Who can make sense of "optout" legislation in Wisconsin? | BustED Pencils

Who can make sense of "optout" legislation in Wisconsin? | BustED Pencils:

Who can make sense of “optout” legislation in Wisconsin?

Below you will find the specific, exact, word for word language from Wisconsin state legislator Jeremy Thiesfeldt’s opt out amendment.  Please read the excerpted passages below and feel free to read the legislation in its entirety.

Once you’ve completed your reading, please conduct a thorough analysis of the language and then use the comment box to explain just what the hell is actually being proposed.  I will also attempt to interpret towards the bottom of the blog.

Upon the request of a pupil’s the parent or guardian of a pupil enrolled in any grade from 3 to 12, the school board shall excuse the pupil from taking an any examination required under state or federal law…

No school board, school district administrator, principal of a public school… may encourage or counsel a parent or guardian to make a [opt out] request to excuse a pupil from taking an examination.

Ok.  Here’s my take.  If there is a state or federally mandated test offered in grades 3-12, a student does not have to take any of those tests only if “the parent or guardian” asks permission from the local school board.  However, if a parent or guardian asks a school board member, school administrator, or school principal how to opt out of state and federally Who can make sense of "optout" legislation in Wisconsin? | BustED Pencils:

Jersey Jazzman: Proud Teachers Are Banned In New Jersey #ProudToBeAParsippanyTeacher

Jersey Jazzman: Proud Teachers Are Banned In New Jersey #ProudToBeAParsippanyTeacher:

Proud Teachers Are Banned In New Jersey #ProudToBeAParsippanyTeacher -

How dare these unionized teachers express pride in their profession!

Teachers Ordered to Remove “Proud to be a Teacher” Signs

“Pride in Parsippany”, boasts the great township sign at the intersection of Rt. 46 and Vail Road. The teachers of Parsippany’s public school children however, are not to be afforded the opportunity to exhibit that pride according to an edict issued today by the school district’s chief administrator. Teachers have been ordered to remove a simple black and white sign that says only “I am Proud to be a Teacher” in plain block letters, followed by a smaller tag line, “Parsippany-Troy Hills Education Association”.

The message, uniformly printed on standard white printer paper, had been posted on classroom doors in all district school buildings for several weeks before acting superintendent Nancy Gigante issued a directive that they be taken down. Gigante cited Board of Education policy forbidding political actions or statements on building premises as the reason for ordering the removal of the signs.

“We view this statement as a positive message to both students and

- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/11/proud-teachers-are-banned-in-new-jersey.html#sthash.hbFmFLUp.dpuf

Mizzou Football and Why It Matters for Schools [LinkedIn] | The Jose Vilson

Mizzou Football and Why It Matters for Schools [LinkedIn] | The Jose Vilson:

Mizzou Football and Why It Matters for Schools [LinkedIn]

In my first, exclusive LinkedIn post, I discuss what leaders can learn from the University of Missouri (Mizzou) protests happening now. Here’s an excerpt:

But lots of the narrative has changed in the last couple of years. Northwestern University football team’s demand for unionization and Ed O’Bannon’s lawsuit versus the NCAA are just two big examples of the athletes seeking to wrest some power back from the multi-billion dollar industry that college athletics has become. But in recent times, we’ve also seen instances of athletes working in conjunction with the student body to ask for better collegiate conditions. Knox College basketball player Ariyana Smith recently protested the deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Garner with student activists on campus. Oklahoma athletes joined with the campus community to protest fraternity SAE’s racist viral video.

The latest protest from Missouri is icing on the cake. In the words of rapper Kendrick Lamar, “We gon’ be alright!”

To read more, check it out. Share and share alike. Thanks!Mizzou Football and Why It Matters for Schools [LinkedIn] | The Jose Vilson:

About Jose Vilson

José Luis Vilson is a math educator, blogger, speaker, and activist. For more of my writing, buy my book This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education, on sale now.

CURMUDGUCATION: Weingarten Explains WTH #TeachStrong

CURMUDGUCATION: Weingarten Explains WTH #TeachStrong:

Weingarten Explains WTH #TeachStrong

Say what you will about Randi Weingarten-- when the crowd is hollering for her head and throwing tomatoes, she doesn't pretend that it's all "Hosanna" and roses. And so just a couple of days after #TeachStrong hit the edu-verse with a resounding thud, here she is with a blog post entitled "Why the hell would AFT sign on to TeachStrong?"

NEA (my own national union) has not explained itself, but it also hasn't responded to criticism, but they also haven't spent the last days declaring, "Look!! Shiny!! Pretty!!" about this edufeast of reformy leftovers, either. But Weingarten was right there front and center in the heralding PR from the first hour, so Randi, you got some 'splainin' to do.

And splain she does. I'm not sure any of her reasons are very convincing, but here they are.

First, AFT leaders want you to now that they're skeptical, too. "Hmm," they wonder. "Why are TFA and TNTP signed up for this."Which hits me kind of like, "Why do you have such big teeth, grandma?" CURMUDGUCATION: Weingarten Explains WTH #TeachStrong:

WTF: Ratliff exploring LAUSD conversion to a charter district - LA School Report

JUST IN: Ratliff exploring LAUSD conversion to a charter district - LA School Report:

JUST IN: Ratliff exploring LAUSD conversion to a charter district

In what appears to be a strategy to undermine the Broad Foundation’s proposal to move half of district students into charter schools, LA Unified board member MónicaRatliff is exploring the possibility of turning the entire district into a charter organization.

Part of the agenda of the Nov. 17 meeting of the district’s Budget, Facilities and Audit Committee, which she chairs, is a discussion of a report from district lawyers about the possibility of converting all of LA Unified schools into charters. The report was made public today.

Such a move would immediately address the school board’s chief criticism of the Broad plan, that it’s a “some kids, not all kid’s” approach for improving academic achievement in the district. Ratliff was not available today to discuss the issue, but board president Steve Zimmer suggested that a wholesale charter conversion might not be ideal, given the multitude of challenges currently facing the district. They include finding a new superintendent by the end of the year and resolving mounting financial challenges threatening district insolvency.

“Exploring all options for involving all children is appropriate in this moment,” Zimmer told LA School Report. “However, the complications of chartering an entire district are so immense that I think it is wiser to keep our eyes on the transformative initiatives whose implementation truly needs our attention.”

In the nine-page report — “Establishment of All Charter School District” — district lawyers outlined how an entire school district could convert all of its schools to charters. The process includes approval from at least half the teachers who would be affected, alignment with all state regulations that apply to charter schools and assurance that the petitioner can “successfully implement the program.”

Converting LA Unified into all-charter status would also make the state Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education the overseers of the district, serving in the same capacity as a Charter Management Organization. In effect, the state would have final authority over board decisions.

According to the legal department’s analysis, “The (state board) would have oversight responsibilities over the All Charter Districts” and “oversite fees” of 1 percent of revenues from the all-charter district would be paid to the state.

Included in the legal department’s material is a slightly-out-of-date list of all-charter districts that currently exist in California. At the moment, there are seven, four of them with only one school in the district. The other, Kingsburg Elementary Charter School District, south of Fresno, is the oldest of the group and the largest, now operating with JUST IN: Ratliff exploring LAUSD conversion to a charter district - LA School Report:

Broad officials defends charters in first extended comments since leak of charter expansion plan - LA Times

Broad officials defends charters in first extended comments since leak of charter expansion plan - LA Times:

Broad official defends charter schools following leak of expansion plan

arter schools have been wrongly accused of not serving all students and a proposal to greatly expand the number of them in Los Angeles would not result in financial catastrophe for the nation's second-largest school system, according to a top official with the group spearheading the plan.

The remarks were the first extensive comments by a representative of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation since The Times obtained a copy of the privately developed proposal and made it public in September.

Under that plan, 260 additional charters would open over the next eight years, resulting in about half of L.A. Unified School District students being enrolled in these independently managed public schools.

"Charters take all kids and that’s what they are required to do," Gregory McGinity, the foundation's managing director of policy, said in an interview after an invitation-only forum Thursday morning in an auditorium at the historic county general hospital. 

McGinity also responded to an independent financial analysis presented this week at a Los Angeles Board of Education meeting. A panel of experts concluded that the growth of charters were a major factor threatening the district's fiscal solvency, but took no position on whether charter growth was good or bad for students served by L.A. Unified.  

"I don’t see LAUSD going bankrupt," McGinity said. "LAUSD, like a lot of other districts, has fiscal challenges." He added that the panel made "a number of recommendations on how the district can find opportunities to improve its financial position. Other districts with a significant number of charters are thriving in terms of their Broad officials defends charters in first extended comments since leak of charter expansion plan - LA Times:

Malloy continues to coddle Connecticut’s Charter School Industry - Wait What?

Malloy continues to coddle Connecticut’s Charter School Industry - Wait What?:

Malloy continues to coddle Connecticut’s Charter School Industry

The massive financial investment the charter school industry made in Malloy’s last gubernatorial campaign appears to be paying off yet again as Governor announces a new plan to cut state spending.

As the CT Mirror is reporting in an exclusive article entitled, Malloy pitches $350M in cuts; GOP wants mix of cuts, labor savings;

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy presented legislators Thursday with almost $350 million in budget-cutting options that would fall heavily on social services, education and municipal aid, according to documents obtained by The Mirror.

Details are scarce, but in classic fashion, Malloy is targeting the majority of his new budget cuts on health care, human services, education and Connecticut’s Public institutions of higher education.

Malloy’s list of “cuts” includes $2.3 million “less” for Connecticut’s privately owned but taxpayer funded charter schools…but such a claim obscures the truth.

According to the CT Mirror, the Charter School “cut is possible because fewer students enrolled in charter schools than the state budget provided. This happened because the Malloy continues to coddle Connecticut’s Charter School Industry - Wait What?:

Just Released: The American Education Research Association’s (AERA) Statement on VAMs | VAMboozled!

Just Released: The American Education Research Association’s (AERA) Statement on VAMs | VAMboozled!:

Just Released: The American Education Research Association’s (AERA) Statement on VAMs

Yesterday, the Council of the American Education Research Association (AERA) – AERA, founded in 1916, is the largest national professional organization devoted to the scientific study of education – publicly released their “AERA Statement on Use of Value-Added Models (VAM) for the Evaluation of Educators and Educator Preparation Programs.” Below is a summary of the AERA Council’s key points, noting for transparency that I contributed to these points in June of 2014, before the final statement was externally reviewed, revised, and vetted for public release.

As per the introduction: “The purpose of this statement is to inform those using or considering the use of value-added models (VAM) about their scientific and technical limitations in the evaluation of educators [as well as programs that prepare teachers].” The purpose of this statement is also to stress “the importance of any educator evaluation system meeting the highest standards of practice in statistics and measurement,” well before VAM output are to carry any “high-stakes, dispositive weight in [such teacher or other] evaluations” ( p. 1).

As per the main body of the statement, the AERA Council highlights eight very importanttechnical requirements that must be met prior to such evaluative use. These eight technical requirements should be officially recognized by all states, and/or used by any of you out there to help inform your states regarding what they can and cannot, or should and should not do when using VAMs, whereas “[a]ny material departure from these [eight] Just Released: The American Education Research Association’s (AERA) Statement on VAMs | VAMboozled!:

As Student Citations Drop in Los Angeles, Questions About ‘Ghost Suspensions’ Rise - The Chronicle of Social Change

As Student Citations Drop in Los Angeles, Questions About ‘Ghost Suspensions’ Rise - The Chronicle of Social Change:

As Student Citations Drop in Los Angeles, Questions About ‘Ghost Suspensions’ Rise

Amidst mounting criticism of its disciplinary practices in recent years, Los Angeles Unified School District began shifting away from citations and suspensions and toward practices that emphasize keeping students in the classroom in 2012.

Reaction to Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) discipline overhaul has been mixed. As the L.A. Times reported last week, teachers feel unprepared to manage classrooms populated by students who, in the past, would have been removed for offenses such as “willful defiance.” And while public officials applaud dropping citation numbers, community activists say the data don’t entirely reveal how effective the district is at keeping students in class.

Rob McGowan, associate organizing director for CADRE LA, a community advocacy group in South Los Angeles, said the district’s former citation policy took a toll on students.

McGowan once knew quite a few youth who feared going to school. The class bully hadn’t deterred them, nor had the pop quiz in algebra.

The students skipped school rather than turn up to campus late because they feared police would cite them for truancy.

“This especially happens with poor folks,” said McGowan. “Truancy tickets can be a couple hundred dollars. Then, they double or triple. It’s almost like a poor tax.”

Because low-income students face transportation barriers, they’re more likely to be tardy, McGowan said. School police used to cite latecomers to class as truant for wandering outdoors during school hours.

To avoid costly truancy fines, poor students in this predicament began ditching class completely. The trend raised concerns as a mountain of research has shown that missing As Student Citations Drop in Los Angeles, Questions About ‘Ghost Suspensions’ Rise - The Chronicle of Social Change:

Education researchers caution against using students’ test scores to evaluate teachers - The Washington Post

Education researchers caution against using students’ test scores to evaluate teachers - The Washington Post:

Education researchers caution against using students’ test scores to evaluate teachers

The American Educational Research Association became the latest organization to caution against using value-added models — complex algorithms that attempt to measure a teacher’s impact on student test scores — to evaluate teachers and principals.

A growing number of states have begun using value-added models, or VAMs, to judge and in some cases fire teachers. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions about how to ensure that such models provide valid, reliable and accurate information about teachers, AERA said in a statementreleased Wednesday.

AERA cautioned against using these formulas for “high-stakes decisions” about educators.

“Many states and districts have incorporated VAM in a comprehensive system to evaluate teachers, principals, and educator preparation programs,” the statement says. “There are considerable risks of misclassification and misinterpretation in the use of VAM to inform these evaluations.”

[Read the statement]

The AERA listed eight technical requirements that should be met before the Education researchers caution against using students’ test scores to evaluate teachers - The Washington Post:

CURMUDGUCATION: Do Public Schools Take Everyone

CURMUDGUCATION: Do Public Schools Take Everyone:

Do Public Schools Take Everyone

Hillary Clinton said something bad about charters this week, and a whole lot of people lost their bananas.

What Clinton said was that charters neither take nor keep any or all students. This is pretty self-evident at this point, as we have all just emerged from a dust-up over the most recent time that Eva Moskowitz and Success Academy got caught pushing another charter student to the curb. This was followed by Mike Petrilli arguing, again, that charters should be in the mission of rescuing the deserving few from being trapped among the "disruptive" throng.

This has led us to the odd hybrid argument that throwing out problem students is a privilege of the rich. Depending on who's articulating this argument, the bottom line is either "charters that serve poor strivers should have the same privilege" or "neener neener neener."

Robert Pondiscio articulates the argument at the Fordham blog under the headline, "No, Hillary, public schools do not 'take everybody'."

He starts with the story of a student forced out of an affluent school district, and provides the budget line item of another well-to-do district that spends roughly $63K per student for various CURMUDGUCATION: Do Public Schools Take Everyone:

PARCC switches to a Chinese menu of standardized testing options - The Washington Post

PARCC switches to a Chinese menu of standardized testing options - The Washington Post:

PARCC switches to a Chinese menu of standardized testing options

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, which created a standardized test to measure whether students have mastered the Common Core State Standards, announced Thursday that it will allow states to pick and choose whether to buy a complete test or just a portion or even individual test questions.

PARCC is one of two groups of states that got hundreds of millions of federal dollars to develop new tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards.

Twenty-six states originally signed onto PARCC in 2010 as it developed the new tests but they have steadily dropped out as they sought cheaper tests or responded to political pressures to walk away from a national consortium.

Just 11 of those states and the District of Columbia were still on board when the PARCC was administered for the first time in the spring.

Since then, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Ohio all have defected, and just seven states and the District plan to give the test in 2015-2016, raising questions about whether the consortium is in danger of disintegrating.

The PARCC tests have come under fire for their length and technical glitches and for efforts by their test publisher, Pearson, to crack down on cheating via social media. There was a wave of protests around the country this spring in which parents in several PARCC states refused to allow their children to take the exams.

Even as they were administering the PARCC exam to 11 million students in the spring, PARCC officials announced that they would shave 90 minutes off the test next year.

[Take parts of the PARCC Common Core tests and see how you do]

The PARCC tests are designed to replace fill-in-the-blank “bubble tests” with PARCC switches to a Chinese menu of standardized testing options - The Washington Post:

South LA holding its own forum for LA Unified superintendent input - LA School Report

South LA holding its own forum for LA Unified superintendent input - LA School Report:

South LA holding its own forum for LA Unified superintendent input

Jose Lara, LA Unified teacher

As many as 200 parents, teachers and students are expected to attend a community forum, starting at 5 p.m. today at Santee High School, to provide input into the LAUSDsuperintendent search.

The meeting was scheduled to reach people that the organizers say weren’t included in the search firm’s recentcompilation profile from surveys and other community meetings.

Many of those expected to attend are in a “forgotten” part of south Los Angeles, said the meeting’s organizer, activist Jose Lara, who is also a member of the LA teachers union board. He described the area as an unusual section of the city because it’s where students attend a school in board member Mónica García’s district but live in districts represented by Ref Rodriguezor Richard Vladovic.

“None of the input sessions have been held in this part of south LA, which is always ignored,” Lara said. “So we decided to host our own town hall.”

Staff members from Mónica Ratliff and Garcia’s offices plan to attend the meeting, gather the information and report the findings directly to the school board, which is hoping to hire a new superintendent before the end of the year.

“Mónica García has taken a special interest in this school and the input from this area because she used to teach within walking distance of the school,” Lara said.

Lara said he invited members of the search firm, Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, but hasn’t heard if any plan to attend. The search firm said it was open to South LA holding its own forum for LA Unified superintendent input - LA School Report:

Opportunities and challenges of community schools | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Opportunities and challenges of community schools | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Opportunities and challenges of community schools

With Mayor Michael Nutter departing City Hall in January, his legacy in education is facing some scrutiny. He gets good marks for his focus on raising graduation rates and support for more funding. But his agenda also included closing neighborhood public schools and the expansion of charter schools (and to a lesser extent magnet schools), policies that drew strong opposition.

Mayor-elect Jim Kenney is on record as favoring an education agenda that includes community schools. Over the length of his term, he would like to create 25 of these schools, neighborhood public schools that build community partnerships and bring under one roof the social services and supports that students and their families need.

In implementing this ambitious and transformative community school strategy, Kenney will face major challenges. But the local political landscape, and a shifting national picture, will definitely provide unprecedented opportunities for a progressive education reform agenda.

Local support for community schools

Included among Kenney’s education advisory team are people who advocate for community schools. Chief among them is Otis Hackney, who as principal of South Philadelphia High School, is pioneering the model for how to create community schools in the city.

City Council President Darrell Clarke, too, has made clear that he also favors a community schools initiative.

Parents, teachers, and others at three schools currently slated for conversion to charters as part of the District’s now five-5-year-old Renaissance turnaround initiative, have called for community schools as an alternative. Eighteen labor and community organizations have signed on to this demand.

A community schools task force, led by the Philadelphia Coalition Advocating for Public Schools (PCAPS), is training parents and school staff at several schools to be “ambassadors” for community schools.

The national context 

Over the last two decades, the idea of community schools has gained momentum across the county. Today, there are an estimated 5,000 community schools serving two million students across the country, according to a recent article in American Educator, a publication of the American Federation of Teachers.

Some are individual schools, but, increasingly, whole school districts are adopting this approach. Enormous variety exists in these efforts, but there is also a common thread that sees addressing the deficits created by systemic racism and poverty as a necessary part of the education agenda. Community schools also focus on the whole child, on their emotional, social, and ethical development, as opposed to a narrow set of cognitive skills.

Recently, a national labor–community alliance has formed which connects the call for community schools with the historic demands of the Civil Rights movement and resistance to school privatization. A case in point: the fight to stop the closure of Dyett high school in Chicago and turn it into a community school. A national campaign focused on community schools as a transformational strategy is developing.

The challenges 

Part of the appeal of community schools is the strategy of concentrating services like Opportunities and challenges of community schools | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Education Bloggers Daily Highlights 11-12-15 | EduBloggers

Education Bloggers Daily Highlights 11-12-15 | EduBloggers:

Education Bloggers Daily Highlights 11-12-15

EduBloggers:

http://edubloggers.org/

Dedicated to truth-telling for democracy.

The Education Bloggers Network is an informal confederation of more than 200 education reporters, advocacy journalists, investigative bloggers, and commentators. Members of the Education Bloggers Network are dedicated to providing parents, teachers, public education advocates and the public with the truth about public education in the United States and the efforts of the corporate education reform industry.

As Diane Ravitch noted in a post about the Education Bloggers Network, “If you blog and if you support public education as a pillar of our democracy, consider joining the Education Bloggers Network.”

To become part of the Education Bloggers Network contact Jonathan Pelto, founder and manager of the Network atjonpelto@gmail.com

Education Bloggers Daily Highlights Courtesy of Big Education Ape

A special thank you to education blogger Mike Simpson

For More Visit: http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/

• Former US Senator Mary Landrieu Works for the Walton Foundation | deutsch29
• Clinton Turns Against Charters – WSJ
• Jersey Jazzman: Charter Schools, An Exchange: Part VI (Final)
• Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today’s Post 11/11/15
• Parent Power in Indiana | Parents Across America
• Education Research Report: California 6th grade science books: Climate change a matter of opinion not scientific fact
• Mike Klonsky’s SmallTalk Blog: Corporate media turns the 1st Amendment on its head in Missouri
• Investigate Chartergate D.C. has the nation’s fourth-highest concentration of charter school students – The Washington Post
• A Challenge To The TeachStrong Campaign – Badass Teachers Association
• A year later, secrecy surrounds FBI probe of LAUSD’s iPad program – LA School Report
• CURMUDGUCATION: Selling Competency Based Education
• AERA Statement on (VAM) for the Evaluation of Educators and Educator Preparation Programs
• Those Lying Jason Engen Eyes | Crazy Crawfish
• When School Feels Like Jail | The Marshall Project
• Guest Blog: Friedrichs Is Missing Its Warning Label – Lily’s Blackboard
• ESEA Issue to Watch: How Much Power Should the Education Secretary Have? – Politics K-12 – Education Week
• The Nation’s Top K-12 Education Foundations 2015
• In leading LAUSD, big goals are no substitute for planning and hard work – LA Times
• If This Post Feels Entirely Recycled, That’s Because It Is (Much Like #TeachStrong) | EduShyster
• Testing opponents furious about Oregon’s opt-out notice for parents | OregonLive.com
• CURMUDGUCATION: TeachStrong’s Nine Steps (To Teacher Awesomeness)
• Project to recognize ‘high schools of opportunity’ for all students goes national – The Washington Post
• Maybe #TeachStrong can answer this question for me. | @ THE CHALKFACE
• Charter School Problems Just Continue to Surface | janresseger
• With A Brooklyn Accent: Time for a 180 Degree Reversal on Education Policy

Education Bloggers Daily Highlights 11-12-15 | EduBloggers:

Making Sh*t Up – the New Normal in American and Connecticut Politics - Wait What?

Making Sh*t Up – the New Normal in American and Connecticut Politics - Wait What?:

Making Sh*t Up – the New Normal in American and Connecticut Politics

If there is one overarching message coming out of the Republican Presidential Debates it is the realization that candidates for the highest office in the nation have absolutely no problem with simply making sh*t up.

But the buffoons seeking the Republican nomination for President of the United States certainly aren’t alone.

Unfortunately for Americans and American Democracy, making sh*t up has become the new normal across the political spectrum, even (or especially) right here in Connecticut.

Take for instance the case study of Democrat Governor Dannel Malloy and Connecticut’s Fiscal Crisis

As Dannel Malloy is fond of saying, thanks to Republican Governor Jodi Rell and a Democratic General Assembly, he “inherited” a $3 billion budget problem when he took office in January 2011.

In order to put Connecticut’s fiscal house in order Malloy instituted a massive tax increase, significant budget cuts and a large concession package with Connecticut’s State Employees, although he did manage to protect and coddle Connecticut’s wealthiest taxpayers in the process.

Although his comprehensive financial “fix” didn’t actually solve Connecticut’s budget problems, Governor Malloy set that truth aside and spent the entire 2014 gubernatorial campaign claiming that Connecticut’s state budget was balanced, that there was no state budget deficit, and that if re-elected, he would not propose or accept any tax increase in a second term as governor

According to Malloy, the road ahead was filled with the “green lights” of fiscal stability and that upon entering a second term he would steer the ship of state without having to make Making Sh*t Up – the New Normal in American and Connecticut Politics - Wait What?:

Report: Student test scores rise and fall with funding | CJOnline.com

Report: Student test scores rise and fall with funding | CJOnline.com:

Report: Student test scores rise and fall with funding

Lawmaker skeptical of correlation between education spending and student outcomes

THAD ALLTON/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

The K-12 Student Success Committee met to wade through a morass of data Tuesday. The panel is charged with gathering and analyzing information that will likely be funneled into the expected upcoming debate over a new formula.

Kansas student test scores rose and fell with funding, one of the state’s leading education advocacy groups said Tuesday as one lawmaker expressed skepticism a correlation exists.

Questions of whether spending translates into student achievement hung over a legislative meeting after lawmakers heard of new, lower assessment scores.

The answers to those questions may ultimately affect how Kansas funds its schools, with the Legislature looking to potentially craft a new spending formula next year after scrapping the old formula in favor of a temporary block grant system this past spring.

The K-12 Student Success Committee met to wade through a morass of data Tuesday. The panel is charged with gathering and analyzing information that will likely be funneled into the expected upcoming debate over a new formula.

Among the data: scores from the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The latest test, which used a sample of Kansas students, found that in several areas scores either declined or remained relatively flat.

Rep. Jerry Lunn, R-Overland Park, said spending in K-12 from 2012 to 2015 had increased by $312 million while other agencies and areas declined.

“Which tells me that there’s really not a great correlation between how much you spend and the outcome you generate,” Lunn said.

Just hours later, however, the Kansas Association of School Boards released a new analysis showing the state’s performance on national tests rose and fell with funding.

According to KASB, student performance on national math and reading tests improved between 2003 and 2007, leveled off from 2007 to 2011 and has fallen over the past four years. The trends follow funding patterns, the analysis said, with performance increasing during periods of funding increases and declining during periods of flat funding.

The KASB analysis also found the total amount of money spent had a stronger correlation with performance than the percent of money spent on instruction. KASB advocacy director and lobbyist Mark Tallman presented the findings to lawmakers during a lunch meeting in the Capitol separate from the committee meeting.

“These results to us indicate that on average, general tendency, the states that spend more on these factors have better results. That’s true of all students,” Tallman said.

In addition to the KASB analysis, Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, pointed to a Report: Student test scores rise and fall with funding | CJOnline.com: