Liz Davis | GFBrandenburg's Blog

Liz Davis | GFBrandenburg's Blog

Liz Davis

A virtual memorial for my former colleague, fellow union member, friend and ally, Elizabeth Davis, is starting soon.

https://www.wtulocal6.net/https://www.wtulocal6.net/ and click on the banner if you want to participate.

I really need to record a few things in appreciation. During my very first year teaching, we happened to be teaching at the same school, a big newe open space classroom almost as far south as you can get and still be in DC. Interesting times — there was a teacher strike that year, and we both were definitely doing our best to be on the left, progressive, anti-racist side of things. Looking back, I feel that I mostly made a hash of it. She was much more of a fighter than I was, frankly.

I only recall one serious disagreement with her, which I should explain later, but in hindsight I see we were both partly right and both partly wrong.

Liz Davis | GFBrandenburg's Blog

DC OSSE Shenanigans deprive DC youngsters of an education | GFBrandenburg's Blog

DC OSSE Shenanigans deprive DC youngsters of an education | GFBrandenburg's Blog

DC OSSE Shenanigans deprive DC youngsters of an education

This is amazingly damning stuff from Valerie Jablow. For example the charts at the very end of this post shows that in DC’s >>charter<< schools, as a whole the attendance figures are mostly lies, and a huge number of charter students miss most of the school year but are marked present.

Bottom line: while the attendance and scholarship problems of DCPS have been widely publicized, the ones in the charter schools are not only worse but are actively hidden.

From: educationdc <comment-reply@wordpress.com>
Date: April 9, 2021 at 11:57:38 AM EDT
To:gfbrandenburg@gmail.com
Subject:[New post] The March 2021 Auditor’s Report: Or, How DC Fails To Provide All Students Their Educations
Reply-To: educationdc <comment+z_ioq3tk92pflg6rtzqshm0c@comment.wordpress.com>

post on educationdcThe March 2021 Auditor’s Report: Or, How DC Fails To Provide All Students Their Educationsby Valerie Jablow[Ed. Note: Over just a few years, DC’s auditor has produced many pages detailing shockingly poor practices in DC’s public schools, whether mis-use of at risk funds, inequitable modernizations, high school admissions bias, and segregation and funding inequities arising from school choice. The auditor’s latest report on DC’s publicly funded schools, CONTINUE READING: DC OSSE Shenanigans deprive DC youngsters of an education | GFBrandenburg's Blog

10 Year Assessment of Education Reform in DC — a Fraud, says its former director of assessments, Richard Phelps | GFBrandenburg's Blog

10 Year Assessment of Education Reform in DC — a Fraud, says its former director of assessments, Richard Phelps | GFBrandenburg's Blog

10 Year Assessment of Education Reform in DC — a Fraud, says its former director of assessments, Richard Phelps

Stolen from Valerie Jablow:

Looking Back on DC Education Reform 10 Years Later, Part 1: The Grand Tour by Valerie Jablow

[Ed. Note: As DC’s office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE) seeks a waiver of PARCC testing again (recall that OSSE waived PARCC last school year due to the pandemic) and the DC auditor just released a bombshell report of poor stewardship of DC’s education data, it is time to revisit how standardized test data, teacher evaluations, and harsh school penalties were united by ed reformers in DCPS under mayoral control. This first-hand account of what went down in DCPS, the first of two parts by semi-retired educator Richard P. Phelps, appeared in Nonpartisan Education Review in September 2020 and is reprinted here with permission. The author thanks DC budget expert Mary Levy and retired DCPS teacher Erich Martel for their helpful comments in the research of this article.]

By Richard P. Phelps

Ten years ago, I worked as the director of assessments for DCPS. My tenure coincided with Michelle Rhee’s last nine months as chancellor. I departed shortly after Vincent Gray defeated Adrian Fenty in the September 2010 DC mayoral primary.

My primary task was to design an expansion of that testing program that served the IMPACT teacher evaluation system to include all core subjects and all grade levels. Despite its fame (or infamy), the test score aspect of the IMPACT program affected CONTINUE READING: 10 Year Assessment of Education Reform in DC — a Fraud, says its former director of assessments, Richard Phelps | GFBrandenburg's Blog