Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 8/7/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

“Slave” market education reform in NOLA? #NOLAEdWarning | Cloaking Inequity

“Slave” market education reform in NOLA? #NOLAEdWarning | Cloaking Inequity: “Slave” market education reform in NOLA? #NOLAEdWarningOn August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and communities across the Gulf Coast. The destruction and displacement that followed the storm created what some considered a window of opportunity for sweeping changes in New Orleans’ public education system.

by mike simpson / 2h 

Should high school students have to 'defend' their diploma like a Ph.D? - The Hechinger Report

Should high school students have to 'defend' their diploma like a Ph.D? - The Hechinger Report: Should high school students have to ‘defend’ their diploma like a Ph.D?California’s new way of ranking school performance could open the door to portfolio assessmentsSeniors at Los Angeles High School of the Arts work on their graduation portfolios in Isabel Morales’s social studies class. Photo: Brenda

by mike simpson / 3h 

Thompson: This American Life, School Integration, & The Ultimate School Reform Excuse This Week In Education:

This Week In Education: Thompson: This American Life, School Integration, & The Ultimate School Reform Excuse: Thompson: This American Life, School Integration, & The Ultimate School Reform ExcuseFormer Pro-Publia writer Nikole Hannah-Jones, in School Segregation, the Continuing Tragedy of Ferguson, recalls of the inescapable truth that educators once acknowledged, and that we now need to

by mike simpson / 5h 

No Child Left Behind reauthorization - Baltimore Sun

No Child Left Behind reauthorization - Baltimore Sun: No Child Left Behind reauthorization The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act doesn't have a lot of fans these days. Though it received bi-partisan support when it was proposed by former President George W. Bush, it has lost support from liberals and conservatives alike and has been gutted by a patchwork of waivers given to nearly every state, Marylan

by mike simpson / 5h 

‘Teach for America’ Teachers Can Join the Union | Labor Notes

‘Teach for America’ Teachers Can Join the Union | Labor Notes: ‘Teach for America’ Teachers Can Join the UnionA National Labor Relations Board hearing officer has ruled that Teach for America teachers should be included in the union at a Detroit charter school chain.Teachers at University Prep charter schools voted May 14 on whether to unionize. UPrep relies on TFA teachers to fill about 10 percen

by mike simpson / 5h 

Kasich's charter school flap | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

John A. Tures: Kasich's charter school flap | Columbus Ledger-Enquirer: Kasich's charter school flapOhio Governor John Kasich got some good news, as he made the cut for the Fox News debate. He's also been rising in the polls. But a charter school scandal in Ohio could derail the Kasich 2016 campaign.During the 2014 election, three of Kasich's top donors were charter school operator David Brennan a

by mike simpson / 5h 

North Carolina’s step-by-step war on public education - The Washington Post

North Carolina’s step-by-step war on public education - The Washington Post: North Carolina’s step-by-step war on public educationHere is a piece by a veteran educator on the assault in North Carolina. It was written by James Hogan, a former teacher who is now a writer and a funderaiser at Davidson College aas well as a board member of Our Schools First, a local public education advocacy non-profi

by mike simpson / 5h 

Why New Yorkers shouldn’t hold their breath for real education change - The Washington Post

Why New Yorkers shouldn’t hold their breath for real education change - The Washington Post: Why New Yorkers shouldn’t hold their breath for real education changeCarol Burris is a veteran educator who was just named executive director of the nonprofit Network for Public Education’s foundation. She recently took early retirement after 15 years as principal of South Side High School in the Rockville

by mike simpson / 6h 

CURMUDGUCATION: Merit Pay Fallacies

CURMUDGUCATION: Merit Pay Fallacies: Merit Pay FallaciesCynthia Tucker Haynes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist who has hooked up with Campbell Brown's reformster-pushing website. She has done much distinguished work throughout her career, but last week she demonstrated that she doesn't understand teaching and especially not teacher merit pay.The title of the piece pretty well gives us the who

by mike simpson / 8h 

Special Issue of “Educational Researcher” Examines Value-Added Measures (Paper #1 of 9) | VAMboozled!

Special Issue of “Educational Researcher” Examines Value-Added Measures (Paper #1 of 9) | VAMboozled!: Special Issue of “Educational Researcher” Examines Value-Added Measures (Paper #1 of 9)A few months ago, the flagship journal of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) – the peer-reviewed journal titled Educational Researcher (ER) – published a “Special Issue” including nine article

by mike simpson / 8h 

Must Watch Pro-Public Education Movies – The Network For Public Education

Must Watch Pro-Public Education Movies – The Network For Public Education: Must Watch Pro-Public Education MoviesThere are few organizing tools as powerful as film. In 2010, Waiting for Superman was a shot of adrenaline in the arm of the reform movement. Financed by billionaire Phillip Anschutz’s Walden Media, the film glorified charter schools and disparaged traditional public schools.But then in

by mike simpson / 8h 

Investigation of LAUSD upholds complaints that special education falling short | 89.3 KPCC

Investigation of LAUSD upholds complaints that special education falling short | 89.3 KPCC: Investigation of LAUSD upholds complaints that special education falling shortThe Office of the Independent Monitor overseeing court-ordered improvements to Los Angeles Unified’s special education services found students still aren't getting the services they need, and it ordered the district to carry out a

by mike simpson / 8h 

A Memo To States: This Is How You Create A Teacher Shortage

A Memo To States: This Is How You Create A Teacher Shortage: A Memo To States: This Is How You Create A Teacher ShortageA handy recipe for a teacher shortage like the one in Kansas.It's back-to-school time in Kansas, and kids are starting to trickle back into school hallways. But when these students arrive at their classrooms, they may not find a teacher standing at the front. Kansas is suffering

by mike simpson / 8h 

Marco Rubio On Common Core: The Federal Government Will 'Force It Down Our Throats' - Forbes

Marco Rubio On Common Core: The Federal Government Will 'Force It Down Our Throats' - Forbes: Marco Rubio On Common Core: The Federal Government Will 'Force It Down Our Throats'The Republican presidential candidates from Florida tangled over the issue of Common Core State Standards for curriculum at the prime-time GOP debate in Cleveland on Thursday. Senator Marco Rubio challenged his one-time men

by mike simpson / 9h 

Board votes to reopen downtown's Washington Elementary | Sacramento News - KCRA Home

Board votes to reopen downtown's Washington Elementary | Sacramento News - KCRA Home: Board votes to reopen downtown's Washington ElementarySchool closed due to budget cutsSACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —The board of education in Sacramento has voted to reopen Washington Elementary School for the 2016-2017 academic year.The school in downtown Sacramento was one of seven campuses to close due to budget

by mike simpson / 9h 

Educating for Democracy:What if all schools were charter | Joel Shatzky

Educating for Democracy:What if all schools were charter | Joel Shatzky: Educating for Democracy:What if all schools were charter There's a comment attributed to Einstein: "The sign of insanity is when you do the same thing over and over again and expect different results." I wonder what this eminent thinker would have to say about someone who not only repeats the same flawed procedure b

by mike simpson / 9h 

Jon Stewart's Last 'Bulls**t' Rant On 'The Daily Show'

Jon Stewart's Last 'Bulls**t' Rant On 'The Daily Show'"So I say to you tonight, friends. The best defense against bullsh*t is vigilance. So if you smell something, say something."

by mike simpson / 9h 

Carol Burris Joins NPE as Executive Director | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris Joins NPE as Executive Sirector | Diane Ravitch's blog: Carol Burris Joins NPE as Executive Director Great news from NPE!When award winning principal Carol Burris announced that she was retiring early to dedicate all of her energies to “fighting the assault on our public schools and our teachers,” many wondered how and where she would continue that fight.There is no need to wonder any

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 8/6/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP CORPORATE ED REFORMJesse Hagopian & Pedro Noguera Take on the Testocracy in Televised Debate: Is public ed broken beyond repair?Jesse Hagopian and Pedro Noguera Take on the Testocracy in Nationally Televised Debate: “Is public education in the U.S. broken beyond repair?” | I AM AN EDUCATOR: Jesse Hagopian and Pedro Noguera Take on the Testocracy in Nationally Televised Debate:

by mike simpson / 1d 

“Slave” market education reform in NOLA? #NOLAEdWarning | Cloaking Inequity

“Slave” market education reform in NOLA? #NOLAEdWarning | Cloaking Inequity:

“Slave” market education reform in NOLA? #NOLAEdWarning

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and communities across the Gulf Coast. The destruction and displacement that followed the storm created what some considered a window of opportunity for sweeping changes in New Orleans’ public education system. The state-run Recovery School District assumed control of the vast majority of public schools in Orleans Parish and turned their operation over to charter school management organizations, with the autonomy to recruit new teachers and educational leaders. Veteran teachers in New Orleans were fired en masse. Neighborhood public schools were closed and “choice” among privately managed charter schools defined the new landscape. In 2014-2015, New Orleans became the nation’s first all-charter school district and cities across the nation have begun to adopt the “New Orleans model” of urban school reform.”

The purpose of the Ten-Year Community-Centered New Orleans Education Research Conference was to prompt a national conversation among prominent urban education researchers and community members most intimately affected by such reform to illuminate effects on the ground. Does research evidence and experiential knowledge suggest the New Orleans model is a guide for cities nationally? Or do the effects on poor and working-class communities of color suggest an alternative policy future for urban public schools? Given ongoing concerns over racial and economic injustice, retrenchment of civil rights, and educational inequity, the ten-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina presents an ideal, even catalytic, moment to reflect on the progress of recent policy initiatives. Gathering scholars and community-based stakeholders from cities nationwide, this conference will enable careful and collective consideration of the evidence in charting the educational future of our children and the realization of freedom dreams that have inspired previous generations. Kristen Buras, Ph.D.

This past week I had the opportunity to gather with education stakeholders from across the nation in New Orleans at “Slave” market education reform in NOLA? #NOLAEdWarning | Cloaking Inequity:

Should high school students have to 'defend' their diploma like a Ph.D? - The Hechinger Report

Should high school students have to 'defend' their diploma like a Ph.D? - The Hechinger Report:

Should high school students have to ‘defend’ their diploma like a Ph.D?

California’s new way of ranking school performance could open the door to portfolio assessments

Seniors at Los Angeles High School of the Arts work on their graduation portfolios in Isabel Morales’s social studies class. Photo: Brenda Iasevoli

LOS ANGELES — Looking smart in a blue button-down shirt, Jorge Magana, 18, zipped through a PowerPoint presentation with the confidence of a Fortune 500 CEO.

Seated in front of Magana in a classroom at Los Angeles High School of the Arts was a panel of three judges: the school’s assistant principal, a school coordinator, and a former student. The occasion was his senior defense. Magana was trying to convince the panel that he was ready to graduate.

He had 45 minutes to present a portfolio of three “artifacts,” one academic, one artistic, and one of his own choosing. The panel grilled him: Can you describe your research process? Which obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them? How will the skills you learned help with your future plans?

Portfolio assessments like this one, which look a lot like doctoral dissertation defenses, are on the rise in California. The practice, touted by educators nationwide as a proven path to college success, has largely been squeezed out by standardized tests, the quicker, less-costly measure of student performance. But the state’s reliance on test scores to rank school performance is about to change, and educators see an opportunity.

Since 1999, California has primarily tied school rankings to test scores, using the Academic Performance Index (API). Since its repeal in July 2013, the three-digit ranking has been undergoing revision. On the new API, which will debut in the 2015-2016 school year, test scores will account for only 60 percent of a school’s ranking. The other 40 percent will factor in graduation data and “proof of readiness for college and career.” Portfolio assessment can supply this data. The tricky part is convincing skeptics that these assessments are reliable.Should high school students have to 'defend' their diploma like a Ph.D? - The Hechinger Report:

Thompson: This American Life, School Integration, & The Ultimate School Reform Excuse This Week In Education:

This Week In Education: Thompson: This American Life, School Integration, & The Ultimate School Reform Excuse:

Thompson: This American Life, School Integration, & The Ultimate School Reform Excuse

Former Pro-Publia writer Nikole Hannah-Jones, in School Segregation, the Continuing Tragedy of Ferguson, recalls of the inescapable truth that educators once acknowledged, and that we now need to remember. Children who attend the most segregated schools, Hannah-Jones reminds us, “are more likely to be poor. They are more likely to go to jail. They are less likely to graduate from high school, to go to college, and to finish if they go. They are more likely to live in segregated neighborhoods as adults.” Moreover, “their children are more likely to also attend segregated schools, repeating the cycle.”

Contributing to a continuing series by ProPublica and the New York Times on segregation, Hannah-Jones reports that “over the past 15 years …. the number of so-called apartheid schools — schools whose white population is 1 percent or less — has shot up. The achievement gap, greatly narrowed during the height of school desegregation, has widened.”

The national market-driven, test-driven school reform movement has downplayed the damage done by segregation. It’s choice-driven policies have actually increased the separation of students by race and class. And, This American Life’s The Problem We All Live With, featuring Hannah-Jones, begins with a mention of the research which explains why NCLB-type reforms have failed to improve schools serving neighborhoods with a critical mass of families from generational poverty. In doing so, it properly articulates the question that must be tackled before school improvement and other policies can promote racial justice and economic equality.

Accountability-driven reformers proclaimed their movement as the civil rights campaign of the 21^stcentury, but they haven’t found a viable path towards school improvement. Competition-driven reformers derided traditional educators, who embrace socio-economic integration, early education, and full-service community schools, for allegedly making “excuses” and shifting attention away from the supposed real issue – bad teaching. But, This American Life has it right; reformers using competition-driven policies to improve instruction within the four walls of the classroom are distracting attention from the true problem.

One of the biggest opportunity costs of the instruction-driven, competition-driven reform movement is that it shifted energy and resources away from desegregation.  Hannah-Jones reminds us that in 1983, St. Louis began “the nation’s most successful metro-wide desegregation program.” The desegregation experiment wasn’t perfect, but “test scores for 8th and 10th grade transfer students rose. The transfer students were more likely to graduate and go onto college. … In surveys, white students overwhelmingly said they’d benefited from the opportunity to be educated alongside black students.”

But, as Amy Stuart Wells documented, the plug was pulled on the program and St. Louis became “the epicenter of where people tried to grapple with race, and failed miserably.” Then, in 2009, the state This Week In Education: Thompson: This American Life, School Integration, & The Ultimate School Reform Excuse:

No Child Left Behind reauthorization - Baltimore Sun

No Child Left Behind reauthorization - Baltimore Sun:

No Child Left Behind reauthorization

 The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act doesn't have a lot of fans these days. Though it received bi-partisan support when it was proposed by former President George W. Bush, it has lost support from liberals and conservatives alike and has been gutted by a patchwork of waivers given to nearly every state, Maryland included, that allow them to avoid various elements of the law. It did not achieve its goal of ensuring that all students were performing at grade level in reading and math by 2014, and it has become enmeshed in the growing backlash against federal control of education, which has traditionally been a state and local matter.

Years after it expired, Congress finally appears interested in renewing and overhauling the law. Both the House and Senate have passed new versions, but both have real flaws. The changes may not have a drastic impact on Maryland — thanks in no small part to the efforts of Sen. Barbara Mikulski to preserve, for the time being, Title I funding — but they represent a real and worrisome step back from what was the core idea of the law in the first place, which was that all children, no matter where they live, whether they are a disadvantaged minority or disabled, should be given the same opportunity to learn. Giving states flexibility on how to achieve that is well and good, but allowing states to ignore the goal isn't.

Under either the House or Senate version of the reauthorization, some notable aspects of NCLB will stay. Students will still be required to take standardized tests in reading and math and in some grades, science, and districts will still have to report the results. But the strictly defined accountability measures of the federal law would be wiped out in either bill. NCLB was overly formulaic — it defined a "failing" school based on whether it made adequate yearly progress toward improving achievement overall and for subgroups like African-American students or those with limited English proficiency, but the results didn't always make sense in practice. Schools where test scores were improving could be labeled "failing" if they weren't meeting the law's arbitrary targets and thus subjected to drastic restructuring requirements, even though they were headed in the right direction. And some schools were deemed to be failing even though they generally performed well.

That needed to change, but both versions of the reform legislation, and particularly the House bill, go too far in the opposite direction. They not only give states flexibility to decide what to do about schools that fail to make progress, they don't require the states to do anything at all. That likely won't matter much in Maryland, where the idea of accountability was rooted long before NCLB. State officials expect to move forward with tests tied to the rigorous Common Core standards and to use the results to hold schools and, to some extent, teachers accountable. But in other states, where the Common Core has led to a backlash against federal control over education policy (the fact that Common Core was not a federal initiative notwithstanding), it's almost certain to disadvantage students who need the most help.

Of more concern is what the bills would do to federal education funding. The House version contains an alarming provision that would shift Title I money to schools that serve a smaller number of poor students through a "funding follows the student" policy. We certainly support the idea that parents should be able to No Child Left Behind reauthorization - Baltimore Sun:

‘Teach for America’ Teachers Can Join the Union | Labor Notes

‘Teach for America’ Teachers Can Join the Union | Labor Notes:

‘Teach for America’ Teachers Can Join the Union

A National Labor Relations Board hearing officer has ruled that Teach for America teachers should be included in the union at a Detroit charter school chain.

Teachers at University Prep charter schools voted May 14 on whether to unionize. UPrep relies on TFA teachers to fill about 10 percent of its classrooms, a figure that’s similar to urban charter schools in other cities.

But when some TFA teachers emerged as leaders in the union drive, Detroit 90/90, the company that manages UPrep, challenged their right to vote.

In a June hearing, the company argued that TFA teachers’ minimum two-year commitment to the school made us “temporary service workers” rather than “professional employees”—more like long-term substitutes than permanent teachers.

“It was such an obvious attempt to divide and conquer,” said Alex Moore, a Teach for America teacher and unabashed union supporter. “[The company] loved us when we were cheap, docile workers, but when we spoke up and organized, they wanted to sweep us under the rug.”

The hearing officer found on July 31 that TFA teachers are indeed professional employees—and thus have the right to be part of the teachers’ bargaining unit.

The ruling noted that TFA teachers share the same job responsibilities, evaluations, and contracts as other teachers in the district. Our minimum two-year commitment is irrelevant, given that the employer offers only one-year commitments to all its teachers.

The decision doesn’t formally set a legal precedent for other schools. Still, it’s a good sign for union drives across the country. Charter teachers are organizing in such cities as Philadelphia and Los Angeles—often in schools with sizable TFA contingents.

PRECARIOUS TEACHING

UPrep is the largest charter school district in Michigan. It consists of seven schools, 200 teachers, and more than 3,000 students. Teachers there began organizing in spring 2014.

Charter schools, which have grown rapidly in Detroit, are publicly funded, privately managed, and largely non-union.

Like charter school teachers across the country, UPrep teachers work under at-will contracts—meaning they can be fired at any time, without explanation—that are renewed every year. So they don’t know until June whether or not they’ll have a job in August.

This perpetual uncertainty, along with stolen wages and a lack of support from administrators, led teachers to reach out to American Federation of Teachers (AFT) organizers in Michigan.

“It’s hard to imagine a career for yourself in a school district when you could be fired at any time at the whim of an administrator,” said Jasmine Singleton, who taught first grade at UPrep during the campaign. “We need some stability in our work as educators, so we can focus on the children.”

UPREP FIGHT CONTINUES

Unfortunately, the union lost the election at UPrep by a few votes. Since long-term substitute teachers’ ballots were found ineligible, the TFA ballots wouldn’t have been enough to sway the outcome of this election, so they weren’t counted.

However, the NLRB is still considering a litany of unfair labor practice charges filed against Detroit 90/90 that could invalidate the election and result in a new one being scheduled.

The company ran an aggressive and well-funded anti-union campaign, beginning even before the teachers filed for election. It hired union-busting consultants, held captive-audience meetings, intimidated teachers, and ultimately threatened that if

- See more at: http://www.labornotes.org/2015/08/teach-america-teachers-can-join-union#sthash.APn8trXC.dpuf