The common mistake Betsy DeVos made about new NAEP scores — and other problems with her ‘sky is falling’ narrative - The Washington Post

The common mistake Betsy DeVos made about new NAEP scores — and other problems with her ‘sky is falling’ narrative - The Washington Post

The common mistake Betsy DeVos made about new NAEP scores — and other problems with her ‘sky is falling’ narrative

It never fails.

Results from a standardized test deemed important to the future of education are released — and new cries ring out that “the sky is falling” in U.S. education. We heard some of that with the Wednesday release of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, which showed only two jurisdictions — the District and Mississippi — experienced big boosts in student scores.

There went Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who said in a speech (see full text below), “The numbers are reason for deep concern. This country has a student achievement crisis.”

And there went Jeanne Allen, founder and chief executive of the nonprofit Center for Education Reform, who also viewed the results as definitive proof of failure. She said in a statement: “The NAEP proficiency scores announced today should be shocking to every family, employer, and policymaker. They demonstrate that the vast majority of our nation’s education systems are simply failing to meet the very basic educational needs of American students, threatening their dreams for the future.”

NAEP, administered by an agency of the Education Department, is a set of exams sometimes referred to as “the nation’s report card” or the “gold standard” in student assessment. It is seen as the most consistent nationally representative measure of student achievement since the 1990s and is said to be able to assess what students “know and can do.”

U.S. students in the fourth and eighth grades — said to be randomly chosen at selected schools — take NAEP every two years, and high school students do so less frequently. Math and reading tests are given every other year, while assessments in science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, technology and engineering literacy, and U.S. history are administered less frequently.

NAEP results are highly anticipated in the education world and are often seen as a benchmark for progress in school systems — even though the results are often misinterpreted, as DeVos did in a speech Wednesday about the scores.

She said: “Our nation’s report card shows that two-thirds of American students can’t read at grade level. Two out of three!”

If she were being graded in score interpretation, she would flunk. NAEP doesn’t assess grade-level reading. It has its own markers of progress: NAEP Basic, NAEP Proficient and NAEP Advanced. The new results show that two-thirds of students who took the 2019 reading test did not read at the CONTINUE READING: The common mistake Betsy DeVos made about new NAEP scores — and other problems with her ‘sky is falling’ narrative - The Washington Post

Big Education Ape: NAEP Test Scores Show How Stupid We Are… To Pay Attention to NAEP Test Scores | gadflyonthewallblog - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/11/naep-test-scores-show-how-stupid-we-are.html

Big Education Ape: CURMUDGUCATION: DeVosian NAEP Nonsense - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/10/curmudgucation-devosian-naep-nonsense.html

Big Education Ape: The Big Lie about the “Science of Reading”: NAEP 2019 Edition | radical eyes for equity - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-big-lie-about-science-of-reading.html

Big Education Ape: Betsy DeVos’s formula for success: Trash public schools and push privatization – Raw Story - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/11/betsy-devoss-formula-for-success-trash.html

Big Education Ape: 2019 NAEP Scores: Achievement Gap or ...? | BustED Pencils - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/11/2019-naep-scores-achievement-gap-or.html

NAEP Test Scores Show How Stupid We Are… To Pay Attention to NAEP Test Scores | gadflyonthewallblog

NAEP Test Scores Show How Stupid We Are… To Pay Attention to NAEP Test Scores | gadflyonthewallblog

NAEP Test Scores Show How Stupid We Are… To Pay Attention to NAEP Test Scores 

Brace yourselves!

America’s NAEP test scores in 2019 stayed pretty much the same as they were in 2018!

And the media typically set its collective hair on fire trying to interpret the data.

Sometimes called the Nations Report Card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test is given to a random sampling of elementary, middle and high school students in member countries to compare the education systems of nations.

And this year there was one particular area where US kids did worse than usual!

Our scores went down in 8th grade reading!

To be honest, scores usually go up or down by about one or two points every year averaging out to about the same range.

But this year! Gulp! They went down four points!

FOUR POINTS!

What does that mean?

Absolutely nothing.

They’re standardized test scores. They’re terrible assessments of student learning.

You might as well compare the relative body temperatures of randomly selected CONTINUE READING: NAEP Test Scores Show How Stupid We Are… To Pay Attention to NAEP Test Scores | gadflyonthewallblog

2019 NAEP Scores: Achievement Gap or ...? | BustED Pencils

2019 NAEP Scores: Achievement Gap or ...? | BustED Pencils

2019 NAEP Scores: Achievement Gap or …?

Here you go:

A ‘Disturbing’ Assessment: Sagging Reading Scores, Particularly for Eighth-Graders, Headline 2019’s Disappointing NAEP Results

NAEP 2019: Reading scores drop for US students, with mixed math results

What To Make of the 2019 Results from the ”Nation’s Report Card”

DeVos Bemoans ‘Devastating’ NAEP Scores, Pushes for ‘Education Freedom’

I used GOOGLE and typed in “NAEP 2019 results.” It returned 406,000 hits. After reading a “sample” of the returns it’s obvious that:

1. Teachers are horrible people?
2. Public Schools are horrible places?
3. American children are horrible creatures?
4. Test result “porn” is a new form of clickbait?

If you picked number 4, Congratulations! Because check out the graphs below. CONTINUE READING: 2019 NAEP Scores: Achievement Gap or ...? | BustED Pencils

SFUSD Makes Plans to De-Colonize Indigenous History - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

SFUSD Makes Plans to De-Colonize Indigenous History - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

SFUSD Makes Plans to De-Colonize Indigenous History

I am so excited about the work going on in SFUSD’s Curriculum and Instruction Department! Last week, staff made a presentation to the Curriculum Committee to address curriculum and celebrations of Indigenous history in our district.

Systemic problems need systemic answers.

Over the past several years, many educators have worked to de-colonize social-studies instruction in SFUSD. That said this work has never been done at a systemic, district-wide level.

This year we have seen a lot of positive changes in district leadership: including our district’s new Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, Enikia Ford-Morthel, to our new Chief Academic Officer, Nicole Priestly, to the composition of the Board of Education itself. My colleagues and I are among a new cadre of Commissioners committed to cultural visibility for all communities. As a parent, I feel our district is finally moving “beyond the talk” to take on the work of removing harmful narratives about Native American and Indigenous people from textbooks, classroom walls, and school celebrations.

For far too long, our district has talked “equity” yet failed to take action to address systemic aspects of white supremacy culture in our curriculum. This is finally changing.

When I first I began teaching over twenty years ago, there were other AMAZING educators leading the way. Teachers 4 Social Justice is an organization that has been “doing the work” for decades. Over the past several years, #EthnicStudies educators have also been supporting this work with interested CONTINUE READING: SFUSD Makes Plans to De-Colonize Indigenous History - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

Betsy DeVos’s formula for success: Trash public schools and push privatization – Raw Story

Betsy DeVos’s formula for success: Trash public schools and push privatization – Raw Story

Betsy DeVos’s formula for success: Trash public schools and push privatization

When U.S Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos discussed the results from the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, she described them as “devastating” and part of a worsening crisis in education.

The results showed a slight decline in reading scores and a flattening in math scores.

She noted that two out of three of the nation’s children aren’t proficient in reading. She also decried as ineffective the US$1 trillion in federal spending on education over the past 40 years, saying it has done nothing to stop the widening gap between the highest and lowest performing students.

“We cannot abide these poor results any longer,” DeVos stated. “We can neither excuse them away nor simply throw more money at the problem.”

As an education scholar, here are several issues that I see with DeVos’ take on the state of American education.

1. DeVos continues to trash public education

DeVos’s comments are part of a long-running critique of American primary and secondary school education.

“This country is in a student achievement crisis, and over the past decade it has continued to worsen, especially for our most vulnerable students,” DeVos stated.

In this, the education secretary follows a long line of critics – from former secretaries of education William J. Bennett and Margaret Spellings to author George H. Smith – who see American schooling as a shambles, dating back to the famous 1983 “A Nation at Risk” report, which criticized mediocre academic performance as being akin to an “act of war.”

2. DeVos uses test scores to push her privatization agenda

DeVos uses the “student achievement crisis” turned up by the latest national test scores to urge support for alternatives to public K-12 education. For instance, when she spoke about “expanding education freedom,” she is alluding to greater support for voucher systems and CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos’s formula for success: Trash public schools and push privatization – Raw Story

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Honored By Prominent Dominionist Group

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Honored By Prominent Dominionist Group

DeVos Honored By Prominent Dominionist Group

Dominionism argues that the US should be a literal Christian nation, its government run by Christians. It comes in varying degrees of severity, with varying amounts of nationalism mixed in. One of the major proponents of American (i.e. US) dominionism was D. James Kennedy, a minister and broadcaster in Florida. Sample quote: To be a true Christian citizen means to "take dominion over all things as vice-regents of God." Or there's this one:

Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors—in short, over every aspect and institution of human society.

Kennedy has done some whacky things, like teaming up with Roy Moore to turn the Ten Commandments into a cause celebre. He also created the D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship, located in DC and dedicated to helping the Right Kind of Believers take their place in government. They offer leadership training with three weeks of intensive training that covers both the theology and the ins-and-outs of federal government.

As God’s special revelation to humanity, the Bible is the authoritative source on how we ought to live personally and in society. In a rapidly-changing world of moral ambiguity, a worldview based on CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Honored By Prominent Dominionist Group

Delegates Assembly of Chicago Teachers Union Ends Strike, Agrees to New Contract | janresseger

Delegates Assembly of Chicago Teachers Union Ends Strike, Agrees to New Contract | janresseger

Delegates Assembly of Chicago Teachers Union Ends Strike, Agrees to New Contract

The beloved former president of the Chicago Teachers Union who has been sidelined by a brain tumor, Karen Lewis released a statement on Tuesday night to urge Chicago’s new mayor, Lori Lightfoot, to find a way to resolve the then nine-day teachers’ strike. Lewis concluded her statement with the words of Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will.”

The primary issues underneath the recent Chicago teachers’ strike, tentatively ended around midnight on Wednesday, were shockingly inadequate services for children and two decades of the disempowerment of school teachers in Chicago. To fully ratify the agreement, all 25,000 members of of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) must vote within ten days.

Just as teachers’ strikes in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona, Los Angeles and Oakland publicly exposed deplorable conditions in underfunded public schools and in school districts where sizeable portions of the budgets have been diverted to charter schools, Chicago’s strike focused on the conditions in which Chicago’s teachers are forced to teach and their students are expected to learn.

The Chicago strike was never really about teachers’ pay.  Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot initially offered teachers a 16 percent raise over five years, and the teachers eventually accepted that offer. Some people criticized teachers, because Lightfoot’s original offer seemed generous. So why did they strike?

You have only to look at what teachers—in the final contract—accepted as an improvement in school staffing to grasp the deficient conditions Chicago’s leaders have ignored during years of austerity and disruptive corporate school reform.  From the Chicago Sun-Times: “The union received a guarantee that there will be a full-time dedicated nurse and social worker in every school by July 2023 with staffing ramping up from now till then. On class size, a new joint CONTINUE READING: Delegates Assembly of Chicago Teachers Union Ends Strike, Agrees to New Contract | janresseger

Charter Apologists Make Trumpian Claim Regarding “Hidden” Data Not Part Of CA’s School Dashboard – redqueeninla

Charter Apologists Make Trumpian Claim Regarding “Hidden” Data Not Part Of CA’s School Dashboard – redqueeninla

Charter Apologists Make Trumpian Claim Regarding “Hidden” Data Not Part Of CA’s School Dashboard

The astroturf groups ParentRevolution and SpeakUp are flooding social media of late with their PR-honed contention that opposing LAUSD charter-advocacy-backed members Nick Melvoin’s and Kelly Gonez’ School Performance Framework (“SPF”), is “hiding” data from parents.

What sort of double-speak nonsense is it to claim that full access to direct data unencumbered by crazy data manipulation, is “hiding” data? Just publishing the data, as directed by boardmember Jackie Goldberg’s alternate resolution, is the complete opposite of “hiding” it. “Hiding data” is in fact precisely what the market-based Education-reform, charter-school ideologues are advancing when they claim manipulated data is more true than the data itself.

This highly-vaunted “growth data” they crusade for is a variant of the data manipulation enlisted by the same legions of “quants” arguing how best to maximize their personal stock portfolio. It is math (technically, algebra) weaponized for maximizing personal earnings. Not yours, not mine, and not students’ educational assets either. This is a neoliberal game for those who are investing in education as a privatized asset:  financiers and charter school advocates.

What actually is “growth data”? 

It is a tool of social science, comparing “apples to oranges” by employing a statistical technique to adjust for what is integrally different about the fruits, leaving a debatably residual “direct” comparison. 

The claim is made, for example, that if an apple tree were shaded and an orange tree grown in full sunlight, a better comparison of their “true” relative growth CONTINUE READING: Charter Apologists Make Trumpian Claim Regarding “Hidden” Data Not Part Of CA’s School Dashboard – redqueeninla

Big Education Ape: See how closely Ohio school report card grades trend with district income - cleveland.com - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/09/see-how-closely-ohio-school-report-card.html

“Breaking the Rules,” Can School Districts and Teacher Unions Collaborate to Encourage Innovative Educational Practices at the School Level? | Ed In The Apple

“Breaking the Rules,” Can School Districts and Teacher Unions Collaborate to Encourage Innovative Educational Practices at the School Level? | Ed In The Apple

“Breaking the Rules,” Can School Districts and Teacher Unions Collaborate to Encourage Innovative Educational Practices at the School Level?

Education is rules-driven: state laws and regulations, school district policies and school level compliance monitoring; “faux-innovation” is implementing an innovation mandated from the aeries of leadership, lockstep “innovation” is the goal of school systems.

Over the decades schools “innovated,” quietly, in the teacher rooms of schools. I worked in a large urban high school, over 200 teachers. The Social Studies Assistant Principal left and we asked the principal to allow us to “elect” a teacher to lead the department. He smiled, “We’ll try it,” we wrote bylaws, we elected a steering committee; we set up an alternative to formal supervisory observations (Teacher A observed B who observed C who observed A within a week). Teachers observed each other, met, asked pre-agreed upon questions; the notes of the meeting were in lieu of a formal observation. A couple of years later the supervisory union (CSA) complained, the principal left, our innovation disappeared.

The New York City teacher union (UFT) negotiated a school-based option clause in the 90’s,

A School-Based Option (SBO) allows staff at a school the ability to collaboratively modify contractual articles or to create positions not automatically allowed under the contract.

The UFT and the Board of Education agreed upon a new teacher transfer plan to replace the seniority plan, applicants were interviewed at the school level by a CONTINUE READING: “Breaking the Rules,” Can School Districts and Teacher Unions Collaborate to Encourage Innovative Educational Practices at the School Level? | Ed In The Apple

Seattle Schools Community Forum: A Conversation about HCC (Let's Listen In)

Seattle Schools Community Forum: A Conversation about HCC (Let's Listen In)

A Conversation about HCC (Let's Listen In)

Now to the conversation last weekend at the Central Area Residents Against Violence Facebook page about HCC.  I am teasing out parts of the conversation but you can go to the page and read everything.

As I mentioned, it involved ALTF member, Kari O'Driscoll who seems to be quite confident in her ability to speak for the Task Force and use the current smackdown method to tamp discussion.  Meaning, if she doesn't agree with your points, she'll just use put-down language to try to either make the speaker feel bad about themselves and/or show other readers what will happen to them if they have a differing viewpoint.  This came to me via a reader:

In a CA-RAV FB page weekend discussion of the ST (Seattle Times) What's Next?/Gifted Programs article, ALTF member Kari O'Driscoll smacks down as racist and privileged what I thought was a thoughtful and considerate post by a Seattle dad on his family's frustrations with SPS that led them to seek private. He pointed out that his family was Asian who have also suffered discrimination and she dismisses his perspective outright:

"Black folks are treated as a monoculture in this country. Asian folks are not. Period."

A lot to unpack there but I frankly don't have much to say except that in this district, it is currently the opposite of that.  I mean the new racial designation form has one place for "Asian" but for Blacks, it has multiple identities.

There was also this comment:

It should also be noted that most discussions of HCC tend to ignore CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: A Conversation about HCC (Let's Listen In)

Thurmond & Newsom Visit School Impacted by Outage - Year 2019 (CA Dept of Education)

Thurmond & Newsom Visit School Impacted by Outage - Year 2019 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Joins Governor Gavin Newsom in Visit with Educators and Students Impacted by PG&E's Public Safety Power Shutoffs

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond joined California Governor Gavin Newsom this morning at Blue Oak Elementary School in Shingle Springs to meet with administrators, teachers, and students impacted by PG&E’s Public Safety Power Shutoff. The school took incredible measures to stay open during the outage, such as using lanterns and manual student tracking and communications and having dedicated fire watch staff due to disabled fire alarms.

Thurmond commended the school’s resilience. “In the face of these unexpected power outages, your school staff stayed committed to keeping the doors open to your students,” Thurmond said. “I do not accept that the new normal is 10 years of power shut-offs that jeopardize the education and safety of our students and communities. What I do accept is that climate change exists. We must double down on alternative energy sources and alternative building materials for our schools and harness the brainpower of the world’s fifth largest economy to combat extreme weather conditions. We understand health and safety is at the heart of deciding to keep a school open, and I applaud the remarkable efforts by some schools to keep children in class.”

Future proposals may include rethinking the traditional school calendar and building in makeup days to deal with not only natural disasters but unplanned power outages. In addition, Governor Newsom has proposed a $15 billion bond to fund back-up generators and solar panels to keep schools open during an unforeseen power outage.

“School closures affect families differently. Some families may not be able to make arrangements to stay home with their children or have healthy meals available at home. These students may be the same students that need school the most,” Thurmond said. “We are working closely with Governor Newsom and other partners to ensure we provide these critical services to the families of California.”

Impacted schools or expanded and early learning care programs can contact the CDE Emergency Services Team at EmergencyServices@cde.ca.gov for further assistance.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Last Reviewed: Thursday, October 31, 2019

Thurmond & Newsom Visit School Impacted by Outage - Year 2019 (CA Dept of Education)

Chicago Teachers Strike Ends! Weingarten Explains What Happened | Diane Ravitch's blog

Chicago Teachers Strike Ends! Weingarten Explains What Happened | Diane Ravitch's blog

Chicago Teachers Strike Ends! Weingarten Explains What Happened

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten Congratulates Chicago Teachers Union

WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in response to the news that the Chicago Teachers Union, AFT Local 1, reached a return-to-work agreement with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and will return to classes tomorrow:

“More than 20 years ago, in 1995, educators in Chicago were stripped of their right to bargain, and with that, they lost their voice to influence their students’ learning conditions and their own teaching conditions. As a result, Chicago’s students—particularly students of color and students with special needs—lost out on so many things they needed in schools, including losing many of the neighborhood public schools themselves. This contract is the culmination of a generational struggle to make up those losses. The members and leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union have taken on these inequities and fought for the conditions our kids need and the respect our educators deserve. With this agreement, if ratified, they’re one giant step closer

.

“This historic fight for what students deserve—nurses and counselors in every school, librarians, class-size caps, and additional investments in special education—represents a paradigm shift: It wasn’t simply a fight to mitigate the damage of austerity, it was a fight to create the conditions that both students and educators need. This strike, like so many other fights to fund our future, is about building the political will to strengthen our public schools so all kids have their shot at success.

“We thank the Chicago community for standing with us and are glad Mayor Lightfoot heard us. We congratulate CTU’s leadership, its bargaining team and every member it represents for the work they did and continue to do. I saw their commitment to this fight and their students at every picket line and rally I joined. I want to thank CTU President Jesse Sharkey and Vice President Stacy Davis-Gates for their incredible leadership.

“Together with SEIU Local 73 and every parent, student and ally who stood with CTU Local 1—including our state affiliate, the Illinois Federation of Teachers—we know this: We have helped make Chicago’s public schools safe, welcoming sanctuaries of learning, and we have shown an entire nation that when we fight together, we win.”    CONTINUE WINNING: Chicago Teachers Strike Ends! Weingarten Explains What Happened | Diane Ravitch's blog

2019 Medley #21 | Live Long and Prosper

2019 Medley #21 | Live Long and Prosper

2019 Medley #21

RETENTION HURTS CHILDREN

The Haunted Third Grade Classrooms Children Fear: Enter and… Stay Forever!

It’s time again for another article dealing with retention…complete with references.

In-grade retention doesn’t work. More often than not it harms students psychologically and emotionally, increases the chances of students dropping out, and doesn’t improve achievement. Yet we continue to do it in order to appease the gods of “test and punish.”

I’ve also collected dozens of articles, research articles, blog posts, and position papers on retention-in-grade, the vast majority of which document the damage done by this outdated and abusive practice.

Students who have academic struggles, but who move on, do better in the long run. Students who are retained might seem to do better at first, but they drop back to having difficulties later. Many students who are retained go on to drop out of school.

THE MYTH OF AMERICA’S FAILING SCHOOLS – LOW TEST SCORES

While I Wasn’t Paying Attention……

In a long, rambling blog post, John Merrow touches on a variety of topics. I disagree with one area he discussed in which he talks about how American CONTINUE READING: 2019 Medley #21 | Live Long and Prosper