‘We now know students cannot be tested out of poverty’ - The Washington Post

‘We now know students cannot be tested out of poverty’ - The Washington Post:

‘We now know students cannot be tested out of poverty’

Last month, a dozen civil rights groups issued a statement, under the umbrella of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, saying that parents opting their children out of high-stakes standardized tests are harming at-risk students. I published a few posts questioning the rationale of the groups (here and here, for example), which argued that only by obtaining data from annual standardized tests can further the goal of achieving educational equity. It said in part:

For the civil rights community, data provide the power to advocate for greater equality under the law. It’s the reason we’ve fought to make sure that we’re counted equally in every aspect of American life, such as in employment, the criminal justice system, and consumer lending.

Our commitment to fair, unbiased, and accurate data collection and reporting resonates greatest in our work to improve education. The educational outcomes for the children we represent are unacceptable by almost every measurement. And we rely on the consistent, accurate, and reliable data provided by annual statewide assessments to advocate for better lives and outcomes for our children. These data are critical for understanding whether and where there is equal opportunity.

The following post is a new critique of that argument. It was written by Judith Browne Dianis, John JAckson and Pedro Noguera. Dianis is co-director of the national racial justice organization Advancement Project; Jackson is president and CEO of the Schott Foundation for Public Education; Noguera is the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University. A version appeared in The Hill.

By Judith Browne Dianis, John H. Jackson and Pedro Noguera

Recently some national civil rights organizations vocally opposed the growing “opt-out movement” in which parents and students are  opting out of annual standardized tests in various states to highlight the dangers of high-stakes testing. Those groups include the National Council of La Raza, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the League of United Latin American Citizens and National Urban League. Uniting under the banner of the Washington D.C.-based Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, these groups are urging parents to comply with annual testing requirements. We strongly disagree with their position.

Data from these annual assessments are not a reasonable proxy for educational opportunity, and even more, educational equity. African American and Latino students are more likely to be suspended, expelled or pushed-out of school regardless of their performance on the test; and despite some improvement in graduation rates, significant disparities remain.

[Why the movement to opt out of high-stakes tests is a big deal]

Moreover, of all the topics that could be addressed as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is being considered by Congress for reauthorization, why defend a ‘We now know students cannot be tested out of poverty’ - The Washington Post:

The states that spend the most (and the least) on education, in one map - The Washington Post

The states that spend the most (and the least) on education, in one map - The Washington Post:

The states that spend the most (and the least) on education, in one map 

U.S. states’ education spending averaged $10,700 per pupil in 2013, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but that average masked a wide variation, ranging from $6,555 per pupil in Utah to $19,818 in New York.

There’s an even larger range separating the lowest- and highest-spending of the nation’s largest 100 school districts: At the low end is Jordan, Utah, at $5,708 per student; at the high end is Boston, Mass., at $20,502.

Part of the variation is due to the huge differences in costs of living nationwide, which influence everything from teacher salaries to the cost of building and maintaining school facilities. Part is also due to economic realities — many states’ education spending remains lower than it was before the recession.

And part of the variation is due to political decisions to invest more or less in schools, or to do more or less to equalize education spending across low- and high-income areas.

Federal data show that there is a growing gap in education spending by the nation’s poorest and most affluent school districts.

This map shows how per-pupil spending varies nationwide.

Spending ranges from $6,555 per pupil in Utah to $19,818 in New York. Source: U.S. Census Bureau’s “Public Education Finances: 2013″

Top spenders among states and “state-equivalents,” the Census Bureau’s term for D.C.:

1. New York ($19,818 per student)
2. Alaska ($18,175)
3. District of Columbia ($17,953)
4. New Jersey ($17,572)
5. Connecticut ($16,631)

Bottom spenders among states:

1. Utah ($6,555)
2. Idaho ($6,791)
3. Arizona ($7,208)
4. Oklahoma ($7,672)
5. Mississippi ($8,130)

For the full list of states and their per-pupil spending, see the list below, taken from the report, or page 8 in this PDF.

Top spenders among the largest 100 school districts:

1. Boston ($20,502)
2. New York City ($20,331)
3. Anchorage, Alaska ($15,419)
4. Montgomery County, Maryland ($15,080)
5. Baltimore City ($15,050)

Bottom spenders among the largest 100 school districts:

1. Jordan, Utah ($5,708)
2. Davis County, Utah ($6,130)
3. Cypress-Fairbanks, Texas ($6,798)
4. Capistrano Unified, California ($6,811)
5. Conroe, Texas ($6,860)

For the full list of the largest districts and their per-pupil spending, see the list below, taken from the report, or page 25 in this PDF.

The states that spend the most (and the least) on education, in one map - The Washington Post:

Emma Brown writes about national education and about people with a stake in schools, including teachers, parents and kids.

Is The Anti-Common Core Movement Just 'Suburban White Moms'? - NationalJournal.com

Is The Anti-Common Core Movement Just 'Suburban White Moms'? - NationalJournal.com:

Is The Anti-Common Core Movement Just 'Suburban White Moms'? 

(Steve Rhodes/Shutterstock)

June 2, 2015 On a Monday morning in March, several hundred Albuquerque (New Mexico) High School students walked out of their first period classes and onto the grounds in front of school. Despite warnings from school leaders that they could lose the chance to walk in graduation ceremonies by participating in the protest, students chanted slogans and held up handmade signs with messages like, "We are not defined by test scores" and "We have a say in our education." 

They were protesting new state tests aligned to the Common Core academic standards. "This test is infringing on our rights," says Maya Quinones, a senior and one of the protest organizers. Most of the students at Albuquerque High School are Hispanic and comes from low-income families. 

Education Secretary Arne Duncan famously singled out "white suburban moms" for their opposition to the Common Core and the tests associated with it. But many low-income, minority communities aren't sold on the new standards, either. Skepticism in those communities challenges a key argument for why such standardized tests exist in the first place.

A tension has emerged between national civil rights groups, which generally support the Common Core and believe standardized tests can help promote equity, and grassroots activists, who say parents and students have a right to refuse to participate in state tests they don't believe in.

Supporters of test refusal "claim a false mantle of civil rights activism," twelve civil rights organizations said in a statement last month. When parents "opt-out" of state tests, the statement said, they undermine efforts to improve schools for all children.

To understand the debate, it helps to understand the civil rights logic that undergirded the 2002 federal law No Child Left Behind. "The story of children being just shuffled through the system is one of the saddest stories of America," then-President George W. Bush said when he signed the law. Lawmakers wanted to hold schools accountable for every child's progress, regardless of that child's background.

So No Child Left Behind required states to regularly test all children in math and reading, and to separate out scores by student characteristics such as race and disability status. States had to take action when children in any demographic failed to meet learning goals.

The Common Core builds on the same logic. In 2009, a group of experts, backed by state governors and foundations, created a set of learning goals they thought better aligned with the skills students need to succeed in college and the workforce. Today, 43 states have adopted the standards, and children in most of those states took Common Core-aligned tests this spring.

Yet the Common Core has proved incredibly controversial—even more controversial than No Child Left Behind. There's something in the standards for both Democrats and Republicans to hate, from the collection of private student data to the loss of local control. Almost all the Republican presidential candidates—with the exception of former Florida governor Jeb Bush—oppose the standards.

Opponents say U.S. children take too many standardized tests, they don't measure learning well, and the new standards aren't age-appropriate. Quinones thinks the tests aren't fair to Is The Anti-Common Core Movement Just 'Suburban White Moms'? - NationalJournal.com:

Creepy Takeover and other Minnesota Public Education News | Education Town Hall Forum: Archives, Announcements, & Extended Discussion on Weekly Broadcasts...

Creepy Takeover and other Minnesota Public Education News | Education Town Hall Forum: Archives, Announcements, & Extended Discussion on Weekly Broadcasts...:

Creepy Takeover and other Minnesota Public Education News

What do you know about the “creepy” (CRPE: Center on Reinventing Public Education) takeover of our schools? Catch up on this important, but little known, development in public education on this week’s Education Town Hall.

The assumption always seems to be that schools just need to do more with less, so the suggestions are pragmatic. They include encouraging schools to grow their enrollment (the presenter, Marguerite Roza, who now works for CRPE, recommends pushing schools on this, because they’ll always say they’re too full). CRPE also suggests paying teachers extra to teach more kids, and pitting schools against one another in a battle for resources. All of this is based around a central question: What does it look like when a district starts to view schools like businesses?
— read more on AlterNet

Sarah Lahm, Minneapolis-area writer with a background in education, joins We Act Radio’s Education Town Hall, Thursday, June 4, to discuss CRPE’s incursions into Minneapolis and other Minnesota education news.

The Education Town Hall broadcasts from Historic Anacostia in Washington, DC, Thursdays
at 11:00 a.m. Eastern on We Act Radio.
Listen live via TuneIn.
Shows are archived for convenient listening shortly after broadcast.Creepy Takeover and other Minnesota Public Education News | Education Town Hall Forum: Archives, Announcements, & Extended Discussion on Weekly Broadcasts...:

Inside Information and Reflections from a Former TFA trainer | Cloaking Inequity

Inside Information and Reflections from a Former TFA trainer | Cloaking Inequity:

Inside Information and Reflections from a Former TFA trainer

I spent many years training new Teach For America (TFA) recruits. I was responsible for accessing TFA’s classroom practice and reviewing real-time student math test scores.

Lack of Preparation

The bare truth is that way too many TFA’s are assigned to teach math, but are not qualified to do so. They are teaching out of-field, which means that merely because of one’s association with TFA, they are suddenly deemed as math experts when they enter the classroom. How can this be valid when corps members report that they either never took a math class in college, or didn’t complete more than a general college mathematics course? Couple that fact with limited practice actually teaching math to children, and doubts surface regarding math studies and TFA’s effectiveness across all populations of children in public and charter schools in the United States.

What’s generally taken as fact is that Teach For America’s novices graduate in the top 10% of their highly selective institutions. But, not all corps members hail from “elite” universities. The organization’s website notes this admission criteria: “In order to apply to Teach For America you must satisfy the following prerequisites: Your undergraduate cumulative GPA is at least 2.50 on a 4.00 scale.” So, in effect, candidates can apply with a 2.5 GPA and still be admitted. Regardless, neither GPA, nor corps member elite profile necessarily translates to a CM’s classroom effectiveness.

Moreover, way too many variables, with respect to one’s placement, debunks the guarantee that suggests that corps member’s attributes transfer to their students’ math scores in the classroom. Teach For America’s expectation of high performance, often places “blame” squarely on the shoulders of novice corps members when they burn out or fail, who are not adequately prepared when they arrive in their placement classroom, and have no definitive way in determining their teaching assignment (other than selecting a general region where they would agree to be relocated to).

I have coached and come to know very determined and dedicated CM’s who faced challenges in their site-based realities that were obscured from policymakers, corporate funders and philanthropists who drop in for photo Inside Information and Reflections from a Former TFA trainer | Cloaking Inequity:

Columbus school attendance scandal | The Columbus Dispatch

Columbus school attendance scandal | The Columbus Dispatch:

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• Gene Harris sentenced
• Will Gene Harris be charged?
• Tankovich sentencing delayed again
• Columbus schools fires four principals
• Bunker culture contributed to problems
• School Data Scandal Dissected
• Police seize Columbus school records
• Cheating on school enrollment

The Allegation

Columbus City Schools employees - and perhaps others in schools throughout the state - are accused of falsifying students' records to improve their schools' standing on state report cards.

The Method

School workers withdrew students they knew to be still enrolled, deleted their absences, and then re-enrolled them. The district is accused of choosing children with many absences or low test scores.

The Motive

By withdrawing and re-enrolling students, employees can break a student's string of "continuous enrollment." Only the test scores of students who have been enrolled nonstop from October through the time they take state tests in the spring are counted in a school's overall test-passing rate.

Former superintendent Harris pleads to dereliction of duty in data scandal

The former superintendent of Columbus schools pleaded no contest this morning to a misdemeanor dereliction of duty charge for failing to fully investigate and stop data fraud in the district. A judge placed her on probation for a year and sentenced her to 100 hours of community service.

LATEST STORIES

Columbus schools’ data-scandal legal bill: at least $1.4 million

The legal tab paid to a Downtown law firm representing Columbus City Schools in data-rigging matters continued to swell over the second half of this school year. The Columbus Board of Education approved $275,000 more on Tuesday night, to be paid to Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur by the end of this month.

In wake of school data scandal, state investigating more teacher misconduct

The state education department investigated more educators for misconduct last year than it has in at least a decade, a surge driven in part by its scrutiny of dozens of educators caught up in the student-data tampering scandal. In 2014, the Office of Professional Conduct, the educator-discipline arm of the Ohio Department of Education, investigated 997 of the more than 9,000 referrals of potential wrongdoing it received, according to the annual report the office released this week.

Ginther’s documents show Columbus school audit started, then stalled

Responding to attacks by his political opponents that he didn’t do enough to uncover the Columbus schools data scandal, Columbus mayoral candidate Andrew J. Ginther says his campaign has unearthed documents that show the investigation continued at least as long as he was on the school board. But one of the key documents — a list of school-district audits active as of November 2006 — also shows that about two years after the student data audit started, investigators had spent just 114 hours on it. That’s equivalent to about a week and a half of work for two auditors.

School board fires ex-principal who altered grades at Marion-Franklin

The Columbus Board of Education voted unanimously last night to fire former Marion-Franklin High School Principal Pamela Diggs. A hearing examiner ruled last month that her role in district data manipulation was “dramatically wrong.” Diggs changed 186 grades at her school during the 2010-11 school year. At Marion-Franklin that year, 31,079 absences were deleted and 43 students were withdrawn retroactively at year’s end.

Columbus schools auditor gets three-year contract, raise

The Columbus school board approved a three-year contract for its internal auditor last night and gave her a raise. Carolyn Smith, who is most well known for investigating and helping to expose the district’s student-data scandal, had been working under a series of one-year contracts. Her salary will increase to $131,000 a year from $97,500.

Report: Firing former Marion-Franklin principal is justified

The Columbus school board would be justified in firing a former principal for falsifying student data at her school, a hearing officer ruled yesterday. Pamela Diggs, the former principal at Marion-Franklin High School, is the second principal the district moved to fire more than a year ago in connection with its data scandal. Diggs and other educators at her school had to return bonuses that were based on the altered data.

Ex-administrators from Columbus schools stripped of licenses

Two former Columbus schools administrators — one involved in the district’s data scandal and another who used school email and students to send sexually explicit notes to a teacher — lost their educator licenses yesterday.

Columbus school board dumps ‘policy governance’

It was out with the old last night, as Columbus City Schools ridded itself of the controversial “ policy governance” oversight model that it instituted in 2006, fired a principal accused of data-rigging and announced it would sell three unused school buildings. Policy governance, the hands-off model that put extraordinary power to run the district in the hands of the superintendent with minimal board oversight, is officially revoked. In a unanimous vote, the board put the final nail in the coffin of a system that began crumbling soon after it became apparent that a major data-altering scandal had been allowed to unfold under the board members’ collective noses.

Most Columbus schools staff repaying unearned bonuses

Most of the Columbus school workers who were told to repay unearned bonuses have started making payments, district financial data shows.

Columbus school board justified if it fires ex-principal, hearing officer rules

The former Linden-McKinley STEM Academy principal cared for her students, but overwhelming evidence that she knowingly cheated gives the Columbus school board good reason to fire her, a hearing officer has ruled. In a decision sent yesterday to lawyers for Columbus City Schools and for former principal Tiffany L. Chavers, the hearing officer agreed that evidence and witnesses in an 11-day employment hearing proved Chavers withdrew undesirable students and gave passing grades to some who failed.

Columbus school attendance scandal | The Columbus Dispatch:

The ugly reform mess in Newark public schools — by a top Newark education official - The Washington Post

The ugly reform mess in Newark public schools — by a top Newark education official - The Washington Post:

The ugly reform mess in Newark public schools — by a top Newark education official

Cami Anderson, the hermit superintendent of the Newark schools

The public school system in Newark, N.J., is not run by the people of Newark but, rather, by a superintendent appointed by Gov. Chris Christie (R). That superintendent, Cami Anderson, who was appointed in 2011, has turned many in the city — including former allies — against her as she has implemented a highly controversial reform plan, called “One Newark.”According to this story by my Post colleague Lyndsey Layton, this is how the reforms were implemented:

The plan, which fully took effect during this academic year, essentially blew up the old system. It eliminated neighborhood schools in favor of a citywide lottery designed to give parents more choices. It prompted mass firings of principals and teachers, and it led to numerous school closures and a sharp rise in the city’s reliance on charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run.

“One Newark” has led to seven separate complaints of civil rights violations now under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, Layton reported. In April 2014, dozens of clergy in Newark warned Christie that school reform was causing so much “unnecessary instability” that they were “concerned about the level of public anger” over the issue. Weeks later, Newark voters elected a new mayor, Ras Baraka, whose campaign was focused on attacking Anderson’s reforms, and who continues to call for Anderson’s resignation. To date, Christie has maintained his support for Anderson.

Just last week, Baraka issued his latest letter to the Newark community in which he blasts Anderson’s reforms, saying in part (note that the bold-face type and underlining is in the original letter.] :

The facts can no longer be ignored. Our schools are being failed. They are not failing; they are being failed. Our schools have been attacked by a narrow reform agenda that amounts to nothing more than chaos, graft, and mis-education.

The following post details what is going on in the Newark district, which was so low-performing that the state took over in control in 1995 but failed to either do much to improve things or return control back to the city. This was written by Lauren Wells, who was appointed in 2014 as the Chief Education Officer in Baraka’s administration. An educator and school change agent, she was, from 2006-2009,  the project coordinator of a statewide education policy coalition called the New Jersey Education Organizing Coalition.  In 2009, Dr. Wells became the director of the Broader Bolder Approach to Education at the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University, where she  led the design and implementation of a major school reform initiative in The ugly reform mess in Newark public schools — by a top Newark education official - The Washington Post:

Baraka: Time for the people to take back their schools.

Perfect attendance: Let charter schools keep track of charter students | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Perfect attendance: Let charter schools keep track of charter students | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Perfect attendance: Let charter schools keep track of charter students

Pennsylvania school districts pay the tuition of 119,000 students who don’t attend their schools but instead go to charter schools or learn online through one of 14 cyber schools. Should the districts that don’t teach these students have to monitor their attendance?

State Rep. Dom Costa thinks not. The Stanton Heights Democrat has a bill that would require charter schools, including cyber schools, rather than the students’ home districts, to report truancy. Some charter-school chiefs are concerned about that, saying they are already stretched too thin. But all schools are. Attendance can’t be divorced from achievement, and the charter schools should not dump their work on the school districts.

While brick-and-mortar schools monitor absenteeism through empty seats, cyber charters measure attendance electronically. Students must check in each day through Blackboard.com, and their presence is monitored via their online activity. In both physical and cyber schools, truancy — in Pennsylvania, defined as three or more unexcused absences — has significant social costs. Chronic absences are considered a predictor of substance abuse, teen pregnancy and delinquency. One California study showed that 60 percent of juvenile crime occurred during school hours. Another, at Johns Hopkins University, estimates that 10 to 15 percent of U.S. students are chronically absent.

The idea that a school district, which has nothing to do with a student other than paying the tuition bill, should be responsible for attendance is nonsense. Charter schools, like their traditional compatriots, should be responsible for every aspect of their students’ learning — including that all important “Here.”

Meet the Editorial Board.

Perfect attendance: Let charter schools keep track of charter students | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

The great charter school rip-off: Finally, the truth catches up to education “reform” phonies - Salon.com

The great charter school rip-off: Finally, the truth catches up to education “reform” phonies - Salon.com:

The great charter school rip-off: Finally, the truth catches up to education “reform” phonies

Fraud, financial mismanagement, lousy results: Reports highlight awful charter schools and people are catching on

Diane Ravitch, Michelle Rhee (Credit: MSNBC/AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

Last week when former President Bill Clinton meandered onto the topic of charter schools, he mentioned something about an “original bargain” that charters were, according to the reporter for The Huffington Post, “supposed to do a better job of educating students.”

A writer at Salon called the remark “stunning” because it brought to light the fact that the overwhelming majority of charter schools do no better than traditional public schools. Yet, as the Huffington reporter reminded us, charter schools are rarely shuttered for low academic performance.

But what’s most remarkable about what Clinton said is how little his statement resembles the truth about how charters have become a reality in so many American communities.

In a real “bargaining process,” those who bear the consequences of the deal have some say-so on the terms, the deal-makers have to represent themselves honestly (or the deal is off and the negotiating ends), and there are measures in place to ensure everyone involved is held accountable after the deal has been struck.

But that’s not what’s happening in the great charter industry rollout transpiring across the country. Rather than a negotiation over terms, charters are being imposed on communities – either by legislative fiat or well-engineered public policy campaigns. Many charter school operators keep their practices hidden or have been found to be blatantly corrupt. And no one seems to be doing anything to ensure real accountability for these rapidly expanding school operations.

Instead of the “bargain” political leaders may have thought they struck with seemingly well-intentioned charter entrepreneurs, what has transpired instead looks more like a raw deal for millions of students, their families, and their communities. And what political leaders ought to be doing – rather than spouting unfounded platitudes, as Clinton did, about “what works” – is putting the brakes on a deal gone bad, ensuring those most affected by charter school rollouts are brought to the bargaining table, and completely renegotiating the terms for governing these schools.

Charter Schools As Takeover Operations

The “100 percent charter schools” education system in New Orleans that Clinton praised was never presented to the citizens of New Orleans in a negotiation. It was surreptitiously engineered.

After Katrina, as NPR recently reported, “an ad hoc coalition of elected leaders and nationally known charter advocates formed,” and in “a series of quick decisions,” all school employees were fired and the vast majority of the city’s schools were handed over to a state entity called the “Recovery School District” which is governed by unelected officials. Only a “few elite schools were … allowed to maintain their selective admissions.”

In other words, any bargaining that was done was behind closed doors and at tables where most of the people who were being affected had no seat.

Further, any evidence of the improvement of the educational attainment of students in the New Orleans all-charter system is obtainable only by “jukin the stats” or, as the NPR reporter put it, through “a distortion of the curriculum and teaching practice.” As Andrea Gabor wrote for Newsweek a year ago, “the current reality of the city’s schools should be enough to give pause to even the most passionate charter supporters.”

Yet now political leaders tout this model for the rest of the country. So school districts that have not had the “benefit,” according to Arne Duncan, of a natural disaster like Katrina, are having charter schools imposed on them in blatant power plays. An obvious example is what’s currently happening in the York, Pennsylvania.

School districts across the state of Pennsylvania are financially troubled due to chronic state underfunding – only 36 percent of K-12 revenue comes from the state, way below national averages – and massive budget cuts imposed by Republican Governor Tom Corbett (the state funds education less than it did in 2008).

The state cuts seemed to have been intentionally targeted to hit high-poverty school The great charter school rip-off: Finally, the truth catches up to education “reform” phonies - Salon.com: