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Saturday, February 7, 2015

School Superintendents! Stop harassing parents for opting their children out of the Common Core SBAC Test | EduBloggers

School Superintendents! Stop harassing parents for opting their children out of the Common Core SBAC Test | EduBloggers:




School Superintendents! Stop harassing parents for opting their children out of the Common Core SBAC Test

 / 2 days ago

Jonathan Pelto is an education blogger and founder and manager of the Education Bloggers Network.  HIs blog, What, What? can be found at: http://jonathanpelto.com/
School Superintendents! Stop harassing parents for opting their children out of the Common Core SBAC Test
With the Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Testing beginning in less than a month, more and more parents are informing their local school districts that they have decided that their children will not be taking the unfair, discriminatory and inappropriate Common Core SBAC tests this year.
Parents who understand the issues associated with the Common Core SBAC Testing Scam are opting their children out.
Despite repeated posts here at Wait, What? and the work of a number of state-wide efforts to inform state and local officials that they must respect a parent’s fundamental right to opt their children out of the Common Core SBAC Test, a significant number of local school superintendents, and their staff, continue to mislead parents, throw up barriers or harass parents into believing that they have lost their right to protect their children from an unfair test that is rigged to ensure that as many as 7 in 10 children fail.
So once again, let us be clear!
  • There is no federal or state law, regulation or policy that prohibits a parent or guardian from opting their children out of these inappropriate, unfair and discriminatory tests.
  • There is no federal or state law, regulation or policy that allows the government or local school districts to punish parents or their children if the parent refuses to allow their child or children to participate in the Common Core SBAC testing scam.
Not only is there no law, regulation or policy that prohibits parents from opting their children out of the Common Core 

Jonathan Pelto

About


The Education Bloggers Network is an informal confederation of more than 200 education reporters, advocacy journalists, investigative bloggers, and commentators.  Members of the Education Bloggers Network are dedicated to providing parents, teachers, public education advocates and the public with the truth about public education in the United States and the efforts of the corporate education reform industry.
Many members of the Education Bloggers Network have their own blogs, some write news analysis and commentary pieces for local, regional and national newspapers and media outlets.  Still others use their Facebook or other social media platforms to write about public education issues.
Like the Committees of Correspondence leading up to America’s War for Independence, education bloggers work alone, in groups and has a broader force to educate, persuade and mobilize parents, teachers, education advocates and citizens to stand up and speak out about the critical issues facing public education today.
The Education Bloggers Network was developed in conjunction with the publication and roll-out of Diane Ravitch’s best-selling book on education reform entitled, “Reign of Error.”
Today, the Education Bloggers Network is a vibrant community working to share information and provide accurate, reliable and timely information about public education issues at the local, state and federal level.
The Education Bloggers Network works closely with the nationally renowned Progressive Magazine and a number of Network members have their articles and commentary pieces cross-posted to Public School Shakedown a website hosted by the Progressive.
The Education Bloggers Network also works closely with the Network for Public Education, the nation’s leading public education advocacy group, founded my Diane Ravitch and other pro-public education leaders.  The NPE’s mission is to “protect, preserve, promote, and strengthen public schools and the education of current and future generations of students.”
In addition, a number of leading voices in public education host platforms that provide readers with access to articles and blogs written by a variety of different education writers.  These platforms include websites such as Diane Ravitch’s blog, Network for Public Education, Living in Dialogue, the BAT blog, K12News Network, Big Education Ape, and the list goes on.
As Diane Ravitch noted in a post about the Education Bloggers Network, “If you blog and if you support public education as a pillar of our democracy, consider joining the Education Bloggers Network.”
To become part of the Education Bloggers Network contact Jonathan Pelto, founder and manager of the Network atjonpelto@gmail.com



Lloyd LofthouseARNE DUNCAN / BILL GATES / CORPORATE EDUCATION REFORM INDUSTRY / CUOMO / DAVID COLEMAN / ELI BROAD / EVA MOSKOWITZ / JEB BUSH /MICHELLE RHEE / THE KOCH BROTHERS / THE WALTONS

The Top-10 Most Unwanted List—the Enemies of Public Education

From author, educator and education blogger Lloyd Lofthouse.  His writing can be found at: http://crazynormaltheclassroomexpose.com/ The Top-10 Most Unwanted List—the Enemies of Public Education This list reveals the most dangerous enemies of public education and how they earned their spot in infamy. To discover why they landed on this list, click the links included with each name…
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Let’s Meet up in Boston @CamForum to Discuss The Health of Democracy and Privatizing Education | Cloaking Inequity

Let’s Meet up in Boston @CamForum to Discuss The Health of Democracy and Privatizing Education | Cloaking Inequity:



Let’s Meet up in Boston @CamForum to Discuss The Health of Democracy and Privatizing Education

Screen Shot 2015-02-07 at 7.18.44 AM
From Cambridge Forum:
“The Massachusetts School Law of 1642 laid out the rationale for public education: “Forasmuch as the good education of children is of singular behoof and benefit to any Common-wealth.” How do contemporary efforts to privatize public education square with the civic role that education has played in American democracy? Internationally recognized leader in education policy Julian Vasquez Heilig examines the variety of ways in which public education is being privatized in the name of “reform” and suggests ways for citizens to respond that both improve educational experience and strengthen the societal and civic role that education plays.cambridgeforum-200x200
Cambridge Forum programs are held in the historic First Parish (Unitarian Universalist) at 3 Church Street (Harvard Square), in Cambridge. The format includes a relatively brief introductory statement (20 minutes) from the speaker, with a 10 minute response, followed by a moderated discussion with our live audience that would last approximately 60 minutes. Cambridge Forum is also inviting a teacher with experience in a broad range of Boston-area schools to serve as respondent and moderator.privatization
This forum is part of Cambridge Forum’s 2015 series on “The Health of Democracy.” During the winter, our programs will focus on the relationship between a healthy democracy and a robust social contract, with particular speakers examining the role that social immobility, wealthy inequality, privatization, polarization, the corporate media, and disenfranchisement play in our society today. After the speaker has described the threat posed by each of these factors, moderators will discuss ways that citizens can take action to respond to these challenges.cfonion
Questions that were key in conceptualizing this forum include: How do contemporary efforts to privatize public education square with the civic role that education has played in American democracy? What are the various ways in which public education is being privatized in the name of “reform”? How can citizens respond with efforts that both improve the educational experience and strengthen the societal and civic role that education plays?
In fall of 2014, Cambridge Forum began its 48th year of presenting free, public lectures with guest speakers in Harvard Square. Featuring prominent scholars, writers, scientists and artists, Cambridge Forum is dedicated to presenting ideas and topics of public interest and concern from a variety of fields and points of view. Our roster of speakers has included Buckminster Fuller, Kevin Phillips, Lani Guinier, Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, Lester Brown, Naomi Klein, Howard Gardner, Jonathan Kozol, Lawrence Lessig, Garrison Keillor, Marian Wright Edelman, Let’s Meet up in Boston @CamForum to Discuss The Health of Democracy and Privatizing Education | Cloaking Inequity:
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The secret behind those ‘Highly Performing’ charter schools | Politics Uncuffed by Julie Erfle

The secret behind those ‘Highly Performing’ charter schools | Politics Uncuffed by Julie Erfle:



The secret behind those ‘Highly Performing’ charter schools




Feb 4th, 2015 | By  | Category: education, Featured Articles, Main Article

school crossing signLet me start by making a confession. My oldest son attends a BASIS school. BASIS schools are some of those “highly performing charters” that reformers love to use an example of everything that’s right with charter schools, while traditional school advocates use as an example of everything that’s wrong. I suspect the majority of folks who pan or extol the virtues of BASIS schools have never had a child attend one, so let me give you an insider’s look.
I pulled my oldest son from a traditional public school and enrolled him in BASIS when he was in sixth grade. His former school wasn’t a bad school. I liked his teachers. I spent a lot of time getting to know the administration.
But my son wasn’t thriving at his school. He received A’s in his honors classes but C’s and D’s in his regular classes. He was distracted in class and became increasingly disruptive (which is how I came to know the school’s administration).
He needed a change. He needed to be challenged.
I went to Parent Night at BASIS and was blown away by what I heard. An Arizona school ranked as one of the top high schools in the nation? In Arizona?? Teachers with degrees from Harvard and Yale and Stanford, with PhD’s and real-world experience. A curriculum that entails AP coursework as early as 7th grade, and the ability to finish high school with every AP class completed by 11th grade. Wow. What’s not to love?
My oldest son wasn’t happy with my decision to move him. He promised me he’d never, ever, ever like the school. But within a couple months, he was back to his old self, thriving both academically and socially.
It was the right decision, and I don’t regret it. But, like all good stories, there’s more to this than meets the eye.
Governor Ducey wants to “fund the wait lists” at schools such as BASIS. He’s fond of using the school as the poster child for reform. But those wait lists are a mirage.
It’s true that hundreds of students are turned away from BASIS and other top-rated charter schools in 5th and 6thgrade. But it’s also true that the turnover rate at these charter schools is astronomical, with hundreds of students opting out of the schools after a short period of time, and schools graduating as few as 20-30 students.
Many of the critics will say it’s because BASIS filters out undesirable students, such as those with learning or attention differences, while keeping the “cream of the crop.” And they’re correct.
The curriculum at BASIS isn’t advanced. It’s highly advanced, as in 2 or 3 years ahead of most schools, similar to the curriculum for highly gifted students. Remember when I said AP classes start in 7th grade? That’s not normal. And it’s not something that just any student can handle.
Starting in 6th grade, students take midterms and finals, and the final is a significant portion of the student’s overall class grade. It’s high-stakes testing at its highest. If a student fails even one class (with a small exception for some math classes), that student must retake the entire grade.
The vast majority of students, when faced with retaking an entire grade or moving on to a different school, will move on. So will the vast majority of students who struggle with such an advanced load and who find themselves spending 4-5 hours on homework every night. And the same with many students who are involved in extracurricular activities such as club sports, which requires time for evening practices and weekend tournaments.
This is why BASIS schools start out with hundreds of students and long waiting lists in 5th and 6th grade but end The secret behind those ‘Highly Performing’ charter schools | Politics Uncuffed by Julie Erfle:
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Privatizing the Public (On Steroids) | educarenow

Privatizing the Public (On Steroids) | educarenow:



Privatizing the Public (On Steroids)

Posted on February 7, 2015 | Leave a comment
In one of the scariest articles on education ever written, “States Weigh Turning Education Funds Over to Parents,” you will find that many states are creating policy that will allow parents to create “Educational Savings Accounts,” paid for by funds that were previously used to cover public education, that will give them“the freedom to design a custom education for their children — at taxpayer expense.”
It’s the ultimate in privatizing the public.
Whats-on-Americans-minds-Increasingly-me-UD1RA9SQ-x-large
I shouldn’t be surprised.  My own governor of the state of Michigan once developed a secret plan for the same idea.  And that was 2 years ago. Of course, when exposed it disappeared, only to surface again in a different form.  I guess I just hoped that such stupidity would be so abundantly obvious that no one else would ever attempt the same.
I was wrong.
So, to say the least, this idea is a threat to our most basic form of democracy, your local school district.
But then again, local democracy has also been disappearing for years.
And what has been the narrative that has allowed for such ideas?
The notion that our public schools are failing.
The article succinctly essentializes this point of view in quoting Tennessee’s state representative John DeBerry Jr.:
“Tennessee state Rep. John DeBerry Jr., a Democrat, couldn’t agree more: ‘We created public education. It didn’t fall from the sky. It wasn’t divinely given to us. We created it, so we can reform it,’ he said. ‘If the status quo  isn’t working, it needs to be changed.'”
Unfortunately for John DeBerry, the status quo he’s referring to, the common good of public schools and the traditional idea of local democracy, has been Privatizing the Public (On Steroids) | educarenow:
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With A Brooklyn Accent: Time to Chuck the Small Schools Movement- A Commentary by Bronx Teacher Aixa Rodriguez

With A Brooklyn Accent: Time to Chuck the Small Schools Movement- A Commentary by Bronx Teacher Aixa Rodriguez:



Time to Chuck the Small Schools Movement- A Commentary by Bronx Teacher Aixa Rodriguez



#WeneedaRestorationMvt: Time to Chuck the Small Schools Movement

By Aixa B. Rodriguez

The small schools movement in NYCDOE high schools has got to go. It has run its course and enough students have been experimented on, enough veteran teachers have been pushed out via institutional ageism and the UFT high school divisions have been broken. It is time for this lie to end. We need a restoration movement. These boutique schools based on half-baked themes, were really “charter lite” and allowed for many a despotic principal to burn their small faculty out. I could go on and on on about how these “small” schools have impacted the teaching profession, but I first, let us focus on what this 99cents bargain store attempt at education reform has done to the students of the Bronx. They have suffered under the lie of “school choice” and endured a narrowed curriculum, less services and supports, less electives and less variety of sports and after school extra-curricular activities. The very existence of small schools has impacted the remaining large comprehensive schools and the education of those students in those schools.

The students at the small schools have been sold the illusion of “choice”. Once committed to one of the many schools that have all types of colors, logos, themes, designs, uniforms etc., it becomes painfully evident that your choices end there. Hoodwinked and bamboozled: the kids soon learn they were sold an idea in a glossy brochure that was not fully developed.  Students are subject to taking courses based on what the school offers, and if your schedule permits it. Small schools do not have the funding to have a variety of languages, electives, or even levels of classes. Small schools do not have the ability to have flexibility in which teacher a student can choose to learn from. Have a personality conflict? Too bad, you won’t have options to choose from. Small schools most often don’t have “departments” larger than four teachers and they are usually committed to one grade. If you have an IEP that is an entire other set of problems, because you will be limited to the classes that fit your needs, ICT and SETTS, your therapies etc. It complicates your schedule, and you might find yourself having to take SETTS during lunch, or come to gym 0 period. Not exactly an attractive choice for a teen with a commute since local schools have died the slow death. No choice in classes. No choice in teachers. No wonder credit accumulation is a problem for many of these vulnerable students.

Let’s face it small schools do not, and will never have the supports that a large comprehensive school does. Even at year 4, small schools will not have the arts, music and drama faculty, With A Brooklyn Accent: Time to Chuck the Small Schools Movement- A Commentary by Bronx Teacher Aixa Rodriguez:
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In Defense of Annual School Testing - NYTimes.com

In Defense of Annual School Testing - NYTimes.com:



In Defense of Annual School Testing


Parents Can Opt Out United Opt Out National

Click Here to go to United Opt Out National: 



Click Here to go to the Website- United Opt Out Team

WASHINGTON — DURING a recent hearing by the Senate Education Committee, its Republican chair, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, questioned whether the federal government’s annual standardized testing requirement, embodied in the No Child Left Behind law of 2001, may be too much. He pointed out that students now spend 1 to 3 percent of their school year taking federal, state and local tests in reading and math.
The concerns about standardized tests are bipartisan. Last fall former President Bill Clinton said, “I think doing one in elementary school, one in the end of middle school and one before the end of high school is quite enough.” This was the policy his administration championed in the law that predated No Child Left Behind. And recently teachers’ unions and the liberal Center for American Progress backed this type of “grade-span” approach for school accountability purposes.
The idea of less testing with the same benefits is alluring. Yet in practice it would actually roll back progress for America’s students.
Yes, test quality must be better than it is today. And, yes, teachers and parents have a right to be alarmed when unnecessary tests designed only for school benchmarking or teacher evaluations cut into instructional time. But annual testing has tremendous value. It lets schools follow students’ progress closely, and it allows for measurement of how much students learn and grow over time, not just where they are in a single moment.
It also allows for a much more nuanced look at student performance. For example, rather than simply looking at average overall school performance, where high performers frequently mask what’s happening to low achievers, No Child Left Behind focuses attention on the progress that groups of students are making within schools — a level of analysis that is possible only with annual data. To be confident that the test results aren’t pulled up or down by a few students and to minimize year-to-year variability, states usually consider only groups of at least 30 or 40 students. States are also able to average results over multiple years or across grades.
So, for instance, a school with 10 Hispanic students in each of grades three, four, five and six adds up to a group of 40, providing some accountability for what is happening to those students.
The grade-span approach would eviscerate the ability to look at particular groups of students within schools. Instead of having multiple grades over which schools could compile results, each school would be held responsible only for the performance of students in a single grade. Not only would this lower the quality of the data, but it would also raise the stakes of the tests: If you think the stakes are too high now, imagine being a fifth grader in a school where your score determines the results of the entire school.
Worst of all, under this approach, far fewer schools would be on the hook for paying attention to historically disadvantaged groups of students. A school with 10 Hispanic students in each grade would no longer be held accountable for whether those students were making sufficient progress, because the 10 fifth graders wouldn’t be enough to count as a meaningful population size.
To get a sense of how many students could become newly “invisible,” consider public elementary schools in Washington, D.C. Applying the same minimum group size currently used for entire schools to the fifth grade only, about half of the city’s 119 elementary schools with fifth graders taking math tests would not be held accountable for the progress of low-income or African-American students, because there aren’t enough of them in that grade to constitute a reliable sample size. For that same reason, less than 10 percent of schools would be responsible for Hispanic students or English language learners, and not a single elementary school would be accountable In Defense of Annual School Testing - NYTimes.com:
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Education is the business of the states - The Washington Post

Education is the business of the states - The Washington Post:



Education is the business of the states

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. listens to testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015, during the committee's hearing looking at ways to fix the No Child Left Behind law. (Susan Walsh/AP)
George F. Will
By George F. Will Opinion writer February 6 at 8:20 PM 
In 1981, Tennessee’s 41-year-old governor proposed to President Ronald Reagan a swap: Washington would fully fund Medicaid, and the states would have complete responsibility for primary and secondary education. Reagan, a former governor, was receptive. But Democrats, who controlled the House and were beginning to be controlled by teachers unions (the largest, the National Education Association, had bartered its first presidential endorsement, of Jimmy Carter, for creation of the Education Department) balked.
In 1992, the former Tennessee governor was President George H.W. Bush’s education secretary. He urged Bush to veto proposed legislation to expand federal involvement in K-12 education. He said it would create “at least the beginnings of a national school board that could make day-to-day school decisions on curriculum, discipline, teacher training, textbooks and classroom materials.” The veto threat derailed Education is the business of the states - The Washington Post:


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Friday, February 6, 2015

Peg with Pen: My response to John Merrow

Peg with Pen: My response to John Merrow:



My response to John Merrow

I do hope you will respond as well. See his latest post here: What a Difference a Dash Makes! 
Big Education Ape: “Pro-Test” or “Protest”? What A Difference A Dash Makes! | Taking Note http://bit.ly/16PkB1X

Well John, as you know, the numbers are much greater than a few hundred. New York had easily 60,000 refuse the test last year and this fall in Colorado we had 5,000 refuse the senior CMAS test. On our general FB group page for United Opt Out we have been adding hundreds a week. On the Indiana page they added 1,000 this past week.
I appreciate your comment about a democratic society – because that is what we, the opt out movement, are attempting to preserve. There will not be a free and democratic society if the privatization of public schools continues, using high stakes tests, which promote fear-based school environments – an environment which teaches solely to the test and is completely void of practices which create a democratic school or classroom.
At my school, we have testing all year (DRA2, MAPS, CMAS, PARCC, BAS, ACCESS, PALS. TSGOLD). I believe I’ve had perhaps two weeks this year in which I wasn’t somehow involved in administering a high stakes test and/or had my schedule interrupted due to a high stakes test. I have refused to administer the PARCC, but of course there will be someone to take my place. In addition we’ve been instructed to have daily PARCC practice. And we are desperately trying to stay true to the goals of a democratic , inquiry-based public school – can you imagine how exhausting it becomes to try to do the right thing, when everyone is asking you to implement curriculum and tests that truly amount to educational malpractice?
We know how to assess. We’re teachers . We have portfolios, report cards and we actually talk to parents. And if everyone is so terribly concerned about how we are doing we also have the NAEP. All of this testing is a distraction from the true issues that plague our public schools – poverty. And of course the learning is most narrow in our high poverty schools where these mandates are used to shut down our schools. I work in a so-called “failing” school (we prefer the term abandoned school). Our children are smart and creative and there are over 40 languages represented in our school . But our children are also hungry. We attempt to fill 180 food bags weekly in the midst of all this madness of teaching to the test and testing which takes us away from the inquiry-based learning that creates engaged, problem-solving students .
So – how big is the movement? It’s big and it’s picking up speed fast. The only way I can quantify it for you is to state that I help parents opt out before work, on my way home from work, and each evening. United Opt out has approximately 70 opt out leaders who support parents in their respective states. In addition, if you ever visit our FB group page you will see immense numbers of comments, questions, and support offered as parents find out how to refuse the tests. Another facet of opt out that is most frightening to the reformers who wish to privatize our public schools is this – when a parent becomes educated around the issues of high stakes testing they find their voice and they become an advocate for public schools and for their children. It’s empowering, and it is grassroots organizing at its best. We build relationships while the reformers continue to tear them down as they destroy public school communities and create policies which fail children and fire teachers. We’ll keep fighting back and we’ll keep growing in numbers – there is something to be said for speaking with truth and heart, John. I watch those who make policy and Peg with Pen: My response to John Merrow:
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A Brief Audit of Bill Gates’ Common Core Spending | deutsch29

A Brief Audit of Bill Gates’ Common Core Spending | deutsch29:



A Brief Audit of Bill Gates’ Common Core Spending




 This is a post about Bill Gates and his money, a brief audit of his Common Core (CCSS) purchases. Before I delve into Gates accounting, allow me to set the stage with a bit of CCSS background.

A Bit of CCSS Background
It is important to those promoting CCSS that the public believes the idea that CCSS is “state-led.” The CCSS website reports as much and names two organizations as “coordinating” the “state-led” CCSS: The National Governors Association (NGA), and the Council for Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). Interestingly, the CCSS website makes no mention of CCSS “architect” David Coleman:
The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).  The standards were developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and experts, to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare our children for college and the workforce.[Emphasis added.]
Nevertheless, if one reviews this 2009 NGA news release on those principally involved in CCSS development, one views a listing of 29 individuals associated with Student Achievement Partners, ACT, College Board, and Achieve. In truth, only 2 out of 29 members are not affiliated with an education company.
CCSS as “state-led” is fiction. Though NGA reports 29 individuals as involved with CCSS creation, it looks to be even fewer:
NGA first directly involved governors in nationalizing education standards in June 2008, when it co-hosted an education forum with the Hunt Institute, a project of former North Carolina Gov. James Hunt Jr. In December 2008, NGA, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and Achieve Inc. released a report calling for national standards. The report recommended “a strong state-federal partnership” to accomplish this goal.
Those three nonprofits answered their own call the next few months, deciding to commission Common Core. NGA and Hunt’s press releases during that time, and a paper describing NGA’s Common Core process by former NGA education director Dane Linn, provide no endorsement of such activity from more than a handful of elected officials. [Emphasis added.]
Also involved in creation of CCSS is Student Achievement Partners, the company David Coleman started in 2007 in order produce national standards. Student Achievement Partners has no work other than CCSS.
Now to Bill Gates and his money.
Gates Buys NGA, CCSSO, Achieve, and Student Achievement Partners
The four principal organizations associated with CCSS– NGA, CCSSO, Achieve, and Student Achievement Partners– have accepted millions from Bill Gates. In fact, prior to CCSS “completion” in June 2009, Gates had paid millions to NGA, CCSSO, and Achieve. And the millions continued to flow following CCSS completion.
Prior to June 2009, NGA received $23.6 million from the Gates Foundation from 2002 through 2008. $19.7 million was for the highly-disruptive “high school redesign” (i.e.,“small schools”) project, one that Gates abandoned.
After June 2009, NGA received an additional $2.1 million from Gates, the largest payout coming in February 2011,
…to work with state policymakers on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, with special attention to effective resource reallocation to ensure A Brief Audit of Bill Gates’ Common Core Spending | deutsch29:













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On Tulsa’s New Superintendent | Oklahoma Observer

On Tulsa’s New Superintendent | Oklahoma Observer:



ON TULSA’S NEW SUPERINTENDENT

0 COMMENT

 06 FEB 2015   POSTED BY AHAMILTON



BY JOHN THOMPSON
I live 90 miles from Tulsa. While I take a keen interest in Oklahoma school reform issues, I do not want to intrude into Tulsa Public Schools [TPS] business. Given all of the other recent progress by Oklahomans in moving beyond the scorched earth edu-politics of recent years, I was dismayed that the TPS would hire a Chief for Change, Deborah Gist, at a time when Oklahoma’s former Chief for Change, Janet Barresi, was leaving office. It will be up to Tulsans to determine their own school policies. So, I will merely offer some facts regarding the issues that patrons might want to consider.
When it was announced that Gist was the only remaining candidate in a closed-door process of selecting a new superintendent, it was claimed that the nationally respected NAEP data showed that Rhode Island schools had improved more under Gist than the national average. Moreover, it was implied that student performance growth for low-income children of color was greater in Rhode Island during Gist years.
These sorts of statements are known as “Mis-Naepery,” or the misuse of NAEP data.
Since Tulsa is an 80% low-income district, the key question is whether Gist addressed her state’s racial and economic achievement gaps. [After all, when claims of major gains in student performance are announced, usually they are found to be a result of economic and demographic shifts, so social scientists look at long-term patterns broken down by race and income.]
Even one of Gist’s closest allies, RI-Can, complained that 2013 NAEP data showed, “Most gaps between white and non-white and low-income and non-low-income remain unchanged or in some cases, have grown.” For instance, between 2011 and 2013, the gap separating reading proficiency between white and black 4th graders increased by 50%. They also cited, “The fourth-grade reading gap between low-income and non low-income students [which] grew from 29 points in 2011 to 36 points in 2013.”
The proper use of test score data for addressing that issue was analyzed in the most recent NAEP reports about 8th grade reading scores for black students: “This performance gap was not significantly different from that in 1998.” Placing 4th grade reading scores for black students in context, NAEP concluded: “This performance gap was not significantly different from that in 1992.” Placing 8th grade math scores for black students in context: “This performance gap was not significantly different from that in 1990.”
I could go on with these disappointing results, but the pattern is clear. There is no evidence that the expensive and divisive “reforms” implemented by Gist improved student performance. And claims On Tulsa’s New Superintendent | Oklahoma Observer:
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LAUSD spends like Billionaires while being a Tyrant about Teacher's Salaries

LAUSD spends like Billionaires while being a Tyrant about Teacher's Salaries:



Smart Voter

LAUSD spends like Billionaires while being a Tyrant about Teacher's Salaries

By Lydia A. Gutiérrez

Candidate for Board Member; Los Angeles Unified School District; District 7
 
This information is provided by the candidate
Cutting corners at the expense of our children's education; while, spending lavishly on ill thoughtout projects: MiSiS and iPad
Los Angeles: When charges were filled against LAUSD for not enforcing policy in protecting children from sexual predators, i.e. Mark Berndt, LAUSD School Board decided to hire 2 law firms, Sedgwick and Andrade, at $350 to $460 an hour, spending over $7 million dollars and still counting, to litigate the Miramonte Elementary School Case. LAUSD ignored its own lawyers, who bill at $150 to $175 an hour, and have had the experience of litigating cases like this.Sedgwick and Andrade law firms have spent much of their time creating roadblocks in providing evidence of Mark Berndt's misdeeds for over the last 30 years. When LAUSD Superintendent Deasy, said with all supposed sincerity that LAUSD would provide all documentation for this case to be resolved so the children involved would not have to endure this tragedy was not accurate. Lydia Gutierrez remarked, "It is painful enough knowing what these children have had to endure, while LAUSD Administration ignored all the warning signs, that LAUSD would prolong the disclosure of information that would help expedite this case for these children. The LAUSD School Board should have been at the forefront in assuring this, but are MIA (Missing In Action)."

LAUSD has given every excuse possible for why they are not able to pay standard wages for LAUSD public school teachers. And yet, the LAUSD School Board has been able to find funding for a billion dollar high school, Belmont Learning Center, about half a billion for a failed Payroll System, and now a billion for funding iPads, that Superintendent Deasy is being questioned for favoritism in purchases, while the school structures are in shambles.

Lydia commented, "Under this current LAUSD Board, fiscal accountability has been lacking. School Board members are elected to watch over the taxpayers' money to assure it is being used to educate our children, instead of lining the pockets of special interest groups." She further stated, "When I am elected, I will call for an audit of all expenditures, review all cases before the Inspector General, and request that the School Board seek out administrators who have had actual experience in the educational field and have a thorough understanding of the academic expectations. It is time to stop hiring people who come with an agenda that is self-serving and does not serve the needs of our children and does not give the support our teachers need in the classroom."

Lydia Gutierrez is running for LAUSD School Board District 7. She was born and raised in District 7, Harbor Gateway, went to school at Meyler Elementary School, Stephen M. White Middle School and Narbonne High School, and resides in San Pedro. Lydia has nearly 30 years teaching experience. She has been a neighborhood board member for 7 years. She holds 2 teaching credentials, a master's and has been a master teacher for the UCLA Mathematics projects. Before teaching, she was an administrator and acting cost estimating supervisor in the aerospace industry.
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