It’s the Right Time to Stop the Overdose of Standardized Testing | Teacher in a strange land

It’s the Right Time to Stop the Overdose of Standardized Testing | Teacher in a strange land

It’s the Right Time to Stop the Overdose of Standardized Testing

A bit of personal history: I live in the first state to launch statewide standardized assessments, back in 1969-70. Every single one of the 32+ years I taught, in every school, at least some of my Michigan students were taking state-sponsored standardized tests. Honestly, I didn’t think about it much.

In the 1970s, we had the MEAP test for 4th, 7th and 10th grades—two to three days’ worth of testing blocks, in the fall. Teachers understood they were tests of basic skills, and the best strategy was simply reviewing traditional concepts. A couple of times, one of the elementary schools in the district where I taught had a 100% pass rate. Because, on the MEAPs, students either did well enough to meet the grade-level benchmark, or they didn’t.

Schools with low pass rates got more money. The state legislature thought more intensive instruction would help children whose critical skills were weak. For the rest, well—the annual check-up was over.

Those were the days.

What this means is that Michigan stands as the first state to have 50 years of testing data, from a wide array of tests. We had state-created tests, aligned with state-crafted standards. For a while, all our juniors took the ACT, whether they were college-bound CONTINUE READING: It’s the Right Time to Stop the Overdose of Standardized Testing | Teacher in a strange land

Russ on Reading: 7 Ways to Help Young Writers

Russ on Reading: 7 Ways to Help Young Writers

7 Ways to Help Young Writers

This week I have been reading a new biography of my literary hero, John Steinbeck, Mad at the World: A Life  of John Steinbeck by William Souder. In the book Souder quotes Steinbeck's favorite writing teacher, Edith Mirrielees, an English professor at Stanford University, as saying, "Writing can't be taught, but it can be helped." This put me in mind of the work  the psycholinguist, Frank Smith, who wrote an article titled, Reading Like a Writer, in which he posited that most of what a writer learns about writing is learned, not through instruction, but through reading in a special way - reading like someone who thinks they are a member of the "writing club."

Of course, even if writing can't really be taught and even if most of what a child learns about writing is learned by reading, there is still plenty of opportunity for the teacher to help, to be the guide on the side. Here are some good ways to help.

1. Provide regular opportunities to write on self-selected topics. In order to feel like a member of the writing club, kids need to view writing as a regular part of their lives. Daily writing time puts the developing writer into a perpetual state of rehearsal for writing.  For example, because I knew I would be writing this blog entry today, I have been rehearsing, reading, and jotting notes on CONTINUE READING: Russ on Reading: 7 Ways to Help Young Writers

Data breaches hit thousands of K-12 students, federal watchdog reports - POLITICO

Data breaches hit thousands of K-12 students, federal watchdog reports - POLITICO

Data breaches hit thousands of K-12 students, federal watchdog reports

Student academic records were most commonly compromised, including assessment scores and special education records.

Thousands of K-12 students were affected by 99 reported data breaches in the United States over the last four years, according to a Government Accountability Office analysis published this week.

U.S. GAO - Data Security: Recent K-12 Data Breaches Show That Students Are Vulnerable to Harm - https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-644 via @USGAO

Student academic records were most commonly compromised, including assessment scores and special education records. Coming in second were records with personally identifiable information, such as student Social Security numbers, according to the analysis of data from July 2016 to May 2020.

Key findings: Wealthier, larger and suburban districts were more likely to report a breach, the report says, citing information from the Cybersecurity Resource Center.

“Breaches were either accidental or intentional, although sometimes the intent was unknown, with school staff, students, and cybercriminals among those responsible,” the GAO report said. “Reports of breaches by cybercriminals were rare but included attempts to steal [personally identifiable information].”

Background: As schools rely more on information technology systems, they collect more student data electronically that can put student information at risk of disclosure, the report warns. Distance learning during the pandemic has put a spotlight on K-12 cybersecurity issues.

This summer, the FBI alerted private industry that new cyberattacks were likely ahead as schools began virtual learning. Following that warning, districts like the Fairfax County school system near Washington, D.C., fell victim to ransomware attacks, and a Miami-area teenager blocked thousands of students and staff from classes during their first week of online learning. READ MORE: Data breaches hit thousands of K-12 students, federal watchdog reports - POLITICO

School assignment system set for major overhaul – The San Francisco Examiner

School assignment system set for major overhaul – The San Francisco Examiner

School assignment system set for major overhaul

SFUSD board weighing proposal that would limit choices, offer increased predictability

School board members on Tuesday will discuss a long-awaited proposal to overhaul the notoriously complicated student assignment system.

The San Francisco Unified School District has been working since 2018 to develop an alternative system that increases diversity in elementary schools while offering families predictability on which school they will attend within a reasonable distance from their homes.

The proposal set to be presented to the board Tuesday would end a decade-old lottery system that lets families choose from more than 100 schools across The City and instead limit their choices to eight to 10 sites.

Elementary school students would be assigned to sites within a certain zone, which have yet to be determined, which will provide access to language and special education programs.

Assignments would first prioritize students who have older siblings at the same school or live in federal public housing or historically underserved areas, or attended a pre-kindergarten program at the same school. The student’s attendance and test score areas, which are currently factored into the assignment process, would no longer be priority considerations.

“Ultimately we hope this policy will lead to integrated schools and classrooms, offer families of elementary school students greater predictability in where their CONTINUE READING: School assignment system set for major overhaul – The San Francisco Examiner

Good News! New York City’s Public Schools Are Surprisingly Safe | Diane Ravitch's blog

Good News! New York City’s Public Schools Are Surprisingly Safe | Diane Ravitch's blog

Good News! New York City’s Public Schools Are Surprisingly Safe

The New York Times reports that the public schools of New York City have been conducting random drug tests, and the results reveal a surprisingly small number of COVID-19 infections. The city might be a “national model.”

For months, as New York City struggled to start part-time, in-person classes, fear grew that its 1,800 public schools would become vectors of coronavirus infection, a citywide archipelago of super-spreader sites.

But nearly three weeks into the in-person school year, early data from the city’s first effort at targeted testing has shown the opposite: a surprisingly small number of positive cases.

Out of 15,111 staff members and students tested randomly by the school system in the first week of its testing regimen, the city has gotten back results for 10,676. There were only 18 positives: 13 staff members and five students.

And when officials put mobile testing units at schools CONTINUE READING: Good News! New York City’s Public Schools Are Surprisingly Safe | Diane Ravitch's blog

Some Schools Have No Teachers Willing to Return for ‘Phase One’ Reopening — Voice of San Diego

Some Schools Have No Teachers Willing to Return for ‘Phase One’ Reopening — Voice of San Diego

Some Schools Have No Teachers Willing to Return for ‘Phase One’ Reopening

The reality on the ground clashes with the narrative pushed by district leaders: that phase one services will be available to as many as 12,000 students as often as they need them.

San Diego Unified leaders launched their “phase one” reopening this week to help the district’s most vulnerable students. But the launch appears to be wildly uneven – with some schools not even participating.

Donis Coronel is the executive director of the local principals union. She told me that in the lead-up to phase one, she talked to 25 to 30 elementary school principals.

“At least half of the principals I’ve talked to said they maybe have one teacher or zero coming back,” said Coronel. “It is an equity issue. You may have a school with 70 percent of staff returning and others with none. It’s challenging.”

The reality on the ground clashes with the narrative pushed by district leaders: that phase one services will be available to as many as 12,000 students as often as they need them. Phase one, district leaders have said, is designed to even the playing field for students who aren’t doing well in distance learning. It is meant to include in-person services for special education students, as well as those who have fallen behind academically.

Yet the plan seems to have created new inequities, in that services are available for students at some schools, but not others.

Principals have directly contradicted some of the claims made by district leaders about how CONTINUE READING: Some Schools Have No Teachers Willing to Return for ‘Phase One’ Reopening — Voice of San Diego

What we should be fighting for—Letter from a Lowell (and Mission) High School parent - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

What we should be fighting for—Letter from a Lowell (and Mission) High School parent - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

What we should be fighting for—Letter from a Lowell (and Mission) High School parent

As you may have heard, the SFUSD Board of Education is considering a change to Lowell’s regular enrollment policy due to COVID and a lack of grades and test scores. We are doing this with the understanding that it’s much easier for all concerned to allow students to apply using the regular enrollment process for one year rather than try to figure out an alternate method of conducting an already questionable enrollment system during a pandemic, staff is recommending this policy shift as a temporary solution which will allow students grace as we all navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis distance learning.

I think my colleagues on the Board would likely agree, we would much rather focus our meeting time discussing reopening schools and improving distance learning, and supporting families during a pandemic. That said, it is enrollment season, so the issue must be addressed.

If you’ve been following me on FaceBook (or Twitter) you will note that most of my posts have not been focused on the actual enrollment policy. Rather, they’ve been focused on the tone of discussion and underlying assumptions around this topic. (I’ve reposted a call to action here.)

Recently, an SFUSD parent educator reached out to share some thoughts on the controversy. With his permission, I am sharing his thoughts below.

What we should be fighting for.

by Matt McDonnell, SFUSD parent and educator

“I have two children attending public high schools in San Francisco: one is at Mission (where I have been part of the faculty for over two decades), the other is at Lowell.

I have long found two things about Lowell to be problematic. The first is that admissions decisions are made in a way that consistently produces CONTINUE READING: What we should be fighting for—Letter from a Lowell (and Mission) High School parent - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

Media “Experts” + Parental Zeal + Political Knee-jerk Legislation + Market Forces = Failing Reading, Again – radical eyes for equity

Media “Experts” + Parental Zeal + Political Knee-jerk Legislation + Market Forces = Failing Reading, Again – radical eyes for equity

Media “Experts” + Parental Zeal + Political Knee-jerk Legislation + Market Forces = Failing Reading, Again

In the pre-pandemic world that seems much further in the past than it is, I traveled from South Carolina to Milwaukee in February of 2020 to speak at the Wisconsin State Reading Association (WSRA) annual convention.

My public work had been dominated by refuting the “science of reading” movement for more than a year at that point—including having a book in press on the “science of reading” as another version of the Reading War—so I arrived in Milwaukee a bit apprehensive about how I would be received.

My session was well attended by an energetic crowd of teachers who seemed eager to engage in why the “science of reading” movement was misguided, but I also encountered another distinct frustration among teachers I had not anticipated.

A significant part of the “science of reading” agenda has been to attack popular reading reading programs, notably programs associated with Lucy Calkins and Teachers College (see here and here, for example).

As I interrogated and discounted many aspects of the “science of reading” agendas, the attendees were supportive of my analysis, but teachers often expressed very negative experiences with Calkins’s programs, the third most CONTINUE READING: Media “Experts” + Parental Zeal + Political Knee-jerk Legislation + Market Forces = Failing Reading, Again – radical eyes for equity

Hybrid school might be worse than remote or all in-person school - Vox

Hybrid school might be worse than remote or all in-person school - Vox

Hybrid school might be the worst of both worlds

Part-time school during the pandemic might create as many problems as it solves.

Hybrid learning was supposed to be an improvement.

When school buildings closed in the spring due to the pandemic, students, teachers, and families all struggled with remote classes. But come fall, the virus was still raging across much of America. So many districts — including the nation’s largest, New York City — struck a compromise.

They would bring kids into buildings, but only for part of the day or week. That way, they’d reduce the number of students in schools at any one time, limiting viral spread, while still giving students crucial in-person time with their teachers and peers.

That was the idea, anyway. In practice, however, hybrid models could turn out to be the worst of both worlds, as David Zweig predicted at Wired in July.

To begin with, hybrid schedules don’t really solve one of the pandemic’s biggest problems for parents: the lack of child care. While having kids in school a few days a week or a few hours a day might give parents a bit more flexibility to do their jobs, “the benefits of being able to work a little less part-time and a little less erratically are not going to be anything like what you’d be getting from full-time school,” Michael Madowitz, an economist at the Center for American Progress who studies the impact of child care, told Vox.

And while some parents may be able to stay home with their kids on the days they’re out of school, others will need outside child care. That means kids will spend part of the week in child CONTINUE READING: Hybrid school might be worse than remote or all in-person school - Vox

Money and Power in LAUSD Contests - LA Progressive

Money and Power in LAUSD Contests - LA Progressive

Money and Power in LAUSD Contests

“When you find hypocrisy in the daylight, look for power in the shadows” -Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, 10/13/20

Senator Whitehouse laid out beautifully on Tuesday the context surrounding Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings in Washington as the pushing and pulling of ‘actors inside the frame of a puppet theater.’ He argues that not only are outside forces controlling these actors in the main show but they are integral to the narrative of it. And some of the evidence for broadening focus beyond the proscenium is when characters in the drama adopt “the practice of claiming … moral standards or beliefs to which [their] own behavior does not conform”:  hypocrisy.

Just so has Marilyn Koziatek – or the independent expenditure committee (IEC) from which she proudly accepts endorsement of her West San Fernando Valley campaign for school board in the LAUSD3 board district – swerved from insinuation of responsibility for scandals that occurred before his tenure, to antisemitism to anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice bigotry. Schmerelson’s defeated opponent who has endorsed Koziatek, has even hypocritically alluded to Scott Schmerelson’s former republican registration. Meanwhile, swearing brand new allegiance to a political party is precisely the maneuver employed by her endorsed-candidate, Ms Koziatek. The hypocrisy is not CONTINUE READING: Money and Power in LAUSD Contests - LA Progressive

NYC Public School Parents: Questionable DOE contracts to be voted on Oct. 21 by the PEP -lack of compliance with student privacy law & lack of training

NYC Public School Parents: Questionable DOE contracts to be voted on Oct. 21 by the PEP, concerns about DOE lack of compliance with student privacy law & ongoing issues about PEP process & lack of training

Questionable DOE contracts to be voted on Oct. 21 by the PEP, concerns about DOE lack of compliance with student privacy law & ongoing issues about PEP process & lack of training

I sent this memo to the members of the Panel for Educational Policy last week; questions about their busing contracts, DOE's lack of compliance with the state student privacy law by failing to post their district data privacy policy and contracts with vendors that have access to personal student data, and problems related to PEP governance.   

Update on busing: After this memo was written, it was also revealed that the DOE is planning purchasing Reliant bus company, for an unknown amount, acquiring one thousand buses and thousands of new employees, with ongoing considerable costs to the DOE budget. As I said to the NY Post, this move raises all sorts of questions, including how can the city afford this in the face of huge budget shortfalls? And why are they adding more city employees while threatening to lay off thousands of others? 

Update on the Covid testing contracts:  As of Friday 10/16/20, DOE has now posted the three vendor Parent Bill of Rights agreements here,  after we and others urged them to do so.  We still have concerns about the provisions regarding deletion of the personal student data portions in their Parent Bill of Rights, which do not clearly state when the data is to be deleted and thus do not appear to comply with the state student privacy law Education Law 2D, or regs, which fully came into force January 2020.  There still are no contracts or PBOR posted on the DOE website for the 75+ ed tech companies that DOE has acquired and encouraged teachers to use, many of which also have access to personal student data.

The meeting of the PEP contract is Monday Oct. 19 at 11 AM today; you can see livestream here.  Meeting of the PEP is Wed. Oct 21 at 6 PM; more info including agenda here.  The agenda has a link to the proposed contracts.  You can listen or sign up to speak starting at 5:30 PM here.

Teacher Tom: "Radical Empathy"

Teacher Tom: "Radical Empathy"

"Radical Empathy"

In Rutger Bregman's book Humankind, he writes about an experiment in which psychologists told volunteers a sad story about a 10-year-old girl who was suffering from a deadly disease. She is, according to the story, on a waiting list for a life-saving treatment, but time is of the essence. The volunteers are told that they can move her up on the list, but they are instructed to be objective in their decision. Most people, understanding that all the children on the list were in dire straits, opted to not give this specific girl an advantage over the others.  A second group of volunteers, however,  was given the same set up, but this time they were asked to imagine how this specific girl must be feeling, to dwell on her pain, suffering, and fear. In this case, the majority chose to allow her to jump the line.

As Bregman points out, this is, at best a shaky moral choice. After all, giving this girl, who the second group of volunteers now "know" through their empathy, an advantage, they are in fact disadvantaging all the other kids, violating the principles of what most of us would consider even-handed fairness. Those other children have stories as well, but because the volunteers spent time empathizing with this one specific girl, they favored her. Bregman sees this as an example of how empathy can blind us:

(Empathy) is something we feel for people who are close to us; for people we can smell, hear and touch. For family and friends, for fans of our favorite band, and maybe for the homeless guy on our own street CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: "Radical Empathy"

CURMUDGUCATION: Call Made For DeVos To Cut Off Fraudulent College Chain

CURMUDGUCATION: Call Made For DeVos To Cut Off Fraudulent College Chain

Call Made For DeVos To Cut Off Fraudulent College Chain

Last week, an assortment of organizations signed off on a letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, from the AFT to the Feminists Majority Foundation to the Education Trust to the Young Invincibles. 

This crew came together to insist that the time has come for the department to finally cut the Center for Excellence in Higher Education (CEHE) off from any federal money. Let me give you the short form explanation of what's going on, because among other things, it's a great demonstration of how the non-profit private school dodge is still a great way for hucksters and grifters to collect a mountain of money, much of it from the taxpayers, and how these profiteers have burrowed into the department of education.

I'm going to lean heavily on the work of one other co-signer-- attorney David Halperin, who has followed this tale for years. And I'll warn you up front--this is a twisty mess.

We can start back in 2012. Carl Barney the owner-operator of several for-profit colleges including Stevens-Haneger, CollegeAmerica, and California College. According to Patricia Cohen in 2015 at the New York Times, in 2012 Barney sold these profit schools to a Denver non-profit, the Center for Excellence in Higher Education. According to court documents, that non-profit consisted entirely of just one guy--Carl Barney. Hold onto your hat for this next part.

Barney has always been a busy guy, but only a few critics have really gone digging as much as this CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Call Made For DeVos To Cut Off Fraudulent College Chain

NYC Educator: Making the Best of the Impossible

NYC Educator: Making the Best of the Impossible

Making the Best of the Impossible

 There's no magic bullet to ease our anxiety. There's no certain answer to solve our dilemmas. And no matter how bad things get, they can always get worse.

We just had a positive case in our building. Of course our building doesn't look the way it usually does. More than half of our students are all remote, and most of those who aren't come in once or twice a week. 

It's freaky, and it's scary. But everyone who came into contact with that person is out of the building for two weeks. Is it perfect? Of course it's not. Nothing ever will be.

We have fewer students this year, I'm told, because some parents are pulling their kids from public schools. They're finding private ones that will see them in person five days a week. I'm mystified as to what would make parents find that an acceptable risk. I don't even allow my dog to socialize the way he used to, and my dog adores attention anywhere he can find it.

I'm teaching online, and so far I've only seen two of my students studying from the building. I was surprised to see them there, but I'm glad they managed to catch their classes one way or another. I have a feeling after this week there hapwill be fewer of them choosing to go in. It doesn't really take much. Since they're only going in a CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Making the Best of the Impossible

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

A VERY BUSY DAY
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Big Education Ape: THIS WEEK IN EDUCATION Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/this-week-in-education-larry-ferlazzos_17.html

“Readers Respond: Should Politics Be Kept Out of the Classroom?”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

Readers Respond: Should Politics Be Kept Out of the Classroom? is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Many readers share their responses to the question of politics in the classroom, ranging from the importance of separating it from “partisanship” to stating that “teaching is political.” Here are some excerpts:

Monday’s Must-Read Articles On School Reopening

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Skitterphoto / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : California teacher unions fight calls to reopen schools is from The L.A. Times. ‘Out of Control’: When Schools Opened in a Virus Hot Spot is from The NY Times. Remote learning is deepening the divide between rich and poor is from The Washington Post. CDC Offers Cautions, Guidance f

The National Day Of Writing Is On Oct. 20th – Here Are 37 Related Teaching & Learning “Best” Lists

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

Free-Photos / Pixabay From The National Council Of Teachers Of English : Writing is an important part of life. It helps us communicate and work with each other, supports our learning, and helps us remember. The National Day on Writing® celebrates writing—and the many places, reasons, and ways we write each day—as an essential component of literacy. Since 2009, #WhyIWrite has encouraged thousands

The Best Social Studies Websites – 2020

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

The end-of-the-year “Best” lists continue. I’m adding this one to ALL END-OF-YEAR “BEST” LISTS FOR 2020 IN ONE PLACE! You can see all previous Social Studies lists here . Here picks for this year: HERE’S THE “COLUMBUS DAY” LESSON I DID WITH MY ELL HISTORY CLASS THE BEST RESOURCES FOR TEACHING & LEARNING ABOUT HOW THE STOCK MARKET WORKS FREE NY TIMES SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR ANY US HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER &

Everything You Wanted To Know About Teaching With Movies & Video Clips But Were Afraid To Ask

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12h

15299 / Pixabay I have over 2,100 frequently revised and updated “Best” lists on just about every subject imaginable, and you can find them listed three different ways in three different places (see Three Accessible Ways To Search For & Find My “Best” Lists ). I’m starting to publish a series where each day I will highlight the “Best” lists in a separate category. Today, it’s on Teaching With Mov

What Is The Most Simple & Best Lesson You Have Done On Information Literacy & “Fake News”?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

pixel2013 / Pixabay I want to teach a lesson on information literacy/fake news to my IB Theory of Knowledge class in a week or so. I have a ton of ideas at The Best Tools & Lessons For Teaching Information Literacy – Help Me Find 

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007