Sunday, July 17, 2011

Yong Zhao » Blog Archive » Ditch Testing (Part 5): Testing Has Not Improved Education Despite all the Costs

Ditch Testing (Part 5): Testing Has Not Improved Education Despite all the Costs

by YongZhao

Ditch Testing (Part 5): Testing Has Not Improved Education The evidence is clear. Test-score cheating is not isolated to Atlanta, Baltimore, and a few other schools, as testing proponents tend to suggest. It is not a problem that can be fixed with technical measures such as tightened security. It may be human nature but it is the high and unreasonable pressure of high-stakes standardized testing that leads to corruption. Thus, we cannot minimize the problem, trivialize potential solutions, or blame a few educators who have been caught. The Atlanta scandal should ...

Support Save our Schools « Cooperative Catalyst

Support Save our Schools

by joebower

On my Twitter avatar I have chosen to show support for American educators who rightfully see corporate reform efforts to link their pay to student test scores and eliminate tenure as a direct assault on their profession.

The Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action will be held July 28-31, 2011 in Washington, D.C & Nationwide.

You can follow Save Our Schools on Twitter here.

For a taste of what this group stands for, here is an excerpt from the Save Our Schools site on High-Stakes Testing:

The primary and most important purpose of assessment is to find out what learners know and can do so that teachers can develop their strengths, support the areas where they struggle, and promote the learning process. High-stakes testing, however, distorts and undermines that process. By directing our focus to the scores instead of the learning process, high-stakes testing makes it difficult to fully understand what exactly is happening in our schools, and it makes it even more difficult for teachers and students to engage in real learning.
Students who know that a test may keep them from moving on to the next grade or graduating, or that their school may be closed or converted, face tremendous stress.

U.S. Education Policy: “School Isn’t for Everyone” « Larry Miller's Blog

U.S. Education Policy: “School Isn’t for Everyone”

by millerlf

How is it that we can afford to double our military budget since 9/11, can afford the carried-interest tax loophole for billionaires, can afford billions of dollars in givebacks to oil and gas companies, yet can’t afford to invest in our kids’ futures?

Our Broken Escalator

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: July 16, 2011 NYtimes

THE United States supports schools in Afghanistan because we know that education is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to build a country.

Alas, we’ve forgotten that lesson at home. All across America, school budgets are being cut, teachers laid off and education programs dismantled.

My beloved old high school in Yamhill, Ore. — a plain brick building that was my rocket ship — is emblematic of that trend. There were only 167 school days in the last school year here (180 was typical until the recession hit), and the staff has been reduced by 9 percent over five years.

This school was where I embraced sports, became a journalist, encountered intellectual worlds, and got in

Summarizing Learning Environment Surveys from Bronx High Schools « JD2718

Summarizing Learning Environment Surveys from Bronx High Schools

by jd2718

Learning Environment survey results came out earlier this month. Most people ignore them. Quite a few look at their own school, or schools of a few friends, or a school or two that’s been in the news. Scan 16 pages of tabulated results, and move on.

But I decided to look. Maybe the data was readily available. I don’t know. But I searched for schools in the Bronx with grade 9, and downloaded the pdfs, one at a time. I considered campus schools, non-campus schools, CTE schools, and specialized schools. I considered 6-12 schools. I also threw in charter schools. I did not use data from D75 schools. There are several schools that do not yet have data. There are several where too few teachers filled in the surveys to be considered meaningful (Bronx Leadership Academy II, Global Enterprise HS, ELLIS, and Bronx Studio School for Writers). Two small schools that are not completely staffed had 100% or almost 100% of the staff – I included them even thought the raw number of teachers was small: Crotona Academy and the Cinema School. I looked at 115 schools.

I chose four questions to summarize:

The Principal is an effective manager who makes the school run smoothly

SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: Van Jones on What We Can Learn From the Tea Party

Van Jones on What We Can Learn From the Tea Party

by Paul B

Friday 8 July 2011

by: Amy Dean, Truthout | Interview

Van Jones speaks at the "Save the American Dream" rally in Washington, DC, February 26th 2011. (Photo: markn3tel)

In late June, Van Jones - a former "green jobs" czar in the Obama administration and currently a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress - officially launched a new organization known as Rebuild the Dream. The group's first mission is to help spark a new economic justice effort called the American Dream

Blog For the Save Our Schools March #bloggermarch « Cooperative Catalyst

Blog For the Save Our Schools March #bloggermarch

by Paula White

Will you? http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org/

This is from the official site:

Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action!
July 28-31, 2011 in Washington, D.C. and around the country
We’re putting the Public back in public schools!
We, a collection of people from all walks of life and every corner of this nation, embody a mixture of ideas and opinions regarding how we can improve educational opportunities for all children. We stand united by one belief – it’s time for teachers and parents to organize and reclaim control of our schools.
As concerned citizens, we demand an end to the destructive policies and rhetoric that have eroded confidence in our public schools, demoralized teachers, and reduced the education of too many of our children to nothing more than test preparation.
A well-educated society is essential to the future of the United States of America. Our students must have access to a fully funded, world-class public education system, and it is our responsibility to hold our government accountable for providing the means to achieve it. Please join!

It’s time to show the “powers that be” what the people of America think of their support for education and how we should be teaching our children. Please blog and share your link here in a comment. We’ll once again compile them. Please join us and share YOUR voice to put the public back in public schools! Use the twitter hashtag #bloggermarch to share your Blog for the SOS March!

Do Americans understand the debt crisis? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Do Americans understand the debt crisis?

By Valerie Strauss

How well do Americans understand the complexities of the nation’s debt crisis? If a comprehensive study of American financial literacy is any indication, the answer is not very well.

A comprehensive national study of the financial capability of American adults, conducted in 2009, revealed:

*Nearly half of survey respondents reported facing difficulties in covering monthly expenses and paying bills.

*The majority of Americans do not have “rainy day” funds set aside for unanticipated financial emergencies and similarly do not plan for predictable life events, such as their children’s college education or their

Lessons we learned from ‘Harry Potter’

by Valerie Strauss

What, after all these years, did we learn from “Harry Potter”?
That miracles can happen, at least to:
*A single mother named J.K. Rowling who was living on public assistance and didn’t give up on her brilliant idea for a book series about a boy wizard.
Read full article >>

People Improvement = School Improvement | Connected Principals

People Improvement = School Improvement

by Brian Nichols

All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.

Albert Einstein

Organizations will only improve as the people who work there improve their practices. Much of what we currently do in terms of people development is isolated, ever-changing, and rarely related to organizational goals.

How can we begin changing the face of professional development?

Effective professional development occurs at the intersection of meeting both organizational needs and

Schools Matter: What school is all about

What school is all about

by skrashen

Sent to the Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2011

In addition to influencing the medical literature (LA Times, July 16), J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter has a great deal to say about current educational policy.

In "Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix" (2007), villain Dolores Umbridge ("You know, I really hate children.") informs Hogwarts students that their course on Defense Against the Dark Arts will be "carefully structured" and all theoretical, with no actual use of the spells. When students complain, Umbridge says " … a theoretical

School Tech Connect: Do Something Today!

Do Something Today!

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Whether you're going to the SOS March or not, there's something very smart and productive you can do this week to help save our schools, and that is to contact your member of congress with a specific message about HR 2218, or what I like to call, the Arne Duncan/Unregulated Free Market Chartergasm Bill.

The very nice people at PAA put together some guidance for you; all you have to do is send a letter or fax. Here's mine-- I faxed if off this morning.

Open publication - Free publishing - More advocacy

Here's the PAA guidance that you should include with your message.

Open publication - Free publishing - More advocacy

This charter-on-every-corner bill is in committee, so you might want to send your note to the committee members as well. If you're in Illinois, you should at least send one to the soon-to-be-without-a-district Judy Biggert. I haven't followed Biggert too much; as a Republican, she'll probably be entrenched in the Edelman/Broad/Duncan dismantle-public-education camp, so she should be contacted.

You might included Sharon Higgins' charter fact sheet as well. If you are going to SOS March, it only makes sense to contact your representative first and offer to meet her/him while you're there. I'm guessing that 95% of the faculty you work with haven't bothered to weigh in on any of these issues, so you might want to contact them, too.

Investigation into APS cheating finds unethical behavior across every level | ajc.com

Investigation into APS cheating finds unethical behavior across every level

By Heather Vogell

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Across Atlanta Public Schools, staff worked feverishly in secret to transform testing failures into successes.

Enlarge photo

A state investigation found former Atlanta schools superintendent Beverly Hall and her top aides either ignored or destroyed evidence of test cheating across the district.

Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.comA state investigation found former Atlanta schools superintendent Beverly Hall and her top aides either ignored or destroyed evidence of test cheating across the district.

Look back at APS scandal »

More Atlanta area news »

Teachers and principals erased and corrected mistakes on students’ answer sheets.

Area superintendents silenced whistle-blowers and rewarded subordinates who met academic goals by any means possible.

Superintendent Beverly Hall and her top aides ignored, buried, destroyed or altered complaints about misconduct, claimed ignorance of wrongdoing and accused naysayers of failing to believe in poor children’s ability to learn.

For years — as long as a decade — this was how the Atlanta school district produced gains on state curriculum tests. The scores soared so dramatically they brought national acclaim to Hall and the district, according to an investigative report released Tuesday by Gov. Nathan Deal.

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog: Listen to Ms. Wong!

Listen to Ms. Wong!

by L. Jablonski

Ellen Wong, C.K. McClatchy teacher extraordinaire and HISP program coordinator (and my teaching partner!), in a letter to the Sac Bee admonishes our state leaders for abandoning higher education. Here's the text of her letter (with links supplied by the Bee):

Higher Ed Legacy Abandoned

Re "Cuts to higher education pose a threat to the state's future" (Viewpoints, July 10): Pat Brown must be turning over in his grave. His master plan for higher education, his legacy designed to make college accessible to every young person who had achieved admission, has been abandoned by his son and the Legislature. How shortsighted our elected officials have become. It's an embarrassment.
And those legislators who refused to allow California voters to decide for themselves if they want to invest in

View of education changes is in eye of beholder | The Associated Press | News | Washington Examiner

View of education changes is in eye of beholder

By: TOM LoBIANCO | Associated Press | 07/17/11 11:08 AM

Sen. Tim Skinner and his wife, Mary Lou, threw in the towel on teaching careers that spanned a combined 46 years after lawmakers passed a series of education changes this year.

A sweeping voucher system, the potential for more charter schools, merit-based pay for teachers and reduced collective bargaining rights left the Terre Haute Democrat with a blunt assessment of legislators' work:

"This last year we got kicked in the teeth every day the General Assembly was in session," said Skinner, who taught government and politics at West Vigo High School until July 1.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett say the changes lawmakers passed this year will position a state whose schools were ranked 14th in the nation by Education Week this year to become a national leader in education.

But Skinner, who had been teaching for 21 years and was close to retiring, contends Daniels and Bennett have left a far different legacy than what they tout.

"His and Tony Bennett's legacy is going to be the destruction of what I think is one of the best public school systems in the nation," he said.

Skinner says the new laws

Sunday links. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Sunday links.

by Fred Klonsky

The Save our Schools March on Washington is looking to get to 1,300 Twitter followers. You can be number 1,300 by going here.

Another day, another Obama cave-in. News is that he won’t appoint Elizabeth Warren to head Consumer agency because of corporate objections.

Schooling in the Ownership Society gives us the list of power philanthropies. Who gives and who gets.

The Chicago Tribune writes the biggest BS piece in all creation about CPS school’s CEO JC Brizard. It’s

Hispanic Standout Arturo Pedraza: Teacher Extraordinaire - Hispanically Speaking News

Hispanic Standout Arturo Pedraza: Teacher Extraordinaire in the Making

As the nation’s schools struggle to thrive and the need for high quality teachers goes unmet there is National Louis University (NLU) who is answering the call one teaching student at a time with its 125 year history producing outstanding educators. Recently it developed a program in Chicago, the Harrison Fellowship, to identify potential educators that can serve their community and who otherwise would not have the opportunity to attend college.

And within the confines of this program there is a Hispanic standout, Arturo Pedraza, who is a teacher extraordinaire in the making.

Arturo, inspired by his older sister who is a teacher and the desire to provide a college-educated role model for his daughter, decided to leave the music business and go to school at the ripe old age of 33. Of course like a lot of aspiring Latino college students there were the realities to contend with, like paying for school and providing for family while going to school full-time. This did not deter Arturo and the community that came together to

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