Jersey Jazzman: Who Put the "Stakes" In "High-Stakes Testing"?

Jersey Jazzman: Who Put the "Stakes" In "High-Stakes Testing"?

Who Put the "Stakes" In "High-Stakes Testing"?

Peter Green has a smart piece (as usual) about Elizabeth Warren's position on accountability testing. Nancy Flanagan had some smart things to say about it (as usual) on Twitter. Peter's piece and the back-and-forth on social media have got me thinking about testing again -- and when that happens these days, I find myself running back to the testing bible: Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing:

"Evidence of validity, reliability, and fairness for each purpose for which a test is used in a program evaluation, policy study, or accountability system should be collected and made available." (Standard 13.4, p. 210, emphasis mine)

This statement is well worth unpacking, because it dwells right in the heart of the ongoing debate about "high-stakes testing" and, therefore, influences even the current presidential race.

A core principle of psychometrics is that the evaluation of tests can't be separated from the evaluation how their outcomes will be used. As Samuel Messick, one of the key figures in the field, put it:

"Hence, what is to be validated is not the test or observation device as such but the inferences derived from test scores or other indicators -- inferences about score meaning or interpretation and about the implications for action that the interpretation entails." [1] (emphasis mine)

He continues:

"Validity always refers to the degree to which empirical evidence and theoretical rationales support the adequacy and appropriateness of interpretations and actions based on test scores." [1] (emphasis mine)

I'm highlighting "actions" here because my point is this: You can't fully judge a test without considering what will be done with the results.

To be clear: I'm not saying items on tests, test forms, grading rubrics, scaling procedures, CONTINUE READING: Jersey Jazzman: Who Put the "Stakes" In "High-Stakes Testing"?

Peter Greene: Should A Teacher Be The Secretary Of Education?

Should A Teacher Be The Secretary Of Education?

Should A Teacher Be The Secretary Of Education?

This is part of the value of having a clown car full of candidates for a Presidential primary: the contest becomes a primary of ideas, and certain notions gain traction by spreading across the field of candidates. Not that gaining traction means those ideas will ultimately prevail (a widespread notion among the 2016 GOP field was that Donald Trump was unfit to be President), but it's still an intriguing process.

One up-and-coming education policy idea that was first proposed by Elizabeth Warren, but has now garnered wider candidate support, is the notion that a teacher should be the next secretary of education. At last count, four major candidates were supporting some version of the idea. It's an arresting and appealing idea. Betsy DeVos is widely seen as a controversial opponent of public education, and in many education circles, predecessors like Arne Duncan were not much loved, either. Many teachers feel that the folks in DC just don't get it, so the idea of someone from the trenches who would, presumably, get it--well, it's an attractive idea. Now we have to ask--is it a good idea?

The devil, as always, is in the details. The idea has been expressed variously as appointing an educator, a public school teacher, or CONTINUE READING: Should A Teacher Be The Secretary Of Education?

Hewlett Packard And The Pitfalls Of “Deeper Learning” In An Internet Of Things World – Wrench in the Gears

Hewlett Packard And The Pitfalls Of “Deeper Learning” In An Internet Of Things World – Wrench in the Gears

Hewlett Packard And The Pitfalls Of “Deeper Learning” In An Internet Of Things World

It was time to say good-bye to the chinstrap penguin. The paper mache model had kept watch over a corner of my sewing room for years, but with our child moving on to college and evidence of flour-beetles impossible to ignore, its time had come. It was an endearing second-grade project, now a decade old. It was the kind of project many of us remember; you know, the ones that start out scrambling around the back of a closet in search of a shoebox? Today, hands-on, creative projects have largely been cast aside in favor of online learning modules that tout their test score-boosting efficacy. There were many thoughts running through my head as I placed the bug-eaten model into the trash that day.

A day or so later, I happened to read a CommonWealth article in which Jeff Riley, education commissioner of Massachusetts, laid out a “radical center” vision for public education outlined in the report “Our Way Forward: For Massachusetts K12 Public Education.” The media outlet, a mouthpiece for privatization interests, framed the piece to appeal to teachers and parents beleaguered by decades of harmful ed-reform policies. There was talk of an unhealthy fixation on test scores, the need for a rich curriculum, and incentivizing teachers to create “innovative” lessons. I sensed a trap, and that trap was “deeper learning” and “project-based learning.”

In the article Riley also spoke of expanding assessments beyond English and math and of new “performance tasks.” His proposal touted adoption of “smart” technology, flexible career pathways, and perhaps most troubling, tracking and measuring “skills and dispositions” for future employers. The need for increased public funding was downplayed, though the possibility CONTINUE READING: Hewlett Packard And The Pitfalls Of “Deeper Learning” In An Internet Of Things World – Wrench in the Gears

Christine Langhoff Describes the Charter-Friendly Power Elite in Massachusetts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Christine Langhoff Describes the Charter-Friendly Power Elite in Massachusetts | Diane Ravitch's blog

Christine Langhoff Describes the Charter-Friendly Power Elite in Massachusetts

Christine Langhoff, retired teacher and education activist in Massachusetts, describes the power elite in the Bay State. After losing the charter referendum in 2016 by 68-32%, they keep pursuing ways to bypass the voters.

Massachusetts has 3 Walton-connected members of the state board of education, appointed by the governor, who was formerly the executive director of The Pioneer Institute. The Pioneers are funded by the Kochs and State Policy Network (worth checking out, as they like to fly under the radar). The Pioneers are affiliated with ALEC. The secretary of education, Jim Peyser, formerly ran Pioneer and in between serving Republican administrations in MA, he also ran Education Next, which posted this bio:

“Jim Peyser is Managing Partner for City Funds at NewSchools Venture Fund, a non-profit grant-making firm that seeks to transform public education by supporting innovative education entrepreneurs. In this role, Jim leads NewSchools investment activity in Boston, Newark and Washington, DC. From 1999 through 2006, Jim served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Prior to joining NewSchools, Jim was Education Advisor to two Massachusetts Governors, where he helped shape state policy regarding standards and assessments, school accountability, and charter schools. In 1995, he served as Under Secretary of Education and Special Assistant to the Governor for Charter Schools. He spent more than seven years as Executive Director of Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, where he helped to launch the Massachusetts Charter School Resource Center, which supported the CONTINUE READING: Christine Langhoff Describes the Charter-Friendly Power Elite in Massachusetts | Diane Ravitch's blog

LAUSD School Performance Framework: Parents Focus Groups | Wejoinin

LAUSD School Performance Framework: Parents Focus Groups | Wejoinin

LAUSD School Performance Framework: Parents Focus Groups 

 Wejoinin - https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/makgd

We are inviting you to join us in a focus group to provide input on LAUSD’s draft School Performance Framework—a tool intended to inform educators and families on how schools are performing. It is our goal that this new tool will provide comprehensive data including student growth, transparent ratings that allow comparisons across schools beyond the state dashboard, and alignment with district values of equity and inclusion. We are seeking to engage with a variety of parents, principals, and community stakeholders in the process to ensure this tool meets the needs of our communities. We would greatly appreciate your input as part of the process.

LAUSD School Performance Framework: Parents Focus Groups | Wejoinin

Breakfast and refreshments will be provided.

Monday, July 8th 12:30PM – 2:30PM

Location: Office of Parent Community Services

Address: 1360 W. Temple Street, Los Angeles CA 90026


Tuesday, July 9th 9:30AM – 11:30AM

Location: Local District Northwest

Address: 6621 Balboa Boulevard, Van Nuys, CA 91406


Wednesday, July 10th 1:30PM – 3:30PM (Translated in Spanish)

Location: Office of Parent Community Services

Address: 1360 W. Temple Street, Los Angeles CA 90026


Thursday, July 11th 4:30PM - 6:15PM (Dinner provided)

Location: Office of Parent Community Services

Address: 1360 W. Temple Street, Los Angeles CA 90026


LAUSD School Performance Framework: Parents Focus Groups | Wejoinin

Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them (Part 3) | Dissident Voice

Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them (Part 3) | Dissident Voice

Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them (Part 3)

Irrationalism and disinformation manifest themselves in endless ways. While both have intensified greatly in the neoliberal period which began in the late 1970s, the public should brace for even more of both. The obsolete forces who have long benefitted from an outdated economic system that cannot provide for the needs of the people will surely sustain a massive onslaught of irrationalism and disinformation in an attempt to preserve their class power and privilege while keeping people disempowered and disoriented. They see no alternatives to anachronistic arrangements in society and its institutions.

In Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them: Part 1 (November 2018), I highlighted some of the forms of confusion promoted by neoliberals, privatizers, and corporate school reformers in order to block people from concluding that nonprofit and for-profit charter schools are detrimental and must be opposed.

Seven months later, in Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them: Part 2 (June 2019), I highlighted a different offshoot of the forms of confusion highlighted in Part 1.

The core of all these different types of confusion typically takes the form of detailing many damning and indicting problems with charter schools, while still managing to find a convoluted and bizarre way to support them. It is essentially poorly-disguised support for privately-operated charter schools.

In this article, Part 3, I address yet another form of charter school disinformation distorting consciousness, harming the public interest, and enabling school privatization.

In a July 2, 2019 article in the Hechinger Report revealingly titled, “Charter schools aren’t a radical solution and neither is blaming them: Slamming charters won’t address systemic inequality or put families to work.”  Andre Perry correctly notes that social and economic problems; e.g., racism and CONTINUE READING: Opposing Charter Schools Without Really Opposing Them (Part 3) | Dissident Voice

Big Education Ape: NYC Educator: Bill de Blasio Offers Valuable Lip Support Against Privatization - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/07/nyc-educator-bill-de-blasio-offers.html

Ed Notes Online: The 2019 Socialism Conference, sponsored by American leftist juggernauts the DSA, Jacobin magazine, and ISO’s Haymarket Books

Ed Notes Online: The 2019 Socialism Conference, sponsored by American leftist juggernauts the DSA, Jacobin magazine, and ISO’s Haymarket Books, features regime-change activists from multiple US government-funded NGOs - The Grayzone

The 2019 Socialism Conference, sponsored by American leftist juggernauts the DSA, Jacobin magazine, and ISO’s Haymarket Books
features regime-change activists from multiple US government-funded NGOs - The Grayzone

Now that the ISO has disbanded, its veterans can reach into the rapidly growing ideologically diffuse world of Democratic Socialists of America, using platforms like Socialism 2019 to infect DSA’s youthful core with the imperial politics of regime change – but always “from the left,” and always “from below.”   ....The Grayzone

There were estimates that 300 former ISOers were at the socialist conference in Chicago. Here's an article that raises important issues about sectors of the left and how some organized groups operate. Note this excerpt which has relevance to events that occurred in MORE since the leaders of the split came from ISO, Solidarity and people they recruited from the Democratic Socialists.

This March, the ISO voted to dissolve — in a decision some former members joked was the most democratic act ever undertaken by the organization, which had been dominated by an unelected leadership of veteran Trotskyite activists.
The dissolution was prompted by evidence that the ISO’s steering committee mishandled sexual assault allegations. It also came as the ISO’s membership was shrinking and rapidly being absorbed by a newly burgeoning anti-communist organization, the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA.
Now that the ISO has dissolved, some of its past prominent members have entered the ranks of the DSA, burrowing from within to inject their anti-anti-imperialist politics into the group.
Because Trotskyites are so sectarian and notoriously incapable of holding together organizations, they are infamous for infiltrating larger, more popular groups and trying to take them over, in a tactic known as entryism. 
This is precisely the strategy being used by former members of the ISO — and by another tiny US Trotskyite organization, Solidarity, which was led by anti-Nicaragua regime-change activist and Socialism Conference speaker Dan La Botz, now a leader in DSA.
Democratic Socialists of America is the largest self-described socialist organization in the United States, with more than 60,000 card-carrying members. It is also very heterogeneous, with many internal contradictions and conflicting political views.

I joined DSA and have some hopes they can be a counter force to the Democratic Party machine as I've been reporting. But I CONTINUE READING: Ed Notes Online: The 2019 Socialism Conference, sponsored by American leftist juggernauts the DSA, Jacobin magazine, and ISO’s Haymarket Books, features regime-change activists from multiple US government-funded NGOs - The Grayzone

Effective but never popular, court-ordered busing is a relic few would revive - The Washington Post

Effective but never popular, court-ordered busing is a relic few would revive - The Washington Post

Effective but never popular, court-ordered busing is a relic few would revive

Sixteen years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation in public schools, an attorney representing black families in Charlotte stood before the court. The landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling, he argued, had failed to deliver on its promise.

“Black children and parents in Charlotte have struggled since Brown,” said the attorney, Julius Chambers. He urged the high court to embrace a plan to integrate Charlotte schools through a controversial method: busing black children to white schools, and vice versa.

The Supreme Court agreed, unanimously endorsing busing as a legitimate means of unraveling the segregation of children by race. The 1971 decision launched an explosive chapter in American history, touching off a long and polarizing battle that set public opinion against busing for decades, even as the programs succeeded in promoting integration.

Later, evidence would emerge that busing improved outcomes for black students, with no harm to white students. But that evidence came far too late to change public perceptions of a program that was hugely unpopular among whites and left blacks divided.

The vexing issue has reverberated through the Democratic presidential primary since last month’s debates, when Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) criticized former vice president Joe Biden for opposing court-ordered busing in the 1970s. But Harris soon found herself backpedaling when asked whether she would advocate busing today: Last week, she called it a tool to be “considered” but mandated only if local governments are “actively opposing integration.”

That position is not so far from Biden’s, and not a single Democratic candidate is arguing for a return to CONTINUE READING: Effective but never popular, court-ordered busing is a relic few would revive - The Washington Post

Big Education Ape: Busing and School Segregation Used for Politics not Policy | gadflyonthewallblog - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/07/busing-and-school-segregation-used-for.html

Busing and School Segregation Used for Politics not Policy | gadflyonthewallblog

Busing and School Segregation Used for Politics not Policy | gadflyonthewallblog

Busing and School Segregation Used for Politics not Policy

If children of all races went to the same schools with each other, it would be harder to treat them unequally.

Moreover, it would be harder for them to grow up prejudiced because they would have learned what it’s like to have classmates who are different from them.

And though most people agree with these premises in principle, our laws still refuse to make them a reality in fact.

Perhaps that’s why it was so astounding when Kamala Harris brought up the issue of school segregation and busing at the first Democratic debates.

If you’re anything like me, for the first time these debates made Harris look like a viable contender for the party’s Presidential nomination to face Republican incumbent Donald Trump in 2020.

But then she immediately contradicted herself when people actually started to take her seriously.

During the debates, Harris called out front runner and former vice president Joe Biden for opposing court-ordered busing in the 1970s as a way of combating school CONTINUE READING: Busing and School Segregation Used for Politics not Policy | gadflyonthewallblog

NYC Educator: Bill de Blasio Offers Valuable Lip Support Against Privatization

NYC Educator: Bill de Blasio Offers Valuable Lip Support Against Privatization

Bill de Blasio Offers Valuable Lip Support Against Privatization

I got to see a little of the NEA forum with Democratic presidential candidates, ably covered here by Chalkbeat. Bernie Sanders really shone here, in contrast to his indifferent showing in the debate. He seems to have gotten a better focus on the education issues that were so thoroughly neglected by all in 2016. He's not the only one.

Of course, there were disappointments, including Beto O'Rourke, who trotted out the old canard about opposing private, for-profit charter schools. That's a dubious distinction, as only two states even permit so-called for-profit schools. Yet they all make profits, one way or the other. I like Mayor de Blasio's message much better.

That said, it's tough to take his opposition very seriously. When de Blasio first ran for mayor, I supported him enthusiastically. I declined to support his primary opponent, what's-his-name, who had told the Daily News editorial board that NYC couldn't afford to give teachers the raise that NYPD and FDNY had gotten under Emperor Bloomberg. The time to support what's-his-name, in my view, was four years earlier when he ran against Bloomberg.

I contributed to de Blasio, went to Queens UFT to make calls for him, and attended his inauguration. I froze my ass off out there, having neglected to wear warm shoes, but it seemed worth it. We were finally going to have a mayor who was Not Insane, a mayor who didn't hate us and everything we stood for. What was one day of cold when we'd finally be able to move teaching into the twenty-first century?

De Blasio, though, didn't make the moves that were necessary to fix NYC. He left most of Bloomberg's awful educrats in place. Worse, he appointed one of Bloomberg's leftovers CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Bill de Blasio Offers Valuable Lip Support Against Privatization

Michigan State Policy—Not School Governance—Dooms State’s Poor, Segregated School Districts | janresseger

Michigan State Policy—Not School Governance—Dooms State’s Poor, Segregated School Districts | janresseger

Michigan State Policy—Not School Governance—Dooms State’s Poor, Segregated School Districts

Through the month of June, Michigan’s new governor, Gretchen Whitmer threatened to close Benton Harbor’s high school due to falling enrollment, low test scores and the school district’s indebtedness. Benton Harbor is among Michigan’s extremely poor, majority-African American school districts on which, under former governor Rick Snyder, the state imposed emergency fiscal managers. Benton Harbor is a little different—managed by the state under a court order that ran out last week on June 30.  Governor Whitmer had threatened to close the district’s high school on June 30, but then, at the last minute, it seemed there was a deal to keep Benton Harbor’s high school from being shut down.

Then, on July 2, it was reported that the local school board said it had never agreed to the deal. And what a deal it was. The Detroit News quotes Patricia Rush, a physician and member of Benton Harbor’s local school board, who commented on why the members of the school board felt they couldn’t accept Whitmer’s deal: “Rush said the board wouldn’t agree to even a tentative deal unless the state agreed to increase funding by a minimum of $1.3 million a year so the school system could fill all its teaching positions at salaries comparable to neighboring districts… The proposal said that if the district failed to meet certain goals after a year, the board would agree to suspend operations at the high school… Residents also were angry by what they saw as the short time frame of the proposal. The pact sets benchmarks that would show whether progress is made academically and financially after a year…. But several residents said one year wasn’t enough time to show progress in a school system that has struggled for a long time… The first step of the proposed accord called for the district to meet this month with national experts who have experience turning around troubled school systems.”

In her personal blog on Wednesday of last week, Diane Ravitch published a description by Thomas Pedroni of Wayne State University of four organizations the state has approved to serve as possible consultants: the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), which has managed specific schools for the Chicago Public Schools; the New Teacher Project founded by CONTINUE READING: Michigan State Policy—Not School Governance—Dooms State’s Poor, Segregated School Districts | janresseger

Goodbye AltSchool, Hello Altitude Learning | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Goodbye AltSchool, Hello Altitude Learning | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Goodbye AltSchool, Hello Altitude Learning

Begun by wealthy high-tech entrepreneur (and ex-Google executive) Max Ventilla in 2013, AltSchool made a splash with its string of private “micro-schools” in New York City and the San Francisco Bay area (tuition was $26,000)–see here, here, and here. Ventilla saw AltSchool as a string of lab schools where progressive ideas could be put into practice and the individualized software that staff designed and used in the “micro-schools” could be bought and used in public schools.

AltSchool “micro-schools’ were ungraded, used project-based learning complete with individually designed “playlists,” small classes, and experienced young teachers. Were John and Evelyn Dewey alive, they would have enrolled their six children in AltSchool.

But, there is always a “but,” running these “micro-schools” was expensive. The business plan (Ventilla raised venture capital of $176 million) was anchored in a dream drawn from the film Field of Dreams: “build it and [they] will come.” The plan depended upon tuition and licensed software bought by public schools. Didn’t work out as Ventilla had dreamed. Spending $40 million a year and taking in $7 million in revenue is a recipe for financial disaster. Ventilla closed some of the “micro-schools in 2017.

And on June 28, 2019, in a press release, came the news:

AltSchool to become Altitude Learning, an educator-run startup powering the growing learner-centered movement

Expanding support for districts nationwide with new approaches to professional development and the products schools need to shift to learner-centered models

• Altitude Learning to formally launch later this fall
• As R&D focus ends, tech co-founders pass torch to education industry CONTINUE READING: Goodbye AltSchool, Hello Altitude Learning | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Dem Candidates: Charter-School-Enabled *Profiteering* Is the Problem. What’s Your Plan? | deutsch29

Dem Candidates: Charter-School-Enabled *Profiteering* Is the Problem. What’s Your Plan? | deutsch29

Dem Candidates: Charter-School-Enabled *Profiteering* Is the Problem. What’s Your Plan?

Some Democratic hopefuls for the 2020 presidency have taken to saying that they do not support “for-profit charter schools.” (See here and here and here.)

On July 07, 2019, Network for Public Education (NPE) executive director, Carol Burris, called them out for promoting a false distinction. Below is Burris’ commentary, in part:

When Democratic candidates are questioned about charter schools, many typically reply, “I am against for-profit charter schools.” Everyone cheers. Politicians have created a convenient (and false) dichotomy that says nonprofit charter schools are good, and for-profit charter schools are bad.

Don’t be fooled. There are now only 2 states that allow for-profit charter schools—Arizona and Wisconsin. California changed  its laws. 

However, 35 states allow for-profit Charter Management Organizations (CMOS) to run their nonprofit charter schools. …

The question candidates need to answer then are:

 “Do you support for-profit Charter Management Organizations, and if you do not, what are you going to do about them?” …

There is a reason the charter lobby never complains when a candidate says that he/she is against for-profit charter schools. It means nothing will change.

What Burris demonstrates is that there are layers to profiteering off of charter schools, with the term “nonprofit” being a key distractor to layered profiteering.

The for-profit CMO behind the “nonprofit” charter school is one such example, but there are others.

For instance, consider the California-based Today’s Fresh Start Charter School CONTINUE READING: Dem Candidates: Charter-School-Enabled *Profiteering* Is the Problem. What’s Your Plan? | deutsch29

At NEA Representative Assembly, Educators Prepare to Make an Impact in 2020

At NEA Representative Assembly, Educators Prepare to Make an Impact in 2020

At NEA Representative Assembly, Educators Prepare to Make an Impact in 2020

Galvanized by the historic mobilization of public school educators that caught the attention of the entire nation, educators converged on the George E. Brown convention center in Houston, Texas on July 4 for the 157th National Education Association Representative Assembly (RA). The theme of the 2019 RA was Our Democracy. Our Responsibility. Our Time! After four busy and exciting days, the more than 6,000 delegates left Houston ready to carry the momentum of the #RedforEd movement into 2020 and play a pivotal in choosing the next president.

“This movement has created something better for millions of students and educators, but it’s bigger than that,” NEA President Lily Eskelsen García told delegates in her keynote address. ” We’ve created something better for communities—for this country that we love.”

And that unnerves people like Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and the army of billionaires who are funding the school privatization schemes that driver her agenda. But if we are to bring real change, Eskelsen García said, we need to look to the top.

Electing a new U.S. president in November 2020, she said, should be a priority of anyone who cares about public education. And public school educators should not shy away from working toward that goal.

“Political action isn’t subversive,” Eskelsen García said. “It’s the essence of democracy. … We will use our collective power to listen and learn and teach and reach and engage and organize and convince.”

At this year’s RA, NEA took a big first step in leading the conversation around public CONTINUE READING: At NEA Representative Assembly, Educators Prepare to Make an Impact in 2020