Demand Better Schools, Not Fewer Tests - Bloomberg View

Demand Better Schools, Not Fewer Tests - Bloomberg View:
Demand Better Schools, Not Fewer Tests

President Barack Obama is in danger of squandering one of his most important legacies -- better public education policies -- and doing real harm to our poorest students and America’s future.

Over the weekend, the president and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for limiting the amount of time that students spend taking tests. It’s an unfortunate and tragically oversimplified response to the challenges facing our schools -- challenges made plain by U.S. test results released Wednesday, which show that students have lost ground in math for the first time since 1990.

Common Core

To improve education, parents and teachers need to know how well our students -- of all ethnic and racial backgrounds -- are learning. That’s especially true in communities where schools are the best hope for escaping poverty. Parents deserve to know how schools compare with one another so that they can demand improvements where they are needed and hold schools accountable for delivering results. The same is true for principals and elected officials, to say nothing of taxpayers. That’s why accurate information on student learning is so crucial -- and like it or not, high-quality testing is an essential element of that.

Until last weekend, the Obama administration had rightly emphasized the importance of using student-performance data to ensure accountability and drive school improvement. It has also supported governors and school superintendents who are raising the bar for student achievement, especially by creating and adopting Common Core standards that are tied to college and career readiness. Yet now that results from tests aligned to these standards are showing just how many students are not on track for college, the public backlash against the tests seems to have given Obama and Duncan a case of cold feet. That’s deeply regrettable.

U.S. students once led the world in college graduation, but no longer, and our public-school students are in the middle of the pack, at the precise moment when people around the world are becoming ever more educated. The National Assessment of Educational Progress -- also known as “the nation’s report card” -- has long made clear just how poorly American schools serve children. The latest report was released Wednesday, and it shows that in reading and math, only one-third of eighth-grade students are meeting the national standard.

Today, the biggest threat to American might is not any one country or terrorist group. It is our collective unwillingness to confront mediocrity in our schools. In the ultracompetitive global economy, the U.S. is facing a terrible mismatch between high-skill jobs and our labor pool. This problem will grow worse over time unless we expect more of ourselves and our students -- and hold everyone, including teachers and school leaders, accountable for success. Caving to pressure from union leaders and a vocal subset of parents who want to end testing and accountability will make it harder to achieve that success.

It’s true that some states and districts need to do a better job of coordinating tests, to prevent redundancy, and using them effectively. But that does not require an act of Congress. And the argument that teachers spend too much time “teaching to the test” misses the crucial point: When curriculum and instruction are aligned with high-quality tests, as they often are in Advanced Placement classes, classroom work will prepare students for success.

What’s more, students will face tests throughout their life. They must learn to cope with the emotional stress that comes with the experience, particularly because many companies (including mine) use tests in hiring. I understand: Test-taking is no one’s idea of fun, but it is part of life and shielding students from it does them a great disservice.

Using testing to examine a teacher’s impact on student learning is also important. Studies show that the single best reform we can implement is to put an excellent teacher in every class. Leaving the lowest-performing teachers in front of students sets them back and hurts their career trajectory. Parents deserve transparent and objective data to assess teachers and schools. Just ask yourself: Would you want your child in a classroom with a teacher who helps students exceed expectations -- or one whose students consistently fall below expectations?

Sadly, more often than not, poor children end up with teachers whom middle- and upper-income parents would refuse to accept for their children. One of the best ways to help identify such teachers is via regular data on student performance.

If we want to give all our children the skills they need to succeed, there’s no getting around testing -- and as bad as a federal limit would be, Congress has an even worse idea. Republican-sponsored legislation would require changes to state accountability systems that would give schools incentive to keep kids out of testing -- an odd and disgraceful instance of conservatives making common cause with the teachers union to impose a federal mandate on states.

The Common Core and other tough new standards adopted by states, along with the tests aligned to them, are exposing just how far our schools need to go. We ought to embrace that challenge, and make it a national mission to meet it in the near future. The president and the secretary of education have made a grave mistake by reflexively seeking to limit testing. If Congress embraces their politically driven proposal, it will come at the expense of our most at-risk children -- making economic growth, along with social justice and racial progress, harder to achieve.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
David Shipley at davidshipley@bloomberg.net

Demand Better Schools, Not Fewer Tests - Bloomberg View:

California students score near bottom in math and reading

California students score near bottom in math and reading:

California students score near bottom in math and reading

California students' test scores are among the worst in the nation.

The state that some call the "world's 8th largest economy" is producing students that score among the lowest in the United States in reading and math, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, gathered test scores from American students in the fourth and eighth grades to provide a picture of educational achievement at different levels.

Fourth graders in California performed worse than students in every state except a few: Nevada, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Eighth graders in California fared better but were still roughly in the bottom 15 states.

Separately, U.S. News & World Report reported Wednesday that scores for reading and math among fourth and eighth graders across the United States dropped from 2013 to 2015.

Data compiled by Pew Research put the United States somewhere in the middle of the pack in math and science education globally, ahead of countries such as Israel, Brazil and Indonesia, but behind countries such as the Ireland, Taiwan and Russia.

Read the full article in the San Jose Mercury News. California students score near bottom in math and reading:

Data: Majority of Nevadans seeking school vouchers live in upscale suburbs - Las Vegas Sun News

Data: Majority of Nevadans seeking school vouchers live in upscale suburbs - Las Vegas Sun News:

Data: Majority of Nevadans seeking school vouchers live in upscale suburbs

This week, the Nevada State Treasurer’s Office released a trove of data regarding applications for Nevada’s education savings accounts.

It’s the first peek into who is applying for Nevada’s voucher-like program, the most sweeping of its kind in the entire country. The data dump included a breakdown of 3,067 applications by categories like the age of the student and economic status.

Some of the highlights: A majority of the applications come from Clark County, most were filed on behalf of kids ages 5 through 8, 650 applicants claimed to be within 185 percent of the federal poverty line and 207 involve a student with a disability, according to the treasurer’s office.

But the most interesting data came in the form of a breakdown of all the applications by ZIP code. And that data tells an interesting story:

A majority of applications come from the wealthier suburbs of Las Vegas

This shouldn’t come as a big surprise to many opponents of the quasi-voucher program, who tend to criticize the system as catering to wealthy families who want to get out of the public school system. Of the 10 ZIP codes with the most ESA applications, seven are in communities located outside of the 215 Beltway. The ZIP code with the most applications is 89052 in Henderson, which encompasses Henderson Executive Airport and the Anthem master-planned community. Of those same 10 ZIP codes, the least wealthy is 89117 — covering parts of the west valley including Peccole Ranch and the Lakes — with a median household income of around $54,000, which is still well above the state average. The top 10 ZIP codes account for a full third of all applications submitted for the ESA program.

Very few applications are coming from the inner city

Perhaps the most striking piece of data is the relatively low number of applications coming from the inner city of Las Vegas, the home of many low-income, minority and English-language learning Data: Majority of Nevadans seeking school vouchers live in upscale suburbs - Las Vegas Sun News:

So what if teachers hate No Child Left Behind? - The Washington Post

So what if teachers hate No Child Left Behind? - The Washington Post:

So what if teachers hate No Child Left Behind?

On a warm September evening along coastal Georgia, Lily Eskelsen García, the face of 3 million teachers, paused to balance another plate of fried chicken and shake another hand. It was early evening and she was standing in a room at the Savannah Arts Academy, surrounded by parents, teachers and students.

For 12 hours, García, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, had been visiting schools, taking photos with teachers and chatting up students. Now it was time to give The Speech, the one about how standardized testing has ruined public education.

“No Child Left Untested is an unmitigated disaster that has hurt kids for 13 years,” she said, referring to the Bush-era law that relied on test scores to measure progress at disadvantaged schools and to evaluate teachers. “It’s reduced what teachers are supposed to do to what will fit on a standardized test, and I don’t know one kid in the world who comes that way. Shame on us if we can’t find a better solution.”

The Speech was virtually the same at the other stops. She never used notes. She looked at ease, smiled and made eye contact. Before and after The Speech, she always asked students: What do you love about your school?

Her two-week back-to-school Opportunity for All Tour was a listening tour, photo op and pep rally blended together. Last year, she did her first tour in California. She said she chose to head south this year because “this is where so many inequities still exist.”

In 19 stops in four Southern states, and in various town halls and television interviews, what García kept digging at was: What makes a school a community hub where teachers and students can thrive?

She asked what kids loved about their schools to show how absurd it was to believe test scores could ever fully capture a school’s strengths and challenges.

García visits a classroom. At every stop, she asks students what they love about their school as a way of showing some of the things test scores fail to capture about a school’s challenges and strengths. (Kevin Lock)

The answers usually ran along the lines of “I love my teacher.” She tweeted one student’s response that his instructor’s teaching “makes us feel like we are in paradise.”

That may sound corny, but pumping up teachers is part of García’s job, just as much as fighting back against their critics, although she is often more consumed by the latter.

García is the face of the union’s year-old campaign against “toxic testing.” Teachers nationwide say the imperatives of high-stakes testing have robbed So what if teachers hate No Child Left Behind? - The Washington Post:

Unions Are Basically Dead and That's Really Bad - The Atlantic

Unions Are Basically Dead and That's Really Bad - The Atlantic:
Farewell to America's Middle Class: Unions Are Basically Dead

The U.S. is one of the only rich countries that has reached the (incorrect) conclusion that organizing workers is counterproductive.

For a group of presidential candidates who claim to be interested in the plight of the American worker, it was surprising that the five Democrats onstage for their first debate two weeks ago didn’t once say the word “union.” Well, technically, that’s not correct—Bernie Sanders did mention the watchdog group Citizens Union—but the point remains.

A raft of research—some new, some old—suggests that it’s a shame that unions were absent in Democrats’ most publicized recent conversation. Some of that research is coming from unlikely places; the International Monetary Fund, for instance, recommended reviving unions as a way for democracies to grow their economies and boost productivity.

In the U.S., where less than 9 percent of private-sector workers are organized, they could use a revival. The U.S. has one of the lowest unionization rates in the world, far behind Germany and Canada, and closer to Mexico and South Korea.

The U.S.’s low unionization rates come with consequences for its workers. It leads rich nations in low-wage jobs—more than 20 percent of jobs pay less than two-thirds of the median wage. And the U.S. ranks in the bottom third of countries in terms of its work-life balance. Americans work about 1,790 hours per year on average, but workers in most wealthier nations work less than 1,600. 11.8 percent of American adults work long hours; less than 1 percent of Dutch workers put in more than 50 hours a week.

Reviving unions could be a way to counter these trends. The IMF concluded that countries with higher rates of union coverage enjoy lower rates of inequality and lower rates of poverty. Its researchers reasoned that because globalization and technology affect just about every nation, differences in unionization rates and labor regulations are more likely to explain differences in inequality across nations. The White House and the American Sociological Review, a mainstream academic journal, both came to similar conclusions about the links between declining unions and rising inequality.

In all this research, the causal link identified was pretty much the same: Unions reduce inequality by bringing up the wages of middle-income and the lowest-paid workers. And workers in unions aren’t just getting better wages—they’re also getting better compensation in general. Unionized workers are 28 percent more likely to be covered by employer-provided health insurance and 54 percent more likely to have a pension.

Who covers these raises? Managers’ and executives’ wages tend to be slightly lower at businesses with unionized workforces. Sometimes, though, no one’s taking pay cuts—unions have also been shown to boost workers’ productivity, bringing in more money for the firm overall. Unions appear to raise productivity for an interesting reason: Employers of unionized workers tend to spend more on updating their machines and computers and training their workers. They’re more incentivized to do so when an hour of work is relatively more expensive, and this raises productivity overall. This boost also goes toward explaining why unions have no discernible detrimental effect on unemployment.

And that’s only what happens at a single company. When unions represent their workers, they often push for things—higher taxes on the wealthiest, Social-Security benefits increases, and better public education, to name a few—that benefit even non-unionized workers. It’s been shown that poorer kids have a better chance of being upwardly mobile if their parents are in unions or they live in areas with high union-membership rates. So it’s no wonder that in the relative absence of unions, there is more income inequality.

If unions are so good, then why aren’t workers flocking to them? Many employers resist anything that would give workers more leverage, and they construct barriers (some of them illegal). The Atlantic has reported on stories of workers at Unions Are Basically Dead and That's Really Bad - The Atlantic:

Unions form national coalition to ward off attack by right wing | United Federation of Teachers

Unions form national coalition to ward off attack by right wing | United Federation of Teachers:

Unions form national coalition to ward off attack by right wing

The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association have joined together with other publicsector unions to combat the right’s attempt to use a case before the U.S. Supreme Court to hamstring them financially by abolishing agency fees for public-sector workers, UFT President Michael Mulgrew reported to the Delegate Assembly on Oct. 14.

Mulgrew said a loss in the case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, which he described as a “Hail Mary pass by the people who hate us,” would drastically diminish organized labor’s ability to support its members and to defend the middle class and public services including education.

Friedrichs is another attempt by “a small group of people who are determined to destroy the middle class in this country because they know that they can collect more wealth for themselves,” he said.

That small group, Mulgrew noted, includes the hedge fund-backed “education reformers” with whom teachers unions have battled for years.

“People understand that the education reformers’ ideas have failed,” Mulgrew told the delegates. “But it was never about their ideas. It was always about destabilizing the unions.”

Labor unions are a target of the education reformers, he said, because “it’s just organized labor that has been able to stand up to them.”

Mulgrew also exposed what he called the lie at the heart of their anti-union argument. “They will tell people that you must be part of the union,” he said. “It is absolutely not true.”

As Mulgrew explained, teachers and other workers in unionized jobs can sign a card to become a dues-paying union member or can choose not to join the union and instead pay an agency fee to cover the cost of union-provided services they receive, such as subsidized workshops, the ability to file grievances; negotiations on their behalf; and all the other rights safeguarded in the collective-bargaining agreement.

The other two unions in the national coalition are the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Service Employees International Union.Unions form national coalition to ward off attack by right wing | United Federation of Teachers:

Kaya Henderson’s Calendar: Fundraising, Fundraising, and More Fundraising - Loose Lips

Kaya Henderson’s Calendar: Fundraising, Fundraising, and More Fundraising - Loose Lips:

Kaya Henderson’s Calendar: Fundraising, Fundraising, and More Fundraising

On a given day in the course of running the 47,000-student D.C. Public Schools system, Chancellor Kaya Henderson could be handing out iPads, reading to elementary school kids, or haggling with a councilmember.

But running one of the country’s most-watched public school systems means something else, too: hitting up a group of well-heeled donors for cash and ideas. Like her controversial predecessor, Michelle Rhee, Henderson has found her way onto the circuit of private groups hoping to influence the District’s public schools.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, LL obtained Henderson’s calendar between January 2013 and August 2015 to see who’s working with the chancellor behind the scenes. It turns out that while Henderson has avoided becoming a Rhee-style lightning rod in the education wars, she shares with her predecessor many of the same backers in the world of school reform.

Unlike Rhee, Henderson doesn’t have a documentary like Waiting for Superman to make her a star amongst education wonks. Still, she has kept up Rhee’s jet-setting schedule.

Like any good local District political figure, Henderson uses the Old Ebbitt Grill like a second office, but she’s just as likely to be headed to Croatia or China. Henderson has made it to big-deal conferences like the Allen & Co. Sun Valley confab, where she talked schools with bigwigs whom one attendee described as “100 percent of the one percent.”

Henderson hasn’t shrunk from the public profile established by her predecessor. In 2013, according to her calendar, she received media training help from Vince Gray’s 2010 campaign adviser Mo Elleithee. She meets with celebrities like politico Donna Brazile and basketball star Magic Johnson.

Henderson has also been talking to Catharine Bellinger, now the head of the Democrats for Education Reform D.C. political action committee aimed at pushing reform-minded candidates in the District. DFER has been staunchly pro-charter and anti-teachers union.

Another carry-over from the previous administration: Rhee herself, who occasionally schedules phone calls with Henderson. Ex-mayor and Rhee patron Adrian Fenty made his own meeting with Henderson back in 2013, on behalf of an education technology company he was working for.

Despite trips to conferences as far away as Turkey, Henderson doesn’t have to leave the District to call up wealthy donors with big ideas about DCPS. Kaya Henderson’s Calendar: Fundraising, Fundraising, and More Fundraising - Loose Lips:

Um, Kentucky — and other reactions to the national drop in NAEP scores - The Washington Post

Um, Kentucky — and other reactions to the national drop in NAEP scores - The Washington Post:

Um, Kentucky — and other reactions to the national drop in NAEP scores

The 2015 numbers for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are out, and scores are down. In fact, as my Post colleague Emma Brown reports, math scores for fourth-graders and eighth-graders across the United States dropped this year, for the first time since the federal government began administering the exams in 1990. Eighth-grade scores dropped while fourth-grade performance was stagnant compared with 2013, the last time the test was administered.

[U.S. performance slips on national test]

[What the national decline in NAEP test scores really means]

Here’s reaction to the NAEP scores from various corners of the education world:

Diane Ravitch, president of the Network for Public Education

The decline in NAEP scores is a wake-up call to the nation. It is a clear indication that No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have failed to improve our children’s education. Educators have warned for years that the strategy of test-and-punish was a grave error. President George W. Bush launched these so-called reforms, and President Obama built on Bush’s flawed foundation by using test scores to fire teachers and principals and close thousands of public schools. It is past time to abandon the failed Bush-Obama “reforms.”

Neal McCluskey, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the libertarian Cato Institute

This morning the latest scores from the 4th and 8th grade National Assessment of Educational Progress – the so-called Nation’s Report Card – came out, and the story isn’t very good, at least upon first examination. Average scores in 4th and 8th grade math, and in 8th grade reading, were down from 2013, and essentially 

Um, Kentucky — and other reactions to the national drop in NAEP scores - The Washington Post:

Cuomo names Common Core critic to key education post | Long Island Business News

Cuomo names Common Core critic to key education post | Long Island Business News:

Cuomo names Common Core critic to key education post

Governor Andrew Cuomo today announced that Jere Hochman, a school superintendent and former English teacher who has been a vocal critic of the Common Core, was named deputy secretary for education.

Hochman since 2008 has been the superintendent of the Bedford Central School District in New York. He also served as a teacher, principal and superintendent in school districts in St. Louis and Amherst, Mass.

He in 1990 obtained a doctorate in education from Teachers College of Columbia University, after obtaining a bachelors and master’s degree from the University of Missouri in St. Louis.

“We are certain that our state and all our schoolchildren will be well-served by Jere Hochman’s efforts in his new position,” New York State Council of School Superintendents Executive Director Robert Reidy, Jr. said

While his experience in education itself might make him a timely choice, Hochman also has been outspoken about his concerns regarding the Common Core and its implementation.

“The whole accountability, ‘gotcha’ culture is so out of control that we need a fresh start,” Hochman told Lohud.com when he was president of the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents. “The standards are OK, but every problem is connected to the Common Core. New York needs to take a bold stance so we can focus on educating kids.”

Cuomo said Hochman “has spent his career working to strengthen learning environments and make schools a better place for all. But he also has been critical of many actions.

Diane Ravitch, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education who now teaches at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, called the appointment the “best thing Andrew Cuomo has done in education.”

Hochman in a response to a column by Tom Friedman in The New York Times criticized a long list of measures by the federal government that, he said, have failed to work.

“They put in annual high-stakes testing – that didn’t work. They labeled districts – that didn’t work. They tried small high schools – that didn’t work. They diverted funds to charters – that’s not working,” Hochman wrote. “They beat up on teachers – that didn’t work. They’ve prescribed curriculum, scripts, and more testing – that’s not working. So – why not blame parents until that doesn’t work?”

Hochman brings 40 years of public education experience, including 20 years as a superintendent in

Read more: http://libn.com/2015/10/28/cuomo-names-common-core-critic-to-key-education-post/#ixzz3pxzjFIA4

The NAEP Indictment of Corporate Reform | deutsch29

The NAEP Indictment of Corporate Reform | deutsch29:

The NAEP Indictment of Corporate Reform

On October 28, 2015, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released the 2015 “Nation’s Report Card”– the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores.

Students across the nation are randomly selected to complete the NAEP, which is given approximately every two years in two areas (reading and math) in grades 4, 8 and 12. The primary focus is on NAEP results for grades 4 and 8, since NAEP participation for grades 4 and 8 became a federal mandate for states as a result of George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001.

These two files include state and national NAEP scores from the early 1990s to the present:

1992-2015 NAEP_Results_Reading

1990-2015 NAEP_Results_Math

The above files as well as other NAEP data tables can be found using the search engine at the bottom of this link. Available tables include those for NAEP reading and math scores in select, large districts.

The short story regarding the 2o15 NAEP results are that they are a lackluster indictment of the test-score-driven reforms that have plagued the American public schools for the past 15 years.

A lot is being written (and spun) regarding these scores. Two articles in particular capture well the unmistakable failure of test-centric, corporate reform. The first is this October 28, 2015, post by education historian, Diane Ravitch. Here is an enlightening excerpt:

Sometimes events happen that seem to be disconnected, but after a few days or weeks, the pattern emerges. Consider this: On October 2, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that he was resigning and planned to return to Chicago. Former New York Commissioner of Education John King, 

The NAEP Indictment of Corporate Reform | deutsch29:

Randi and Eva: Stop Suspending Our Babies! | Reggie Harris

Randi and Eva: Stop Suspending Our Babies! | Reggie Harris:

Randi and Eva: Stop Suspending Our Babies!

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the #BlackStudentLivesMatter forum in Oakland, California.  At this event I had a chance to hear many compelling stories, including the story of Cameron Simmons, the Youth Advocate from Restorative Justice Oakland Youth; the story of a boy who was first suspended at the age of four for allegedly stealing his own candy; the story of a young man who was suspended over 150 times during his school career and is still standing and free to talk about it; the story of a young man who shared an almost identical (however more impressive) story to my own.  My first three suspensions came in the second grade as well as my first recommendation for expulsion for things that would now be considered "willful defiance."
 
Recently,  Eva Moskowitz, the President of one of New York City's largest charter schools, Success Academy - and a former councilwoman - appeared on "PBS Newshour" and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten wrote a piece in the Huffington Post, both discussed school discipline and its effects on Black students.  While I genuinely appreciate their intentions I can't help but to be troubled when I hear Ms. Moskowitz express, "If you get it right in the early years, you actually have to suspend far less when the kids are older, because they understand what is expected of them."  Equally troubling was her reference to "sexually explicit language" as an example and a reason for mandatory suspension, which demonstrates both a cultural disconnect and an implicit bias. Daytime television is packed with sexually explicit language, not to mention radio.  Sending a kid home to watch Maury and Jerry Springer for three straight days and expecting them to return with a more collegial vocabulary is simply illogical.
 
Ms. Weingarten seems to be a bit more on the mark with her actions and rhetoric, most notably joining protests in support of Eric Garner, but when she expresses, according to a recent AFT press release, "How many times did I cross the street Randi and Eva: Stop Suspending Our Babies! | Reggie Harris:

A Sample Opt Out Letter | Seattle Education

A Sample Opt Out Letter | Seattle Education:

A Sample Opt Out Letter

Standardized testing has started in Seattle Public Schools.

Wondering when your child will be tested? Curious what tests will be given at your school?  Here are the links to the SPS assessment calendar. Click here for the testing schedule for grades K-8. For grades 9-12, click here.

Opting out is the most powerful tool parents have to push back against testing AND gain leverage for the things kids need more of like: art, PE, and instructional time. Now is the time to write your opt out letter.

Here’s a simple template to get you started:

Dear____________________ (Principal),

I respectfully refuse to have my child, ____________________, take the Smarter Balanced Assessments, Amplify, MAP, WaKIDS, MSP (or other tests, listed here:___________________).  This includes practice tests and make up tests.

Please provide a comfortable and supervised space for my child to engage in a meaningful learning activity, do homework, or read.  My child will need full access to their backpack and lunch.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Signature:________________________      Date:_____________________

Printed name:_____________________     Phone or email:______________________

-Carolyn Leith

A Sample Opt Out Letter | Seattle Education:

Related

Seattle Opt-Out of Standardized Tests MeetingIn "Opting Out of High Stakes Testing"

Opting out of the MAP test and a MAP opt out letter template just in time for Spring testingIn "MAP"

An Open Letter to Superintendent Nyland from the Opt OutsIn "A Better Way"

Bloomberg: Obama and Duncan are making a wrong turn over testing - The Washington Post

Bloomberg: Obama and Duncan are making a wrong turn over testing - The Washington Post:

Bloomberg: Obama and Duncan are making a wrong turn over testing

Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg says that President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are “making a grave mistake” by pledging to reduce the amount of standardized tests mandated in U.S. schools.

In an essay first published Tuesday by Bloomberg View, which he owns, the former mayor has harsh words for the president and his education secretary, accusing them of “caving to pressure from union leaders and a vocal subset of parents.” He said their actions could do “real harm to our poorest students and America’s future.”

Bloomberg wrote that “students will face tests throughout their life. They must learn to cope with the emotional stress that comes with the experience, particularly because many companies (including mine) use tests in hiring. I understand: Test-taking is no one’s idea of fun, but it is part of life and shielding students from it does them a great disservice.”

He suggested that cutting back on testing will reduce pressure on schools to educate all children and will ultimately harm the country.

“In the ultracompetitive global economy, the U.S. is facing a terrible mismatch between high-skill jobs and our labor pool,” Bloomberg wrote. “This problem will grow worse over time unless we expect more of ourselves and our students — and hold everyone, including teachers and school leaders, accountable for success. Caving to pressure from union leaders and a vocal subset of parents who want to end testing and accountability will make it harder to achieve that success.”

[Read Bloomberg’s essay here]

During Bloomberg’s tenure as mayor, the state legislature transferred responsibility for the nation’s largest school system to the mayor instead of a school board. He aggressively pushed through policy changes, including a teacher evaluation system based on student test scores and a rapid expansion of public charter schools. His schools chancellor, Joel Klein, emphasized the use of test score data to drive decision making.

Bloomberg, the three-term mayor who left office in 2013, was responding in Bloomberg: Obama and Duncan are making a wrong turn over testing - The Washington Post:

Malloy announces new fiscal strategy based on the notion of “Putting Head in Sand.” - Wait What?

Malloy announces new fiscal strategy based on the notion of “Putting Head in Sand.” - Wait What?:

Malloy announces new fiscal strategy based on the notion of “Putting Head in Sand.”

For the past five years, Governor Dannel Malloy has steadfastly refused to properly address Connecticut’s failure to properly fund its long-term obligations, including the state’s two pension funds and state employee post-retirement benefits.

Today, in what he called a “bold move,” Malloy announced his solution.

The strategy can best be described as a plan to put our collective heads in the sand, push off the burden to our children and hope that no one notices!

The plan is nothing but a gimmick to reduce the budget deficits that Malloy has built into his state budgets.

As the CT Mirror’s Keith Phaneuf explains in his article entitled, Malloy calls for big change in pension financing

East Hartford — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy outlined Wednesday a sweeping plan to overhaul state government’s pension system, pushing some costs off for a decade and a half to control spiking costs that he argued could drive up taxes and drain vital programs.

[…]

Benjamin Barnes, the governor’s budget director, said actuarial assessments and other fiscal details of the plan, developed in cooperation with a study of the pension system performed by analysts at Boston College, would be released soon.

“There is no magic bullet to solve high pension costs,” Malloy told commissioners during a briefing at Rentschler Field in East Hartford. “We 

Malloy announces new fiscal strategy based on the notion of “Putting Head in Sand.” - Wait What?: