More Parents Say No To Standardized Testing | Here & Now

More Parents Say No To Standardized Testing | Here & Now:

More Parents Say No To Standardized Testing

In this Feb. 12, 2015 photo, Yamarko Brown, age 12, works on math problems as part of a trial run of a new state assessment test at Annapolis Middle School in Annapolis, Md. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

A growing number of parents and students are deciding to “opt out” of assessment tests in an effort to stem the rise of what they call a “toxic testing culture.”

Pennsylvania saw a five-fold increase in parents “opting out” over the past three years. In New York, some 67,000 students – 5 percent of all students – sat out the statewide math test.

And it seems that some officials are paying attention. U.S. Secretary Arne Duncan pledged to urge Congress to set state testing limits.

But individual states aren’t waiting for Washington to give them instructions. Just this week, a Maine lawmaker proposed a bill that requires schools to let parents know that they have the right to “opt out.”

Here & Now’s Meghna Chakrabarti speaks with Morna McDermott, founding organizer of the national “United Opt-Out” movement.

Interview Highlights: Morna McDermott

Why she is against standardized testing

“It’s sort of three-fold. There are the effects on children, including my own. There are the effects on teachers and schools. And then, you know, more broadly there’s the effects on society and what this is doing to public schools as one of our democratic institutions.”

On how to respond in states where testing is required to advance

“That’s a tricky question, I’ll be honest. I think it’s going to require a lot of pushback in order to get that repealed. So if one or two parents do that, they may face the consequences of ‘gosh, is my child going to stay back?’ I would recommend that they look closely at the law and not just rely on what they’re being told. Most likely, that law is also going to say that there are other evaluative instruments that they use in determining a child moving from grade three to grade four, in addition to that test. And one of the reason we’re advocating for what we call sort of a refusal or a boycott of the testing, is in a large part because we’re using data from a test that study after study after study have shown are not necessarily reliable or valid in assessing what they claim to assess.”

On how to measure U.S. students against other countries without tests

“People like to fall back on that narrative, but it ignores a lot of the pertinent information, first of which is that the number one determining factor of how well you will do on your standardized test is your zip code. We know that poverty is the biggest determining factor in how children perform on standardized tests. Now, if we’re under-performing, say, behind Finland that’s because we have a 50 percent poverty rate and they only have a 4 percent poverty rate. You know, it doesn’t necessarily access all of the other measures that enable us to be competitive as a nation.

“The number one determining factor of how well you will do on your standardized test is your zip code.”

“For example, we didn’t really rely on standardized testing for much of anything prior to No Child Left Behind. So, how on earth is it that we became this global empire, the top dog, before we ever had standardized testing drive our curriculum? It’s not to say that we don’t have problems in our schools. We clearly have problems of equity and poverty. We have the highest segregation rates since Brown v. Board, but none of these problems will ever be resolved by test-driven policies.”

On whether refusing to take a standardized test hurts schools or teachers

“I don’t know of any school that has been closed as a result of testing refusals. I know of no More Parents Say No To Standardized Testing | Here & Now:

Parents Can Opt Out -  United Opt Out National

Click Here to go to United Opt Out National: 

Click Here to go to the Website- United Opt Out Team

The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch - Edison NJ News - TAPinto

The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch - Edison NJ News - TAPinto:

The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch

Beth Moroney

Friday, February 27, 2015 • 4:00am

The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch Credits: Basic Books

Let's start today's review on The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch with your homework assignment. On a piece of notebook paper . . . no, scratch that … on your keyboard write the name of the best teacher that you ever had. Under his/her name list five reasons why that teacher was the best one you ever had and support your opinions. Repeat the process, substituting “best” teacher with “worst” teacher. When you have finished your two lists, compare your reasons and deduce what qualities one should look for in a good teacher. Then write a five paragraph opinion paper on the qualities of an excellent teacher.

See, anyone who ever went to school thinks that he/she is an authority on what comprises a good educator --- or so many politicians and business people have come to believe. However, Diane Ravitch, former assistant U.S. Secretary of Education, has concluded that those in politics and business have become too entrenched in public education and are steering the “great American School System” in the wrong direction.

Ravitch, who has studied education for over forty years, criticizes the path on which contemporary America schools are headed. She explains the dangers in restructuring schools, rails on using test scores to punish instructors, and points out the dangers in using charter schools to segregate the top students from the bottom instead of using charter schools to help lower ranked students become achievers. Categorically, Ravitch blasts using the “business model” to restructure American education.

Since PARCC is looming ever closer in New Jersey's schools, Ravitch's chapter on standardized testing, “The Trouble with Accountability” is particularly important. She begins, “NCLB (No Child Left Behind) opened a new era of testing and accountability in American public schools.” (150) Just as parents and educators are protesting the implementation of PARCC, those forces filed lawsuits and protested against the new standardized testing during the Bush era to no avail. But Ravitch continues stating that it was the misuse of testing, ranking schools and educators based on test scores, that became the major The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch - Edison NJ News - TAPinto:

Presidential hopefuls share anti-public education views at conservative conference « Education Votes

Presidential hopefuls share anti-public education views at conservative conference « Education Votes:

Presidential hopefuls share anti-public education views at conservative conference

Posted February 23, 2015

 

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TAGS: American Legislative Exchange Council, Charles and David Koch, Chris Christie, Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, rand paul, Rick Perrry, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, The Koch Brothers

by Brian Washington

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By the end of the week, education activists should have a better understanding of how the 2016 field of presidential hopefuls on the Republican side is shaping up and what some of the threats to students, educators, and public education may look like in the future.

Thursday, February 26, kicks off the start of the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC. CPAC represents the largest gathering of right-wing conservatives from around the country.

The event’s agenda is filled with workshops designed to come up with new ways to undermine public education and limit opportunity for students. Without a doubt, there will be discussions about siphoning away taxpayer dollars from public education and funneling them into private and religious schools and expanding privately-run charter schools that, despite getting public funding, are not accountable or transparent to the communities they are supposed to serve.

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If some of this sounds like it comes from the ALEC(American Legislative Exchange Council)playbook, which includes restricting the ability of educators to advocate for their students and dismantling public education, that’s because many of the faces attending this week’s CPAC meeting are also regular attendees at various ALEC events.

Also, because this year’s conference is happening at the start of the 2016 election cycle, a string of GOP presidential hopefuls are expected to attend, including Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, an ALEC acolyte who’s also a darling of billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, the Koch Brothers.

Walker has been leading the fight in Wisconsin against workers’ rights, middle-class families, students, educators, and public schools. He was instrumental in defunding higher education and robbed public schools of critical dollars through private school vouchers and huge corporate tax cuts. He also led the charge to strip educators of their voice to advocate on behalf of students.

Another serious contender for the GOP presidential ticket who will be speaking at CPAC this week is former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who also supports private school vouchers, the corporate takeover of public education, and other policies that harm students.

In fact, at last year’s Republican National Convention, Bush told the crowd that public schools should be thought of as competing commodities governed by a free market.

As governor, Bush was also responsible for the implementation of a controversial A-F school grading formula that has since come under fire by parents, educators, and elected leaders and has had to be adjusted at least two dozen times over the last several years.

Other CPAC guest speakers who are looking to head-up the Republican ticket for the White House include U.S. Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Ted Cruz of Texas as well as Governors Chris Christie of New Jersey and Rick Perry of Texas.

CPAC ends Saturday, February 28. Be sure to check the Speak Up for Education and Kids Facebook page and the “What We’re Reading” section of Ed Votes for updates on what’s happening at the conference.Presidential hopefuls share anti-public education views at conservative conference « Education Votes:

NEA President Lily Eskelsen García on What Teacher Do

Thousands of LA teachers, union heads rally in largest action yet amid stalled contract talks

Susana Mercado, left, and Linda Cardwell chant slogans as they join thousands of fellow teachers for a rally to demand higher wages and smaller class sizes amid stalled contract negotiations, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015, in Los Angeles. United Teachers Los Angeles is asking for an 8.5 percent pay increase, a demand the Los Angeles Unified district says cannot be met without significant layoffs. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) 

By CHRISTINE ARMARIO, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dressed in red and raising signs into the air, thousands of teachers filled a downtown Los Angeles park on Thursday in demand of higher wages and smaller class sizes amid stalled contract negotiations.

"Everybody in this country is watching this struggle," said Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers. "It's a fight about the nature of public education. What is public education going to look like?"

The rally was the largest action yet amid an escalating standoff between union and Los Angeles Unified district leaders: United Teachers Los Angeles is demanding an 8.5 percent salary increase, a demand interim Superintendent Ramon Cortines contends the district cannot meet without significant layoffs.

The union declared an impasse in February and is set to meet with the district and mediators in March. If a resolution is still not reached, a fact finding panel will convene.

Though still several steps away, union officials say they are prepared to strike if needed.

UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl and other union leaders have visited hundreds of schools in recent months, talking to teachers and handing out commitment cards. The cards ask teachers to pledge support for a variety of actions, from leafleting to a strike. About half have been returned so far.

"The vast majority of our members have checked off, 'Are you willing to strike?' with a, 'Yes I am willing to strike,'" Caputo-Pearl said to applause and cheers at the rally.

The last major urban district to strike was Chicago Public Schools in 2012. That contract dispute centered largely on the role of student test scores in teacher evaluations.

In contrast, the Los Angeles contract standoff has focused mostly on teacher salaries, class sizes and increasing the number of support staff members like nurses and counselors. The union notes that teachers have gone eight years without a salary increase or cost of living adjustment.

Union leaders contend the negotiations highlight an ongoing post-Great Recession concern: That while economic conditions have improved, cuts made during the height of the crisis have been disparately restored. They point to new pockets of money that could be used to finance their demands, including the governor's proposed budget, which would increase spending on K-12 education by at least 8 percent.

Contines, meanwhile, is projecting a $160 million deficit for the next school year. He is asking every department to reduce expenses by 8 to 15 percent. In a letter to Caputo-Pearl Thursday, he also warned that $171 million is at risk if union leaders don't agree to evaluation requirements necessary for the district to receive its No Child Left Behind waiver.

Congress is currently attempting to revamp the George W. Bush-era law.

"We're entering a tough phase because of the significant decline in enrollment, primarily," said Tom Waldman, a spokesman for the district.

There were 677,538 student enrolled in Los Angeles Unified in the 2009-10 school year. In the 2013-14 school year, that number had declined to 653,826.

A recent survey by the Schools Superintendents Association found that about half of superintendents described their districts as stable, while nearly four in 10 believe their district's economic situation has gotten worse; but the study concluded that over the last three years, conditions have mostly improved.

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, said what happens in Los Angeles will have national implications, as districts weigh what to prioritize as the economy improves.

"The teachers here are pulling out of their own pockets," she said in an interview with The Associated Press Thursday. "They feel the district has not met them halfway."

At the rally, teachers waved signs demanding, "Safe and clean schools now!" and "Don't want to but I'm ready to strike!" A band played songs with protest-themed lyrics.

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http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2015/02/26/los-angeles-teachers-union-leaders-rally-amid-stalled-talks

Who are Democrats for Education Reform? | United Federation of Teachers

Who are Democrats for Education Reform? | United Federation of Teachers:

Who are Democrats for Education Reform?

And why do they keep bashing public schools and unions?

BY MICHAEL HIRSCH | DECEMBER 16, 2010 NEW YORK TEACHER ISSUE

Joe Williams heads Democrats for Education Reform and its sister organization, Education Reform Now.DFER advisory board member Joel Greenblatt is a protégé of fallen junk-bond icon Michael Milliken.Hedge-fund manager John Petry, a DFER board member, co-founded the Harlem Success Academy Charter School with Eva Moskowitz.

There’s a political action committee called Democrats for Education Reform. A great name, but I heard that they only support nonunion charter schools, bash unions and get subsidized by Wall Street hedge-fund managers. What’s up with that?

You heard right. They’re like other public school bashers, except they call themselves Democrats. Democrats for Education Reform claims that it “leads efforts to frame the fight that is playing out within the Democratic Party on education issues.” It tries to accomplish that by pushing aside teacher unions as education spokespeople or even as informed practitioners. The organization advocates for nonunion charter schools, vouchers, merit pay, test-based teacher evaluations, curbs on tenure and removing teacher unions from almost any role in shaping curriculum or determining working conditions.

In just three years, DFER directed more than $17 million into political and grassroots advocacy for its version of education reform and for what Joe Williams, the group’s executive director and a former Daily News education reporter, credits as “creating momentum which has the potential to dominate education policymaking for years to come.”

DFER calls Barack Obama “the first ever Democratic president elected without significant support of teachers’ unions” — a shocker to those UFT members who went to toss-up state Pennsylvania to stump for Obama and to AFT and NEA members nationwide who campaigned for the candidate in 2008.

Board member Whitney Tilson is chief of T2 Partners and Tilson Funds and vice chair of New York’s KIPP Academy Charter Schools.David Einhorn, another hedge-funder on DFER’s advisory board, is president of Greenlight Capital, LLC.

What has DFER been up to in New York?
In New York State elections this fall, the group stumped exclusively for pro-charter candidates, but because it has no community membership, just a letterhead stacked with super-rich backers, it advertised on Craigslist for campaign workers. DFER was zero for three on the incumbent state senators that it targeted in the Democratic primary.

The ex-Bloomberg aide tapped to topple Harlem state Sen. Bill Perkins, who took issue with charter management companies for their lack of accountability, got clobbered. State Senators Velmanette Montgomery and Shirley Huntley also handily defeated DFER-backed insurgents in the primary. Among the group’s key list of 15 nationally endorsed candidates in the November elections, just seven won.

Why do Democrats for Education Reform hate teachers?
They say they don’t (hard to believe if you look at their policy positions). It is unions that they say they hate.

What’s their beef with unions?
That we exist. It’s the typical economic royalist rationale, that unions — unlike themselves — are selfish special interests. They’re deaf to counter-arguments that what’s good for kids is good for teachers, too, and that tenure means due process and not job security for incompetents.

Who are these people? They don’t sound like Democrats.
If party registration and political donations indicate political allegiance, these DFER deep pockets are blue-blood Democrats. The group’s financial records show board members, advisers and the Who are Democrats for Education Reform? | United Federation of Teachers:

Standardizing Education – Common Core’s Hidden Agenda | Creative by Nature

Standardizing Education – Common Core’s Hidden Agenda | Creative by Nature:

Standardizing Education – Common Core’s Hidden Agenda

Posted on February 28, 2015by Christopher Chase

Anthony Cody’s article from last year Classrooms of the Future: Student Centered or Device Centered offers a very important analysis, looking at the hidden agenda of Common Core and the technology industry. Anthony believes that the goal of “aligning” tests and curriculum with Common Core is to “standardize” education the way computers and other forms of technology are standardized. This helps to explain why Bill Gates haspoured so much money into Common Core and testing.

Think about your PC, all top-selling computers (with the exception of Apple) have the same standard design. That’s what allows Gates’s Microsoft company to maintain a global monopoly with their operating system. Whether your computer is made by Dell, Sony, HP, Samsung or Toshiba they are all configured to the same global industry standards, aligned with Microsoft Windows’ software.

Gates and others from the business, technology and financial industries see education as a new multi-billion dollar international market, especially if the Common Core standards go global. There is a not-so-hidden agenda here to take professional teachers, local communities and national differences out of the equation.  Anthony quotes Margo Day, the vice president of U.S. Education, for Microsoft:

“Personalized learning for every student is a worthy and aspirational goal. By combining the power of touch, type, digital inking, multitasking and split-screen capabilities that Windows 8 with Office 365 provides with these new Pearson applications, we’re one step closer to enabling an interactive and personalized learning environment.”

This is an attempt to give us an updated hi-tech version of the factory school model, first developed at the beginning of the last century. They are using the terms individualizedand personalized as a marketing strategy, a way of hiding the truth that these technologies are standardized. Local autonomy, creativity and differences in study are to be eliminated. Student and teacher relationships are no longer central. As Anthony explains:

“In this mode of instruction, these devices become the mediator of almost every academic interaction between students and their teacher, and even one another. Students are assigned work on the device, they perform their work on the device, they share work through the device, and they receive feedback via the device. What is more, the means by which learning is measured—the standardized test—will also be via this device.

It is the appliance that now becomes “intelligent” about each student and the appliance is the vehicle by which lessons are “personalized,” because the appliance is what is keeping track of what the student is capable of, and where the student is weak.

Of course the teacher has the ability to oversee and monitor the assignments the device is making, but the whole idea is to automate this process. And this is happening in an environment where there is a clear desire to increase class sizes. Thus we have “personalization” via digital device, at the same time we make teacher-student relationships far more difficult because budget constraints are increasing class sizes..”

I believe that Anthony is right, that this is the hidden agenda behind both the standards Standardizing Education – Common Core’s Hidden Agenda | Creative by Nature:

CYNICAL SCHOOL CHOICE STUNTS RAMP UP IN OKLAHOMA | Oklahoma Observer

CYNICAL SCHOOL CHOICE STUNTS RAMP UP IN OKLAHOMA | Oklahoma Observer:

CYNICAL SCHOOL CHOICE STUNTS RAMP UP IN OKLAHOMA

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 28 FEB 2015   POSTED BY AHAMILTON

Editor’s Note: This essay appeared in the February 2015 print edition of The Oklahoma Observer. We are publishing it on-line for all to see in light of the Senate Finance Committee’s decision last week to approve SB 609, Sen. Clark Jolley’s ill-conceived, unconstitutional voucher scheme that could steal millions from Oklahoma’s already under-funded public schools.  

BY BRETT DICKERSON

Once upon a time in Oklahoma, magnet public schools were the “choice” that allowed for much more creativity and freedom. They helped to break years of racial/economic segregation. But that’s not the point of a huge “school choice” push today.

Instead, “school choice” has become code for getting an unwitting public to allow private investor corporations to siphon tax money from the public and funnel it into accountability black boxes. And worse, they will do that while re-segregating American education and society.

Proponents of “school choice” – choicers – argue that when there is competition in an education marketplace, quality will just magically break out.

But it won’t. It won’t because participants in any market place actively attempt to eliminate the competition. Increasing profits for any business come from doing away with or absorbing their competition.

Anyone who argues for competition as a way to improve schools while keeping all of the choices in place simply doesn’t understand how competition works. Or, worse, they are consciously trying to deceive others.

And that deception is what I want to point out here.

DECEPTION

There are some people for choice who are sincere. But the ones we are hearing from the loudest and the most right now are those who make a handsome living trying to destroy support for a common, publicly-controlled education.

Their donors want a small minority of the rich to control what is being taught, and that can’t happen unless publicly-controlled schools and professional teachers are destroyed in their current form.

I’m seeing a very real increase in cynical stunts by some organizations, mostly those that are associated with the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.

If you don’t already know, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, or OCPA, is tied in tightly with ALEC, the Koch Brothers, and many other donors who want to profit by forcing you to pay taxes that their buddies in the legislature will turn over to them without any accountability.

There are several cynical, deceptive practices that I have been observing over the last several weeks as we draw nearer to the Oklahoma Legislature convening.

TWITTER HASHTAG FLOODING

Hashtag flooding is where a relatively small group of people flood a particular hashtag that is being used by their opponents to connect with each other. The subject matter of the tweets is intended to discredit the position of their opponents.

The flooding happens when a small, well-organized group use a large number of Twitter accounts to RT one well-written attack tweet, which makes it harder for those in the hashtag to actually communicate with each other.

Hashtag flooding also gives occasional observers of the hashtag the impression that opinions have shifted when they have not.

This stunt was originally perfected by conservative organizations opposed to liberal TV commentators who were gaining a large nation-wide Twitter following like Rachel Maddow and Melissa Harris-Perry.

Followers of their show’s hashtag get to know one another and support each other in their agreement CYNICAL SCHOOL CHOICE STUNTS RAMP UP IN OKLAHOMA | Oklahoma Observer: