Lawsuit against Bridgeport Board of Education, Commissioner Pryor and Paul Vallas gets more coverage - Wait, What?

Lawsuit against Bridgeport Board of Education, Commissioner Pryor and Paul Vallas gets more coverage - Wait, What?:

Lawsuit against Bridgeport Board of Education, Commissioner Pryor and Paul Vallas gets more coverage

by jonpelto

The Hartford Courant has added to the growing media coverage of the lawsuit about the Bridgeport Board of Education’s illegal contract for Acting Superintendent Paul Vallas.

As the Courant reports, Attorney Norm Pattis, who brought the lawsuit the led to the Supreme Court ruling that the Malloy Administration’s attempt to take over the Bridgeport School System was illegal, has filed a new case laying out the reasons that the contract given to education reformer extraordinaire, Paul Vallas, is also illegal.

Pattis told the Courant, “The legislature has determined that the superintendent must meet certain requirements…Bridgeport has been winking at them for a year now and Mr. Vallas thinks he deserves the wink. Bridgeport parents want to know why the rule of law isn’t good enough for their kids.”

Paul Vallas is not certified to be a superintendent in Connecticut.  A new state law, written for Vallas, allows Stefan Pryor, the Commissioner of Education, to waive that certification requirement if Vallas successfully completes a probationary period and 

GUEST POST: Arresting Development: Police Officers, Teachers, and Standardization, Julie Gorlewski – @ the chalk face

GUEST POST: Arresting Development: Police Officers, Teachers, and Standardization, Julie Gorlewski – @ the chalk face:

GUEST POST: Arresting Development: Police Officers, Teachers, and Standardization, Julie Gorlewski

by plthomasedd

What happens when public employees are forced to use standardized measures to deal with human endeavors? Our most vulnerable youth populations suffer. Today, this is clearly visible in education and law enforcement. Police officers, charged to increase municipal revenues by meeting arbitrary quotas, implemented “stop and frisk” policies that have hideous and excessively detrimental effects on youth of color who live in communities marked by poverty and civic disinvestment. Likewise, public school teachers and administrators have been coerced into implementing standardized assessments, the results of which will affect the viability of their schools and jobs. In both cases, the expertise of professionals in the field has been co-opted by evaluative tools and measures imposed by authorities removed from the personal interactions that are crucial to tasks such as community policing and teaching.
Decades of research reveal what happens when high-stakes evaluations are inflicted on human activities: personal interactions are damaged, workers become demoralized and alienated from their labor, and assessment results are corrupted (people cheat to keep their jobs). Moreover, these negative effects are most profoundly felt by the most vulnerable members of society. Today, young people are being harassed by law

#edTPA fun fact number 2…

by Chalk Face, PhD

Writing or composition is not scored. So, submissions can be and are passed riddled with grammatical errors. How on earth is this acceptable?
That was another edTPA fun fact.

#SMDH on teacher evaluation…

by Chalk Face, PhD

When is it time to just give up? All these excuses from those who still have this unyielding faith in technocratic methods that just aren’t working. Bunch of crybabies, all of them.
Now what might work THIS time are outside evaluators and, of all things, cameras in the classroom? What? They have to stop handing out tenure to some people.

Why Latino teachers lead to more diversity

Why Latino teachers lead to more diversity:

Why we need more Latino teachers

by Being Latino Contributors

visualphotos.com

When you think of a teacher, who do you see?

If you are like most people, you’re likely to imagine a middle-aged woman. If you think back on the teachers you’ve had in your K-12 education, most of your teachers fit that description, and furthermore, more likely than not, most of them were also white.

Because in all honesty, how many elementary-school teachers of yours were men or of a minority background? Consider yourself fortunate if you ever had a male teacher, let alone a minority male teacher. It’s unlikely you did until you pursued higher education.

That was the case for me, and lamentably, it continues to be the case for the youth of color in today’s classrooms.

The first time I had a male teacher was in middle school, and he was white. The first time I had a minority male teacher was in high school, and neither resembled me nor my family. They were white or Asian.

It wasn’t until college that I had male professors who not only looked like me, had Spanish surnames like me, but also were proud of being men of color. I almost could not believe it.

I was mesmerized by being in a learning environment of not one but multiple male professional Latino educators, who not only embraced their heritage, but also cultivated it in their students.

Along with my Latina professors, I could say to them, “I see myself in you,” figuratively and literally. The 

Missouri Education Watchdog: Missouri Coaltion Against Common Core Response to DESE's Common Core Claims

Missouri Education Watchdog: Missouri Coaltion Against Common Core Response to DESE's Common Core Claims:

Missouri Coaltion Against Common Core Response to DESE's Common Core Claims

by stlgretchen

The following response was sent to legislators in response to Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's claims on Common Core.  You may find some responses helpful in your fight against Common Core spin from your state agency.  From Missouri Coalition Against Common Core Standards:

******************************************************

  

Inaccuracies in the DESE Information Packet For Legislators

on Common Core Standards

DESE Statement: “The standards establish consistent learning goals for all students, regardless of where they live so that children will stay on track in school when moving from one state to another.”

·         The transient student population is not a large problem that requires a whole new system for standards development. The actual percentage of students who move each year is between only 0.3-2%.

·         In addition, CC standards provide only a year end proficiency goal. If individual districts may determine their own curriculum, order and pacing, as the CC proponents claim, there is no inherent guarantee in the standards that a student moving mid-year will have received instruction in the exact portion of the standard as any another district.

·         Section 160.2000 of the Missouri Revised Statutes,  Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children, already addresses barriers to educational successimposed on children of military families because of frequent moves and deployment of their parents. Common Core offers nothing new.

DESE Statement: “The standards are relevant to the real world, focusing on knowledge and skills students will need to succeed in life after high school, in both post-secondary education and a globally competitive workforce.” 

·         There are no pilot data to support this statement. This is merely a statement of intent, not a guaranteed, or even likely, result.

·         Members of the both the ELA and Math Validation Committees refused to sign off on the standards because this statement could not be substantiated with research or data.

DESE Statement: “A diverse team of teachers, parents, administrators, researchers and content experts developed the CC to be academically rigorous, attainable for students and practical for teachers and districts.”

·         CC was developed primarily by people affiliated with DC nonprofit Achieve, Inc., financed by large grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and funds from the US Department of Education.

·         The standards development committee contained no high school English or mathematics teachers or English professors. It was made up primarily of test preparers, test providers and administrators.  The two people credited with writing the grade-level English language arts standards (David Coleman and Susan Pimentel) have never taught in K-12 and have never published anything 

MORNING UPDATE LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-3-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

How Finns View What Matters in Education

by dianerav

This is a very interesting read about how Finns think about education.
They think about education, not just schooling. They think about how different institutions interact to shape young people. As Lawrence Cremin (my mentor and the author’s) taught, education is a network of institutions.
Finns care about equality, not as an abstraction but a reality. They make sure that everyone has health care and education. Teachers are highly respected. And they don’t understand our obsession with choice.
This is a good read.

Broad Foundation Molding the Syracuse School Board

by dianerav

This article shows how the Broad Foundation has shifted gears. It used to train school boards to its way of thinking (it trained the Atlanta school board, for example, to believe that metrics and data matter more than anything les).
Now it send school boards on tours to selected sites.
The Syracuse superintendent, a product of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy, leads her school board to meetings around the nation to learn about the Broad style. In this case, they are in New Orleans, the Mecca of privatization. You can be sure that no one will tell them that at least two-thirds of the New Orleans charters are academically unacceptable, even in the reports of their supporters at the Cowen Institute at Tulane.

Where Does a School Chef Make More Than Teachers?

by dianerav

This is not a trick question.
It is a real question.
Jersey Jazzman has the answer right here.

Rhee To Face Federal Lawsuit Over Wrongful Termination

by dianerav

This just in:
“http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/4/prweb10586920.htm
Federal Judge Orders Michelle Rhee Suit to Go Forward, will Broaden to Concealment and Fraud Claims
A US federal judge has denied a Motion to Dismiss by former DC Public School Chancellor Michelle Rhee in a wrongful termination lawsuit over the mass firings of DC Public School teachers back in 2009. Case to be amended to add concealment and fraud claims against Rhee and her CFO Noah Wepman.
·
Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) April 01, 2013
For nearly three years, efforts by hundreds of DC Public School teachers who were victims of the much publicized mass firings by former Chancellor Michelle Rhee- herself hailed as a reformer and darling of major media- have failed to gain any traction in the courts.
However, in what may be a turning of that tide, US District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras has denied Rhee’s 

Who Is Funding the Attack on Public Schools?

by dianerav

Jersey Jazzman has done some amazing research to uncover the source of the money that is flooding local school board races.
He has found a pattern. The same people are dropping thousands of dollars into key school board races around the country, into districts where they do not live. In Perth Amboy, NJ, school board candidates typically spend about $5,000-8,000, but in the last election one candidate had about ten times that much, almost all from big names in California.
Then he found the same people picking races in other states.
Who is coordinating this campaign?

Another Celebrity Charter School

by dianerav

Kudos to Nancy Flanagan, for reporting on the mess at the Jalen Rose Academy charter school.
Why do sports celebrities think they are qualified to run a school?
At the Jalen Rose school, 100% of the teachers quit at the end of the first year.
Nancy asks an obvious question:
“Here’s my question: What would parents think if all the teachers in a traditional public school quit? If their children had no sinks in the science rooms, but flew to Las Vegas to meet a basketball team? Or if students couldn’t access necessary instructional materials because their laptops didn’t work?
“When the Academy (which gets the same per-pupil state funding as all public schools in Detroit) ran out o

Using Satire to Expose False Claims

by dianerav

Bruce Baker has a great post about Matt Di Carlo’s April 1 post on the Maryland NAEP scores. Baker knows that Di Carlo was using his post to mock the misuse of NAEP data, but Baker shows how people like Chris Cerf frequently use misleading graphs to make a point.
When Di Carlo put up his April Fool’s Day post about a “miracle in Maryland,” he forgot to label it as a satire. He updated it.
I posted it  in the original version, and noted that neither Matt nor I believe in miracles. When Matt updated his post, I updated my post.
But the interesting point is that the graphs in Matt’s post about the gains posted by Maryland were not made-up.

MORNING UPDATE LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-2-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Julian Vasquez Heilig Adds Graphics to the NEPC Story by dianerav Read here to see the illustrated version of the Wolf attack on me and NEPC. What do we need to protect us from future Wolf attacks? Garlic? A mirror? Maybe just common sense and concern for the commonweal. But what do I know. I am but a humble blogger with a doctorate in history, not a statistician. Texas Leads the Nation in Testing, But Not in Education by dianerav A great post here by Carolyn Hein... more »

"It's Time To Fight Back!" (words and music by Matt Farmer) Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública

Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública:

Chicago FightBack School-Closings Rap

Published on Apr 1, 2013

"It's Time To Fight Back!" (words and music by Matt Farmer)

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Daily Kos: A pointed commentary on the cheating scandal in Atlanta

Daily Kos: A pointed commentary on the cheating scandal in Atlanta:

A pointed commentary on the cheating scandal in Atlanta

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

which was sent to the NY Times as a possible op-ed / letter to the editor, but not published.  I am posting it here with permission, and will also offer some commentary:

The road to the massive cheating scandal in Atlanta (NYT 3/30/2013) runs right through the White House.The former superintendent, Dr. Beverly L. Hall, and her 34 obedient subordinates now face criminal charges, but the central role played by a group of un-indicted and largely unacknowledged co-conspirators, her powerful enablers, is barely noted.
Beyond her “strong relations with the business elite” who reportedly made her “untouchable” in Atlanta, she was a national super-star for more than a decade because her work embodied the shared educational policies of the Bush and Obama administrations. In the testing frenzy that characterized both No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top Dr. Hall was a winner, consistently praised over many years by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for raising test scores, hosted at the White House in 2009 as superintendent of the year, and appointed in 2010 by President Obama to the National Board for Education Sciences. When the Atlanta scandal broke in 2011 Secretary Duncan rushed to assure the public that it was “very isolated" and “an easy one to fix.”
That’s not true. According to a recently released study by the independent monitoring group 

Aspire and State Board give up fight over controversial charters | EdSource Today

Aspire and State Board give up fight over controversial charters | EdSource Today:

Aspire and State Board give up fight over controversial charters

April 3rd, 2013 | Add a Comment | 
By John Fensterwald

After a six-year legal battle, Aspire Public Schools and the State Board of Education have agreed to give up the permit that enabled Aspire to open a half-dozen charter schools without local district approval.

The much-watched settlement, reached last month, will likely discourage the State Board from granting similar “statewide benefit charters” and marks a clear victory for the California School Boards Association, the California Teachers Association and other education groups that had filed suit. They had argued that the State Board had violated the law in granting Aspire authority to open schools under a statewide benefit charter. Two courts agreed with them, leading the State Board and Aspire to give up the fight, except for a procedural issue that the State Board is still contesting.

Under the deal, Aspire will forgo the right to apply for another statewide benefit charter for five years. Aspire and the State Board will split $300,000 of the plaintiffs’ legal fees. However, Aspire won’t have to close the six schools that opened in San Juan Unified, Stockton Unified and Los Angles Unified while the case was being litigated. In moves that made the settlement possible, all three districts have agreed to become the new charter authorizers for the schools.

At issue was a section in the state Education Code that permits the State Board to grant a 

In Ravitch’s Defense: Milwaukee Voucher Study Found Wanting | deutsch29

In Ravitch’s Defense: Milwaukee Voucher Study Found Wanting | deutsch29:

In Ravitch’s Defense: Milwaukee Voucher Study Found Wanting

by deutsch29

I hold a Ph.D. in applied statistics and research methods from the University of Northern Colorado (2002).  The title of my dissertation is A Monte Carlo Study of the Type I Error and Power Associated with Descriptive Discriminant Analysis as a MANOVA Post Hoc Procedure.
Why am I beginning this post with information about my credentials?
Yesterday, Dr. Patrick Wolf of the University of Arkansas’ Department of Educational Reform (which is heavily funded by an influential Arkansas family bent upon educational reform– guess who?) published a scathing attack on my colleague Diane Ravitch, accusing her of venturing academically ”beyond her element,” so to speak, in her commentary of his work. Wolf states that
…commentators such as Ravitch spend their time and energy attacking me as a person because thatdemonstrates that they don’t have the ability to critique the methodological rigor and quality of my actual research.  [Emphasis added.]
Let me first comment that Ravitch in no way attacked Wolf  “as a person.”  Here is an excerpt from the recent Ravitch post, to which Wolf links:
The “independent evaluator” of the Milwaukee and D.C. voucher programs is Patrick J. Wolf of the University of 

Seeing teachers as technicians ignores what else they give students: confidence, moral support and inspiration | Get Schooled

Seeing teachers as technicians ignores what else they give students: confidence, moral support and inspiration | Get Schooled:

Seeing teachers as technicians ignores what else they give students: confidence, moral support and inspiration

by Maureen Downey

Spurred by federal policy, many states, including Georgia, are moving to teacher evaluations that consider student progress on tests. But a rising chorus is challenging the reliance on testing to define a good teacher. (AJC photo)

Frequent blog contributor Peter Smagorinsky is Distinguished Research Professor of English Education at the University of Georgia and recipient of the 2012 Sylvia Scribner Award from the American Educational Research Association for conducting scholarship that has influenced thinking and research of learning and instruction and that represents a significant advancement in the field’s understanding.
Here is a thoughtful piece he wrote on teacher evaluations.

By Peter Smagorinsky
When I was a kid growing up in Fairfax County, Va., my father became head of the school PTA at one point. Among his goals was to institute a merit pay system to reward the school’s best teachers.
Around the house, he’d say, “There’s no one more overpaid than a bad …

UPDATE: Bill Ayers: Road to Atlanta cheating scandal ‘runs right through White House’

Bill Ayers: Road to Atlanta cheating scandal ‘runs right through White House’:

Following the school reform money

by Valerie Strauss

A teacher in New Jersey who blogs under the name “Jersey Jazzman” does some great work unraveling the mysteries behind school reform. Here is a piece that follows the money and shows just how interconnected the school reform community is. … Continue reading →

Why is Maryland spending millions in public funds for private school books, computers?

by Valerie Strauss

There's an interesting item in the 2014 supplemental budget that Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) has submitted: a request for $500,000 in "additional funds for non-public school textbooks."
What is this all about?
Read full article >>

Bill Ayers: Road to Atlanta cheating scandal ‘runs right through White House’

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 3, 2013 at 4:00 am

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Bill Ayers, a retired professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in no uncertain terms takes aim in this post at federal school policies that led to the Atlanta cheating scandal. Ayers, a radical activist during the 1960s and ’70s, had the national spotlight thrown on him during the 2008 presidential campaign when right-wing commentators tried, incorrectly, to say he had a close relationship with then candidate Barack Obama. In any case, Ayers is a well-known Chicago educator who worked with mayor Richard Daley on school reform and who taught and did research for years at the university. He has written numerous articles and books on elementary education.

By Bill Ayers

The road to the massive cheating scandal in Atlanta runs right through the White House.

The former superintendent, Dr. Beverly L. Hall, and her 34 obedient subordinates now face criminal charges, but the central role played by a group of unindicted and largely unacknowledged co-conspirators, her powerful enablers, is barely noted.

Beyond her “strong relations with the business elite” who reportedly made her “untouchable” in Atlanta (according to this New York Times story), she was a national superstar for more than a decade because her work embodied the shared educational policies of the Bush and Obama administrations. In the testing frenzy that characterized both No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, Dr. Hall was a winner, consistently praised over many years by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for raising test scores, hosted at the White House in 2009 as Superintendent of the Year, and appointed in 2010 by President Obama to the National Board for Education Sciences. When the Atlanta scandal broke in 2011 Secretary Duncan rushed to assure the public that it was “very isolated” and “an easy 

Will charter schools survive the confusing charter movement?

by Valerie Strauss

There has been a flood of news about charter schools recently, and in the following post, Jeff Bryant, a marketing and communications consultant for nonprofits, tries to make sense of it. Bryant is a marketing and creative strategist with nearly … Continue reading →

The new kindergarten: Kids write ‘informative’ reports

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 3, 2013 at 11:04 am

Remember back in the olden days when kindergarteners used to be allowed to learn from playing? Now, in the age of the Common Core State Standards, 4 and 5 year olds are being required to do things such as write “Informative/Explanatory Reports” and identify topic sentences.

It’s happening across the country as part of the school reform movement that has pushed down academics to the kindergarten level, entirely ignoring the fact that many young kids aren’t developmentally ready for this kind of activity. A story in the New York Post says:

Way beyond the ABCs, crayons and building blocks, the city Department of Education now wants 4- and 5-year-olds to write “informative/explanatory reports” and demonstrate “algebraic thinking.”

Children who barely know how to write the alphabet or add 2 and 2 are expected to write topic sentences and use diagrams to illustrate math equations.

“For the most part, it’s way over their heads,” a Brooklyn teacher said. “It’s too much for 

Smearing, Belittling and Besmirching the PTA in Florida | Scathing Purple Musings

Smearing, Belittling and Besmirching the PTA in Florida | Scathing Purple Musings:

Smearing, Belittling and Besmirching the PTA in Florida

by Bob Sikes

The presence of at least a half-dozen independent PTA members at Monday’s senate hearing on Parent Trigger was enough to demonstrate the clout of Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA/PTSA) across Florida. Their voice used to matter until the education for profit gravy train came to town and politicians realized the advantage to be had by jumping on. But what to do about those pesky naysayers – like those loathsome PTA members – when they don’t just get out of the way when they are told what’s best for them?
In politics, you smear, belittle and besmirch. Such a campaign is underway in Florida.
House sponsor of Parent Trigger, Rep. Carlos Trujillo (R-Dade) responded during floor question and answer yesterday the PTA “parents are in charge of the bakes sales and the teachers are in charge of the policy.”
Advocating on behalf of your public schools now comes at a cost when what you is subject to belittlement on the floor of a state legislature. But where do ambitious politicians like Turjillo get the notion that slamming the PTA is somehow a good idea. Why it’s the corporate financed education reform movement.
The website, redefinED, includes the following about it’s blog:

Readers should know that our editors represent professionally the interests of a nonprofit organization in Florida, Step Up For Students, that administers a scholarship for 35,000 low-income children. But redefinED won’t be a platform merely for school vouchers and won’t be a promotional vehicle for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship. Rather, we will use our collective