7-25-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School:

When Does Governor Cuomo Surface?

It's been five days since Governor Cuomo appeared in public, three days since the now infamous NY Times/Moreland story revealed the extent of his administration's tampering into the Moreland Commission.Capital Confidential puts all this in context:It’s been five days since @NYGovCuomo has appeared in public. We are unable to find a weekday gap that long in recent public schedules.— Capitol Confide

by reality-based edu... / 42min 

Microsoft Lays Off 18,000 Employees Based Not On Performance Or Worth To The Company, But By Algorithm

The people going after teacher tenure and seniority protections always claim that they want these gone so that when layoffs come, teachers can be retained based upon performance and value, not time with the district.But according to one former employee, Microsoft - the company founded by one of the major opponents to teacher protections, Bill Gates - just let 18,000 people go randomly:At the end o

by reality-based edu... / 32min 

The Close Ties Between Christie And Cuomo

Zach Fink has more on the close ties between Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo in his State of Politics piece exploring why Christie, as head of the Republican Governors Association, may not be helping GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino against Governor Cuomo in this year's election:Finally, there is the Cuomo-Christie connection. Astorino raised this on Tuesday, suggesting Cuomo may have help

by reality-based edu... / 1min 

What If There's No Legal Jeopardy For Cuomo In The Moreland Mess?

Nick Reisman writes Three Reasons Why Moreland Won't Stick, And Why It Might.He notes that the scandal is an insider baseball one, without hookers or indictments in the executive, and the latest Siena poll shows "corruption" way down the list of public concerns in 2014.He also notes that it's not clear if Cuomo administration tampering into the Moreland Commission constituted any law-bre

by reality-based edu... / 12min 

Governor Cuomo Remains In Hiding For A Third Straight Day

State of Politics:Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in New York City, with nothing public planned.When will the governor face the public and explain himself on the Moreland/NY Times story?He kept out of sight yesterday too, instead issuing press release after press release about everything in the world except Moreland. Is he going to stay hidden for the rest of the summer, then re-emerge in September and claim

by reality-based edu... / 2h 

7-24-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School: Did Cuomo Break The Law By Tampering With The Moreland Commission?The answer is, maybe:Cuomo's camp contends his office had the right to guide the panel under the language of the 1907 Moreland Act, which allows the governor to investigate any executive branch agency or related entity. While past governors have used the statute to examine the inner workings of government and

by mike simpson / 7h 

Teacher quality and test scores: Recent studies raise questions | Education Lab Blog | Seattle Times

Teacher quality and test scores: Recent studies raise questions | Education Lab Blog | Seattle Times:

Teacher quality and test scores: Recent studies raise questions

Posted by Linda Shaw

As we reported earlier this week, the standoff continues between our state and the feds over the use of student test scores in teacher evaluations.

The U.S. Department of Education continues to insist that test scores should play some role in teacher evaluations. Washington lawmakers have refused to require school districts to do so and, as a result, lost the state’s waiver from the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

This week, the feds refused Washington’s request to get back a piece of that waiver – the part that would have saved schools from having to send letters home saying they have failed – as most other schools in the nation have failed – to ensure that all students were proficient in reading and math this year.

So what about the substance of the argument? Are test scores a valid indicator of a teacher’s effectiveness?

People on both sides can point to research that supports their views.

Here are a few of the latest reports and studies, which raise a lot of questions:

1. In May, two researchers looked at whether the way some districts are using test scores to judge teacher performance is a good gauge of teaching quality.  They found, to their surprise, that it doesn’t seem to be.

Morgan Polikoff and Andrew Porter looked at data about 327 fourth- and eighth-grade teachers in six school districts.   They looked at the ratings teachers received from an analysis of their students’ test scores, often called value-added measures.   Then they looked at other measures of quality, including how well teachers cover the material they were supposed to teach under their state’s learning standards.

Their bottom line: “What we’re left with is this concern that state tests really aren’t picking up the things that we think of as being good teaching,” Polikoff said in a video that accompanied the release of the study, which appeared in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association,

“What these results, among other results, call into question is the sort of fixed and formulaic approach to teacher evaluation that is being promoted in a lot states right now,” he said.

(Their research was sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is also the main sponsor of Education Lab.)

2. In April, the American Statistical Association urged caution in the use of value-added measures, Teacher quality and test scores: Recent studies raise questions | Education Lab Blog | Seattle Times:

Russ on Reading: Hope, Poverty, and Grit

Russ on Reading: Hope, Poverty, and Grit:

Hope, Poverty, and Grit

Calling on our political leaders and plutocrats to show some grit.

When I was a kid “grit” was the stuff that was left in the bottom of the bath tub after I showered following a full day spent on a dusty baseball field. “Grit” was also the stuff in the Lava soap my auto mechanic father used to get the grease off his hands at the end of the work day.

Now the word “grit” has morphed into one more way for the corporate education reformers to blame children, teachers and parents for what they perceive as the shortcomings of public education. Apparently, American school children lack grit and their teachers and parents are failing to instill it on them.

Angela Duckworth, the University of Pennsylvania psychology professor who coined the term, defines grit as "This quality of being able to sustain your passions, and also work really hard at them, over really disappointingly long periods of time.”

I admit by that definition I am not very gritty myself. My father didn’t know grit from shinola, but he often lamented my lack of it. I had a passion for baseball, but couldn’t hit a lick. My dad said I wasn’t trying hard enough. I believed him, so I practiced more, got extra coaching and still couldn’t hit a lick. My dad said I was too lazy to practice enough. I eventually gave up my dreams of being a major league baseball player. See – a grit deficit.

In ninth grade my grit was put to the ultimate test, I was assigned to readSilas Marner, by George Eliot. I tried to grit it out. I read the first chapter. I read most of the second chapter. That was it. I gave up the ghost. It didn’t make any sense of me and even thinking about the novel today makes start to yawn. Fortunately, my copy of the dreaded Silas had the John Steinbeck Russ on Reading: Hope, Poverty, and Grit:

7/24/2014 – Education ‘Reform’ Loses The Netroots Opportunity to Learn Campaign

7/24/2014 – Education ‘Reform’ Loses The Netroots:

7/24/2014 – Education ‘Reform’ Loses The Netroots

July 24, 2014 Subscribe

THIS WEEK: Voters Overwhelmingly Want Pre-K Expansion … Teacher Dropout Crisis … Segregation Feeds Tea Party … Jeb Bush Policies Hit Obstacles … Choice Is About Sorting

Lynn Community Takes Stand for Immigrant Students

The small city of Lynn, MA, has become a local hotspot in the national immigration debate. On July 22, dozens of local parents, students and community members rallied on the steps of Lynn City Hall to protest city officials trying to scapegoat young immigrant students for the ails of a long-underfunded school system. For education advocates and organizers, the small city of Lynn, MA,

by jocelyn / 1h 

Education ‘Reform’ Loses The Netroots

By Jeff Bryant

“At this year’s Netroots Nation conference … those whose white-hot enthusiasm for presidential politics may be dampened by the inevitability of a Hillary Clinton candidacy, there may be no more promising alternative channel than the raging fight for public education.”
Read more …

KIDS COUNT Data Book: Only "Fragile Progress" in 25 Years

In the 25 years since the start of the Annie E. Cassie Foundation's KIDS COUNT project, America has made only "fragile progress" in improving the well-being of and opportunities available to young children and students. In the 25 years since the start of the Annie E. Cassie Foundation's KIDS COUNT project, America has made only "fragile progress" in improving the w

by jocelyn / 22min

Netroots Nation Takes on School Discipline

Across the country, students, parents, and educators are organizing to change their school districts’ zero tolerance policies – and they’re winning. At the 2014 Netroots Nation conference in Detroit last weekend, advocates and organizers discussed the victories and continuing challenges in the movement for school discipline reform. Across the country, students, parents, and educators

by jocelyn / 46min 

NEWS AND VIEWS

Poll: 70 Percent Of Voters Support Federal Preschool Expansion

The Washington Post

“Seven in 10 voters, including 6 in 10 Republicans, support a plan for the federal government to expand quality early childhood programs for low- and middle-income families … State governors and mayors from both political parties have made strides in expanding preschool in recent years, but Obama’s proposal to increase federal funding to help states improve access to preschool has stalled in Congress … On a list of national priorities, voters ranked ‘ensuring children get a strong start’ second only to ‘increasing jobs and economic growth’ and above ‘improving the quality of our public schools’ and ‘reducing the tax burden on families’ … Key groups of swing voters also supported the proposal, including 80% of Hispanics, 75% of moderates and 72% of suburban women.”
Read more …

The Teacher Dropout Crisis

NPR

“Roughly half a million U.S. teachers either move or leave the profession each year… This kind of turnover comes at a steep cost … up to $2.2 billion a year … at-risk students suffer the most. Nearly 20% of teachers at high-poverty schools leave every year, a rate 50% higher than at more affluent schools. That’s one of every five teachers, gone by next September … Variety of reasons for the turnover, including low salaries and a lack of support … Most likely to quit are also the least experienced: 40 – 50% of new teachers leave within their first five years on the job.”
Read more …

Tea Party Support Linked To Educational Segregation, New Study Shows

Notre Dame News

“Statistical analyses show that even after accounting for many other factors, Tea Party organizations were much more likely to form in counties with high levels of residential segregation based on education levels … College graduates were more likely to indicate support for the Tea Party if they resided in a county characterized by high levels of educational segregation … ‘The commonly held view that individuals and families who are struggling to get by are undeserving of government assistance is reinforced when the highly educated have limited contact with those who have been less fortunate.’”
Read more …

Jeb Bush’s Reading Rule Loses Ground

Politico

“It was one of Jeb Bush’s signature initiatives as Florida governor: Require third-graders to repeat the year if they flunked a reading test … Now, political pressure to dilute the policies is building … In states that have already tried Common Core exams, as many as 70% of students failed, raising fears of mass retentions among teachers, parents and children … Studies have shown that retention leads to loss of self-esteem, a decreased feeling of belonging at school and negative effects on college attendance. A Harvard University study found that any positive effects of retention fade out over time. Data from Florida show that about a third of students held back for a year in 2003 never became proficient at reading … Oklahoma Education Association President Linda Hampton said … the union opposes the law and argues that retention can prove ‘detrimental to a child’s academic growth … emphasis our state has placed on a single test, on a single day to determine whether or not our 8- and 9-year-olds are prepared for the next grade level is unfair and disappointing … Education professionals, in partnership with parents, are better equipped to assess a child’s ability to read.’”
Read more …

The Big Sort: How Chicago’s School Choice System Is Tracking Kids Into Different High Schools Based On Achievement

The Hechinger Report

“Chicago is trying to expand the number of ‘quality school options’ and offer students a choice of where to go to school … An unintended consequence of the choice system: students of different ability levels are being sorted into separate high schools … The findings … raise questions about whether the city’s school choice system is actually creating better schools, or whether it’s simply sorting certain students out and leaving the weakest learners in separate, struggling schools … New York City and New Orleans see a similar dynamic … High-performing students are like gold in a school. Everybody does better around them – including other high-performing students. And it’s not just about test scores. The biggest predictor of whether a school is safe and orderly is students’ academic achievement. Having top performers makes an entire school easier to run.”
Read more …

Jeff Bryant Thinks Campbell Brown Is Replacing Michelle Rhee as Face of Attacks on Teachers | janresseger

Jeff Bryant Thinks Campbell Brown Is Replacing Michelle Rhee as Face of Attacks on Teachers | janresseger:

Jeff Bryant Thinks Campbell Brown Is Replacing Michelle Rhee as Face of Attacks on Teachers

Posted on July 25, 2014 by janresseger

In a blockbuster story at Salon.com, Jeff Bryant threads together the two key school “deformer” stories of the past week.  Michelle Rhee’s star seems to be fading even as Campbell Brown, the former CNN anchor who has turned herself into an opponent of job protections for teachers, seems to be rising as the darling of those intent on scapegoating school teachers.

Bryant writes:  “For years, Michelle Rhee the former District of Columbia schools chancellor, has been upheld in the media as someone with the formula and fight required to ‘fix’ public schools.  Others–okay, yours truly—have likened her more to an ‘education Ann Coulter,’ providing lots of attention-getting optics for a movement made up of rich and powerful people who press their belief that what ails public education most is ‘bad teachers.’  Supported by shadowy money and shaky science, these wealthy folks have created a ‘blame teachers first’ campaign that seeks to address education problems rooted in inequality and low investment by attacking teachers’ job protections and professional status.  Their efforts are, of course, ‘for the children.’”

Summing up the ways Rhee’s impact and reputation seem to be fading, Bryant links to reports that show her organization, StudentsFirst, has proven to have neither the members nor the organizing clout Rhee has claimed.  He reports that Rhee carries the stain of a likely, but not fully investigated and therefore unproven, scandal in Washington, DC, where it looks as though teachers and school administrators erased  the answers on hundreds of students’ standardized test answer sheets and and corrected them. He describes Rhee’s boasts of rising scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress during her tenure in Washington, DC,  and then reports that rising scores were about the same as those of her predecessors, that DC’s students’ NAEP scores overall continue to be relatively low, and that the test score gap between poor and wealthier students in Washington, DC widened during her tenure.  Bryant concludes his summary of Rhee’s fade with the news from last week that Rhee’s national Jeff Bryant Thinks Campbell Brown Is Replacing Michelle Rhee as Face of Attacks on Teachers | janresseger:

empathyeducates - On the Journey For Justice Newark Parents Cheer Federal Investigation Into Controversial School Plan

empathyeducates:

On the Journey For Justice Newark Parents Cheer Federal Investigation Into Controversial School Plan

Parents and advocates gather at Newark City Hall after U.S. Department of Education opened a civil rights investigation into the city’s school reorganization plan. By Peggy McGlone | Originally Published at New Jersey Dot Com. – The Star-Ledger. July 24, 2014 at 6:00 AM, updated July 24, […]

by empathy / 8h hide  //  save

What Happens When a City’s Public Schools Vanish? Colonialism Lives

Photograph; Lafayette Academy, the experience of a charter group with the profit-making company it hired to manage instruction offers a cautionary tale of how well-meaning trustees can easily stumble, and of how privatizing management is often far from a panacea | Tim Mueller for The New York […]

by empathy / 9h 

The D-List Reformer Does Disruption | EduShyster

The D-List Reformer Does Disruption | EduShyster:

The D-List Reformer Does Disruption

 *Disruption*: everything that’s wrong with the education reform movement in a single concept

By *The 49er*
Today’s installment of Confessions of a D-List Reformer is brought to you by the letter *D,* as in *disruption.* Attend any kind of education reform event these days and you will hear this word constantly. In fact, if you played a drinking game at a typical reform gathering and took a shot every time the word *disruption* was uttered, there’s a pretty good chance that you’d be dead by the end of the event. But what does *disruption* actually mean? Who is doing the *disrupting*? And what is it exactly that’s being *disrupted*? 

Disrupt this
Let’s start with what reformers mean when they talk about disruption. Many education reformers are convinced that the current state of American public education is so awful that disruption alone can make it better. (Another common refrain is that change can’t happen when all parties are at the table, which is why the table has to be blown up by, you guessed it, disruption.) Reformers also believe that local communities can’t fix their own The D-List Reformer Does Disruption | EduShyster:

NYC Educator: If NYSED Were a Teacher...

NYC Educator: If NYSED Were a Teacher...:

If NYSED Were a Teacher...

Here is the rub:  If the New York State Education Department were a teacher, parents would be on the phone and NYSED would soon be called down to the principal's office.  In the hands of an apt administrator, NYSED would be sternly advised to change or denied tenure.  As it works out though, parents protest in great numbers (i.e., in Poughkeepsie), but instead of having any impact, future forums are cancelled and parents are dismissed as dupes.

NYSED continues its policies which violate basic teacher protocol.  If NYSED was a teacher, these policies would be completely unacceptable.

First, any tests that fail 70% of a class, let alone of NY's entire test-taking body, is a failure in itself.  The test makers, or those who set the cut scores, are out of touch with reality or, perhaps, too much in touch with some ugly political agenda. While politicians fail us, children will have their failure impressed upon them from a very early age.  They are the sacrificial lambs.

Second, the tests have "visceral" effects.  I do not see how this differs from child abuse, given modern definitions.  The tests cause children to NYC Educator: If NYSED Were a Teacher...:

Gates Funded, Moi? Thanks For Your Support. We'll Take It From Here : NPR Ed : NPR

Thanks For Your Support. We'll Take It From Here : NPR Ed : NPR:

Thanks For Your Support. We'll Take It From Here

One of the questions we're most frequently asked on the NPR Ed team is, essentially, "Don't you guys get a lot of money from the Gates Foundation?"

The answer is, of course, yes.

What that question is often implying is: "Aren't you guys just a mouthpiece for the Gates Foundation's agenda?"

One of the questions we're most frequently asked on the NPR Ed team is, essentially, "Don't you guys get a lot of money from the Gates Foundation?"

The answer is, of course, yes.

What that question is often implying is: "Aren't you guys just a mouthpiece for the Gates Foundation's agenda?"

The answer is, of course, no.

In addition to the criticism that we're in the bag for Gates, or one of the many other organizations that support our work, you can pretty easily find comments on our posts saying that we're in the bag for the teachers unions. Or the opponents of the teachers unions. Or that we're too much for the Common Core. No, wait, we're slanted against the Common Core!

In other words, many people view us and our work through the lens of their own beliefs.

We can't help that. 'Twas ever thus, as they say.

The people at NPR who cover politics, or the Middle East, or any other issue face the same scrutiny.

What we can do, though, is be as clear and upfront about who and what we're reporting on as possible. The word we use for that is transparency.

At a practical level that means when we mention Gates, or other foundations or work supported by them, you're going to be seeing notes in our stories pointing out that this or that foundation "also supports NPR's coverage of education."

We know that won't satisfy everyone. When we write about research or report a story about a program or school one of our funders supports, critics are quick to seize upon that as the latest evidence that we've "sold out" ... forgotten our ethics ... been swayed by all that grant money.

I have to tell you, it just doesn't work that way.

The reporters and editors for the most part prefer not to know the details of where our funding comes from. Of course, complete isolation isn't possible, but it just doesn't affect the day-to-day decision-making. We can no more ignore a good story because it's based on work funded by Gates or the Wallace Foundation or someone else, than we can assign a story that isn't worth doing because it would make this or that foundation happy.

Our funders know that when they give NPR money, it helps pay for the reporters and producersThanks For Your Support. We'll Take It From Here : NPR Ed : NPR:

What A Common Core Lesson Sounds Like In A 10th-Grade English Class

The Common Core State Standards in literacy and math have generated lots of attention and controversy, but what do they look and sound like in a classroom?» E-Mail This

18 by Becky Vevea / 2h hide  //  save

Former Student Dropped Out, But Still Appreciates A Special Teacher

Roger Alvarez didn't make it to graduation, but he still wants to thank his high school English teacher. (This StoryCorps interview first aired Jan. 29, 2012, on Weekend Edition.)» E-Mail This

47 by NPR Staff / 4h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: On Patti Vasquez Show last night

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: On Patti Vasquez Show last night:

On Patti Vasquez Show last night

Patti Vasquez and Pete Lee on WGN last night

Special thanks to WGN'sPatti Vasquez for having me on her show last night. ComedianPete Lee was Patti's co-host and we had a friendly and far-ranging discussion on ed issues. Patti and Pete are both very funny, but serious when it comes to schooling and other social issues.



I felt at times that I should be interviewing Patti who describes herself on Twitter as, Special Needs Mom. Also known as Latina Supermom, about the trials and tribulations of a parent with an autistic child in public school.



She definitely got it when I commented on the Board's new Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: On Patti Vasquez Show last night:

AFT, NEA Agendas Converge Amid External, Internal Pressure - Education Week

AFT, NEA Agendas Converge Amid External, Internal Pressure - Education Week:

AFT, NEA Agendas Converge Amid External, Internal Pressure

By Stephen Sawchuk and Liana Heitin

What may end up being a new era for the teachers’ unions began, fittingly, with a marriage.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was a guest of honor at incoming National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García’s wedding, held concurrently with the NEA’s Representative Assembly in Denver this month. A few weeks later, Ms. García gave a rousing speech to AFT delegates on the final day of that union’s convention, in Los Angeles.

“The AFT and the NEA will try to forge a new relationship,” Ms. Weingarten said while introducing her counterpart. “Part of that is because our members, our communities, our families demand it. We’re not going to be able to fight back ... unless we work shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand.”

While the actual degree of collaboration between the two unions remains to be seen, the conventions illustrated a remarkable policy convergence, portending what could indeed be a more unified response to national and state education issues.

At their meetings, both the NEA and the AFT passed resolutions targeting U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Both attacked the prominence of standardized-test scores in judging both students and teachers. And in recent weeks, both unions have qualified their support for the Common Core State Standards, especially as it pertains to implementation.

The convergence, observers say, is the product not only of the unions’ need to circle the wagons in the face of legislative and legal attacks, but also of the pressure brought by internal factions that have urged the unions to take a tougher stance against market-based education policies.

New Elections

Multimedia

To be sure, the differences between the unions remain stark and many, particularly in their internal structures. A national merger remains unlikely: NEA delegates firmly nixed that idea just last year, more than 15 years after voting down a formal merger proposal.

But when it comes to topics like testing, their rhetoric now largely matches.

“NEA and AFT are on this parallel course right now. They’re moving in the AFT, NEA Agendas Converge Amid External, Internal Pressure - Education Week: