First Year of CAASP Results - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education)

First Year of CAASP Results - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education):

First Year of CAASP Results

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today unveiled the results of new online assessments administered to about 3.2 million students last spring to gauge their progress in learning new, more rigorous academic standards designed to prepare them for college and careers in the 21st century.

Because 2015 is the first year of the new tests and because they are substantially different from their predecessors, Torlakson said the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) results will serve as a baseline from which to measure future progress and should not be compared to results from the state's previous assessments, the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program.

CAASPP includes a number of assessments, but the most widely given are the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments, which evaluate student progress on the California standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy, often referred to as the Common Core.

"The results show our starting point as a state, a window into where California students are in meeting tougher academic standards that emphasize critical thinking, problem solving, and analytical writing," Torlakson said. "California's new standards and tests are challenging for schools to teach and for students to learn, so I am encouraged that many students are at or near achievement standards. However, just as we expected, many students need to make more progress. Our job is to support students, teachers, and schools as they do."

Preliminary figures indicate that less than 1 percent of California students did not take the assessment resulting from a parental exemption. That shows, Torlakson said, that there is a high level of commitment to the new standards among parents, teachers, students, and business and community leaders.

The new standards and tests enjoy widespread support from leaders in K-12 and higher education who believe they can improve college readiness. California's state universities and most community colleges use the eleventh grade results as an early signal of readiness to take college courses. In English language arts/literacy, 56 percent of the eleventh graders tested are ready or conditionally ready for college work, while in math 29 percent are ready or conditionally ready.

The CAASPP tests for English language arts/literacy and mathematics were given to students in grades three through eight and grade eleven. They consist of two parts. First, is an adaptive test taken on a computer that gives students different follow-up questions based on their answers, thereby providing a more refined picture of a student's abilities. Second, is a performance task that challenges students to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world problems. The two parts measure depth of understanding, writing, research, and problem-solving skills.

In contrast, STAR was a multiple-choice, paper-based test in which students, for the most part, filled in bubbles on paper and could more easily guess correct answers.      

On CAASPP, students' scores fall into one of four achievement levels: standard exceeded, standard met, standard nearly met, and standard not met.                                         

Statewide in all grades, 44 percent of students met or exceeded the English language arts/literacy standard and 33 percent met or exceeded the mathematics standard. (Table 1)

For English language arts/literacy statewide in all grades: 16 percent exceeded standard, 28 percent met standard, 25 percent nearly met standard, and 31 percent did not meet standard. For mathematics statewide in all grades: 14 percent exceeded standard, 19 percent met standard, 29 percent nearly met standard, and 38 percent did not meet standard. Attached (Tables 2 and 3) provide a breakdown grade by grade in each subject.

The CAASPP Results Web site contains the results for all counties, districts, and schools across the state, broken down by grade, gender, ethnic groups, and demographics. In addition, the Web site allows users to download results and search individual categories.

The baseline scores reflect, in part, the rigor of the state's new academic standards, Torlakson said. CAASPP focuses on assessing crucial abilities, such as analyzing problems, thinking independently, and writing clearly with evidence. Those skills take time and effort to master but are essential to succeed in today's world.      

"California is in the process of transforming its schools with increased funding, higher academic standards, more local control, and additional support for students and schools with the greatest needs—and this will take time," Torlakson said. "This is our first academic check-up on how that work is going, and so I ask parents and educators to take that into account, use this information wisely to help their students, and understand this is a baseline that we will build upon."

One concern, Torlakson said, is the results indicate the state has a persistent achievement gap—significant differences in scores—among students from low-income families, English learners and some ethnic groups when compared to other students. Overall, 31 percent of students in all grades from low-income families met or exceeded standard in English language arts/literacy and 21 percent met or exceeded standard in math, compared with 64 percent and 53 percent for the subjects, respectively, among other students. (Tables 4 and 5)

Overall, 11 percent of English learners in all grades met or exceeded standard in English language arts/literacy and 11 percent in math, compared with 69 percent and 55 percent for those subjects, respectively, for students proficient in English.

As for scores among all grades for ethnic groups, 72 percent of Asians met or exceeded standard in English language arts/literacy and 69 percent in math, while 28 percent of African Americans met or exceeded standard in English language arts/literacy and 16 percent in math. Other ethnic groups fell between the two. See attached. (Tables 4 and 5)

"Clearly, we must continue working to eliminate these gaps," Torlakson said. "Much work needs to be done, but we are moving in the right direction with our efforts to provide extra resources and services for students and schools with the greatest needs."

The results also show that teachers, schools, and districts need more time, training and resources to improve student outcomes overall and to meet the high standards California has set, Torlakson said.

Toward that end, CDE helped develop a digital library for districts that contains information to help teachers improve their teaching and to collaborate with each other. In addition, teachers can use interim tests to help them get immediate information about their students' performance so they can adjust teaching during the year.

"Assessments are like satellite photos — they are snapshots taken at one moment in time," Torlakson said. "There are many positive changes underway in California's schools, and I expect CAASPP scores to rise in coming years as students and teachers get more support and more experience with these new standards and assessments."

The CDE also released results of the California Standards Test for science, which is administered to students in grades five, eight, and ten. These tests are not aligned with California's recently adopted Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Assessments based on these standards are currently being developed. Overall, the percentage of students proficient and above dropped from 61 percent in 2014 to 57 percent in 2015. (Table 6)

In addition, the CDE released results from the optional Standards-based Tests in Spanish (STS) for reading language arts. (Table 7)

California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress Results for 2015

Table 1: Percentage of All California Students by Achievement Level for English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics

Content Area	Number of Students Tested	Number of Students Receiving Parental Exemption1	Percent of Students who Exceeded Standards	Percent of Students who Met Standards	Percent of Students who Nearly Met Standards	Percent of Students who Did Not Meet Standards
English Language Arts/Literacy	3,154,463	19,070	16	28	25	31
Mathematics	3,169,239	19,311	14	19	29	38

1 Parental exemptions pursuant to Education Code Section 60615 and Section 852 in Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations. These counts are preliminary as local educational agencies have until September 15 to report parental exemptions.

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Table 2: Number and Percentage of Students by Grade and Achievement Level for English Language Arts/Literacy (ELA)First Year of CAASP Results - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education):

You are invited to a Community Meeting to support the Seattle educators’ strike | Seattle Education

You are invited to a Community Meeting to support the Seattle educators’ strike | Seattle Education:

You are invited to a Community Meeting to support the Seattle educators’ strike

City Councilmember Kshama Sawant invites you to:

Community Meeting to Support the Seattle Educators Strike

Thursday, Sept. 10, 6:00 PM 

City Hall Council Chamber, 2nd floor

600 4th Ave (between Columbia & Cherry)

Downtown Seattle, WA 98104

After months of negotiations, the Seattle Public Schools District has failed to deliver a fair contract to the Seattle Education Association (SEA). The SEA, which took a historic unanimous vote last week to strike, have set up picket lines starting today.

I appeal to the community to stand with teachers and join us at the picket lines this week and also at the community meeting Thursday at 6 pm,” said Councilmember Sawant. Please find a picket line to join at your neighborhood public high school. For more info, visit the SEA website.

The union is on strike for the first time in 30 years. Councilmember Kshama Sawant, a teacher and member of the American Federation of Teachers Local 1789, strongly supports the union’s struggle for a fair contract and their stand for high quality education and equity for all of Seattle’s children. To help build support for educators, City Councilmember Sawant invites you and the public to a community meeting this Thursday, Sept. 10 at 6 pm.

“I am proud to donate $500 from my salary to the SEA strike fund, and I urge others who can to do so as well.  The teachers are on the front lines in the struggle to ensure all our children are receiving the high quality education they deserve.”

“The educators’ demands are completely reasonable. In the face of skyrocketing rents and increasing costs for basic needs, the teachers have sacrificed for 6 years with no pay raises from Olympia. As a former adjunct professor without job security, I understand too well the difficulty teachers have making ends meet. I fully support their demand for 6% raises over 3 years to make up for the loss in pay,” said Councilmember Sawant.

“For too long the legislature has ignored the needs of our children and bent over backwards to give corporations handout after handout.  Boeing executives got a special session. Where is the special session for education? Teachers are faced with stagnating salaries, overcrowded classrooms, too many standardized tests, and inadequate resources. It’s high time the legislature did their job, stop ignoring the 3 ballot initiatives by state voters to lower class sizes and raise teachers’ pay. Fully fund education now!” remarked Councilmember Sawant.You are invited to a Community Meeting to support the Seattle educators’ strike | Seattle Education:

Alfie Kohn: Why those annoying ‘helicopter parents’ aren’t so bad after all - The Washington Post

Why those annoying ‘helicopter parents’ aren’t so bad after all - The Washington Post:

Why those annoying ‘helicopter parents’ aren’t so bad after all

You’ve heard about them for years (and may have been accused of being one): a helicopter parent who hovers over his/her children to such an extent that the kids never learn to be independent, to think for themselves, or to clean up their own messes. Articles and books have been devoted to the so-called epidemic, warning how dangerous these parents are to their children’s development.

But what if it turns out that the helicopter parenting epidemic isn’t real? What if the hysteria over the phenomenon is misplaced? Writer Alfie Kohn makes that case in the following post. Kohn is the author of 14 books on education, parenting, and human behavior, including, most recently, The Myth of the Spoiled Child (Da Capo Press) — from which this article is adapted — andSchooling Beyond Measure (Heinemann). A version of this article appeared earlier on www.alfiekohn.org. I am republishing it with permission.

By Alfie Kohn

Parents who are overly involved in the lives of their college-age children are the folks we love to scorn. A steady stream of articles and blog posts bristle with indignation over dads who phone the dean about a trivial problem or moms who know more than we think they should about junior’s love life. But now that a new school year is starting, it’s a good time to ask just how common such incidents really are — and whether “helicopter parenting” (HP), when it does occur, is as damaging as we’ve been led to believe.

Even monographs on the subject that appear in academic journals tend to begin with sweeping generalizations drawn from popular media coverage — coverage that, in turn, relies mostly on anecdotes. When you track down hard data, the results contrast sharply with the conventional wisdom. Yes, most parents are in touch with their college-age kids on a regular basis. But communicating isn’t the same thing as intervening on a child’s behalf, and the latter seems to be fairly rare. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which reached out to more than 9,000 students at 24 colleges and universities, found that only 13 percent of college freshmen and 8 percent of seniors said a parent had frequently intervened to help them solve problems.

As one university administrator told the Chronicle of Higher Education, “The popular image of modern parents as high-strung nuisances who torment college administrators doesn’t match reality.” In any case, the students Why those annoying ‘helicopter parents’ aren’t so bad after all - The Washington Post:

Washington State Charters Vow to Remain Open Via Private Funding | deutsch29

Washington State Charters Vow to Remain Open Via Private Funding | deutsch29:

Washington State Charters Vow to Remain Open Via Private Funding

On September 04, 2015, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in League of Women Voters vs. State of Washington that charter schools are unconstitutional in Washington State.

The majority opinion centered upon the fact that the voter-approved Charter School Act of 2012 (I-1240) would have allowed for the creation of up to 40 charter schools within five years– and would have been financed using public funds but without oversight by a publicly-elected board:

…Because charter schools under 1-1240 are run by an appointed board or nonprofit organization and thus are not subject to local voter control, they cannot qualify as “common schools” within the meaning of article IX [of the Washington State Constitution].

…Charter schools do not qualify as common [public] schools.

Moreover, the majority opinion noted that charter schools in Washington State are not eligible for funding from the general fund, and since the Act hinges upon public school funding as its funding source, the Court declared the entire Act unconstitutional:

The [Charter School] Act unconstitutionally reallocates these restricted funds to charter schools, which do not qualify as common schools.

Compounding this problem, the State does not segregate constitutionally restricted moneys from other state funds. Nor can it demonstrate that these restricted moneys are protected from being spent on charter schools. Given this absence of segregation and accountability, we find unconvincing the State’s view that charter schools may be constitutionally funded through the general fund. Historically, the state common school funds were maintained in a separate public school account and distributed to the common schools by the Superintendent. … While some other constitutionally restricted state funds continue to be maintained in separate accounts (e.g., common school construction fund…), since at least 1967, the constitutionally restricted common school property levy revenues have been deposited in the State’s “general fund,” which is used for the basic education allocation. … There is no way to track the restricted common school funds or to ensure that these dollars are used exclusively to support the common schools. …

We also disagree with the State’s view that the Act’s remaining provisions are saved because funding “follows the student” and in any event charter schools could be funded out of the state general fund. … The fact that public school money distributions are generally based on per capita student attendance does not mean that common school funds are available for students who do not attend common schools. Where a child is not attending a common school, there can be no entitlement to “an apportionment of the current state school fund, to a credit predicated on attendance of children at such … school.” …

Further, as discussed above, the Act designates and relies on common school funds as its funding source. Without those funds, the Act cannot function as intended. …

The portions of I-1240 designating charter schools as common schools violate article IX, section 2 of the Washington Constitution and are invalid. For the same reason, the portions of I-1240 providing access to restricted common school funding are also invalid. These provisions are not severable and render the entire Act unconstitutional.

Thus, the nine charter schools in Washington State in 2015-16 will almost certainly Washington State Charters Vow to Remain Open Via Private Funding | deutsch29:

Teachers Work For Free In A School District Bled By Charter Schools

Teachers Work For Free In A School District Bled By Charter Schools:

Teachers Work For Free In A School District Bled By Charter Schools

As schools across Pennsylvania open their doors for the new school year, there’s one district in the state where teachers will be hard at work even though they’re not likely to get paid.

The teachers are actually already on the job, having reported for work a week early as originally expected. But when the district’s administration announced it could not meet a scheduled payroll on September 9, a week after classes start, the teachers – along with janitors, nurses, and other school personnel – held an impromptu meeting and voted to temporarily forego pay.

The teachers are employed by the financially strapped school district of Chester Upland, located about 20 miles west of Philadelphia. Years of deliberate underfunding by the state, coupled with policies that favor the rapid expansion of publicly funded but privately operated charter schools, are bleeding the district. The dedication of committed and caring educators seems to be one of the few forces binding the shattered school community together.

“We aren’t broken,” says Dariah Jackson, one of the teachers working for no pay tells Salon in a phone interview. Jackson, a Special Education and Life Skills Support teacher in grades 3-5, says, “I’m in my classroom, as are my colleagues, ready for the students to walk through the door next week.”

When asked how long is “temporary” in their resolve to work with no pay, Jackson says, “No one has set a time limit for now. We have to be here for our students. They need a place to go.”

But while Jackson and her colleagues show their determination to meet the needs of the students, there are forces acting in Chester Upland, and across Pennsylvania, focused on anything but that.

School Breakage 101

“Chester Upland is broke,” explains Wythe Keever, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association. “Actually, they’re a lot worse off than broke,” he tells Salon. “They have an operating budget deficit in excess of $20 million that is expected by the end of the Teachers Work For Free In A School District Bled By Charter Schools:

Ensuring teachers have resources on LGBT issues :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet

Ensuring teachers have resources on LGBT issues :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Ensuring teachers have resources on LGBT issues

(Calif.) California’s Department of Education would be required, under a bill awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature, to monitor whether schools are providing teachers with information about local resources for student populations considered gender- and sexual-minorities.

Brown has until Oct. 11 to sign or veto this session’s legislative proposals, including AB 827 which aims to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students as well as those “questioning” their sexuality by ensuring that all seventh through 12th grade teachers receive information on school-site and community resources available to this group.

“LGBTQ youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide and suffer significantly higher dropout rates than their straight peers,” said Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, in a statement.

“Giving teachers the tools they need to foster a supportive learning experience will improve academic achievement and make our schools safer for LGBTQ students,” said the freshman law maker, also a former classroom teacher.

In spite of progress in recent years, LGBTQ students continue to face verbal, physical and online harassment. According to information from the author’s office provided by Equality California, seven in 10 LGBTQ students say they’ve been targets of abuse or threats but never reported the incidents because they believed educators wouldn’t respond.

Studies show that this type of harassment has direct effects on these pupils’ academic achievement – increasing truancy, lowering grade point averages and resulting in poor attitudes toward school. Likewise, according to O’Donnell’s office, research has also proven that when LGBTQ students have access to supports in school, they perform better academically, skip school less and have more positive attitudes toward school.

AB 827 would require that the CDE, as part of its categorical compliance monitoring, to assess whether local educational agencies have provided information on school-site and community resources for LGBTQ students to certificated staff serving grades 7-12 as part of their publicizing of anti-discrimination policies.

The bill defines school-site resources for the support of LGBTQ students as including peer support or affinity clubs and organizations, safe spaces for LGBTQ students; anti-bullying and harassment policies, and related complaint procedures; counseling services and access to school staff who have received anti-bias training or who serve as designated support personnel for these students.

Community resources to support LGBTQ students would include community-based organizations that provide support to LGBTQ youth and their families, and physical and mental health providers Ensuring teachers have resources on LGBT issues :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

How you can support teachers during the Seattle teachers’ strike and other pertinent information #4MyTeacher | Seattle Education

How you can support teachers during the Seattle teachers’ strike and other pertinent information #4MyTeacher | Seattle Education:

How you can support teachers during the Seattle teachers’ strike and other pertinent information #4MyTeacher

The Seattle Education Association strike is on as of 7:00 PM this evening.

I attended a meeting as the strike was being called that included teachers who have been on strikes and walk-outs along with teachers who would be doing this for the first time. The rest of the group was made up of concerned individuals who wanted to support the teachers during this time.

From the meeting, I came away with a list of ways to support our teachers based on the voices of many teachers.

Teachers and school staff will be at their respective schools tomorrow and Thursday outside the school on the picket line starting at 8:30 AM and ending at 3:00 PM. There will also be teachers at the Stanford Center during this time.

On Friday the teachers will be doing community work and will not be picketing.

This is what the teachers shared with me when I asked them what parents and concerned citizens can do to show their support.

The following answers are in the order I heard the comments:

• Just show up, even if it’s just for 15 or 30 minutes. It means a lot to teachers to see that you support them.
• Wear red to show your support or pin  a 1″ by 1″ red cloth or red paper to show your support on the picket line or during the days of the strike as supporters did in Montreal during the student strike. It works. One teacher suggested cutting the cloth or paper into an apple shape for those so  inclined.
• Bring hand written signs to the picket line.
• Go to your neighborhood school to show your support or to the Stanford Center if you work downtown during lunch. If you are in the Belltown area, you can show your support at the Seattle Center where the Center School is located.
• Talk to the teachers on the picket line about the issues that concern them and what they face everyday. You’ll learn a lot and it helps them keep up their energy.
• Call the school board and superintendent and let them know you support the teachers.
• Be a block captain and get your neighbors and friends out to a school in your neighborhood.
• Bring awareness of the strike to work as possible.
• Reach out to other unions you are involved with and ask their support for the teachers union.
• Offer your home if it’s close to a school as a shelter if it starts to rain or for the use of a bathroom. (The teachers will not be going into the school buildings during the strike.)
• Take selfies of you and your friends on the picket line to send to the soon-to- be-established Facebook page or to seattled@icloud.com. We will post them here and share them on the Facebook page.
• Take photos of you and your coworkers saying “We support the strike” and send them to this blog or the soon to be announced Facebook page.
• Bring instruments to play or sing songs or chants on the picket line. It raises the spirit and it’s fun.

Other notes:

Community Centers throughout the city associated with Seattle Parks and Recs will be open and available to parents on a low fee or no fee basis.

There will possibly be an event on Sunday to support and raise money for teachers to How you can support teachers during the Seattle teachers’ strike and other pertinent information #4MyTeacher | Seattle Education:

Why the Washington State Supreme Court Ruling Matters | EduShyster

Why the Washington State Supreme Court Ruling Matters | EduShyster:

Why the Washington State Supreme Court Ruling Matters

The origins of a surprisingly simple decision that could have major implications…

By Martha Carey
Something unusual happened in Washington state late last week. Charter schools came out on the losing end of a lawsuit. In fact, charter schools, as they are currently defined, funded and organized, were actually ruled unconstitutional by that state’s Supreme Court.  And the basis of that decision was surprisingly simple. The charter school law that narrowly passed Washington in 2012 was found to be in violation of the state’s constitution precisely because charter schools have private boards.

Uncommon Schools ≠ common schools 
The constitution in that state clearly defines public schools as schools that operate via taxpayer funds, and which are *under the control of the qualified voters of the school district.*The Supreme Court just ruled that *because charter schools [under the new charter law] are run by an appointed board of nonprofit organization and thus are not subject to local voter control, they cannot qualify* as public schools as defined in Washington’s constitution. Which means funding them violates the law – as noted in the ruling: *money that is dedicated to common schools is unconstitutionally diverted to charter schools.*

What happens next will be pretty fascinating. Several charter organizations and charter operators are calling for a special session of the state legislature to *fix* this pesky problem. Others, including the Washington State Education Association, are expressing vindication and are urging legislators to address the poor state of public school funding once and for all.

Each state’s charter school laws are distinct, and some are far vaguer than others. In Pennsylvania, where I live, the charter school law put into effect in 1997 allows for charter schools to be run as entirely independent entities within a school district, and allows for those charter schools to receive public funds from the state in order to operate.

Schools-as-franchises
The Pennsylvania model of loose policy regulation of charter schools and essentiallyno oversight by the electorate is in alignment with the language of the earliest charter school law, passed in Minnesota in 1991. The premise there was that public school districts were restricting choice by their stranglehold on schools-as-franchises in the education *market.* And the 1991 law promoted the notion that groups of parents, businesses, cultural organizations, etc. could get together and start schools that would give parents and students more education options, and the state and local districts would, correspondingly, divest themselves of the core responsibilities (and rules and regulations) for these schools, essentially allowing the *franchise* to organize and govern itself.

I first worked with several charters schools in St. Paul in 1996; in the five years Why the Washington State Supreme Court Ruling Matters | EduShyster:

Why do teachers burn out? Let me count the ways. | Dallas Morning News

Jan Sidebotham: Why do teachers burn out? Let me count the ways. | Dallas Morning News:

Why do teachers burn out? Let me count the ways.

I was a teacher for 30 years, except for one five-year hiatus. This year I left the profession. The short explanation is that I was burned out. I arrived at school at 7:45 every morning, I rarely left before 5:30 p.m. and I was often there later. As a new school year gets rolling, I offer two lists. Keep in mind that these are drawn from my experience in private schools, which are regarded as an ideal place to teach because of their small class sizes.

What people think teachers do:

• Teach five classes or so.
• Prepare lessons.
• Create assessments such as quizzes, tests and other assignments.
• Grade assessments.
• Take long vacations.

What teachers do:

• Teach five classes or so — which is like doing five performances every day in which you stand up in front of 15 people and entertain them for an hour. Or it’s like being a pitcher in a game. You are always part of the play.
• Prepare lessons. Research. Reread a chapter of, say, “The Scarlet Letter” and an article about Puritan culture, prepare discussion questions, plan an activity, figure out how to pace the class. To keep students’ interest, you need to shift gears.
• Create assessments. Write up the assignment, create a rubric, draft detailed instructions. Quizzes should be fair to everyone but also test whether students have done the work. A good five-question multiple-choice quiz can take 45 minutes to an hour to create.
• Grade assessments. One essay for a class of 15 means reading some 60 pages of student-written work, writing and editing comments, and making a judgment about each grade, all while wondering: Is this fair? Did the student improve? Did he or she really read the book? Will the parents complain? Am I expecting too much? Am I expecting too little? Some teachers read papers three times.
• Email with colleagues. Answer an email asking why you gave two quizzes in a week. Send an email expressing concern about a student’s sudden, dramatic weight loss.
• Email with parents. This often involves calculating updated course averages, because parents want to know what they want to know when they want to know it. Sometimes it means untangling a misunderstanding. No, your son’s iPad use was not appropriate for class. He was not taking notes. He was playing a game. I did not take it away from him for no reason. Don’t take things personally. Sometimes you get to write a thank-you for a parent’s kind words about how you’ve helped his or her child.
• Stay up to date on your material. Read secondary sources on the books you’re teaching, read about teaching techniques and so on.
• Respond to a student crying in the bathroom. Hunt down the student’s counselor.
• Write a college recommendation. Go back through your grade books and papers. Check the school’s website to see if the student was the captain of the soccer team. Send an email to find out more about her role in the choral group. Make it unique.
• Chaperone a dance.
• Chaperone aJan Sidebotham: Why do teachers burn out? Let me count the ways. | Dallas Morning News:

Data: The Governors Running for President and Their K-12 Records - Education Week

Data: The Governors Running for President and Their K-12 Records - Education Week:

Data: The Governors Running for President and Their K-12 Records

Did any states see major improvements in K-12 education during the terms of the nine governors and former governors now running for president?

An apples-to-apples comparison of selected indicators doesn’t show any big standouts, according to an analysis by the Education Week Research Center. The analysis looked at 4th and 8th grade reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, as well as graduation rates as measured by the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate. It also looked at state’s grades on the Research Center’s Quality Counts K-12 Achievement Index, which includes 18 indicators aiming to capture strong academic performance, combined with improvements over time and a narrowing of the achievement gap.

Related Story: Slicing the K-12 Data on Governors Running for White House

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Browse by Indicator:

NAEP Scores | Graduation Rates (AFGR) | K-12 Achievement Index (Quality Counts)

NAEP Scores in Reading and Math

Graduation Rates (AFGR)

K-12 Achievement Index (Quality Counts)

Vol. 35, Issue 03

RELATED STORIES

• “Slicing the K-12 Data on Governors Running for White House,” September 9, 2015.

Data: The Governors Running for President and Their K-12 Records - Education Week:

Becoming a Money Magnet: Lessons of the D.C. Ed Philanthropy Boom - Inside Philanthropy

Becoming a Money Magnet: Lessons of the D.C. Ed Philanthropy Boom - Inside Philanthropy: Fundraising Intelligence - Inside Philanthropy:

Becoming a Money Magnet: Lessons of the D.C. Ed Philanthropy Boom

Reform-oriented approaches to K-12 education, such as charter schools and alternatives to the traditional teacher pipeline, are the key to attracting large gifts from funders, according to an analysis of education philanthropy by Michigan State University researchers.

Is that a surprising finding? Not at all, but it's super-helpful to see concrete numbers that document just how much reform funders dominate ed philanthropy. 

The experience of Washington, D.C., is especially instructive for urban areas that are wondering what might bring funder support to their communities. The nation's capital became a money magnet for philanthropy in 2007, after then-Mayor Adrian Fenty appointed Michelle Rhee chancellor of the D.C. Public Schools. Rhee drew national acclaim from supporters — and harsh criticism from opponents — for her reforms to the city's school system, which included a new teacher evaluation system that could mean big bonuses for top teachers and the risk of termination for ineffective ones. The costs associated with the new system were funded by a three-year grant worth nearly $65 million from a group of foundations, including the Walton Family Foundation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

The Michigan State analysis examined K-12 education giving in 2000, 2005, and 2010 by the 15 largest funders. That year, D.C. brought in more than $31 million from national funders, far more than any other urban area in the country. The millions in philanthropy dollars amount to $705 per student in D.C. Only five years earlier, funder dollars in the nation's capital amounted to less than $100 per student. More than two-thirds of the funds went to the D.C. Public Education Fund, an organization created in 2007 to support reforms in the public school system. Another $7 million went to charter schools and pro-charter organizations, such as the New Schools Venture Fund.

Second place among urban areas went to Newark, N.J., largely on the strength of the millions given to the school system by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that stands as a textbook example of ed philanthropy gone wrong. Meanwhile, urban areas such as Denver, Detroit, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Chicago, received far less. Even Milwaukee, once a favorite site among reform-minded funders for its voucher program, received less than $100 per student in foundation dollars.

The analysis by Michigan State found reform-oriented policies to be a key factor in attracting support from funders such as Walton, Gates and Broad. Cities that have a Teach For America chapter or support the growth of charter schools were more likely to receive funder support. One of the report's co-authors, political scientist Sarah Reckhow, stated that funders are considering national policy priorities when deciding on local areas to support. Many of these foundations are interested in policies that challenge the K-12 status quo, such as growing charter schools and teacher evaluation systems that emphasize student achievement, as measured by test scores, over traditional factors such as seniority.

The Michigan State study is yet not published, but its findings were reported in the Washington Post.

The study does raise some cautionary notes. What happens, for example, when a reformer enacts sweeping and expensive changes, only to leave the system? Again, the D.C. case is instructive. Rhee resigned as chancellor of the D.C. Public Schools in 2010, after Mayor Fenty was defeated for a reelection, a vote seen by many political observers as a referendum on Rhee's tenure.

D.C. school officials reported a drop in funder dollars after 2010. The D.C. Becoming a Money Magnet: Lessons of the D.C. Ed Philanthropy Boom - Inside Philanthropy: Fundraising Intelligence - Inside Philanthropy:

What makes a public school public? Washington state court finds charter schools unconstitutional - The Washington Post

What makes a public school public? Washington state court finds charter schools unconstitutional - The Washington Post:

What makes a public school public? Washington state court finds charter schools unconstitutional

Washington State’s Supreme Court has become the first in the nation to decide that taxpayer-funded charter schools are unconstitutional, reasoning that charters are not truly public schools because they aren’t governed by elected boards and therefore aren’t accountable to voters.

The opinion, released Friday, weeks after the school year began, breaks with high courts in several other states that had faced similar cases challenging charter schools’ legality. It means the future is uncertain for the state’s nine charter schools and the 1,200 students who attend them.

But the ruling also highlights a question that has spurred much debate in education circles as charter schools — which are funded with taxpayer dollars, but run by independent organizations — have expanded rapidly during the past two decades: What makes a public school public?

Opponents of charter schools have long argued that the schools are private because they don’t have to answer to the public and in some states aren’t subject to key rules that apply to government agencies, such as open meetings and public records laws. They can be operated by for-profit companies; can use taxpayer dollars to buy buildings that are then owned privately; and in many states they are considered private employers.

“The public has no voice in management or oversight of charter schools; they are private with private boards,” Diane Ravitch, an education historian and prominent critic of charter schools, wrote in an e-mail. “Where public money is involved, public oversight is necessary.”

Charter school advocates argue that the definition of public schools has to be more expansive to include those that are trying to make good on the democratic ideal of equal access to a good education. Enormous achievement gaps between the nation’s poor and affluent children are proof that elected school board members, distracted by politics, have largely failed to serve the nation’s most disadvantaged children.

Charter schools are run, in most cases, by nonprofit boards of directors. They are free from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools, and in return they must meet academic achievement targets or risk closure.

“To us, the difference between traditional public schools and public charter schools is the notion that you’re bringing in outside entities to run schools free of the political process that often hampers school districts’ ability to make What makes a public school public? Washington state court finds charter schools unconstitutional - The Washington Post:

IEPs for All—Or Something Else?

IEPs for All—Or Something Else?:

IEPs for All—Or Something Else?

Some of us imagined a public school system that would drop special education labels and look at all children individually and collectively for their strengths and what they need to learn. We thought of it as Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) for everyone.

You will likely hear about “IEPs for All” in the future, if you haven’t already, but it is a far cry from what we dreamed.

IEPs and words like “individualize,” “personalize” and “differentiated learning” are terms that have been hijacked from special education. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and “aligned” are words that get thrown about too.

Instead of professionals—teachers, school psychologists, guidance counselors and other relevant school staff—sitting down with parents to outline an educational plan for individual children, the plan is to plug children, all children, into academic programs where they can supposedly move at their own rate of speed—on the computer.

Here are three of many articles you can find by looking up IEPs for All:

• IEPs for All: Ten Tips for Creating Individualized Instruction with Moodle and Joule
• An IEP for Every Student? Using Technology to Provide Truly Differentiated Instruction
• The Power of Personalized Learning for School Improvement

I believe the goal is to have children learn at home with software and computers and with their mother’s assistance…or no help from anyone. There is also much discussion about “self-directed learning.”

This transformation will take a while to achieve, so online charter schools will be an intermediary step. Instead of teachers, children will get behavioral monitors–supervisors who make sure they stay put in their seats as they work and don’t talk.

Of course, this isn’t what we think of when we visualize the old concept of an  IEP for a child.

If you read the recent hype by online gurus about online learning they call it disruptive. Disruptive is an unpleasant word, but it is a revered word in the world of entrepreneurialism and high tech. In referring to online instruction for schools it means it will drastically change schools, I think, by abolishing them. They eventually won’t need teachers anymore either. I don’t think most people will be surprised at what I just said.

If you look hard enough you can observe signs showing the conversion to this model. If you think of something I’ve missed let me know.

• Flipped classrooms are where students get the bulk of their information at home online then attend school like school is the review…homework. This IEPs for All—Or Something Else?:

Council Member Sawant » Letter to the Seattle School Board Supporting the Right of Educators to Strike

CouncilMember Sawant » Blog Archive » Letter to the Seattle School Board Supporting the Right of Educators to Strike:

Letter to the Seattle School Board Supporting the Right of Educators to Strike

See below for the letter that I and two other Councilmembers sent to the Seattle School Board, urging them not to take legal action against the Seattle Education Association (the union representing teachers and other educators in Seattle). To read the solidarity statement I wrote supporting the union’s demands and a fair contract, see my blog post here. 

Download the PDF here.

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September 8, 2015

Dear Seattle School Board,

Thank you for your work managing Seattle Public Schools. We are writing to urge you to reject a proposal that will come up for a vote at the Board’s special meeting this evening. If this proposal received a majority approval from you, it would give Superintendent Nyland the authority to take the Seattle Education Association (SEA) to court to get an injunction against a strike. As members of the School Board, you have been elected by voters to support the best possible education for our students, and the teachers, paraprofessionals, and SAEOPs of the Seattle Education Association are the best experts on what Seattle Public Schools need. By voting no on this proposal, you will have the opportunity to reassert the fundamental rights of Seattle educators to defend education and bargain collectively like other workers.

We believe the SEA’s demands in these contract negotiations are reasonable, in the best interests of Seattle students and should be considered in good faith. However, regardless of one’s opinions on the union’s demands, the educators’ democratic right to speak out, organize unions, and go on strike must be defended.

We urge you to not follow the heavy-handed negotiating tactics previously employed by the district Superintendents in Pasco and Spokane. By using the courts to try to force teachers to abandon their strike, they are doing irreparable harm to education in their districts.

The Seattle Education Association has the overwhelming support of parents, students and the community.

Please continue to negotiate in good faith with the educators in our district and respect their right to withhold their labor in the absence of what they see as a fair contract.  A strike is one of the most basic tools that give workers power in our society, and the Seattle Education Association has consistently used its power to fight to improve public education. Please vote against any move to take legal action against the union, and please continue to support the best education for all our students.

Thank you,

Councilmembers Kshama Sawant, Nick Licata, and John OkamotoCouncilMember Sawant » Blog Archive » Letter to the Seattle School Board Supporting the Right of Educators to Strike: