New waivers from school readiness law raise concerns | Chalkbeat

New waivers from school readiness law raise concerns | Chalkbeat:

New waivers from school readiness law raise concerns

More than 60 Colorado charter schools  — and one of the state’s largest school districts — have been granted exemptions from some requirements of the state’s school readiness law just as it is being rolled out statewide.

Those schools and four districts have been granted waivers by the State Board of Education, which allows them to use their own programs to determine if kindergarteners are ready for first grade.

While the waivers are permitted by state law, some observers are concerned that such flexibility could lead to lead to inconsistency among schools and districts and make it harder to track whether kindergarten students statewide really are prepared for first grade.

While no one seems to be questioning the quality of individual waiver plans, some people are concerned that it will be hard to review the quality of individual school and district readiness tools.

“I’m apprehensive about the trend,” said Bill Jaeger, vice president of early childhood initiatives for the Colorado Children’s Campaign.

Jen Walmer, Colorado state director of Democrats for Education Reform, said she also has questions about “the push-to-a-waiver mentality.”

Angelika Schroeder, vice chair of the State Board of Education, also raised questions during the Oct. 7 board meeting at which the issue was discussed.

“Having everybody get a waiver, that would be a problem. … I really don’t want to go against what districts want to do, but I don’t want the legislature to believe we will go against their legislative intent,” she said.

School readiness evaluations of kindergarteners are required by a sweeping 2008 education reform law called the Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids. Evaluations were supposed to start statewide in the 2013-14 school year, but full rollout was delayed until this year.

Children are not formally tested but rather observed in a structured way by their teachers, New waivers from school readiness law raise concerns | Chalkbeat:

ESPN delays '30 for 30' Kevin Johnson doc in light of sex allegations - NBA - SI com

ESPN delays '30 for 30' Kevin Johnson doc in light of sex allegations - NBA - SI.com:

ESPN delays Kevin Johnson '30 for 30' documentary in light of allegations

In light of recent articles revisiting allegations of sexual misconduct involving Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, ESPN has decided to delay its on-the-air premiere of “Down In The Valley,” a “30 for 30” ESPN Film that focuses on the fight to keep the Sacramento Kings from relocating to another city. The 77-minute documentary, which was scheduled to air Oct. 20 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN, does not have a new release date at the moment. Johnson, who has been Mayor of Sacramento since 2008, is a key figure in the film.

“We are re-evaluating the content presentation of it and delaying the premiere,” said John Dahl, the vice president and executive producer of ESPN Films and Original Content. “When [director] Jason Hehir and we collectively agree that the film is ready and we are comfortable with it, then we will pick that air date.  I think the most important thing here is to make sure it’s clear that we are not tone deaf and we’re aware of a renewed focus on certain issues."

What Dahl is referring to is a series of stories on Johnson by Deadspin’s Dave McKenna including one that featured Mandi Koba, a mother of three and an advocate for survivors of sexual abuse. Koba told McKenna that nearly 20 years ago, Johnson paid her a six-figure settlement to remain quiet about a 1996 Phoenix police investigation into allegations that Johnson, who was 29 at the time,touched her inappropriately. Koba detailed that alleged encounter with Johnson in a Deadspin piece that ran on Sept. 25. The allegations are not new.The Sacramento Bee first reported in 2008 that she and Johnson had signed a draft confidential settlement agreement in 1997 worth $230,000. Johnson has repeatedly denied the allegations and no criminal charges were filed. Koba told Deadspin that she stayed quiet and took Johnson’s money in exchange for a pledge to never mention Johnson again except to “a priest, a therapist, or a lawyer.

“We are aware of the renewed focus out there on events and issues and allegations in Mayor Johnson’s past,” Dahl said. “We know what is out there and we acknowledge that it is out there and we want to make sure that it is clear to everyone that we are responsible how we handle the story.”

The film itself has long been completed and had a splashy debut (guests included former commissioner David Stern) at Tribeca last April.It also was shown at the LaCosta Film Festival last month in Carlisbad, Ca.. Johnson appears prominently in the advertising for the film, though Dahl wanted to make it clear that the film is not a Kevin Johnson biopic.

“It was never a biography and it still won't be,” Dahl said. “It was always about exploring the people of Sacramento banding together against overwhelming odds in this crusade to save their team. That’s what drew us to this story…No question Kevin Johnson as mayor since 2008 has been a big part of that story. But this is a specific story that touches on larger themes.”ESPN delays '30 for 30' Kevin Johnson doc in light of sex allegations - NBA - SI.com:

The Legacy of Arne Duncan, ‘A Hero in the Education Business’ | The Nation

The Legacy of Arne Duncan, ‘A Hero in the Education Business’ | The Nation:

The Legacy of Arne Duncan, ‘A Hero in the Education Business’

The Secretary of Education will step down at the end of the year, after proving himself a champion for the corporate reform movement.

To understand the legacy of outgoing education secretary Arne Duncan, look to the Crescent City. Hurricane Katrina, Duncan said once, was “the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans.” What the disaster did was enable state legislators and out-of-state reformers to transform the system on an unparalleled scale. Nearly all of the schools were converted to charters, which receive public funds but have less oversight than traditional public schools. Some 7,500 unionized teachers and other employees were fired, many of them people of color. The city’s teaching core went from 71 percent black in 2004 to less than 50 percent last year.

To avoid closure, new schools had to focus on raising standardized test results. Scores did go up; more than 60 percent of elementary and middle-schoolerspassed state tests last year, up from 37 percent in 2005, and graduation rateshave risen. But it’s not clear the gains are due to the kinds of reforms that people like Duncan champion, such as tying teacher accountability to test results. The flood of philanthropic and federal money that went into the charter system after the hurricane was unprecedented; such an investment might have improved the city’s traditional (and broke) public schools, too, if they hadn’t been shuttered.

Duncan, who announced his resignation last week, took over at the Department of Education several years after the New Orleans overhaul began. But he’s pointed to the city as a sort of blueprint for remaking public education across the country. It’s the place where his vision for school reform was most fully realized. Whether the overhaul was a miracle or misguided is a question about Duncan’s legacy more broadly. 

Once called a “budding hero in the education business,” Duncan proved himself a champion for those who saw a money-making opportunity in America’s beleaguered public school system—the charter school and testing industries, for instance. Pushing a market-based vision of reform, Duncan oversaw mass school closures and a deepening obsession with standardized tests, which he said was necessary to prevent teachers from “lying” to children about their preparedness. He opened the door of the Education Department to “the Billionaire Boys’ Club,” people from philanthropic groups like the Gates Foundation and the NewSchools Venture Fund. Teachers, on the other hand, felt shut out, and alienated by a narrative of educational inequality that framed it less as a legacy of racism and poverty than a reflection of their own shortcomings. The corps of professional educators shrunk and grew less diverse. 

After Barack Obama was elected, many hoped he would apply his campaign-trail promise of change to the punitive testing regime ushered in by George W. Bush and No Child Left Behind. But Obama passed over former teacher and education expert Linda Darling-Hammond in favor of Duncan, his basketball buddy, who’d aligned himself with the corporate reform movement as CEO of The Legacy of Arne Duncan, ‘A Hero in the Education Business’ | The Nation:

Another state redefines ‘proficiency’ on Common Core tests, inflating performance - The Washington Post

Another state redefines ‘proficiency’ on Common Core tests, inflating performance - The Washington Post:

Another state redefines ‘proficiency’ on Common Core tests, inflating performance

Arkansas has become the second state to redefine what it means to be proficient on new Common Core tests, inflating the performance of its students.

Like Ohio before it, Arkansas has decided that students are proficient if they score at level 3 or above on the exams known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC. PARCC divides students into five levels, from 1 to 5.

[Confusing Ohio test results are the latest effort to unravel Common Core’s promise]

According to PARCC, students are on track to graduate with the skills they need after high school only if they score at level 4 or above.

So Arkansas claims that 60 percent of its Algebra I students are proficient, while fewer than half that many — just 28 percent — would be considered on track had Arkansas stuck with PARCC’s more stringent definition of “proficient.”

Similarly, Arkansas says that 64 percent of its high school freshmen are proficient in reading. But had the state used PARCC’s definition, that would have dropped to 36 percent.

Critics slammed state officials, saying they made a politically convenient decision that leaves parents and policymakers in the dark about the real performance of Arkansas students.

Kimberly Friedman, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas education department, said that officials are “preparing follow-up information to parents and the state” that clarifies that students who score a 3 have only “approached academic expectations,” according to PARCC.

Friedman did not immediately respond to a question about whether that might be confusing to parents of students who score a 3 — to be told on the one hand that their children are on track for college readiness, and on the Another state redefines ‘proficiency’ on Common Core tests, inflating performance - The Washington Post:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Letter to Ken Gotsch, CFO

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Letter to Ken Gotsch, CFO:

Letter to Ken Gotsch, CFO

Dear Ken,

I am working with the parent leaders from various schools over the staffing cuts announced last week.  I know you have given of your time to several parents in order to explain the situation.  But it continues to be murky and honestly, this is not good.  Parents are losing faith in what they hear from senior staff.  To that end, I'm asking for clarification on some issues.  

1) In Jan of 2014 you said this:

The WSS committee which includes both Central Office and school staff, examined the WSS formula, which makes up 53% of school funding. We looked at deciding on the best revisions to WSS if we have to make school-based reductions ranging between $3 million, $6 million and $9 million this year. 

What is the current WSS formula being used?  I tried to search for it at the SPS website but cannot find it.  

2) I note that Superintendent Nyland said at the Board meeting that hiring and trips are to be curtailed at headquarters.  Could you be more specific about what that looks like -  are trips being cancelled or just not scheduled, does that apply to STR, the Board, the Superintendent and senior staff?  What kind of money will that save?

3) And clearly, hiring will continue (I see there are still jobs today at the SPS Seattle Schools Community Forum: Letter to Ken Gotsch, CFO:


Seattle Schools Community Forum: Hit the Pause Button on October Staff Cuts http://bit.ly/1hAV3dC

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools Central Administration Spending http://bit.ly/1hAVfcB

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Alki Gets Money to Retain Staff (from a complete stranger) http://bit.ly/1hB0Qjo

Suggestions for @politico on education reporting #commoncore | @ THE CHALKFACE

Suggestions for @politico on education reporting #commoncore | @ THE CHALKFACE:

Suggestions for @politico on education reporting #commoncore

Talk to teachers. For this piece on the common core, I don’t think you did. A principal, sure.

Speaking of which, here’s an interesting tidbit from one of the principals:

Jayne Ellspermann, the principal at West Port High School in Ocala, Fla., said teachers in her school are already seeing an improvement in the writing and analysis abilities of students who have been learning under the standards for about five years. Her own grandson benefited as a first grader, she said, when he wrote a Thanksgiving report about why he wouldn’t want to sail on the Mayflower. He built his argument on stories the class read that described rotten food and abysmal sanitary facilities. Before Common Core, she said, he likely would have just memorized the date the ship sailed and made a hat.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/common-core-education-schools-214632#ixzz3oNHCB5RT

This might be too “in the weeds,” but this anecdote is not about the standards. It’s reflective of an improvement in the teaching of social studies, a subject that is marginalized by standardized testing. How we teach the Pilgrims has been the subject of a longstanding debate for years. I remember talking about how we teach historical myths in social studies methods courses as a graduate instructor in 2005. Lies my Teacher Told Me was first published in 1996.

Common core proponents did a great job selling the standards. In the above case, the principal confuses Suggestions for @politico on education reporting #commoncore | @ THE CHALKFACE:

CURMUDGUCATION: On Childlike Faith in Tests

CURMUDGUCATION: On Childlike Faith in Tests:

On Childlike Faith in Tests

Some blog post titles just demand your attention. Yesterday, my attention was grabbed by this one: "Tests are inhuman-- and that is what so good about them." Yes, there's an 's missing from that title, but there's a lot more than that missing from the post itself.

The writer is arguing for the value of the impartial, unbiased test. And part of her argument is solid. Teaching is most often done by human beings, and human beings are biased. Therefor it will come as no surprise that A) teachers have biases and B) if they're not careful, teachers will let those biases bleed over into their evaluation of students. This is inarguably true.

It may seem, the writer says, that teacher evaluation is nicer, more humane, but in fact the intrusion of bias can make teacher evaluation the most unkind at all, denying some students credit for their achievements and being inherently unfair. Also true.

If you want fairness, progress, equality and reliability, then human judgment may not be the best method.

Um, wait.

What other judgment is there?

Okay. You might say Judgment of God, but I believe there's a special day set for that judgment, and it's coming later. I don't think it's a significant factor in, say, ninth grade algebra.

This is what I don't get about some test devotees-- this belief that tests somehow descend from heaven on a fluffy cloud, free from human contact and cleansed of all human frailty. Impartial, perfect, and as divinely sourceless as an angel or Santa Claus.

But no. I'm pretty sure that tests are written by human beings. Imperfect, biased, judgment-making CURMUDGUCATION: On Childlike Faith in Tests:

Philadelphia: Ideologues Press On to Expand Charters Despite Deepening PA Budget Crisis | janresseger

Philadelphia: Ideologues Press On to Expand Charters Despite Deepening PA Budget Crisis | janresseger:

Philadelphia: Ideologues Press On to Expand Charters Despite Deepening PA Budget Crisis

The state of Pennsylvania is now more than 100 days beyond its June 30 budget deadline.  Last week the Republican dominated Pennsylvania House of Representatives rejected tax increases proposed by the state’s new Democratic governor, Tom Wolf.  The Philadelphia Inquirerreported, “In a major blow to Gov. Wolf’s agenda, the state House on Wednesday soundly rejected his plan to increase funding for Pennsylvania schools through tax hikes, stirring deeper uncertainty about how or when the state’s 99-day budget impasse would end.  The measure, which sought to raise the personal income tax and impose a new levy on natural gas drilling, was defeated, 127-73.  Republicans were united against it; nine Democrats broke ranks to join them.  The proposal needed 102 votes to pass.”

A privately published research report from Wells Fargo noted that, “The continuing budget impasse for Illinois and Pennsylvania is playing out negatively for education in these states… The timing of state revenues is particularly challenging for education, as K-12 education and higher education have already started the new academic year… Pennsylvania State Auditor Eugene DePasquale noted that the budget stalemate is forcing 17 school districts and two intermediate units to borrow…  Many of the schools are drawing down reserve funds.”

A lawsuit has been filed by plaintiffs across the state declaring that the state’s school funding system fails to meet the “thorough and efficient” and equal protection clauses in Pennsylvania’s state constitution.  The state’s Supreme Court is expected to hear this case early in 2016.

So, what’s the response in Philadelphia, a district that has continued to feel the impact of cuts to state funding under former governor, Tom Corbett, and a district that has in the past three years been forced to close 24 of its public schools and lay off thousands of teachers, Philadelphia: Ideologues Press On to Expand Charters Despite Deepening PA Budget Crisis | janresseger:

Giving hope to the hungry - Lily's Blackboard #FightStudentHunger

Giving hope to the hungry - Lily's Blackboard:

Giving hope to the hungry

During Pope Francis’ recent trip to the United States, there was seemingly non-stop coverage of the official meetings, parades, and speeches. For me, however, the visits that stood out were the visits with those who perhaps suffer most in society—the homeless and hungry.

Pope Francis’ willingness to meet with people who are marginalized because of homelessness and hunger should not come as a surprise. In remarks to participants in the Second International Conference on Nutrition at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2014, Pope Francis said, “Nowadays there is much talk of rights, frequently neglecting duties; perhaps we have paid too little heed to those who are hungry.”

I am reminded of his remarks when I think of the 16 million children in the United States who struggle daily with hunger. As educators, we see first-hand how hunger and chronic illness can lead to poor performance in school, while better health and nutrition can improve academic success. We know that children who experience hunger have lower math scores, are more likely to repeat a grade, and have more health problems, which prevents them from coming to school. It’s no secret that an empty stomach can be a distraction—especially to learning.

Unlike many of the tough challenges we face as a nation, we can do something about student hunger.

The most important and influential teaching assignment I’ve ever had was at The Road Home, a homeless shelter in Salt Lake City. Beyond just teaching students, we nurtured them. We cared for them, ensured they were safe, fed, clothed and had the medical attention they needed. Working at The Road Home opened my eyes to the needs of students and really the Whole Family. All families need access to health care good nutrition, and community services.

The Road Home experience has stayed with me. As special as the students I met there were to me, I know that there are millions of students like them all across this country who don’t know when they will eat their next meal.

As a community of educators, we can help by taking action to fight hunger, promote health and wellness, and help ensure that our students are ready learn. That is why NEA members across the country are participating in theChallenge to End Student Hunger, a national campaign NEA is co-hosting with NEA Member Benefits and NEA Healthy Futures.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of student hunger and the effect of hunger on learning-readiness and related issues. The campaign also will recognize NEA members, local affiliates, state affiliates, and schools for efforts to end student hunger with #FightStudentHunger Challenge Awards. Together with our partners, we will present 18 awards to individuals, schools, and NEA affiliates in recognition of outstanding programs and activities to help #FightStudentHunger.

I know that many of you reading this have stories about keeping a drawer full of snacks for students who come to school hungry or don’t have enough to eat. I encourage all of you who have established creative and effective Giving hope to the hungry - Lily's Blackboard:

School-funding initiative backers keep outraising opponents - MSNewsNow.com - Jackson, MS

School-funding initiative backers keep outraising opponents - MSNewsNow.com - Jackson, MS:

School-funding initiative backers keep outraising opponents

By JEFF AMY
Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The most expensive ballot initiative campaign in Mississippi history got much costlier in September, as supporters of the Initiative 42 education funding measure continued outraising opponents.

However, opponents for the first time reported substantial contributions in filings Friday.

Better Schools, Better Jobs, the committee backing Initiative 42, raised $357,000 in September, according to a filing. Of that, all but $40,000 came from the New Venture Fund, a charity that's given $2 million. Ultimately, the majority of pro-initiative money flows from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and public school supporters Jim Barksdale and Dick Molpus.

One opposition group raised $200,000 from Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, other officials and trade associations. Another opposition group raised $122,000, mostly from the political arm of conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch.School-funding initiative backers keep outraising opponents - MSNewsNow.com - Jackson, MS:

Informative writing from Peter Greene, but we have, have, have to… | @ THE CHALKFACE

Informative writing from Peter Greene, but we have, have, have to… | @ THE CHALKFACE:

Informative writing from Peter Greene, but we have, have, have to…

We have to come up with solutions. Something.

Greene’s post ends thusly:

I’m a high school English teacher. I’m not wise enough to know the solution for an educational social justice solution in this country, and I’m not powerful enough to gather together all the people who could help work it all out. But I know enough to know that A) an increasing gap between rich and poor has exacerbated existing problems of social justice in our country, with those problems being reflected, expressed and sometimes amplified in our schools and that B) the charter choice system currently being foisted on many parts of the country doesn’t fix any of those problems.

To charter choice advocates: Your problem is a real problem, but your solution is not a solution. Whether you’re blinded by devotion to your ideology or your intent to make a buck or just your lack of understanding, your vision is impaired. You need to clean your glasses, take a step back, and look again.

All that I read prior to the above paragraphs I’ve read before. Perhaps not as concisely, but, like many others, I’m in a position that I’ve read and re-read these same arguments. When it comes time to define an alternative vision, we’ve been so exhausted by outrage that the handoff to potential solutions rarely takes place. I don’t think we get to do this anymore.

As my school’s union representative, I have a lot of teachers come to me with questions and concerns. My main roles are listening and empathizing. I can handle that. When teachers tell me about students who’ve physically assaulted them or tore up their rooms, response from administration tends to be, “Let us conduct more observations, establish a paper trail, collect more information.” That’s fine, probably necessary, but what can this teacher do in an hour, a day, a week, right now?

I ask Mr. Greene and others, “what can we do right now? What would your suggested alternatives look like a Informative writing from Peter Greene, but we have, have, have to… | @ THE CHALKFACE:

Denver district focuses on quality as schools resegregated - The Denver Post

Denver district focuses on quality as schools resegregated - The Denver Post:

Denver district focuses on quality as schools resegregated

Two decades after force busing ended in DPS, district still struggles with integration

Twenty years after a judge let Denver Public Schools end forced busing, Denver schools are again segregated and efforts to encourage natural integration have not generated many results.

A Supreme Court ruling in 1973 made DPS the first northern district to undergo court-ordered desegregation through forced busing.

But with thousands of white families leaving for the suburbs to avoid integration and a legislature that passed laws ensuring Denver couldn't annex land from the suburbs, getting enough white kids to integrate schools was a challenge.

And it remains.

When DPS was freed from the court order in 1995, more than 40,000 white students who had left did not return, and those students who were being shuffled across the city went back to their neighborhood schools despite an option to keep being transported.

(The Denver Post)

Magnet schools, open enrollment and a simplified SchoolChoice process, charter schools and enrollment zones that broaden neighborhood school boundaries all have been part of the district's attempts at encouraging voluntary integration.

Data show that schools that are most concentrated with minority or low-income students are also the ones that are lower performing and harder to staff.

"It will take more than just offering up the choices," said Laura Lefkowits, who sat on the DPS board when busing ended. "We're tolerating some schools that would not have been tolerated in the past."

A report that nonprofit A-Plus Denver provided to the School Board last month shows that 55 percent of the district's schools have concentrations of more than 90 percent minority populations.

Only 29 of the district's 188 schools are considered integrated in the group's report.

Analyzing schools based on the definition the courts used while DPS was under the busing mandate, 58 schools would be considered compliant — less than a third.

"If they're in a low-performing school, that's an equity issue," said DPS board president Allegra "Happy" Haynes. "Sure, I would love, in the process of creating high-performing schools in every neighborhood, to ensure that those kids also had an opportunity to be in an integrated school. IDenver district focuses on quality as schools resegregated - The Denver Post: 

The Student Success Act: Passed in House of Representatives | VAMboozled!

The Student Success Act: Passed in House of Representatives | VAMboozled!:

The Student Success Act: Passed in House of Representatives

As many of you may know, there is broad, bipartisan agreement that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) needs to be overhauled, if not entirely replaced. For those of you who have not yet heard, though, The Student Success Act (H.R. 5) is to help do this, by reducing “the federal footprint and restor[ing] local control, while empowering parents and education leaders to hold schools accountable for effectively teaching students” within their states.

This represents the federal government’s most serious attempt to overhaul NCLB yet, since it was last rewritten in 2001. Although this Act was initially pulled from the floor losing GOP support last spring, near the end of this past summer the House passed the Act (see more information here).

As per another post here, this has all come about given “[t]he federal government’s involvement in local K-12 schools is at an all-time high.” For example, in 2013, the federal government spent nearly $35 billion on K-12 education, under the condition that states and districts, for example, adopt growth or value-added models (VAMs) to hold their teachers accountable for that which they do (or do not do well).

Hence, The Student Success Act is to primarily:

• Replace the current national accountability scheme based on high stakes tests with state-led accountability systems, returning responsibility for measuring student and school performance to states and school districts.
• Protect state and local autonomy over decisions in the classroom by preventing the [U.S.] Secretary of Education from coercing states into adopting Common Core or any other common standards or assessments, as well as reining in the secretary’s regulatory authority.
• Strengthen existing efforts to improve student performance among targeted student populations, including English learners and homeless children.
• Ensure parents continue to have the information they need to hold local schools accountable.

Kudos go out to U.S. Secretary Arne Duncan for pushing the federal government’s role, and more specifically their accountability-based “initiatives,” so far (e.g., via Race to the The Student Success Act: Passed in House of Representatives | VAMboozled!:

How Common Core quietly won the war - POLITICO

How Common Core quietly won the war - POLITICO:

How Common Core quietly won the war

The standards that naysayers love to call “Obamacore” has become the reality on the ground for roughly 40 million students.

Note to 2016 GOP contenders: The Common Core has won the war.

Republican presidential candidates are still bashing the divisive K-12 standards. Donald Trump recently called the Common Core a “complete disaster,” and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz proclaimed they should be abolished — along with the Education Department.

Story Continued Below

But it’s too late. Ask most any third grader: Just as Common Core and rigorous standards cheerleader-in-chief, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, prepares to step down, the standards that naysayers love to call “Obamacore” have become the reality on the ground for roughly 40 million students — or about four out of every five public school kids.

The math and English standards designed to develop critical thinking have been guiding classrooms for years now, even as the political fight wages on in statehouses and on the campaign trail: Many of today’s textbooks, workbooks, software and tests are designed to teach the oft-bashed academic standards and measure whether students are meeting them. The federal Education Department gave them a big boost, but never required them, nor can it.

In more than half of all states, millions of students took new standardized tests last spring based on the standards, and the expected uproar over these test scores hasn't materialized. The conspiracy theories about how Common Core would require monitoring kids via iris scans, force teachers to use porn to help students learn to read or ban teaching cursive have largely quieted.

After years of hand-wringing, very few of the 45 states that fully adopted the standards have attempted a clean break — and those that did found it wasn’t easy to do. In Indiana, where Republican Gov. Mike Pence signed a bill last year to ditch the standards, even Common Core haters have said the new ones are just the same standards by a different name.

“The few states that have rolled it back, when you look at what they’ve actually done, the standards they are using are 95 percent the Core standards. It’s what we know needs to be taught,” Melinda Gates said last week. She’s the wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose foundation has been heavily involved in promoting and implementing the standards.

As Common Core becomes more commonplace in public schools (and in many Catholic schools), some prominent Republicans concede they've lost their battle. Take former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona. As governor, she signed an executive order banning the use of the words Common Core by state agencies, though the standards themselves were still firmly in place. She wrote in a recent column on the Fox News website that implementation of the standards is “succeeding.”

Outspoken Common Core critic Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute agrees that the standards are likely here to stay — though that won’t stop his ongoing assault on the Obama administration using billions in incentives to nudge states to adopt the standards. What might change, he said, is how much states are held accountable for students' mastery of the standards, but “my sense is that most states are going to officially stay with Common Core or something like it.”

Karen Nussle, director of the Collaborative for Student Success, a group that helps lead the public relations charge in support of the standards, said the big fight over the standards is “a bit in the rearview mirror” as the conflict shifts to lesser skirmishes.

Standards have come under reconsideration in many states, yet some reevaluations have had a surprise conclusion — ringing support for the Common Core. That was the case for a public review in the deep red state of Mississippi. Kentucky also found wide support for the standards during a similar review.

In New York, where the uproar has been intense, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently declared the implementation of the standards had failed. But even as he ordered a review and promised reform, he didn’t throw out Common Core.

More than 40 states are sticking with Common Core though several have ditched

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/common-core-education-schools-214632#ixzz3oN2YcZWY

Charter School Battle Heats Up - WSJ

Charter School Battle Heats Up - WSJ:

Charter School Battle Heats Up

As these privately run, publicly funded schools expand, traditional ones are feeling threatened

BOSTON— Natasha Brown spent five years trying to get her 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son into one of this state’s 80 charter schools. After entering at least 25 lotteries, she secured slots for them this fall.

Those tough odds have sparked a dispute in the state. At least 37,000 families are on waiting lists for charter schools statewide, with 13,000 of them seeking spots in Boston alone, according to data reported to the state.

In coming days, legislators at the Massachusetts State House will begin holding hearings on whether to expand or limit the number of charter schools in the state.

More than two decades since charter schools first appeared in the U.S. as an experiment, they are poised to become mainstream in many parts of the country. About 2.5 million, or 5.1% of public-school students, were enrolled in charter schools in the 2013-2014 school year, up from 300,000, or 0.7%, in 1999-2000, according to federal statistics.

Nearly every major city has charters, challenging the traditional public-school model as parents increasingly send their children to these privately run but publicly funded institutions and politicians allocate more tax dollars.

The dispute in Boston and similar clashes in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Los Angeles are surfacing as local charter schools reach or surpass a 15% to 20% market share in those cities.

“The tension is, ‘What’s the end game here?’ Is this a model to replace the traditional public school model?” said Matthew Chingos, a senior fellow who studies education at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy research group.

“Once students start to leave” public schools for charter schools “in large numbers, that’s where you see a lot of the tensions,” said Nina Rees, president and chief executive of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, a pro-charter nonprofit.

ENLARGE

Rashad Brown, center, watching other students take part in an improvised scenario during Ruthi Snoke's theatre class at the Roxbury Preparatory Charter School in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. PHOTO: ZAK BENNETT FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The charter movement offers more school choice, alternatives to lagging public schools and more autonomy from bureaucracy to try new learning approaches. Challenges have included regulating quality at charter schools, making them accessible to more students and transferring successful practices from charters to traditional classrooms.

Critics contend that charters draw more motivated families, leaving districts with fewer resources to educate the neediest students.

“They’ve turned it into a separate and markedly not equal system,” Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, the largest U.S. teachers union, said in an interview.

Supporters argue that charters are a proven, good alternative for many children from Charter School Battle Heats Up - WSJ: