Tuesday, April 29, 2014

4-29-14 The Whole Child Blog — IED Pulse Poll Results: Which "Future of Schooling" Prediction Is Coming True? — Whole Child Education

ED Pulse Poll Results: Which "Future of Schooling" Prediction Is Coming True? — Whole Child Education:

Post written by Laura Varlas How would you rate your ability to put your dreams into practice? How would you rate your students? Aspirations—having goals and being inspired in the present to pursue them—challenge us to match our dreams with actions, explained Russell Quaglia at his lively 2014 ASCD Annual Conference general session. But for many students, he added, aspirations get lost in the limb

by Whole Child Sympo... / 9min

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

ED Pulse Poll Results: Which “Future of Schooling” Prediction Is Coming True?

April 28, 2014 by Whole Child Symposium

Post written by Kit Harris, ASCD Research

ASCD continually seeks to provide solutions to the challenges that face educators of all levels. A recentASCD SmartBrief ED Pulse poll sought to explore which of the predictions of a 2001 OECD report its readers felt were actually emerging.

More than a decade ago, a report (PDF) on the future of schooling by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) outlined several predictions of where schooling was headed. These predictions were divided into three major scenarios, the "status quo extrapolated," a "re-schooling" scenario, and a "de-schooling" scenario. Within each scenario, there were several options about the future of education. This report has been used widely to inform policy debate and professional development in many countries.

Two of the trends rose to the top, chosen as the ones closest to coming true, with each garnering about a third of the respondents: that there is increased involvement of the private sector in running schools(34 percent), originally part of the "status quo extraploated," and teachers leave the profession en masse; satisfaction with education drops (31 percent), originally a "de-schooling" scenario. Interestingly, these two scenarios were the two that were re-classified after the original report came out. The first one (mass market) became a "de-schooling" scenario and the second one (mass meltdown) became a separate "crisis-situation" category.

Following these two, there was one more choice that was selected by a substantial percentage of the respondents: that federal and state departments maintain primary control of school systems (25 percent), another "status quo extrapolated" element. The other options were not selected by more than 10 percent of these readers.

This survey question was included in ASCD SmartBrief, a free daily e-mail news service that provides summaries and links to major education stories and issues, which has more than 215,000 subscribers. Using ED Pulse, the weekly online poll, data was collected from 487 readers, starting on April 17, 2014. Online surveys do not provide a random sample, as participants are self-selected, meaning that a margin of sampling error cannot be calculated or quoted. In addition, the population and sample are limited to those with access to computers and an online network. However, online surveys have been shown to produce results that have proven to be reliable predictors of outcomes, including election results. If you have a question on education that you would like to see addressed in a future ED Pulse poll, feel free to submit it in the comment section below, along with any other comments.

Kit Harris is the marketing research lead at ASCD. The quantitative and qualitative research work done is in support of strategic initiatives in marketing, membership, product/program/service development, and conferences/meetings. Harris started her career in Chicago at a marketing research firm, then moved to D.C. to serve as the research director at advertising agency Earle Palmer Brown & Associates. Prior to coming to ASCD, she ran her own research firm.

Follow the Whole Child Symposium conversation here on the blog, share your thoughts in the comments and by e-mail, and pose your questions on Twitter using the hashtag #WCSymposium2014.

Learn more at www.ascd.org/wcsymposium.

Back to Basics: From Quick Fixes to Sustainable Change

School improvement conversations usually focus on quick fixes, those strategies thought to make immediate improvements to student achievement. While this model may work well for some, kids (and their teachers) remain unconvinced because their needs were never really considered to begin with—just their test scores. Even so, schools are encouraged to implement these overly simplistic strategies in s

by Kevin Parr / 16min

4-28-14 The Whole Child Blog — Improving Schools: Back to Basics—Struggling with Semantics — Whole Child Education

Improving Schools: Back to Basics—Struggling with Semantics — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLOGImproving Schools: Back to Basics—Struggling with SemanticsApril 28, 2014 by Sean Slade"Back to the basics." It's a phrase that's tossed around much but has varying definitions depending on the speaker and audience. For some, "back to the basics" means focusing on

by mike simpson / 23h

4-29-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):

Zimmer: Congratulations for Caputo-Pearl, Thanks for Fletcher

Board Vice President Steve Zimmer The LA Unified School Distirct issued a statement from board vice president, Steve Zimmer, on the election of Alex Caputo-Pearl as president of UTLA, the teachers union: “I want to congratulate Alex Caputo-Pearl, and his team of candidates upon their election to the leadership of the nation’s second-largest teacher union, local United Teachers Los Angeles. “Throug

JUST IN: Caputo-Pearl wins decisively for UTLA president

Mr. President: Alex Caputo-PearlPhoto–LA Times Alex Caputo-Pearl was declared the new UTLA president today as he overwhelmed incumbent Warren Fletcher in the second-round of voting, the LA teachers union announced today. After outpolling Fletcher 2-1 in the first round, Caputo-Pearl beat him by more than 4-to-1 in the runoff, with 5,801 votes (80.18 percent) to Fletcher’s 1,434 (19.82 percent). In

2 by Michael Janofsky / 24min

Commentary: Another test, but what is it, exactly?

In a recent opinion piece in The New York Times, “When the Circus Descends,” David Brooks derided opponents of Common Core Standards, implying that they were ideologues on the far left and far right making “hysterical claims and fevered accusations.” But as I visit classrooms across the city talking to teachers about the Common Core, I don’t hear any hysterical claims or fevered accusations. I do

by Ellie Herman / 13min

LA Times endorses McKenna for District 1 board seat

Via Los Angeles Times | By the editorial board The seven candidates for the District 1 seat on the Los Angeles Unified School Board include several teachers, a reality-show contestant and a former member of the board. The one who stands out, though, is former principal and district administrator George McKenna. In 1985, years before “school reform” became a buzz phrase, McKenna was profiled in Peo

5min hide // save

LA Schools’ maintenance budget trails other large districts

Via KPCC | By Annie Gilbertson The Los Angeles Unified spends the least on maintenance and operations of California’s largest school district, according to new analysis by a district committee. The committee, which oversees bond money used for major repairs, argues the district should increase maintenance spending to avoid more costly work from deterioration created by compounding problems. “If yo

5min

Morning Read: News on graduation rates and fidgety boys

California graduation rate rises, but achievement gap remains Commentary: Let’s assume, at least for discussion, that maximizing high school graduation rates is – or should be – the primary goal of any public school system. A corollary assumption, of course, is that a system’s diploma is meaningful, that it indicates the graduate is prepared to enter the workforce or seek post-high-school educatio

2 27min

4-28-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District)

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District): SEIU 99 president ‘still thinking’ about LAUSD board seatBarbara Torres, president of SEIU Local 99, is “still thinking about running” for a seat on the LA Unified School Board against incumbent Bennett Kayser despite concerns raised by the union’s executive director, says her campaign manager Lewis Myers

by mike simpson / 22h

4-29-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

CorpEd Profiteers and Privatizers on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Over Test Refusal

NEWSWashington PostMalloy: CT could lose money if many students opt out of standardized testsThe CT MirrorGov. Dannel P. Malloy said Monday that federal law restricts students from opting out of taking standardized tests, and if the state were to give students ...Flag as irrelevantMinneapolis Star Tribune (blog)Superintendent responds on test opt-outsMinneapolis Star Tribune (blog)Superintendent r

by Jim Horn / 58min

Defending the Indefensible in the Late Days of the Testing Orgy

The testing madness is underway this week in Tennessee, where a week of TCAP counts 15-25 percent of a student's grade and 35-50 percent of a teacher's evaluation for the other 195 days of the school year. Is that reason enough for 3rd graders to be vomiting and having nosebleeds on their test booklets this week? But the insanity does not stop there. The State of Tennessee is funding the use of

2 by Jim Horn / 38min

4-28-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: Poll of the uninformedPublished in the San Francisco Chronicle, April 28, 2014"Most in state approve of policy shifts in education," April 24: Yes, 69 percent of Californians polled said they liked the Common Core standards after hearing a brief statement about them. The statement said only that they "are designed to ensure that students graduating from high school h

by mike simpson / 21h

Education a new defining issue for 2016 GOP class - US News

Education a new defining issue for 2016 GOP class - US News:

Education rising as issue among 2016 GOP class; standards now a metaphor for government reach

FILE - This March 19, 2014 file photo shows former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaking at an education forum in Nashville, Tenn. Battling “the soft bigotry of low expectations” with national education goals was former Republican President George W. Bush’s campaign mantra. But many of his party’s would-be successors are calling for just the opposite of government-set rules, splitting the party over education policy as the GOP class of 2016 presidential hopefuls takes shape. Jeb Bush, who supports a national education policy, and Rand Paul, who abhors the idea, personify the divide. Forty-four states voluntarily participate in standards developed in part by GOP governors. (AP Photos/Erik Schelzig, File)

Associated PressApril 28, 2014Leave a Comment SHARE

By THOMAS BEAUMONT, Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Raising U.S. educational expectations through national goals was a priority for Republican President George W. Bush. But many of his would-be successors in the GOP are calling for just the opposite of government-set rules, and it's splitting the party as the GOP class of 2016 presidential hopefuls takes shape.

Just six years after Bush left office, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul last week referred to a set of state-created standards, called Common Core, as a national "curriculum that originates out of Washington." That kind of statement stokes outrage among grass-roots conservatives, who are still incensed with the Obama administration over the 2010 health care law.

It also happens to be untrue: Forty-four states voluntarily participate in Common Core standards developed in part by Republican governors. And some other potential GOP presidential candidates support the standards and are objecting to the red-meat rhetoric designed to fire up the party's most fervent supporters.

"We cannot expect our children to compete with the best in the world when we have no standards or dumbed-down standards," former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the former president's brother, said at an education conference in Arizona last week.

In the meantime, education is rising as a GOP priority, if only as a proxy for a larger internal party debate over government's proper scope.

"This is a microcosm of the heart and soul of the Republican Party," said Chad Colby, a former top Republican National Committee spokesman who is now with the pro-Common Core group Achieve. "High education standards are too important to our economy and international standing to be derailed by ideological purists with no alternative plan."

Five years ago, a bipartisan group of governors and staff of the National Governors Association began collaborating with the Council of Chief State School Officers on shared higher standards, as a political alternative to the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind law.

No Child Left Behind, Bush's signature domestic policy achievement won congressional approval with bipartisan support. It requires annual testing, publication by districts of performance data of student Education a new defining issue for 2016 GOP class - US News:

The Intersection of Standards and their Assessments: From an AZ Teacher |

The Intersection of Standards and their Assessments: From an AZ Teacher |:

The Intersection of Standards and their Assessments: From an AZ Teacher

In January, I wrote a post about “An AZ Teacher’s Perspective on Her “Value-Added.” Valerie Strauss covered the same story in her The Answer Sheet blog for The Washington Post, validating for me that readers appreciate stories from the field that explain in better terms than I can what is actually happening as these VAM-based teacher accountability and evaluation systems are being “lived out” in practice.

Well, the same AZ teacher wrote to me another story that I encourage you all to read, about the intersection and alignment of standards and their assessments, or more specifically the lack thereof.

She writes:

A fundamental principal in education is the precise alignment of the teaching of learning objectives (standards) with the assessment of learning objectives (tests). Research has demonstrated that when an educator plans lessons that begin with an analysis of what students need to learn, coupled with how a student will demonstrate the learning, achievement tends to happen. This is a “best practice” in education.

Enter: standards’ reform. My school district saw the writing on the wall: Common Core implementation was going to be massive. Beyond a shift in the philosophical underpinnings of standards (college and career readiness vs. every state for themselves), Common Core implementation meant, in some cases, a shift in instructional approaches (inquiry vs. modeling). And frequently, Common Core implementation meant changes inwhat got taught and in which grade levels.

Like any well-meaning, responsible school district, my district realized these changes were going to take time. And so they began Common Core implementation earlier than others in the 2012-2013 school year. And based on what we know about best practices, The Intersection of Standards and their Assessments: From an AZ Teacher |:

4-29-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Looking for New Leadership for the Seattle Education Assn.

Monday began the voting period for teachers in SPS to elect the leadership of their union the Seattle Education Association (SEA). The RESPECT slate is hoping to win office and I’m hoping they do too. The voting continues for the next ten days.The RESPECT platform proposes a new way of collaborating with parents and community members in the interest of unifying the power of those fighting for gen

by Melissa Westbrook / 33min

Tuesday Open Thread

SIIF is having a Giant Monsters All-Out Attack week - Godzilla, Mothra, King Kong, and others.What's on your mind?

by Melissa Westbrook / 1min

4-28-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Kindergarteners - Get with the SystemI come to this issue because of two recent stories about kindergarteners.One was from Oregon where - guess what? Bad news about testing kindergarteners for "school readiness." Two state official up the food chain in public education in Oregon called the kindergartener readiness results "sobering."It is impo

by mike simpson / 19h

“The Common Core may actually fail”: Union chief sounds off on Christie, Rhee, and for-profit testing “gag order” - Salon.com

“The Common Core may actually fail”: Union chief sounds off on Christie, Rhee, and for-profit testing “gag order” - Salon.com:

“The Common Core may actually fail”: Union chief sounds off on Christie, Rhee, and for-profit testing “gag order”

Randi Weingarten warns of "huge backlash," and tells Salon why she still believes in Common Core's potential

JOSH EIDELSON Follow

Randi Weingarten (Credit: Reuters/Rebecca Cook)

When executives at Pearson, the world’s largest for-profit education company, held their London shareholder meeting Friday, they were greeted by activists from the American Federation of Teachers, urging them to oppose so-called “gag orders” restricting teachers from revealing information about Pearson’s Common Core tests.

“The mask of test secrecy that is being used as an excuse for the lack of transparency has created growing distress and a huge backlash among parents, students and educators,” AFT president Randi Weingarten told Salon.

Interviewed Monday, the lightning rod union leader pledged further pressure on Pearson, expressed “big disappointment” with President Obama, and said her union’s controversial Newark compromise had “come crashing down” due to a Gov. Chris Christie-appointed superintendent. Weingarten defended “the promise and potential of the Common Core standards,” while warning the program “may actually fail” due to testing backlash, accountability and austerity hawks, and implementation worse than Obamacare’s. A condensed version of our conversations follows.

You wrote, “We’re concerned that Pearson is using gag orders to cover up — rather than address — problems with its standardized tests.” What led you to believe that could be the case? And who’s to blame?

Think about what you’re hearing. Test security is now being used as the rationale why questions are not released after the test, why parents can’t see the test after the test, teachers can’t see the test after the test … Issues that people have had: Ambiguous questions; whether it’s aligned to the Common Core; whether it’s developmentally appropriate. None of those things … can be even examined because we haven’t seen the questions from either last year or this year.

And what I found very illuminating was when [15-year teacher] Elizabeth Phillips, in her Op-Edin the New York Times, said that even after spending so much time with New York state, [whose officials] said, “Trust us, we will take your comments, and we will make sure that they are incorporated into the next iteration of testing,” what Phillips said was that that was not the “The Common Core may actually fail”: Union chief sounds off on Christie, Rhee, and for-profit testing “gag order” - Salon.com:

BBC News - The rise and rise of global school rankings

BBC News - The rise and rise of global school rankings:

The rise and rise of global school rankings

International tests have become an important driving force in setting education policy and their influence seems to be growing.

For the first time, England's exams are going to be linked to an international benchmark, with the new grading system for GCSEs being pegged to the Pisa tests run every three years by the OECD.

Not that long ago, few people would even have heard of the Pisa tests, now they're being used as a kind of global educational gold standard.

It's like football clubs wanting to test themselves in the Champions league rather than count their domestic trophies.

And it means that in future, the difficulty of exams taken by England's school pupils will be linked to what's happening in classrooms on the other side of the world.

“Start Quote

Andreas Schleicher, the presiding authority over the Pisa tests, has become a global education guru, delivering his findings to political leaders like Moses coming down from the mountain”

It's a signal that international comparisons are now an inescapable dimension of measuring school standards.

Just as you wouldn't look at an economy in isolation from other countries, so too it seems increasingly difficult to measure an education system without reference to what is being achieved elsewhere.

Andreas Schleicher, the presiding authority over the Pisa tests, has become a global education guru, delivering his findings to political leaders like Moses coming down from the mountain, with his commandments on an iPad rather than tablets of stone.

Changing world view

The Pisa tests have created a different map of the world.

They show the ambitions of rising economies in Asia and the rather faded glories of the old western powers.

Without such tests, how else would we know that school standards are BBC News - The rise and rise of global school rankings: