4-19-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida ALL Week

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education:

Scathing Purple Musings 

 Color me purple in Florida ALL Week

Florida Republican Hypocricy Unmasked in Voucher Expansion

Writing in the Gainesville Sun, Alachua County School Board member Eileen Roy points to the numerous contradictions that school vouchers and their legislative enablers  cannot resolve: These schools have little to no accountability and are not required to have certified teachers. As a taxpayer, I do not want my money diverted away from public schools. If parents want their children to attend a pri

by Bob Sikes / 22min 

Meet the New FCAT, Same as the Old FCAT

Sunshine State News reporter Allison Nielson writes of FCATs last year with a paradox: “Parting is such sweet sorrow — sort of.” And also this: After a dramatic drop in FCAT writing scores in 2012, the State Board of Education altered Florida’s grading formula to assess schools on the percentage of students whose essays earned a 3 or better. In 2011, the formula last year graded schools on the per

by Bob Sikes / 1d 

APR 17

United Front in Jacksonville Opposes Field Test Folly

From Denise Smith Amos in the Florida Times-Union: Decrying what they call an untested test, leaders in Duval schools and teachers union — and some parents — urged voters Wednesday to flood state legislators’ phones and emails this week, urging them to slow down on some of the punitive aspects of the state’s new tests. Duval teachers union president Terrie Brady, three school board members and Su

by Bob Sikes / 2d 

APR 16

Dockery: Senate Should Let Voucher Expansion Die

Writing in her hometown newspaper, the Lakeland Ledger, former republican  state senator Paula Dockery makes the clear case why voucher expansion cannot be intellectually be defended: Opponents of voucher expansion make a valid argument. Students attending private schools are not subjected to high-stakes tests. The schools are not required to hire certified teachers or to comply with the overabun

by Bob Sikes / 3d 

APR 13

Inside the Politics of Florida’s Voucher War: Weatherford vs. Gaetz

The editors of the Tampa Bay Times conclude: The Senate wisely tabled its bill weeks ago, and noticeably missing from the House bill is the one thing Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, had suggested would be his priority: better assessment of voucher recipients’ learning. The current process for such accountability pales in comparison to the machinations public schools undergo. Private schoo

by Bob Sikes / 5d 

Rick Scott’s 2012 FCAT Rankings Show Poverty Matters

Ocala Star-Banner editor Brad Rogers remind his readers of Rick Scott’s ill-fated 2012 release of FCAT rankings by district, and he’s not attempted that stunt since. Scathing Purple Musings speculated that the decision was a strictly political one and a response to California governor Jerry Brown’s turn-down on high-stakes tests. So why hasn’t Scott released the ranks again? Maybe it’s because the

by Bob Sikes / 6d 

APR 12

Teach for America Bringing Illegal Immigrants to Teach in Denver Classrooms

From KUSA NBC reporter Nelson Garcia: DPS is working with Teach for America to bring in people with an official status of “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” as determined by the federal government. Part of the requirements for DACA status is that a person must have been brought to the United States under the age of 16 and have a clean criminal record. Even with DACA status, they are still no

by Bob Sikes / 6d 

All Week @ The Answer Sheet 4-19-14

The Answer Sheet:

All Week @ The Answer Sheet

Clergy warn Christie: Your Newark school reform is a mess

Dozens of members of the clergy in Newark have warned Gov. Chris Christie (R) that school reform efforts by his appointed superintendent are causing so much controversy and “unnecessary instability”  in the city that they are “concerned about the level of public anger we see growing in the community” over the issue. The state-operated Newark […]

3 by Valerie Strauss / 2h 

Why community schools are part of the answer

Brock Cohen taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District for 12 years and is now pursuing a doctorate at the University of Southern California while working at the nonprofit Los Angeles Education Partnership as a schools transformation coach. He helps develop community schools, which build strategic partnerships with both public and private organizations to provide essential supports and reso

by Valerie Strauss / 21min 

Arne Duncan dismisses critics: ‘Lots of drama, lots of noise’

There he goes again. Education Secretary Arne Duncan went to New York recently and introduced state Education Commissioner John King at a function at New York University, calling him “a remarkable leader” and “as smart and as thoughtful as anyone working in this space.” As for the growing number of critics of King’s education reforms, Duncan […]

1K by Valerie Strauss / 1d 

The real meaning of diversity (beyond the Benetton ads)

When colleges say they believe in diversity, what do they really mean? It talk of diversity nothing more than a gimmick to get college websites and brochures to look like politically correct Benetton ad?  Alejandra Dubcovsky, an assistant professor of history at Yale University, addresses this issue in the following post. Dubcovsky’s research and teaching focus on colonial America. She is a […]

42 by Valerie Strauss / 1d 

APR 17

The ‘new’ Graze to the Top program

If you need a laugh, this is for you. It’s by Matt Farmer, a Chicago trial lawyer  who is a member of the Local School Council at Philip Rogers Elementary School. Farmer wrote this satirical piece about Race to the Top, the competitive funding program run by Arne Duncan’s Education Department to dispense federal grants […]

78 by Valerie Strauss / 1d 

Bad behavior in college: Not just at Dartmouth

Philip J. Hanlon, the new president of Dartmouth College, has just gone public with his concern that the Ivy League school’s future “is being hijacked by extreme behavior,” by which he means in part sexual assaults and the proliferation of groups with “racist and sexist undertones.” He also lamented a campus culture marked by commonplace […]

2 by Valerie Strauss / 1d 

Seven things kids need to read better (and raising standards isn’t one of them)

For two decades,  Ellie Herman was a writer/producer for television shows including “The Riches,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Chicago Hope” and “Newhart.” Her fiction has appeared in literary journals, among them The Massachusetts Review, The Missouri Review and the O.Henry Awards Collection. In 2007, she decided, “on an impulse,” she wrote, to become an English teacher and […]

300+ by Valerie Strauss / 2d 

Even the strongest relationships sour

Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, and John White, Louisiana’s education commissioner, were once a great school reform pair — seemingly inseparable.  Times have changed. In early 2011, Jindal tapped White, then the superintendent of the Recovery School District in New Orleans, to become education chief in Louisiana and the state Board of Education approved the […]

26 by Valerie Strauss / 2d 

APR 16

What is the SAT good for?

The College Board released new details on Wednesday about how the SAT will change in early 2016. My colleague Nick Anderson wrote about the changes in this story, explaining how the test, once billed as evaluating “aptitude,” is now being marketed as a measure of high school achievement. But does it even do that? Bob Schaeffer, public […]

28 by Valerie Strauss / 2d 

Students don’t need a ‘voice.’ Here’s what they really need.

Sam Levin was a student when, in 2011, he founded the Independent Project at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Massachusetts. He had thrown out an idea to administrations about allowing students to create a learning environment in which teachers serve as mentors and coaches while students post questions and design ways to answer them in unorthodox […]

62 by Valerie Strauss / 2d 

Live online chat at 1 p.m. today

I’ll be doing a live chat on washingtonpost.com at 1 p.m. today, so if you have any questions or comments about anything in education (or even marginally related), send them in here: http://live.washingtonpost.com/the-answer-sheet-20140416.html#submit-question Here’s a transcript of the first chat, and here is the transcript of last week’s.

by Valerie Strauss / 3d 

APR 15

Testing resistance movement exploding around country

The testing resistance movement is growing rapidly around the country and parents are opting out their children from high-stakes standardized tests in most states. What do test reformers want to accomplish? Monty Neill, executive director of  FairTest, explains in this post. FairTest, or the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, is dedicated to eliminating […]

1K by Valerie Strauss / 4d 

APR 14

Guess where Florida is field testing its new standardized tests? (Not Florida)

Alberto M. Carvalho is the superintendent of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida, and was named the national 2014 Superintendent of the Year by the School Superintendents Association. He’s held that job for more than five years, having worked his way through the school district as a teacher, assistant principal, lobbyist and other positions. […]

1K by Valerie Strauss / 4d 

The big losers in NYC charter fight: students with disabilities

With big bucks from Wall Street supporters behind her, charter network operator Eva Moskowitz won a fight she started with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio over charter schools. De Blasio got politically hurt in the battle after being steamrolled by Moskowitz and Gov. Andrew Cuomo — but in the end, it isn’t de Blasio who […]

500+ by Valerie Strauss / 5d 

Frequent school moves can harm children’s mental health — study

A  study conducted in England concludes that children who jump from school to school frequently are at increased risk of developing psychotic symptoms when they became preteens.  The study, titled “School Mobility and Prospective Pathways to Psychotic-like Symptoms in Early Adolescence: a Prospective Birth Cohort Study” and published online by the Journal of the American Academy of […]

100+ by Valerie Strauss / 5d 

APR 13

Statisticians slam popular teacher evaluation method

You can be certain that members of the American Statistical Association, the largest organization in the United States representing statisticians and related professionals, know a thing or two about data and measurement. That makes the statement that the association just issued very important for school reform. The ASA just slammed the high-stakes “value-added method” (VAM) of […]

3K by Valerie Strauss / 5d 

Where kids get suspended for not sitting up straight

Some school disciplines are lenient. Some are strict. And then there’s the Noble Charter School network in Chicago. At the 14 Noble campuses, kids get suspended for infractions such as not sitting up straight in class, being a minute late and not looking at the teacher when instructed. And until last week, students ordered into […]

60 by Valerie Strauss / 5d 

‘We’re real parents in a real crisis’

QUEST, or Quality Education for Every Student, is a volunteer parent group in Massachusetts working to persuade state legislators to adequately fund public education and maintain the current cap on the number of charter schools. Mary Battenfeld, a member of QUEST and a parent of three Boston Public School students, writes in this post why […]

400+ by Valerie Strauss / 5d