2-11-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Board Of Regents Look Like They're Caving To Cuomo On APPR

Looks like Merryl Tisch got the message from Andy Cuomo on APPR:The full state Board of Regents had second thoughts about the most high-profile proposed reform to the Common Core implementation as announced on Monday: a mechanism that would allow teachers whose evaluations are imperiled by low student test scores (20 percent of a teacher’s score) to claim that the deficient scores were due to impr

by reality-based edu... / 54min hide  //  save

StudentsFirstNY Jenny Sedlis Says "Special Interests" Must Not Be Allowed To Delay The Common Core

Because anybody who is not on board 100% with the education reform agenda is, of course, a special interest:“We must not allow criticism manufactured by special interests to turn back the clock on teacher evaluations and higher standards,” StudentsFirstNY executive director Jenny Sedlis said.The irony of a Gates/Broad/Bloomberg-funded organization unaccountable to the people of this state which ha

by reality-based edu... / 1h 

The Common Core State Standards Themselves Are Flawed

A commenter in at the Times Union:What both the Regents and Cuomo have a blind eye to is that the standards themselves are flawed. Until they accept this fact, the parents will never rest. They are the ones who have to directly deal with the abuse of their children being foisted under the guise of reform. Neither of them stops this. A delay of testing repercussions is a panacea to the unions, a fe

by reality-based edu... / 58min 

The Fight Over Teacher Evaluations

In the Times article on Cuomo's shrill reaction to the Regents CCSS delay recommendations is this:A working group of the Board of Regents on Monday recommended several changes to how the state’s schools use the Common Core. It did not call for a moratorium as legislators have done, but it proposed letting teachers who earn the poorest evaluations — “ineffective” — to raise the bumpy Common Core ro

by reality-based edu... / 18min

Chris Cerf Leaving As New Jersey Education Commissioner

Probably got nothing to do with BridgeGate, but another member of the Christie crew is slinking out:New Jersey Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf, who pushed for charter schools to give parents more choices and helped draft a landmark tenure law with the state’s powerful teachers union, is stepping down at the end of this month, according to a report in The Record.The newspaper is reporting t

by reality-based edu... / 2h hide  //  save

Cuomo's Common Core/APPR Dilemma

Sheriff Andy got shrill with the Regents today over their announced changes to the state's ed reform agenda - particularly over the changes announced around teacher evaluations:After the Regents approved an action plan for improving implementation of the Common Core standards, Cuomo honed in on a regulatory change that would temporarily cushion educators whose evaluations were negatively affected

by reality-based edu... / 5h 

2-10-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Today's Board Of Regents MeetingFrom the Daily Politics update this morning:From our Ken Lovett in Albany: * It’s not that often that a Board of Regents meeting can be called “much anticipated.” But give the controversy surrounding the implementation of the Common Core curriculum, today’s meeting could get interesting. Very interesting. State lawmakers on both sides of the a

by mike simpson / 8h 

GoPublicSchool.com « An open discussion of public school issues. GoPublicSchool.com

GoPublicSchool.com « An open discussion of public school issues. GoPublicSchool.com:

Common Core – 13 1/2 minutes of must-see video…

The Assessment Landscape – Chris Tienken Christopher Tienken, Ed.D. is an assistant professor of Education Administration at Seton Hall University in the College of Education and Human Services, Department of Education Management, Policy, and Leadership. He has public school administration experience as a PK-12 assistant superintendent, middle school principal, director of curriculum and instruct

by GPS / 5min 

Must watch – Portrait of Inequality…

From the Children’s Defense Fund… “Black children in America are being pushed deeper and deeper into an abyss of poverty and despair.” Read it. Spend some time here… What do you think? Read and share comments here… The post Must watch – Portrait of Inequality… appeared first on GoPublicSchool.com.

by GPS / 1h 

Oregon strike – Substitutes prepare for class…

From KOBI-TV NBC5 in Medford… “Buses were loaded with hundreds of substitute teachers Sunday. Student, Pascal-Jumeax Brasseaur and teachers rallied around the school district to see who will be filling in starting Tuesday. Read it. Back-story What do you think? Read and share comments here… The post Oregon strike – Substitutes prepare for class… appeared first on GoPublicSchool.com.

by GPS / 1h 

Poverty, politics, racism and school reform…

Cami Anderson… “Newark’s inconvenient truth: Our poorest neighborhoods, disproportionately African American, contain some of the lowest-performing public schools in the country and have for a long time. A child in the South or West ward is virtually guaranteed to be in an elementary school where only 30 percent of students can read — or in a high school built for 1500 students with only 500 enroll

by GPS / 1h 

Baltimore County schools begin technology initiative…

Liz Bowie in The Baltimore Sun… “From sprawling Los Angeles to tiny Talbot County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, educators are experimenting with the next wave of technology in schools: a tablet or laptop in every student’s hand. The results have drawn national attention — for both their embarrassing failures and their successes. Now Baltimore County is moving ahead with a five-year, $150 million ro

by GPS / 1h hide  //  save

Montana – Classroom teacher is new lieutenant governor…

Mike Smith in The Montana Standard… “Montana is getting a dedicated classroom teacher who knows education policy at all levels as its lieutenant governor, some colleagues and Democratic state lawmakers say. Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock announced Monday that he chose Angela McLean, 36, an American history and government teacher at Anaconda High School, as Montana’s next lieutenant governor…” Read

by GPS / 1h 

Portland teachers vote to strike…

Elizabeth Thiel Elizabeth Thiel at Labor Notes… “Portland, Oregon, teachers have voted nearly unanimously to strike. Over 2,800 members of the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) packed the Arlene Schnitzer Concert hall Wednesday evening for the stand-up vote, while hundreds of community members rallied outside in the freezing cold with signs that read ‘We’ve Got Your Back’ and ‘Support Our Tea

by GPS / 1h 

FL – Are teachers are ‘just scared?’

Erica Rodriguez in The Orlando Sentinel… “Lake County school superintendent Susan Moxley in the wake of the district’s class-size violation controversy last week called for anyone who suspects wrongdoing within the district to report it. But Lake school union chief Stuart Klatte said many school teachers who work under annual contracts are afraid for their jobs and face pressure from principals t

by GPS / 1h 

We Can’t Measure What We Treasure about Our Best Teachers | janresseger

We Can’t Measure What We Treasure about Our Best Teachers | janresseger:

We Can’t Measure What We Treasure about Our Best Teachers

Posted on February 11, 2014 by janresseger

My husband grew up here in Ohio near the town where we now live, and last Sunday afternoon he told me he had noticed in the newspaper that his elementary school was celebrating its hundredth anniversary with an open house.  He wondered if I’d like to go with him just for a little while to walk through the school to see what had changed in the years since his time there—from from 1951 until 1958—kindergarten through sixth grade.

We had a lovely time strolling through classrooms and old-fashioned cloak rooms.  My husband, a not-particularly-sentimental person, took me to the classroom where he had attended each of the grades and remembered each teacher—his favorite teacher and others who challenged him.  The halls were filled with the children who attend the school today along with their families, but we had the chance to talk with some of today’s teachers and to look at the work posted on classroom walls and in hallways.  The teachers have been thinking with children about the passage of time.  The word “centennial” seemed to be a prominent vocabulary word for all the grades, and there were news stories posted here and there about major events in each of the school’s ten decades.

I was delighted to realize that we were not seeing anything about the massive testing that has invaded this public school and all the other elementary schools across the country.  Instead, there was evidence of thinking and writing and a conceptual approach to reading and 

Shanker Blog » Matching Up Teacher Value-Added Between Different Tests

Shanker Blog » Matching Up Teacher Value-Added Between Different Tests:

Matching Up Teacher Value-Added Between Different Tests

Posted by Matthew Di Carlo on February 11, 2014

The U.S. Department of Education has released a very short, readable report on the comparability of value-added estimates using two different tests in Indiana – one of them norm-referenced (the Measures of Academic Progress test, or MAP), and the other criterion-referenced (the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress Plus, or ISTEP+, which is also the state’s official test for NCLB purposes).

The research design here is straightforward – fourth and fifth grade students in 46 schools across 10 districts in Indiana took both tests, their teachers’ value-added scores were calculated, and the scores were compared. Since both sets of scores were based on the same students and teachers, this is allows a direct comparison of how teachers’ value-added estimates compare between these two tests. The results are not surprising, and they square with similar prior studies (see here, here, here, for example): The estimates based on the two tests are moderately correlated. Depending on the grade/subject, they are between 0.4 and 0.7. If you’re not used to interpreting correlation coefficients, consider that only around one-third of teachers were in the same quintile (fifth) on both tests, and another 40 or so percent were one quintile higher or lower. So, most teachers were within a quartile, about a quarter of teachers moved two or more quintiles, and a small percentage moved from top to bottom or vice-versa.

Although, as mentioned above, these findings are in line with prior research, it is worth remembering why this “instability” occurs (and what can be done about it).

Contrary to what many might believe, the primary reason is probably not differences in content between the tests 

NYC Educator: Blended Learning

NYC Educator: Blended Learning:

Blended Learning

There's a piece in the New York Post that pretty much confirms everyone's worst suspicions about so-called blended learning. Actually, this particular brand does not appear to have been blended very well at all. In fact, it sounds like the very worst sort of credit recovery, and I only wish it were restricted to that which the story describes.

How many of us have seen or heard of kids getting on computers, answering a few questions, and somehow getting credit for courses they'd failed? You answer A, B, C or D, maybe get it wrong, and maybe answer again. Or maybe you sit with the book and look it up. More likely, you find a smart girlfriend to do it for you. Actually, if you're smart enough  to look up the information, you're probably smart enough to avoid taking the makeup computer thing anyway. Still, the story describes students paying other students 80 bucks to sit at the computer.

80 bucks seems like a lot of money for a high school kid to pay. What on earth is the kid learning by doing such a thing? Certainly nothing I want my kid to learn at school. I'm not a big fan of cheating. I discourage it actively in my class. Of course if my class were designed to restore credit in a multitude of subjects for no particular reason, I might have a different outlook. And of course, if I let kids take tests at 

Teacher ratings would be kept private :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet

Teacher ratings would be kept private :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Debunking myths around Title I, Part A ‘schoolwide’ schools

Debunking the long standing myths on use of Title I, Part A funds in schools identified as schoolwide will assist you in providing a wider range of academic strategies for updating the entire instructional program. 

by Rick Carder / 5h hide  //  save

Teacher ratings would be kept private

(Ky.) A new evaluation system being considered by the Kentucky Board of Education for teachers and principals would not be used to make personnel decisions until the 2015-16 school year and would hold individual ratings private.

by Tom Chorneau / 5h 

CA bill among many proposals to protect student data

(Calif.) Legislation aimed at helping keep a student's personal information private has been introduced by a California lawmaker who joins others across the nation attempting to do the same thing.

by Kimberly Beltran / 5h 

Cerf gone? The viper may be leaving, but the venom lingers on: Guest blog | Bob Braun's Ledger

Cerf gone? The viper may be leaving, but the venom lingers on: Guest blog | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Cerf gone? The viper may be leaving, but the venom lingers on: Guest blog

Christopher Cerf

By Becca Field

Chris Cerf may be leaving as education commissioner but the toxins he brought to the state education department remain—as will his Broad-financed flunkies who will obediently carry out the policies that will help companies like his and Joe Klein’s Amplify prosper.

So it’s important now to follow the legislative consideration of  the Common Core and high stakes testing. The hearings held by the Assembly Education Committee this week on the  (CCSS) and accompanying standardized tests (PARCC) reveal the state is still careening toward the edge of a cliff without brakes.

Some might give the benefit of the doubt to the architects of this free fall, but it seems more likely our public schools have been set up to fail. There’s nothing like public school failure to provide arguments in support of the privatizers and their profit-making friends.  Implementation of the new high-stakes standardized tests (PARCC) that align our testing to the CCSS is the greatest single statewide threat to our public education system – from urban to suburban, elementary to high school.

It is up to us to unite to apply the brakes.

New Jersey “voluntarily” adopted the CCSS in 2010, as a prerequisite to apply for Federal Race to the Top funds, those engines of education “reform.” Objections to 

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Cerf jumps Christie's ship in N.J. Goes to work for Murdoch

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Cerf jumps Christie's ship in N.J. Goes to work for Murdoch:

Cerf jumps Christie's ship in N.J. Goes to work for Murdoch

Cerf hooks up with Murdoch

Darling of scandalized Gov. Chris Christie and the state's corporate school "reformers," Chris Cerf is out as New Jersey schools chief. Cerf said Monday he will leave his $141,500-a-year job on Feb. 28 to become chief executive of  international criminal Rupert Murdoch's Amplify Insight ed tech firm. He's following his old boss, Joel Klein, who was New York City schools chancellor, over to Murdoch. Cerf was Klein’s deputy from 2006 to 2009.

It was 59-year-old Democrat Cerf who brokered a landmark tenure law with AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten, a contract which bases teacher evaluation largely on student test scores, and who has approved 37 N.J. charter schools. He was also a key player in the deal to bring $100 million in Mark Zuckerberg money into the

UPDATE: We won't negotiate ‘at the point of a gun’ - Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: DE BLASIO LEADING THE WAY ON INCOME GAP AND SCHOOL INEQUALITY

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: DE BLASIO LEADING THE WAY ON INCOME GAP AND SCHOOL INEQUALITY:


CTU PRESS RELEASE -- We won't negotiate ‘at the point of a gun’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                     CONTACT:    Stephanie GadlinFebruary 10, 2014                                                                                                                   Desk:   (312) 329-6250 THE GREAT CHICAGO PENSION CAPER IS UNDERWAYChicago’s public school educators will not negotiate ‘at the point of a gun’  CHICAG

by Mike Klonsky / 9min hide  //  save

DE BLASIO LEADING THE WAY ON INCOME GAP AND SCHOOL INEQUALITY

Mayor de Blasio delivers his first State of the City Address. Offers "a future of greater equality and opportunity,” 

N.Y. Mayor Bill de Blasio isn't folding his post-election cards as many predicted, despite stiff opposition from Gov. Cuomo's gang up in Albany and even some attacks from some lefties on his plan for universal pre-K.

AP reports:

By virtue of a campaign focused on income disparity, de Blasio has become a leading spokesman in the global movement to address fiscal inequality but in order to enact some of his signature ideas, he must first get approval in a city 150 miles to the north. Albany lawmakers must sign off on de Blasio's hopes to raise the minimum wage for city residents and for the centerpiece of his agenda: a tax hike on the rich to fund universal pre-kindergarten.

B-BYE... New York's charter hustlers are borrowing a page from from their corporate uncles by threatening to leave town if BdB goes through with his plans to make parasitic privately-run charters pay rent in public school buildings and enforce tighter restrictions on how they