Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 7/9/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Diane Ravitch’s devastating Arne Duncan critique: The education secretary earned his F - Salon.com

Diane Ravitch’s devastating Arne Duncan critique: The education secretary earned his F - Salon.com: Diane Ravitch’s devastating Arne Duncan critique: The education secretary earned his FIt will take years to recover from the damage that Arne Duncan's policies have inflicted on public educationDIANE RAVITCHLyndsey Layton of the Washington Post has written a sympathetic article about Arne Duncan and

by mike simpson / 1min 

Bernie Sanders’ Plan for America’s Young Adults | deutsch29

Bernie Sanders’ Plan for America’s Young Adults | deutsch29: Bernie Sanders’ Plan for America’s Young AdultsI first saw the video excerpt below at dailykos.com. It is well worth watching. Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) addressed the Senate on July 08, 2015.In the 17-minute speech above, Sanders’ words are pointed as he tells Congress that it is “out of touch with the American people.” He talks of the

by mike simpson / 1h 

Bathrooms, Sports, and Pronouns: How Transgender Students Are Navigating School Discrimination - The Atlantic

Bathrooms, Sports, and Pronouns: How Transgender Students Are Navigating School Discrimination - The Atlantic: The K-12 BinarySchools are becoming ground zero for clashes over transgender rights.Casey Hoke would spend an average of two minutes out of his seven-hour school day in the restroom. “That’s it. Business as usual. No one bats an eye,” Hokewrote in January, back when he was a high-school s

by mike simpson / 4h 

Marie Corfield: Newark Public Schools: Frying Pan to Fire

Marie Corfield: Newark Public Schools: Frying Pan to Fire:  Newark Public Schools: Frying Pan to FireAs part of an agreement reached between Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Gov. Christie to return local control of the city's public schools, yesterday the New Jersey State Board of Education, under the leadership of Christie-appointed Education Commissioner David Hespe, voted to appoint the former—and c

by mike simpson / 4h 

Education Secretary Duncan’s children to go to Chicago private school he attended - The Washington Post

Education Secretary Duncan’s children to go to Chicago private school he attended - The Washington Post: Education Secretary Duncan’s children to go to Chicago private school he attendedEducation Secretary Arne Duncan grew up in Chicago and attended the private, prestigious University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. The pre-K-12 Lab Schools are progressive institutions that, according to its Web si

by mike simpson / 6h 

The Arne Duncan Era Has Not Been Good for Students | Common Dreams

The Arne Duncan Era Has Not Been Good for Students | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community: The Arne Duncan Era Has Not Been Good for StudentsWaPo's Lyndsey Layton: Arne Duncan will stay on until the last buzzerbyDiane RavitchLyndsey Layton of the Washington Post has written a sympathetic article about Arne Duncan and the waning of his powers as Secretary of Educa

by mike simpson / 6h 

U.S. House Passes Harmful Version of an ESEA Reauthorization Yesterday Afternoon | janresseger

U.S. House Passes Harmful Version of an ESEA Reauthorization Yesterday Afternoon | janresseger: U.S. House Passes Harmful Version of an ESEA Reauthorization Yesterday AfternoonLauren Camera, who has been following the Congressional debate on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for Education Week, reported last night: “The U.S. House of Representatives reconsidered and

by mike simpson / 7h 

2015 NEA Representative Assembly Wrap-Up: Unite, Inspire, Lead! - NEA Today

2015 NEA Representative Assembly Wrap-Up: Unite, Inspire, Lead! - NEA Today: 2015 NEA Representative Assembly Wrap-Up: Unite, Inspire, Lead!  More than 7,000 educators from all 50 states gathered in Orlando, Florida, from July 3-6 to attend the National Education Association’s 94th Representative Assembly (RA). The RA is the top decision-making body for the nearly 3 million-member NEA, and sets As

by mike simpson / 7h 

LCAP not API to serve as school performance monitor :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet

LCAP not API to serve as school performance monitor :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet: LCAP not API to serve as school performance monitorby Kimberly Beltran(Calif.) In a subtle but significant policy shift, state education officials acknowledged publicly Wednesday that the focal point for measuring school performance going forward will be the

by mike simpson / 7h 

States Still Differ Dramatically In Their Academic Expectations, Study Finds

States Still Differ Dramatically In Their Academic Expectations, Study Finds: States Still Differ Dramatically In Their Academic Expectations, Study FindsWhat does it mean to be passing math class?The answer to this question varies from state to state, according to a new report released by the research arm of the Education Department, the National Center for Education Statistics. These differences

by mike simpson / 8h 

Senate Passes Bill Letting Schools Give Education Money To Financial Consulting Firms

Senate Passes Bill Letting Schools Give Education Money To Financial Consulting Firms: Senate Passes Bill Letting Schools Give Education Money To Financial Consulting FirmsAs budget-strapped Chicago follows a mass school closure with a new plan to layoff more than 1,400 teachers, one set of transactions sticks out: the city’s moves to refinance $1 billion in debt through complex financial instrume

by mike simpson / 8h 

No Child Left Behind Debate: Teachers In Low-Income Areas Hope For Less Testing, More Understanding

No Child Left Behind Debate: Teachers In Low-Income Areas Hope For Less Testing, More Understanding: No Child Left Behind Debate: Teachers In Low-Income Areas Hope For Less Testing, More UnderstandingShanna Mills can tell what kind of day her students are having by the way they walk into the room at 7:45 a.m. At Carlisle County Middle School in rural Bardwell, Kentucky, they come in late, hungry a

by mike simpson / 8h 

Detroit teachers union accuses district of threatening and intimidating outspoken teachers | MLive.com

Detroit teachers union accuses district of threatening and intimidating outspoken teachers | MLive.com: Detroit teachers union accuses district of threatening and intimidating outspoken teachersDETROIT — The Detroit Federation of Teachers is accusing Detroit Public Schools officials of intimidating teachers who spoke out about conditions at their schools and declining to hear union complaints.A Mi

by mike simpson / 8h 

Some say standardized testing is a civil right. What about less testing as a civil right? - The Washington Post

Some say standardized testing is a civil right. What about less testing as a civil right? - The Washington Post: Some say standardized testing is a civil right. What about less testing as a civil right?For some time now some civil rights groups have been contended that maintaining annual standardized testing in any new federal law is a civil right. How about the opposite? How about refusing to bom

by mike simpson / 8h 

Arne Duncan's Legacy | Diane Ravitch

Arne Duncan's Legacy | Diane Ravitch: Arne Duncan's LegacyLyndsey Layton of the Washington Posthas written a sympathetic article about Arne Duncan and the waning of his powers as Secretary of Education. He is a nice guy. He is a close friend of the president. He cares about individual children that he met along the way. The pending reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will

by mike simpson / 8h 

The Nonprofit Industrial Complex's Role in Imposing Neoliberalism on Public Education

The Nonprofit Industrial Complex's Role in Imposing Neoliberalism on Public Education: The Nonprofit Industrial Complex's Role in Imposing Neoliberalism on Public Education"In the long run, NGOs are accountable to their funders, not to the people they work among. They're what botanists would call an indicator species. It's almost as though the greater the devastation caused by neoliberalism,

by mike simpson / 9h 

My Report on House and Senate July 08, 2015, ESEA Actions | deutsch29

My Report on House and Senate July 08, 2015, ESEA Actions | deutsch29: My Report on House and Senate July 08, 2015, ESEA ActionsThis week, both the House and the Senate are promoting their respective versions of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965.A bit of info regarding what transpired July 08, 2015:On July 08, 2015, the House passed its version, the S

by mike simpson / 9h 

Is Special Education Racist? - The New York Times

Is Special Education Racist? - The New York Times: Is Special Education Racist?MORE than six million children in the United States receive special-education services for their disabilities. Of those age 6 and older, nearly 20 percent are black.Critics claim that this high number — blacks are 1.4 times more likely to be placed in special education than other races and ethnicities combined — shows t

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

The state spits in Newark’s face | Bob Braun's Ledger

The state spits in Newark’s face | Bob Braun's Ledger: The state spits in Newark’s face(Editor’s Note: I was unable to attend Wednesday’s meeting of the state school board and asked Melissa Katz, a well-known student activist and supporter of public education, to cover the meeting for me. Her report is complete and comprehensive and will give the most thorough  account of what happened at the meet

by mike simpson / 21h 

As Congress moves to strip his power, Duncan is staying until the final buzzer - The Washington Post

As Congress moves to strip his power, Duncan is staying until the final buzzer - The Washington Post: As Congress moves to strip his power, Duncan is staying until the final buzzerChristina Waters’s cellphone rang, and she looked down to see that the number was blocked. She knew immediately it was U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, just calling to check in.It has been that way since Waters atte

by mike simpson / 21h 

Lawmakers Move to Limit Government’s Role in Education - The New York Times

Lawmakers Move to Limit Government’s Role in Education - The New York Times: Lawmakers Move to Limit Government’s Role in EducationWASHINGTON — Congress on Wednesday moved to substantially scale back the federal government’s role in education, particularly the use of high-stakes standardized testing to punish schools, in the first significant proposed revisions since the No Child Left Behind law w

by mike simpson / 22h 

On The Sacramento Bee's soft spot for K.J. - Sacramento News & Review -

Sacramento News & Review - On The Sacramento Bee's soft spot for K.J. - Feature Story - Local Stories - July 9, 2015: On The Sacramento Bee's soft spot for K.J.The Bee has been criticized before for its handling of Johnson’s various controversies, and this latest legal dust-up isn’t helpingIt’s weird when news organizationsbecome the news. But that’s exactly what happened when Mayor Kevin John

by mike simpson / 23h hide  //  save

Sacramento News & Review - Nine things that burn in your brain when the mayor sues you - Feature Story - Local Stories - July 9, 2015

Sacramento News & Review - Nine things that burn in your brain when the mayor sues you - Feature Story - Local Stories - July 9, 2015: Nine things that burn in your brain when the mayor sues youA special Mayor Kevin Johnson listicleThis week was at once weird, unexpected, electric and head-scratching.We got sued by the mayor, what the hell is going on? Only a listicle will do. And, so: Nine th

by mike simpson / 23h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 7/8/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP CORPORATE ED REFORMCivil Rights and Community Groups Demand End to High Stakes Testing and Moratorium on Charter Schools | Seattle EducationCivil Rights and Community Groups Demand End to High Stakes Testing and Moratorium on Charter Schools | Seattle Education: Civil Rights and Community Groups Demand End to High Stakes Testing and Moratorium on Charter SchoolsThis letter was iss

by mike simpson / 23h 

Diane Ravitch’s devastating Arne Duncan critique: The education secretary earned his F - Salon.com

Diane Ravitch’s devastating Arne Duncan critique: The education secretary earned his F - Salon.com:

Diane Ravitch’s devastating Arne Duncan critique: The education secretary earned his F

It will take years to recover from the damage that Arne Duncan's policies have inflicted on public education

DIANE RAVITCH

Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post has written a sympathetic article about Arne Duncan and the waning of his powers as Secretary of Education. He is a nice guy. He is a close friend of the president. He cares about individual children that he met along the way. The pending reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will prohibit him and future Secretaries from interfering in state decisions about standards, curriculum and assessment. His family has already moved back to Chicago. But he will stay on the job to the very end.

When Obama was elected, many educators and parents thought that Obama would bring a new vision of the federal role in education, one that freed schools from the test-and-punish mindset of George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind. But Arne Duncan and Barack Obama had a vision no different from George W. Bush and doubled down on the importance of testing, while encouraging privatization and undermining the teaching profession with a $50 million grant to Teach for America to place more novice teachers in high-needs schools. Duncan never said a bad word about charters, no matter how many scandals and frauds were revealed.

During Duncan’s tenure in office:

* He used his control of billions of dollars to promote a dual school system of privately managed charter schools operating alongside public schools;

* He has done nothing to call attention to the fraud and corruption in the charter sector or to curb charters run by non-educators for profit or to insist on charter school accountability or to require charters to enroll the neediest children;

* He pushed to require states to evaluate teachers by the test scores of their students, which has caused massive demoralization among teachers, raised the stakes attached to testing, and produced no positive results;

* He used federal funds and waivers from NCLB to push the adoption of Common Core standards and to create two testing consortia, which many states have abandoned;

* The Common Core tests are so absurdly “rigorous” that most students have failed them, even in schools that send high percentages of students to four-year colleges, the failure rates have been highest among students who are English language learners, students with disabilities, and students of color;

* He has bemoaned rising resegregation of the schools but done nothing to reduce it;

* He has been silent as state after state has attacked collective bargaining and due process for teachers;

* He has done nothing in response to the explosion of voucher programs that transfer public funds to religious schools;

* Because of his policies, enrollments in teacher education programs, even in Teach for America, have plummeted, and many experienced teachers are taking early Diane Ravitch’s devastating Arne Duncan critique: The education secretary earned his F - Salon.com:

Bernie Sanders’ Plan for America’s Young Adults | deutsch29

Bernie Sanders’ Plan for America’s Young Adults | deutsch29:

Bernie Sanders’ Plan for America’s Young Adults

I first saw the video excerpt below at dailykos.com. It is well worth watching. Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) addressed the Senate on July 08, 2015.

In the 17-minute speech above, Sanders’ words are pointed as he tells Congress that it is “out of touch with the American people.” He talks of the need to raise the minimum wage. Sanders notes the redistribution of wealth in America over the last 30 years. He talks of the shrinking middle class, of how the top one-tenth of one percent of Americans own 22 percent of the wealth, and how the bottom 90 percent also own 22 percent of America’s wealth.

He notes that in America, “the richest country in the world ever,” around 50 percent of school children are on free or reduced lunch. Sanders also discussed parents drowning financially from trying to afford child care and calls for universal pre-K.

And he calls No Child Left Behind (NCLB) “a failure.”

Sanders next discusses youth unemployment, an issue he says has gone unaddressed, with over 5.5 million young people as either having dropped out of high school or having graduated and are not employed. Sanders cites that according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the average real unemployment rate for high school graduates between the ages of 17 and 20 was 33.8 percent for whites and 36.1 percent for Hispanics (April 2014 to March 2015). Sanders also noted that average real unemployment rate for black graduates and dropouts was 51.3 percent.

Sanders: “It is no great secret to anyone that without work, without education, without hope, people get into trouble…. In the US today, we have more people in jail than any other country on earth… more than China, with a population of over three times our population.” Sanders cites the tragedy that over half of America’s black males are Bernie Sanders’ Plan for America’s Young Adults | deutsch29:

Bathrooms, Sports, and Pronouns: How Transgender Students Are Navigating School Discrimination - The Atlantic

Bathrooms, Sports, and Pronouns: How Transgender Students Are Navigating School Discrimination - The Atlantic:

The K-12 Binary

Schools are becoming ground zero for clashes over transgender rights.

Casey Hoke would spend an average of two minutes out of his seven-hour school day in the restroom. “That’s it. Business as usual. No one bats an eye,” Hokewrote in January, back when he was a high-school senior in Louisville, Kentucky. “How we go about our business is none of yours.”

By “we,” Hoke was referring to transgender students. He was primarily addressing Kentucky’s legislature, which at the time was considering a bill that would’ve cracked down on transgender students’ use of K-12 bathrooms. The legislation would’ve legally required schools to ensure that children follow anatomical conventions when using gender-segregated school facilities: that children who were born boys but identify as girls use the boys’ restroom, and vice versa. What Hoke found particularly egregious about the “Kentucky Student Privacy Act” was that, in its original version, the legislation also would’ve entitledstudents who sued offenders in state court to damages of $2,500 each. Hoke compared this proposed system to a witch hunt.

“How we go about our business is none of yours.”

The legislation died in committee well before the session ended, with the bill’s author, the Senator C.B. Embry, withdrawing it amid concerns over its legality. But such debates will surely continue—and not only because of the global fascination with Caitlyn Jenner. Bills similar to the one in Kentucky were introduced and later died in states including Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, andTexas.

Meanwhile, controversies related to transgender youth regularly pop up at individual schools and districts across the country. For example, Virginia’s Stafford school board enforced a policy similar to the Kentucky legislation earlier this year after one school allowed a transgender male to use the boys’ restroom. Just last month, a 16-year-old transgender student filed a lawsuit against a school board in another Virginia district over a similar policy that required the student to use an “alternative” restroom instead. The U.S. Department of Education, which last year made it clear that Title IX also applies to transgender students, recentlyfiled a statement of interest in support of the student.

At least two lawsuits—one involving a first-grader in Colorado and another involving Nicole Maines, a high-schooler in Maine—have upheld access to bathrooms for transgender children, the latter of which awarded Maines’s family $75,000. And the New York Civil Liberties Union released an in-depth reportlast month that’s said to document “the serious and pervasive discrimination and harassment faced by transgender and gender nonconforming youth” in public schools across the state of New York.

The country is in the midst of what Time magazine last March dubbed “The Transgender Tipping Point,” which helps explain why these controversies are becoming more prevalent. And schools are emerging as the fulcrum for that Bathrooms, Sports, and Pronouns: How Transgender Students Are Navigating School Discrimination - The Atlantic:

Marie Corfield: Newark Public Schools: Frying Pan to Fire

Marie Corfield: Newark Public Schools: Frying Pan to Fire:

 Newark Public Schools: Frying Pan to Fire

As part of an agreement reached between Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Gov. Christie to return local control of the city's public schools, yesterday the New Jersey State Board of Education, under the leadership of Christie-appointed Education Commissioner David Hespe, voted to appoint the former—and controversial—NJ Education Commissioner Chris Cerf as superintendent of Newark, following the controversial Cami Anderson's long-awaited resignation.

As thrilled as many of us in the education activist community are at seeing Anderson go, Cerf was her boss, so there's more than enough skepticism that things will change. But Baraka, an educator himself, ran and won on a platform of regaining local control. He's been an outspoken critic of Anderson and Christie's 'reform' agenda, so I have to believe that he truly has a plan. 

But appointing the uber-reformy Broad Book Club (as Jersey Jazzman calls it) Academy graduate Chris Cerf, not as an acting superintendent, but as a full-fledged super with a 3 year contract is not exactly the road to local control the citizens of Newark envisioned. And they voiced their displeasure earlier this week with a rally at City Hall. 

Photo courtesy New Jersey News 12

The state BOE voted 6-3 to approve Cerf with the Christie appointees voting in the majority. And the 'reformy' rhetoric was flying! Education activist and college student,Melissa Katz, attended yesterday's BOE meeting and reported on it over at Bob Braun's Ledger. The following is her transcript of the meeting. In an homage to the Common Marie Corfield: Newark Public Schools: Frying Pan to Fire:

Education Secretary Duncan’s children to go to Chicago private school he attended - The Washington Post

Education Secretary Duncan’s children to go to Chicago private school he attended - The Washington Post:

Education Secretary Duncan’s children to go to Chicago private school he attended

Education Secretary Arne Duncan grew up in Chicago and attended the private, prestigious University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. The pre-K-12 Lab Schools are progressive institutions that, according to its Web site, “ignite and nurture an enduring spirit of scholarship, curiosity, creativity, and confidence” and “value learning experientially, exhibiting kindness, and honoring diversity.”

The teachers there are unionized and respected by administrators. President Obama’s two daughters attended the school before moving to Washington in 2009, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s children are enrolled there now. And in the fall, Duncan’s children will be attending Lab, too, while his wife works there.

Duncan’s wife, Karen, and his two children, Claire and Ryan, recently moved back to Chicago, eager to restart life in the city where they lived before then President-elect Barack Obama asked his old friend in 2008 to run the U.S. Education Department. Before that, Duncan had served as the chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools from 2001 through December 2008 and instituted reforms — including closing schools, performance pay for teachers, and charter schools — that never resulted in the significant system turnaround he began demanding of other systems as education secretary.

Duncan will remain in Washington D.C., serving out the Obama administration’s second term before rejoining his family in Chicago. The move has been in the works for some time; Karen Duncan was seen at the Lab Schools in late January with her two children (who “shadowed” other students through a school day, which is commonly done by students preparing to attend a particular school).

[Even as Congress moves to strip his power, Arne Duncan holds his ground]

Dorie Nolt, Duncan’s press secretary, said in an e-mail:

After more than six years living just outside Washington, D.C., Secretary Duncan’s family moved back to Chicago recently. His wife, Karen, is ready to resume her full-time career in education and will work at her former employer, the University of Chicago Laboratory School, where their children will attend school. Secretary Duncan will continue to work and maintain a residence in D.C. but commute to spend weekends with his family, as many cabinet Secretaries have done. Secretary Duncan remains committed to his work in the Cabinet and will continue to serve at the pleasure of the President.

Since 2009, the Duncan family had lived in Virginia, where the two children attended public schools in Arlington. In an April 2015 interview with Fatherly.com, Duncan was asked what he has learned about the U.S. public education system from being a father as opposed to being education secretary, and he said:

“The only hard part is fitting into those little chairs with the desks. That can be tough. My children have been to schools in both Chicago and Arlington, Virginia. First and foremost, I’m a dad – that’s the most important thing in my life by far. And I’m extraordinarily thankful that my children are able to go to wonderful public schools with great principals and teachers who are really committed. My wife and I have been really pleased with the quality of the education our children have received and we just try to do what we can to be good partners to their teachers.”

But now his children will attend a progressive private school in Chicago, a school that does not follow key school reform policies that his Education Department has set for public schools.

It does not, for example, use the Common Core State Standards (though many teachers there support them). It does not bombard its students with standardized tests or spend weeks each semester in test-prep mode. It does not evaluate teachers by student standardized test scores. In 2013, 20 Lab teachers signed a letter to Duncan protesting his policies that promote standardized test-based school reform. Also among the signatories were teachers from the Ariel Community Academy, a public school founded by a team of people that included Duncan.

Why are the Duncans sending their children to this private school?

Duncan’s wife, Karen, used to work at Lab and has rejoined the staff in the middle school admissions department. Dolt attributed the following quote to Duncan: “Given my not living in Chicago, we’re trying to keep things as simple as possible.”

There is not a single thing unreasonable about Duncan wanting his children to go to a school that is logistically easy for his family. Who would begrudge any parents who want to send their children to a good school that is easy for Education Secretary Duncan’s children to go to Chicago private school he attended - The Washington Post:

The Arne Duncan Era Has Not Been Good for Students | Common Dreams

The Arne Duncan Era Has Not Been Good for Students | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community:

The Arne Duncan Era Has Not Been Good for Students

WaPo's Lyndsey Layton: Arne Duncan will stay on until the last buzzer

byDiane Ravitch

Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post has written a sympathetic article about Arne Duncan and the waning of his powers as Secretary of Education. He is a nice guy. He is a close friend of the President. He cares about individual children that he met along the way. The pending reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will prohibit him and future Secretaries from interfering in state decisions about standards, curriculum, and assessment. His family has already moved back to Chicago. But he will stay on the job to the very end.

It will take years to recover from the damage that Arne Duncan’s policies have inflicted on public education. He exceeded the authority of his office to promote a failed agenda, one that had no evidence behind it.

When Obama was elected, many educators and parents thought that Obama would bring a new vision of the federal role in education, one that freed schools from the test-and-punish mindset of George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind. But Arne Duncan and Barack Obama had a vision no different from George W. Bush and doubled down on the importance of testing, while encouraging privatization and undermining the teaching profession with a $50 million grant to Teach for America to place more novice teachers in high-needs schools. Duncan never said a bad word about charters, no matter how many scandals and frauds were revealed.

During Duncan’s tenure in office,

*He used his control of billions of dollars to promote a dual school system of privately managed charter schools operating alongside public schools;

*He has done nothing to call attention to the fraud and corruption in the charter sector or to curb charters run by non-educators for profit or to insist on charter school accountability or to require charters to enroll the neediest children;

*He pushed to require states to evaluate teachers by the test scores of their students, which has caused massive demoralization among teachers, raised the stakes attached to testing, and produced no positive results;

*He used federal funds and waivers from NCLB to push the adoption of Common Core standards and to create two testing consortia, which many states have abandoned;

*The Common Core tests are so absurdly “rigorous” that most students have failed them, even in schools that send high percentages of students to four-year colleges, the failure rates have been highest among students who are English language learners, students with disabilities, and students of color;

*He has bemoaned rising resegregation of the schools but done nothing to reduce it;

His tenure has been marked by the rise of an aggressive privatization movement, which seeks to eliminate public education in urban districts, where residents have the least political power.

*He has been silent as state after state has attacked collective bargaining and due process for teachers;

*He has done nothing in response to the explosion of voucher programs that transfer public funds to religious schools;

*Because of his policies, enrollments in teacher education programs, even in Teach for America, have plummeted, and many experienced teachers are taking early retirement;

*He has unleashed a mad frenzy of testing in classrooms across the country, treating standardized test scores as the goal of all education, rather than as a measure;

*His tenure has been marked by the rise of an aggressive privatization movement, which seeks to eliminate public education in urban districts, where residents have the least political power;

*He loosened the regulations on the federal student privacy act, permitting massive data mining of the data banks that federal funds created;

This era has not been good for teachers, who feel disrespected and demeaned by governors, legislatures, and the U.S. Department of Education. This era has not been good for parents, who see their local public schools lose resources to charter schools and see their children subjected to endless, intensive testing.

*He looked the other way as predatory for-profit colleges preyed on veterans and minorities, plunging students deep into debt;

*Duncan has regularly accused parents and teachers of “lying” to students. For reasons that are unclear, he wants everyone to believe that our public schools are terrible, our students are lazy, not too bright, and lacking ambition. If he were a basketball coach, he would have been encouraging the team to try harder and to reach for greater accomplishment, but instead he took every opportunity to run down the team and repeat how dreadful they are. He spoke of “respect” but he never showed it.

This era has not been good for students; nearly a quarter live in poverty, and fully 51% live in low-income families. This era has not been good for teachers, who feel disrespected and The Arne Duncan Era Has Not Been Good for Students | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community:

U.S. House Passes Harmful Version of an ESEA Reauthorization Yesterday Afternoon | janresseger

U.S. House Passes Harmful Version of an ESEA Reauthorization Yesterday Afternoon | janresseger:

U.S. House Passes Harmful Version of an ESEA Reauthorization Yesterday Afternoon

Lauren Camera, who has been following the Congressional debate on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for Education Week, reported last night: “The U.S. House of Representatives reconsidered and ultimately passed Wednesday a Republican-backed reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act….  After considering 14 amendments, including a failed Democratic substitute, members passed the ESEA rewrite, formally known as the Student Success Act, with a very close vote of 218-213.  Twenty-seven Republicans crossed party-line to join the entire Democratic caucus in voting against the bill.”

Here is Camera’s summary of the bill’s substance: “Overall, the bill represents a dramatic departure from the current version of the federal K-12 law, the No Child Left Behind Act, and would turn much of the decision making over to states. It would eliminate the current accountability system, known as adequate yearly progress, and despite requiring states to intervene in schools that aren’t performing well, it wouldn’t tell states how to do so or how many schools to try to fix at a time.  The measure would also allow states to set their own academic standards, and would prohibit the U.S. Secretary of Education from requiring states to adopt the Common Core Standards, or any other set of standards.  While the bill would keep in place the current federal testing schedule and the requirement that states disaggregate student achievement data, Democrats argued those provisions aren’t enough to protect the most disadvantaged students.  They took particular exception to provisions in the bill that would allow Title I dollars for low-income students to follow them to the school of their choice.”

This specific provision of the House version, “Title I Portability,” would significantly undermine the Title I Formula.  (This blog has critiqued Title I Portability here and here.)  In an article posted by the Washington Post last night, Lindsey Layton and Emma Brown define the Title I portability provision that the House passed yesterday: “One of the most contested aspects of the bill would change how federal funds are allocated to help educate poor students.  Public schools now receive those federal funds according to a formula based on the number of disadvantaged students enrolled.  Under the Republican plan, known as ‘Title I portability,’ the money would ‘follow the child’—if a poor student transferred from a high-poverty school to a wealthier one, the federal money would follow the student to the new U.S. House Passes Harmful Version of an ESEA Reauthorization Yesterday Afternoon | janresseger:

2015 NEA Representative Assembly Wrap-Up: Unite, Inspire, Lead! - NEA Today

2015 NEA Representative Assembly Wrap-Up: Unite, Inspire, Lead! - NEA Today:

2015 NEA Representative Assembly Wrap-Up: Unite, Inspire, Lead! 

 More than 7,000 educators from all 50 states gathered in Orlando, Florida, from July 3-6 to attend the National Education Association’s 94^th Representative Assembly (RA). The RA is the top decision-making body for the nearly 3 million-member NEA, and sets Association policy for the coming year. Embracing the meeting’s theme – “NEA: Unite. Inspire. Lead.” – delegates tackled complex issues with far-reaching implications for the profession, from the future of testing to equity in education.

Delegates passed two high-profile New Business Items (NBIs) supporting the recommendations of the NEA Task Force on Accountability, which recently released its report, “A New Vision for Student Success.” In the report, the 19-member Task Force addresses issues that the current narrow focus on testing overlooks, including equity and access, and explains how shared responsibility for our educational system will best serve students.

NEA President Lily Eskelsen García addresses the RA delegates in Orlando on July 3.

“By passing this NBI, the delegates recognized that we can’t do this important work alone,” said NEA Vice President Becky Pringle. “We must partner with other education, parent and community stakeholders; we must work shoulder to shoulder or we won’t be successful in realizing our vision.”

RA delegates also approved an NBI that addresses issues of institutional racism. The measure also calls for a coalition of 2015 NEA Representative Assembly Wrap-Up: Unite, Inspire, Lead! - NEA Today:

LCAP not API to serve as school performance monitor :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet

LCAP not API to serve as school performance monitor :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

LCAP not API to serve as school performance monitor

by Kimberly Beltran

(Calif.) In a subtle but significant policy shift, state education officials acknowledged publicly Wednesday that the focal point for measuring school performance going forward will be the Local Control Accountability Plan and not the Annual Performance Index.

The API, based solely on test scores, has stood since 1999 as the primary matrix for communicating school success. That system was suspended last year as schools transitioned to the Common Core State Standards, new curriculum and a new assessment program.

But staff from the California Department of Education noted Wednesday that the Brown administration’s long-standing interest in making the API a subset of the broader and more robust measures being contemplated for the LCAP seem to have formally taken hold.

At the regular July meeting of the California State Board of Education, officials said a nearly three-year effort to find new, non-test-based measures of student accountability to add to the API has been put on hold so that the board can concentrate on defining the major accountability components of the LCAP.

“We had a number of these similar conversations moving forward,” CDE’s Kerrick Ashley told state board members Wednesday, referring to meetings of the Public Schools Accountability Act Advisory Committee – a group of education experts charged in 2012 with making recommendations for changes to the API.

“We’ve actually slowed down the number of meetings of PSAA in order to allow kind of a single conversation to happen in this body before gathering together PSAA for the superintendent’s recommendations,” Ashley said.

The pronouncement comes as the board continues the daunting task of choosing indicators aligned to the LCAP’s eight state education priorities, designed to reveal how well schools are preparing students for success in the college and career world.

LCAPs are required under the Local Control Funding Formula, ushered into law by Brown in 2013. The LCFF provides additional school funding and gives local governing boards greater control over LCAP not API to serve as school performance monitor :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

States Still Differ Dramatically In Their Academic Expectations, Study Finds

States Still Differ Dramatically In Their Academic Expectations, Study Finds:

States Still Differ Dramatically In Their Academic Expectations, Study Finds

What does it mean to be passing math class?

The answer to this question varies from state to state, according to a new report released by the research arm of the Education Department, the National Center for Education Statistics. These differences are crucial as America's population becomes more mobile, moving between states.

As some parents, teachers and politicians fight the Common Core State Standards, an effort to make sure the bar for learning in math and reading is consistent nationally, the new report shows that as recently as 2013, this metric varied widely. For example, it’s possible for a fourth-grader to be passing reading in New Jersey, but as soon as he or she moves across the Hudson River to New York, to be suddenly considered failing -- despite not knowing any less.

“Policymakers ... want to be able to compare state progress and state performance standards, but because they are all different, a common yardstick is necessary to make comparisons,” said Peggy Carr, NCES’s acting commissioner. The study defined that yardstick as the standards set for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a low-stakes yet demanding nationally representative test considered to be the gold standard for measuring student learning. The study converted states' cutoff points on 2012-2013 tests to where those points would fall on the NAEP scale, and the results are jarring.

Graphic by Alissa Scheller for The Huffington Post.

Most states set their standards within NAEP’s “basic” range, and very few state standards measured up to NAEP’s aspirational proficiency standard, which measures “mastery over challenging subject matter.” In fourth-grade reading, though, most states set their cutoff for proficiency below NAEP’s “basic” level. In that subject and grade level, states’ cutoff points spanned a range of 76 points on NAEP, a 500-point test. Overall, New York, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Texas had the highest 

Senate Passes Bill Letting Schools Give Education Money To Financial Consulting Firms

Senate Passes Bill Letting Schools Give Education Money To Financial Consulting Firms:

Senate Passes Bill Letting Schools Give Education Money To Financial Consulting Firms

As budget-strapped Chicago follows a mass school closure with a new plan to layoff more than 1,400 teachers, one set of transactions sticks out: the city’s moves to refinance $1 billion in debt through complex financial instruments called swaps. The deals were spearheaded over the last few years by financial advisory firms brought in by the city to help find money saving efficiencies. Instead of saving money, though, the Windy City took a big hit: The school system has lost more than $100 million on the transactions and has paid millions in fees to its financial consultants.

Chicago is not alone. School districts across the country have been increasingly relying on high-priced consultants and Wall Street firms for financial and management advice. While proponents say many of the ensuing consultant-driven initiatives have resulted in cost savings, critics note that other initiatives have resulted in investment losses, layoffs and school closures. What is clear is that school districts’ reliance on outside advisers has created business opportunities for the financial industry. And now, thanks to an amendment to federal education legislation moving through Congress, that lucrative market for financial and consulting could become even more flush with cash -- specifically, with federal money meant for impoverished children.

The legislation was tucked into the Senate version of a massive K-12 education funding bill currently up for congressional reauthorization. The amendment from Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, would allow local officials to divert money from the federal government’s multibillion-dollar fund for low-income school districts and use the cash to hire financial consulting firms. Both lawmakers are among the U.S. Senate’s top 10 recipients of campaign money from the financial industry, and Warner is a former venture capital executive.

Mark R. Warner Fundraising Events | InsideGov

When he was Virginia's governor, Warner pushed to subject schools to “efficiency reviews” that he says identified nearly $45 million in annual cost savings. On Wednesday, he touted his Senate measure as an initiative designed to generate similar cost savings and ultimately help school children.

“Too many districts don’t have the ability to assess whether they are spending operational funds in the smartest way,” he said in a press release. “I’m pleased that the Senate voted to approve my bipartisan Senate Passes Bill Letting Schools Give Education Money To Financial Consulting Firms:

No Child Left Behind Debate: Teachers In Low-Income Areas Hope For Less Testing, More Understanding

No Child Left Behind Debate: Teachers In Low-Income Areas Hope For Less Testing, More Understanding:

No Child Left Behind Debate: Teachers In Low-Income Areas Hope For Less Testing, More Understanding

Shanna Mills can tell what kind of day her students are having by the way they walk into the room at 7:45 a.m. At Carlisle County Middle School in rural Bardwell, Kentucky, they come in late, hungry and wearing the same clothes for days on end. Then they tell her stories: The police were at their houses all night, a parent's car was stolen, or they woke up early to look after a sibling. 

"There are so many things going on in their lives that school just isn't a priority after the bell rings at 3 o'clock," she said. "Sometimes we're just proud they're there that day."

But the tests -- the annual, year-end standardized exams that determine everything from promotions to teacher raises -- don't know what Mills knows. They can't tell whose father has cancer or how many cousins they share a bedroom with. And that's what she said worries her about the government's growing emphasis on high-stakes tests: They provide a one-day snapshot of a kid, not the whole picture, so it's not fair the results are used so widely.

She and other teachers, especially those who work in low-income areas, are concerned about the growing focus on high-stakes standardized tests for not only students but also themselves. As Congress starts to debate an overhaul of the No Child Left Behind education law, discussing how many tests kids should take and what the results should be used for, teachers say they're hoping lawmakers remember how many factors affecting academic performance are outside of their control. 

"You actually have real students sitting there, not just numbers," said Mills, who teaches sixth- and eighth-grade social studies. "It just seems like students are tested all the time, and that doesn't leave a lot of time for teaching."

The Senate and House each took up rewritten versions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the most recent iteration of the law known as No Child Left Behind, this week. Both bills would transfer No Child Left Behind Debate: Teachers In Low-Income Areas Hope For Less Testing, More Understanding: