Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/6/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

 

Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part III | deutsch29

Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part III | deutsch29: Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part III  Ann Marie CorgillOn October 30, 2015, the 2014-15 Alabama Teacher of the Year, Ann Marie Corgill, abruptly resigned from teaching at Birmingham City Schools after a taxing ordeal in the first two months of the 2015-16 school year.I had the privilege of interviewin

by mike simpson / 0min 

Schools Matter: The Racist Origins of Standardized Testing

Schools Matter: The Racist Origins of Standardized Testing: The Racist Origins of Standardized TestingExcerpt from Part 1 of The Mismeasure of Education:Zealots for the Elimination of WasteThe educational significance of the results to be obtained from careful measurements of the intelligence of children can hardly be overestimated. Questions relating to the choice of studies, vocational guidance,

by mike simpson / 42min 

CURMUDGUCATION: Common Core and Liver Pizza

CURMUDGUCATION: Common Core and Liver Pizza: Common Core and Liver PizzaIt must be time to talk about the Core again, because I've received a couple of "What's the big deal? The core doesn't bother me at all!" notes lately. And I continue to believe that the situation regarding Common Core has changed, and I think we are all perfectly positioned to deal with the Core (or whatever the cra

by mike simpson / 1h 

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Sunday Evening Edu-reads

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Sunday Evening Edu-reads: ICYMI: Sunday Evening Edu-readsLet's all gather our energy before the week gets started, because by next Sunday, we could have a new body of education law. Go Ahead: Pass Every Student Succeeds Act, But Don 't Celebrate It Jeff Bryant had my favorite ESSA piece of the week. You probably read it, but you know, just ICYMI.SFER- Johnathan Pelto took a

by mike simpson / 2h 

CURMUDGUCATION: Why wait?

CURMUDGUCATION: Why wait?: Why wait?It's probably the best question I've seen someone ask in weeks, and it will be my little energizer for the months ahead.Why wait?Bill Ferriter may not realize it, but he pointed me at this post by Chase Mielke and this sentence within it:If an end goal of education is to create skilled, altruistic citizens, why wait until after a student's post-secondary trainin

by mike simpson / 2h 

On Personalized Learning, Mark Zuckerberg, and Makin’ it Rain | Save Maine Schools

On Personalized Learning, Mark Zuckerberg, and Makin’ it Rain | Save Maine Schools: On Personalized Learning, Mark Zuckerberg, and Makin’ it Rainntly, I have written two letters to my former classmate, Mark Zuckerberg, to warn him of the dangers of his educational investment plans. Both letters were as polite and friendly as I could muster – especially given the circumstances – and I took care not

by mike simpson / 3h 

CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA: What Is a Teacher

CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA: What Is a Teacher: ESSA: What Is a TeacherWe knew that a theme of the week would be teasing out the ugliest parts of the ESEA rewrite. Farewell, "No Child Left Behind." Hello, "Every Student Should Succeed in Serving Corporate Interests."One element that has become evident is the ways in which ESSA works to gut the entire process of creating teachers, and

by mike simpson / 4h 

Art Helps Students Become Whole - Living in Dialogue

Art Helps Students Become Whole - Living in Dialogue: Art Helps Students Become WholeThis is the fourth in a series of blog posts focused on the value of art in our lives, and the role art can play in resisting the test and punish model of education.  See the intro and links to other posts in the series here.By Amanda Koonlaba.I believe arts education is the antithesis of the corporate reform and

by mike simpson / 4h 

Schools Matter: Hoosier School Heist Author Doug Martin on Real Accountability (and Federal Prison)

Schools Matter: Hoosier School Heist Author Doug Martin on Real Accountability (and Federal Prison): Hoosier School Heist Author Doug Martin on Real Accountability (and Federal Prison)Hoosier School Heist TV is Doug Martin's channel featuring videos of his book tour across Indiana speaking on the corporate takeover of public education. Order Hoosier School Heist at http://hoosierschoolheist.com/.F

by mike simpson / 4h 

Video: Seattle teachers talk about the Seattle Education Association strike at the NWTSJ conference | Seattle Education

Video: Seattle teachers talk about the Seattle Education Association strike at the NWTSJ conference | Seattle Education: Video: Seattle teachers talk about the Seattle Education Association strike at the NWTSJ conferenceFor the first time in 30 years, Seattle educators went on strike for the schools Seattle students deserve and for the working conditions and compensation the teachers deserve. Afte

by mike simpson / 4h 

Tell our United States Senators to vote no on the Common Core Testing Mania - Wait What?

Tell our United States Senators to vote no on the Common Core Testing Mania - Wait What?: Tell our United States Senators to vote no on the Common Core Testing ManiaUnited States Senators need to stand up and protect our students and teachers!From Connecticut educator and fellow education blogger Poetic Justice comes the following post,Please Sign This United Opt Out petition to stop the Senate fr

by mike simpson / 6h 

Diane E. Levin and Nancy Carlsson-Paige: Setting the record straight on early literacy instruction - The Washington Post

Setting the record straight on early literacy instruction - The Washington Post: Setting the record straight on early literacy instructionEarlier this year, the nonprofit organization Defending the Early Yearspublished a report saying that research does not support the Common Core requirement that all children must read with purpose and understanding by the end of kindergarten. The report was call

by mike simpson / 7h 

Breaking News: Santa Claus Supports Opt-Out!!! | Exceptional Delaware

Breaking News: Santa Claus Supports Opt-Out!!! | Exceptional Delaware: Breaking News: Santa Claus Supports Opt-Out!!!Santa Claus was getting pictures at the Dover Mall with young children.  He always asks the kids what they want for Christmas.  He acknowledged hearing very strange requests over the years.  But he reported to me recently about a very unusual request he got on Black Friday.  A littl

by mike simpson / 8h 

Marie Corfield: Is the NJDOE protecting Gov. Christie's POTUS run?

Marie Corfield: Is the NJDOE protecting Gov. Christie's POTUS run?: Is the NJDOE protecting Gov. Christie's POTUS run?As those of us in NJ know, Gov. Christie will do anything and everything to side with the prevailing right-wing opinion-of-the-day. So, with his poll numbers in the toilet—not only for his job as governor, but for his POTUS run—is he pulling out all the stops to ensure he protects

by mike simpson / 8h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Whitenizing Chicago

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Whitenizing Chicago: Whitenizing ChicagoThe out-migration of African-Americans from the largest U.S. cities continues unabated, changing the face of urban politics, culture and education.Greg Hinz at Crain's reports that the Chicago area is on track to become mostly people of color by 2020, a historic shift with major cultural, economic and political impact. But in C

by mike simpson / 8h 

Doubling Down (Again) by Reverting, Not Changing: The Exponential Failures of Education Legislation | the becoming radical

Doubling Down (Again) by Reverting, Not Changing: The Exponential Failures of Education Legislation | the becoming radical: Doubling Down (Again) by Reverting, Not Changing: The Exponential Failures of Education LegislationPolitical grandstanding about education and proposed as well as adopted education legislation make me feel trapped in something between a George Orwell dystopian novel(“WAR IS P

by mike simpson / 8h 

Community-Based Reform and Accountability Measures for States and Communities | Cloaking Inequity

Community-Based Reform and Accountability Measures for States and Communities | Cloaking Inequity: Community-Based Reform and Accountability Measures for States and CommunitiesThe impending death of No Child Left Behind has the potential to create more space for community-based reform. As federal standardized tests have fallen out of favor, many states have explored alternative community-based mea

by mike simpson / 9h 

Google Spying on 40 Million K-12 Students, Privacy Advocates Call for Federal Sanctions | Alternet

Google Spying on 40 Million K-12 Students, Privacy Advocates Call for Federal Sanctions | Alternet: Google Spying on 40 Million K-12 Students, Privacy Advocates Call for Federal SanctionsThe Electronic Frontier Foundation calls for federal sanctions.Unlike its website declaration, Google’s “Apps for Education” isn’t a tool that “schools can trust,” because it is spying on 40 million K-12 students

by mike simpson / 10h 

Flea Flicker: Should state be able to approve charter schools in Virginia? - Daily Press

Should state be able to approve charter schools in Virginia? - Daily Press: Should state be able to approve charter schools in Virginia?The Charter School Approval Flea Flicker Should Virginia amend its constitution to allow the state — not just local school boards — the authority to establish charter schools?That question could be before voters in a November 2016 referendum.The issue has the pote

by mike simpson / 10h 

YESTERDAY

NCLB, ESSA, and “Highly Qualified” | deutsch29

NCLB, ESSA, and “Highly Qualified” | deutsch29: NCLB, ESSA, and “Highly Qualified”In this post, I compare language regarding teacher certification in two documents, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and what very likely will be the next Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) reauthorization, the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA).I was particularly curious about the

by mike simpson / 20h 

Close Reading: Myopia as a Virtue | gadflyonthewallblog

Close Reading: Myopia as a Virtue | gadflyonthewallblog: Close Reading: Myopia as a VirtueYou are reading a text.Yes. Right now.Your eyes are scanning over symbols called letters. They are joined together into words and sentences and paragraphs to make up the total of this article.Your brain is in the process of translating these symbols into sounds, meanings, concepts. And you are reacting to tho

by mike simpson / 23h hide  //  save

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/5/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM Audit finds closed Kansas City charter was overpaid $4.3M | KSL.comAudit finds closed Kansas City charter was overpaid $4.3M | KSL.com: Audit finds closed Kansas City charter was overpaid $4.3MKANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City charter school was overpaid at least $4.3 million in the two years before it closed because administrators falsified and inflated student attendance,

by mike simpson / 23h 

Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part III | deutsch29

Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part III | deutsch29:

Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part III

  Ann Marie Corgill

On October 30, 2015, the 2014-15 Alabama Teacher of the Year, Ann Marie Corgill, abruptly resigned from teaching at Birmingham City Schools after a taxing ordeal in the first two months of the 2015-16 school year.

I had the privilege of interviewing Corgill in person for several hours on November 20, 2015. Based on that interview, I have already written two posts, one focused on how Corgill’s resignation became public, and another detailing the fiasco that resulted in her October 2015 resignation.

In this third post of the series, I offer the detailed and candid interview excerpt on Corgill’s becoming 2014-15 Alabama Teacher of the Year– and a 2014-15 National Teacher of the Year finalist.

During the course of our extensive conversation, the issue of teacher bullying emerged as a theme. Even though this issue was interwoven into our discussion of Corgill’s experience as Teacher of the Year, I have chosen to omit such discussion in this post and instead save it for a later post. Thus, Part III details the specifics of Corgill’s becoming Teacher of the Year.

As was true of Part II, in this post, Corgill’s words are indented, and my comments Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part III | deutsch29:

Schools Matter: The Racist Origins of Standardized Testing

Schools Matter: The Racist Origins of Standardized Testing:

The Racist Origins of Standardized Testing

Excerpt from Part 1 of The Mismeasure of Education:

Zealots for the Elimination of Waste

The educational significance of the results to be obtained from careful measurements of the intelligence of children can hardly be overestimated. Questions relating to the choice of studies, vocational guidance, schoolroom procedure, the grading of pupils, promotional schemes, the study of the retardation of children in the schools, juvenile delinquency, and the proper handling of subnormals on the one hand and gifted children on the other—all alike acquire new meaning and significance when viewed in the light of the measurement of intelligence as outlined in this volume . . . . More than all other forms of data combined, such tests give the necessary information from which a pupil’s possibilities of future mental growth can be foretold, and upon which his further education can be most profitably directed. –Elwood P. Cubberley, from foreword for Terman’s The Measurement of Intelligence, 1916 (p. viii).

 

Following the importation of British statistical procedures by American psychologist Edward Thorndike in 1903, “standards of deviation and correlations of coefficients were in the air” (Rugg, 1975, p. 295) by 1910, so much so that the study of education, which was preoccupied with becoming the newest of the social sciences, henceforth, would be driven by the urge to quantify and tabulate all aspects of schooling, as noted here in Harold Rugg’s summary of developments in the early 20^th Century: 

        The steps by which the new educational measurers began to apply methods of research to the study of the curriculum were: first, the construction and use of tests in arithmetic, spelling, language, algebra, etc.: second, the inventory of the current curriculum by the tabular analysis of “courses” of study and textbooks: third, the determination of socially worth while skills and knowledge by the tabulation of actual human activities; fourth, . . . the careful determination of trends in social development, the chief institutions and problems of contemporary life, standards of appreciation, etc. (p. 296).

         Accompanied, too, by hopes that scientific quantification could make social problems efficiently manageable, something new called intelligence testing was seen as a godsend toward achieving the task, despite the fact that inventors of intelligence tests had something else in mind.  When Alfred Binet, for Schools Matter: The Racist Origins of Standardized Testing:

CURMUDGUCATION: Common Core and Liver Pizza

CURMUDGUCATION: Common Core and Liver Pizza:

Common Core and Liver Pizza

It must be time to talk about the Core again, because I've received a couple of "What's the big deal? The core doesn't bother me at all!" notes lately. And I continue to believe that the situation regarding Common Core has changed, and I think we are all perfectly positioned to deal with the Core (or whatever the craven politicians in your state have changed the name to).

To illustrate my point, let me share my recipe for delicious liver pizza.

First, gather ingredients. Get liver, pepperoni, sausage, onions, garlic, more garlic, blends of cheese that suit you, a good pre-made crust (because I don't want to wait all night for this), and a good spicy pizza sauce.

Now we're ready to begin.

STEP ONE: Throw liver in the garbage.

STEP TWO: Make a delicious pizza.

Look, if you want to tell me that your school has had great success with Common Core lessons and you have totally aligned everything to the standards with brilliant teacher-made lessons, that's fine. Understand, I don't believe you. In all these years, no teacher has yet been able to tell me what Common Core made them able to do that they couldn't do before, nor have they explained what they would have to stop doing tomorrow if Common Core vanished. It doesn't matter. Tell me what you like about your love for the Core. What I believe is that you made a delicious liver pizza. Or you made a terrible crappy liver pizza because you didn't throw the liver out. Or your administration CURMUDGUCATION: Common Core and Liver Pizza:

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Sunday Evening Edu-reads

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Sunday Evening Edu-reads:

ICYMI: Sunday Evening Edu-reads

Let's all gather our energy before the week gets started, because by next Sunday, we could have a new body of education law. 

Go Ahead: Pass Every Student Succeeds Act, But Don 't Celebrate It 

Jeff Bryant had my favorite ESSA piece of the week. You probably read it, but you know, just ICYMI.

SFER- 

Johnathan Pelto took a great look at Baby DFER, the astroturfed student wing of hedge fund powered reform support. Complete with many links and a bibliography (linkiography?) for lots of nauseau-inducing reading

Fund Us. Support Us. Or STFU.


Claudia Swisher blogs at Fourth-Generation teacher, and I should point out that she softened the title of this blog. But I wanted to get your attention. She's writing about Oklahoma, but the story of legislators who want to offer everything except actual concrete support or help is one that many teachers across the US can appreciate.

Guinea Pigs in an Urban Laboratory

Just talkin' crazy here, but what if somebody talked to actual students about how they feel about all this reformy nonsense? Jennifer Berkshire talks to an author who talked to actual students.

Zuckerberg Responds to Critics

Well, look at that! Mainstream media actually picked up the story of all the folks who noted that Zuckerberg's charity wasn't actually charity. And then Z responded.

FLASHBACK!!  The Loneliness of the Long Distance Test Scorer

Hard to believe that it has been five years since this classic was first published, shattering illusions about how standardized tests are actually scored-- and by whom. Can't tell you how many times I've gone back to this (and the city papers follow up). Still essential reading.

CURMUDGUCATION: Why wait?

CURMUDGUCATION: Why wait?:

Why wait?

It's probably the best question I've seen someone ask in weeks, and it will be my little energizer for the months ahead.

Why wait?

Bill Ferriter may not realize it, but he pointed me at this post by Chase Mielke and this sentence within it:

If an end goal of education is to create skilled, altruistic citizens, why wait until after a student's post-secondary training?

Mielke blogs at Affective Living; he's developed a pretty strong brand for himself, and he is a master of the kind of relentless positivity that would make him an easy target for mockery if it were not coupled with plenty of in-the-classroom practicality. And while his writing sometimes turns up in some places that I'm inclined not to read, he can turn a phrase, and I always respect a well-turned phrase.

This particular piece was dealing with real-world projects for groups of students, but you can see that this question has application far beyond that.

All too often we fall into the habit of thinking that we are preparing students for the future. "I touch the future," and so on. We get to thinking that we are loading up the students brains like little backpacks that they will eventually take on a big journey-- but for right now, they're sitting here in our classroom, their journey not yet begun.

One of my pet peeves is people who "only" student activities. "Don't worry about it," they'll say. "They're only kids. It's only a student production. It's only a high school concert." Why "only"? This is so often used as an excuse not to try, not to really back the students up, not to give them the kind of support we'd give a "real" project.


If we want them to become Life Long Learners, should we not now be teaching them to learn the CURMUDGUCATION: Why wait?:

On Personalized Learning, Mark Zuckerberg, and Makin’ it Rain | Save Maine Schools

On Personalized Learning, Mark Zuckerberg, and Makin’ it Rain | Save Maine Schools:

On Personalized Learning, Mark Zuckerberg, and Makin’ it Rain

ntly, I have written two letters to my former classmate, Mark Zuckerberg, to warn him of the dangers of his educational investment plans. Both letters were as polite and friendly as I could muster – especially given the circumstances – and I took care not to sound too accusatory in either of them.

But of course – despite the fact that Shakira and Melinda Gates got personal notes on his Facebook page a few days ago – I am still waiting on a response.

So, while I wait for an explanation as to why he believes investing in a purely experimental, corporate-invented and corporate-driven theory of learning that has no proven track record of success is a good idea, I thought I’d offer readers more information on why he is such a strong supporter of personalized learning.

To start, let me show you who else is promoting this model.

This guy:On Personalized Learning, Mark Zuckerberg, and Makin’ it Rain | Save Maine Schools: