Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/3/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Chicago’s School Corruption Won’t End With the Latest Lockup, but Here’s Why I Don’t Feel Hopeless. | The Progressive

Chicago’s School Corruption Won’t End With the Latest Lockup, but Here’s Why I Don’t Feel Hopeless. | The Progressive: Chicago’s School Corruption Scandals Won’t End With the Latest Lockup, but Here’s Why I Don’t Feel Hopeless. Another perpetrator might be going to jail, but that’s just the beginning of what needs to be done to counter the systemic educational oppression of Chicago’s youth. When I

by mike simpson / 1h 

What Teachers Do: A Little Common Sense In This Must-See Video

What Teachers Do: A Little Common Sense In This Must-See Video:What Teachers Do: A Little Common Sense In This Must-See VideoTurns out the teachers got it right. The wheels are falling off the so-called “education reform” project which dismissed the voices of teachers – and particularly their unions – with no little vitriol.Reformers offered clear, simple answers to the supposed failings of Americ

by mike simpson / 1h 

CURMUDGUCATION: Rescuing Strivers from Those People

CURMUDGUCATION: Rescuing Strivers from Those People: Rescuing Strivers from Those PeopleToday in Bloomberg View, Mike Petrilli is airing out his ideas about how charters should be the lifeboats that rescue strivers from the chaos of disruptive students.His thesis is pretty simple-- strivers suffer from being trapped in classrooms that are disrupted by non-strivey students, so if we could screen fo

by mike simpson / 1h 

School vs. Society in America’s Failing Students - The New York Times

School vs. Society in America’s Failing Students - The New York Times: School vs. Society in America’s Failing StudentsHere’s the good news: American schools may not be as bad as we have been led to believe.Ah, but here’s the bad news: The rest of American society is failing its disadvantaged citizens even more than we realize. The question is, Should educators be responsible for fixing this?The p

by mike simpson / 2h 

Education Reform – Testing kids on content they’ve never learned - Wait What?

Education Reform – Testing kids on content they’ve never learned - Wait What?: Education Reform – Testing kids on content they’ve never learnedA primary goal of the Corporate Education Reform Industry is to privatize public education by persuading policymakers that the nation’s system of public education is failing.A key strategy of choice for the so-called reformers and their political lackeys is

by mike simpson / 2h 

Child Care Annual Aggregate Report SFY 2014-15 - Child Development (CA Dept of Education)

Child Care Annual Aggregate Report SFY 2014-15 - Child Development (CA Dept of Education): Child Care Annual Aggregate Report SFY 2014-15 Number of Children Served by Program Type1 During State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2014-15Program TypeChildren (N)General Child Care55,243CalWORKs Stage 290,465CalWORKs Stage 346,889Alternative Payment38,157California State Preschool180,354General Migrant Care3,902Severe

by mike simpson / 2h 

Will Competency-Based Learning Rescue the Testocracy? - Living in Dialogue

Will Competency-Based Learning Rescue the Testocracy? - Living in Dialogue: Will Competency-Based Learning Rescue the Testocracy?By Anthony Cody.We have been badgered for the past 14 years by reformers insisting on the fierce urgency of change, and they have had their way – twice! First, seven years of NCLB, followed by the past seven years of Race to the Top, and now the “next generation” of test

by mike simpson / 5h 

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Byrd-Bennett, SUPES & Harcourt's goal in Detroit: Loot and then burn.

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Byrd-Bennett, SUPES & Harcourt's goal in Detroit: Loot and then burn.: Byrd-Bennett, SUPES & Harcourt's goal in Detroit: Loot and then burn.Byrd-Bennett's inner circle, Tracy Martin, Sherry Ulery and Rosemary Herpel, followed her from Cleveland and Detroit.I'm glad that Chicago reporters are finally uncovering the depth and breadth of the SUPES scandal.

by mike simpson / 5h 

Rick Smith – Letting Teachers Voices Through the Media Embargo | gadflyonthewallblog

Rick Smith – Letting Teachers Voices Through the Media Embargo | gadflyonthewallblog: Rick Smith – Letting Teachers Voices Through the Media EmbargoI met Rick Smith for the first time in person this summer in Washington, D.C.He had traveled to our nation’s capital to cover the Badass Teachers Association(BATs) Congress of which I was a member. Though I’d seen pictures and videos of him and even be

by mike simpson / 6h 

David Hursh’s New Book, The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education | deutsch29

David Hursh’s New Book, The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education | deutsch29: David Hursh’s New Book, The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education(The Kindle version is already available on Amazon.com. Moreover, this flyer from Routledge includes information on a 20 percent discount.)David HurshUniversity of Rochester (New York)

by mike simpson / 7h 

CURMUDGUCATION: Magnet vs. Charter

CURMUDGUCATION: Magnet vs. Charter: Magnet vs. CharterOnce again, I had a version of this conversation.Me: Charters are not public schools because they are not open to or committed to taking all students. They filter and cream and push out and refuse to backfill.Reformster: What about magnet schools? Those are public schools which have stringent admission requirements. They don't educate every chi

by mike simpson / 7h 

California's Attorney General Is Investigating The Online Charter School Industry - BuzzFeed News

California's Attorney General Is Investigating The Online Charter School Industry - BuzzFeed News: California’s Attorney General Is Investigating The Online Charter School IndustryStudents at virtual charter schools lag significantly behind their peers in brick-and-mortar classrooms, sparking big worries among education advocates.The for-profit online charter school industry is the target of an in

by mike simpson / 7h 

Better pay, more time to plan and one other thing teachers want from you - LA Times

Better pay, more time to plan and one other thing teachers want from you - LA Times: Better pay, more time to plan and one other thing teachers want from youAmid a shortage of teachers in California, a new report calls for attracting more people to the profession by making teaching more prestigious.  (Anthony Russo / For The Times)en Arielle Bourguignon started teaching at 24th Street Elementary i

by mike simpson / 7h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In response to war on unions, the CTU prepares its troops for battle

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In response to war on unions, the CTU prepares its troops for battle: In response to war on unions, the CTU prepares its troops for battle"Our plan will eliminate the big government unions entirely..." -- Scott WalkerGov. Rauner's war on the unions, especially teacher unions, is modeled on his pal, Gov. Walker's war in Wisconsin. Walker's plans include prev

by mike simpson / 7h 

The Very Persistent Delusions of Billionaire-Edureformers | the becoming radical

The Very Persistent Delusions of Billionaire-Edureformers | the becoming radical: The Very Persistent Delusions of Billionaire-EdureformersBillionaire-Edureformer extraordinaire Bill Gates “sat in a gray easy chair” at Clemson University’s Tillman Hall (yes, that Tillman Hall) to pontificate once more on education reform.Gates soothed the crowd by explaining “that if they get frustrated at the lac

by mike simpson / 7h 

Review of Journeys: Are @KIPP charter schools pathological? | Cloaking Inequity

Review of Journeys: Are @KIPP charter schools pathological? | Cloaking Inequity: Review of Journeys: Are @KIPP charter schools pathological?Are @KIPP charter schools pathological? Jim Horn et al. will soon publish a new book entitled Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys Through “No Excuses” Teaching. The following is a review based on the advance copy that I received.Jim Horn et al. have collected importa

by mike simpson / 7h 

Possible candidates emerge in LAUSD superintendent search | 89.3 KPCC

Possible candidates emerge in LAUSD superintendent search | 89.3 KPCC: Possible candidates emerge in LAUSD superintendent searchThe search for Los Angeles Unified’s next superintendent enters a new phase this month as recruiters reach out across the country to approach qualified candidates.After the LAUSD’s school board decides on the type of candidates it wants to interview, the search firm it hi

by mike simpson / 8h 

Campaign Finance Violations will follow Bronin (Win or Lose) - Wait What?

Campaign Finance Violations will follow Bronin (Win or Lose) - Wait What?: Campaign Finance Violations will follow Bronin (Win or Lose)Call it Pay-to-Play or Play and Pay…Greenwich native and Hartford mayoral wannabee Luke Bronin has not only run the most expensive mayoral campaign in Connecticut history, but his campaign that has made a mockery of Connecticut’s Campaign Finance Laws.Win or lose,

by mike simpson / 8h 

This Week In Education: Campaign 2016: Standalone Education PACs - Is It Time?

This Week In Education: Campaign 2016: Standalone Education PACs - Is It Time?: Campaign 2016: Standalone Education PACs - Is It Time?I had the chance to chat for a few minutes yesterday afternoon with Naveed Amalfard, one of the co-founders of America's Teachers whose efforts have been written up recently in the LA Times among other places.Describing the effort as a "a political startup,&quo

by mike simpson / 8h 

Video: The Constitution and School Choice - Yahoo News

Video: The Constitution and School Choice - Yahoo News: Video: The Constitution and School ChoiceWhat do the U.S. and Pennsylvania Constitutions say about school choice, teacher tenure, standardized testing, and more? The National Constitution Center hosted three events on November 2 exploring these questions.View photo.If you would like to watch a video replay of the discussions, here are links t

by mike simpson / 8h 

Bill Gates spent a fortune to build it. Now a Florida school system is getting rid of it. - The Washington Post

Bill Gates spent a fortune to build it. Now a Florida school system is getting rid of it. - The Washington Post: Bill Gates spent a fortune to build it. Now a Florida school system is getting rid of it.Here we go again. Another Bill Gates-funded education reform project, starting with mountains of cash and sky-high promises, is crashing to Earth.This time it’s the Empowering Effective Teachers, an

by mike simpson / 8h 

Colorado School District Immersed In Political Turmoil Amid Recall

Colorado School District Immersed In Political Turmoil Amid Recall: Colorado School District Immersed In Political Turmoil Amid Recall"I think we are a harbinger of education reform, what can persist and succeed and what cannot."Protesting students Adriana Gonzales, right, and Andrea Colmenero march against a Jefferson County School Board proposal to emphasize patriotism and downplay civ

by mike simpson / 8h 

Here’s why $7 billion didn’t help America’s worst schools - POLITICO

Here’s why $7 billion didn’t help America’s worst schools - POLITICO: Here’s why $7 billion didn’t help America’s worst schoolsWhat two troubled high schools tell us about why the government got so little for so much money.In 2009, the Obama administration saw a chance to tackle a problem that had bedeviled educators for decades.“Our goal is to turn around the 5,000 lowest-performing schools over

by mike simpson / 8h 

Gulen charter school network: Overseas Junkets And Charter Schools – Part Two

Politicians, Overseas Junkets And Charter Schools – Part Two: Politicians, Overseas Junkets And Charter Schools – Part TwoReaders of Friday’s edition of USA Today found out about an issue thatPlunderbund readers have known about for some time.  It’s nice to know that more folks are now in the loop.The story,   “Turkish Faith Movement Secretly Funded 200 Trips for Lawmakers and Staff,” details the

by mike simpson / 9h 

A Change in Leadership on K-12 for the Gates Foundation, But Not Direction - Inside Philanthropy

A Change in Leadership on K-12 for the Gates Foundation, But Not Direction - Inside Philanthropy: Fundraising Intelligence - Inside Philanthropy: A Change in Leadership on K-12 for the Gates Foundation, But Not DirectionThe U.S. Department of Education is not the only big player in K-12 policy undergoing a change of leadership.Vicki Phillips announced recently that she would step down from her pos

by mike simpson / 9h 

Germany’s Approach to School Reform: Standards and Testing Without Any Penalties - The Atlantic

Germany’s Approach to School Reform: Standards and Testing Without Any Penalties - The Atlantic: The Great German School TurnaroundThe European country managed to raise test scores while reducing educational inequality. But with the dramatic influx of migrants, will its success last?To make a good national school system, a country needs to help its most disadvantaged students. So says Andreas Schl

by mike simpson / 9h 

Jesse Hagopian: Rolling back the testing mania?

Rolling back the testing mania? | SocialistWorker.org: Rolling back the testing mania?In an article written for Diane Ravitch's blog, Jesse Hagopian, a teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle and editor of More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing, responds to the Obama administration's recent announcement that "unnecessary testing" has gotten out of control.Stil

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

Financial Woes Plague Common-Core Rollout - WSJ

Financial Woes Plague Common-Core Rollout - WSJ: Financial Woes Plague Common-Core RolloutAfter 45 states adopt educational standards, many have second thoughtsEDMOND, Okla.—Educators in this Oklahoma City suburb jumped into action when state leaders in 2010 adopted the Common Core academic standards that were sweeping states across the country.The Edmond school district has a big military populat

by mike simpson / 18h 

Obama’s regret: “Taking the joy out of teaching and learning” | Seattle Education

Obama’s regret: “Taking the joy out of teaching and learning” | Seattle Education: Obama’s regret: “Taking the joy out of teaching and learning”Obama’s call to reduce testing to 2% of the school year still requires students to take standardized tests for an outlandish twenty-four hours.  And it isn’t even all the time directly spent taking the tests that’s the biggest problem.The real shame, which

by mike simpson / 19h 

Teachers For Social Justice: ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOL BOARD—THIS IS OUR MOMENT!

Teachers For Social Justice: ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOL BOARD—THIS IS OUR MOMENT!: ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOL BOARD—THIS IS OUR MOMENT!UPDATE! ELECTED SCHOOL BOARD—THIS IS OUR MOMENT!This is a game changer. The popularity of an elected representative school board in Chicago (2 advisory referendums with close to 90% of voters in favor) and CPS’s chaos and damaging policies have spurred the De

by mike simpson / 19h 

Will we get more testing status quo from Presidential Candidates? — NAACP Now

Will we get more testing status quo from Presidential Candidates? — NAACP Now — Medium: Will we get more testing status quo from Presidential Candidates?Many were recently disappointed by the lack of conversation about K-12 education in the recent Democratic debate in Las Vegas. The Progressive Magazine asked me to reflect on the dearth of coverage. I wrote.The recent Democratic Party presidential

by mike simpson / 22h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/2/15

CORPORATE ED REFORMYes, this stuff is still happening in U.S. schools — and it’s wrong - The Washington PostYes, this stuff is still happening in U.S. schools — and it’s wrong - The Washington Post: Yes, this stuff is still happening in U.S. schools — and it’s wrongA high school in an impoverished community is ordered closed. It is doing an awful job with its students, the school board says, and t

by mike simpson / 23h 

Chicago’s School Corruption Won’t End With the Latest Lockup, but Here’s Why I Don’t Feel Hopeless. | The Progressive

Chicago’s School Corruption Won’t End With the Latest Lockup, but Here’s Why I Don’t Feel Hopeless. | The Progressive:

Chicago’s School Corruption Scandals Won’t End With the Latest Lockup, but Here’s Why I Don’t Feel Hopeless.

Another perpetrator might be going to jail, but that’s just the beginning of what needs to be done to counter the systemic educational oppression of Chicago’s youth. When I heard that Barbara Byrd-Bennett had been indicted for corruption, I felt numb. Byrd-Bennett, former Chicago Public Schools CEO, is a product of the controversial Broad Superintendents Academy and arrived in Chicago after executing programs of disinvestment in public education in Cleveland and Detroit.

I certainly wanted to see her pay for selling crony contracts to enrich herself at the expense of Chicago’s public school students—90% of color, the vast majority low-income.

I felt transported back to a day last fall when I heard that my former principal was stepping down over a financial scandal that had robbed the school of nearly a million dollars. This was the principal who had used a lack of funds as an excuse to fire me for helping student whistle-blowers, and who destroyed our Law Education Program for Students of High Needs. This was the principal who had dismantled our Restorative Justice program—nationally recognized for its empowerment of students. She was removed for misconduct.

In both of these cases of corruption, I didn’t feel righteous, vindicated, or thankful when the wrongdoing came to light. I just felt sad. I knew that the programs weren’t coming back, and whatever changes came out of it, my students still had a harder journey than they deserved.  

While Byrd-Bennett was negotiating her casino windfalls with SUPES academy CEO Gary Solomon (who had been fired for sexual contact with his students and using racial slurs against African Americans), she was using the financial hardship caused by her corruption to

- See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/11/188389/chicago%E2%80%99s-school-corruption-scandals-won%E2%80%99t-end-latest-lockup-here%E2%80%99s-why-i-don%E2%80%99t#sthash.9IB0CZBP.dpuf

What Teachers Do: A Little Common Sense In This Must-See Video

What Teachers Do: A Little Common Sense In This Must-See Video:

What Teachers Do: A Little Common Sense In This Must-See Video

Turns out the teachers got it right. The wheels are falling off the so-called “education reform” project which dismissed the voices of teachers – and particularly their unions – with no little vitriol.

Reformers offered clear, simple answers to the supposed failings of America’s schools. High-stakes testing, they claimed, would measure failed schools and teachers. Charters would provide motivated alternatives, after failed schools were closed. Cyber schools would move education into the dot-com age. Teach for America students would supplant tired, old teachers.

Now reality is starting to bite. The Obama administration – chief apostle of high stakes standardized testing – now warns against devoting too much class time to testing and test prep. Charters have been exposed for wasting literally billions on schools that never open or close after a few months. The growing number of scams and rip-offs is too big to ignore. Teach for America students tend to leave schools before they gain the experience vital for teaching. Assailing teachers not surprisingly prompts the best to leave early. Cyber schools, a recent study reported, are so bad it is as if the students never attended school.

The most hyped charter chain – the Success Academy schools in New York City – turn out to have lists of “got to go” students who don’t perform well. It is relatively easy to lift average test scores if you eliminate the laggards.

Common sense now gets a new hearing, as parents and teachers revolt across the country. As National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García calmly explained to critics on “Morning Joe,” none of the countries that have been rising in international comparison do any of the things that the reformers tout. They make teaching an honored profession, train What Teachers Do: A Little Common Sense In This Must-See Video:

CURMUDGUCATION: Rescuing Strivers from Those People

CURMUDGUCATION: Rescuing Strivers from Those People:

Rescuing Strivers from Those People

Today in Bloomberg View, Mike Petrilli is airing out his ideas about how charters should be the lifeboats that rescue strivers from the chaos of disruptive students.

His thesis is pretty simple-- strivers suffer from being trapped in classrooms that are disrupted by non-strivey students, so if we could screen for strivers and get them into a safe, striver-friendly school, rescuing them from chaotic public schools where disruptive students are, for a variety of both good and bad reasons, allowed to suck up the disruptive lion's share of time and attention.

As I said just a few days ago, when Petrilli was defending Eva Moskowitz's push-out policy, his point is not completely without merit. Every teacher on the planet has had That Student, without whom their class runs so much more smoothly. And every teacher understands the impact of the group-mind in a classroom in terms of atmosphere and what can be accomplished. And every teacher who's been working for more than ten years has seen the impact of policies that have aggressively pushed for all students, regardless of skill or inclination, back into the regular classroom.

However, I have some huge problems with Petrilli's narrative.

The Myth of the Climb to the Middle Class

In his very first paragraph, Petrilli provides a definition of a striver:

Low-income strivers -- impoverished families who follow the rules and work hard to climb the CURMUDGUCATION: Rescuing Strivers from Those People:

School vs. Society in America’s Failing Students - The New York Times

School vs. Society in America’s Failing Students - The New York Times:

School vs. Society in America’s Failing Students

Here’s the good news: American schools may not be as bad as we have been led to believe.

Ah, but here’s the bad news: The rest of American society is failing its disadvantaged citizens even more than we realize. The question is, Should educators be responsible for fixing this?

The perennial debate about the state of public education starts with a single, seemingly unassailable fact. American students sorely lag their peers in other rich nations and even measure up poorly compared with students in some less advanced countries.

Americans scored more than halfway down from the top in the last round of the so-called PISA standardized tests in math, administered in 2012 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to 15-year-olds in about 60 countries. They scored about a third of the way down in reading and almost halfway down in science.

The lackluster performance has reinforced a belief that American public education — the principals and teachers, the methods and procedures — is just not up to scratch. There must be something wrong when the system in the United States falls short where many others succeed.

But is the criticism fair? Are American schools failing because they are not good at their job? Perhaps their job is simply tougher.

In a report released last week, Martin Carnoy from the Graduate School of Education at Stanford, Emma García from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington and Tatiana Khavenson from the Institute of Education at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, suggest that socioeconomic deficits impose a particularly heavy burden on American schools.

“Once we adjust for social status, we are doing much better than we think,” Professor Carnoy told me. “We underrate our progress.”

The researchers started by comparing test scores in the United States with those in France, Germany, Britain, Canada, Finland, South Korea, Poland and Ireland. On average, students in all those countries do better than American children.

But then the researchers divided students into groups depending on the number of books in their homes, a measure of the academic resources at families’ disposal. This adjustment significantly reduced the American deficit, especially among students on the bottom rungs of the resource ladder.

American students from families with the least educational resources, as it turned out, scored better on the PISA math test than similar children in France and about the same as Britons, Germans and Irish.

Encouragingly, disadvantaged American students have made more School vs. Society in America’s Failing Students - The New York Times:

Education Reform – Testing kids on content they’ve never learned - Wait What?

Education Reform – Testing kids on content they’ve never learned - Wait What?:

Education Reform – Testing kids on content they’ve never learned

A primary goal of the Corporate Education Reform Industry is to privatize public education by persuading policymakers that the nation’s system of public education is failing.

A key strategy of choice for the so-called reformers and their political lackeys is to prove that students and teachers are failing by requiring massive amounts of standardized testing the measures students on concepts and content that haven’t learned.

Take for example, the NEW SAT, which Connecticut has now mandated for use in the 11^thgrade.

[Read Once again Connecticut elected officials are wrong to mandate the SAT for all 11th graders (Wait, What? 11-2-15) which includes education advocate Wendy Lecker’s recent commentary piece on the NEW SAT.]

A New York Times article last week entitled, Everything You Need to Know About the New SAT, laid out the facts about the NEW SAT including the news that,

“The addition of more-advanced math, such as trigonometry, means the test will cover materials from a greater number of courses.  That will make it 

Education Reform – Testing kids on content they’ve never learned - Wait What?:

Child Care Annual Aggregate Report SFY 2014-15 - Child Development (CA Dept of Education)

Child Care Annual Aggregate Report SFY 2014-15 - Child Development (CA Dept of Education):

Child Care Annual Aggregate Report SFY 2014-15 

Number of Children Served by Program Type1 During State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2014-15

Program Type	Children (N)
General Child Care	55,243
CalWORKs Stage 2	90,465
CalWORKs Stage 3	46,889
Alternative Payment	38,157
California State Preschool	180,354
General Migrant Care	3,902
Severely Handicapped	200
Total2	391,582

Source: CDD-801A Monthly Child Care Reports for SFY 2014-15.

Note: Data summarized in this table represent an unduplicated count of children by program type who received subsidized child care and development services any time during the SFY. These data do not reflect the number of children served during a given month. Missing and unknown data are excluded.

1 The list below provides the names and contracts included within each program type:

• General Child Care includes the following program contracts: Center-Based Child Care (CCTR) and Family Child Care Home Education Networks (CFCC).
• CalWORKs Stage 2 includes the following program contract: CalWORKs Stage 2 (C2AP).
• CalWORKs Stage 3 includes the following program contract: CalWORKs Stage 3 (C3AP).
• Alternative Payment includes the following program contracts: Alternative Payment (CAPP) and Migrant Alternative Payment (CMAP).
• California State Preschool Program includes the following program contract: California State Preschool Program (CSPP).
• General Migrant Care includes the following program contract: Center-Based Migrant Child Care (CMIG).
• Severely Handicapped includes the following program contract: Severely Handicapped Care (CHAN).

2 Child counts are unduplicated within each program type. A child may be counted more than once if they received services within multiple program types during the year. The total does not equal the sum of the rows. Rather, the total represents the unduplicated number of children served regardless of program type.

Questions:   CDMIS Staff | cdmis@cde.ca.gov | 916-445-1907

Last Reviewed: Tuesday, November 3, 2015Child Care Annual Aggregate Report SFY 2014-15 - Child Development (CA Dept of Education):

Will Competency-Based Learning Rescue the Testocracy? - Living in Dialogue

Will Competency-Based Learning Rescue the Testocracy? - Living in Dialogue:

Will Competency-Based Learning Rescue the Testocracy?

By Anthony Cody.

We have been badgered for the past 14 years by reformers insisting on the fierce urgency of change, and they have had their way – twice! First, seven years of NCLB, followed by the past seven years of Race to the Top, and now the “next generation” of tests, which were promised to be “smarter,” computer-adapted, and deliver results more quickly. None of it worked. Scores on the independent NAEP tests are flat or down. The SBAC and PARCC tests are more difficult without being any “smarter” in telling us about what our students can do. The idea that these tests could somehow promote and measure creativity and critical thinking is debunked. The growing opt out movement poses a huge threat to the standardized testing “measure to manage” paradigm.

So what is to be done?

Reinvent the tests once again, using technology. And who better for the job than Tom Vander Ark, formerly of the Gates Foundation, and now associated with a long list of education technology companies. The latest package of solutions is being called “competency based learning,” and it was featured prominently in theDepartment of Education’s latest “Testing Action Plan.”

Here is how Vander Ark frames the challenge:

Jobs to be done. To get at the heart of value creation, Clayton Christensen taught us to think about the job to be done. Assessment plays four important roles in 

Will Competency-Based Learning Rescue the Testocracy? - Living in Dialogue:

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Byrd-Bennett, SUPES & Harcourt's goal in Detroit: Loot and then burn.

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Byrd-Bennett, SUPES & Harcourt's goal in Detroit: Loot and then burn.:

Byrd-Bennett, SUPES & Harcourt's goal in Detroit: Loot and then burn.

Byrd-Bennett's inner circle, Tracy Martin, Sherry Ulery and Rosemary Herpel, followed her from Cleveland and Detroit.

I'm glad that Chicago reporters are finally uncovering the depth and breadth of the SUPES scandal. Today, the trail leads them back to Detroit where Barbara Byrd-Bennett was brought in to run the district as a high-paid consultant after leaving Cleveland. In the end, I predict the trail will extend even farther and higher up, as the edu-criminals begin rolling over to save their own skins.
According to today's Sun-Times:

An FBI agent believed corrupt former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett worked to “fraudulently steer” a $40 million contract to one of the country’s biggest educational publishers while she worked for the Detroit schools.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who's been following the case or to those of us who have been writing about the takeover of Detroit's public school system, which smelled of corruption and mismanagement from day one.

With the help of three accomplices brought over from Cleveland, including Tracy Martin and Sherry Ulery, to rig the bidding process, BBB funneled big contracts to testing/textbook giant Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Turns out, she was on Houghton's payroll before and after Detroit. Martin, Herpel and Ulery then became part of BBB's inner circle at CPS and have now been named in the SUPES indictment.

Here's the FBI warrant on BBB from Detroit.

More from S-T:

The feds told the judge an “unusual financial transaction” took place about three weeks before the contracting process for the Detroit deal began. Records show the FBI’s “analysis of bank account belonging to Schooling in the Ownership Society: Byrd-Bennett, SUPES & Harcourt's goal in Detroit: Loot and then burn.:

Rick Smith – Letting Teachers Voices Through the Media Embargo | gadflyonthewallblog

Rick Smith – Letting Teachers Voices Through the Media Embargo | gadflyonthewallblog:

Rick Smith – Letting Teachers Voices Through the Media Embargo

I met Rick Smith for the first time in person this summer in Washington, D.C.

He had traveled to our nation’s capital to cover the Badass Teachers Association(BATs) Congress of which I was a member. Though I’d seen pictures and videos of him and even been on his daily radio show a handful of times, I was surprised to see him standing there in the lobby. He looked exactly like his pictures.

Often when you meet someone like that in the flesh, you get a glimpse behind the mask at how much the persona differs from the person. For example, when I was a journalist and interviewed Marvin Hamlisch, he was much more the cranky old man than the consummate showman.

But Rick was just… Rick. Faded denim, golf shirt, tousled hair under a ball cap.

He treated me to breakfast in the hotel restaurant and we talked about politics, activism and education. In a way it was like being on his show except there was no audience. Maybe he didn’t speak as loud and didn’t feel the need to explain the background of a subject for listeners at home, no station identification, but other than that it was pretty much the same.

He’s the real deal. What you see – or usually hear – is what you get.

I remember thanking him for trucking all the way from northern Pennsylvania to be Rick Smith – Letting Teachers Voices Through the Media Embargo | gadflyonthewallblog:

http://ricksmithshow.com/

David Hursh’s New Book, The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education | deutsch29

David Hursh’s New Book, The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education | deutsch29:

David Hursh’s New Book, The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education

(The Kindle version is already available on Amazon.com. Moreover, this flyer from Routledge includes information on a 20 percent discount.)

David Hursh

University of Rochester (New York) education professor David Hursh has a new book coming out on November 23, 2015: The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education (Routledge).

Hursh’s The End of Public Schools is divided into five chapters:

Chapter 1: The Demise of the Public in Public Schools

Chapter 2: Understanding the Rise of Neoliberal Policies

Chapter 3: Governor Cuomo and the Neoliberal Attack on Public Schools, Teachers, and Unions

Chapter 4: The Gates Foundation, Pearson, and Arne Duncan

Chapter 5: Manufactured and Real Crises: Rethinking Education and Capitalism

In this post, I offer a glimpse into each chapter via thought-provoking excerpts that attest to the overall quality of Hursh’s book. (Note: In-text citations removed for ease of presentation.)

From Chapter 1, “The Demise of the Public in Public Schools”:

We need to understand that the education reforms are not minor changes in how schools are administered, or how tests and curriculum are created, or 

David Hursh’s New Book, The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education | deutsch29:

CURMUDGUCATION: Magnet vs. Charter

CURMUDGUCATION: Magnet vs. Charter:

Magnet vs. Charter

Once again, I had a version of this conversation.

Me: Charters are not public schools because they are not open to or committed to taking all students. They filter and cream and push out and refuse to backfill.

Reformster: What about magnet schools? Those are public schools which have stringent admission requirements. They don't educate every child, either, and they also pick and choose.

I can illustrate the hole in this argument by imagining the following contrasting conversations.

Conversation #1

Student: I would like to attend your most excellent magnet school!

School: Unfortunately, you have not met our stringent entry requirements. However, as is our legal and ethical responsibility, we will make sure to provide you with a full education elsewhere within this school district.

Conversation #2

Student: I would like to attend your delightful charter school!

Charter: Unfortunately, we don't want you. We don't have space for you. You are too old. You aren't 

WSJ: The High-Priced Death of Common Core

I've been saying this for a while, but yesterday the Wall Street Journal put it out in the main stream media-- the Common Core as a single unifying force in US public education is dead.

The actual headline for Michael Rothfeld's piece is "Financial Woes Plague Common-Core Rollout." But "plague" is a generous description of the situation Rothfeld describes.

Five years into the biggest transformation of U.S. public education in recent history, Common Core is far from common. Though 45 states initially adopted the shared academic standards in English and math, seven have since repealed or amended them. Among the remaining 38, big disparities remain in what and how students are taught, the materials and technology they use, the preparation of teachers and the tests they are given. A dozen more states are considering revising or abandoning Common Core.

In other words, the dream that Common Core would be the single educational vision of the entire country-- that dream is dead. Dead dead deadity dead.

But Rothfeld's piece lays out a not-always-recognized (at least, not by people who don't actually work in education) culprit for the demise. He lists the usual suspects-- politics, testing, federal overreach. But the article is most interested in another malefactor-- finances.

The total cost of implementing Common Core is difficult to determine because the country’s WSJ: The High-Priced Death of Common Core

California's Attorney General Is Investigating The Online Charter School Industry - BuzzFeed News

California's Attorney General Is Investigating The Online Charter School Industry - BuzzFeed News:

California’s Attorney General Is Investigating The Online Charter School Industry

Students at virtual charter schools lag significantly behind their peers in brick-and-mortar classrooms, sparking big worries among education advocates.

The for-profit online charter school industry is the target of an investigation by California Attorney General Kamala Harris, according to a filing by K12 Inc., the country’s largest online charter management company.

K12 received a subpoena in late September from the Bureau of Children’s Justice at the California Attorney General’s office, the company said in its quarterly earnings report. The subpoena, K12 said, was part of an industry-wide investigation. There are 14,500 students enrolled in virtual schools run by K12 Inc., up from just 650 in 2002.

The California Attorney General’s office said it could not comment on ongoing investigations.

Virtual charter schools are public schools that exist entirely online: Taxpayer dollars pay for students in kindergarten through 12th grade to take classes from home, communicating with their teachers over the internet. About two-thirds of the country’s virtual charters are run by for-profit companies like K12, which hire teachers and management and provide the school’s curriculum and software.

A scathing report last week from Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) found that online charter schools have an “overwhelming negative impact” on students’ learning compared to traditional brick-and-mortar schools.

Over the course of a school year, the CREDO study said, virtual school students lost out on the equivalent of 180 days of learning in math and 72 days reading. The California's Attorney General Is Investigating The Online Charter School Industry - BuzzFeed News: