Gone Fishing With Grandson

CURMUDGUCATION: Competency Based Ed for Teachers

CURMUDGUCATION: Competency Based Ed for Teachers:

Competency Based Ed for Teachers

Competency Based Ed (or Proficiency Based Learning or Outcome Based Education) is increasingly and alarmingly all the rage, but so far we've been talking about it mainly as a content delivery system for K-12 students. Well, says Patrick Riccards at Real Clear Education, why not use it as an approach to training teachers as well?

Riccards is the chief communications and strategy officer for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and he lays a foundation here of reformy building blocks. Here's the Bellwether Partners report on how we don't know how to unpack "the black box of good teaching." Here's a charmingly trusting assertion that Charlotte Danielson " has clearly identified the knowledge and skills that beginning teachers need to both succeed in those formative years and remain in the classroom for many years to come." Has she? Has she really? Why, bless her heart, and yours too, if you believe in her so hard.

But Riccards is here to argue against inputs, against the traditional teacher prep program that measures hours and lists the courses one must take.

There is nothing magical about 36 credit hours of graduate education that ensures one will be an effective teacher. Instead, it is about understanding content and pedagogy, as well as being able to put that understanding to use in a classroom of your own.

Well, no. There's nothing "magical" about 36 credit hours, just like there's nothing "magical" about studying human skeletal structure on your way to mastering physiology for your physical therapy degree. But Riccards want us to see as necessary and inevitable a shift from lecture halls to actual CURMUDGUCATION: Competency Based Ed for Teachers:

Russ on Reading: Fordham Institute: Democracy is Overrated

Russ on Reading: Fordham Institute: Democracy is Overrated:

Fordham Institute: Democracy is Overrated

Democracy? We don't need no
 stinkin' democracy!

 Writing in the Thomas B. Fordham Institute'sOhio Gadfly Online, Aaron Churchill says that we shouldn't worry so much about whether school boards are elected, as in most public schools, or appointed, as in most charter schools, because democracy doesn't really work so well in education.


Churchill's key argument is that not many voters show up for school board elections because voters are not well-motivated for these off- cycle, low-profile elections; so who really cares if the school board members are elected or appointed by some charter operator. The problem is, according to Churchill, that these low-turnout elections leave the field open to "special interest groups" to unduly influence elections. By special interest groups, Churchill means teacher unions. Apparently, he cannot think of any other special interest groups that might want to influence a school board election.

To support his thesis, Churchill cites the work of Terry Moe, the William Bennett Monroe professor of political science at Stanford. This sounds really impressive until you google Professor Moe and find out that he is also a member of the Hoover Institute's Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. The Hoover Institute is a conservative think tank that has a long history of anti-unionism. Moe discovered, lo and behold, that Russ on Reading: Fordham Institute: Democracy is Overrated:

My Chief Concerns about ESSA | deutsch29

My Chief Concerns about ESSA | deutsch29:

My Chief Concerns about ESSA

I have been asked recently if I would compose a list of concerns related to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the latest revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). ESSA replaces the last revision, the infamous No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

I had planned to write a series of posts based on reading the entire ESSA document. However, after writing four posts, I became sidetracked from such a monumental task. (Plus, it is a dry task, and one that is likely to appeal to very few readers.) Perhaps I will take it up again this summer.

For now, let me offer in this post my chief concerns with ESSA.

I have three.

Concern One: Opt-out “Catch 22”

First of all, ESSA plays a game with states via its Title I 95 percent annual testing requirement for grades 3 through 8 and once in high school in English language arts (ELA) and math. On page 36, ESSA traps states into including 95 percent of all enrolled students in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school as the denominator in determining annual measures of achievement on the mandated (yet state-selected) standardized tests. At the same time, ESSA tries to exonerate itself from driving state and local opt out policies by offering a “rule of construction” regarding the right of parents to opt their children out of testing (see page 32).

ESSA requires the 95 percent of testing for the states even as it says, “Don’t pin your state opt-out policies on us for our federal policy.”

ESSA also requires that states include that 95 percent testing in state accountability systems (page 36).  States, districts and schools are able to apply for “waivers of statutory and regulatory requirements” (page 302), but this only puts states, districts, or schools at the mercy of the US secretary of education.

Concern Two: Data Security

My second concern involves data collection and especially security. Pages 79 and 80 My Chief Concerns about ESSA | deutsch29:

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 3/7/16

CORPORATE ED REFORM

CURMUDGUCATION: Howard Fuller, Ed Reform, and New Orleans

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Clinton and Sanders Debate Education - Living in Dialogue

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Oregon charter schools underperform, serve too few poor and minority students, study says | OregonLive.com

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There Is No FDA For Education. Maybe There Should Be : NPR

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The Absence of Teachers of Color, isn’t Just a Problem for Non-White students; It's a Problem for All Students - Lily's Blackboard

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With A Brooklyn Accent: We Are All "Illegals"

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As Malloy Admin seeks massive new powers to take over local schools, two Windham parents explain what takeover actually means - Wait What?

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Presidential Candidate John Kasich: Delusional about Public Education Issues | janresseger

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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

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Boston Public School students plan to walk out of class Monday to protest budget cuts - Education - Boston.com

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Black Lives Matter wants to 'shut down' Como High

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Idaho superintendents tell foundation to stop lying about public schools - The Washington Post

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Donald Trump's Education Plan: Several Experts Fearful, Curious ... and Baffled - Politics K-12 - Education Week

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Spring state testing season brings changes, unknowns and pushback - Chicago Tribune

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Solving the Mystery of the Schools by Diane Ravitch | The New York Review of Books

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Ohio Lawmakers Consider Weakening Charter-School Reform | WKSU

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Chicago's War With its Teachers Union Is the Sign of a Bigger Problem - Fortune

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Overwhelming Majority of Voters Want To Rein In Charter Schools

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Advocates voice 'grave concern' over LAUSD's review process for new charter schools | 89.3 KPCC

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YESTERDAY

The Strange Future of the Teaching Profession – Save Maine Schools

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Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 3/6/16

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