Failing the Test: Charter Schools’ Winners and Losers - CAPITAL & MAIN

Failing the Test: Charter Schools’ Winners and Losers - CAPITAL & MAIN:

Failing the Test: Charter Schools’ Winners and Losers

Rosalba Naranjo (Photo by Pandora Young)

At first, Rosalba Naranjo was thrilled that her two daughters were attending Richard Merkin Middle School, a charter school located near downtown Los Angeles. After all, the Pico Union neighborhood school, which is operated by Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, offered relatively small class sizes and the promise of a good education. And her son, who is now in high school, had previously attended the school.

See More Stories in Capital & Main’s Charter School Series

Naranjo, a 42-year-old Mexican immigrant, was looking forward to being involved in her daughters’ education and playing a role in the school community. But when she became concerned over several issues, including what she described as a high teacher-turnover rate, she says the school wasn’t interested in hearing from her and other parents.

Research Shows That Charter Schools:

• Place huge financial burdens on traditional public schools
• Increase racial and economic segregation
• In L.A., enroll a smaller percentage of children with severe disabilities than do L.A.’s public schools

“Over time I’ve come to find out that we as parents don’t have any participation in the schools,” Naranjo says in Spanish, speaking through an interpreter during an interview with Capital & Main. “When they talk about charter schools they always say they are the best and that they want what’s best of our kids and are here to help us. It makes me feel very sad because my daughters aren’t getting the kind of help I want and it’s a challenge. I’ve tried to be involved – at this school, they don’t allow that to happen.” (Capital & Main repeatedly asked Alliance Schools to respond to this article but received no reply.)

Among other things, Naranjo says that she has been warned not to ask questions in front of other parents and has been pressured to take a stand against a campaign by teachers for unionization. To be sure, Naranjo has positive things to say about the school. “The education is good a lot of the time, from what I can tell,” she says. “But sometimes I do feel there is not enough being done – and we are not allowed to ask questions about that to administrators.”

Naranjo’s claims are typical of those made by other parents against charter schools at a time when philanthropist Eli Broad, the Walton family and many others are seeking to dramatically increase the number of charters operating in Los Angeles.

The issue exploded publicly last September after the Los Angeles Times obtained a copy of a 44-page memo that outlined a proposal spearheaded by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, under which one-half of all Los Angeles Unified School District students would be enrolled in charter schools within eight years. Currently, about 16 percent of the students in LAUSD attend charters. The proposal notes that since 2004, the Broad Foundation has invested more than $75 million to support Los Angeles charter schools. This funding has helped fuel the growth of several large charter operators, including Alliance, which is the largest provider of charter schools in Los Angeles, with 27 charter high schools and middle schools serving about 12,000 public school students.

Charter school supporters, such as Broad and the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), argue that the schools provide a superior education and give opportunities to children in poor neighborhoods. For that reason, they say, it makes sense to increase the number of charters in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

“If you have schools doing really well that are making an impact on student learning, you should expand them,” Jason Mandell, a Los Angeles-based spokesman for the CCSA, says in an interview. “People are desperate for schools that are helping kids learn. I would encourage all of us to not forget the reason we are here – which is student learning.”

However, interviews with educators, charter school proponents and opponents, and a review of respected academic studies, show that some highly motivated students benefit from charters while others do worse; that the growth of charters places a huge financial burden on traditional public schools that send them into a tailspin and that charters may increase racial and economic segregation. Furthermore, the percentage of total LAUSD charter school students with severe disabilities is less than one-third the percentage of students with disabilities in LAUSD public schools.

“Charter schools are inherently a ‘some kids,’ model says Steve Zimmer, who was elected to the Los Angeles United School District (LAUSD) Board of Education in 2009 after 17 years as a high school teacher and counselor, referring to his belief that certain children do well in charters and others do not. “There’s no doubt that some kids have been served well by charters. I think there is an inflation of outcome celebration with charter schools, but I also want to give credit where credit is due, there has been some very good instructional quality and instructional outcome from some of our charter partners.”Failing the Test: Charter Schools’ Winners and Losers - CAPITAL & MAIN:

Big Education Ape: UPDATE: Failing the Test: A New Series Examines Charter Schools - CAPITAL & MAIN - http://go.shr.lc/1t3PT0f

Success Academy Charter Schools Cancels Pre-K Program for the Fall - WSJ

Success Academy Charter Schools Cancels Pre-K Program for the Fall - WSJ:

Success Academy Charter Schools Cancels Pre-K Program for the Fall
Charter at odds with City Hall over program contract

After months of fighting with City Hall about a prekindergarten contract, Success Academy Charter Schools said Wednesday it was canceling its pre-K program for the fall.

For nearly a year the charter’s founder, Eva Moskowitz, has refused to sign a contract that New York City requires of providers who participate in its public pre-K program. She says it aims to exert too much control over her curriculum, daily schedule and field trips.

City officials have said that every other pre-K provider, including charter schools, signed the same basic contract, and doing so was a clear condition of joining the initiative. Expanding public preschool has been a key part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s agenda.

Ms. Moskowitz has said the charter oversight body at the State University of New York is the proper authority over her network. State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia ruled in the city’s favor in February, saying pre-K is a state-funded grant program, rather than part of the K-12 levels overseen by SUNY.

Ms. Moskowitz appealed to the state Supreme Court earlier this year, but said Wednesday that the court’s decision would come too late to open doors in August, and families of admitted children must scramble to find alternatives.

“It is unbelievably sad to tell parents and teachers that the courts won’t rescue our pre-K program from the mayor’s war on Success in time to open next year,” she said in a news release.

“The state upheld our important standards to ensure all programs are high quality,” Department of Education spokeswoman Devora Kaye said.

Success Academy started a prekindergarten program for 72 children in four classrooms last August, and planned to expand slightly for the next school year. A spokesman said about 3,000 children entered an admissions lottery for about 100 seats for the coming year.

Ms. Moskowitz and Mr. de Blasio have clashed repeatedly over the city’s obligation to provide space for charters and other issues. She said she hopes for a court victory so she can reopen prekindergarten classes in August 2017.

A spokesman said she is still seeking $720,000 reimbursement from the city for the current school year.Success Academy Charter Schools Cancels Pre-K Program for the Fall - WSJ:

Write to Leslie Brody at leslie.brody@wsj.com

Common Core: A Worm in the Apple for the Teacher, Pt. II | Welcome to Our Time Press

Common Core: A Worm in the Apple for the Teacher, Pt. II | Welcome to Our Time Press:

Common Core: A Worm in the Apple for the Teacher, Pt. II

The week of May 23, 2016 was an eventful one in the world of education.  Columbia Professor Celia Oyler was e-mailed questions from the upcoming fourth-grade reading assessment, scheduled for May 23, 2016 – June 10, 2016, from an anonymous teacher who also gave a critique of the questions.  Professor Oyler posted the e-mail on her blog.  Her readers, in turn, posted it on other blogs and Tweeted it. The forwarding caught on like wildfire wherein there were far too many unknown people who have seen the questions and the critique to render the assessment useless.

Less than one year after the New York Common Core Task Force moderated public comments, MaryEllen Elia, New York State Education Department Commissioner, did her own listening tour throughout the state.  During her stop in Staten Island, May 23, 2016, she told the press the New York Common Core Curriculum Standards needed to be revamped.  The revising “will be done in two committees, one for English Language Arts and the other for mathematics, to include school leaders, educators, parents, students, business leaders and community officials”.  The Board of Regents will then vote on the revised standards.  Afterwards, one year will be dedicated to incorporate the new standards into the curriculum by training teachers.

Even Governor Andrew Cuomo admitted to rushing the institution of New York Common Core Standards in 2010. Cuomo agreed to the examinations being shortened; students taking as much time as they need to finish the assessment, and will include “more age-appropriate questions”.

So other New Yorkers must thank the anonymous teacher and Professor Oyler for influencing the governor and NYSED Commissioner to overhaul New York Common Core State Standards’ assessment questions to ensure age-appropriateness.  Further the some 200,000 parents across New York who opted out of the assessment for grades 3 – 8 need to be acknowledged for standing up to the system.

Tameka Mingo, a teacher at a public school in Bedford-Stuyvesant, probably is breathing easier.  Ms. Mingo teaches grades third through fifth.  She explained that “Common Core is a set of standards divided by grade level to set expectations for what students should know in each content area”.  She said, “The ultimate goal is to be prepared for college, more so, and career [upon high school graduation]”.  So New York Common Core “is creating a pathway to college”.

Her college education did not prepare her to teach New York Common Core State Standards.  Rather, she learned New York State Performance Standards which Mingo sees similarities between the two; however, “Common Core wants the children to think deeper”.

“The opposition to it is the testing.  It is more complex,” asserts this educator.  For many people, Common Core is more high-stake testing that brings on high anxiety in the pupils and in their parents.

Imagine going to school Monday through Friday; September through June each year where a student comes to class, participates in lessons, does homework, completes projects and takes quizzes and tests.  All of this knowledge acquisition and effort may be dashed if the student’s performance on the assessment, administered over 13 school days, is low.  That young person may have to redo the grade.  Mingo said, “There is no more social promotion”.  So having high social emotional intelligence will not pass a student onto the next grade level.  For some corners, laying to rest social promotion is a blessing.

When a family opts out of the assessment, the school must create a portfolio to evidence what progress a student made in a subject matter.  With sufficient consideration into lesson planning for the school year, the portfolio will be strong evidence Common Core: A Worm in the Apple for the Teacher, Pt. II | Welcome to Our Time Press:

 A Worm in the Apple for the Teacher | Welcome to Our Time Press - http://go.shr.lc/1t3Lcn4

Some Schools Want to Flunk Kids Who Opt Out of Standardized Tests | TakePart

Some Schools Want to Flunk Kids Who Opt Out of Standardized Tests | TakePart:

Some Schools Want to Flunk Kids Who Opt Out of Standardized Tests
A controversial interpretation of an education statute has moms and dads in Florida rallying against testing.

The fight over standardized assessment tests, relegated so far to street protests andraucous school-board meetings, may soon have a new battleground: the Florida courts. 

Local parents and education activists in the Sunshine State’s Tampa Bay area are considering legal action against school districts if they follow, to the letter, a controversial state law and hold back third graders who opt out of mandatory reading assessment tests—even if the students can read at grade level and have proved it in the classroom during the school year. 

RELATED: Battle Over Standardized Testing Exposes Deep Rifts in Education Reform Community

The conflicts in Florida are a microcosm of the larger, nationwide battle over timed, fill-in-the-bubble assessments as a way to determine what students have learned in class—even if teachers and parents can observe the progress for themselves on a day-to-day basis, said Bob Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest: National Center for Fair and Open Testing. 

“It’s a larger fight over ‘What do you believe? Test scores, or your own lyin’ eyes?’ ” said Schaeffer.  While fights over standardized testing continue in other parts of the country, he said, Florida has become “a small island of insanity” that “reflects the politics and ideology” of the debate over standardized testing. 

The Florida Department of Education tried to clarify, noting that the law in question doesn’t specify that students who don’t have a Florida Standards Assessment test score can’t advance to the fourth grade. That’s particularly true, officials say, if the student has a “good cause” exemption or opts for an alternative, such as presenting a portfolio of classroom work or taking a different assessment test. 

Therein, however, lies the rub: Parents don’t believe local officials think opting out of the test qualifies their children for the exemption, and the alternatives to the test aren’t much better. At least one local school superintendent blames the state for further muddying the waters. 

“I’ve contacted an attorney,” Jennette Edwards, the parent of an eight-year-old boy who attends school in Alachua County, near Orlando, told Politico on Wednesday. “We are ready to go onto the next step with legal matters.”

RELATED: Buying In to Opting Out: A Growing National Movement Shuns Standardized Tests

Starting with No Child Left Behind in the early part of the century and continuing with the Common Core curriculum, student testing has spiked in the last decade. In addition to receiving state assessments, students in some districts are tested as often as once a year on math and reading proficiency; in previous decades, testing typically happened just once in elementary school, middle school, and high school.

Proponents of student testing say it’s a valuable tool for helping parents gauge how well a student—and his or her school—is progressing. The stakes are high: Because they’re seen as an objective measure of learning, scores can help determine what kind of high Some Schools Want to Flunk Kids Who Opt Out of Standardized Tests | TakePart:

Mayor Kevin Johnson isn’t running for re-election, but he continues to raise more money than any Sacramento politician or candidate - Sacramento News & Review

Sacramento News & Review - Mayor Kevin Johnson isn’t running for re-election, but he continues to raise more money than any Sacramento politician or candidate - News - Local Stories - June 2, 2016:

Mayor Kevin Johnson isn’t running for re-election, but he continues to raise more money than any Sacramento politician or candidate
K.J. took in at least $1.3 million in behest donations since sexual-misconduct allegations resurfaced last fall

Mayor Kevin Johnson isn’t running for election, but that hasn’t stopped donors from showing him the money.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN BRENEMAN

Kevin Johnson isn’t running for re-election next week. Yet most Sacramentans might be surprised to learn that the outgoing mayor has raked in more money this campaign season than any Sacramento politician or candidate—even mayoral front-runner Darrell Steinberg.

K.J.’s taken in these donations despite the video of a teenaged girl accusing him of molestation. The video was filmed in Phoenix in 1996 but only surfaced in October of last year. It drew national coverage, and the mayor announced he would not seek a third term after its release.

Some might assume such a video and accusations would have donors thinking twice about giving. But it’s been big business as usual for Johnson.

In fact, the mayor has brought in more than $1 million in “behested” donations to his private organizations and nonprofits since national sports website Deadspin made the video public.

How does Johnson continue to rake in millions of dollars? Why do regional powerhouses such as UC Davis, Golden 1 Credit Union and Sutter Health—and also private citizens such as Sacramento Republic co-owner Kevin Nagle and Democratic Party benefactor Angelo Tsakopoulos—keep giving to the K.J. brand?

The donations come in the form of behests. A behest is when a group or person donates money to an elected official’s private organization or nonprofit. Unlike campaign donations, behested money is given in unlimited amounts. It’s also difficult to track how organizations spend this money.

Jessica Levinson, an elections law and government expert at Loyola Law School, explained that even though these behests are a “loophole” around campaign contributions, “that doesn’t mean nothing good comes of it.” Behests benefit nonprofits and causes important to the city, she said. But they also benefit a politician’s personal interests.

“And I think Kevin Johnson is definitely quite adept at” using behests to bring in money, she added.

The mayor’s network boasts a handful of private groups or 501(c)(3) nonprofits, which have taken in millions of dollars during his time in office, according to city of Sacramento records and filings. The money allows Johnson to pay for additional employees, often noncity staff who do their work inside City Hall and who portray themselves to outsiders as actual city workers. The mayor says this helps him do more good Sacramento News & Review - Mayor Kevin Johnson isn’t running for re-election, but he continues to raise more money than any Sacramento politician or candidate - News - Local Stories - June 2, 2016:

Gates Foundation failures show philanthropists shouldn’t be setting America's public school agenda - LA Times

Gates Foundation failures show philanthropists shouldn’t be setting America's public school agenda - LA Times:

Editorial Gates Foundation failures show philanthropists shouldn’t be setting America's public school agenda

Tucked away in a letter from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation last week, along with proud notes about the foundation’s efforts to fight smoking and tropical diseases and its other accomplishments, was a section on education. Its tone was unmistakably chastened.

“We’re facing the fact that it is a real struggle to make systemwide change,” wrote the foundation’s CEO, Sue Desmond-Hellman. And a few lines later: “It is really tough to create more great public schools.”

The Gates Foundation’s first significant foray into education reform, in 1999, revolved around Bill Gates’ conviction that the big problem with high schools was their size. Students would be better off in smaller schools of no more than 500, he believed. The foundation funded the creation of smaller schools, until its own study found that the size of the school didn’t make much difference in student performance. When the foundation moved on, school districts were left with costlier-to-run small schools.

 Then the foundation set its sights on improving teaching, specifically through evaluating and rewarding good teaching. But it was not always successful. In 2009, it pledged a gift of up to $100 million to the Hillsborough County, Fla., schools to fund bonuses for high-performing teachers, to revamp teacher evaluations and to fire the lowest-performing 5%. In return, the school district promised to match the funds. But, according to reports in the Tampa Bay Times, the Gates Foundation changed its mind about the value of bonuses and stopped short of giving the last $20 million; costs ballooned beyond expectations, the schools were left with too big a tab and the least-experienced teachers still ended up at low-income schools. The program, evaluation system and all, was dumped.

The Gates Foundation strongly supported the proposed Common Core curriculum standards, helping to bankroll not just their development, but the political effort to have them quickly adopted and implemented by states. Here, Desmond-Hellmann wrote in her May letter, the foundation also stumbled. The too-quick introduction of Common Core, and attempts in many states to hold schools and teachers immediately accountable for a very different form of teaching, led to a public backlash.

“Unfortunately, our foundation underestimated the level of resources and support required for our public education systems to be well-equipped to implement the Gates Foundation failures show philanthropists shouldn’t be setting America's public school agenda - LA Times:

CURMUDGUCATION: Death Notice for Neoliberalism?

CURMUDGUCATION: Death Notice for Neoliberalism?:

Death Notice for Neoliberalism?

Neo what? You may not be paying enough attention to political labels and categories, particularly when they don't seem to fit any of the standard Dem-liberal vs. GOP-conservative model.

Neoliberalism was born in the thirties in Europe (where it was also known as the "Middle Way" or the "Third Way"). Its central tenet is that private corporations ought to be free to do whatever they want, and neo-libs love free trade, deregulation, privatization, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Wait-- why does this thing even have "liberal" in its name? Because 1930s Europeans were wacky that way, I guess. Or maybe it's because it wants to "liberalize" the movement and accumulation of money.

Neoliberalism is about the idea that the private sector can do everything so much better than the public sector, that competition is the secret to excellence, that a truly free market will create excellence and wealth for all. And as we can immediately recognize, it has been embraced by prominent members of both parties.

It is well-positioned to sell to both right and left. On the right, you can take solace that it makes the government smaller and directs lots and lots (and lots and lots) of tax dollars to private sector interests. On the left, you can take solace that neolibs preserve government programs-- they've just hired some private company to take care of the programs. If something's worth doing, it's worth paying some private company tax dollars to do it.

Groups like ALEC, the legislation mill where private corporations get to tell elected legislators what bill they ought to pass-- well, that's just a natural outgrowth of the neolib philosophy. The public sector really ought to be working for the private sector, not getting in their way, telling them what regulations they must follow, and telling them how to play fair. The worst horror stories you've CURMUDGUCATION: Death Notice for Neoliberalism?:

“Stabbed in the back”–How Newark public schools were betrayed by “friends” |

“Stabbed in the back”–How Newark public schools were betrayed by “friends” |:

“Stabbed in the back”–How Newark public schools were betrayed by “friends”

Johnnie Lattner at the school board meeting

The head of a grass-roots organization that forced the federal government to intervene in the Newark schools has charged that supporters of the city’s public schools have been “stabbed in the back” by the very political leaders who promised widespread change once the former state-appointed superintendent, Cami Anderson, was removed from office.

“In some ways, we were better off with Cami Anderson,” says Johnnie Lattner, the co-founder of PULSE (Parents Unified for Local School Education), referring to a much despise former schools superintendent ired a year ago. “At least we knew who the enemy was.”

Lattner spoke at the last meeting of the school advisory board and demanded to know why the elected school board–once the voice of anti-state sentiment–was saying nothing about the apparent failure of the administration of state-appointed school superintendent Christopher Cerf to respond publicly to orders from the federal government to remediate civil rights violations caused by Cerf and his predecessor and appointee, Cami Anderson. The co-called “One Newark” and “Renew School” policies were specifically cited in the complaint.

The only response Lattner received was from board lawyer Charlotte Hitchcock who denied any contention that the school system was under orders from the federal government. Hitchcock relied on a technicality to contend the school district wasn’t under a remediation order from the federal government–in fact, the school system agreed to the remediation to prevent any further investigation by the feds.

“They’re lying,” said Lattner of members of the board and school administration. “They should have brought up the federal civil rights complaint and discussed what the schools are doing to correct the problems that were found.”

Sharon Smith, the other co-founder of PULSE, cited three excerpts from an agreement reached between the school administration and the federal government, in which the education department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) found that policies pursued by Anderson and Cerf violated the rights of Newark children.  Smith cited these excerpts from the education department’s order:“Stabbed in the back”–How Newark public schools were betrayed by “friends” |:

The Charter School Swindle – Selling Segregation to Blacks and Latinos | gadflyonthewallblog

The Charter School Swindle – Selling Segregation to Blacks and Latinos | gadflyonthewallblog:

The Charter School Swindle – Selling Segregation to Blacks and Latinos

Segregation now!

Higher suspension rates for black students!

Lower quality schools for Latinos!

These may sound like the campaign cries of George Wallace or Ross Barnett. But this isn’t the 1960s and it isn’t Alabama or Mississippi.

These are the cries of modern day charter school advocates – or they could be.

School choice boosters rarely if ever couch their support in these terms, but when touting charter schools over traditional public schools, this is exactly what they’re advocating.

According to the Civil Right Project at UCLA, “The charter school movement has been a major political success, but it has been a civil rights failure.”

It’s choice over equity.

Advocates have become so blinded by the idea of choice that they can’t see the poor quality of what’s being offered.

Because charter schools DO increase segregation. They DO suspend children of color at higher rates than traditional public schools. And they DO achieve academic The Charter School Swindle – Selling Segregation to Blacks and Latinos | gadflyonthewallblog:

Why the Education Department’s New Equity Rule Might Not Be So Equal - The Atlantic

Why the Education Department’s New Equity Rule Might Not Be So Equal - The Atlantic:

Why the Education Department’s New Equity Rule Might Not Be So Equal

Teachers and the Obama administration are divided over what the federal government’s role should be in telling districts how to fund their schools.

When Congress reauthorized the United States’s federal education law last year, few observers were interested in changes to a technical part of the legislation known as “supplement not supplant.” A wonky fiscal rule that has been around for decades, it’s intended to make sure schools with high numbers of poor children don’t get less state and local money because of their participation in Title I, a federal program that provides extra money to help academically struggling students from high-poverty areas.

Instead, public reaction focused on testing requirements and generally characterized the new law—the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)—as returning power to the states. But ESSA made an important change to “supplement not supplant,” requiring school districts to explain how they distribute funds across their schools, and to show that they do not give fewer state and local funds to schools because they get extra federal money under their Title I status. This is a major departure from the previous rule, which allowed districts to comply simply by showing that they used Title I money to support “extra” purchases, regardless of how state and local funds were distributed across schools. Now the U.S. Department of Education is regulating this part of the law, and it’s turned into a political firestorm.

 Media coverage has framed the debate in stark terms, with those who care about civil rights and poor children on the side of the Education Department opposed by the strange bedfellows of Senate Republicans protesting executive overreach, teachers’ unions who want to protect seniority-based pay-scales and tenure, and state and district leaders seeking to avoid the administrative hassle of overhauling their budgeting and staffing. What's missing from the story is a deeper dive into what steps districts might have to take to meet the Education Department’s proposed rule, and how those actions could negatively affect school quality for the very students the rule aims to help.

As mandated by the law, the department conducted negotiated rulemaking this spring, where education administrators, school leaders and teachers, and civil-rights groups attempted to hash out implementation of the new “supplement not supplant” rule. The department proposed requiring school districts to spend at least as much in each Title I school (those with high percentages of poor students) as they do on average in their non-Title I schools—and to require these calculations in actual dollars, rather than in staffing allocations. In other words, instead of districts being able to show that every school received one teacher for, say, 25 students, they would have to show that the actual dollar amount going to the schools is the same.

Ultimately negotiators could not reach a consensus, so the department will write the rule itself, and is expected to submit a draft rule for Congressional comment soon. A department official wrote in an email that the department views the proposed rule as essential to overcoming local funding disparities it views as undermining "the intent of federal title I dollars, which are supposed to provide supplemental resources for high poverty schools, not to fill in shortfalls in state and local funding."  

On the surface, the proposed rule sounds like a win for poor kids. As my Georgetown University colleague Marguerite Roza shows in an Education Trust report, school districts often spend fewer dollars per pupil in their higher-poverty schools. The rule aims to end this pattern. However, the practical and policy implications are far less straightforward than they first appear.Why the Education Department’s New Equity Rule Might Not Be So Equal - The Atlantic:

Big Education Ape: CURMUDGUCATION: Is There a Civil War in Education - http://go.shr.lc/1P6hhyS

Big Education Ape: Making Sense of the Left-Right School Reform Divide - Rick Hess Straight Up - Education Week - http://go.shr.lc/24jgOjL

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Tune in this evening for my SOS webinar with Jonathan Kozol

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Tune in this evening for my SOS webinar with Jonathan Kozol:

Tune in this evening for my SOS webinar with Jonathan Kozol

Save Our Schools Coalition Webinar 

Jonathan Kozol

Guest Moderator Mike Klonsky 

June 1, 2016  

8 PM Eastern Daylight Time [EDT] 

JONATHAN KOZOL received the National Book Award for Death at an Early Age, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Rachel and Her Children, and countless other honors for Savage Inequalities, Amazing Grace, The Shame of the Nation, and Fire in the Ashes. He has been working with children in inner-city schools for nearly fifty years. His newest book is The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father, One Day at a Time.

Tune in. Ask questions. Spread the word. 

Please Join Us!

WEBINAR REGISTRATION 

SUPPORT THE The People’s March for Public Education and Social Justice

July 8th in Washington, DC&The SOS Coalition Activists Conference July 9th at Howard University

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Tune in this evening for my SOS webinar with Jonathan Kozol:

Civil rights icon James Meredith: ‘We are in a dark age of American public education’ - The Washington Post

Civil rights icon James Meredith: ‘We are in a dark age of American public education’ - The Washington Post:

Civil rights icon James Meredith: ‘We are in a dark age of American public education’

James Meredith, right, attends class for the first time in Peabody Hall on the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Miss., on Oct. 2, 1962. (Ed Meeks/University of Mississippi Public Relations via AP)

In 2014, civil rights icon James Meredith launched the “American Child’s Education Bill of Rights,” a 12-point declaration of education obligations that he says the United States owes every child. (You can read that declaration here.) He said that the country was spending too much money on standardized testing and “so-called education reforms.” Now, 50 years after he was shot in Mississippi during his one-man Walk Against Fear to highlight racism in the South and encourage voter registration, he is speaking out again on the state and responsibility of public education in the United States — and the dangers of not changing course.

Meredith spent nine years in the Air Force, was the first black student to graduate from the University of Mississippi, and earned his law degree at Columbia University. In 2013, he was awarded the Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the school’s highest honor. He is the recipient of the 2014 Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. placed James Meredith first on his own list of heroes in his 1963 “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” writing:

“Some day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, courageously and with a majestic sense of purpose facing jeering and hostile mobs and the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer.”

Here is a new piece by Meredith about public education, co-written with William Doyle, a 2015-2016 Fulbright Scholar and the author of several books. Doyle and Meredith are the co-authors of “A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge for America.”

By James Meredith with William Doyle

Fifty years ago, on June 6, 1966, while making a one-man Walk Against Fear, I was shot down on a Mississippi roadside.

That episode and the events it triggered inspired thousands of black Americans to register to vote, and helped free many Americans from the tyranny of segregation and fear.

Four years earlier, in 1962, I forced my way into the segregated University of Mississippi with the help of 500 federal marshals and 10,000 American combat troops, an event that helped open the doors of higher education for all Americans.

Today I have a new mission — to improve the public school education of our nation’s children. I Civil rights icon James Meredith: ‘We are in a dark age of American public education’ - The Washington Post:

CAASPP Early Assessment Program - High School (CA Dept of Education)

Early Assessment Program - High School (CA Dept of Education):

Early Assessment Program

A program that assesses students for college-readiness in grade eleven of high school.

Background

Each spring, all grade eleven students in California take the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English language arts/literacy (ELA) and mathematics. These assessments, which are administered as part of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System, also serve as an indicator of readiness for college-level coursework in English and mathematics and are used by the California State University (CSU) and participating California Community Colleges (CCCs) to determine Early Assessment Program (EAP) status.

How Students Can Authorize Release of their Results

All students now participate in EAP by virtue of completing the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for English language arts/literacy and mathematics. Students must authorize the release of their CAASPP (i.e., Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment) results for each assessment to the CSU and CCC systems.

• The release of results for both English language arts/literacy and mathematics must be completed separately.

• Students that do not release their results at the end of the assessments may later submit a copy their score report to the CSU and/or community college in which they have enrolled.  

The release of the CAASPP results will not affect a student’s application for admission. Results are only used to determine a student’s placement after he or she has been admitted to the university.

How EAP Status Is Reported

Students will find their EAP status reported on the front of the 2015–16 Student Score Report. There are four possible EAP status levels, as described below:

1. Ready 
   Students who score at the highest performance level (“Standard Exceeded” [Level 4]) are considered ready for English and/or mathematics college-level coursework and are exempt from taking the CSU English Placement Test (EPT) and/or Entry Level Mathematics (ELM) exam. These students will be able to register in college degree-bearing courses upon entering the CSU or a participating CCC. Students are encouraged to continue preparation during the twelfth grade.
   
2. Conditionally Ready 
   Students who score at the “Standard Met” (Level 3) performance level are considered conditionally ready forEnglish and/or mathematics college-level coursework and are exempt from taking the EPT and/or ELM exam. However, they must take an approved English and/or mathematics course in twelfth grade and receive a grade of “C” or better. Students that do not meet the conditional requirement will need to participate in the CSU’s Early Start Program, unless exemption was met through another pathway.
   
3. Not Yet Ready 
   Students who score at the “Standard Nearly Met” (Level 2) performance level are considered not yet ready forEnglish and/or mathematics college-level coursework and will need additional preparation in the twelfth grade. They will also be required to take the EPT and/or ELM exam unless they meet the exemption criteria through another pathway. 
   
4. Not Ready 
   Students who score at the “Standard Not Met” (Level 1) performance level are considered not ready for English and/or mathematics college-level coursework. They will need substantial improvement to demonstrate knowledge and skills needed for success in entry-level credit-bearing college coursework after high school

For more information, please see the CSU’s Early Assessment Program Web page. 

Professional Development

The CSU will continue to provide Strengthening Mathematics Instruction (SMI) workshops and training on implementing the Expository Reading and Writing courses (ERWC).

Additional Information

List of Participating California Community Colleges 

The California State University (CSU)  
Information about the EAP in the CSU system.

The California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (CCCCO)  
Information about the EAP and the CCC Chancellor’s Office.

List of CSU EAP Campus Coordinators (PDF) 

Junior EAP Cover Letter (DOC)
EAP Director describes EAP resources to educators

Junior EAP Flyer (PDF)  
Information about how to determine college readiness

Senior EAP Brochure (PDF)  
Information about using assessment results to prepare for college level courses

Your Pathway to College Readiness EAP Poster (PDF)  
Illustrates multiple pathways to become college ready

Questions:   Carolyn Hamilton | chamilton@cde.ca.gov | 916-323-5765

Last Reviewed: Wednesday, June 1, 2016