BACK TO SCHOOL: A parent’s guide to K-12 school success

BACK TO SCHOOL: A parent’s guide to K-12 school success

A parent’s guide to K-12 school success

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What Schools Can Do To Support Parents

• Recognize that all parents, regardless of income, education or cultural background, are involved in their children's learning and want their children to do well.

• Design programs that will support families to guide their children's learning,from preschool through high school.

• Develop the capacity of school staff and families to work together.

• Link activities and programs for families to improving student learning.

• Focus on developing trusting and respectful relationships among staff and families.

• Build families' social and political connections.

• Embrace a philosophy of partnership and be willing to share power.

• Make sure that parents, school staff, and community members understand that the responsibility for children's educational development is a collaborative enterprise.

• Build strong connections between schools and community organizations.

• Include families in all strategies to reduce the achievement gap between white, middle-class students and low-income students and students of color.

Everyone Loves Lists

Below you will find a couple of lists of things parents can do to "help" at school. Not all schools offer some of the things on the list, you can ask your child's teacher or principal if your school offers these opportunities to support your child at school. 

SUPPORT ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
• Read to students
• Serve as a guest speaker
• Donate newspapers for instructional programs
• Provide feedback on writing projects
• Assist in literacy programs
• Share science demonstrations
• Provide computer workshops
• Judge science fairs
• Share math in the workplace and the connection to school work
• Teach music
• Guide instrumental music practice sessions
• Provide choral music support
• Share dance skills and techniques
• Assist with choreography
• Design and coordinate murals
• Assist with set design
• Assist with costume design and production
• Provide apprentice programs
• Share photography expertise
• Support art and music appreciation
• Provide physical education coaching
• Assist with curriculum development to relate to life after high school
• Support student service learning and community service projects

SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Share industry and personal expertise
• Provide computer support
• Sponsor school retreats
• Sponsor health/CPR certification classes and clinics
• Provide venues and food for professional development meetings

JUMP START STUDENT CAREERS
• Conduct job seeker workshops – from resume writing to mock interviews
• Offer work place problem-solving skills
• Serve as consultants to students operating school-based enterprises
• Provide educational fieldtrips to your facility for students and staff
• Provide on the job training, mentorships and job training for students
• Create and support job shadow days
• Provide “job skills” workshops and seminars
• Provide entrepreneurial seminars and workshops

ENCOURAGE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
• Display student art work in offices and lobbies
• Provide gift certificates, complimentary tickets, etc for academic success and improvement
• Establish attendance incentives
• Provide scholarships

TUTOR AND MENTOR
• Volunteer as tutors in all areas of the curriculum
• Provide assembly programs stressing good health, safety and character-building
• Provide mentors and tutors for specific students
• Provide personnel to facilitate “dialogue” for various student groups
• Develop apprentice programs
• Serve as a mentor in physical education
• Support study skill development
• Provide supportive services and personalization of the educational experience for students and parents
• Serve as model for life-long recreation, health and wellness

SUPPORT AND DONATE
• Sponsor uniforms and costumes, (Sports, Cheerleading, Drill Team, Theater, etc.)
• Donate audiovisual equipment and sound systems
• Donate books to the library
• Donate math, science, and language materials to laboratories
• Donate new curtains for school auditoriums
• Donate office supplies and surplus equipment
• Provide technical support to students and school staff
• Provide bus transportation or donate entrance fees for educational field trips
• Provide eyeglasses and doctor’s care for identified students
• Provide financial support to the PTSA or Booster Club
• Provide holiday enhancements including educational toys, books, or gift baskets
• Provide printing services for school newspapers, yearbooks, parent handbooks, and programs for special events
• Assist with organizing special school events
• Assist with organization/management  of  mandatory health exams
• Assist with Back-to-School programs
• Assist with year-end projects
• Provide shop tools
• Provide sewing machines
• Donate fabrics
• Serve  on a school Advisory Board
• Sponsor student “clubs” to develop leadership skills and promote interest in your industry
• Provide ongoing support for existing programs including Advancement Via Individual Determination –AVID, Math Engineering Science Achievement-MESA, College Ready
• Assist with field trips
• Commit to at least one hour per week for your employees to assist at schools

BEAUTIFY OUR CAMPUSES
• Paint identified areas of the school
• Plant and maintain school gardens
• Assist in setting up family school work days
• Design and paint school murals
• Commission artists for school beautification designs

ENGAGE OUR PARENTS
• Provide busses for family field trips
• Sponsor museum memberships
• Provide support to school site parent centers
• Provide tickets to museums, games, special events
• Provide leadership workshops
• Support English as a Second Language classes on the school site
• Provide parenting workshops
• Provide event planning workshops and professional development
• Fund parent newsletters
• Supply parent centers with desks, copiers, and supplies
• Donate food for parent meetings
• Provide direct event planning support
• Present at parent nights, speaking about the importance of education and the specific skills required in your industry

SUPPORT LITERACY
• Purchase new books or computers for school libraries
• Purchase shelving
• Volunteer as a librarian
• Assist students with research
• Provide support for or  matching funds for Wonder of Reading Libraries
• Sponsor school reading/literacy events

1. Share information with a student or class about a hobby.
2. Share information with a student or a class about a career.
3. Share information with students about a country you visited or lived in.
4. Tutor one or a small group of students in reading, math, or other area.
5. Help coach an athletic team.
6. Help check a student's written work.
7. Help put out a school or classroom newsletter (can also be done at home).
8. Help sew or paint a display.
9. Help build something (such as a loft in a classroom or new playground).
10. Help students work on a finalexhibition or project (can also be done at home or workplace).
11. Help answer the schools' phone.
12. Help plan a new playground for the school.*
13. Help plan a theme-based presentation for students.*
14. Help present a theme-based program for students.*
15. Demonstrate cooking from a particular country or culture to students.*
16. Share a particular expertise with faculty (such as use of computers, dealing with disruptive students).
17. Help students plan and build an outdoor garden or other project to beautify the outside of the school.
18. Help coach students competing in an academic competition (such as Odyssey of the Mind, Future Problem Solving, Math Masters).
19. Help bring senior citizens to school to watch a student production.
Help arrange learning opportunities in the community.


1. Help set up an internship or apprenticeship for a student at your business, organization, or agency.*
2. Host a one-day 'shadow study' for one or a small group of students about your career in business or some other organization.
3. Go on a local field trip with a teacher and a group of students.
4. Go on an extended (3-5 day) cross-country field trip with a teacher & students.*
5. Contact a particular local business or organization regarding possible cooperation.*
6. Help to create a natural area outside the building where students can learn.
Serve on an advisory or decision-making committee.
7. Serve on the school-wide site council.
8. Serve on a school committee that reports to the site council.
9. Serve on a district committee representing the school.
10. Serve as an officer in the school's PTA.
11. Help organize a parent organization for the school.
12. Help design a parent and or student survey for the school.
13. Help conduct and or tabulate results of a parent survey regarding the school.
Share information or advocate for the school.
14. Serve as a member of a 'telephone tree' to distribute information quickly.
15. Write a letter to legislators about the school.
16. Write a letter to school board members about the school.
17. Go to a school board meeting to advocate for the school.
18. Go to another school to provide information about this school.
19. Help design a brochure or booklet about the school.
20. Help translate information from the school into a language other than English.
21. Help translate at a parent-teacher conference for people who don't speak English well.
22. Provide transportation to a parent-teacher conference for a parent who needs a ride.
23. Write an article for publication in a magazine about the school's activities.
24. Help arrange for a political leader (mayor, city council, state representative, member of Congress) to visit the school.
Increase financial resources available to the school.
25. Help write a proposal that would bring new resources to the school.
26. Donate materials to the school.
27. Arrange for a business or other organization to donate materials to the school.
28. Help with a fundraiser for the school.
Help other parents develop their parenting skills.
29. Help teach a class for parents on ways they can be stronger parents.
30. Help produce a videotape for parents on ways they can be more effective parents.
31. Help write, publish, and distribute a list of parenting tips."

BE CREATIVE AND PROVIDE YOUR UNIQUE SUGGESTIONS!
These lists are not copyrighted; readers may reproduce them for their own use.

On The Web a Wonderful Resource: 


Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement" - http://engagingparentsinschool.edublogs.org/

Children Need Parents To Be Partners With Their Schools - The Crucial Voice of the PeopleThe Crucial Voice of the People

Children Need Parents To Be Partners With Their Schools - The Crucial Voice of the PeopleThe Crucial Voice of the People

Children Need Parents To Be Partners With Their Schools

Parents — the most influential people in a students’ life — are too often the least well-informed about the need to partner with schools in a productive way.

Life itself is a risk-taking adventure and with young children and adolescents, it is even more so.

How many times have you heard of “good parents” who lost their child to drug addiction or the ultimate of losses, suicide? No one is totally immune. The best we can do is reduce the risks as much as possible, in every way possible. And for that, we do need partners.

Schools continue to be an institution whose role in many students’ lives is second only to their parents. But have we done all we can to foster parental partnerships with schools? Are we even consistently informing parents as to what their constantly changing role in education is?

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education came out with this statement:

To Parents from a Nation at Risk (p.35)

“You have the right to demand for your children the best our schools and colleges can provide. Your vigilance and your refusal to be satisfied with less than the best are the imperative first step. But your right to a proper education for your children carries a double responsibility. As surely as you are your child’s first and most influential teacher, your child’s ideas about education and its significance begin with you. You must be a living example of what you expect your children to honor and to emulate. Moreover, you bear a responsibility to participate actively in your child’s education.”

This presidential commission on education studied secondary schools (middle, junior, and high schools) and made recommendations for this often overlooked and misunderstood age group. And they had much more to say to secondary school parents:

“You should encourage more diligent study:

► monitor your child’s study;

► encourage good study habits;

► encourage your child to take more demanding rather than less demanding courses;

► nurture your child’s curiosity, creativity, and confidence;

► be an active participant in the work of the schools;

► exhibit a commitment to continued learning in your own life;

► help your children understand that excellence in education cannot be achieved without intellectual and moral integrity coupled with hard work and commitment.”

Clearly understanding our roles and responsibilities for every “stage” of our children’s education is a good first step but only if the information is correct.

Too often parents hear that teenagers don’t want them “involved” at this age, Not true. Involvement in their lives will take on different forms, yes, and partnerships are Continue reading: Children Need Parents To Be Partners With Their Schools - The Crucial Voice of the PeopleThe Crucial Voice of the People

2nd BANANA: Top Posts This Week 8/25/18

Top Posts This Week 

• 

  California Legislature Approves McCarty Measure to Ban For-Profit Charter Schools | East County Today
• 

  It's time to address the hidden agenda of school dress codes
• 

  Healthy Kids Survey Results - Year 2018 (CA Dept of Education)
• 

  Randi Weingarten : DeVos wants to turn government into 'arms dealer for schools' | TheHill
• 

  COPPA in the Smart Home: Who Protects Our Children’s Data?
• 

  Teachers in the US are even more segregated than students #educlor
• 

  Elizabeth Warren questions the hiring of for-profit-college officials at the Education Department - The Washington Post
• 

  Betsy DeVos to Create Permanent Underclass With Rollback of For-Profit College Rules - Rewire.News
• 

  'Radical Cram School' is Sesame Street for the Resistance
• 

  Building Community Schools Systems - Center for American Progress

Top Posts This Month

Big Education Ape: California Legislature Approves McCarty Measure to Ban For-Profit Charter Schools | East County Today - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/08/california-legislature-approves-mccarty.html

Big Education Ape: An Explanation to My Readers | Diane Ravitch's blog - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/07/an-explanation-to-my-readers-diane.html

Big Education Ape: Wendy Lecker: As public education stumbles, democracy falls - StamfordAdvocate - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/08/wendy-lecker-as-public-education.html

Big Education Ape: It's time to address the hidden agenda of school dress codes - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/08/its-time-to-address-hidden-agenda-of.html

Big Education Ape: LeBron James Akron school: Why it matters that I Promise is public. - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/08/lebron-james-akron-school-why-it.html

Big Education Ape: Nearly 750 charter schools are whiter than nearby district schools - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/06/nearly-750-charter-schools-are-whiter.html

Big Education Ape: DeVos Family Money Is All Over The News Right Now | 89.3 KPCC - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/08/devos-family-money-is-all-over-news.html

Big Education Ape: OMG: Arizona school districts and charters that pay teachers the most, least - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/08/omg-arizona-school-districts-and.html

Big Education Ape: Healthy Kids Survey Results - Year 2018 (CA Dept of Education) - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/08/healthy-kids-survey-results-year-2018.html

Big Education Ape: COPPA in the Smart Home: Who Protects Our Children’s Data? - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/08/coppa-in-smart-home-who-protects-our.html

Fight Continues Against New Charter Schools in Oakland - Oakland Post

Fight Continues Against New Charter Schools in Oakland - Oakland Post

Fight Continues Against New Charter Schools in Oakland

A coalition of Ond students, educators, parents, unions, school board members and community groups caravaned to Sacramento to ask the State Board of Ed to reject the Latitude charter petition from the Education For Change charter organization.

By Shelly Weintraub and Emily Filloyakla

On a hot day in the middle of summer, 40 Oaklanders—students from 12-18 years old, teachers, OUSD Board members, community groups, and union members—went to Sacramento to urge the State Board of Education (SBE) to vote NO on the proposed new charter school Latitude 37.8.

The coalition was led by the students and staff of Fremont High who feared that the approval of Latitude, an Education for Change (EFC) charter, would adversely affect their school, forcing even more draconian cuts to Fremont’s budget than it has already sustained.

The State Board approved Latitude, but a question remains: was this the defeat it appeared to be?

Over months the coalition had developed a strong message, asking our elected officials to strengthen OUSD’s existing schools, not undermine them by adding another charter school, especially after a study earlier in the year found that charter schools are costing OUSD $57 million each year.

They also pointed out the weaknesses of the charter’s petition, including the charter organization’s failure to enroll African-American students at comparable rates to the District, their system-wide failure to serve the highest-needs Special Education students, and troubling academic and financial trends inside Education for Change’s schools.

The organizing was successful in convincing both OUSD and the county board of education to reject the petition.

After being denied by the District and County boards, the charter organization appealed to the appointed, not elected, State Board of Education.  As people gathered for the hearing Gema Quetzal, a OUSD student board director said, “I was shocked at how many people showed up—how much our community cared. There were not only people from District 5, but Life Academy and Castlemont, as well as parents and elders.”

Students implored the State Board to vote no, explaining that Latitude would be opened at their school’s expense.

Juan Matias Pablo, an 11th grader at Fremont High born in Guatemala said, “I love Fremont High, it’s like a second family to me. I learned English at Fremont. If Latitude is approved, it will mean cuts to Fremont. Programs like the one where I learned English might be cut.”

Renee Swayne, a retired teacher, observed, “The students were extremely articulate. They were committed and informed. They made everyone proud.”

The vote, as expected, was in favor of Latitude 7-1-1.  Expected because the State Board of Education has a history of Continue reading: Fight Continues Against New Charter Schools in Oakland - Oakland Post

Betsy DeVos Orders Flat Earth Disks In Every Classroom | Andrew Hall

Betsy DeVos Orders Flat Earth Disks In Every Classroom | Andrew Hall

Betsy DeVos Orders Flat Earth Disks In Every Classroom

The Earth is a pancake. Hell is the griddle! Jesus loves flapjacks!

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is using federal funds to ensure discs depicting a flat Earth is in every classroom in the United States of America.

“We need to teach the controversy,” Ms. DeVos stated. “Students have the right to know every theory, not just the propaganda from the round earthers.”

The Education Secretary reassured her fiscally conservative constituents by stating the money funding flat earth discs is being taken from school lunch programs. Students will no longer be enjoying Taco Tuesday. Rather, they will be subjected to Mystery Meat Monday and Dry Wall Wednesday.

Flat Earthers are celebrating this win over logic and reason. Even some religiously minded round earthers are thinking this is a win for religious freedom. After all,  doesn’t the Bible say the Earth is flat? Some bright eyed religious optimists are even hoping to roll back the germ theory of disease and bring back the demonic possession theory of illness.

Are real witch hunts (as against to what President Trump calls legitimate legal proceedings) far away?

Students are getting ready just in case they have to identify witches in schools who are poisoning wells, spoiling milk, and making fart noises during Algebra.

”Rachel Cohen is a Jew. That may not make her a witch, but it doesn’t help,” one anonymous seventh-grader said. “I’m hoping to see her third nipple that she uses to suckle her demon familiar during gym class. And then I’m putting it on Instagram.”

In related news, Instagram’s new Third Nipple Filter is incredibly popular.

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Andrew Hall is the author of Laughing in Disbelief. Besides writing a blog, co-hosting the Naked Diner, he wrote two books, Vampires, Lovers, and Other Strangers and God’s Diary: January 2017 Andrew is reading through the Bible and making videos about his journey on YouTube. He is a talented stand-up comedian. You can find him on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Betsy DeVos Orders Flat Earth Disks In Every Classroom | Andrew Hall

L.A. charter school closes due to low enrollment; campus was in network co-founded by Ref Rodriguez

L.A. charter school closes due to low enrollment; campus was in network co-founded by Ref Rodriguez

L.A. charter school closes due to low enrollment; campus was in network co-founded by Ref Rodriguez

On the fourth day of its second school year, an Eagle Rock charter school closed its doors this week, leaving parents and students disappointed, angry and tearful — and bucking the usual narrative of ceaseless charter growth.

PUC iPrep Charter Academy had dual-language programs in English and either Spanish or Mandarin — the sort of offerings that are usually popular. But it was in an area with too many good school options, and it enrolled too few students.

It may or may not have been a factor that the school was part of Partnerships to Uplift Communities, the group of charter schools co-founded by Ref Rodriguez, who resigned from the Los Angeles Board of Education in July after pleading guilty to criminal charges related to his campaign for office.

The school aimed to enroll 275 students this year, although the organization told parents it would try to make things work with 200. But by Wednesday, it had only 114 students — and PUC’s board voted to shut it down.

“The last thing we wanted to do was disappoint the families who had chosen this school, but we can’t run the school without a certain number of students,” said Naush Boghossian, the school group’s spokeswoman. “It would have been impossible to continue to enlist high-quality staff and provide the kinds of programs that the kids and their families deserve.”

Parents arrive Thursday morning at PUC iPrep Charter Academy to find the school suddenly closed due to low enrollment. (KTLA)

 

The PUC school — which served students in kindergarten through second grade and in grades 6-8 — is the second charter to close in Eagle Rock in the last several months. That other school also was in a school network that got some bad publicity, which may have affected recruitment efforts. Then again, the neighborhood has become saturated with public schools, and the other school also cited low enrollment.

There is no limit on how many independent charter schools can open for business. And there’s no question that their rapid growth has contributed mightily to steady enrollment decline in Los Angeles Unified, exacerbating financial problems in the nation’s second- Continue reading: L.A. charter school closes due to low enrollment; campus was in network co-founded by Ref Rodriguez

California Legislature Approves McCarty Measure to Ban For-Profit Charter Schools | East County Today

California Legislature Approves McCarty Measure to Ban For-Profit Charter Schools | East County Today
California Legislature Approves McCarty Measure to Ban For-Profit Charter Schools

SACRAMENTO, CA – The California State Legislature Thursday approved AB 406 by Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), which would prohibit for-profit corporations from managing and operating charter schools in the Golden State. This bipartisan measure was approved by the State Senate on a 28 to 7 vote and by the State Assembly on a 49 to 15 vote.

Throughout the United States, a number of corporations are seeking to privatize public education as an untapped market for increasing corporate profits. A disturbing trend in this effort to privatize our public schools has been in the charter school arena.  These corporations take public taxpayer dollars and use a percentage of those dollars for corporate profits and excessive salaries for their executives with little or no transparency and accountability – taking taxpayer money away from students.

In California, 34 charter schools run by for-profit corporations serve over 25,000 students and divert millions of dollars annually away from public schools and into the pockets of corporate investors.

“The privatization of public education must end,” said Assemblymember Kevin McCarty. “Passage of AB 406 puts student success ahead of corporate profits and affirms California’s belief that public tax dollars should be spent to increase student success in the classroom, not to increase corporate wealth the boardroom. This is an historic day in California and I respectfully encourage Governor Brown to sign AB 406 into law.”

The Legislature’s passage of AB 406 created a unique coalition, rarely seen in education policy where the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), representing thousands of public school teachers and the California Charter School Association (CCSA), representing charter schools both supported AB 406.

“Assembly Bill 406 will prohibit for-profit corporations from creating and managing charter schools in California, thus stopping the practice of diverting public dollars away from students for corporate profits with little to no accountability or transparency,” said Joshua Pechthalt, President of the CFT.  “The State of California has clearly shown that these for-profit education management organizations are ripping off taxpayers, misleading parents Continue reading: California Legislature Approves McCarty Measure to Ban For-Profit Charter Schools | East County Today

'Radical Cram School' is Sesame Street for the Resistance

'Radical Cram School' is Sesame Street for the Resistance
'RADICAL CRAM SCHOOL' IS SESAME STREET FOR THE RESISTANCE
Kristina Wong's kid-centric web series is badass and adorable.

How do we keep girls of color from internalizing the racist and misogynistic rhetoric amplified by the election of a presidential bully? How do we empower them to embrace their identities and become allies to other social movements? Forget Kumon. Your kid needs Radical Cram School.

Radical Cram School is a new web series that seeks answer to these questions through humor and fun. Hosted by comedian Kristina Wong, the unscripted six-episode series features Asian American kids, ages 7-11, eight of who identify as girls and one who identifies as gender fluid. Kristina and the kids play games, put on a puppet show and sing the blues to explore topics such as structural racism, misogyny, identity and bullying. 

Grounded in academic research and crafted with comedy, Radical Cram School aims to spark the kinds of conversations not happenindg in school to explore topics such as structural racism, misogyny, feminism, gender identity, income inequality, and how to practice self-expression to transform negative experiences. 

While the subject matter skews mature, the kids' unscripted reactions are hilarious and heartwarming. All six episodes of Radical Cram School are now available on YouTube. Check it out:




The idea for Radical Cram School came when co-producer Theodore Chao, a professor of Education at Ohio State University, realized his 9-year-old daughter Liberty and her friends were internalizing the racist and Continue reading: 'Radical Cram School' is Sesame Street for the Resistance

Do New School Report Cards Reveal Something Worth Knowing or Are They Just Statistical Magic?

Education Law Prof Blog

Do New School Report Cards Reveal Something Worth Knowing or Are They Just Statistical Magic?

Texas has released its statewide grading of public schools, using a grading scale of A to F.  The grades would appear to be a reflection of school poverty levels than anything else.   The Texas Tribune’s analysis shows that “No school district with a rate of low-income students lower than 30 percent received an overall rating of C, D or F.”  And as the level of poor students in the schools increase, the letter grades become more variable, but the clear trend is that letter grades substantially decline.  Almost the entire cluster of Cs, Ds, and Fs is with schools with poverty rates in excess of 50%.

This data poses crucial questions and possibilities.  First, is the variability in letter grades among high poverty schools an indication that the system really is distinguishing between higher and lower quality schools.  Second, do schools have any way to predict, understand, and respond to their overall poor performance?  If they don’t, this system is no better than the statically teacher evaluation systems that state leaders claimed would magically transform the teaching profession, but which were shown to be pretty much pointless, if not harmful, within just a few years. 

Third, even if schools understand these results, do those at the bottom end actually have the resources they need to make change.  As research increasingly shows, money does, in fact, matter to student outcomes and it matters a lot.  Unfortunately, Texas schools are way short on it.  Recent school finance litigation has shown how Texas has been dramatically underfunding its education system.  The largest scale snapshot shows school funding is down roughly 16% in real dollar terms in Texas since 2008.

The whole system, however, might be nothing more than voodoo magic.  States adopted their new rating systems pursuant to the Every Student Succeeds Act.  And as I emphasize in Abandoning the Federal Role in Education,

under the ESSA, states have enormous flexibility in the amount of weight they assign to particular tests and to student achievement factors overall. Not only does this flexibility permit an individual state to minimize the weight it assigns, but it also allows every state to do something different.  One state might make student proficiency tests the dominant measure of student achievement while another state uses student growth.    And regardless of the approach a state takes, states can assign significantly different weights to tests and other student achievement measures. A state might, for instance, assign test results 95 percent in their accountability metric and any number of non-test factors 5 percent or less collectively.  Another state might assign test results 60 percent in its accountability metric while assigning 40 percent to softer factors, such as student engagement, teacher engagement, and school climate.  With a number of options, states will have the ability to manipulate their accountability systems so as to produce desired outcomes. 

None of the foregoing means to suggest that testing is an effective means to promote equal education opportunity or that some optimum weight should be afforded to test results. The point here is that the ESSA maintains the NCLB’s notion that there is merit to testing and accountability, but undermines its own premise. If testing and accountability are plausible tools for achieving equality, leaving states’ testing regimes to random variability undermines equality. Rather than tracking a single proficiency standard as in the NCLB, the ESSA affords disadvantaged students educational opportunities that more closely track the approach of their home state rather than any mandate in statute. In this respect, the ESSA does little to continue the Elementary and Secondary Education Act’s historic mission to promote improvements in academic achievement for disadvantaged students."

It seems to me the overarching problem is that we don’t really know if the system is a statistical sleight of hand, a reflection of inadequate funding, or a reflection of socio-economic segregation (which is the biggest driver of student achievement).  And if we don’t know that, then these report cards cannot really tell us anything worth knowing—even if the underlying data and method is right on target.  In other words, transparency is worth its Continue reading: Education Law Prof Blog

HOW NJ BOOSTS PROFITS FOR CHARTER SCHOOL DEVELOPERS |

HOW NJ BOOSTS PROFITS FOR CHARTER SCHOOL DEVELOPERS |

HOW NJ BOOSTS PROFITS FOR CHARTER SCHOOL DEVELOPERS

The collapse of Newark’s Lady Liberty Academy Charter School hurt  the nearly 500 inner-city children who attended the privately-run, publicly-funded school–but the debacle also exposed a reckless  financing scheme used by former Gov. Chris Christie to help political allies in the charter school movement.

The scheme–known as “conduit bonds”– is so complicated even the spokeswoman for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), the agency that devised it,  conceded she doesn’t understand it.

But the scheme’s fiscally unhinged methods are easy to describe: The Republican Christie administration loaned $10 million to a private real estate estate developer.  The developer–BWP School  Partners LLC of  Metuchen–formed a partnership with a trouble-plagued but politically connected charter school, Lady Liberty Academy, to create a new facility at the site of a closed religious school in the Vailsburg section of Newark.

BWP–a for profit spin-off of a non-profit called Build With Purpose–promised to pay the $10 million  from the state back to the state with the funds generated by the annual rent it charged to Lady Liberty. In 2016, the annual rent reached more than $871,000.

That’s $871,000 in public money that would otherwise have gone to Newark’s resource-starved public schools.

The money kept rolling in despite clear indications the school was in academic trouble. A Rutgers report in 2003 warned of “challenges.”  The school was twice put on academic probation by the state.   Despite the red flags, Christie loaned the money to Lady Liberty and its private real estate developer partner.

Now that the school has been closed by the state under a new political administration, the money for rent is no longer available–not to the school and not to BWP, a company headed by Brian Keenan of Metuchen. And not to the state that loaned it out.

The disaster gets even gets worse:  The Christie scheme, explained in a detailed Continue reading: HOW NJ BOOSTS PROFITS FOR CHARTER SCHOOL DEVELOPERS |