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Friday, April 17, 2015

‘I wish my teacher knew’ — poignant notes from students - The Washington Post

‘I wish my teacher knew’ — poignant notes from students - The Washington Post:

‘I wish my teacher knew’ — poignant notes from students 

 By Valerie Strauss April 17 at 4:00 AM  


A third-grade teacher at a Denver elementary school decided to try to get to know her students better — most of whom come from low-income families — and gave them a writing assignment in which she hoped they would reveal something about themselves. Kyle Schwartz called the activity “I wish my teacher knew” — and she wound up learning more than she thought.
According to this story by ABC News, Schwartz, who teachers at Doull Elementary School, said:
“Ninety-two percent of our students qualify for free and reduced lunch. As a new teacher, I struggled to understand the reality of my students’ lives and how to best support them. I just felt like there was something I didn’t know about my students.”
She allowed students to write anonymously but found that most wanted to include their name and even share it with the class. She said:
“Some notes are heartbreaking like the first #iwishmyteacherknew tweet which read, ‘I wish my teacher knew I don’t have pencils at home to do my homework.’ I care deeply about each and every one of my students and I don’t want any of them to have to suffer the consequences of living in poverty, which is my main motivation for teaching.”
Schwartz posted some of the students’ work on Twitter under the hashtag#IWishMyTeacherKnew, and she urged other teachers to do the same thing. Here are some of the tweets posted by Schwartz as well as others.



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Apple Faces Possible Lawsuit From L.A. Schools Over iPad Deal - Fortune

Apple Faces Possible Lawsuit From L.A. Schools Over iPad Deal - Fortune:

Why L.A.'s school district might sue Apple






 It has to do with a failed $1.3 billion iPad program

Apple, along with media company Pearson, may be facing anew legal challenge from a surprising source: The Los Angeles Unified School District.
The dispute stems from a $1.3 billion program the school district launched in 2013 to supply every student and faculty member an Apple iPad loaded with Pearson educational software. The program almost instantly flopped, with teachers reporting software bugs, a lack of content and difficulties using the technology with students learning English as a foreign language.
The Los Angeles Times now reports the school district is refusing to pay for any more of Pearson’s content, which Pearson developed as a subcontractor for Apple:
In a letter sent Monday to Apple, Holmquist wrote that it “will not accept or compensate Apple for new deliveries of [Pearson] curriculum.” Nor does the district want to pay for further services related to the Pearson product.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment. Pearson defended its product.
The L.A. Board of Education is going so far as to consider potential legal action against the two companies, per theTimes:
To press its case, the Board of Education on Tuesday authorized its attorneys in a closed-door meeting to explore possible litigation against Apple and Pearson, the company that developed the curriculum as a subcontractor to Apple.
The L.A. iPad deal is controversial for other reasons, too: The Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently examining whether Apple and Pearson got favorable treatment when awarded the contract.Apple Faces Possible Lawsuit From L.A. Schools Over iPad Deal - Fortune:
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Why Jailing Cheating Teachers Probably Won’t Help America’s Kids - Yahoo News

Why Jailing Cheating Teachers Probably Won’t Help America’s Kids - Yahoo News:

Why Jailing Cheating Teachers Probably Won’t Help America’s Kids




 When a judge sentenced 10 Atlanta educators for rigging the standardized test scores of their students—including seven-year prison terms for three of them—it was an ugly conclusion to perhaps the largest cheating scandal in American public education history. 

A group of grassroots activists who want the educators freed, however, say it’s just the beginning of a longer, more important fight against the culture of high-stakes testing and the decades of institutional inequality they say are directly responsible for the conspiracy. 
Rise Up Georgia, a progressive community-organizing campaign, says the 10 teachers and administrators who were found guilty of conspiracy in the wide-ranging scandal are scapegoats for a broken system. Although Judge Jerry Baxter condemned the educators for swindling their elementary and middle school students out of an education, RiseUp argues the students were cheated long before the first test answer was changed. 
“The justice being served is unequal,” said Allie McCullen, Rise Up’s education justice organizer. “We see this as a way to educate the Atlanta community about the larger systemic problems in education.” 
Although “we recognize that cheating is wrong, the justice being served is unequal,” said McCullen, noting that Rise Up’s petition drive has collected more than 35,000 signatures. “Jail time for these educators is not addressing the high-stakes culture. They’re taking the fall for cheating that happens all across the nation. And it has its roots in high-stakes testing.”
Most of the cheating took place at 44 schools and involved nearly 180 educators between 2005 and 2009. In 2013, a grand jury indicted 35 Atlanta Public Schools educators after an investigation revealed cheating was behind a remarkable spike in statewide aptitude scores at previously failing schools in the city. Authorities say teachers and administrators under the gun to meet No Child Left Behind achievement mandates altered, fabricated, or gave children the answers on the tests.
Beverly Johnson, the school superintendent, was charged in the conspiracy but died before her case went to trial. Under Johnson, authorities say, educators were offered cash bonuses—or pink slips if test scores didn’t improve. 
The bulk of educators involved took plea deals, but the others opted for jury trials, which ended in convictions on racketeering and other lesser crimes two weeks ago. The sentences Baxter issued Tuesday range from probation to 20 years in prison, with seven to serve.
Although the teachers’ defense attorneys and some education analysts argued the punishment didn’t fit the crime, Baxter retorted that a generation of Atlanta children were cheated out of an education. “I think there were hundreds and thousands of kids who were lost in the schools,” he said. “This is not a victimless crime that occurred in this city.”
RiseUp’s McCullen, however, said the basics of the case—educators being told to show results, or else—are an example of why our current education-reform bureaucracy, not the educators, should have been on trial. 
The defendants, she said, taught poor kids in crumbling, long-ignored, mostly black schools that couldn’t get the same resources as higher-performing schools in wealthier districts. The high-stakes testing culture, coupled with concerns that their school might close and their kids be left behind, practically invited teachers to do the wrong thing for the right reason.
“A lot of them had to ask themselves, which is more detrimental: cheating on the test or seeing another vacant [school] in Atlanta?” McCullen said. The nation’s sad history of public-school discrimination—including unequal school funding, lack of social services for poor students, and standardized tests that are skewed toward the white middle class—and the worst elements of high-stakes testing were on display in the case, she added. 
According to McCullen, true justice “is not just about improving test scores. It’s about improving the whole lives of the student.” Although the case is now closed pending appeals, the students Baxter spoke of “were cheated long before,” she said.

Related stories on TakePart:


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Education Department Nears Deal With Student Loan Giant Navient Over Cheating Troops

Education Department Nears Deal With Student Loan Giant Navient Over Cheating Troops:

Education Department Nears Deal With Student Loan Giant Navient Over Cheating Troops




The U.S. Department of Education is nearing a deal with Navient Corp., the student loan giant formerly known as Sallie Mae, over allegations the company cheated active-duty troops on federal student loans, a department official said Thursday.
The agreement likely would end the Education Department's much-delayed and heavily-criticized probe into whether the nation’s largest student loan specialist -- a major government contractor -- broke the law that caps interest rates and provides other special financial protections for active-duty members of the military.
Thomas Skelly, the department’s acting chief financial officer, told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday that the Education Department was “finalizing” an agreement with Navient that would be completed by May 1.
Denise Horn, an Education Department spokeswoman, declined further comment. Patricia Christel, a Navient spokeswoman, didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
For a department that has been called a lapdog in holding its contractors accountable -- especially one that’s been called out by President Barack Obama over its customer service -- the settlement risks inflaming Democrats and student advocates who have badgered the Education Department to take a tougher line against corporate wrongdoing.
“I continue to be deeply concerned about the allegations that a student loan servicer knowingly overcharged service members while they were on active duty,” said Sen.Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who along with other Senate Democrats has made student debt central in their economic and political agenda. “This is an issue I’m going to continue to be focused on to make sure our men and women in uniform are treated fairly [and] can continue their education without the fear of predatory practices.”
The Education Department’s investigation followed a May deal with the government in which Navient settled federal accusations that it had intentionally overcharged about 60,000 active-duty troops on federal and private student loans over nearly a decade. The company, which neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing, agreed to pay $60 million to troops as part of its settlement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Department of Justice.
Despite the Justice Department’s detailed complaint, which followed a referral by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Education Secretary Arne Duncan later announced a “thorough” review to determine whether the company indeed overcharged troops.
Duncan’s department was unaware of the alleged wrongdoing while it was occurring, federal officials have said. The Education Department was unaware that federal banking regulators planned to publicly accuse the company of violating the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act until after Navient warned its investors.
The results of the Education Department review were due in September 2014. But after an initial investigation by department employees cleared the company of wrongdoing, the department paid about $95,000 to hire Ernst & Young to further investigate Navient's compliance with the servicemembers law, federal records show.
Last month, the American Legion, the influential veterans organization, accused the Education Department of favoring its loan contractors over service members. “The department seems to be doing everything possible to undermine the Justice Department and the CFPB, and they’re doing a hell of a job,” Steve Gonzalez, an assistant director in the Legion’s veterans employment and education division, said at the time.
To mollify potential critics, Duncan said in May that “every option is on the table” including considering whether his department would terminate Navient’s lucrative contract to collect monthly payments on student loans.
A few weeks later, according to Navient, the department quietly extended the company’s contract for an additional five years.
Meanwhile, Navient’s revenues from its loan-servicing contract continue to soar. In the last half of 2014, its revenues increased nearly 10 percent, to $68 million, compared with the first six months of 2014, according to its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Navient would lose about $130 million in annual revenues if the Education Department terminated the company’s loan-servicing contract. Prominent groups, including the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, have urged Duncan to dump Navient.
The Education Department has enjoyed a cozy relationship with Navient and its predecessor company, Sallie Mae. Some company executives formerly held prominent positions at the department.
In 2009, the department's inspector general recommended it recoup some $22 million in alleged overpayments to Navient. As of last month, some six years after the recommendation, that money had yet to be collected.
Horn, the Education Department spokeswoman, didn't respond to an inquiry about the funds.Education Department Nears Deal With Student Loan Giant Navient Over Cheating Troops:
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Teachers union sees 'culture of conflict' at CPS - Blogs On Politics - Crain's Chicago Business

Teachers union sees 'culture of conflict' at CPS - Blogs On Politics - Crain's Chicago Business:

Teachers union sees 'culture of conflict' at CPS




 City and school officials today maintained a nearly total silence on the legal woes of Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and her job tenure, which came to light yesterday, but the vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union had some comments, and they bit hard.

In a press conference today, Jesse Sharkey said he doesn't know enough yet to say whether Byrd-Bennett should step down, but he made clear his view that CPS never should have approved a $20 million consulting contract with a private principal training agency where Byrd-Bennett worked until she went to work for CPS.

That's the issue federal agents are probing, with the training outfit, Wilmette-based Supes Academy, conceding in a statement that federal agents have obtained "records and files" from it as part of an investigation into CPS.
Sharkey said the Board of Education should not have approved the 2013 pact, given Byrd-Bennett's relationship with the academy.
"It's suspect. It has the smell of not being ethical," Sharkey told reporters. "It undermines confidence in public schools."
Even worse, he added, the Supes contract was one in a series in which "public officials with private interests" have appeared to gain from their private position.
One alleged conflict that Sharkey mentioned struck me as pretty lame. That's Board of Education President David Vitale's former position in 2001-02 as head of the Chicago Board of Trade, which makes a trading market in some financial instruments—specifically, interest-rate swaps—that have cost CPS tens of millions of dollars.
Perhaps more on target was his reference to board member Deborah Quazzo, who reportedly has an ownership interest in companies that have received more than $5 million in contracts from CPS or CPS charter schools since she joined the board.
"We've seen a pattern," Sharkey said. "There's a culture of conflict of interest that is highly destructive of the public's trust."
If Byrd-Bennett does have to step down, he said, her successor will be the school system's fifth CEO in four years.
Meanwhile, CPS is scheduled to return to the bond market next week to seek $300 million in new borrowing. The district's finances already are under strain, with CPS facing a budget deficit of more than $1 billion for the next school year. Now it has a CEO under federal probe.

A CPS spokesman today said only that there is "nothing new" to report. Aides to Mayor Rahm Emanuel say the same thing—and insist that the mayor didn't know of the probe until earlier this week, even though the Chicago Tribune reports it has been underway for well over a year.Teachers union sees 'culture of conflict' at CPS - Blogs On Politics - Crain's Chicago Business:
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National teachers union leader celebrates success at Pittsburgh Woolslair | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

National teachers union leader celebrates success at Pittsburgh Woolslair | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

National teachers union leader celebrates success at Pittsburgh Woolslair



American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten hears of the success of Pittsburgh's Woolslair School during her visit to Pittsburgh Wednesday. At right is Pittsburgh School Director Sylvia Wilson from District 1.


To the president of the American Federation of Teachers, the story of Pittsburgh Woolslair PreK-5 going from the chopping block to a new partial magnet program is one of a number of stories across the country of new life being breathed into public schools once at risk of closing.
“If you really believe communities are the engine of urban growth and you believe schools are the heart of cities, then you need to help keep it open and you need it to thrive. Then it creates oxygen and life for a community,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten at a small gathering at the nonprofit Assemble in Garfield.
In town Wednesday for an AFT lawyers conference, Ms. Weingarten would have visited Woolslair except state standardized tests are underway at the school this week. Instead, teachers sent her a card that included photos of the school as well as its recent celebration when the district named it one of six STAR — Students and Teachers Achieving Results — schools for achieving academic growth in the top 25 percent of schools in the state.
Last week, the district announced it has received nearly $900,000 in grants from the Grable Foundation and the Fund for Excellence to start programs this fall in STEAM — science, technology, engineering, arts and math — at Woolslair, Lincoln and Schiller.
While there will be STEAM throughout Woolslair, a STEAM magnet program in the lower grades is aimed at attracting students from throughout the city. The idea of STEAM was suggested by Woolslair supporters after staff, parents and the community were polled.
“It wasn’t just one group. It wasn’t just one person. It was an enormous collaboration from the bottom up,” Ms. Weingarten said. “That’s what made it succeed.”
Ms. Weingarten was pleased it is STEAM, not just STEM. “Science and engineering and math are all really, really important, but there are lots and lots of kids for whom the arts is the road to engagement,” she said.
The district had considered closing Woolslair in fall 2015 because, at 110 students, it was the district’s smallest school. However, a new school board gave Woolslair a reprieve and later approved the STEAM plan.
Woolslair parent Valerie Allman, who was among those who worked to save the school, told Ms. Weingarten that parents were “devastated” when they heard the school might be closing.
“When you walk into that school, the teachers and the staff, from the janitors to the principal and beyond, everybody comes together in that school to make every kid count. They’re not just a test score,” Ms. Allman said.National teachers union leader celebrates success at Pittsburgh Woolslair | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

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Teachers' union calls evals "junk science"

Teachers' union calls evals "junk science":

Teachers' union calls evals "junk science"





The number of students opting out of standardized tests in New York has increased to about 166,000, a group contended, and the state's teachers' union is urging the state Education Department to dump using the tests to evaluate educators.
The New York State United Teachers union, which has advocated for the opt outs, said that about 32 percent of teachers move from one category year to year in their evaluation scoring, but with students not taking the exams, it creates "junk science" to use the tests to evaluate teachers.
"With more than 150,000 students opting out, a volatile and unstable state growth model will become more volatile and unstable," the union said in a statement. "The pool of students with 'similar characteristics' will be smaller, and that means the volatility and instability will be greater."
The group, United to Counter the Core, which opposes the standardized exams, saidthe number of students in New York opting out of the exams hit 166,000 this week, based on news reports and anecdotal evidence. The English tests started Tuesday.
The state Education Department has countered that despite the opt outs, there will be enough information from other exams and in-class evaluations to judge teachers.
"We are confident the department will be able to generate a representative sample of students who took the test, generate valid scores for anyone who took the test, and calculate valid state-provided growth scores to be used in teacher evaluations," state Education Department spokesman Jonathan Burman said in a written statement.
Currently, student test scores account for 20 percent of a teacher's evaluation. But the state Education Department is developing new standards based on a budget deal struck by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature on April 1.
The issue, however, is that each teacher has a "growth score" that is based on their students' year-to-year improvement on at least 16 tests. But with students opting out, some teachers won't have the 16 tests needed for their evaluations.
The state has a system in place for teachers, such as those that teach art or physical education, that can substitute some testing in classes where 16 tests aren't given. Those teachers are assigned "student learning objectives," known has SLOs, by each district to help calculate students' progress through the year.
But NYSUT said using the SLOs in lieu of the exams is problematic.
"The State Education Department is making it up as it goes along," NYSUT said in a statement. "The growth scores drawn from state standardized tests won't be returned to schools until August. It would be completely inappropriate -- and against SED's own regulations and guidance -- for districts to go back 11 months and somehow try to rig together anything that's meaningful or accurate."Teachers' union calls evals "junk science":


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155,000 New York kids boycott standardized tests

155,000 New York kids boycott standardized tests:

155,000 New York kids boycott standardized tests








MAHOPAC, N.Y. — Tens of thousands of parents expressed disapproval of New York's reliance on standardized tests by having their children refuse to take the tests earlier this week.
Several districts in the New York City suburbs reported that at least 25% of students had refused to take the tests. In at least two, that number rose to 50%.
Mahopac Central School District's interim superintendent, Brian Monahan, said 55% of his system's middle school students and 45% of the elementary school students had refused the tests. At North Rockland Central School District in Garnerville, N.Y, 63% of middle school students refused the tests with the overall district refusal rate at 49%.
Half of Hillburn, N.Y.-based Ramapo Central's middle school students skipped the tests.
USA TODAY
All but one in Atlanta cheating scandal to serve time
On Long Island, nearly 65,000 elementary and middle school students have refused to take the tests this week, almost 44% of those eligible, according to a Newsday survey.
The state Education Department said official numbers for how many pupils took the statewide assessments won't be released until this summer.
But a group called United to Counter the Core, which is critical of the tests, said Thursday that more than 155,000 children boycotted the English tests that were administered Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. More than 1.1 million students were supposed to take them.
Such a reaction to standardized testing not unprecedented, but the size of the boycott is.
This year about 20 families in Texas' largest school district, Houston Independent Schools, chose to have their children stay home instead of taking State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness tests, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Unlike New York, Texas parents cannot say no to state standardized tests. Also unlike New York, Texas has opted out of White House-backed Common Core education standards, but many in that state remain angry about what some consider a nationalization of education standards.
In New York parents opposed to the tests say schools are focusing on test prep to the detriment of a richer curriculum. Some also are critical of the Common Core learning standards that New York's tests have been based on since 2013.
Cindy Rubino, a Lakeland, N.Y., parent whose children refused the tests, said she was "thrilled" parents across New York had pulled their children from testing rooms.
USA TODAY
Growing number of educators boycott standardized tests
"I do believe this is a historic day in New York state, as we try to regain local control over the education of our kids," she said. "These refusals are meant to protest a system that is currently failing our children and educators.
"To do nothing is to allow public education to be destroyed before our very eyes," Rubino said. "In the process we are teaching our children a valuable lesson — to stand up for what they believe in."
Opting out is a disservice to students, said Jonathan Burman, spokesman for the New York Education Department.
"Test refusal is a mistake because it eliminates important information about how our kids are doing. Those who call for opting out really want New York to opt out of information that can help parents and teachers understand how well their students are doing," he said. "We can't go back to ignoring the needs of our children."
Lisa Rudley, a founding member of NYS Allies for Public Education that has organized rallies and sponsored advertisements throughout the state promoting the opt-out movement, cheered the numbers.
"The governor and legislature spoke on April 1 with their plan for our children's education," said Rudley, also a parent with children in Ossining Union Free School District in Ossining, N.Y. "Parents are responding in force, 'We do not consent!' If it's not good enough for the best private schools in the country, it's not good enough for our kids."
Yet collecting educational data is important for the future of education and can help define the the character of a town, said Nicole Brisbane, state director at Democrats for Education Reform.
"Schools are one of the biggest differentiators of value in the suburbs," she said. "How valuable will a house be in Scarsdale when it isn't clear that Scarsdale schools are doing any better than the rest of Westchester or even the state? Opting out of tests only robs parents of that crucial data.
USATODAY.COM
Common Core standards drive wedge in education circles
In Mahopac, parents kept their children home for the duration of the tests. Others students who showed up at school sat in the cafeteria or the gymnasium.
Monahan said it "took a lot of manpower" to oversee students not taking the tests. The middle school's two cafeterias and gymnasium were filled.
New York's Education Department repeatedly has said districts could face financial consequences if the participation on the tests is less than 95%.
"I think everyone is concerned about what all this means, and it's still not clear," Monahan said. "They have the authority to withhold funds, but we don't know if they will."
Burman said the state would take many factors into consideration when deciding sanctions.
"What sanctions to impose must be decided on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the degree and length of time the district has failed to meet participation rate requirements and the reasons for such failure," he said.
Superintendent J. Thomas Morton of the Clarkstown Central School District in New City, N.Y., said state education officials should have anticipated the large number of students opting out.
"You could feel this coming, and the folks that are working in the field realize that this is a real issue," he said. "I'm not so sure that the folks that are sitting in their offices in Albany understand that."
Superintendent Diana Bowers of Haldane Central School District in Cold Spring, N.Y., said the parents had spoken.
"Parents want to have a say in their child's education and this is one way they feel they can be heard," she said.
Contributing: Mareesa Nicosia, Claire Ferrara and Linda Lombroso, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News; The Associated Press155,000 New York kids boycott standardized tests:
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Restraint and Seclusion, Gifted Education Among Amendments to ESEA Bill - On Special Education - Education Week

Restraint and Seclusion, Gifted Education Among Amendments to ESEA Bill - On Special Education - Education Week:

Restraint and Seclusion, Gifted Education Among Amendments to ESEA Bill

By Christina Samuels on April 16, 2015 6:19 PM


States would be required to adopt policies to prevent unnecessary use of restraint and seclusion in schools, and a federal gifted education grant program would be reauthorized for six years, under amendments that were added this week to the proposed rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. 
The Senate education committee unanimously approved the bill Thursday. Its next step is debate before the full Senate, but as my colleagues at Politics K-12 have pointed out, the bill may be difficult to schedule as the Senate has a full plate of other action ahead of it. 
The restraint and seclusion bill was brought forward by Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut. It would require state departments of education to develop plans to protect students from abuse, aversive interventions that compromise their safety, or any "physical restraint for seclusion imposed solely for purposes of discipline or convenience." 
The gifted education amendment came from retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, also a Democrat. Mikulski has been a longtime champion of gifted education. The amendment would continue authorization of the federal Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Education program, which was just funded for $10 million in the fiscal 2015 budget. Javits grants go to researchers who study best practices in identifying and teaching underrepresented populations. 
"Serving students who are low-achieving is important, but so is nurturing students who have high ability and enormous potential. I believe we need to know more about these kids, and our teachers need to know how to help these children achieve and succeed," Mikulski said in a statement introducing her amendment. 
Dyslexia Amendment Fails
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican Senator from Louisiana, attempted to introduce an amendment that would allow schools to use federal funds to train teachers in best practices in identifying and educating students with specific learning disabilities, such as dyslexia. About 40 percent of the students covered under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act have a specific learning disability. 
The bill failed, amid concerns that it singled out a particular group of students for special treatment. 
"I think it gives the impression, whether it's intended or not, that students with certain types of learning disabilities have more pressing needs than other students with disabilities," said Barbara R. Trader, the executive director of TASH, a Washington-based support and advocacy group for people with intellectual disabilities.Restraint and Seclusion, Gifted Education Among Amendments to ESEA Bill - On Special Education - Education Week:
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