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Wednesday, July 15, 2015

AFT TEACH Conference is underway! - YouTube

AFTHQ - YouTube:

AFT TEACH Conference - YouTube
TEACH 2015
TEACH is underway!
The AFT TEACH (Together Educating America’s Children) conference, July 13-15 in Washington, D.C., celebrates the work we do and provide inspiration for the work that lies ahead. This conference brings together educators, union leaders, administrators, activists, and civic and community leaders for high-quality workshops. TEACH also offers overviews of innovative work, exciting demonstrations of the latest educational technology, thought-provoking keynote speakers and much more.

HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING

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- See more at: http://www.aft.org/education/aft-teach-2015#sthash.sJDIsMPj.dpuf








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State broke the law by ignoring online school F's, state school board says | cleveland.com

State broke the law by ignoring online school F's, state school board says | cleveland.com:

State broke the law by ignoring online school F's, state school board says






COLUMBUS, Ohio –  State school board members accused the Ohio Department of Education Tuesday of breaking state law by throwing F grades for online schools out of a key charter school evaluation this year.
Members of the state school board and stateSen. Peggy Lehner said David Hansen, ODE's school choice director, was required by state law to include online schools and dropout recovery schools in evaluations of charter school oversight agencies.
But after questioning Hansen Tuesday, Lehner and the board confirmed a June 14 Plain Dealer report that he had left failing grades for those schools out of the evaluations.
That deliberate omission boosted the rating of two oversight agencies, who could now be eligible for new state perks.
Hansen, who has close ties to Gov. John Kasich, offered rushed and muddled explanations for that decision in his appearance before the board. He said he wanted to look at other, stronger schools instead, because online struggles "mask" successes elsewhere.
And Hansen said he left online schools out because they all started receiving low grades after the state changed some grading rules a few years ago. At the same time, Hansen admitted to the board that those changes made the grades more accurate.
But school board President Tom Gunlock told The Plain Dealer that Hansen's reasons don't matter. State law says the schools should be counted in measuring the academic performance of the oversight agencies, he said, so they should have been.
"If you don't like the law, change it," Gunlock said. "Until such time, you have to obey it."
Gunlock said he will discuss with state Superintendent Richard Ross how to handle the already-completed evaluations that would be affected by the exclusion.
Ross, who is Hansen's boss, sat by him as he was questioned but offered no comment.
Ross later said, in a prepared statement, that ODE will include online school and dropout recovery school grades in future years. But he made no comment about whether he would continue leaving those grades out as evaluations continue this year.
"We will include academic performance data of e-schools and dropout prevention and recovery schools in our evaluation process as soon as we get the data we need from the 2014-15 school report cards," he wrote. "This evaluation process is still new, but we will work to get it right."
Should these schools be included? Tell us below.
The key beneficiary of the exclusion - so far - was the Ohio Council of Community Schools, a non-profit agency which collects about $1.5 million in sponsor fees a year from the more than 14,000 students attending Ohio Virtual Academy and OHDELA, the online school run by White Hat Management.
Those schools received F grades on state report cards, which would have likely blocked State broke the law by ignoring online school F's, state school board says | cleveland.com:

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The Real Reason U.S. Schools Have Summer Vacations

Why Does Summer Vacation Exist?:

The Real Reason U.S. Schools Have Summer Vacations




 U.S. kids still get about 900 hours of classroom time each year — comparable to (or even higher than) most other countries. In fact, Finland has far fewer hours of school each year (around 600), and it consistently crushes the U.S. in international education rankings.


Summer vacation is one of those things you have as a kid that you don't truly appreciate until you lose it as an adult, like a fast metabolism, or hair. Now that your family vacations have to revolve around this annual rite of passage, you might even be a little annoyed about it — why do your kids get to run carefree for 2 months every year while you're still schlepping to work every day? According to Today I Found Out (the same geniuses who scientifically decoded why stepping on a Lego is the worst), it's not for the reasons you thought …
Don't Blame The FarmersThe most common explanation for summer vacation is that, when the U.S. relied mostly on an agricultural economy, kids traded pencils for pitchforks. But most farming occurs in the spring and fall, so back in the old days (like, horse-drawn carriages and front-loading muskets old days) rural kids actually went to school during the summer and winter. City kids, meanwhile, went to school all year long, with short breaks between terms. Just like daylight savings, summer vacation is another thing on the list of crap farmers are done apologizing for.
Do Blame The Education Industrial Industrial Complex (And The Weather)It turns out, selling textbooks and distributing standardized tests are way easier if all kids are on the same schedule. Meanwhile, rural schools had a habit of employing young teachers in the summer and veteran teachers in the winter, which led to consistently worse academic performance in the summer, while urban schools didn't have air conditioning but did have rich families that liked to take summer vacations to places where they could use their newfangled wool swimsuits. All these factors led to a drumbeat that eventually resulted in a standardized school year, with a summer break, at the end of the 19th Century.
Don't Expect Summer Vacation To Go Away Anytime SoonSystem-wide, year-round school schedules have been tried twice in the U.S. California had 544 schools do it in the 80s and Texas had 400 try it in the 90s. In both instances, test scores didn't improve, attendance suffered, and teacher burnout increased. Plus, with the existing schedule, U.S. kids still get about 900 hours of classroom time each year — comparable to (or even higher than) most other countries. In fact, Finland has far fewer hours of school each year (around 600), and it consistently crushes the U.S. in international education rankings.
Marinate on that for a second: your kids, at home, for another 37.5 days each year. At least the fields will be well plowed. Why Does Summer Vacation Exist?:


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Game, set & match: Public/charter schools compared - The Daily Tribune : Opinion

Other Views: Game, set & match: Public/charter schools compared - The Daily Tribune : Opinion:

Game, set & match: Public/charter schools compared






Every year the Texas Education Agency releases the “snapshot” of the prior school year’s academic and financial performance for ISD’s and charter schools.  These are the facts from the 2012-13 school year (the most recently released report – released last week).  Check them for yourself here: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/snapshot. 
I offer the following key comparisons between ISDs and charter schools:
Dropout and Graduation Rates:
• ISDs had a dropout rate of 1.5 percent, charters had a 5.5 percent dropout rate. 
• ISDs had a 4-year graduation rate of 91 percent, charters had a 60.6 percent rate.
• ISDs had a 5-year graduation rate of 92.9 percent, charters had a 70 percent rate.
Academic Performance:
• ISDs outperformed charters on three out of five STAAR tests: math, science, social studies).
• ISDs matched charters on the other two out of five STAAR tests: reading and writing.
• ISDs tested 64.5 percent for college admissions; charters tested 44.2 percent. 
• ISDs average SAT score was 1422; charters average was 1412.
• ISDs average ACT score was 20.6; charters average was 19.7.
Staff expenditures & allocation:
• ISDs spent 57.4 percent on instructional expenses; charters spent 50.9 percent.
• ISDs spent 6 percent of central administrative expenses; charters spent 13 percent.
• ISDs had 3.8 percent of employees in central or campus administrative roles
• Charters had 7.6 percent of employees in central or campus administrative roles
Teacher salary/experience/turnover 
and class size
• ISDs average teacher salary was $49,917; charters average was $43,669.
• ISDs had 15.3 students per teacher; charters had 16.8.
• ISDs had 32.1 percent of teachers with less than 5 years experience.
• Charters had 75.2 percent of teachers with less than 5 years experience.
• 24 percent of ISD teachers had advanced degrees; charters had 17.4 percent.
• ISDs had a teacher turnover rate of 15.6 percent; charters had 36.7 percent.
Conclusions
Keep in mind these are statewide numbers and admittedly, there are good and bad ISDs and there are good and bad charter schools.  But, at the end of the day, we are talking about the state of Texas as a whole and over five million kids and their families.
Here are the conclusions I reach after studying the data and talking to experts, educators and people in my district and across Texas.
1)  For at least the second year in a row, ISDs outperformed charter schools on dropout rates, state tests, graduation rates, and college entrance exams.  If charters are supposed to be competing with ISDs, they are getting beaten in straight sets (to use a tennis analogy).
2) Charter schools spend more on central administrative expenses and less in the classroom, which leads to larger classes being taught by less experienced teachers.
3) Charter schools pay their teachers $6,248 less per year than ISDs.  Many refer to competition from charter schools as a key factor to improving education. I do not see this “competition” helping teachers as some try to claim.  
The fact is, charters hire teachers with less experience and education to save money.  This results in a high turnover rate.  Over a third of teachers at charter schools leave when they get more experience or more education.  Many times, they go work for a nearby ISD.
In conclusion, when you hear the unending and unsubstantiated rhetoric about “failing public schools” from those that support vouchers or other “competitive” school models, it is important to have the facts. 


ISDs aren’t perfect, but they graduate more kids, keep more kids from dropping out and get more kids career and college ready than their politically connected competitors.  Any claims to the contrary just simply are not supported by the facts. At the end of the day facts matter because these lives matter.Other Views: Game, set & match: Public/charter schools compared - The Daily Tribune : Opinion:
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Education Secretary Arne Duncan: How’s He Doing? | Nonprofit Quarterly

Education Secretary Arne Duncan: How’s He Doing? | Nonprofit Quarterly:

Education Secretary Arne Duncan: How’s He Doing?






The numerous issues that have been at the center of a growing controversy about public education place the policies of President Obama in the spotlight. The debate has become integral to the U.S. Congress’s efforts to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (née No Child Left Behind), the vehicle through which the federal government influences the direction of public education at a state and local level.
Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education throughout the years of the Obama presidency, has led the administration’s efforts and is the champion for the themes that have become the center of debate. He has been a strong advocate for “school choice” and expanding the use of charter schools, including those operated by private for-profit organizations. He has strongly supported the adoption of the Common Core as a national set of curriculum education standards. He has worked to increase the use of standardized testing as the mechanism for assessing student performance and as a key component of school and teacher evaluation and rating. He has led the effort to reduce the power of teacher’s unions and expand the number of teachers who do not come from traditional sources (through programs like Teach for America.) And he has been aggressive in using federal funding as the lever to bring schools into alignment with the administration’s strategy.
Six years in, the backlash to these efforts has become more frequent and louder. And it threatens to severely limit the ability of the national government to have a coherent national policy to ensure all children receive an equal, high quality education.

Diane Ravitch, Research Professor of Education at New York University, sees Duncan’s years at the DoE as being much more harmful.
  • “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.”
  • “This era has not been good for students; nearly a quarter live in poverty, and fully 51 percent live in low-income families. 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.”
  • “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. The next president and the next Secretary of Education will have an enormous job to do to restore our nation’s public education system from the damage done by Race to the Top. We need leadership that believes in the joy of learning and in equality of educational opportunity. We have not had either for 15 years.”
Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post education reporter, in a recent profile of Secretary Duncan saw the impact of his tenure as having a more global impact. She quoted Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who said, “I’ve never seen both Democrats and Republicans want to curb the authority of the federal Department of Education the way they want to now.” Jack Jennings, founder of the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy and author of a new book about education politics, told Layton that he saw little good from Duncan’s efforts. “The record will show these policies brought about minimum improvement…they also did considerable harm”
The loss of the national perspective will be a concern beyond the debate over specific strategies and tactics. It is the vantage point from which we can ensure that all children Education Secretary Arne Duncan: How’s He Doing? | Nonprofit Quarterly:



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The Big Idea Behind Race to the Top | Diane Ravitch's blog

The Big Idea Behind Race to the Top | Diane Ravitch's blog:

The Big Idea Behind Race to the Top






Have you every wondered what “Race to the Top” was supposed to accomplish? Did it mean that we would be first in the world if we opened more privately managed charter schools, closed down more public schools (especially in Black and Brown communities), evaluated all teachers by test scores, and adopted the Common Core standards? If so, that clearly didn’t happen. Did it mean that the states who followed Arne Duncan’s instructions most faithfully would surge to the top of the NAEP tables? That didn’t happen either.
Be it noted that a “Race to the Top” is a bizarre metaphor for education in a democratic society. In any race, only a few reach the top, while most are left behind in the dust. That would seem to be a repudiation of the principle of equality of educational opportunity. For sure, it throws the goal of equity away.
For those who want to know what Race to the Top was really about, we have it straight from the horse’s mouth. Joanne Weiss wrote an article in 2011 that laid out the big idea that animated the nearly $5 billion program. Weiss was selected by Arne Duncan to run RTTT. Previously she had been CEO of the NewSchools Venture Fund, an organization dedicated to supporting and funding charter schools and charter chains. After the RTTT was completed, Weiss became Duncan’s chief of staff. You can’t get much closer to the action than Weiss was.
Weiss’s article was published on the Harvard Business Review blog. She called it “The Innovation Mismatch: “Smart Capital” and Education Innovation.”  The problem she identified as most crucial in American education was the mismatch between capital and the culture of the consumers. There was little incentive to innovate when the market was so fragmented.
She wrote:
The capital markets that fund education innovation — both for-profit and nonprofit — are largely broken. When for-profit investors fund technology solutions, they naturally seek good returns on their investments. To deliver those returns, developers cater to the largest possible market: large urban and suburban K-12 districts.
Unfortunately, these districts are notoriously weak consumers. They often buy technology and pursue innovation based on relationships and networking, rather than based on effectiveness. Given the relative dearth of valid, reliable measures of student achievement, few innovative programs can demonstrate their efficacy – so why not select solutions sold by someone you’ve worked with for years, or buy the products that come with the best give-aways, or purchase from the company everyone has heard of? The result is a large-scale market of technological mediocrity. High-quality solutions do not rise to the top – and effectiveness is neither recognized nor rewarded.
To make the market attractive to innovators–both for-profit and non-profit–the market needed to be consolidated. There were too many “homegrown, fragmented, one-off programs.” The question was how to scale up the marketplace for innovation, and Race to the Top was the answer.
Technological innovation in education need not stay forever young. And one important change in the market for education technology is likely to accelerate its maturation markedly within the next several years. For the first time, 42 states and the District of Columbia have adopted rigorous common standards, and 44 states are working together in two consortia to create a new generation of assessments that will genuinely assess college and career-readiness.
The development of common standards and shared assessments radically alters the market for innovation in curriculum development, professional development, and formative assessments. Previously, these markets operated on a state-by-state basis, and often on a The Big Idea Behind Race to the Top | Diane Ravitch's blog:

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