Education Research Report UPDATE 9-4-14

Education Research Report:

Teacher Attrition and Mobility: Results From the 2012–13 Teacher Follow-up Survey

Of the 3,377,900 public school teachers who were teaching during the 2011–12 school year, 84 percent remained at the same school (“stayers”), 8 percent moved to a different school (“movers”), and 8 percent left the profession (“leavers”) during the following year. About 30 percent of public school teacher movers and 10 percent of public school teacher leavers left their 2011–12 positions involunta

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 1h hide  //  save

Increasing course structure works disproportionately well for black students—halving the black–white achievement gap—and first-generation students

At the college level, the effectiveness of active-learning interventions is typically measured at the broadest scales: the achievement or retention of all students in a course. Coarse-grained measures like these cannot inform instructors about an intervention's relative effectiveness for the different student populations in their classrooms or about the proximate factors responsible for the observ

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 2h 

Assessing children in kindergarten

In contemporary kindergarten classrooms, children’s literacy abilities are often assessed by tests used to determine a child’s ‘readiness’ for school. Readiness often means letter identification, phonemic awareness, letter-writing, and other functions related to language mechanics. A new paper (http://ecl.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/09/03/1468798414548778.full.pdf+html)  investigates the assess

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 2h 

This Week's Education Research Report 8-30-14 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Education Research ReportTHIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORTSocial class makes a difference in how children tackle classroom problemsAn Indiana University study has found that social class can account for differences in how parents coach their children to manage classroom challenges. Such differences can affect a child's education by reproducing inequalities in the classroom."Parents have d

by mike simpson / 9h 

9-4-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

Congrats to John Elfrank-Dana who has now successfully battled two abusive principals

If this were Atlanta, Almonte would be leaving in handcuffs..... Ed NotesBergtraum HS principal leaves after caught pushing kids into substandard online courses & violating sped rights; sadly she will now likely go and ruin some adult ed program. Congrats to John ElFrank-Dana who has now successfully battled two abusive principals now…hope the school gets someone good finally!... Leonie Haimso

2 by ed notes online / 1h 

Haimson - Prepare to Be Really Sick - Comment on NY Times Mag Moskowitz Puff Piece by Daniel Bergner

Six teachers spoke to him as well as several parents. I was 100% honest with him. We were completely ignored. Many of things I talked about were the main things he focused on here. Conveniently left out.... Teacher at Mickey Mantle school where Eva attempted to evict the special ed childrenBelow is a comment by Leonie Haimson, followed by teachers who spoke at length to Daniel Bergner and realize

2 by ed notes online / 1h 

9-3-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: Samuel Freedman, on Bel Kaufman, Goes After Teacher Bashing, With Ties to the 68 StrikeAround the same time that “Up the Down Staircase” was published, New York City was convulsed by a battle over community control of public schools. The struggle reached its apogee between 1967 and 1968, with the installation of a black governing board in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of Broo

1 by mike simpson / 13h 

SBE News Release for September 3, 2014 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)

SBE News Release for September 3, 2014 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education):

State Board of Education Commends Higher Education’s Endorsement of Common Core and Comprehensive, Coordinated Approach for Implementation

In an unprecedented action, the four systems of higher education announced their endorsement of Common Core standards and have engaged in a comprehensive, coordinated approach for implementation that links the K-12 system with higher education on standards, assessments and teacher training.

The leaders of the University of California, California State University, California Community Colleges, and Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities outlined their endorsement of Common Core standards in a letter to the State Board of Education. The announcement is part of the California State Board of Education’s National Governors Association grant for K-12/higher education collaboration.

“This endorsement reinforces other significant actions by higher education to align standards and assessments with Common Core including major revisions to the PSAT and SAT, updates to the a-g requirements for the University of California and California State University, improvements to teacher preparation, and collaboration on the Early Assessment Program and Smarter Balanced assessments for 11th grade,” explained California State Board of Education president Mike Kirst.

“The implementation of the Common Core standards and aligned assessments has the potential to dramatically improve college readiness and help close the preparation gap that exists for California students,” wrote Janet Napolitano, Timothy White, Brice Harris and Kristen Soares. The system leaders note the “transforming promise of these new standards” as more students master them and more teachers, students and parents are given clear and consistent messages about college and career readiness.

The letter states that “Common Core standards provide teachers and districts a roadmap to developing courses that cultivate the deep understandings required for college preparation. In concert with this transition, the a-g requirements for CSU and UC admission, specifically areas ‘b’ (English) and ‘c’ (Mathematics), have been updated to align with the Common Core standards and the message is being transmitted to schools, parents and students.”

The system leaders also highlight the Early Assessment Program and higher education’s participation in teams working on the performance standards for the Smarter Balanced 11th grade assessments. The “partnership California has built over the last 10 years to implement the Early Assessment Program has helped to define the national effort to measure college and career readiness in the 11th grade, and it places California in an optimal position to successfully transition to the new system of standards and assessments.”

“Collaborative efforts will help ensure that the tests measure standards that our K-12 and higher education systems all agree address appropriate expectations for the preparation of high school graduates who are ready to succeed…. These assessments align with our commitment to new learning outcomes to ensure our graduates are ready to succeed in an increasingly complex global environment,” the letter notes.

The link between K-12 and higher education starts with teacher preparation, according to Napolitano, White, Harris and Soares. Accordingly, “higher education systems are aligning teacher preparation programs and content with the Common Core standards.”

More information about California’s implementation of Common Core standards can be found at the Common Core State Standards Web page .

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The State Board of Education is the governing and policy-making body for public K-12 education in California. The President of the Board is Michael W. Kirst. Board members are appointed for four-year terms by the Governor of California and are confirmed by the State Senate. For more information, please visit the State Board of Education Web site.

9-4-14 With A Brooklyn Accent: Why Charter School Leaders Are Behind Attacks on Teachers Unions and Public Schools

With A Brooklyn Accent:

Why Charter School Leaders Are Behind Attacks on Teachers Unions and Public Schools

If you ever wonder why famous charter school leaders like Eva Moskowitz or Steve Perry don't just run their schools quietly and let the results speak for themselves and instead devote much of their time attacking teachers, teachers unions and public schools, consider this. When the hiring freeze in NYC public schools was lifted a few months ago, a large number of charter school teachers applied fo

1 by Mark Naison / 2h 

9-3-14 With A Brooklyn Accent:Where Are You From? A Guest Post by Malaya Velasquez Saldana

With A Brooklyn Accent: Where Are You From? A Guest Post by Malaya Velasquez Saldana“Whereare you from?” the ubiquitous question posed to me since I learned to formulate my first English sentence, has overtime accrued the weight of a multitude of implied questions, and exclamations. Now by 22 years old the weight of that question is so heavy with implications, and assumptive self-erasing experienc

by mike simpson / 13h

Restoring The SUPER In Tendent – redqueeninla

Restoring The SUPER In Tendent – redqueeninla:



Restoring The SUPER In Tendent

Written by redqueeninla in LAUSD

 When my home town built a new school in the early ’70′s, a whole era vanished in concert with the disappearance of gilded letters proclaiming the “Superintendent’s Office” within. I never did figure out what a “Superintendent” was and I was always vaguely disappointed that wing, located near the “big kid” 6th graders’ realm and understood as an entity, would forevermore be inaccessible for future deciphering.

Only now does it come to me that ambiguity is and perhaps always has been, an essential component of the concept. The term “Superintendent” incorporates both a job and a person, the embodiment of supremacy. Vaguely menacing and redolent with Authority, I never have received a satisfying explanation of the post. But I could hear in its reference by adults, a bewildering mixture of fear, contempt, disdain and obeisance. It seems the curiosity of the concept remains even today, quite independent of its iconography.

I do not believe I am alone in my confusion about what a “superintendent” is or does. Earlier in his term our Superintendent Deasy, appointed leader of the second largest unified school district in the country, lectured his own school board about their purpose. Delimiting his own nominal bosses’ role as setting policy, he made it abundantly clear that in his view any attempt at scrutiny of operations amounted to “micromanagement”, or encroachment on the turf of superintendency.

This concept of an eclipsing administrative hierarchy induces the same ambivalence then as now. Why do administrators need administering? When there are too many Chiefs and not enough Indians (an idiom decoupled from, and intended with no disrespect for, Native Americans), at some point their service inclines from support, toward service in justification of self.

And therein lies the problem. A big, complicated system does need organizing. But once the organizing is tended to, excess among the managerial tier starts Restoring The SUPER In Tendent – redqueeninla:

REPA III – The Wrong Direction | Live Long and Prosper

REPA III – The Wrong Direction | Live Long and Prosper:

REPA III – The Wrong Direction

Yesterday, by a vote of 7 Ayes to 3 Nays, the Indiana State Board of Education passed REPA III, rules which define the qualifications for public school educators. This version contains the Career Specialist Permit which gives non-educational professionals the right to teach in Indiana high schools.

LOCAL CONTROL

Why did David Frietas, a lifelong educator who has spent much of his professional career working with educators, vote for this. Referring to REPA III he said,

“We give a lot of lip-service to local control of public schools and I see this issue as an opportunity to reinforce and affirm our great school principals, great school board and great superintendents to make that decision for allowing people to have a pathway into the profession,” Freitas said. “But the gatekeepers should not be at the state level. … That is best done by the local school board.”

Does he really believe that or is he being disingenuous? Consider…

Does he believe that testing requirements should be under local control? Does he believe that local school systems should choose what tests to use, how often to administer them and what to do with the results?

Does he believe that curriculum decisions should be under local control? Does he believe that local school systems should choose their own textbooks and standards?

How is REPA III different than any other aspect of public education which is decided at the state level? Why isn’t he pushing to remove state involvement from other areas of public education? Why did he agree to sit on the state board of education where he is part of a group which makes policy decisions “at the state level.” If he is in favor of local control, why did he accept appointment as one of the state level “gatekeepers?”

THE NAYS

Thanks to professional educators Glenda Ritz, Brad Oliver, and Troy REPA III – The Wrong Direction | Live Long and Prosper:

California teacher unions appeal ruling on job protections - LA Times

California teacher unions appeal ruling on job protections - LA Times:



California teacher unions appeal ruling on job protections

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, criticized a court ruling limiting job protections, but also wants teachers to consider common-sense changes. (John Hanna / AP)

By HOWARD BLUMEcontact the reporter

California's two largest teacher unions have appealed a court ruling that struck down key job protections for their members.



The action, which had been expected, was announced Wednesday by the California Teachers Assn. and the California Federation of Teachers.



The unions hope to reverse a decision by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu that threw out the state’s tenure process for grade school teachers. It also stripped instructors of rules that made dismissing them more difficult and expensive than firing other state employees.



The ruling also eliminated regulations that made seniority the primary factor in deciding which teachers to lay off.



Treu didn’t ban the job protections in all forms, but absent a successful appeal, his ruling would leave teachers without them pending action in the state Legislature.



The litigation was pursued by Students Matter, a Silicon Valley group founded by tech entrepreneur Dave Welch and also supported by other philanthropists active in education policy.



 CTA president Dean E. Vogel challenged the expertise and the motives of those bringing the suit.



“Instead of focusing on the real issues facing our schools, they have chosen to ignore those actual problems and instead to scapegoat teachers,” Vogel said. “Fortunately, the evidence in this case is so strong that we are confident of our case on appeal.”



The other side, however, predicted a California teacher unions appeal ruling on job protections - LA Times:

Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: William Mathis on "Economics, Education and Sitting Bull"

Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: William Mathis on "Economics, Education and Sitting Bull":

William Mathis on "Economics, Education and Sitting Bull"

"William Mathis is Managing Director of the National Education Policy Center, a former school superintendent and member of the Vermont state board of education. In this essay, his opinions and analysis reflect something remarkable about the culture and politics of the State of Vermont. At root, he also asks questions about the nation’s economic policy, equality, and the very purpose of universal public education. ​

“Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.” ~Sitting Bull

Facing the extinction of Sioux culture, Sitting Bull realized that their hope – their only hope – was in the life they made for their children. Confronted by this reality, he saw that education was something far more than the narrow teaching of a set of test-based, academic skills. Education must impart the knowledge of the ways of the society, of fruitful interactions, of sustaining and nurturing cultural beliefs and rituals, of language and of the economic order, if you will, of a group of independent but related nomadic tribes. (And when the Anglo forces won, they established Indian schools to stamp out this culture).

The existence of any society demands the adoption and embracing of a common set of beliefs, mores, laws and rules. Yet, in a world where vision often reaches no further than the length of an arm holding an electronic screen, such unifying concepts appear as alien and archaic as a buffalo hunt. In times of great fragmentation, in a world which has such massive destructive power, and where hostile forces can easily reach around the globe, the need for national and international cooperation for the common good becomes even more vital.

In a different age with different challenges, our founders understood this necessity. Vermont’s Constitution says that schools must be maintained for the “encouragement of virtue and the prevention of vice.” In the language of the day, virtue meant civic virtue, the building and strengthening of society. Vice was actions that subtracted from the good of all. This resonating and grander purpose of education overshadows the anemic ranking of test scores that obsessively dominates the attention of contemporary reformers. Such simplification also appeals to a media whose own existence is, ironically, reduced to the race for quantifiable rankings, substituting the easily measurable for the important.

The weak narrative of numbers is echoed by U. S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan:

The fact is that we are falling further behind our international competitors educationally. In the U.S., we are still just talking about the steps many leading countries are actually taking to prepare their students for a competitive global economy. FallinGene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: William Mathis on "Economics, Education and Sitting Bull":

Opening The Door To the Space In-Between by EDWARD BERGER

Opening The Door To the Space In-Between:

Opening The Door To the Space In-Between

by EDWARDBERGER on SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

There are questions we don’t ask because…? Maybe we never thought about the possibilities and couldn’t form the question. Or, maybe we thought about the possibilities and decided that what we imagined couldn’t happen – even if the changes wrought would make a significant contribution.

This is a true story, my story as a young educator who explored that space between Thinking About The Possibilities, and pushing ahead against the place where, It Can Never Happen. The in-between place is where a searcher can go and create something with the potential to wake petrified systems.

I knew the danger of opening the door to the space in-between. I knew how the system that would bear the brunt of my research and reject it, worked. I knew that what I imagined was not acceptable to a whole mindset, a whole self-perpetuating system that would have to change and evolve in ways that created chaos within accepted dogmas. But I could not ignore what I had discovered as I opened my mind to new ways of looking at the things I did as an educator.

Actually, I discovered two bombs that would threaten the way things were done across the nation and increasingly across the planet. The first was not a new discovery. It served as an example of how systems reject information that does not perpetuate what seems to be working. John Dewey described necessary changes to the way we educate. Essentially, he clarified experience and education; how learning units must have a real and practical application. He showed us that lessons at every level had to end with a contribution to oneself and to society. Everyone who is a learner agrees with Dewey. But, his teachings do not penetrate to the base levels of our schools. His message stops where it conflicts with the way we organize and run our institutions. There are Opening The Door To the Space In-Between:

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9-4-14 Schools Matter - 69 Hoops and No Appeal: Teacher Observation--Memphis Style

Schools Matter:

Mother Jones Story on Gates Core

A clip from a big story in Mother Jones.  How to Spend $200 million to buy what you want:

2 by Jim Horn / 42min 

U.S. Teachers Need to Stand with Teachers in Canada

Haven't seen much info on the ongoing teacher strike in British Columbia on the evening news or even education blogs but it's happening.Vancouver teachersTeachers chose to go on strike and only teachers can end the job action, Premier Christy Clark said Wednesday in her first recent public comments about the strike.Clark was pressed by reporters on how long her government would allow the strike to

by freetoteach / 24min hide  //  save

Ravitch Warms to Tuckerism: Can Randi Be Far Ahead?

I posted the other day on the new (old) Tuckerism that Joe Nocera was promoting (again) in the New York Times.  Obviously, Tucker's THL (Testing Hysteria Lite) has resonated with the neolibs as a way to stave off the revolution against testing, while preserving its worst features and maintaining the attack on collective bargaining and due process.  Here is a key Tucker conclusion tucked into his r

3 by Jim Horn / 4h 

69 Hoops and No Appeal: Teacher Observation--Memphis Style

Point one that has to be remembered: half of Tennessee teacher evaluations are based on invalid, unreliable, and unfair test scores.  The other half is based on observations. Teachers who worked for months on a new observation process last year were eventually dismissed when they disagreed with the two most outrageous aspects of CorpEd's recipe for disaster: 1) an observation checklist with 69 ite

2 by Jim Horn / 43min 

9-3-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: Kevin Carey, Logically AdriftKevin Carey and the billionaire patrons of CorpEd who pay him to record his thought disorders in the New York Times are moving on from K-12 to more fertile education grounds to make money and to impose their idiocy.  Watch out, higher ed. With more and more young adults graduating from college with fewer good jobs available to them and the next generati

by mike simpson / 13h 

9/3/2014 – The Education Conversation ‘Reformers’ Want Versus The One They Get:

9/3/2014 – The Education Conversation ‘Reformers’ Want Versus The One They Get

September 3, 2014 Subscribe

THIS WEEK: Hating Teachers … Grit Not So Good … Music Lessons Help Disadvantaged Kids … Never-Ending Testing … Fox News Lauds Arming Teachers

TOP STORY

The Education Conversation ‘Reformers’ Want Versus The One They Get

By Jeff Bryant

“Recent calls for more “civility” in discussions about education and for taking ‘the politics’ and ‘partisanship’ out of policy debates are suddenly all the rage among the edu-policy crowd gravitating around Washington, D.C. There are reasons why Beltway-inspired education wonks are calling out the tone police – but it’s got very little to do with honesty and ‘facts.’ Instead, read a little more deeply into these calls for taking ‘the politics’ out of the debate, and what you find is itself a rather political agenda.”
Read more …

NEWS AND VIEWS

Why Do Americans Love To Blame Teachers?

The Atlantic

In reviewing Dana Goldstein’s new book The Teacher Wars, Noah Berlatsky writes, “Discussions of education in the U.S. have repeatedly been framed in terms of moral panics. A moral panic, she says, occurs when ‘policymakers and the media focus on a single class of people … as emblems of a large, complex social problem’ … That helps to explain the otherwise mystifying path that current school reform has taken … The dream… seems to be that if only our schools could get rid of the career educators and install angels instead, the millennium would arrive … Our education system has many problems, but one of the biggest is that we define those problems in terms of ‘teacher wars’ – and then try to solve them through a war on teachers.”
Read more …

‘Grit’ May Not Spur Creative Success, Scholars Say

Education Week

“Studies … have found that a person’s ‘grit’ – a measure of conscientiousness and perseverance – could predict everything from graduation rates at West Point to National Spelling Bee champions. Those findings have sparked intense interest among educators in nurturing student motivation … Two separate analyses … found that neither grit nor two related characteristics of consistency and perseverance predicted a student’s success in various types of creative endeavors, including visual and performing art, writing, scientific ingenuity, or even creativeness in everyday problem-solving … A student’s openness to new experiences was most closely associated with his or her likelihood of accomplishing creative works.”
Read more …

Music Lessons Enhance Brain Function in Disadvantaged Kids

Pacific Standard

“New research finds one important aspect of neural functioning is gradually strengthened when underprivileged children engage in a challenging but fun activity: Music lessons … ‘Community music programs can literally remodel children’s brains in a way that improves sound processing, which could lead to better learning and language skills,’ reports lead author Nina Kraus … Researchers found this particular benefit of music education doesn’t kick in until after two full years of training. A few lessons won’t do it … It all adds to the mass of evidence … that music training impacts young brains in ways that go far beyond aesthetic appreciation.”
Read more …

In Miami-Dade Schools, Testing Doesn’t End

Miami Herald

In the nation’s 5th largest school district, “Out of the 180-day academic year, Miami-Dade County schools will administer standardized tests on every day but eight. Though not every student will take every test, the number and consequences of testing are facing a growing backlash from parents, teachers and even some district officials … Bound by state and federal rules, Dade officials say they have little control over how many tests they have to give, and when they have to give them … In Florida, standardized test scores can mean the difference between a student’s passing or failing a grade. For teachers, student test results can lead to a raise or a pink slip. Schools can face closure if students consistently under-perform.”
Read more …

As Children Go Back To School, Fox News Hosts Push Discredited Plan To Arm Teachers

MediaMatters

“The hosts of Fox & Friends roundly endorsed a Texas school district that allows teachers to carry guns, even though security experts reject the idea of armed teachers and civilians with concealed guns have not stopped past mass shooting incidents … There is no evidence that teachers carrying guns will prevent future school shooting incidents … Mass shootings at schools have even occurred where schools have armed guards … Programs that arm teachers are opposed by the National Education Association … School safety expert Bill Bond, who works for the National Association of Secondary School Principals, has also noted that the responsibility of carrying a gun would distract teachers from their prerogative to educate students.”
Read more …