Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 7/21/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Yong Zhao: Outcome vs. Process: Different Incarnations of Personalization

Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Outcome vs. Process: Different Incarnations of Personalization: Outcome vs. Process: Different Incarnations of PersonalizationThere are different views of personalized learning. My advocacy for personalization has been occasionally misunderstood as supporting the narrow view of personalized learning driven by big data and learning analytics wi

by mike simpson / 1h 

NEW VIDEO: How California Organizers Won Fair School Funding | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign

NEW VIDEO: How California Organizers Won Fair School Funding | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity: NEW VIDEO: How California Organizers Won Fair School FundingPosted on: Monday July 13th, 2015Last year, parents, students, teachers and community members in Los Angeles achieved a huge victory for the city’s public schools: they successfully pushed th

by mike simpson / 3h 

NYC Public School Parents: How the question left out of the DOE parent survey was the most interesting of all

NYC Public School Parents: How the question left out of the DOE parent survey was the most interesting of all: How the question left out of the DOE parent survey was the most interesting of allMore on the results of the parent survey and the question left out in Schoolbook and the NY Daily News. When the results of the DOE's Learning Environment Survey were released yesterday,  the administration

by mike simpson / 3h 

Whatever you call it, bribing voters is a bad idea - LA Times

Whatever you call it, bribing voters is a bad idea - LA Times: Whatever you call it, bribing voters is a bad ideaPerhaps the leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles will learn a lesson from the May election defeat of school board incumbent Bennett Kayser, whom they backed, by upstart Ref Rodriguez. Unfortunately, that lesson may well be that they must back up their next candidate for office by offe

by mike simpson / 3h 

Charter schools: Give us public money but not public scrutiny | Bob Braun's Ledger

Charter schools: Give us public money but not public scrutiny | Bob Braun's Ledger: Charter schools: Give us public money but not public scrutinyGov. Chris Christie and his powerful Democratic allies–most notably US Sen. Cory Booker and South Jersey political boss George Norcross–promote charter and voucher schools as a way of avoiding the two most pressing problems facing urban public education:

by mike simpson / 3h 

Measuring diversity in charter school offerings - AEI

Measuring diversity in charter school offerings - AEI: Measuring diversity in charter school offeringsEducation, K-12 SchoolingFont SizeAAKey PointsPart of the promise of charter schooling is that deregulation could allow for more diverse types of schools than would otherwise exist. Yet little attention has been paid to evaluating the diversity of the charter school market.After coding every chart

by mike simpson / 3h 

Group Created By Silicon Valley Millionaire Targets Teacher Evaluations In California

Group Created By Silicon Valley Millionaire Targets Teacher Evaluations In California: Group Created By Silicon Valley Millionaire Targets Teacher Evaluations In CaliforniaThis piece comes to us courtesy of EdSource, where it was originally published.Students Matter, which is challenging tenure and other teacher protection laws in Vergara v. California, filed a second school lawsuit Thursday. It i

by mike simpson / 4h 

The tyranny of top-down education reform (or, if everyone has school choice, is it still a choice?) - The Washington Post

The tyranny of top-down education reform (or, if everyone has school choice, is it still a choice?) - The Washington Post: The tyranny of top-down education reform (or, if everyone has school choice, is it still a choice?)So many of the changes being proposed today, regardless of where they come from, share a feature in common: the people proposing them see their reforms as silver bullets, and see

by mike simpson / 4h 

Key education bills still in play as legislators take summer break | EdSource

Key education bills still in play as legislators take summer break | EdSource: Key education bills still in play as legislators take summer breakLegislators who headed out of town on Friday for a month have already decided the fate of many key bills. Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a much debated child vaccination law that eliminates the personal belief exemption to school-required vaccinations. All o

by mike simpson / 4h 

Charter founder gets real with admission about improving schools - K-12 Zone

Charter founder gets real with admission about improving schools - K-12 Zone: Charter founder gets real with admission about improving schools“Let’s just be real,” Chris Barbicwrote last week when announcing his resignation as superintendent of Tennessee’s Achievement School District.Then Barbic admitted what skeptics of charter schools have preached for years — “achieving results in neighborhood

by mike simpson / 4h 

The 2015 KIDS COUNT Data Book - The Annie E. Casey Foundation

The 2015 KIDS COUNT Data Book - The Annie E. Casey Foundation: The 2015 KIDS COUNT Data Book  DATA BOOKREAD OR DOWNLOAD THE REPORT (56 PG PDF)The KIDS COUNT Data Book is an annual publication that assesses child well-being nationally and across the 50 states, as well as in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Using an index of 16 indicators, the report ranks states on overall child well-being

by mike simpson / 7h 

More Funding Is Flowing for Education Journalism. Is That Okay? - Inside Philanthropy: Fundraising Intelligence - Inside Philanthropy

More Funding Is Flowing for Education Journalism. Is That Okay? - Inside Philanthropy: Fundraising Intelligence - Inside Philanthropy: More Funding Is Flowing for Education Journalism. Is That Okay? Our recent post on Campbell Brown's education news site and the funders supporting it started us thinking about the larger topic of funder support for journalistic coverage of education issues. The top

by mike simpson / 7h 

Democrat controlled Legislature’s action on Malloy’s education veto nothing but a scam. - Wait What?

Democrat controlled Legislature’s action on Malloy’s education veto nothing but a scam. - Wait What?: Democrat controlled Legislature’s action on Malloy’s education veto nothing but a scam.A lesson on power politics and how many legislators will jettison their constituents in order to hang with the power elite.What did your elected representative stand on the veto issue?A handful of Democrats and

by mike simpson / 7h 

School Policy Fast-Tracked, Kept Secret from State Board of Education in One-Party Ohio | janresseger

School Policy Fast-Tracked, Kept Secret from State Board of Education in One-Party Ohio | janresseger: School Policy Fast-Tracked, Kept Secret from State Board of Education in One-Party OhioAccording to the website of the Ohio Department of Education, “The State Board of Education is made up of 19 members – 11 who are elected and eight who are appointed by the governor.”  The website does not list

by mike simpson / 7h 

California improves in children's health but slips to 49th in financial security | 89.3 KPCC

California improves in children's health but slips to 49th in financial security | 89.3 KPCC: California improves in children's health but slips to 49th in financial securityThe annual KIDS COUNT report on the welfare of the country's children tells a mixed story of how California is faring in providing for its kids. Looking at all measures, the report gives California a relatively low ranking of

by mike simpson / 8h 

Corruption, politics and the race shame I should not feel - The Hechinger Report

Corruption, politics and the race shame I should not feel - The Hechinger Report: Corruption, politics and the race shame I should not feelEven though I know logically that one person doesn’t represent a race, community or organization, I still carry the weight of shame for individuals who take advantage of public dollars and children’s resources.There’s enough shame to go around.Another education

by mike simpson / 8h 

Why new Senate ed bill falls short of LBJ’s “War on Poverty” standard - The Hechinger Report

Why new Senate ed bill falls short of LBJ’s “War on Poverty” standard - The Hechinger Report: Why new Senate ed bill falls short of LBJ’s “War on Poverty” standardImprovements must be made for underserved studentsPresident Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, center left, leave the home in Inez, Ky., of Tom Fletcher, a father of eight who told Johnson he’d been out of work for nearly two years,

by mike simpson / 8h 

Research On Teacher Evaluation Metrics: The Weaponization Of Correlations | Shanker Institute

Research On Teacher Evaluation Metrics: The Weaponization Of Correlations | Shanker Institute: Research On Teacher Evaluation Metrics: The Weaponization Of CorrelationsOur guest author today is Cara Jackson, Assistant Director of Research and Evaluation at the Urban Teacher Center.In recent years, many districts have implemented multiple-measure teacher evaluation systems, partly in response to fe

by mike simpson / 8h 

Community Schools or a Bunch of Bologna?

Community Schools or a Bunch of Bologna?: Community Schools or a Bunch of Bologna?With the re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or No Child Left Behind into the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA), there is a lot of talk about community schools.For many, the term “community schools” conjures up the idea of schools as the hub of the town, with experienced principals and crede

by mike simpson / 8h 

We bought it twice but we no-longer own it: Is co-location the better option? | School Finance 101

We bought it twice but we no-longer own it: Is co-location the better option? | School Finance 101: We bought it twice but we no-longer own it: Is co-location the better option?I’ve been spending much of my spring and summer trying to get a handle on the various business practices of charter schooling, the roles of various constituents, their incentives and interests – financial and otherwise – in

by mike simpson / 8h 

Effects of poverty on the brain help explain poor kids’ lower test scores

Effects of poverty on the brain help explain poor kids’ lower test scores: Effects of poverty on the brain help explain poor kids’ lower test scoresPosted with permission from Medical DailyRepublish Reprint(Reuters Health) - The effect of poverty on children’s brains may explain why poor youngsters tend to score lower on standardized tests compared to wealthier students, a new study suggests."

by mike simpson / 8h 

150 Years of Magical Thinking on Teachers- Vox

Want a good public education for your kids? Better be rich first. - Vox: Want a good public education for your kids? Better be rich first.Public schools are a really nice idea. The government builds a building, right in your neighborhood, where anyone can send their kids to get an education for free. It's simple and appealing.But in practice, it's quite a bit different. Land that is in the intake

by mike simpson / 9h 

Charter school teachers claim intimidation over union | City Pages

Charter school teachers claim intimidation over union | City Pages: CHARTER SCHOOL TEACHERS CLAIM INTIMIDATION OVER UNIONWhen teachers voted to form a union at St. Paul’s Community School of Excellence last June, they hoped administrators would quit intimidating employees for uttering anything critical of how the beleaguered K-8 charter school is run.Union or no, Superintendent Mo Chang continues

by mike simpson / 9h 

Friedrichs v. CTA: The Road to Abood: Where Did the Supreme Court Go Wrong? - Online Library of Law & Liberty

The Road to Abood: Where Did the Supreme Court Go Wrong? - Online Library of Law & Liberty: The Road to Abood: Where Did the Supreme Court Go Wrong?With this series of posts, I return to constitutional law issues that SCOTUS will address in the 2015-16 term.  One case in particular—Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association—is hugely important and has already generated a great deal of comme

by mike simpson / 9h 

Will Ohio Flunk Failing Charter Schools? | StateImpact Ohio

Will Ohio Flunk Failing Charter Schools? | StateImpact Ohio: Will Ohio Flunk Failing Charter Schools?The head of the Office of School Choice in Ohio resigned over the weekend, after he admitted he had left some failing grades out of several charter school evaluations.Critics question whether David Hansen was purposely “scrubbing” the grades to make charter sponsors look good.Meanwhile, the status

by mike simpson / 9h hide  //  save

State watchdog agency to investigate Twin Rivers board president | The Sacramento Bee

State watchdog agency to investigate Twin Rivers board president | The Sacramento Bee: State watchdog agency to investigate Twin Rivers board presidentThe state Fair Political Practices Commission is investigating whether Twin Rivers Unified school board President Linda Fowler violated conflict-of-interest rules by accepting thousands of dollars in consulting fees from a charter school she helped

by mike simpson / 9h 

Can two federal bills finally fulfill goals of No Child Left Behind? - LA Times

Can two federal bills finally fulfill goals of No Child Left Behind? - LA Times: Can two federal bills finally fulfill goals of No Child Left Behind?The No Child Left Behind law had an ambitious goal to reform America's public schools 16 years ago: Every student, everywhere, would be academically successful by 2014.That hasn't happened, and the vast majority of schools that receive federal funds a

by mike simpson / 10h 

YESTERDAY

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 7/20/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP CORPORATE ED REFORMWhat Debate? - The Crucial VoiceThe Crucial VoiceWhat Debate? - The Crucial VoiceThe Crucial Voice: What Debate? The marketing campaign to FIX No Child Left Behind began back in January withannouncements that there would be debate.A draft of the Every Child Ready for College or Career Act of 2015 was released and many newspapers and education associations picked

by mike simpson / 23h 

Yong Zhao: Outcome vs. Process: Different Incarnations of Personalization

Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Outcome vs. Process: Different Incarnations of Personalization:

Outcome vs. Process: Different Incarnations of Personalization

There are different views of personalized learning. My advocacy for personalization has been occasionally misunderstood as supporting the narrow view of personalized learning driven by big data and learning analytics with technology or online learning in general. Below is an excerpt of a chapter from a book I coauthored with a group of teachers and school leaders: World Class Learners Bundle to be published by Corwin. Hope it helps clarify my take on personalized learning.–Yong

To personalize is to design or produce something to meet individual requirements. In education, personalization is often used in the forms of “personalized learning,” “personalized education,” or “personalized instruction.” The term personalization is often used interchangeably with individualization, and sometimes with customization. The general idea is to enable individual students to have an educational experience that meets their individual needs.

Although it is has long been recognized that individual students have different needs and high-quality education cannot be “one size fits all,” personalization in education has different meanings and realizations in practice because education has many components that can be personalized, individualized, or customized. For example, personalization can happen at the pace of learning by allowing students to learn at their own speed. Personalization can also be employed to enable students to choose when and where they learn. It can also be used in ways that allow students to have a choice of work assignments in the classroom. Furthermore, personalization is a strategy that enables students to demonstrate their learning by creating a product of their own choosing.

Generally speaking, personalization can be put into two categories: process personalization and outcome personalization. Process personalization enables students to enjoy choice in the learning process, whereas outcome personalization allows students to define the end results of their learning. Process personalization is by far the most prominent version in education today because the current education paradigm has a predetermined outcome for all students. That is, no matter how one gets there, we want everyone to get to the same place: mastery of the knowledge and skills prescribed in the authoritative curriculum or standards.

Personalization of the Learning Process

Although the outcome remains the same, the journey to the destination can be personalized to accommodate Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Outcome vs. Process: Different Incarnations of Personalization:

NEW VIDEO: How California Organizers Won Fair School Funding | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign

NEW VIDEO: How California Organizers Won Fair School Funding | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity:

NEW VIDEO: How California Organizers Won Fair School Funding

Posted on: Monday July 13th, 2015

Last year, parents, students, teachers and community members in Los Angeles achieved a huge victory for the city’s public schools: they successfully pushed the LA school board to adopt the “Equity Is Justice Resolution," which will guide the distribution of new state funding to prioritize the highest-needs students and schools. Their victory is an important step and an inspiring moment in the fight for equity and opportunity in our nation's public schools. 

The Schott Foundation for Public Education and the Community Coalition, with support from The California Endowment, are proud to release this exciting new video highlighting the Los Angeles campaign and the hundreds of dedicated parents and young people who worked to make equity the guiding principle of their city's school funding system.

This video also functions as a valuable tool for organizers in California and across the country by explaining the steps this coalition took to build their campaign and push for change with local officials. 

We hope you find this story as inspiring as we do! Enjoy the video, and please don't forget to share it with your friends and colleagues on Facebook and Twitter.

NEW VIDEO: How California Organizers Won Fair School Funding | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity:

NYC Public School Parents: How the question left out of the DOE parent survey was the most interesting of all

NYC Public School Parents: How the question left out of the DOE parent survey was the most interesting of all:

How the question left out of the DOE parent survey was the most interesting of all

More on the results of the parent survey and the question left out in Schoolbook and the NY Daily News. 

When the results of the DOE's Learning Environment Survey were released yesterday,  the administration took credit for high rates of parent satisfaction, though reporters pointed out the satisfaction rates were the same for the last three years and this year, only about half of all parents bothered to respond to the survey.
 
Yet what was most striking was the question that was left out.  This question had been asked of parents since the survey was first given: Which of the following improvements would you MOST like your school to make?  Every year since 2007,  which was the first year the survey was given, smaller classes has been the top priority of parents by far, among ten choices.

The question was included in the survey because of the insistence of parent members of the focus groups organized by Jim Liebman, then head of the Accountability office, to give feedback on the survey's design back in 2006.    This year, the DOE revised the survey without holding any focus groups at all.

If you look at the 2014 data, smaller classes were even more clearly a top priority of parents;  and either their #1 or #2 priority in all but two districts out of 32:

In 2007, parents actually wanted separate questions on each of these issues, especially as regards class size and testing, but instead DOE decided to group them together in this way.  In any event, the results have been an important source of data that could have been used if the Chancellor or the Mayor actually wanted to be responsive to parent concerns.   Unfortunately, since 2007 class sizes have increased instead.

In 2007, Bloomberg tried to obscure the responses to this question during his press conference by grouping together many other options in a new category, called "more or better programs."  I and others, including Patrick Sullivan, called him out on this naked attempt to obscure that NYC Public School Parents: How the question left out of the DOE parent survey was the most interesting of all:

Whatever you call it, bribing voters is a bad idea - LA Times

Whatever you call it, bribing voters is a bad idea - LA Times:

Whatever you call it, bribing voters is a bad idea

Perhaps the leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles will learn a lesson from the May election defeat of school board incumbent Bennett Kayser, whom they backed, by upstart Ref Rodriguez. Unfortunately, that lesson may well be that they must back up their next candidate for office by offering voters a cash prize to entice them to come to the polls.

That's the problem with the Voteria, a gimmicky lottery of sorts run by the Southwest Voter Registration Project. The organization, which works to boost voter turnout, especially among Latino voters, dangled a $25,000 prize to anyone who voted in the Kayser-Rodriguez election. Late last week it was announced that the prize went to Ivan Rojas, a 35-year-old security guard.

Rojas was the second person selected for the prize. It's noteworthy that the first threatened to call the FBI because she didn't believe the contest was legitimate. Eventually, she turned down the money when told that her name would be made public.

That's an understandable reaction. The civic act of voting for elected representatives doesn't readily mix with cash prizes and lotteries. It's true that too few people vote, especially in local elections, and more should be done to help potential voters understand what they stand to win or lose at election time. But bribing them is a bad idea; and as pure as the contest organizers' motives may have been, there is too much about the Voteria that is redolent of bribery.

After all, when every voter is automatically entered, every voter has a shot at winning, and a monetary value can be assigned to that chance. The Voteria organizers weren't promoting any particular candidate, but the Southwest Voters Registration Education Project does have a constituency — Latino voters. The organization is adept at communicating with those voters, some of whom, presumably, were on the fence about bothering to cast their ballots but did so after they heard of the contest. In this election, the Latino candidate defeated his non-Latino opponent. Voters who were aware of the prize were more likely to vote for Rodriguez by 2 to 1, according to the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.

Suppose that next time the organization offering cash payments to lucky voters is indeed pushing a particular candidate and does its outreach among voters likely to back that particular candidate. Suppose it's UTLA, for example. Or the police union, a real estate developer, a political party or anyone else. Or all of them at the same time.

Cash contests like the Voteria leave too much space for mischief and require careful examination and perhaps rule-making. That's something the Legislature should consider during the remainder of its term.

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Charter schools: Give us public money but not public scrutiny | Bob Braun's Ledger

Charter schools: Give us public money but not public scrutiny | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Charter schools: Give us public money but not public scrutiny

Gov. Chris Christie and his powerful Democratic allies–most notably US Sen. Cory Booker and South Jersey political boss George Norcross–promote charter and voucher schools as a way of avoiding the two most pressing problems facing urban public education: Chronic underfunding of the state school aid formula and oppressive racial isolation. By favoring charter schools that can help a few students, Christie, Booker, and Norcross never have to face the problem of providing all children with the constitutionally required level of schooling that is their birthright.

Charter schools are politically powerful and receive enormous amounts of private funding from both Democratic and Republican sources. Because of that political support, they have been able to avoid the kind of intense  regulatory scrutiny that in imposed on public schools, especially in places like Newark and other state-controlled districts. They also  receive preferential funding, including a shameful diversion of  an additional $37 million in public school funding diverted to charter schools this year alone.

Christie and Booker want to make Newark the charter capital of the nation. Recently, in a deal with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, the Republican governor agreed to remove the much-despised Newark superintendent, Cami Anderson, and replace her with former state Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf, a nationally-recognized champion of charter schools. Baraka has said he accepted to this “settlement” because Christie promised to bring local control to Newark after 20 years of state mismanagement. The nature of that return to local control, h0wever, depends on a 9-member committee, headed by Cerf, that is dominated by pro-charter Christie allies.  The agreement raises the question whether, in return for local control, Newark will become what Christie and Booker want–a charter school district.

On Monday, a subcommittee of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Schools, held a hearing on whether charter schools should be held to the same level of accountability as public schools. Charter school proponent–backed by the state–are resisting a proposal to require charters to under the same QSAC Charter schools: Give us public money but not public scrutiny | Bob Braun's Ledger: