Progress made on making Connecticut’s teacher evaluation system fairer - Wait What?

Progress made on making Connecticut’s teacher evaluation system fairer - Wait What?:

Progress made on making Connecticut’s teacher evaluation system fairer

The Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) test is an unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory measure that seeks to determine how well public school children are doing.  Despite the massive problems with the testing scheme, supporters of the testing program have argued that the test should be used to judge and label students, teachers and public schools.

In a significant development, it appears that the State of Connecticut may, at the very least, be taking steps to ensure that the test results are not inappropriately used as part of Connecticut’s teacher evaluation system.

As the Connecticut Education Assocation is reporting,

“The Performance Evaluation Advisory Council (PEAC) took a giant step forward in addressing teachers’ concerns regarding the use of state mastery examination results in teacher evaluations. PEAC defined the clear use and purpose of the state mastery exam, agreeing that it should not be used to evaluate teachers.

PEAC unanimously agreed to recommend new guidelines for educator support and evaluation programs to the State Board of Education. These new guidelines support the use of state mastery test scores to inform educator goal setting and to inform professional development planning, but prohibit their use as a measure of goal attainment or in the calculation of the summative rating for an educator.

If adopted by the State Board of Education at its next meeting – April 5, 2017 – the Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBAC) test would still be used for a variety of purposes but would play a much more limited role in the teacher evaluation process.  The SBAC test could still be used for the following purposes;

Informing goals for individual educators
Informing professional development for individual educatorsProgress made on making Connecticut’s teacher evaluation system fairer - Wait What?:

White parents still want to live near mostly white schools — and in LA, it shows | 89.3 KPCC

White parents still want to live near mostly white schools — and in LA, it shows | 89.3 KPCC:

White parents still want to live near mostly white schools — and in LA, it shows

Slightly fewer Americans live in racially isolated neighborhoods than in the past, but the average white child in the U.S. wouldn't know it.

White kids in the nation's largest cities continue to live among mostly white neighbors — in large part, according to a new University of Southern California study, because white parents want to live in communities served by predominantly white schools.

The study is part of a new attempt by USC associate professor of sociology Ann Owens to link education researchers' findings about the demographic makeup inside the nation's classrooms — where racial segregation remains a persistent problem — with research on where people in different racial groups choose to live.

"School district [boundaries] can serve as these sort of bright lines," Owens said — a "bright line" that may do more to shape some parents' choices than the somewhat arbitrary lines between individual neighborhoods or U.S. Census tracts.

For example, in Los Angeles County, Owens said, a parent's "first order question might be, 'Do I want to live in LAUSD, or do I want to live in South Pasadena?' Or somewhere else where they might prefer the school district?"

To study these "bright lines," Owens essentially overlaid school district boundaries onto maps of the neighborhood-by-neighborhood racial makeup in the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas.

Her analysis found that, in 2010, 56 percent of residential segregation between white and non-white families with kids occurred between school districts.

In other words, school district boundaries explained most of the residential segregation between white families with kids and non-white families with kids.

"It sort of signals to me that white parents in particular are paying attention to school district boundaries when they’re choosing they’re neighborhoods,” Owens said — a choice white parents have more freedom to make because they have higher incomes, on average, and are less likely to face housing discrimination than non-white parents.

Nationally, the average white child lives in a neighborhood where roughly 70 percent White parents still want to live near mostly white schools — and in LA, it shows | 89.3 KPCC:

Opt-out of testing for better public education! - Welcome to NPE! - Network For Public Education

Welcome to NPE! - Network For Public Education:

The Consequences of Unmonitored Charter Schools

by Darcie Cimarusti / 0min

By Jim Hall Secretary Devos stated in her Senate confirmation hearings that she supports equal transparency for all organizations receiving public education funds. The most basic transparency is a simple accounting of where educational organizations spend public dollars. This transparency is sorely lacking in many states, especially in Arizona. Arizona has the fourth largest number of charter sch

The Rise of Iowans for Public Education

by Darcie Cimarusti / 1h

The March for Iowa Teachers on the eve of the collective bargaining debate brought 5,000 to the statehouse. By Karen Nichols, founder of Iowans for Public Education While the rest of the country has had all eyes on D.C. these past few months, Iowans have been dealing with our own out-of-control legislature. The legislation comes so quickly that it’s almost impossible to organize against the onsla

Opt-out of testing for better public education!

by Darcie Cimarusti / 1h

By Monty Neil, FairTest Executive Director As federal and state-mandated tests start across the nation, hundreds of thousands of parents and students, often with teacher support, are refusing to take them. Opting out is a critical part of campaigns to end the misuse and overuse of testing and pave the way for better forms of assessment and learning. These changes require overhauling state laws an

Momma Bears – The Last Remaining Voucher Bill Stalls in Committee

by Darcie Cimarusti / 2h

Yesterday, Rep. Brooks presented his voucher bill to the House Government Operations Committee. And boy!!! Did he get worn out with questions!!! There were so many questions that time ran out before the Committee even got to vote on the bill. So, the last remaining voucher bill is now stalled in Gov. Op. 

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CURMUDGUCATION: The Only True Charters

CURMUDGUCATION: The Only True Charters:

The Only True Charters

Pity the charter school movement. They have been splintering all over the place for about a year now as they have faced first, the tension between Free Marketeers, Choice Crusaders, and Social Justice Advocates. Then Trump reared up and let the voucher crowd back into the room, as well as creating terrible cognitive (or at least PR) dissonance among people who claimed to be Democrats but who had spent years supporting the very policies that Trump now championed.

Greg Richmond, president and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, popped up in EdWeek today as the latest charterizer trying to settle the whole swirly mess. He recaps that story right up through the point that Steve Zimmerman (Coalition of Community Charter Schools, NY) cried, "God save us from our friends<" and Jeanne Allen (Center for Education Reform) began to nearly pee herself with joy.

Richmond wants to clear things up by articulating exactly what it is that charters stand for.

Choice, autonomy, and accountability.

Previously, we've heard autonomy and accountability. Richmond is expanding that so that he can clearly delineate between True Charter Advocates and everyone else.

As with most attempts to sort this out, Richmond's version requires a rewrite of history. Richmond, like other critic-fans, tries to use accountability as the wedge between True Charter Advocates and Those Other Guys, but of course a lack of accountability has been a selling point in charterdom for the last couple of decades. States like Florida and Betsy DeVos's MIchigan have fought hard to keep CURMUDGUCATION: The Only True Charters:

Charter Advocates Mount Opposition to DeVos Private School Agenda | Education News | US News

Charter Advocates Mount Opposition to DeVos Private School Agenda | Education News | US News:

Charter Advocates Mount Opposition to DeVos Private School Agenda
Dozens of charter school supporters have condemned the push for private school funding in Trump's fiscal 2018 budget blueprint

Charter school advocates are increasingly pushing back against Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ private school choice agenda.

The latest comes from Denver school Superintendent Tom Boasberg, who rebuffed remarks made by the secretary Wednesday about the city’s lack of private school choice options.

“We do not support private school vouchers,” Boasberg said in a statement. “We believe that public dollars should be used for public schools that are open to all kids, whether they are district-run or charter.”

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RELATED CONTENT

Liberals, Conservatives Agree: Big Mistake for White House to Push Private School Choice

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Denver ranked No. 1 in the Brooking Institute’s 2016 Education Choice and Competition Index, earning points for being an open-school district, meaning students are not zoned to a specific school based on where they live and can enroll in any school they choose, traditional public or charter. It also scored points for its easily accessible web site that explains to parents how the enrollment process works.

Denver does not operate a private school voucher program or a scholarship tax credit program that allows students to use public dollars to cover tuition at private schools. DeVos, who was the keynote speaker at the Brookings event to unveil the annual choice index, argued that because private school choice options are not part of the city’s education portfolio, its students are getting shortchanged.

“The benefits of making options accessible are canceled out when you don’t have a full menu of options,” she said. “Choice without accessibility doesn’t matter – just like accessibility without choice doesn’t matter. Neither scenario ultimately benefits students.”

Boasberg countered: “A core principle in Denver and one of the main reasons we rank No. 1 nationally in school choice is that we ensure equitable systems of enrollment among district-run and charter schools, where all schools play by the same enrollment rules and all schools are subject to the same rigorous accountability system. We do not support choice without accountability.”

Indeed, accountability is driving a wedge between charter school advocates who can get behind the free-market approach to private school choice and those who cannot – and Charter Advocates Mount Opposition to DeVos Private School Agenda | Education News | US News:

AFT Considers Contesting Election Results After Alleged Code of Conduct Violations | The Cornell Daily Sun

AFT Considers Contesting Election Results After Alleged Code of Conduct Violations | The Cornell Daily Sun:

AFT Considers Contesting Election Results After Alleged Code of Conduct Violations

Katie Sims / Sun Staff Photographer

From a rally on Saturday, AFT President Randi Weingarten '80 speaks to a crowd of graduate students.

The American Federation of Teachers — the union with which Cornell Graduate Students United has affiliated — is considering contesting the results of the union recognition election due to alleged labor law violations by the University.

AFT published a statement Wednesday saying that it “questions the validity of the Cornell graduate union recognition election held this week” because “the administration committed a glaring swathe of labor law violations in the days leading up to and during the vote.”

The results of the election were ruled too close to call by the American Arbitration Association. In their counting of the ballots early Wednesday morning, 856 votes were cast in favor of CGSU and 919 were cast against. However, 81 challenge votes that are yet to be resolved rendered the results indeterminate.

“Cornell management sent a clear message in violation of the negotiated code of conduct and federal labor laws that the ends justify the means,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten ’80 in the release. “There should be no place for this kind of outright animus against colleagues in higher education. The administration has failed the entire Cornell community, and Cornell itself.”

In questioning the validity of the election, AFT claims that a pattern of administrative misconduct “chilled voters” and “polluted grad union election results,” particularly in the days leading up to and during the vote.

The misconduct AFT alleges constitute labor law violations that “compromised the ability of graduate students to make a free choice” in the election.

The University and CGSU agreed on a code of conduct for each party’s behavior both during the campaign process and during the election in a contract signed in May 2016 that aimed to ensure a free and fair election.

However, AFT contends that this code “was repeatedly violated by Cornell management.”

“As an alumna of the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations, I want to say how deeply disappointed I am with the egregious conduct of the university,” Weingarten said. “Cornell flagrantly violated the spirit of both the code of conduct we negotiated and federal labor law.”

AFT specifically points to emails from the University sent in the midst of the voting process — communications that Weingarten said were sent “with the intention of chilling and intimidating voters.”

The night before the election, the administration sent a special edition announcement to students. The Ask a Dean AFT Considers Contesting Election Results After Alleged Code of Conduct Violations | The Cornell Daily Sun:

A Gorsuch Approval Would Put Vulnerable Students Further At Risk

A Gorsuch Approval Would Put Vulnerable Students Further At Risk:

A Gorsuch Approval Would Put Vulnerable Students Further At Risk

Students with disabilities already face a difficult path through our nation’s education system, but President Donald Trump appears determined to add to the disadvantages these students already face. His nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court is yet another sign his administration is less than eager to uphold the rights of these students.

Just how rough do these students already have it?

They score far lower on standardized achievement tests, which have become even more of an emphasis in our accountability-driven education system. They’re more than twice as likely to be suspended from school, and they’re much more apt to be bullied at school. They’re less likely to get help in schools, despite legal requirements for schools to provide a free and appropriate education. And while high school graduation rates have hit a record high of 83 percent nationally, graduation rates for these students continue to be mired below 70 percent in 33 states. In seven of those states, the rate is less than 50 percent.

With the Gorsuch nomination, Trump appears increasingly willing to respond to the real obstacles these children face by telling them, “Tough! You’re on your own.”

A vote to approve Gorsuch would be tantamount to saying the same thing.

Luke’s Case

“Gorsuch is a threat to educational equity and the fundamental rights of all Americans,” says Marge Baker, the Executive Vice President for Policy and Program at People for the American Way.

In an email statement, she points to a previous decision in 2008 in which Gorsuch rejected the opinions of lower courts that had ruled an A   Read more … Gorsuch Approval Would Put Vulnerable Students Further At Risk:

 THIS WEEK: DeVos Dream School … How Trump Cuts Hurt … Special Ed Segregation … Let Kids Play … Trump Hypocrisy On STEM

NEWS AND VIEWS

Welcome To The Private Evangelical School Of Betsy DeVos’ Dreams

The Huffington Post

“The Potter’s House is a private school that is ‘evangelical in nature’ and reportedly teaches creationism alongside evolution. It’s also the type of school that Betsy DeVos … believes can level the playing field in educational inequality… DeVos has been … a donor, volunteer and board member. She has mentioned the school by name in speeches and interviews … Early signs indicate that DeVos will help make it easier for kids to attend similar private, religious schools.”
Read more …

What Would Trump’s Proposed Cut To Teacher Funding Mean For Schools?

Education Week

“President Donald Trump has proposed getting rid of the Title II program, which … aims to help districts and states pay for teacher and principal development, reduce class-size, craft new evaluation systems, and more … Zeroing out Title II could hamper implementation of the new Every Student Succeeds Act, lead to teacher layoffs, and make it tougher for educators to reach special populations of students, or use technology in their classrooms … The money for class-size reduction has helped pay for the salaries of nearly 9,000 teachers nationwide … During the 2015-16 school year, nearly half the money went to the nation’s highest-poverty districts.”
Read more …

The Separate, Unequal Education Of Students With Special Needs

The Hechinger Report

“Children … all over the country – with diagnoses including ADHD, bipolar disorder and, increasingly, autism … are often placed in separate classrooms within public schools and spend large numbers of hours on computers using technology that is not aligned with their specific needs … A Georgia program caught the attention of the Department of Justice, which launched an investigation that lasted several years … According to that lawsuit, the … system violates the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, both by segregating children with disabilities and by denying them access to an equal education … The case has implications for school systems and children with emotional and behavioral disorders across the nation.”
Read more …

Why Kids Shouldn’t Sit Still in Class

The New York Times

“Evidence builds that taking brief activity breaks during the day helps children learn and be more attentive in class, and a growing number of programs designed to promote movement are being adopted in schools … Children who are more active ‘show greater attention, have faster cognitive processing speed and perform better on standardized academic tests than children who are less active’ … Students, especially boys, who had daily physical education, did better in school.”
Read more …

The irony In Ivanka Trump’s And Betsy DeVos’s Push For STEM Education

The Washington Post

Education journalist and blogger Valerie Strauss writes, “Ivanka Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos visited the National Air and Space Museum in Washington … to ‘highlight the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education’ and to discuss ’empowering young women to pursue STEM-related careers’ … The event came just a short time after President Trump, Ivanka’s father, advanced his first federal budget, which … seeks to wipe out NASA’s education office, which oversees efforts to support women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields, operates camps and enrichment programs, and provides internships and scholarships for young scientists.”
Read more …

A Gorsuch Approval Would Put Vulnerable Students Further At Risk:

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos: Mom With An Axe

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos: Mom With An Axe:

DeVos: Mom With An Axe

This week Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stopped by Brookings to help them help her plug choice. The main purpose of the event was to roll out a new report (The 2016 Education Choice and Competition Index), but the main outcome of the event was that DeVos said some truly extraordinary stuff. First, she delivered some prepared remarks, but then she sat down for some Q & A with Russ Whitehurst (Brookings) and that's when some kind of amazing stuff just kind of fell out of her mouth.

You can watch all of it here, though I'm not sure I recommend it. While Arne Duncan specialized in a goofy grin, like a ten-year-old boy who had snuck into a strip club and new he was doing something that might be considered either naughty or awesome, and yet he himself didn't quite get it, DeVos leans more towards a church lady smirk, like it amuses her to imagine that all those Lessers are just having fits that she is this amazing. It is the look for which "supercilious" was coined, and it's not a good look on anyone, let alone a starched white heiress. Her Trump-approved minder should really help her with that.

Prepared Remarks

These include some standard DeVosisms, leading right in by noting that she is passionate about "increasing education options for parents and students" which she characterizes as a "fundamental right."

Her views about this were shaped "early on" in her time as a mother. The USED transcript omits the next part, but if we go to the tape, we see that here she tells the story of her relationship with the Potters House, a private Christian school recently profiled by Rebecca Klein. She and her husband CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos: Mom With An Axe:

Donald Trump doesn’t have a clue about Susan B. Anthony or Frederick Douglass. | Fred Klonsky

Donald Trump doesn’t have a clue about Susan B. Anthony or Frederick Douglass. | Fred Klonsky:

Donald Trump doesn’t have a clue about Susan B. Anthony or Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony in Rochester,  New York.

Donald Trump made a reference to Susan B. Anthony at a White House thing, ending Women’s History Month.

Some in the press pointed out that there are only 4 women cabinet members in the Trump White House. That’s not the problem. The problem is Trump despises women and he and his Party are enacting stuff that will hurt women, particularly poor women and women of color.

“Have you heard of Susan B. Anthony?” he asked a White House gathering of women.

What a jerk.

Did one of his people slip him a card with Susan B. Anthony’s name to him just before his appearance? Maybe he thinks she is still alive, like he thought Frederick Douglass is still alive?

Does he know that the radical feminist Anthony and Frederick Douglass were close friends?

Does he know that Anthony was an outspoken abolitionist?

That Susan B. Anthony collaborated with Harriet Tubman on the Underground Donald Trump doesn’t have a clue about Susan B. Anthony or Frederick Douglass. | Fred Klonsky:

Thinkers Thursday on Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Thinkers Thursday on Diane Ravitch's blog

A site to discuss better education for all

DeVos Thinks She is Promoting the “Common Good” by Attacking Public Schools

32by dianeravitch / 2h

I am writing this post for the journalists who cover education. Please fact-check every word that DeVos says. She literally doesn’t know what she is talking about. This is the New York Times’ report on Betsy DeVos ‘ press conference at 

GSA Rules That Trump Ownership of D.C. Hotel in Government Property is No Conflict of Interest

3by dianeravitch / 1h

In 2013, long before Trump decided to run for president, he signed a lease with the federal government to renovate a beautiful and historic building called the Old Post Office near the White House and convert it to a luxury hotel. The lease 

Slate: For-Profit Alternative Schools Accused of Abusive Treatment

by dianeravitch / 18min

If you ran a for-profit corporation that provides facilities for kids with disciplinary and academic issues, what would you call your chain of alternative high schools? Utopia High? No. Great Scholars High? No. How about Camelot? Bingo! A magical place of hope and possibility. In an age of alternative facts, open deceit, and fake news, why not? This investigative article was conducted by the Teac

CBS Tracks Gulen Charter Schools

9by dianeravitch / 1h

CBS News ran a story about the mysterious Gulen charter chain and the reclusive cleric behind it. Former Turkish teachers at the large chain claimed they were required to kick back as much as 40% of their salary. The story is complicated, and few people outside the education world ever heard about it. Turkey has accused the Gulen movement of fomenting a coup. Since the failed coup, the Turkish go

Note to DeVos: A School is not a Taxi or an Uber

8by dianeravitch / 1h

At the Brookings celebration of school choice, Secretary DeVos said that people should choose a school like choosing Uber or some other alternative to the traditional public school. She is clueless about the role of public education in a community and in a democracy. Picking your mode transportation is a consumer good that you pay for; public education is both a public good and a right. https://w

Mercedes Schneider: A Real Public School is not a Franchise

7by dianeravitch / 2h

Mercedes Schneider had the stomach to watch Betsy DeVos and Grover Whitehurst talk about their favorite subject –School Choice–at Brookings today. She noticed their careless use of business language to talk about schools, at one point referring to them as “franchises.” https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2017/03/29/are-traditional-public-schools-franchises/ As I said, Mercedes has a strong stomach, a

Betsy DeVos Suck-Up Watch

5by dianeravitch / 3h

The website Chalkbeat posted an article about the sunny side of Secretary DeVos. http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2017/03/28/rave-reviews-here-are-the-states-schools-and-programs-that-have-gotten-betsy-devoss-seal-of-approval/ She likes really good programs! Like Florida’s tax credit programs for vouchers! (Which sucks tax dollars away from public schools) Like Milwaukee’s school choice programs

YESTERDAY

Trump and Russia: The Plot Thickens

9by dianeravitch / 12h

A friend sent me this article but I decided not to post it because I didn’t know how to fact-check its sensational allegations. http://whowhatwhy.org/2017/03/27/fbi-cant-tell-trump-russia/ It contains some serious allegations about relations between Trump and the Russian mob. This is way outside my field of expertise but I was nonetheless shocked by the implications. Then today USA Today ran a fr

Network for Public Education Action Fund Endorses Steve Zimmer for Re-Election to LAUSD Board

19by dianeravitch / 22h

The billionaires are circling the Los Angeles public schools again, trying to gain control of the school board so they can shift half the students into privately managed charter schools that are free to pick the students they want and kick out the ones they don’t want. They have targeted Steve Zimmer, the current president of the Los Angeles Unified School District, as a barrier to their insidiou

A Call for the American Psychological Association and Other Professionals: Speak Up!

41by dianeravitch / 23h

Many readers are asking the same question: Why isn’t the American Psychological Association speaking out about the misuse of standardized testing? Where are the professors who teach about testing? Why are they silent when children as young as 8 are subjected to hours of testing? Why are they silent when children in middle school are compelled to sit through tests that last longer than college adm

Brookings Sullies Its Reputation By Aligning with DeVos Agenda for Privatization

12by dianeravitch / 23h

The Brookings Institution used to be referred to as a liberal think tank. In reality, it was a nonpartisan think tank that hired former high-level officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations and produced valuable studies and reports. As I was ending my time in the first Bush administration in late 1992, the president of Brookings came to my office at the US Department of Educati

Peter Greene: What Two Decades of Testing Have Produced

64by dianeravitch / 1d

http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-lost-years.html?m=1 Peter Greene asks a crucial questio n: What have we gained–or lost–because of our society’s obsession with standardized testing for at least the last two decades? When did it start? Before No Child Left Behind was signed into law in January 2002, but not with the same intensity or the high-stakes that took hold since 2002, when th

Leonie Haimson Is Collecting Comments on the New York ELA

7by dianeravitch / 1d

The state Common Core tests that children in grades 3-8 in New York are supposed to take are shrouded in secrecy. Last year, a teacher posted a couple of items to show how confusing and tricky they were, and the testing company went on a tear, threatening legal action against the teacher and against the blogger who posted the questions. They went to Twitter and had tweets referring to the post de

An 8-Year-Old Child Writes Betsy DeVos: “I Love My Public School”

25by dianeravitch / 1d

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/8-year-old-sends-heartfelt-message-about-her-public-school-to-betsy-devos_us_58d3ed5ce4b0b22b0d1a9076 A second-grade student wrote to Betsy DeVos to tell her that she loves her public school. She pleaded with DeVos, “Please leave are [sic] public schools alone do not tear it down ever.” Willa is a second grader. She is the daughter of a journalist, who posted W

Ralph Ratto: Today I Am Ashamed to Be a Teacher

95by dianeravitch / 1d

Ralph Ratto is an elementary school teacher in New York and a frequent blogger. He describes yesterday as “one of the darkest days in education. ” Testing started yesterday. Now that the tests are untied, some children will struggle for six hours a day for six days to satisfy some adult idea that they need to be compared. Their ordeal has nothing to do with education. “Our children will struggle

Good News: Charter School Growth Is Slowing

42by dianeravitch / 1d

Citing an article in Education Week, The National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College notes that charter school growth is slowing. “Charter school growth is slowing down, reported Education Week. 

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: