Charter schools struggling to meet academic growth | Star Tribune

Charter schools struggling to meet academic growth | Star Tribune:

Charter schools struggling to meet academic growth

• Article by: KIM MCGUIRE , Star Tribune 
• Updated: February 17, 2015 - 5:35 AM

Students in most Minnesota charter schools are failing to hit learning targets and are not achieving adequate academic growth, according to a Star Tribune analysis of school performance data.

The analysis of 128 of the state’s 157 charter schools show that the gulf between the academic success of its white and minority students widened at nearly two-thirds of those schools last year. Slightly more than half of charter schools students were proficient in reading, dramatically worse than traditional public schools, where 72 percent were proficient.

Between 2011 and 2014, 20 charter schools failed every year to meet the state’s expectations for academic growth each year, signaling that some of Minnesota’s most vulnerable students had stagnated academically.

A top official with the Minnesota Department of Education says she is troubled by the data, which runs counter to “the public narrative” that charter schools are generally superior to public schools.

“We hear, as we should, about the highfliers and the schools that are beating the odds, but I think we need to pay even more attention to the schools that are persistently failing to meet expectations,” said Charlene Briner, the Minnesota Department of Education’s chief of staff. Charter school advocates strongly defend their performance. They say the vast majority of schools that aren’t showing enough improvement serve at-risk populations, students who are poor, homeless, with limited English proficiency, or are in danger of dropping out.

“Our students, they’re coming from different environments, both home and school, where they’ve never had the chance to be successful,” said April Harrison, executive director of LoveWorks Academy, a Minneapolis charter school that has the state’s lowest rating. “No one has ever taken the time to say, ‘What’s going on with you? How can I help you?’ That’s what we do.”

Minnesota is the birthplace of the charter school movement and a handful of schools have received national acclaim for their accomplishments, particularly when it comes to making strong academic gains with low-income students of color. But the new information is fueling critics who say the charter school experiment has failed to deliver on teaching innovation.

“Schools promised they were going to help turn around things for these very challenging student populations,” said Kyle Serrette, director of education for the New York City-based Center for Popular Democracy. “Now, here we are 20 years later and they’re realizing that they have the same troubles of public schools systems.”

More than half of schools analyzed from 2011 to 2014 were also failing to meet the department’s expectations for academic growth, the gains made from year to year in reading and math.

Of the 20 schools that failed to meet the state goals for improvement every year, Pillsbury United Communities is the authorizer for six of those schools: Dugsi Academy, LoveWorks Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, Connections Academy, Learning for Leadership Charter School, and the Minnesota Transitions Charter School’s elementary, Connections Academy and Virtual High School. Those schools also missed annual achievement gap targets.

Officials with the Urban Institute for Service and Learning, which oversees Pillsbury’s charters, say most of their schools cater to students at risk of dropping out, those who have been kicked out of other schools, and many who are learning to speak English.

“We intentionally work with students that most other people would really not want to work with,” said Antonio Cardona, director of the institute.

Two years ago, Pillsbury closed Quest Academy, a small St. Louis Park charter school that consistently failed to meet state performance goals.

Cardona said Pillsbury would consider closing more chronically low-performing schools, or more likely, adopt new turnaround strategies. They also want to add some high-performing schools to their portfolio so that some of their low-performing schools might be able to absorb successful teaching strategies.

At LoveWorks Academy in Minneapolis, about 85 percent of the school’s students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches. About 13 percent of its students were proficient in math and 12 percent are Charter schools struggling to meet academic growth | Star Tribune:

Pressure builds on SRC to approve new charter schools

Pressure builds on SRC to approve new charter schools:



Pressure builds on SRC to approve new charter schools

Gov. Wolf, sources said, has told the SRC he wants it to approve no new charters because the School District cannot afford them.

Just days before the fate of 39 new charter-school applications is decided, pressure on the School Reform Commission is building from all sides.



Top state Senate Republicans have sent Chairman Bill Green a letter saying they were "confident" that the SRC would approve strong charter schools.



The letter, obtained by The Inquirer and sent Friday by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson), Majority Leader Jake Corman (R., Centre), and Education Committee Chairman Lloyd Smucker (R., Lancaster), said the leaders were "hopeful that the SRC will approve these qualified charter schools in the very near future."



The SRC is scheduled to vote on the charter applications, the first new proposals considered in seven years, on Wednesday. If the commission approves 15,000 new seats, the six-year price to the financially troubled school system could be close to $500 million, district officials say.

A powerful education nonprofit group has offered the district $35 million - $25 million of it to offset new charter costs - but the SRC has given no indication whether it intends to accept the controversial gift. The senators, however, hailed the offer from the Philadelphia School Partnership, which is bankrolled by donors who have not been named.

The senators said they would also work toward "meaningful public pension reform" that would help the SRC, and changes to the traditional teacher seniority structure, which the SRC has already challenged.

Their "approve charters" message echoes one sent publicly by House Speaker Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny), who has spent significant time in Philadelphia recently. Turzai has said the SRC should approve between 16 and 27 charters.

All the lawmakers have reminded the SRC that they helped get a $2-per-pack cigarette tax passed last summer. That legislation included language that required the commission to consider new charter applications. But others have sent the opposite message.

Gov. Wolf, sources said, has told the SRC he wants it to approve no new charters because the School District cannot afford them.

Asked about the governor's position on charter schools, Wolf's press secretary, Jeffrey Sheridan, wrote in an e-mail: "The Wolf administration believes the SRC must stabilize, not worsen, the district's finances. It cannot spend money it does not have for new charters or other expenses. It is past time we reaffirm our commitment to high quality public education for all children."

Caught between two powerful and diametrically opposed camps, what is the SRC to do? "Regardless of the political pressure from anybody," Green said, "I think this SRC has demonstrated that it is going to call balls and strikes in accordance with the law. We're simply going to follow the law."

Charter-school law, Green said, holds that if a provider meets all requirements, "it appears to require us to approve applications."

In the past, financial concerns have made the commission hold off on approving new stand-alone charter schools - though it has more than doubled the charter-school population through expansions and turning district schools over to charter-school operators.

But the legislation that allowed the cigarette tax, which gave the district the cash it needed to open schools on time in September, also required the SRC to open applications for new charters, and gave applicants turned down by the

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20150217_Pressure_builds_on_SRC_to_approve_new_charters.html#GbDGrLdCzq5p70MW.99

How Useful Are Standardized Tests? - NYTimes.com

How Useful Are Standardized Tests? - NYTimes.com

How Useful Are Standardized Tests?

To the Editor:

“In Defense of Annual School Testing,” by Chad Aldeman (Op-Ed, Feb. 7), argues that Washington should continue to require states to give each student standardized tests each year.

Federal and state governments have a legitimate interest in knowing whether cohorts of students are making appropriate progress as they go through school. It’s possible to gather that information by testing less frequently and by using sampling techniques similar to those employed by the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Districts, schools and teachers all have a responsibility to measure students’ learning frequently — far more often than once a year — in order to help them grow. Standardized tests are among the measures they use. But the same ones aren’t equally useful or necessary in every school or district; different measures can provide different kinds of information, offering more or less insight into the needs of a particular student or group of children.

Information about student progress, including test results, should be readily available to parents and communities. Federal and state testing can be significantly less invasive than it is and still provide accountability. There’s no reason to require that all children in a state take the same standardized exams every year.

MICHAEL V. McGILL

Morris, Conn.

The writer is director of the district leadership and reform program at Bank Street College of Education and former superintendent of schools in Scarsdale, N.Y.

To the Editor:

Chad Aldeman praises standardized tests for allowing for “a much more nuanced look at student performance.” I’m a teacher, and the only thing I know about the test is what my students scored on it. We receive no feedback at all. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong as a teacher, or what I could do differently next year. My students don’t get that feedback either.

Nobody ever comes away from the testing knowing what he or she did wrong or how to improve. Shouldn’t they?

JOSH MAROWITZ

Burlington, N.C.

To the Editor:

Chad Aldeman says he wants to keep the status quo — high-stakes annual testing in grades three to eight and once in high school.

In January, the American Federation of Teachers and the Center for American Progress issued a set of principles for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. At its core was a commitment to equity, and a robust accountability system that uses multiple measures and counts standardized tests once each in elementary, middle and high school.

Such a system would limit the high-stakes testing that is taking the joy out of learning and the innovation out of teaching, and frankly did not accomplish the intended purpose — to ensure that every child would be proficient in reading and math by 2014.

We believe that annual testing has a role: to provide information and diagnostics on student progress, but not as a basis for imposing high-stakes, punitive consequences. High-stakes testing shouldn’t drive federal policy; the needs of our children should. That’s why our plan takes the focus off high-stakes tests and returns the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to its original goal — equity.

Half of public school students live in poverty. More than 30 states fund public education below pre-recession levels. We need to level the playing field and ensure that all kids have equal access to things like computers, smaller class sizes, nurses and counselors — even when their communities can’t afford them.

RANDI WEINGARTEN

President

American Federation of Teachers

Washington

To the Editor:

Chad Aldeman defends annual school testing as the way to assess school quality. In a recent Times article, the New York City schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, was quoted as saying, “I know a good quality school when I’m in the building.”

I agree with Ms. Fariña. An experienced educator can determine the quality of a school by observing the students’ demeanor, looking at the displays in the classrooms and common areas, peering into the classrooms, checking out routines and activities, and other criteria.

A competent principal knows who the most effective teachers are, which ones would be effective with more support and those who would benefit from changing careers. Most of the teachers, pupils and informed parents in the school could give you the same information.

Rather than relying on commercial testing, teachers can and do devise their own tests to determine how to focus their instruction. Teachers usually keep folders with samples of children’s work, so that parents can observe growth throughout the school year.

I believe that students would benefit greatly if the enormous amount of How Useful Are Standardized Tests? - NYTimes.com

Teachers, parents to protest 'toxic standardized testing':

Teachers, parents to protest 'toxic standardized testing'

 OLYMPIA, Wash. – Teachers and parents will gather in Olympia Monday to protest what they call "toxic standardized testing."

The Teachers Association is a group of educators, parents and concerned citizens who believe that the current model of evaluation for student learning is broken. They are encouraging parents to opt-out of the testing for their students so that, little-by-little, they can bring to an end what they believe is a broken system.

"Now that we've arbitrarily raised the standards, because that's what the federal government has decided to do, the anxiety among teachers is at an all-time high and we know that kids are going to massively fail this upcoming test and there's nothing that's OK about that," Renton teacher Julianna Dauble said.

Dauble said if a group of adults took the test that will soon be given to her 5th graders, she believes most would not pass.

"When adults take this test and we don't know if we pass or not, that's a clear indicator that something is wrong and maybe we should slow down this train," Dauble said.

Some parents think that the government is on the right track with the evaluation system.

"I see value in the students being tested to see how much they are achieving or if they are not achieving, and that gives us some data that we could try to address the problems and make improvements," Joe Virzi said. "Teachers are only one piece of the puzzle, but they are a big piece and I think that that can be used to judge how well they are doing in the classroom."

Dauble said that she believes taxpayers have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent, but she thinks the testing model needs to be put together by educators and not people outside the classroom. She said she has no problem with accountability, but before accountability, she needs support and funding.

"Kids' basic needs are being ignored for the sake of a policy that was designed by people that never taught, ever, in a school and have fully ignored teacher's voices along the way," Dauble saidTeachers, parents to protest 'toxic standardized testing':

Why we need to smash up the concept of the achievement gap in tiny little pieces - The Hechinger... - Linkis.com

Why we need to smash up the concept of the achievement gap in tiny little pieces - The Hechinger... - Linkis.com:

Why we need to smash up the concept of the achievement gap in tiny little pieces

A little less conversation, a little more action will prove black and brown minds matter

It’s time for researchers to stop using terms like the achievement gap and student success.

The sobering data on men of color in colleges is a reflection of college and university performance – so take the scrutiny off of student achievement.

Outcomes for male collegians of color are lagging because postsecondary leaders aren’t held accountable for changing them.

Related: Rich school, poor school

This month I attended Ensuring Success for Men of Color: Leveraging Evidence to Drive Better Policy, Practice and Effective Investment hosted by the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity. Heads and representatives from national, university based centers, institutes and think tanks came together with funders and postsecondary officials to “reframe” or “change the narrative” of men of color in college.

The frequency in which data on black and brown male collegians have been framed almost precludes the need for me to repeat, but I will for the sake of argument.

Black and Latino men four-year graduation rates are 33.2 percent and 44.8 percent respectively. Their white and Asian male peers graduate at a 57.1 percent and 64.2 percent clip.

Related: Poorest states cut what experts say could help the most: higher ed

In response to data, a swell of academic literature has the “effect of centering the lack of success of young men of color as the defining commonality…and contributions [of men of color] as exceptional, not expected.” (as stated in the conference proceedings).

Common titles like Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life and Narrowing the Achievement Gap: Strategies for Educating Latino, Black, and Asian Students insidiously de-emphasize institutional responsibility for graduating men of color and as a consequence, measures of institutional accountability based on inclusion are ignored.

The authors of these and similar texts acknowledge and deconstruct institutional factors. However, we mitigate our efforts comparing black and brown weakness to supposed white strength. We undermine our cause when we try to fix black and brown boys and men of color.

Related: How many already attend community college for free?

If scholars want to rid themselves of deficit approaches (looking at weaknesses) moving forward, then we must stop using the deficit language in our speech and research. Acceptance of constructs like the achievement gap, drop out, student success and data driven may legitimize you in the academy, but they are complicit in promoting the verbal and statistical rhetoric that avoids the problem of institutional accountability.

Related: Congressional report – by colleges – complains they are over-regulated

The inferred white male referent in the achievement gap construct contributes to the centuries old logic that others should be compared to whites. On its face the idea of student success lets institutional factors of the hook, which have been shown to be at least half of the Why we need to smash up the concept of the achievement gap in tiny little pieces - The Hechinger... - Linkis.com:

Anthony Cody Speaks in Georgia: High Stakes Tests Are Lowering Expectations for Students and Teachers - Living in Dialogue

Anthony Cody Speaks in Georgia: High Stakes Tests Are Lowering Expectations for Students and Teachers - Living in Dialogue:



Anthony Cody Speaks in Georgia: High Stakes Tests Are Lowering Expectations for Students and Teachers

 By Joseph Ray Lavine.

A co-founder of the Network for Public Education addressed the ineffectiveness of current U.S. standardized testing and teacher evaluation standards in a speech at the University Chapel, at the University of Georgia, in Athens, Georgia, last Wednesday.

Anthony Cody, who also writes the education blog Living in Dialogue, spoke to a crowd of concerned students, teachers, administrators and parents and voiced his opposition to educational reform programs such as No Child Left Behind, Common Core, Race to the Top and Value Added Models.

These programs, which have garnered billions of dollars in government funds over the past 12 years, perpetuate inaccurate representation of student achievement and teacher effectiveness, Cody said.

“There’s a fiction that the high-stakes tests are raising the bar for our students,” Cody said in the speech. “This is not raising the bar. This is lowering expectations for our students, for our schools, and for our teachers.”

Programs like Common Core, RTTT and VAM exist in large part due to funding and advocacy from The Gates Foundation, which has prioritized a “measure to manage” principle, Cody said. The foundation, led by Bill and Melinda Gates, spent over $200 million to promote the Common Core standards.

It also worked closely with education secretary Arne Duncan and his staff during the creation of RTTT, a $4.3 billion contest for grant money that pressured states to adopt high standards and at one point highlighted the Common Core standards by name, according to the Washington Post.

“The fact is that the entire system is being changed and perverted and diverted into a measurement system,” Cody said. “Learning is being calibrated.”

Cody, who spent 24 years teaching high-needs schools in Oakland, California, said the flaw in these high-stakes standardized tests is that they do not measure a student’s true capacities for success.

Cody said that when he does workshops for teachers, they list critical thinking, collaboration and perseverance as qualities of their “ideal graduate,” but none of these qualities are measured by standardized tests.

What’s more, Cody said, is that Georgia and most other U.S. states are using these standardized test results as a significant indicator on teacher evaluations. These evaluative models, or VAMs, make it easier for principles to fire teachers that are deemed ineffective. The problem with these models, however, is that there are many variables that affect student performance, Cody said, and too much weight is being placed on test scores.

“Often it will be stated that teacher effectiveness is the largest in-school variable affecting student achievement, and that technically is true, but when you realize that that teacher variation only accounts for Anthony Cody Speaks in Georgia: High Stakes Tests Are Lowering Expectations for Students and Teachers - Living in Dialogue:

Mr. Malatras: Is “Massachusetts model” too friendly for Cuomo? | dmaxmj

Mr. Malatras: Is “Massachusetts model” too friendly for Cuomo? | dmaxmj:

Mr. Malatras: Is “Massachusetts model” too friendly for Cuomo?

FEBRUARY 14, 2015 ~ DMAXMJ

Jim Malatras, Operations Director and letter-writer for Governor Andrew Cuomo, has contacted Education Chancellor Merryl Tisch once again withmore ideas for public schools in the state of New York. Having been disrespected, dismissed, and undermined by years of Cuomo and the under-fund and over-mandate model, the actual professionals in the field of education aren’t always eager to hear more from the oracle at Albany. This recent letter, though, could indicate that New York leaders may be at least considering a different approach-a kinder, gentler one that acknowledges educators and what they could contribute-if finally allowed to. But then again, this is Malatras, whose December 18th letter to Tisch was a call to hunt down and find a bad teacher around every corner.

This new letter calls for Tisch and the State Education Department to research the Massachusetts model of “receivership” and the academic gains achieved with it. While at it’s core this model hands over public commons to private management, which always comes with risk of profits for the minority and diminishing returns to the majority, there appears to be a hybrid approach happening in these Massachusetts schools- a combination of community goals, professional collaboration and private approach efficiency. Most importantly: an inclusion of people who actually know education, as opposed to only those politically motivated and criticizing from afar. The result has been an increase of resources available for targeting student needs.

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Lawrence is a better school system than it was three of four years ago, but … that’s for multiple reasons: We eliminated the corrupt government that was running the city, and we have more resources that are getting to the children. (Frank McLaughlin, president of the Lawrence teachers’ union)

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Is this a signal that Cuomo might start considering the needs of communities, parents, educators and above all-the students (as he lobbies for them)? Are we seeing an end to the attack on teachers and their unions, which previously was the theme (or “gist” in ELA module-speak) of Cuomo’s narrative? The fact that Malatras calls for investigation into the Massachusetts model approach suggests this could be the case- unless Mr. Mr. Malatras: Is “Massachusetts model” too friendly for Cuomo? | dmaxmj:

Who wrote the Common Core Standards? The Common Core 24 | Seattle Education

Who wrote the Common Core Standards? The Common Core 24 | Seattle Education:

Who wrote the Common Core Standards? The Common Core 24

We have all heard stories about who decided on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) that are now holding students and teachers hostage to a narrow curriculum and an endless testing regime.

Mercedes Schneider decided to find out who the twenty-four people were that determined the Common Core Standards.

Here is an excerpt from her post Those 24 Common Core 2009 Work Group Members:

NGA (National Governors Associaiton) and CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers ) (and, by extension, USDOE) undeniably meant for CCSS to be something done “to” teachers. NGA’s and CCSSO’s concentration of individuals versed in standardized assessment on their CCSS work groups speaks to the purpose of CCSS to both financially benefit education testing companies and usher unprecedented, nationwide standardized testing into the classrooms of those very professionals purposely excluded from the CCSS work group table.

2009 CCSS Development Work Groups

CCSS Mathematics Work Group

Sara Clough is a former biology teacher (1990-96) at Eau Claire High School (Wisconsin). She has not taught mathematics.

Phil Daro has no noted teaching experience, though Pearson credits Daro as “help[ing] to spearhead development of the Common Core Standards.”

Susan K. Eddins is a retired, National Board Certified mathematics teacher. Eddins taught at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, a grade 10 – 12 public, selective-admissions high school for “gifted students who love math and science.” Eddins has also worked for Achieve.

Kaye Forgione once taught “high school mathematics”… “in US Armed Forces-contracted schools.” Forgione has been away from the classroom since before 1997– at least 12 years since her time on the 2009 NGA CCSS work group.

John Kraman has no teaching experience, though he does have an incomplete masters degree in European history from Brandeis.

Marci Ladd has no K-12 teaching experience. She does have a masters in applied mathematics from Johns Hopkins and three years of experience as a math instructor at Montgomery College (1991-92) and Central Texas College (1993-95).

William McCallum has no K-12 teaching experience. He has taught math at the university level since 1987. His University of Arizona bio identifies him as “one of the lead writers for the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics.”

Sherri Miller has no noted teaching experience. Her professional background is Who wrote the Common Core Standards? The Common Core 24 | Seattle Education:

» Shaming Students One Wall at a Time:

Shaming Students One Wall at a Time

 Kathleen Jasper

 

 February 16, 2015

 

11 Comments

The losers in school know who they are at a young age – usually by kindergarten or first grade. And losers are easy to pick out, because their reading progress, or lack there of, is usually displayed on a bulletin board somewhere in the school for everyone to see.

I’ve had numerous opportunities to visit schools, and too often I see cringe-worthy data walls being used to “motivate” students.

One such day, an enthusiastic teacher was walking me around her school, excited to show me the students’ progress and growth. We stepped into a dark, first grade classroom, and she flipped on the lights. Eight round tables were positioned in the room and on the tables were baskets with neatly arranged bottles of glue, color pencils, sticky notes and other supplies. Around the tables were miniature chairs. I love seeing those tiny chairs; they just make me smile.

My smile faded as I looked to my left and saw a huge bulletin board that said, Ribbit Reading Progress. On this bulletin board were 15 or so frogs with five segments. Some frogs were colored in a mosaic pattern– the head was green, the right arm was purple, left arm was green, right leg was purple, left leg was orange. I saw two or three frogs where the entire body, head and legs were green. Two frogs were completely orange. I knew right away, the orange frogs were the losers.

Even though I knew the answer, I asked, “What’s with the frogs?”

Proudly she said, “It shows their reading progress. When a student can read a passage fluently in a minute, they color part of the frog in. Then we post the frog on the board so the kids can see their progress. If they improve, they get to go to the treasure box in the front office on Friday.”

I took a breath and said, “Let me guess, the green frogs are the winners and the orange frogs are the losers”

“Well, I wouldn’t say losers,” she said defensively. “They just need more time and more remediation. And we use orange not red, because we feel red is a little too abrasive. We don’t want to break anyone’s spirit.”

I smirked and said, “Don’t you think the owners of the orange frogs feel like losers when they look at this wall?”

She gave me a sideways glance and said, “I suppose, but having this competition in the classroom is an » Shaming Students One Wall at a Time:

ALERT! Parents - the Common Core SBAC Test really is designed to fail your children - Wait What?

ALERT! Parents - the Common Core SBAC Test really is designed to fail your children - Wait What?:



 ALERT! Parents – the Common Core SBAC Test really is designed to fail your children

It is almost impossible to conceive that the Corporate Education Reform Industry and its supporters like Governor Dannel Malloy are poised to define the vast majority of Connecticut’s students as failures…but that is exactly what is going to occur if parents don’t act to opt their children out of the Common Core Smarter Balanced Consortium (SBAC) test the begins in just a few weeks.

As parents step forward, Connecticut’s teachers must act as well.

Now is the time for Connecticut’s public school teachers to instruct their state unions to condemn the unfair Common Core SBAC testing scheme and demand that Governor Malloy and his administration provide parents with information about how to opt their children out of the 2015 Common Core SBAC tests.

As has been reported here at Wait, What? before, despite the fact that parents can and should consider opting their children out of the unfair, discriminatory and inappropriate Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) testing scheme that begins next month, Governor Malloy and his administration are failing to inform parents about their fundamental right to protect their children from these abusive tests.

Last year, Governor Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor, provided school superintendents with a step-by-step guide on how local school officials should go about misleading parents into believing that they did not have the right to opt their children out of these tests.

And far too many school superintendents and principals used Pryor’s guide and form letter to mislead their own parents and teachers.

This year, Malloy and his State Department of Education are stunningly silent on this critically important issue.  Their failure to reveal the truth about a parent’s right to opt their children out of the Common Core tests is leaving local school officials and parents twisting slowly in the wind as the multi-billion dollar Common Core SBAC testing scam continues to suck up scarce public funds.

For parents, the bottom line is that the Malloy administration joined with the other Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) states in setting the “pass/fail” rates on this year’s Common Core Test in such a way that it will ensure that the vast majority of children are deemed failures.

For parents that don’t know the issue, please read the following paragraphs.  Parents that do understand what is happening need to take action and pass this vital information onto other parents in your community.

Connecticut teachers can also play a key role by standing up and speaking out on behalf of their students, parents and schools.  Teachers need to tell the Connecticut Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers – Connecticut Chapter to immediately issue strong statements condemning this year’s Common Core SBAC tests.  Teachers should also urge their union leaders to use their “close working relationship” with the Malloy administration to demand that the Connecticut State Department of Education immediately provide parents with adequate notice about how to opt their children out of these inappropriate tests.

Here is the single most important FACT OF ALL – The Common Core SBAC Test is ALERT! Parents - the Common Core SBAC Test really is designed to fail your children - Wait What?: