stunning turn of events, President Obama announced last weekend that “unnecessary testing” is “consuming too much instructional time” and creating “undue stress for educators and students.” Rarely has a president so thoroughly repudiated such a defining aspect of his own public education policy.  In a three-minute video announcing this reversal, Obama cracks jokes about how silly it is to over-test students, and recalls that the teachers who had the most influence on his life were not the ones who prepared him best for his standardized tests. Perhaps Obama hopes we will forget it was his own Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, who radically reorganized America’s education system around the almighty test score.
Obama’s statement comes in the wake of yet another study revealing the overwhelming number of standardized tests children are forced to take: The average student today is subjected to 112 standardized tests between preschool and high school graduation. Because it’s what we have rewarded and required, America’s education system has become completely fixated on how well students perform on tests. Further, the highest concentration of these tests are in schools serving low-income students and students of color.
To be sure, Obama isn’t the only president to menace the education system with high-stakes exams.  This thoroughly bi-partisan project was enabled by George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. NCLB became law in 2002 with overwhelming support from Obama’s regret: “Taking the joy out of teaching and learning” | Seattle Education:

Teachers For Social Justice: ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOL BOARD—THIS IS OUR MOMENT!

Teachers For Social Justice: ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOL BOARD—THIS IS OUR MOMENT!:

ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOL BOARD—THIS IS OUR MOMENT!

UPDATE! ELECTED SCHOOL BOARD—
THIS IS OUR MOMENT!

This is a game changer. 



The popularity of an elected representative school board in Chicago (2 advisory referendums with close to 90% of voters in favor) and CPS’s chaos and damaging policies have spurred the Democrats to introduce House Bill 4268 to end mayoral control and give Chicagoans the same right as every other Illinois school district to elect our school board. HB 4268l has 5 chief sponsors in the Illinois General Assembly; 50 State Reps have signed on. We are beginning work with the State Senate. This is OUR BILL (school bd members elected from geographic districts representative of Chicago’s majority Black and Latino voters). Grassroots Education Movement (GEM—city-wide coalition of community orgs, parent orgs, TSJ, CTU) is working closely with Rep. Martwick who is chairing the ERSB task force.  We need a veto-proof majority in the Assembly (71 votes) and comparable in the Senate.

WE CAN GET THIS BILL PASSED SPRING 2016! WE need to mobilize to make sure it happens. 



WHAT WE NEED TO DO:
* attend town hall meetings across the city to show support and make sure the elected officials follow through (see schedule below. Sign up to testify in favor. MAIN THING TO DO NOW.
*hang a window sign at your house and work and distribute window signs (coming soon) 
*help with phone baking (just one hour makes a difference)
*participate in a door-door canvas to mobilize support
*contact your elected official to ask if they are supporting. Thank them or tell them to get on board.   
*come out to mass rallies in Chicago and Springfield when we need to demonstrate mass support 
*donate to our crowdfund campaign for a lawsuit for an elected school board https://rally.org/ChiElectSchoolBoard

Email teachersforjustice@hotmail.com to let us know how you will be involved. Check TSJ website for updates.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Elected Representative School Board




Teachers For Social Justice: ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOL BOARD—THIS IS OUR MOMENT!:

Will we get more testing status quo from Presidential Candidates? — NAACP Now

Will we get more testing status quo from Presidential Candidates? — NAACP Now — Medium:

Will we get more testing status quo from Presidential Candidates?

Many were recently disappointed by the lack of conversation about K-12 education in the recent Democratic debate in Las Vegas. The Progressive Magazine asked me to reflect on the dearth of coverage. I wrote.
The recent Democratic Party presidential debate in Las Vegas left many observers scratching their heads. Why did the candidates and their CNN hosts ignore K-12 education?
Is education not important enough to merit discussion as a top national priority in 2016? The public clearly cares about education. US News reportsthat education is the third ranked search term on Google. When Gallup askedan open-ended question on the most important issues to voters in the 2016 campaign, education came in sixth.
We know that education is important to the public. What issues do voters identify as most important? A recentpoll found that “less testing” was tied with “parental involvement” for the most important issue.
High-stakes tests came to the nation with the passage of No Child Left Behind during the presidency of George W. Bush. The tests were framed as education reform. However, high-stakes tests were born in China to sort and stratify society. Thus, high-stakes testing is not a new educational reform. China has used tests to sort their society for more than 1500 years!
Closer to home, for about 100 years, high-stakes tests have been used to sort and track students in the United States. Tests were spurred early on by the racist Eugenics movement. The Seattle NAACP recently quoted W.E.B Du Bois, Co-founder of the NAACP
It was not until I was long out of school and indeed after the [first] World War that there came the hurried use of the new technique of psychological tests, Will we get more testing status quo from Presidential Candidates? — NAACP Now — Medium:

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/2/15



CORPORATE ED REFORM




Yes, this stuff is still happening in U.S. schools — and it’s wrong - The Washington Post
Yes, this stuff is still happening in U.S. schools — and it’s wrong - The Washington Post: Yes, this stuff is still happening in U.S. schools — and it’s wrongA high school in an impoverished community is ordered closed. It is doing an awful job with its students, the school board says, and the dwindling number of kids who attend deserve a better education somewhere else. But that “somewhere else” 
CBE Online is Neither Personalized Nor Higher-Order Thinking!
CBE Online is Neither Personalized Nor Higher-Order Thinking!: CBE Online is Neither Personalized Nor Higher-Order Thinking!Competency-Based Education (CBE) is being promoted as the way to “personalize” education, but it is a cold impersonal method of teaching on the computer. It fails to teach to the whole child and merely provides fragmented drill. It will be coordinated with Common Core, and th
It Was a Bad Week for Education Reform at the End of an Awful Era of Corporate School Reform | John Thompson
It Was a Bad Week for Education Reform at the End of an Awful Era of Corporate School Reform | John Thompson: It Was a Bad Week for Education Reform at the End of an Awful Era of Corporate School ReformThe title of Jeff Bryant's Education Opportunity Network piece says it best: Education Reform's Very Bad, God-Awful Week. Bryant reviews the resignation of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Presid
A Copernican Revolution Needed for Democratic School Reform | Harry Boyte
A Copernican Revolution Needed for Democratic School Reform | Harry Boyte: A Copernican Revolution Needed for Democratic School ReformIn the last installment of our Education Week blog conversation on democracy and schools, Deborah Meier gave a remarkable account of school change efforts in the last two decades, "Democratic Experiments." She is worth quoting at length:"In the early
If Eva Moskowitz Weren’t Real, Charter School Opponents Would Have Had to Make Her Up
Eva Moskowitz defends Success Academy principal responsible for 'got to go' list.: If Eva Moskowitz Weren’t Real, Charter School Opponents Would Have Had to Make Her UpAt a press conference Friday afternoon, Eva Moskowitz, former New York City Council member and the founder and CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools, announced that she would not fire the principal responsible for the now-notorious
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Tribune editorial board has found their 'Mussolini'. But IL crisis is a bi-partisan affair.
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Tribune editorial board has found their 'Mussolini'. But IL crisis is a bi-partisan affair.: The Tribune editorial board has found their 'Mussolini'. But IL crisis is a bi-partisan affair.Rahm and GriffinHILLARY'S IN TOWN TODAY raising lots of campaign dough. I would have attended this morning's brunch at the Gold Coast home of Tanya and Michael Polsky, the CEO o
Walton Foundation’s new education investment strategy: Scary or what? - The Washington Post
Walton Foundation’s new education investment strategy: Scary or what? - The Washington Post: Walton Foundation’s new education investment strategy: Scary or what?The Walton Foundation is one of the biggest players in the education philanthropy world, having poured some $1.3 billion in K-12 education over the last two decades largely to support charter schools and fuel the “school choice” movement.
CURMUDGUCATION: NC: Queen of NCLB Takes Over University
CURMUDGUCATION: NC: Queen of NCLB Takes Over University:NC: Queen of NCLB Takes Over UniversityNorth Carolina's conservative GOP leadership has been working hard to show the nation how aneducation system can be trashed quickly and thoroughly, and while we have focused lots of attention on how they are trying to gut their K-12 system, what dismantling of public education would be complete without g
Most Likely 2 Succeed | EduShyster
Most Likely 2 Succeed | EduShyster: Most Likely 2 SucceedVenture capitalist-turned-documentary-producer Ted Dintersmith is a fierce critic of test and measure, and no excuses charter schools. And he offers a compelling vision of what schools could look like….EduShyster: Your new film, Most Likely to Succeed, makes a convincing case that the obsession with standardized testing is leading us over a
Once again Connecticut elected officials are wrong to mandate the SAT for all 11th graders - Wait What?
Once again Connecticut elected officials are wrong to mandate the SAT for all 11th graders - Wait What?: Once again Connecticut elected officials are wrong to mandate the SAT for all 11th gradersAs the 2015 Session of the Connecticut General Assembly came careening to a close last spring, legislators overwhelmingly approved a bill that replaced the mandate that 11thgraders take the unfair, inappro
Moskowitz and Petrilli Push Education Model Designed to Serve Strivers and Shed the Rest | janresseger
Moskowitz and Petrilli Push Education Model Designed to Serve Strivers and Shed the Rest | janresseger: Moskowitz and Petrilli Push Education Model Designed to Serve Strivers and Shed the RestIt is amazing to watch Eva Moskowitz, New York City’s charter school diva, take on her arch political rival, Mayor Bill de Blasio in a charter school war she wages through histrionics and melodrama.  The two
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES Rauner's a 'sociopath'. Does anyone still doubt it?
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES Rauner's a 'sociopath'. Does anyone still doubt it?: WEEKEND QUOTABLES Rauner's a 'sociopath'. Does anyone still doubt it?"Sociopath" Rauner sends Chicago a dead fish.CTU Pres. Karen Lewis"I do want to say something about that sociopath governor," Lewis said during her talk Friday before launching into a long story about an encou
Hailed as a ‘bold vision,’ an innovative school plan hits roadblocks - The Hechinger Report
Hailed as a ‘bold vision,’ an innovative school plan hits roadblocks - The Hechinger Report: Hailed as a ‘bold vision,’ an innovative school plan hits roadblocksControversy over a California community center that would unite a school district and a city shows how popular ideas can lose favor once they are executedEMERYVILLE, Calif. — The Emeryville Center of Community Life was supposed to be a sli
.@NAACP Now: Will we get more testing status quo from Presidential Candidates? | Cloaking Inequity
.@NAACP Now: Will we get more testing status quo from Presidential Candidates? | Cloaking Inequity: @NAACP Now: Will we get more testing status quo from Presidential Candidates?I recently wrote an article for the NAACP national office about the 2016 presidential race, high-stakes testing, Common Core and civil rights. I wrote the piece for NAACP Now, a forum that includes “voices of members, activ
From 'Book Strap' To 'Burrito': A History Of The School Backpack : NPR Ed : NPR
From 'Book Strap' To 'Burrito': A History Of The School Backpack : NPR Ed : NPR: From 'Book Strap' To 'Burrito': A History Of The School BackpackOur Tools of the Trade series is exploring some of the icons of schools and education.My editor, Steve Drummond, isn't that old of a guy. He's from Michigan — Wayne Memorial High School, class of '79.But when he starts talking about backpacks, he dips int
In Elizabeth, Christie and the NJEA, perfect together | Bob Braun's Ledger
In Elizabeth, Christie and the NJEA, perfect together | Bob Braun's Ledger: In Elizabeth, Christie and the NJEA, perfect togetherChristie and the teachers’ union–happy together in ElizabethThe lawns in my neighborhood are predictably dotted with political signs promoting the two slates for three school board seats. One slate is backed by Elizabeth’s Democratic mayor, Chris Bollwage, and state Sen.
Deterioration of public school arts programs has been particularly jarring in L.A. - LA Times
Deterioration of public school arts programs has been particularly jarring in L.A. - LA Times: Deterioration of public school arts programs has been particularly jarring in L.A.rmandie Avenue Elementary Principal Gustavo Ortiz worries that he can't provide arts classes for most of the 900 students at his South Los Angeles school.Not a single art or music class was offered until this year at Curtis
With A Brooklyn Accent: The Enemies Eva Moskowitz Has Made
With A Brooklyn Accent: The Enemies Eva Moskowitz Has Made: The Enemies Eva Moskowitz Has MadeEva Moskowitz may be popular with Hedge Fund Managers, famous singers some politicians, and to be fair, many parents in her schools, but she is a lot less popular with1. Parents, Teachers and Students in schools who are Co-Loated with Success Academy schools who have been insulted, ostracized deprived of
Gentrification in U.S. cities masks big declines in math.- US News
How Can Cities' NAEP Report Cards Be OK When Students Are Doing Worse? - US News: How Can Cities' NAEP Report Cards Be OK When Students Are Doing Worse?Gentrification in U.S. cities masks big declines in math.Here's a riddle. In New York City, the largest school district in the nation, eighth-grade math scores were virtually unchanged between 2013 and 2015, according to national test results relea
Campus Equity Week - Lily's Blackboard
Campus Equity Week - Lily's Blackboard: Campus Equity WeekIt’s fitting that we celebrate Campus Equity Week during the last full week of October, right before Halloween. While students are out trying to scare each other on this day every year, contingent faculty face scary circumstances that last year-round.This includes carrying overwhelming student debt, no offices on their campuses to meet with
DENVER: Colorado recall targets conservative school board members | Nation | CentreDaily.com
DENVER: Colorado recall targets conservative school board members | Nation | CentreDaily.com: Colorado recall targets conservative school board membersDENVER — Angry parents and educators in a Colorado battleground county are trying to recall three conservative school board members Tuesday, citing several complaints, including a change in how teachers get pay raises and talk of reviewing the histo
Lily Eskelsen GarcĂ­a: Test results don't cure inequity: Opposing view
Test results don't cure inequity: Opposing view: Test results don't cure inequity: Opposing viewWe need to understand what really works to close opportunity gapsIf taking a patient’s temperature cured disease, the world would be much healthier.  will tell you that knowing there’s a fever begs the question: Why? A thorough examination follows, ultimately leading to a diagnosis — which in and of its
Let's talk about that market-based school reform, shall we?
Let's talk about that market-based school reform, shall we?: Let's talk about that market-based school reform, shall we?How about every day this month?In the past few weeks I've read over and over about "successful market-based reforms" and school districts "borrowing ideas from the world of business" as if this is some trendy, superexciting new model. As if it is not the shopw
The Costs of English-Only Education: A Growing Movement to Teach ELL Students in Their Native Languages - The Atlantic
The Costs of English-Only Education: A Growing Movement to Teach ELL Students in Their Native Languages - The Atlantic: The Costs of English-Only EducationEfforts to teach ELL students in their native languages are gaining traction—and they’re benefitting native English speakers, too.In 1998, Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley millionaire and former gubernatorial candidate, set out to abolish bilingual edu
How daylight saving time explains standardized test scores - The Washington Post
How daylight saving time explains standardized test scores - The Washington Post: How daylight saving time explains standardized test scores“Cut scores,” according to the Educational Testing Service, are “selected points on the score scale of a test,” points that “are used to determine whether a particular test score is sufficient for some purpose.” In education today, of course, the purpose for w

YESTERDAY

2016 United Opt Out Conference: Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution | Seattle Education
2016 United Opt Out Conference: Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution | Seattle Education: 2016 United Opt Out Conference: Transcending Resistance, Igniting RevolutionUnited Opt Out National ConferenceFriday, February 26, 2016Sunday, February 28, 2016Philadelphia, PA Transcending Resistance, Igniting RevolutionIt is time for revolution.  It is time for non-negotiable demands.It is time to r
In Denver suburb, a school board race morphs into $1 million ‘proxy war’ - The Washington Post
In Denver suburb, a school board race morphs into $1 million ‘proxy war’ - The Washington Post: In Denver suburb, a school board race morphs into $1 million ‘proxy war’Americans for Prosperity, the national organization founded by the Koch brothersWhen voters cast ballots Tuesday in a school board race in suburban Denver, it will mark the climax of a two-year battle over public education that has
Wendy Lecker: Why use the SAT? - StamfordAdvocate
Wendy Lecker: Why use the SAT? - StamfordAdvocate: Wendy Lecker: Why use the SAT?A new large-scale, longitudinal study should make Connecticut policy makers think twice before continuing with their ill-advised policy imposing the SAT as the new “mastery test” for 11thgraders.Last spring, after opt-outs and outcry from parents and students, Connecticut lawmakers decided to quickly abandon the unval
Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/1/15
CORPORATE ED REFORM\A Note on Arne Duncan's LegacyA Note on Arne Duncan's Legacy: Like Water Off A Duck’s Back [A Note on Duncan’s Legacy]Six years ago, I remember sitting in an afternoon meeting with my principal and about 25 other administrators and educators, waiting patiently for a central official to come down and give us some awful news of some consequence for us and all of our work. The sch