Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 3/4/16

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Judge: Plaintiffs may still access complete California student database, but with tightened security | 89.3 KPCC

Judge: Plaintiffs may still access complete California student database, but with tightened security | 89.3 KPCC: Judge: Plaintiffs may still access complete California student database, but with tightened securityA massive database that includes sensitive information on every student who attended California public schools since 2008 will no longer be handed over in its entirety to a small team of

by mike simpson / 5min 

CURMUDGUCATION: Britain Is Also Hemorrhaging Teachers

CURMUDGUCATION: Britain Is Also Hemorrhaging Teachers: Britain Is Also Hemorrhaging TeachersHemorrhaging TeacherJust in case you thought only the US had decided to gut teaching as a profession, thereby driving people out of it, here's Nick Morrison in Forbes pointing out that the UK has some issues as well.In fact, the article hinges on one striking factoid--According to the Department for Educati

by mike simpson / 12min 

Incredulous: Watching CT Department of Education officials lecture school administrators on how to mislead parents - Wait What?

Incredulous: Watching CT Department of Education officials lecture school administrators on how to mislead parents - Wait What?: Incredulous: Watching CT Department of Education officials lecture school administrators on how to mislead parents Just when I thought I had truly seen everything when it comes to the arrogance, elitism, audacity and contemptuousness of those associated with the corporat

by mike simpson / 13min 

U.S. Dept of Ed Names Committee Members to Draft Proposed Regulations for Every Student Succeeds Act | U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Education Names Committee Members to Draft Proposed Regulations for Every Student Succeeds Act | U.S. Department of Education: U.S. Department of Education Names Committee Members to Draft Proposed Regulations for Every Student Succeeds Act The U.S. Department of Education today named committee members who will draft proposed regulations in two areas of Title I, Part A of the Ev

by mike simpson / 44min 

ESSA says tests can’t collect personal beliefs. – Missouri Education Watchdog

ESSA says tests can’t collect personal beliefs. – Missouri Education Watchdog: ESSA says tests can’t collect personal beliefs.The law of the land, Every Student Succeeds Act, ESSA, got something right: we shouldn’t be collecting information about how students feel, their personal beliefs, their attitudes.From ESSA, page 24-25:(B) REQUIREMENTS.—The assessments under subparagraph (A) shall— (iii) be

by mike simpson / 52min 

Student Privacy Protections in Morgan Hill Case - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education)

Student Privacy Protections in Morgan Hill Case - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Applauds Federal Court Order Strengthening Student Privacy Protections in Morgan Hill Case SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today applauded a federal court order strengthening protections for student data in the case of Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Asso

by mike simpson / 57min 

Oakland District at Heart of Drive to Privatize Urban Schools - The New York Times

Oakland District at Heart of Drive to Transform Urban Schools - The New York Times:Oakland District at Heart of Drive to Transform Urban Schools OAKLAND, Calif. — The 70 teachers who showed up to a school board meeting here recently in matching green and black T-shirts paraded in a circle, chanting, “Charter schools are not public schools!” and accusing the superintendent of doing the bidding of “

by mike simpson / 1h 

La. House Ed Chair Nancy Landry Wants to Pay Teachers Less | deutsch29

La. House Ed Chair Nancy Landry Wants to Pay Teachers Less | deutsch29: La. House Ed Chair Nancy Landry Wants to Pay Teachers Less Rep. Nancy Landry (R-Lafayette) is the 2016 chair of Louisiana’s House Education Committee.In 2012, Landry was responsible for the motion to require teachers who attended House education hearings to first tell what kind of leave they had taken from their classrooms in

by mike simpson / 1h 

Civil rights groups asks feds to keep an eye on states as new education law moves forward | | Dallas Morning News

Civil rights groups asks feds to keep an eye on states as new education law moves forward | | Dallas Morning News: Civil rights groups asks feds to keep an eye on states as new education law moves forwardPresident Barack Obama at the December signing of the Every Student Succeeds Act, the new federal education law. (AP) The country’s most vulnerable children need assurances that their interests ar

by mike simpson / 1h 

Garn Press Chapters: The Educator and the Oligarch by Anthony Cody - Garn Press

Garn Press Chapters: The Educator and the Oligarch by Anthony Cody - Garn Press: Garn Press Chapters: The Educator and the Oligarch by Anthony Cody Garn Press Chapters: A new series from Garn Press. Featured in this post, Chapter 20 of The Educator and the Oligarch, which is available in paperback on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and as an ebook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, andiBooks.It t

by mike simpson / 3h 

If the PA Legislature Won’t Pass a Budget, Schools Shouldn’t Give High Stakes Tests | gadflyonthewallblog

If the PA Legislature Won’t Pass a Budget, Schools Shouldn’t Give High Stakes Tests | gadflyonthewallblog: If the PA Legislature Won’t Pass a Budget, Schools Shouldn’t Give High Stakes Tests No one gives a high stakes test because he or she thinks it helps kids learn.Public schools give tests because they are threatened by the state: give this test or we’ll withhold your funding.In Pennsylvania, t

by mike simpson / 3h 

“Resistance against corporate education reform”: Noam Chomsky, scholars warn Senate not to approve John King as secretary - Salon.com

“Resistance against corporate education reform”: Noam Chomsky, scholars warn Senate not to approve John King as secretary - Salon.com: “Resistance against corporate education reform”: Noam Chomsky, scholars warn Senate not to approve John King as secretaryLeading teachers and public education activists warn Obama's choice for education secretary would be a disasterNoam Chomsky, John B. King Jr. (C

by mike simpson / 3h 

Will the US Department of Education take your school’s Title 1 funds if you opt your student out of the SBAC? Short answer, no. | Seattle Education

Will the US Department of Education take your school’s Title 1 funds if you opt your student out of the SBAC? Short answer, no. | Seattle Education: Will the US Department of Education take your school’s Title 1 funds if you opt your student out of the SBAC? Short answer, no. There is no federal or state law that requires financial penalties to schools’ Title I funds if parents refuse to allow the

by mike simpson / 6h 

What is Florida’s education chief talking about? - The Washington Post

What is Florida’s education chief talking about? - The Washington Post: What is Florida’s education chief talking about? Pam Stewart, the education commissioner of Florida, said something recently that struck a bad note with a number of people in the state about what are known as “opt outs,” students who refuse to take state-mandated standardized tests used for “accountability” purposes.With the 2

1 by mike simpson / 7h 

Candidates: How Will You Fight for the Children? - LA Progressive

Candidates: How Will You Fight for the Children? - LA Progressive: Candidates: How Will You Fight for the Children?We are America’s public school teachers. We are the parents of America. As American citizens we have the fundamental civil right to a strong, free, and appropriate public education system. Yet public schools, public school children,  and public school teachers are under attack by spec

1 by mike simpson / 7h 

Public schools’ new public enemy: Inside a Netflix billionaire’s charter crusade - Salon.com

Public schools’ new public enemy: Inside a Netflix billionaire’s charter crusade - Salon.com: Public schools’ new public enemy: Inside a Netflix billionaire’s charter crusadeMogul Reed Hastings is ponying up $100 million in the hopes of ultimately replacing teachers with computers This article originally appeared on AlterNet.When pondering the best way to transform and improve America’s K-12 publi

1 by mike simpson / 7h 

Donald Trump is wrong about Common Core — but he’s not the only candidate who is - The Washington Post

Donald Trump is wrong about Common Core — but he’s not the only candidate who is - The Washington Post:Donald Trump is wrong about Common Core — but he’s not the only candidate who isFrom left, Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich during a presidential primary debate at Fox Theatre on March 3 in Detroit. (Paul Sancya/AP) Donald Trump is wrong about

1 by mike simpson / 7h 

What John Kasich got wrong about Detroit’s troubled schools in last night’s debate - The Washington Post

What John Kasich got wrong about Detroit’s troubled schools in last night’s debate - The Washington Post:What John Kasich got wrong about Detroit’s troubled schools in last night’s debate Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate in Detroit did not only feature vulgar conversation about genitalia. It also featured the first really substantive question about K-12 education in the 11 GOP debat

1 by mike simpson / 7h 

STOP Malloy/Wyman from punishing students, parents, teachers and taxpayers on testing opt out! - Wait What?

STOP Malloy/Wyman from punishing students, parents, teachers and taxpayers on testing opt out! - Wait What?: STOP Malloy/Wyman from punishing students, parents, teachers and taxpayers on testing opt out!A bill that would – at least partially – prohibit the Malloy administration from punishing students, parents, teachers and taxpayers when parents utilize their unalienable right to opt their childr

by mike simpson / 7h 

Inglewood schools lagging under state takeover, auditor says | 89.3 KPCC

Inglewood schools lagging under state takeover, auditor says | 89.3 KPCC:Inglewood schools lagging under state takeover, auditor saysThe Inglewood Unified School District's finances and operations have not significantly improved under the administration of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, officials with the California State Auditor's office told residents at a public hearing Thursda

by mike simpson / 8h 

Exposing the Effects of Child Poverty Hidden in Plain Sight | janresseger

Exposing the Effects of Child Poverty Hidden in Plain Sight | janresseger: Exposing the Effects of Child Poverty Hidden in Plain Sight While there is widespread agreement that family poverty is highly correlated with low achievement at school, it is a difficult issue to discuss because people immediately become defensive.  “Don’t tell me poor kids can’t learn,” people say.  Many children living in

by mike simpson / 8h 

School and Classroom Cultures: Easy To Describe but Tough To Create and Sustain | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

School and Classroom Cultures: Easy To Describe but Tough To Create and Sustain | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: School and Classroom Cultures: Easy To Describe but Tough To Create and SustainProbably the most important—and the most difficult—job of an instructional leader is to change the prevailing culture of a school. The school’s culture dictates, in no uncertain terms, ‘

by mike simpson / 8h 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Now It Gets Real for Charter Law in Washington State

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Now It Gets Real for Charter Law in Washington State: Now It Gets Real for Charter Law in Washington State Update: What's the torque that the Republicans are going to use to try to do this?The levy cliff that districts face.So let's threaten to throw 1M+ traditional school students over a levy cliff to save 1,000 former charter students.I urge you to write your leg

by mike simpson / 8h 

Calling all students! Paul Robeson’s birthday party celebration performances and art requested | Seattle Education

Calling all students! Paul Robeson’s birthday party celebration performances and art requested | Seattle Education: Calling all students! Paul Robeson’s birthday party celebration performances and art requested A celebration of Paul Robeson’s April 9, 1898 birthdayApril 9, 2016. 1:00 PM to 5:00 PMSouthside Commons in Columbia City3518 S Edmonds St., SeattleA Seattle teacher who is committed to his

by mike simpson / 8h 

VAMs: A Global Perspective by Tore Sørensen | VAMboozled!

VAMs: A Global Perspective by Tore Sørensen | VAMboozled!: VAMs: A Global Perspective by Tore SørensenTore Bernt Sørensen is a PhD student currently studying at the University of Bristol in England, he is an emerging global educational policy scholar, and he is a future colleague whom I am to meet this summer during an internationally-situated talk on VAMs. Just last week he released a paper publi

by mike simpson / 8h 

Detroit Public Schools will be completely broke by April. Here's how things got to this point. - Vox

Detroit Public Schools will be completely broke by April. Here's how things got to this point. - Vox:Detroit Public Schools will be completely broke by April. Here's how things got to this point. One of Michigan's most controversial public figures had his last day as emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools this week. To replace him is another state-appointed manager: Judge Steven Rhodes, the m

by mike simpson / 8h 

More Money Really Does Make Schools Better - Bloomberg View

More Money Really Does Make Schools Better - Bloomberg View:More Money Really Does Make Schools Better It has become an article of faith among education reformers that throwing more money at public education doesn’t improve student performance. But a steady drumbeat of careful research studies is calling this into question. What if more money really does work?The case against spending more on scho

by mike simpson / 9h 

Elizabeth Warren: This report’s ‘a stunning indictment’ of the Department of Education - MarketWatch

Elizabeth Warren: This report’s ‘a stunning indictment’ of the Department of Education - MarketWatch:Elizabeth Warren: This report’s ‘a stunning indictment’ of the Department of EducationThe senator and other Dems slam feds’ oversight of student loan companies Active duty military members missed out on a key student loan benefit and the government failed to ensure they received it, say Massachuset

by mike simpson / 9h 

Dear Republican Candidates: Children Are Listening

Dear Republican Candidates: Children Are Listening: Dear Republican Candidates: Children Are Listening I've been thinking a lot lately about the dinners of my childhood.My family was one of those nutty units that used to eat dinner together every night. The six of us crowded around that dark glass round circle and sat on the white-cushioned, dark Lucite chairs that perfectly matched both the table

by mike simpson / 9h 

GOP Debate: Candidates Talk Detroit Public Schools, Common Core - Politics K-12 - Education Week

GOP Debate: Candidates Talk Detroit Public Schools, Common Core - Politics K-12 - Education Week: GOP Debate: Candidates Talk Detroit Public Schools, Common Core If you've been holding your breath for seven months waiting for an education question in a GOP debate, you can let it out. Ohio Gov. John Kasich was asked in Thursday's debate whether the federal government should bail out Detroit's nearl

by mike simpson / 9h 

Ann Arbor teachers' union ends boycott of EMU student teachers | MLive.com

Ann Arbor teachers' union ends boycott of EMU student teachers | MLive.com: Ann Arbor teachers' union ends boycott of EMU student teachers Eastern Michigan University students will once again be able to teach in all Ann Arbor Public School classrooms this fall.The Ann Arbor Education Association (AAEA), a teachers' union representing employees of the Ann Arbor Public Schools, had been boycotting s

by mike simpson / 9h 

Teach Resilience, Don't Test It - NYTimes.com

Teach Resilience, Don't Test It - NYTimes.com: Teach Resilience, Don’t Test It Diane Ravitch, a historian of education, is the author, most recently, of "Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools."UPDATED MARCH 4, 2016, 9:39 AMAmerican education has a history of falling for silly fads. The latest is the idea that “grit” can be taugh

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

Marc Tucker and Common Core Fuel Injection | deutsch29

Marc Tucker and Common Core Fuel Injection | deutsch29: Marc Tucker and Common Core Fuel Injection On March 03, 2016, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), Marc Tucker, published an EdWeek opinion piece entitled, “Why the Common Core Will Be Declared a Failure.” (Based on the link, Tucker’s original title was, “Why the Common Core Will Be Declared a Failure and Why

1 by mike simpson / 21h 

Teachers union: Furlough days 'all but assures' strike April 1 | Chicago Sun-Times

Teachers union: Furlough days 'all but assures' strike April 1 | Chicago Sun-Times: Teachers union: Furlough days ‘all but assures’ strike April 1Chicago Teachers Union protest over the use of TIF funds for development instead of using the money for schools last month. File Photo. Brian Jackson/ for the Sun-TimesChicago Public Schools abruptly announced Thursday that all of its employees, includin

1 by mike simpson / 23h 

District settles lawsuit, agrees to share parcel tax with charters | EdSource

District settles lawsuit, agrees to share parcel tax with charters | EdSource: District settles lawsuit, agrees to share parcel tax with charters The West Contra Costa Unified School District has agreed to share parcel tax revenue with charter schools located in the district under the terms of a lawsuit settlement announced Thursday.The California Charter Schools Association, which brought the law

5 by mike simpson / 23h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 3/3/16

CORPORATE ED REFORMSchools find campaign talk conflicts with no-bullies message :: WRAL.comSchools find campaign talk conflicts with no-bullies message :: WRAL.com:Schools find campaign talk conflicts with no-bullies messageBUFFALO, NEW YORK — Ryan Lysek rose to become vice president of his fifth-grade class at Lorraine Academy in Buffalo, New York, after the sitting vice president was ousted for

2 by mike simpson / 1d 

Judge: Plaintiffs may still access complete California student database, but with tightened security | 89.3 KPCC

Judge: Plaintiffs may still access complete California student database, but with tightened security | 89.3 KPCC:

Judge: Plaintiffs may still access complete California student database, but with tightened security

A massive database that includes sensitive information on every student who attended California public schools since 2008 will no longer be handed over in its entirety to a small team of experts and lawyers who've filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Education.

Instead, a federal judge has ordered state officials to allow the plaintiffs to use the department's computers to run searches on the state's database, known as CALPADS — which does include some students' Social Security numbers, along with home addresses and test scores.

The order U.S. District Court Judge Kimberly J. Mueller filed this week follows widespread alarm among parents after state officials began notifying them of the pending release last month.

Mueller wrote that her office was inundated with letters objecting to the release of the information — so many, she said, that it would be impossible to individually review each one.

Parents still have until April 1 to mail a letter to the judge objecting to the release. Though sending a letter does not opt a former student out of the release of data, she writes that she "construes the objections in bulk as objecting strongly to public disclosure of personal identifying information."

The plaintiffs — a group of parents who organized into a group called the California Concerned Parents Association (CCPA) — never sought the wide release of the database to the general public. In fact, they have said they never wanted access to the most sensitive data.

CCPA's lawsuit claims the state has been failing to offer special education services to all students who need them — an allegation the state disputes. The plaintiffs' lawyers were seeking access to the state's full database in hopes an expert statistician on their team could run queries to test their claim.

"It is important for the public, especially parents, to understand that this is a civil rights case largely focused on anti-discrimination," a post on CCPA's website read. "The merits of this case will be tried in the court of law — not through the media."

Mueller's order noted that many of the objection letters seem to be based on Judge: Plaintiffs may still access complete California student database, but with tightened security | 89.3 KPCC:

CURMUDGUCATION: Britain Is Also Hemorrhaging Teachers

CURMUDGUCATION: Britain Is Also Hemorrhaging Teachers:

Britain Is Also Hemorrhaging Teachers

Hemorrhaging Teacher

Just in case you thought only the US had decided to gut teaching as a profession, thereby driving people out of it, here's Nick Morrison in Forbes pointing out that the UK has some issues as well.

In fact, the article hinges on one striking factoid--

According to the Department for Education’s own census, more teachers left the classroom than entered it in 2014, the latest year for which figures are available, only the second time this has happened in the past 10 years.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, England's chief inspector of schools, is noted for a fairly aggressive approach to his job, having recently raised the frequency for school inspection as well as raising a fuss by threatening to inspect Sunday schools as well. Wilshaw likes the idea of golden handcuffs, requiring newly-minted teachers to serve a proscribed time in publicly funded schools until they jump ship. Because nothing enhances education like a teacher who has been forced into a particular classroom when they'd rather be elsewhere.

The ship-jumping has apparently been to well-funded high-paying international schools. Wilshaw hassounded the alarm about this before, and Morrison reported that teachers, particularly in London, cannot afford to live in the communities where they teach.

In addition to the monetary issues, Morrison notes that there are other problems

Workload, a high-stakes testing regime and the low status of teaching also help push teachers out of the classroom, as does the scrutiny of Sir Michael’s own school inspectors.

Sound familiar? Sure it does, as does the government's search for any solution other than paying CURMUDGUCATION: Britain Is Also Hemorrhaging Teachers:


 It's Not The Implementation, Stupid

How can we still be having this conversation? How??

Marc Tucker (he of the infamous Dear Hillary letter outlining the cradle to career pipeline) is over at Ed Week declaring that the Common Core are absolutely awesome and any alleged failure is actually the failure of the whole entire national education system and everyone associated with it. The Common Core Standards are genius-- it was just an implementation problem!

Nope. Nope nope nope nope nope AND nope.

First of all, Tucker builds a whole point around an invalid comparison. To see it thoroughly and accurately skewered, read this post from the indispensable Mercedes Schneider. Bottom line: his idea that putting Common Core into current schools like putting a modern fuel injector into an old car shows a lack of understanding of both education and fuel injection. It is the perfect picture of reformster hubris, the notion that, of course, I know enough about this system to overhaul it completely.

Tucker goes on to list all the many things that should be changed in order to implement the Core properly so that it can be the raging success that it truly is, from changing the way teachers are prepared to changing the way teachers teach to changing the way the publishing industry creates materials etc etc etc.

It reminds me of some freshman dorm conversations from my college days, when someone would say things like, "You know, communism would be a perfect system if only people and governments would behave completely differently." Or every professional development session in which a sales rep explained that the Shiny New Wonkometer System will be a huge help to any classroom teacher who changed all of her goals and techniques. Or everybody who ever cried out, upon being dumped, 


 It's Not The Implementation, Stupid

Incredulous: Watching CT Department of Education officials lecture school administrators on how to mislead parents - Wait What?

Incredulous: Watching CT Department of Education officials lecture school administrators on how to mislead parents - Wait What?:

Incredulous: Watching CT Department of Education officials lecture school administrators on how to mislead parents

 Just when I thought I had truly seen everything when it comes to the arrogance, elitism, audacity and contemptuousness of those associated with the corporate funded “Education Reform” effort, I witnessed something even more breathtakingly incredible this past Monday at the Connecticut State Department of Education.

It has taken the week to even begin to be able to put into words what I and a handful of other parents and public school advocates witnessed.  In fact, I wouldn’t have believed it, had I not seen it for myself.

As was initially reported in the Wait, What? blog post entitled, “Malloy-Wyman Administration ramp-up attack on parents who opt their children out of the Common Core SBAC testing fiasco,” a group of targeted Connecticut public school superintendents and principals were ordered to attend a mandatory meeting at the Department of Education to discuss their failure last sprin, to stop enough parents from opting their children out of the unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory Common Core SBAC testing scheme.

Thanks to the anti-local control, authoritarian policies being pushed by Governor Dannel Malloy, Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman and their Commissioner of Education, the Connecticut State Department of Education summoned a group of local school administrators to a “roundtable discussion on family and community engagement strategies” on Monday, February 29, 2016 from 3:00 – 4:30 at the State Office Building in Hartford. The session was presented as a mechanism to enhance the communication skills of school administrators so that they could do a better job of ensuring that no more than 4.9 percenIncredulous: Watching CT Department of Education officials lecture school administrators on how to mislead parents - Wait What?:

U.S. Dept of Ed Names Committee Members to Draft Proposed Regulations for Every Student Succeeds Act | U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Education Names Committee Members to Draft Proposed Regulations for Every Student Succeeds Act | U.S. Department of Education:

U.S. Department of Education Names Committee Members to Draft Proposed Regulations for Every Student Succeeds Act

 The U.S. Department of Education today named committee members who will draft proposed regulations in two areas of Title I, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This is the latest step in the process of implementing ESSA.

“We look forward to working with the committee to promote equity and excellence for all students by providing states and school districts with timely regulations so that they can plan ahead and support students and educators,” said Ann Whalen, senior advisor to the secretary, delegated the duties of the assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education.

ESSA replaces the outdated No Child Left Behind law and expands on the work this Administration, states, districts and schools across the country have already started. The new law will help build on key progress that we’ve made in education over recent years—including a record high school graduation rate of 82 percent, significant expansion of high-quality preschool, and a million more African American and Hispanic students enrolled in college than in 2008, when President Obama took office.

ESSA promotes equitable access to educational opportunities in critical ways, such as asking states to hold all students to high academic standards to prepare them for college and careers and ensuring action in the lowest-performing schools, high schools with low graduation rates, and in schools that are consistently failing subgroups of students. Maintaining effective, high-quality assessments and ensuring that all states and districts know how to meet the updated “supplement not supplant” requirement are crucial to achieving these objectives.

The Department hosted public forums, held meetings with stakeholders and received hundreds of written comments on how to best support states, districts and schools in the transition to the new law, which informed the negotiated rulemaking process that is now underway. The negotiators and alternative negotiators announced today represent the constituencies that are significantly affected by the topics proposed for negotiation, including state and local education administrators and board members, tribal leadership, parents and students, teachers, principals, other school leaders, and the civil rights and business communities. Negotiators were selected to represent all of the geographic regions of the country. In addition, the Department selected negotiators who would contribute to the diversity and expertise of the negotiating committee.

The committee will draft proposed regulations in the following two areas of Title I, Part A of ESSA: (1) the requirement that federal funds supplement, not supplant, non-federal funds in high-need schools and (2) assessments. The selected negotiators and their alternates have received background materials to help prepare for their discussions, including issue papers on key areas identified by the Department in the notice announcing formation of the committee. Those areas are:

1. Supplement not supplant

2. Assessments

• Computer adaptive testing
• The exception for advanced mathematics assessments in 8th grade
• Locally selected, nationally recognized high school assessments
• The inclusion of students with disabilities in academic assessments
• State administration of alternate assessments based on alternate academic achievement standards for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, subject to a cap of 1 percent of students assessed in a subject
• The inclusion of English learners in academic assessments
• The inclusion of English learners in English language proficiency assessments
• Updating existing regulations to reflect statutory changes

In some issue papers, the Department included draft regulatory language intended to facilitate discussion among the negotiators. The committee has ultimate authority over the content of its final recommendations to the Department and may use the materials as guides. To access the materials provided to the committee, please see our website:http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/essa/index.html.

The committee will convene March 21-23 and April 6-8 with an optional session April 18-19 at its discretion. These meetings are open to the public, and more information on the time, location and other logistics for the meetings will be distributed at a later date.

Members of the ESSA Negotiated Rulemaking Committee:

Constituency	Negotiators
State administrators and state boards of education	Tony Evers, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Marcus Cheeks, Mississippi Department of Education
Local administrators and local boards of education	Alvin Wilbanks, Gwinnett County Public Schools, Georgia Derrick Chau, Los Angeles Unified School District, California Thomas Ahart, Des Moines Public Schools, Iowa *
Tribal leadership	Aaron Payment, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe, Michigan Leslie Harper, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Minnesota*
Parents and students, including historically underserved students	Lisa Mack, Ohio Rita Pin Ahrens, District of Columbia
Teachers	Audrey Jackson, Boston Public Schools Ryan Ruelas, Anaheim City School District, California Mary Cathryn Ricker, St. Paul Public Schools/American Federation of Teachers, Minnesota*
Principals	Lara Evangelista, New York City Department of Education, New York Aqueelha James, District of Columbia Public Schools*
Other school leaders, including charter school leaders	Eric Parker, Montgomery Public Schools, Alabama Richard Pohlman, Thurgood Marshall Academy, District of Columbia*
Paraprofessionals	Lynn Goss, School District of the Menomonie, Wisconsin Regina Goings, Clark County School District, Nevada*
Civil rights community, including representatives of students with disabilities, English learners, and other historically underserved students	Delia Pompa, Migration Policy Institute, Texas Ron Hager, National Disability Rights Network, District of Columbia Liz King, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, District of Columbia* Janel George, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, District of Columbia*
Business community	Kerri Briggs, Exxon Mobil, Texas Kenneth Bowen, Office Depot, North Carolina *

*Non-voting member

• U.S. Department of Education Names Committee Members to Draft Proposed Regulations for Every Student Succeeds Act | U.S. Department of Education:

ESSA says tests can’t collect personal beliefs. – Missouri Education Watchdog

ESSA says tests can’t collect personal beliefs. – Missouri Education Watchdog:

ESSA says tests can’t collect personal beliefs.

The law of the land, Every Student Succeeds Act, ESSA, got something right: we shouldn’t be collecting information about how students feel, their personal beliefs, their attitudes.

From ESSA, page 24-25:

(B) REQUIREMENTS.—The assessments under subparagraph (A) shall— (iii) be used for purposes for which such assessments are valid and reliable, consistent with relevant, nationally recognized professional and technical testing standards, objectively measure academic achievement, knowledge, and skills, and be tests that do not evaluate or assess personal or family beliefs and attitudes, or publicly disclose personally identifiable information;

Share this little tidbit of ESSA with your legislators and state and local education boards. Also remind them that plenty of folks are also looking at these other laws that edtech and student data collection may be circumventing.

.

One has to wonder how data collection via  Social-Emotional-Learning and measuring 21st Century skills and “grit” will factor into this ESSA language.  This statement in ESSA should also be addressed when considering blended learning, adaptive learning, online personalized learning–whatever you want to call the big push for embedded data collection via Competency Based Education, CBE and formative online tests.

 .

Congressman Jared Polis recently mentioned this technology data privacy concern while speaking at a hearing with John King, the nominee for U.S. Secretary of Education.   You can listen to this short snippet here.

 

Congressman Polis asks John King how ESSA will balance the issues of over-testing, and states with new “blended ESSA says tests can’t collect personal beliefs. – Missouri Education Watchdog:

Student Privacy Protections in Morgan Hill Case - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education)

Student Privacy Protections in Morgan Hill Case - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):

Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Applauds Federal Court Order 

Strengthening Student Privacy Protections in Morgan Hill Case

 

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today applauded a federal court order strengthening protections for student data in the case of Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Association vs. California Department of Education.

"The court has heard loud and clear from California's families that they want their students' privacy protected. This is a good first step. The court responded to these concerns and ordered additional measures to safeguard data," Torlakson said. "The California Department of Education will continue to fight vigorously to protect student privacy rights as this case proceeds."

In her March 1 order, U.S. District Court Judge Kimberly Mueller noted the large number of objections to the potential release of student data received by the court following the posting of the Notice of Disclosure of Student Records on February 1. In response to the objections, the court ordered that the CDE maintain custody of the most sensitive of its databases, the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS), while running searches for information requested by the plaintiffs. The court also reiterated that no student personally identifiable information may be released to the plaintiffs unless and until they demonstrate to the satisfaction of the court that the method to be used to store the sensitive student data is secure. The parties are still litigating the extent of the disclosure of student data.

Parents, guardians and former students over 18 have the opportunity to object to the data release by printing out, completing, and mailing to the court the Objection to Disclosure of Student Information and Records form or sending a confidential letter to the judge. Instructions and the objection forms are available at the CDE Morgan Hill Case Web Site. The forms and letters are due by April 1, 2016.

Judge Mueller's March 1 order made clear that the objection forms are not a means to "opt-out" of any data release. The court also noted that it "has not and cannot realistically review the objections individually" due to the volume of the objections it has received. Therefore, the court will consider "the objections in bulk as objecting strongly to public disclosure of personal identifying information contained in the CDE's educational records." The court will maintain the objection forms in sealed boxes in a secure room at the federal court building in Sacramento.

The March 1 court order follows a February 29 special status hearing in the lawsuit filed by two organizations, the Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Association and the Concerned Parents Association, against the CDE that dates to 2011 alleging systemic failure by the CDE to monitor the provision of special education by school districts, in violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The CDE denies these allegations.

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Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Last Reviewed: Friday, March 4, 2016

Student Privacy Protections in Morgan Hill Case - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):

Oakland District at Heart of Drive to Privatize Urban Schools - The New York Times

Oakland District at Heart of Drive to Transform Urban Schools - The New York Times:
Oakland District at Heart of Drive to Transform Urban Schools

 OAKLAND, Calif. — The 70 teachers who showed up to a school board meeting here recently in matching green and black T-shirts paraded in a circle, chanting, “Charter schools are not public schools!” and accusing the superintendent of doing the bidding of “a corporate oligarchy.”

The superintendent, Antwan Wilson, who is an imposing 6-foot-4, favors crisp suits and Kangol caps and peers intensely through wire-rimmed glasses, has become accustomed to confrontation since he arrived in this activist community from Denver two years ago. One board meeting last fall reached such a fever pitch that police officers moved in to control the crowd.

Mr. Wilson is facing a rebellion by teachers and some parents against his plan to allow families to use a single form to apply to any of the city’s 86 district-run schools or 44 charter campuses, all of which are competing for a shrinking number of students.

How he fares may say a great deal not only about Oakland, but also about this moment in the drive to transform urban school districts. Many of them have become rivalrous amalgams of traditional public schools and charters, which are publicly funded but privately operated and have been promoted by education philanthropists.

Photo

Police officers entered the crowd during the fractious board meeting at La Escuelita Elementary School in October. CreditPreston Gannaway for The New York Times

Mr. Wilson is trying to bring the traditional schools into closer coordination with the charters. ”If he gets it right, it’s a model for moving past the polarized sense of reform that we have right now,” said Robert C. Pianta, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.

But Mr. Wilson has emerged as a lightning rod partly because he is one of a cadre of superintendents who have been trained in an academy financed by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, Mr. Broad, a Los Angeles billionaire who made his fortune in Oakland District at Heart of Drive to Transform Urban Schools - The New York Times: