Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/24/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Teacher/Substitute Shortage a Strain in Washington State

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Teacher/Substitute Shortage a Strain in Washington State: "Teacher/Substitute Shortage a Strain in Washington StateOSPI has released their survey and its subsequent findings about teacher shortages in Washington State.The surveyThe findings.From the survey:This survey was distributed on November 11, 2015, to public school principals in Washington by the Associ

by mike simpson / 31min 

Privateers and Profiteers in Our Schools - Living in Dialogue

Privateers and Profiteers in Our Schools - Living in Dialogue: Privateers and Profiteers in Our SchoolsBy Anthony Cody.I was recently invited to speak at a conference in another state. Since I could not make it there in person, I recorded my thoughts on this video.Here is the text of my remarks:Privateers and Profiteers: How and Why are they Undermining Public Education?As we near the end of the O

by mike simpson / 5h 

ESEA Deal Opens (Trap?) Door for Use of Noncognitive Measures in Accountability - Politics K-12 - Education Week

ESEA Deal Opens (Trap?) Door for Use of Noncognitive Measures in Accountability - Politics K-12 - Education Week: Cross-posted from the Rules for Engagement blogBy Evie BladBoosters of school climate, student engagement, and social-emotional learning should be closely watching the debate over replacing the federal No Child Left Behind law with a shiny, new version of the Elementary and Secondary E

by mike simpson / 5h 

National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) Report on States’ Teacher Evaluation Systemshing | VAMboozled!

National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) Report on States’ Teacher Evaluation Systemshing | VAMboozled!: National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) Report on States’ Teacher Evaluation SystemshingThe controversial National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) — created by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, funded (in part) by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and “part of a coalit

by mike simpson / 6h 

Teaching Vacancies and Difficult-to-Staff Teaching Positions in Public Schools

Teaching Vacancies and Difficult-to-Staff Teaching Positions in Public Schools: Teaching Vacancies and Difficult-to-Staff Teaching Positions in Public SchoolsThis Statistics in Brief describes the percentages of public schools that reported that they had teaching vacancies and subject areas with difficult-to-staff teaching positions in the 1999–2000, 2003–04, 2007–08, and 2011–12 school years.Down

by mike simpson / 6h 

How ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become — from a child development expert - The Washington Post

How ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become — from a child development expert - The Washington Post: How ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become — from a child development expertNancy Carlsson-Paige is an early childhood development expert who has been at the forefront of the debate on how best to educate — and not educate — the youngest students. She is a professor emerita of educat

by mike simpson / 6h 

The Big Sleazy: All-Charter “Achievement Districts”

Charter Chains: Eager to Turn SC Kids into Cash Cows.  : The Big Sleazy:All-Charter “Achievement Districts”After battling shamelessly for 20 years, SC policymakers are under court-order to do“something” for our poorest students.Momentum is building to turn SC kids over to parasitic charter chains as part of a statewide “ACHIEVEMENT DISTRICT”, like the one in New Orleans.Once you:CLOSE neighborhood

by mike simpson / 6h 

Teacher Evaluations Fall Off The Education ‘Reform’ Agenda

11/24/2015 – Teacher Evaluations Fall Off The Education ‘Reform’ Agenda: Teacher Evaluations Fall Off The Education ‘Reform’ AgendaTHIS WEEK: Opt Outs Hit Half Million … Teachers Need Affordable Housing … NCLB For Higher Ed … High School Student Activism … States Take Over EducationTOP STORYTeacher Evaluations Fall Off The Education ‘Reform’ AgendaBy Jeff Bryant“Democratic presidential candidate H

by mike simpson / 7h 

Book Review: A Teacher’s Tale by John Thompson

Book Review: A Teacher’s Tale by John Thompson: Book Review: A Teacher’s Tale by John ThompsonEvery so often, I will pick up a book that illuminates my own experiences, opens my eyes to the truth behind those events, and often helps me put a name to whatever I have been muddling through on my own. Oklahoma City educator John Thompson has written one such book.Prior to downloading the Kindle versio

by mike simpson / 7h 

CURMUDGUCATION: MA: How To Gut a School District

CURMUDGUCATION: MA: How To Gut a School District: MA: How To Gut a School DistrictBack in April of 2014, Jim Peyser was managing director of the NewSchools Venture Fund, a group set up to support "venture philanthropy" in the charter school world with grant-funneling, consulting, lobbying, etc. Think of them as bag men and enforcers for hedge funders interested in making a charter school

by mike simpson / 7h 

New York Superintendents call for an end to evaluating teachers on standardized test results - Wait What?

New York Superintendents call for an end to evaluating teachers on standardized test results - Wait What?: New York Superintendents call for an end to evaluating teachers on standardized test resultsLabeling children on the basis of unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory standardized tests is bad public policy.  Evaluating teachers on the scores their students get on those tests is equally wrong

by mike simpson / 8h 

New Push to Hire Male Teachers of Color - WSJ

New Push to Hire Male Teachers of Color - WSJ: New Push to Hire Male Teachers of ColorNew York City initiative aims to have teaching staff better reflect student populationNew York City is rolling out a $16.5 million initiative to recruit and retain nonwhite male teachers so that its teaching staff better reflects its student population.The effort, led by the city’s Young Men’s Initiative, a group

by mike simpson / 8h 

Arne Duncan Pinpoints Where Schools Fail - WSJ

Arne Duncan Pinpoints Where Schools Fail - WSJ: Arne Duncan Pinpoints Where Schools FailThe departing secretary of education says students aren’t getting the education the U.S. economy needs them to haveArne Duncan has been pushing the cause of education all his career. And as he prepares to step down as education secretary after seven years, he is asking CEOs to join him in the fight.In today’s g

by mike simpson / 8h 

Local School Councils Persist, Inject Democracy into Chicago Public Schools | janresseger

Local School Councils Persist, Inject Democracy into Chicago Public Schools | janresseger: Local School Councils Persist, Inject Democracy into Chicago Public SchoolsAfter today, this blog will take a short break for the rest of this holiday week and return on Monday, November 30.  Good wishes for Thanksgiving!In 1988, after the sudden death of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, the Illinois Legisla

by mike simpson / 8h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago teachers show strong, united, and ready to strike if needed

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago teachers show strong, united, and ready to strike if needed: Chicago teachers show strong, united, and ready to strike if neededWhat a great night! Thousands of Chicago teachers and community activists packed Grant Park last night in a show of strength and unity reminiscent of the days leading up to the 2012 teacher strike. Check out DNAInfo for best tweeted

by mike simpson / 8h 

US falls behind other nations in the global knowledge economy, says 46-country report - The Hechinger Report

US falls behind other nations in the global knowledge economy, says 46-country report - The Hechinger Report: US falls behind other nations in the global knowledge economy, says 46-country reportFewer Americans are going to preschool and college compared to other nationsThe United States continues to fall behind internationally in producing a college-educated workforce as other nations send more o

by mike simpson / 8h 

The Broken Chain of Student Data Security » Missouri Education Watchdog

The Broken Chain of Student Data Security » Missouri Education Watchdog: The Broken Chain of Student Data Security2015 was not a good year for student data privacy. Massive exposure on three levels has shown that no one is truly capable of protecting the data they gather on American students.Federal Student Data At Serious RiskAt a House hearing on Oversight and Government Reform held on 11-17-15,

by mike simpson / 8h 

Goodbye, No Child Left Behind : NPR Ed : NPR

Goodbye, No Child Left Behind : NPR Ed : NPR: Goodbye, No Child Left BehindAfter a long stalemate, a bipartisan team of congressional negotiators has agreed to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The law, currently known as No Child Left Behind, sends roughly $14 billion a year to schools that serve mostly low-income students.Here's what we know about the rough agreement. First, a

by mike simpson / 8h 

If we are to get Goldman Sachs out of ESEA, we will have to be the ones to do it. | Fred Klonsky

If we are to get Goldman Sachs out of ESEA, we will have to be the ones to do it. | Fred Klonsky: If we are to get Goldman Sachs out of ESEA, we will have to be the ones to do it.-Bev JohnsIf we are to remove/change Goldman Sachs Pay for Success in S. 1177, we have to do it.The National groups to which we belong have decided to do nothing.The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) general

by mike simpson / 8h 

My Best Resource for Historical Facts About American Education: LINK FIXED! | Diane Ravitch's blog

My Best Resource for Historical Facts About American Education: LINK FIXED! | Diane Ravitch's blog: My Best Resource for Historical Facts About American EducationWhen I was a young historian, back in the 1970s, I would occasionally search for a fact about American education in the nineteenth or early twentieth century to help me write an article or book. There was no Internet. I wasn’t sure which

by mike simpson / 9h 

A New ESEA: A Cheat Sheet on What the Deal Means for Teachers - Teacher Beat - Education Week

A New ESEA: A Cheat Sheet on What the Deal Means for Teachers - Teacher Beat - Education Week: A New ESEA: A Cheat Sheet on What the Deal Means for TeachersMy colleague Alyson Klein has been working double duty to bring you all the details on the bill that will replace the No Child Left Behind Act.(Quick refresher on how this works. Both the House and Senate have passed their own versions. To iron

by mike simpson / 9h 

Teachers Evaluating Teachers: Where PAR Programs Thrive - NEA Today

Teachers Evaluating Teachers: Where PAR Programs Thrive - NEA Today: Teachers Evaluating Teachers: Where PAR Programs ThriveIf there is one thing that staunch union members and steadfast school district officials agree on, it’s this: Recruitment and retention of good teachers is key to operating successful schools. The Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) program is proof.Kathy Castle is president of

by mike simpson / 9h 

More Proof That American Teachers Are Underpaid And Deserve More Respect

More Proof That American Teachers Are Underpaid And Deserve More Respect: More Proof That American Teachers Are Underpaid And Deserve More RespectJust another reason to appreciate these superheroes. Here's one more indication that American teachers work really, really hard -- and don't make nearly enough. An analysis released Tuesday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development lo

by mike simpson / 9h 

The Global Search for Education: Bring on the Change | Shanghai Daily

The Global Search for Education: Bring on the Change | Shanghai Daily: The Global Search for Education: Bring on the Change“We have to keep remembering our purpose. In education it is to grow people and to help society evolve.” — Peter SengeAT the IB Heads World Conference in The Hague, I talked to Peter Senge, the renowned expert on systems, business management and learning, and senior lecturer a

by mike simpson / 9h 

California’s Support for K-12 Education Ranks Low by Almost Any Measure - California Budget & Policy Center

Education - California Budget & Policy Center: California’s Support for K-12 Education Ranks Low by Almost Any MeasureThis fact sheet shows that California K-12 spending lags the nation using nearly any measure of school funding. California ranks 42nd among all states and the District Columbia in K-12 spending per student, based on a new Budget Center analysis that adjusts the most recent spen

by mike simpson / 9h 

Study analyzes NAEP, Common Core math alignment | eSchool News | eSchool News

Study analyzes NAEP, Common Core math alignment | eSchool News | eSchool News: Study analyzes NAEP, Common Core math alignmentPanel urges addition of more math content to NAEP math framework upon next revisionA new study of the math alignment between the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), adopted by most states, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the longtime barometer of

by mike simpson / 10h 

YESTERDAY

Choking students out of school is never acceptable - The Hechinger Report

Choking students out of school is never acceptable - The Hechinger Report: Choking students out of school is never acceptableBrutality does not teach accountability, on camera or offW ORLEANS — Only people who believe that children are uneducable or not even children would slam, choke, jail and expel their non-compliance. When you believe all children can learn, you search for lessons that incite

by mike simpson / 19h 

Admissions Quota Proposed in Brooklyn School Rezoning - The New York Times

Admissions Quota Proposed in Brooklyn School Rezoning - The New York Times: Admissions Quota Proposed in Brooklyn School RezoningResponding to concerns that a plan to redraw two Brooklyn school zoneswould fill an elementary school with affluent white children that currently serves mostly low-income minority children, Education Department staff members said on Monday that students receiving free or

by mike simpson / 19h 

Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns: The Backstory, Part I | deutsch29

Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns: The Backstory, Part I | deutsch29: Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns: The Backstory, Part IAnn Marie CorgillOn November 20, 2015, I drove from southern Louisiana to central Alabama in order to extensively interview Ann Marie Corgill, the 2014-15 Alabama Teacher of the Year who abruptly resigned on October 30, 2015.The interview lasted over four hours. I decid

by mike simpson / 20h hide  //  save

Happy Thanksgiving | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn

Happy Thanksgiving | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn: Happy Thanksgiving“A lot of people thought it was fiction and this is all real stuff. I had visited my friends during the Thanksgiving break, Ray and Alice, who lived in this abandoned church. They were teachers at a high school I went to just down the road in the little town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts.And a friend of mine and I decided to help t

by mike simpson / 22h 

In exchange for local flexibility, accountability plans will require work | EdSource

In exchange for local flexibility, accountability plans will require work | EdSource: In exchange for local flexibility, accountability plans will require workI have a thought for school district staff, board members and others characterizing the process for developing Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs) as too time-consuming, tedious and cumbersome.Quit your belly-aching!Districts and othe

by mike simpson / 23h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/23/15

CORPORATE ED REFORMTruth For America: New alum testimonials about @TeachForAmerica | Cloaking InequityTruth For America: New alum testimonials about @TeachForAmerica | Cloaking Inequity: Truth For America: New alum testimonials about @TeachForAmericaI received this open letter to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) from a Teach For America alum. She was assigned to teach special educat

by mike simpson / 1d 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Teacher/Substitute Shortage a Strain in Washington State

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Teacher/Substitute Shortage a Strain in Washington State: "

Teacher/Substitute Shortage a Strain in Washington State

OSPI has released their survey and its subsequent findings about teacher shortages in Washington State.

The survey

The findings.

From the survey:

This survey was distributed on November 11, 2015, to public school principals in Washington by the Association of Washington School Principals. As of the date of this report, 733 principals have responded of the estimated 2,100 principals, for a return rate of 35%. The survey was developed by OSPI, the Rural Education Center, PESB, AWSP, and ESD representatives. It was piloted with the Elementary School Principals’ Board of AWSP.

The first question sets the stage:

In fall 2015, were you able to employ all of your needed classroom teacher positions with fully-certified teachers that met the job qualifications (not including individuals with emergency certificates)? 

The answer was yes but only by 55.3% versus no at 44.8%.

To another question about "your school's ability to hire candidates for your teaching openings," 23.8% said they were in "crisis mode - We cannot find qualified certificated candidates."  (The "struggling but getting by mode"category was 68.9% and the "doing fine, no difficulty finding candidates" was 7.2%.)

 The most difficult category to find certificated teachers was - no surprise - Special Education by far.  The second most difficult category to fill was Seattle Schools Community Forum: Teacher/Substitute Shortage a Strain in Washington State: "





Big Education Ape: Teaching Vacancies and Difficult-to-Staff Teaching Positions in Public Schools http://bit.ly/1OfiOpg

Privateers and Profiteers in Our Schools - Living in Dialogue

Privateers and Profiteers in Our Schools - Living in Dialogue:

Privateers and Profiteers in Our Schools

By Anthony Cody.

I was recently invited to speak at a conference in another state. Since I could not make it there in person, I recorded my thoughts on this video.

Here is the text of my remarks:

Privateers and Profiteers: How and Why are they Undermining Public Education?

As we near the end of the Obama administration, it is a good time to take a closr look at what has happened to public education over the past seven years.

Some very powerful people have used money and the political influence that money buys to undermine and set the stage for the elimination of public education as we have known it for the past 100 years.

To be sure public education has always been flawed, but there was an aspiration in what the Washington state supreme court recently called “common schools,” that we should have schools funded and governed by citizens, that serve all members of our communities. That social compact is in the process of being ripped up by people who believe that in the absence of a profit motive, public institutions are incapable of innovation.

How is this being done?

There are two major thrusts under way. The first project is to transfer tax dollars out of public schools and into private schools, parochial schools and semi-private charters. Organizations like the Gates, Walton and Broad Foundations have promoted charter schools as the way to “break the public school monopoly.” Charter schools will insist they are public, but any time there is a legal conflict, they will state over and over again that they are private entities. In California, charter operators go to their authorizing public agency only once every several years for a perfunctory renewal. Only in cases of gross malfeasance is a charter ever revoked. Other than this, public oversight is nil, which is one reason a recent report found that nearly $4 billion in federal funds have disappeared into a “black hole” of fraudulent charter schools – some of which took millions of dollars and never even opened their doors. And these schools divert scarce public funding, Privateers and Profiteers in Our Schools - Living in Dialogue:

ESEA Deal Opens (Trap?) Door for Use of Noncognitive Measures in Accountability - Politics K-12 - Education Week

ESEA Deal Opens (Trap?) Door for Use of Noncognitive Measures in Accountability - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Cross-posted from the Rules for Engagement blog

By Evie Blad

Boosters of school climate, student engagement, and social-emotional learning should be closely watching the debate over replacing the federal No Child Left Behind law with a shiny, new version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

That's because a late-stage draft for the proposed bill, which is due up soon for votes in both chambers of Congress, calls for states to incorporate factors beyond standardized test scores into their accountability systems.

But is that putting the noncognitive cart before the horse? In the past, big-name researchers of traits like grit, persistence, and growth mindsets have all said such factors should not be measured for accountability purposes, at least until more sophisticated measures can be developed. It's an issue worthy of further exploration.

The proposed ESEA bill would give states big discretion on accountability.

If you haven't been reading the amazing, comprehensive coverage of my colleagues at Education Week's Politics K-12, I recommend you check it out (as soon as you finish reading this post, that is). Politics K-12 posted a great cheat sheet this morning, breaking down what we know about the proposed new ESEA.

That post includes a link to draft language of the bill, which says state accountability systems would be required to include "not less than one indicator of school quality or student success that allows for meaningful differentiation in school performance and is valid, reliable, comparable, and statewide, which may include measures of - (I) Student engagement; (II) Educator engagement; (III) Student access to and completion of advanced coursework; (IV) Postsecondary readiness; (V) School climate and safety; and (VI) any other indicator the state chooses that meets the requirements of this clause."

That seems pretty broad. And it's not unreasonable to assume that states could use the "any other indicator" language to support inclusion of students' social and emotional skills, grit, or growth mindsets in their accountability models. Under a unique local-level waiver from the current version of No Child Left Behind, a group of California districts is developing a system that does just that.

This is a big win for 'whole child' advocates, right?

It's easy to see why some would frame it that way. Some education leaders and policy folks have argued for years that test scores provide too narrow a view of school success and ignore all of the hard work teachers must do to nurture the non-academic traits students need to succeed in school and in life outside of the classroom. Recently, some philanthropy groups have funded work to develop new measures for these traits, arguing that, in education, what's not counted doesn't count.

But some may also argue that the proposed new federal education bill may encourage states to judge schools with flawed measures.

That's because researchers who've popularized this work have consistently warned that current measures of student traits are imprecise, imperfect, and subject to all kinds of biases. Or, as researchers Angela Duckworth and David Yeager put it in a May essay "perfectly unbiased, unfakeable, and error-free measures are an ideal, not a reality."

Duckworth, a University of Pennsylvania associate professor of psychology known for her research on grit, and Yeager, ESEA Deal Opens (Trap?) Door for Use of Noncognitive Measures in Accountability - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) Report on States’ Teacher Evaluation Systemshing | VAMboozled!

National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) Report on States’ Teacher Evaluation Systemshing | VAMboozled!:

National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) Report on States’ Teacher Evaluation Systemshing

The controversial National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) — created by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, funded (in part) by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and “part of a coalition for ‘a better orchestrated agenda’ for accountability, choice, and using test scores to drive the evaluation of teachers (see here; see also other instances of controversy here and here) — recently issued a 106 page document report titled: “State of the States 2015: Evaluating Teaching, Leading and Learning.” In this report, they present “the most comprehensive and up-to-date policy trends on how states [plus DC] are evaluating teachers” (p. i). The report also provides similar information about how principals are also being evaluated across states, but given the focus of this blog, I focus only on the information they offer regarding states’ teacher evaluation systems.

I want to underscore that this is, indeed, the most comprehensive and up-to-date report capturing what states are currently doing in terms of their teacher evaluation policies and systems; however, I would not claim all of the data included within are entirely accurate, although this is understandable given how very difficult it is to be comprehensive and remain up-to-date on this topic, especially across all 50 states (plus DC). Therefore, do consume the factual data included within this report as potentially incorrect, and certainly imperfect.

I also want to bring attention to the many figures included within this report. Many should find these of interest and use, again, given likely/understandable errors and inconsistencies. The language around these figures, as well as much of the other text littered throughout this document, however, should be more critically consumed, in context, and primarily given the original source of the report (i.e., the NCTQ — see above). In other words, while the figures may prove to be useful, the polemics around them are likely of less value…unless, of course, you want to read/analyze a good National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) Report on States’ Teacher Evaluation Systemshing | VAMboozled!:

Teaching Vacancies and Difficult-to-Staff Teaching Positions in Public Schools

Teaching Vacancies and Difficult-to-Staff Teaching Positions in Public Schools:
Teaching Vacancies and Difficult-to-Staff Teaching Positions in Public Schools

This Statistics in Brief describes the percentages of public schools that reported that they had teaching vacancies and subject areas with difficult-to-staff teaching positions in the 1999–2000, 2003–04, 2007–08, and 2011–12 school years.
Teaching Vacancies and Difficult-to-Staff Teaching Positions in Public Schools: 

• Download, view and print the report as a pdf file.  (839KB)

How ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become — from a child development expert - The Washington Post

How ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become — from a child development expert - The Washington Post:

How ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become — from a child development expert

Nancy Carlsson-Paige is an early childhood development expert who has been at the forefront of the debate on how best to educate — and not educate — the youngest students. She is a professor emerita of education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Ma., where she taught teachers for more than 30 years and was a founder of the university’s Center for Peaceable Schools. She is also a founding member of a nonprofit called Defending the Early Years, which commissions research about early childhood education and advocates for sane policies for young children.

Carlsson-Paige is author of “Taking Back Childhood.” The mother of two artist sons, Matt and Kyle Damon, she is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the Legacy Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps for work over several decades on behalf of children and families. She was just given the Deborah Meier award by the nonprofit National Center for Fair and Open Testing.

In her speech accepting the award (named after the renowned educator Deborah Meier), Carlsson-Paige describes what has happened in the world of early childhood education in the current era of high-stakes testing, saying, “Never in my wildest dreams could I have foreseen the situation we find ourselves in today.” Here’s the speech, which I am publishing with permission:

 Thank you FairTest for this Deborah Meier Hero in Education Award. FairTest does such great advocacy and education around fair and just testing practices. This award carries the name of one of my heroes in education, Deborah Meier—she’s a force for justice and democracy in education. I hope that every time this award is given, it will allow us to once again pay tribute to Deb. Also, I feel privileged to be accepting this honor alongside Lani Guinier.

When I was invited to be here tonight, I thought about the many people who work for justice and equity in education who could also be standing here. So I am thinking of all of them now and I accept this award on their behalf — all the educators dedicated to children and what’s fair and best for them.

It’s wonderful to see all of you here — so many family and friends, 

How ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become — from a child development expert - The Washington Post:

The Big Sleazy: All-Charter “Achievement Districts”

Charter Chains: Eager to Turn SC Kids into Cash Cows.  :

The Big Sleazy:
All-Charter “Achievement Districts”

After battling shamelessly for 20 years, SC policymakers are under court-order to do“something” for our poorest students.

Momentum is building to turn SC kids over to parasitic charter chains as part of a statewide “ACHIEVEMENT DISTRICT”, like the one in New Orleans.

Once you:

• CLOSE neighborhood schools
• FIRE thousands of career teachers & replace them with untrained temps
•  FORCE kids into charter school chains

Closing the ACHIEVEMENT GAP is actually CHEAP & EASY!!!

Let free-markets do the work!

Many of these charter chains are overtly for-profit, while others pay exorbitant rentsand fees to “partner” corporations.

 

Now, who would fall for such horse puckey?

Anybody desperate for a cheap, easy fix.

Egged on by corporate-funded Astroturf groups like Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst, some have grown sweet on the idea of an all-charter system built on temp labor that replaces democratically-controlled public schools.

Tell policymakers to reject this gift to privatized McSchools:

COPY & PASTE to EMAIL: SCSuptEd@edu.sc.gov, ritaallison@schouse.gov, kennybingham@schouse.gov, billcyburn@schouse.gov, joedaning@schouse.gov, jerrygovan@schouse.gov, jackiehayes@schouse.gov, dwightloftis@schouse.gov, dlongshorejr@gmail.com, roberthayes@scsenate.gov, harveypeeler@scsenate.gov, johncourson@scsenate.gov, vincentsheheen@scsenate.gov, nikkisetzler@scsenate.gov, bradhutto@scsenate.gov, johnmatthews@scsenate.gov, geraldmalloy@scsenate.gov, clementapinckney@scsenate.gov

MUCH More Below...Charter Chains: Eager to Turn SC Kids into Cash Cows.  :

Teacher Evaluations Fall Off The Education ‘Reform’ Agenda

11/24/2015 – Teacher Evaluations Fall Off The Education ‘Reform’ Agenda:

Teacher Evaluations Fall Off The Education ‘Reform’ Agenda

THIS WEEK: Opt Outs Hit Half Million … Teachers Need Affordable Housing … NCLB For Higher Ed … High School Student Activism … States Take Over Education

TOP STORY

Teacher Evaluations Fall Off The Education ‘Reform’ Agenda

By Jeff Bryant

“Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recently shook up the education policy world when she challenged one of the pillars of the education establishment for the last 10-15 years, that teachers’ job evaluations and pay should be linked to how students – even students they don’t teach – perform on standardized tests … The important story isn’t as much about what Clinton said as it is about the response it got from the establishment that’s been in charge of education policy for nearly three decades.”
Read more …

NEWS AND VIEWS

At Least 500,000 Students In 7 States Sat Out Standardized Tests This Past Spring

The Washington Post

“About 500,000 public school students in seven states ‘opted out’ and refused to take federally required standardized tests in math and reading in the spring … New York 240,000 students opted out, New Jersey 110,000, Colorado 100,000, Washington state 50,000, Oregon 20,000, Illinois 20,000 and New Mexico 10,000… A study released last month found that the number of standardized tests US public school students take has exploded in the past decade, with most schools requiring too many tests of dubious value.”
Read more …

Can Affordable Housing Help Retain Teachers?

American Prospect

“A great deal of evidence has shown how homelessness and housing insecurity can negatively impact a student’s behavior … Less attention has been paid to the relationship between educators and their housing … Efforts to attract, or retain, teachers through subsidized housing is growing more pronounced, and debates over how such projects impact their surrounding communities are likely to intensify in the coming years … Maybe subsidized housing that targets young professionals won’t be what it takes to help attract career educators, yet it’s clear that cities do want to help recruit and retain educators who actually live in the communities in which they serve – an effort that may require more than just a salary increase.”
Read more …

The University Of North Carolina’s New President Should Scare Anyone Who Cares About Higher Ed

The Nation

Zoë Carpenter writes, “After the board that governs the University of North Carolina unexpectedly fired system president Tom Ross … it chose someone outside the state’s conservative machinery: Margaret Spellings, former secretary of education under George W. Bush. Spellings is a seasoned political operative; Karl Rove introduced her to Bush … Spellings went on to work in the troubled for-profit [college] industry after leaving the White House – an experience, she told UNC’s board of governors, that taught her ‘a lot about how we can serve our students and think of them as customers in providing a product in convenient ways for them.'”
Read more …

The Other Student Activists

The Atlantic

“A surge of student activism has swept across academia in recent weeks as black students and their allies forcefully call attention to racist climates on American college campuses … High-school youth are flexing their collective muscles for equity: fighting budget cuts and out-of-school suspensions as they take on racial issues and academic offerings …. Many youth today are not content to be on the sidelines. Like several hundred Chicago teens who rallied against public-school cutbacks and potential teacher layoffs earlier this month … Similarly, Philadelphia students, rocked by a severe school-funding crisis, took to the streets this fall to protest cuts to neighborhood schools … At the root of student organizing is the demand for fair and equal treatment.”
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The Fight Over K-12 Education Appears Headed Back To The States

The Washington Post

“Congress is expected to take a final vote on a bill to replace No Child Left Behind, the current federal law, after Thanksgiving … The bill is expected to pass and the White House has indicated that President Obama will sign it … The greatest change in the proposed law is a dismantling of the federal accountability system that defined whether K-12 schools were successful, prescribed actions to improve struggling schools, and imposed penalties on states and schools that failed to make progress. It also prevents the federal government from requiring states to evaluate teachers and principals and adopt specific academic standards … Decisions about how to identify successful and struggling schools and teachers, how much weight to give to test scores, and how and when to intervene in struggling schools will be left to each state.”
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11/24/2015 – Teacher Evaluations Fall Off The Education ‘Reform’ Agenda:

Book Review: A Teacher’s Tale by John Thompson

Book Review: A Teacher’s Tale by John Thompson:

Book Review: A Teacher’s Tale by John Thompson

Every so often, I will pick up a book that illuminates my own experiences, opens my eyes to the truth behind those events, and often helps me put a name to whatever I have been muddling through on my own. Oklahoma City educator John Thompson has written one such book.

Prior to downloading the Kindle version of A Teacher’ s Tale: Learning, Loving, and Listening To Our Kids on a Saturday evening, I’d followed Mr. Thompson’s writings in theHuffington Post, Scholastic Administrator, and Diane Ravitch’s blog. I had an opportunity to meet him at a workshop or event once, and we follow each other on Twitter. All that said, I had not really had a chance to delve into his teaching philosophy until a review of his new bookshowed up on my Facebook news feed.

The review including the following snippet from his book:

I was never a hat-snatcher. I did not believe in grabbing students’ contraband, whether it was hats, cell phones, marijuana, or gambling proceeds. So how did I find myself firmly holding half of a gang leader’s hat, ignoring the teenager’s threatening look?

I have been in the same boat a few times. I do not consider myself authoritarian, but yet I’ve had to take on that role in my classroom in order to maintain a semblance of order. My vision of teaching includes constructivist, project-based learning in which the students revel in the process of creating authentic learning artifacts, discovering truths about themselves and others, and mastering the skills they need to be effective communicators in our ever-changing world. Yet, I have had to take on a role of disciplinarian that I’m most uncomfortable with, particularly when students (and sometimes their parents) don’t appreciate that I’m trying to help them become the people they are capable of being, to reach the dreams they tell me about in their first-week-of-school writing exercises.

This has been true whether I’ve taught in a rural high school with a 35 percent poverty rate (based on free/reduced lunch eligibility), a racially diverse suburban middle school with a 85 percent poverty rate, a rural middle school with a 74 percent poverty rate, or a rural high school with a 64 percent poverty rate.

Over the years, I’ve struggled with the pedagogical dichotomy between the supportive teaching philosophy I aspire to, and the realities of managing 25 to 30 teenagers in a classroom during 7th hour. My ideas have worked in some schools, where principals Book Review: A Teacher’s Tale by John Thompson:

CURMUDGUCATION: MA: How To Gut a School District

CURMUDGUCATION: MA: How To Gut a School District:

MA: How To Gut a School District

Back in April of 2014, Jim Peyser was managing director of the NewSchools Venture Fund, a group set up to support "venture philanthropy" in the charter school world with grant-funneling, consulting, lobbying, etc. Think of them as bag men and enforcers for hedge funders interested in making a charter school buck or two.

That would make Jim Peyser and ordinary charter-pushing well-connected money man, but that was Peyser in April of 2014. But two days before Christmas of 2014, Santa brought Peyser a gift of the job of Secretary of Education for the state of Massachusetts. Not since the fox was hired to stand guard over the henhouse has a job been so cleverly filled, but Governor Charlie Baker loves him some charters and has thrown open the gate to every kind of charter shilling under the sun.

But the case of Peyser is unique, because as NewSchools Venture Honcho, Peyser laid out his ideas about how the path forward for gutting redesigning school districts. Take for instance the piece he published in that long-ago April, "Redesigning School Districts: The Way Forward."

He opens by quoting an imaginary friend who bemoans the fact that although charters are swell, they only serve a few students, and in order to "close the achievement gap at scale," the "real work" of fixing school districts must be done.

These friends and allies believe charters have successfully proven that it’s possible to create high-performing public schools in high-need neighborhoods, but now charters need to step aside so that their practices and systems can be taken to scale by enlightened district leaders.

Peyser wants to point out two problems with that view. You will perhaps be surprised to learn that neither of the problems are that charters have not actually successfully proven anything. Okay-- they've proven that will an infusion of resources and a carefully chosen student population, you can test prep your way to higher test scores. But we've known that since before charter schools were a CURMUDGUCATION: MA: How To Gut a School District:

New York Superintendents call for an end to evaluating teachers on standardized test results - Wait What?

New York Superintendents call for an end to evaluating teachers on standardized test results - Wait What?:

New York Superintendents call for an end to evaluating teachers on standardized test results

Labeling children on the basis of unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory standardized tests is bad public policy.  Evaluating teachers on the scores their students get on those tests is equally wrong, yet that is exactly what the policy is in the State of Connecticut.

Last spring, more than 500,000 students across the country were opted out of the standardized testing craze.

This unprecedented development was the direct result of a growing awareness by parents, students, teachers and public education advocates that the standardized testing scheme isn’t useful and that the Corporate Education Reform Industry is turning public schools into little more than testing factories.

While school superintendents and administrators have been a major part of the anti-standardized testing coalitions in New York, far fewer Connecticut school administrators have been willingly to step forward and speak up on behalf of the students, parents, teachers and public schools they are sworn to serve.

In contrast, in the Constitution State Madison Superintendent of Schools Thomas Scarice has consistently been one of the school leaders who has been willing to provide his students, parents, teachers and community with the appropriate information about the extraordinary problems that come with a public education system that is overly reliant on standardized testing.

(See for example, Superintendent Scarice addresses the powerful and ugly truth about SBAC testing charade and Madison Public School Superintendent Thomas Scarice makes national waves – again. and Diane Ravitch features Madison Superintendent Tom Scarice’s powerful letter on “education reform”)

With parents increasingly recognizing the inherent negative consequences that stems from the Common Core testing program, attention is now turning to the second major problem with the pro-Common Core, Pro-Common Core testing initiatives that have been sponsored by Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the other political allies of the “Education Reformers” — and that is  — the inappropriateness of New York Superintendents call for an end to evaluating teachers on standardized test results - Wait What?: