El Paso Times: TEA hasn’t policed cheating on TAKS or STAAR | Education Blog

El Paso Times: TEA hasn’t policed cheating on TAKS or STAAR | Education Blog:

El Paso Times: TEA hasn’t policed cheating on TAKS or STAAR

By Jeffrey Weiss
JWeiss@dallasnews.com
8:56 am on August 30, 2013 | Permalink

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The El Paso Times uncovered a pervasive cheating scandal in 2010 in the El Paso school district. The scandal led eventually to the state taking over the district to clean up the mess. State education commissioner Michael Williams commissioned an internal investigation to see why the Texas Education Agency didn’t catch the problem earlier. The agency gave the Times an advance copy of the report. The Times reports that the results aren’t pretty:

The Texas Education Agency lacks the ability to detect cheating on school accountability measures, and instead relies on school districts to police themselves, the State Auditor’s Office said in a report to be released today.

Williams blamed his predecessor, Robert Scott, who stepped down in 2012:

“This was an entire organizational breakdown and I think, quite frankly, it started at the top of the organization,” Williams said in an interview with the Times. “It started with the old leadership team, who failed this agency, failed the people of the city of El Paso and failed this state.”

Read the whole story here.

It’s not like the TEA didn’t get plenty of warning. Back in 2007, the DMN’s Holly K. Hacker and Joshua Benton produced an award-winning series that uncovered cheating on the TAKS test. One story started like this:

In 1975, a social scientist named Donald Campbell came up with the idea that would 

8-30-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Bill Watterson and Some Thoughts for Your Kids

Unfortunately, Blogger is not letting me size this new comic from Calvin and Hobbes creator, Bill Watterson.  But check this link and show your kids.  They may try to test our kids into some square peg but that doesn't mean they will succeed.

by Melissa Westbrook / 44min 

Advanced Learning - Why Bother?

I mean, seriously, why does this district bother? To explain, it was noted by several readers that the testing schedule for Advanced Learning programs is NOT in the school calendar.  And, by law, they have to supply public notice (at least for APP). You'd think the calendar, going to every single family in the district, would be the ideal place. You'd think the first-day packets, going to every si

by Melissa Westbrook / 37min 

Mayor's Arts Awards

From the City of Seattle:Mayor McGinn will present free Mayor’s Arts Awards ceremony Friday, August 30 at 4 p.m.SEATTLE — The 2013 Mayor’s Arts Awards ceremony will take place this Friday, August 30 at 4 p.m. at the North Fountain Lawn of Seattle Center. The honorees include two individuals and four organizations, and represent categories ranging from promoting arts as a means of social change to

by Melissa Westbrook / 33min 

Friday Open Thread

Want to see something pretty unpleasant?  Here's one charter school and their answer to how to encourage kids to get to college.From The Guardian:  are American universities turning away from "classic" books?Last year, 309 colleges made such assignments. It's a great tradition, but something curious has happened since my days as a college student. Only eight schools assigned anything published bef

by Melissa Westbrook / 9min 

8-29-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Marni Campbell Leaving Seattle SchoolsMarni Campbell, Executive Director for the NW, is leaving to become the Executive Director of Instruction and Innovation in Highline School District for Susan Enfield.  (Oddly, the notice of her hiring just calls her "Executive Director of Schools" which sounds like a far larger post than for just a region.  Probably an oversig

by mike simpson / 22h 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Friday, August 30, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

Federal education law traps schools in spiral of failure | EdSource Today

Education Headlines

Friday, August 30, 2013

Camarillo annexes 28-acre site for new high school

The Camarillo City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved the annexation and zoning change for a 28-acre site for a new high school and performing arts center.

Grants help Stockton USD boost API results

Forty-two months, two superintendents and three grant proposals later, Stockton Unified finally has learned whether seven struggling K-8 campuses would benefit if they received federal dollars aimed at improving schools identified by the state as "persistently low-performing."

Stockton USD police chief decision may come today

Board members have given Superintendent Steve Lowder the authority to choose between two undisclosed candidates to serve as the interim replacement for retiring Stockton Unified Police Chief Jim West.

Freedberg: Federal education law traps schools in spiral of failure

Nearly a dozen years after President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind law, its deepest imprint may be its labeling of 90 percent of California’s schools serving poor children as failures.

Madera Unified teachers ratify new contract

Madera Unified School District teachers ratified a proposed salary-and-benefits contract Wednesday night, a move that could put an end to more than a year of rocky discussions between district administrators and classroom employees.

State's schools are getting healthier

School districts in California and nationwide are getting better at providing healthy environments for students, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week.

New LAUSD technology panel tackles details of iPad project

A day after LAUSD handed out iPads to kids at two of its campuses, the school board’s Technology Committee started its own deep dive into the program that will put a tablet computer in the hands of every student by this time next year.

John Swett school district taps longtime San Ramon Valley administrator as next superintendent

The tiny John Swett school district has chosen a longtime teacher, football coach and administrator from the much larger San Ramon Valley school district as its new superintendent.

Fensterwald: Goodbye, API - Get ready for rough transition to better system of measuring schools

Say farewell to the API as you know it. Welcome to new era of accountability, with at least a couple years of confusion in between.

Baron: Academic Performance Index declines for the first time in a decade

For nine of the last 10 years, scores on California’s standardized tests steadily rose, showing the testing system did what it was supposed to do and raised student achievement. That streak ended and exposed an ongoing achievement gap with Thursday’s release of the 2013 Academic Performance Index, or API.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Stockton USD pays $65,000 over Amato aide firing dispute

Avoiding the potential six-figure cost of going to trial, Stockton Unified has agreed to pay $65,000 to Matt George to settle a lawsuit filed in 2012 by the former second-in-command to controversial ex-Superintendent Tony Amato.

Schools closed all week

Tuolumne County public schools will remain closed at least through Friday due to unhealthy smoke from the Rim Fire, said Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools Joe Silva.

Madera teachers poised to vote on contract agreement

Madera Unified teachers are getting ready to vote on a proposed contract agreement that's been a political hot potato for more than a year.

The Unintended Consequences of Integration:

The Unintended Consequences of Integration

B.R.O: BLACK NEWS IN PERSPECTIVE Blacks lost their identity through integration, suggest Activists Who Marched with King in ’63.

http://techbookonline.com/news.html

Philadelphia’s Mayor Michael A. Nutter takes a class photo at a well integrated South Philadelphia Middle School. READ: Negro Mayor Hushes as Uncle Tom Puts a Whipping on Philly’s Youngsters. (Photo Credit: C. Norris – ©2013)

By Christopher “Flood the Drummer”® Norris

8.30.13: National — (Education/Activism): Barbara Blackburn, 70, and former teacher Harry Klugel, 72, were both in their twenties when they joined hundreds of thousands of Americans on the National Mall for the March on Washington in 1963.

Looking back on that historic day and what it represented, both Blackburn and Klugel say they’re grateful to be alive to see 50 years to the day, but admit they are disappointed in the conditions of today’s society.

READ: Hip-Hop Entrepreneur says: “We Can’t Move Forward as Segregated Movements”

In an interview conducted after the NEA retired members spoke to a room full of attentive youngster at the Black Youth Vote Summit held at the NEA Headquarters, the dream defending duo tell me that despite the good intentions of the Brown vs Board of Education ruling, that “blacks lost their identity through integration.”

(From L to R): BMe Leadership Award Winner Christopher “Flood the Drummer®” Norris, Barbara Blackburn, Harry Klugel and @BMePhilly Community Engagement Manager Alex Peay.(Photo Credit: C. Norris – ©2013)

“After integration, teachers were not taught how to interact with different cultures. In my opinion, that’s when the problems started, especially for our black boys. Integration is 

The Lingering Legacy of Segregation | the becoming radical

The Lingering Legacy of Segregation | the becoming radical:

The Lingering Legacy of Segregation

Posted on August 30, 2013 by plthomasedd

As we approach 60 years since U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and stand in the wake of a 50-year anniversary of the March on Washington, Richard Rothstein details:

Today, many black children still attend schools in racially and economically isolated neighborhoods, while their families still reside in lonely islands of poverty: 39 percent of black children are from families with incomes below the poverty line, compared with 12 percent of white children (U.S. Census Bureau(a)); 28 percent of black children live in high-poverty neighborhoods, compared with 4 percent of white children (Casey 2013).

Reports from 2012 also highlighted the growing resegregation of schools in the South and across the U.S. Concurrent with the re-segregation of public schools—along with the ignored reality that children’s ZIP codes tend to determine their access to high- or low-quality schools, which reflect the affluence/poverty of the community—a growing commitment to charter schools ignores that charter schools fail to achieve academic success distinguishable from traditional public schools (both formats of schooling produce a range of outcomes) but tend to segregate children by race and class.

Rothstein recognizes a historical link between burying the Coleman report from 

How much ‘value’ can teachers really add to student achievement?:

How much ‘value’ can teachers really add to student achievement?

By Valerie Strauss, Published: August 30 at 10:30 amE-mail the writer

Chris Gilbert teaches English at a high school and community college in North Carolina. His work has written for the English Journal of the National Council of Teachers of English, the Language Experience Forum Journal and for this blog. He is a 2013 recipient of national council’s Paul and Kate Farmer Writing Award.

By Chris Gilbert

As a high school English teacher, it’s heartening to think I can “add value” to all of my students. Unfortunately, this is completely unrealistic. I can prepare engaging lessons that appeal to different learning styles, maturity levels, and backgrounds. I can also repeat, reteach, and communicate my concerns to students and parents; my influence, though, is ultimately limited. I cannot force students to engage with curriculum, nor can I control study habits outside of my classroom. I cannot negate the effects of poverty, and I am challenged by a system increasingly subjected to misguided reforms, slashed funding, and excessive testing. Teaching is a messy art involving numerous, unpredictable variables and participants, and the learning process spans multiple venues and points in time. A fair evaluation instrument would address this multifaceted reality. The value-added instrument currently utilized in North Carolina and many