How to measure project-based learning | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

How to measure project-based learning | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

How to measure project-based learning

At hands-on sites such as the Workshop School, officials say the key is to make students accountable. Children help assess what went well or badly.

By his own account, Khalil Hicks had an excellent first quarter at the Workshop School in West Philadelphia.

He created a website to share information about his life and emerging skills.

He worked with teammates to design and build a cardboard boat that was big enough to carry his thin frame most of the way across a swimming pool.

And in engineering workshop, he constructed a camera obscura – a pinhole camera – even figuring out a way to include a rudimentary zoom lens, using glass.

All this accrued to his credit in the first two months of 10th grade at the innovative District high school in West Philadelphia.

But there’s more: Even as Hicks was using duct tape and Latex paint to seal the sides of the boat and do all the other crafting that he did, he was learning the “soft” skills now in demand in the world of work. Among them: critical thinking and problem-solving. Creativity and entrepreneurship. Communication and collaboration.

On a recent morning, Hicks, 15, delivered an assessment of his efforts in a 20-minute presentation to classmates, his teachers, and his father.

His polo shirt was buttoned and tucked, and his wire-rimmed glasses caught the light as his PowerPoint flashed on the screen behind him.

“I did good, yes I did, but I could have put more time on the website and put more time into my script,” said Hicks.

New ways to assess students

Even as debate swirls around high-stakes standardized assessments, some schools are de-emphasizing tests and rote learning. Instead, they ask students to tackle projects that require brainstorming, concentration, big-picture thinking, and applying math, engineering, and science skills. Teachers, too, are learning new ways to assess students, offering feedback, rating students on setting and reaching goals, and translating the math and other academic skills used to complete a project into competencies on a report card. Others have embraced standards-based assessments, where students have a second chance to master content in order to achieve proficiency.

The common thread is the focus on student engagement in their own learning and an How to measure project-based learning | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Russ on Reading: Getting the Schools All Children Deserve

Russ on Reading: Getting the Schools All Children Deserve:

Getting the Schools All Children Deserve

Monday's New York Times carried anopinion piece by Charles Blow on the Laquan McDonald murder in Chicago. McDonald, a 17 year-old African American, was shot down by a white police officer in a horrific incident captured on video by a police car's dash cam. The incident is, of course, another in the ongoing horror of police violence against young Black men. Blow's main point is that if we are to understand why these police killings keep happening, we have to accept that it is because our society tacitly approves or willingly tolerates them. The problem is systemic. If America wanted this to end, says Blow, it would end. He feels that the majority of Americans have turned their backs on this issue, refusing to take a strong moral stance.

The clear implication of what Blow is saying, for me, is that in the end in this country, Black lives really do not matter. I think Blow has an important point and I think it is a very short leap to apply this insight to public education.

In our inner cities, once beautiful public school buildings schools stand crumbling from age and disrepair as mute testimony to our systematic neglect . Children attend schools without nurses, librarians and guidance counselors. Teachers lay out their own money for basic instructional supplies, while many students are without textbooks and other tools of learning. Just walking to school can be a harrowing experience for young children navigating the mean streets of the inner city. Can we really say that this is not directly connected to the color of the faces of the vast majority of children who attend these schools?

Inner city children are forced to learn and their teachers are forced to teach Russ on Reading: Getting the Schools All Children Deserve:

Schools Matter: Gates Moves to Take Over Teacher Education, Part 1

Schools Matter: Gates Moves to Take Over Teacher Education, Part 1:

Gates Moves to Take Over Teacher Education, Part 1

The 2011 video below tells much of the story about the insignificance attached to research and scholarship by the corporate foundations that are trying to buy up university teacher preparation programs.  The woman on the left (in more ways than one) is respected scholar, Deborah Ball, whose scholarship and leadership as Dean of Education at University of Michigan adds the policymaker patina and research-vetted veneer to get the required respectability that the Gates Foundation is seeking to institute nationwide.

Watch the five minute clip below, and you will see Ball providing a rational, detailed overview of the work to be done on teacher improvement, and watch as she gets shut down when the Education Sector questioner steps over her to hear from the corruptKate Walsh, who, on cue, is there to promote the solution from the three states that were already in 2011 using value-added test scores to evaluate teachers.

You might say, Walsh was focused on the pre-determined outcome, even though Ball was pretending that the process that she was trying to initiate would somehow have an effect on that outcome.

Now four years later, Ball has completed her lengthy research, even though those same models used in Tennessee, Louisiana, and North Carolina remain the systems that CorpEd in Michigan seeks to emulate.  Even so, the elaborate plan was hijacked by a state senator last summer, who had the audacity to insist that teacher evaluation remain a local issue, rather than a state or federal one.

Undeterred, however, corporate foundation money continues to pour into Dr. Ball's operation at U of M.  This time, however, the focus is on revamping teacher preparation.  That will be the focus of Part 2.

Schools Matter: Gates Moves to Take Over Teacher Education, Part 1:

House to Vote on No Child Left Behind Rewrite - ABC News

House to Vote on No Child Left Behind Rewrite - ABC News:

House to Vote on No Child Left Behind Rewrite

The House is ready to vote Wednesday on a long-sought rewrite of the 2002 No Child Left Behind education law that would roll back the federal government's authority to push academic standards and tell schools how to improve.

The legislation, a compromise reached by House and Senate negotiators, would continue the No Child law's requirement for annual reading and math testing of children in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school. But it would shift back to the states the decision-making power over how to use students' performance on the tests to assess teachers and schools. The measure also would end federal efforts to tie test scores to teacher evaluations.

"I think that we will have a strong majority of the majority, and we'll have a strong majority of the minority," said Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who led the House-Senate conference committee on the legislation. "The big picture here is that the bill moves from this massive intrusion of the federal government, moves back to state and local control."

A compromise bill was a long time coming. No Child Left Behind, which was passed by Congress in 2002 during President George W. Bush's first term, ushered in a new era of accountability standards for the nation's public schools. But subsequently fell into disfavor in some quarters, widely criticized as unworkable, unrealistic and too punitive for public school educators.

The law has been due for renewal since 2007, but it got caught up in the broader debate over the federal role in public education.

"It's been a long road and it's a good bill," said Kline's Democratic counterpart on the committee, Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia. "We don't tell states what to do ... but it's clear that they have to have high standards and address in a meaningful way any achievement gaps."

Despite the bipartisan support, some conservative lawmakers have said they won't support it.

Under the bill, there would no longer be federal sanctions for schools labeled as underperforming. However, states would be required to intervene in the nation's lowest-scoring 5 percent of schools, in high school dropout factories and in schools with persistent achievement gaps — something Democrats fought hard to ensure in any bill.

The Senate is expected to vote on the measure next week.

The White House had threatened to veto an earlier version of the bill that passed the House in July. Officials called the compromise now in play an improvement over the House bill — and a version passed by the Senate. But the administration also stopped short of saying that President Barack Obama would sign it.

No Child Left Behind was signed into law by Bush after passing Congress with broad partisan support. But it quickly became clear that its lofty goals for student achievement could not be met. Unions and more liberal voices in the education universe criticized it for placing too much of an emphasis on testing. Among conservatives, the law was assailed for allowing too much federal intrusion in public schools.

The compromise bill, among other things, would:

—Bar the Education Department from mandating or giving states incentives to adopt or maintain any particular set of standards, such as the college and career-ready curriculum guidelines known as Common Core. The standards were created by the states, but have become a lightning rod for those who sought a reduced federal role in education. The administration offered grants through its Race to the Top program for states that adopted strong academic standards for its students.

—End waivers the Obama administration has granted to more than 40 states. These waivers offered exemptions to the more onerous parts of No Child when it became clear the standards set forth there would not be met.

—Would not permit portability — allowing money to follow low-income students to public schools of their choice, an idea embraced by Republicans. Those dollars would remain at struggling schools, under the bill. But it would allow for a small pilot program that would let some federal money move with students in some school districts.

—Encourage testing caps. An amendment from Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado, says states should set caps on the total amount of time kids spend taking tests. Bennet says federal testing requirements have resulted in additional layers of state and district level tests, and some of those may be redundant or unnecessary.House to Vote on No Child Left Behind Rewrite - ABC News:

PAC shielded $2.3 million in donations by LA charter school backers | The Sacramento Bee

PAC shielded $2.3 million in donations by LA charter school backers | The Sacramento Bee:

PAC shielded $2.3 million in donations by LA charter school backers

LOS ANGELES 

Nearly $2.3 million in donations made by charter school supporters during this year's Los Angeles school board races were shielded from disclosure until after the election was over, a review of records shows.

Those contributions - from philanthropist Eli Broad, heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune, former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and others - were made prior to the May 19 election to California Charter Schools Association Advocates, a political action committee in Sacramento. That group then forwarded campaign funds to a local affiliated committee.

The Los Angeles-based PAC was required by campaign laws only to identify the state charter group as the source of the funding, not the individual donors.

As a result, the donors remained anonymous in Los Angeles campaign filings. In September, the state charter group filed a required state report listing all of its contributors.

While the practice appears to be within the law, state campaign regulators said they are concerned about how the contributions remained unreported for so long.

Jay Wierenga, a spokesman for the California state Fair Political Practices Commission, said the goal of state law is "to elicit and promote meaningful disclosure to the public when it counts - before an election."

A state charter association spokesman said the group did nothing wrong in the way it handled the contributions. He emphasized that the group's objective is to improve education opportunities for families.

The donors "see the value in our goals and mission to provide a high-quality educational option to parents and students," said Richard Garcia, director of elections communications for the California Charter Schools Association.

Garcia noted that charter advocates lack the extensive financial base of dues-paying members that unions can rely on. The L.A. teachers union was the main force opposing charter-backed candidates in school board elections that are widely recognized as the costliest in the nation.

Charters are independently managed, publicly funded schools that are exempt from some rules that govern traditional campuses. Most are nonunion.

Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times asked the charter group for a list of donations made in 2015 in advance of the election. The group declined. But Garcia said in a recent interview that it was not trying to hide anything in setting up the local PAC to receive money from the state PAC.

"Local committees are established across the state to give a local flavor to each race, including (a) local name on disclaimers for campaign materials," he said. "This is a common practice as campaign consultants believe it best to maintain local name ID."

Voters following the election in Los Angeles knew only that the money flowing into the campaign during 2015 came from the state charter PAC.

While the names of the donors were absent from L.A. records, some did appear in campaign reporting documents related to races elsewhere in the state. In those contests, the state charter group had not created a local PAC to channel the funding through. As a result, some contributors were revealed.

The name the charter group gave its Los Angeles PAC was Parent Teacher Alliance in Support of Rodriguez, Galatzan, and Vladovic for School Board 2015. The victory of Ref Rodriguez was a first for a charter school operator in L.A. Incumbent Tamar Galatzan lost and Richard Vladovic, who also was supported by the teachers union, was re-elected.

The charter PAC was the biggest money player in these contests, spending about $2.7 million. The teachers union spent about $1.6 million, according to state and local records.

Among the charter donors not disclosed in L.A. filings was Bloomberg, who gave $350,000 in 2015. Bloomberg already had contributed $250,000 in 2014, an amount that was disclosed prior to the election because the funds arrived before the end of 2014.

Other donors from 2015 who were disclosed after the election included:

_Gap clothing co-founder Doris Fisher ($750,000). The longtime charter supporter also gave $550,000 in 2014.

_Wal-Mart Corp. heirs Carrie W. Penner ($150,000) and Jim Walton ($225,000). The two also gave a combined $620,000 in 2014.

_Grower Barbara Grimm ($500,000), owner of one of California's largest farming operations, who started a charter school near Bakersfield. Grimm also gave $586,400 in 2014.

_Emerson Collective ($150,000), a corporation under the control of Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, which supports charitable and political causes.

_Investor John H. Scully ($100,000). He and his wife also gave $400,000 in 2014.

_Philanthropist Eli Broad ($50,000). He also gave $305,000 to the state charter PAC in 2014.

Broad contributed to the state charter PAC not to delay disclosure but "because he supported the organization's statewide election strategy," said Karen Denne, chief communications officer for the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

Recently, the Broad Foundation spearheaded a proposal to enroll half of Los Angeles students in charters over the next eight years. Potential funders listed in a confidential June draft, obtained by the Times, included key donors to the charter PAC or the affiliated statePAC shielded $2.3 million in donations by LA charter school backers | The Sacramento Bee:

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/latest-news/article47464690.html#storylink=cpy

This Junk-Food-Funded Elementary School Curriculum Is Bonkers | Mother Jones

This Junk-Food-Funded Elementary School Curriculum Is Bonkers | Mother Jones:

This Junk-Food-Funded Elementary School Curriculum Is Bonkers

Kids are learning that they can exercise away Big Macs and Pepsis. Scientists beg to differ.

At elementary schools nationwide, a health curriculum called Energy Balance 101 has taught millions of kids a seemingly simple concept: In order to stay fit, all we need to do is balance the food we eat with exercise. In the first lesson, elementary schoolers learn that anything and everything takes energy, from playing sports to doing homework. Teachers are instructed to ask how much you would need to eat or drink in order "balance shooting baskets for 30 minutes." Calories in, calories out.

Sensible enough, right? But there's something odd about the curriculum: Not once does it suggest ditching junk food—in fact, the lesson plan explicitly says, "There are no good foods or bad foods!"

This approach isn't surprising when you consider the source. The class is part of a program called Together Counts. That program is wholly funded by a group called the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation—which is in turn run and bankrolled by junk food corporations. Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, is the chair of the board, and directors include the CEOs of Kellogg, Hershey, Nestle USA, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Smucker, and General Mills. The organization's mission, according to tax filings, is "to help families and schools reduce obesity—especially childhood obesity."

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The first presentation for Energy Balance 101 for students between third and fifth grades.

In addition to schools, the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, which has an annual budget of about $10 million, funds energy balance programs for a wide variety of organizations, including the Girl Scouts, the National Parent Teacher Association, and the National Head Start Association. A Boy Scouts program is in the works. Moms are sponsored to blog about the benefits of the energy balance programs. In all, HWCF estimates that 28 million students from pre-K through fifth grade have taken part in the program, as well as another 1.7 million Girl Scouts. (Girl Scouts maintains that the curriculum was introduced as a "short term...optional activity" and is "not a part of any national programing.")

Together Counts isn't the only energy balance campaign supported by junk-food companies. Earlier this year, Coca-Cola came under scrutiny after the New York This Junk-Food-Funded Elementary School Curriculum Is Bonkers | Mother Jones:

Rosenberg questions endgame for 'experimental' charter schools | NewBostonPost

Rosenberg questions endgame for 'experimental' charter schools | NewBostonPost:
Rosenberg questions endgame for ‘experimental’ charter schools

STATE HOUSE — Without indicating how the Senate is leaning, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg over the weekend referred to the charter school movement as an “experimental approach to education” that should not necessarily be allowed to continue to expand.

After defeating a proposed lift to the charter school cap last session, senators have been engaged in weeks of meetings and talks over whether to again consider an expansion of charter schools, or leave their future in the hands of voters by means of a proposed ballot question in 2016.

Rosenberg, during an interview with WBZ’s Jon Keller that aired on Sunday, said many senators have concerns about the financing of charter schools, admission policies and student retention rates.

“Over the 20 years, these concerns have been raised but they’ve been swept aside,” Rosenberg said.

The Amherst Democrat went further when he suggested charter schools were not initially intended to be a widespread alternative to traditional public schools and, at some point, may be “played out.”

“The issue is if you take the ballot question and you take it to the logical extension and conclusion there is no cap any longer if the ballot questions passes and so that’s the issue. When we passed it initially they said 25 charters. We’re now up to 80 charters. How many more charters do we need in Massachusetts for this experimental approach to education to be fully played out?” Rosenberg said.

The proponents behind a ballot initiative to expand charters crafted their proposal to leave the cap on charters intact, while allowing the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to circumvent the cap at its discretion to license up to 12 new charter schools a year. Ballot question backers say the demand for more charter schools is backed up by thousands of people on waiting lists.

When challenged by Keller over his insinuation that concerns about financing and admissions policies have not been debated since charter schools were first authorized in Massachusetts in 1993, Rosenberg allowed that some “adjustments” have been made, but not to the full “satisfaction of the members.”

“There’s a perception, and we’re drilling down deep on this right now, that other states have figured out a fairer way of funding charters so that having charters would not have a direct impact on the

- See more at: http://newbostonpost.com/2015/12/01/rosenberg-questions-endgame-for-experimental-charter-schools/#sthash.8tpADSJ2.dpuf

What does Bobby Jindal want John Bel Edwards to keep? School vouchers | NOLA.com

What does Bobby Jindal want John Bel Edwards to keep? School vouchers | NOLA.com:

What does Bobby Jindal want John Bel Edwards to keep? School vouchers

Gov. Bobby Jindal and Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards stayed away from talking about public policy matters at their first joint news conference, with the exception of just one issue.

In front of a dozen news cameras, Jindal mentioned that the outgoing and incoming governors had discussed the state's school voucher program during a private meeting about their transition that lasted more than an hour Tuesday (Dec. 1). No other specific issue -- including Medicaid expansion -- was mentioned by either man during the media appearance. 

"I made a personal request to John Bel and he agreed to it right away," Jindal said while standing a few feet from Edwards, "I just asked before they made any decisions that they meet with the children and parents who have been involved in that [voucher] program and hear from them."

By singling out vouchers, Jindal likely revealed one of his biggest concerns about handing over power to Edwards. Vouchers --and expanding education options in general -- has been one of Jindal's top priorities during his tenure as a Republican governor. But Edwards, a Democrat, was very critical of the state voucher program that allows low and moderate-income students to attend private schools with taxpayer dollars.

Edwards did not mention vouchers himself during the joint press conference. In an interview after the fact, Edwards' chief of staff, state Sen. Ben Nevers, said he wasn't sure the governor-elect had agreed to meet with voucher recipients, as Jindal had said to the media.

"I didn't hear him say yes," said Nevers, who sat in on the meeting between Jindal and Edwards.

As a state legislator, Edwards introduced bills to put restrictions on the state's voucher program and his election last month has made voucher supporters nervous. A few high-profile members of Edwards' gubernatorial campaign staff used to work for teachers unions in the state, which have been critical of the voucher program. Edwards' wife Donna is also a public school teacher. 

As governor, Edwards has said he won't undo the voucher program put in place by Jindal in 2012, though that doesn't mean new restrictions won't be added. A relatively small number of students -- just over 7,000 -- use state vouchers anyway, and enrollment in the program is already down. 

Other than school vouchers, Jindal and Edwards kept their joint press appearance light and short. Jindal emphasized that Edwards' staff would be able to get any documents or information they want from his cabinet members and others over the next few weeks. 

"I want to thank [Jindal] for the access that we have had to people and information," Edwards said. "We think the transition is going very smoothly. Obviously, there is a lot of work to be done." 

Edwards and his wife, Donna, plan to meet with Jindal and his wife, Supriya, in the near future, in part to talk about living in the governor's mansion. The Jindals had three small children living in the mansion over the past eight years. Edwards has a son in middle school. 

"It's a bit overwhelming. I have to tell you," said Edwards of moving into the mansion. Edwards' family homestead is in Amite. What does Bobby Jindal want John Bel Edwards to keep? School vouchers | NOLA.com:

LATEST NEWS ON JOHN BEL EDWARDS

• John Bel Edwards publicly endorses Walt Leger for House speaker
• Bobby Jindal says White House plan to alert states about refugees not good enough
• What does Bobby Jindal want John Bel Edwards to keep? School vouchers
• John Bel Edwards will issue executive order protecting LGBT state employees
• Les Miles still coaches LSU football and Louisiana has a Democrat for governor? JR Ball

Study: 'Fixed Costs' Double Time Spent On Standardized Tests | WSKG

Study: 'Fixed Costs' Double Time Spent On Standardized Tests | WSKG:

Study: 'Fixed Costs' Double Time Spent On Standardized Tests

• The new study "Time on Test" estimates the fixed costs of New York standardized testing.

  "TIME ON TEST" THE BENJAMIN CENTER AT SUNY NEW PALTZ

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Changes to New York standardized testing are in the air. Governor Cuomo’s Common Core Task Force finished its public sessions last month examining the state’s standards and testing program, and Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia has already pledged to shorten math and English Language Arts (ELA) exams. 

According to the New York Times, Cuomo may be ready to de-link tests and evaluations entirely. In the midst of it all, though, a new study from SUNY New Paltzurges the state to re-think how it calculates time spent on tests.

Co-author Robin Jacobowitz says testing takes more time in schools than we realize. The report estimates the “fixed costs” of testing: extra chunks of time used to prepare and get students back on track after the exam.

“They’re little increments. You know, you have just 14 minutes to prep the room and 12 minutes to deliver instructions, but they add up,” Jacobowitz says. “Things add up.”

It adds up to about an hour and a half extra on an average test day for teachers in grades three through eight. According to the study, that’s more time than is used for the tests themselves. Jacobowitz says one of the teachers she surveyed reported more subtle effects, too.

“She was like, ‘My second graders can’t walk past the third grade wing on the way to lunch because we might disrupt them, so we have to go all the way around,’” Jacobowitz recalls, “And, ok, fine, so you walk all the way around the school, but it sends the message that the testing is the most important thing that is happening on these six days.”

The recent state efforts to trim tests for third through eighth graders wouldn’t shrink those fixed costs because they happen every day a test is given, regardless of its length. Jacobowitz wants the state to look at other ways to re-work the testing program.

“I’m not sure it needs to be three days ELA, three days math in every single grade, every single year,” she says. “I think we can be smarter about that.”

Elia is currently looking for further revisions to testing and state standards with a taskforce of her own. Governor Cuomo plans to release results from his Common Study: 'Fixed Costs' Double Time Spent On Standardized Tests | WSKG:

Student Data Privacy Mostly Missing in ESEA Reauthorization - Digital Education - Education Week

Student Data Privacy Mostly Missing in ESEA Reauthorization - Digital Education - Education Week:
Student Data Privacy Mostly Missing in ESEA Reauthorization

A deal to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is in place, with votes in both chambers of Congress expected in the coming weeks.

Our friends over at Politics K-12 have you covered on all the policies and provisions—from accountability to standards to school turnarounds—that made it in to the legislative language officially released Monday.  So far, reaction has been mostly positive.

But what about one of the key issues that mostly didn't make it into the newly dubbed Every Student Succeeds Act?

Congress largely punted on student data privacy, declining to include in the ESEA reauthorization amendments that would have updated the country's major federal student-data-privacy law or created a special committee to consider the best way forward on the issue. The changes there were included don't represent any big shifts in policy, but do signal Congress' attention to the issue.

That lack of tangible action will mean continued uncertainty for educators and ed-tech vendors alike, as we detailed in our October special report, "Data: Sharing + Privacy."

A number of bills to overhaul the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, have been introduced in the past year, including a proposal authored by the bipartisan leadership of the House education committee. There had been some hope that work would get folded into ESEA, but the sense from observers was that it proved too complex an issue to try to add to an already cumbersome proposal.

"At some point, it was decided strategically that ESEA couldn't be any more complicated," said Amelia Vance, the director education data and technology for the National Association of State Boards of Education.

"But we obviously know from past statements that [Reps. John Kline, R-Minn. and Bobby Scott, D-Va., the chair and ranking member of the education and workforce committee] have made that Student Data Privacy Mostly Missing in ESEA Reauthorization - Digital Education - Education Week:

To Measure What Tests Can't, Some Schools Turn To Surveys : NPR Ed : NPR

To Measure What Tests Can't, Some Schools Turn To Surveys : NPR Ed : NPR:

To Measure What Tests Can't, Some Schools Turn To Surveys

Last year Susan Avey, the principal of Bogle Junior High School in Chandler, Ariz., had a heart-to-heart with one of her new teachers about how he was relating to students.

In a previous year, this might have been a conversation based on subjective impressions. The teacher might have gotten defensive. But this year, Avey had a new tool up her sleeve: a survey of her students.

"He came in to talk to me and said, 'I felt like I had really good relationships with kids, but reading my comments I was surprised that I wasn't rated as highly.' "

Drilling down into the results, they found that the teacher's relationships with girls, specifically, were weaker than those with the boys. The teacher was also a coach, and it turned out he liked to use a lot of sports analogies in class. Maybe that habit was missing the mark with non-sports enthusiasts?

This little data-driven a-ha moment is happening more often at schools around the country.

A growing battery of school leaders, researchers and policymakers think surveys are the best tool available right now to measure important social and emotional goals for schools and students — qualities like grit, growth mindset, student engagement or, as in the Chandler example, student-teacher relationships.

And a group of big-city districts in California, with the federal government's permission, is getting ready to incorporate this kind of survey data into their accountability systems this spring.

That means students' states of mind will be weighted alongside test scores and graduation rates when rating schools. It's a move other states will be watching, as the draft version of the new federal education bill includes language asking states to incorporate at least one measure that is not strictly academic in school accountability systems.

The CORE Movement

Nine of the biggest school districts in California — Fresno, Garden Grove, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento City, San Francisco, Sanger and Santa Ana Unified — banded together to receive their own separate waiver from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind law in 2013.

A waiver is like a permission slip to create your own formula for improving schools; the Department of Education has granted 43 to various states in the past few years to provide flexibility from federal law. This is the only waiver that has gone to a group of districts instead of a whole state.

It's also the only waiver in the country to focus this much on social and emotional targets.

The CORE districts, as they were known, drew up a School Quality Improvement System that relied 60 percent on traditional academics, and 40 percent on "social-emotional and culture-climate" factors. This 40 percent includes indicators the schools were already collecting: on chronic absenteeism, suspension and expulsion rates. But To Measure What Tests Can't, Some Schools Turn To Surveys : NPR Ed : NPR:

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Mark Zuckerberg’s hacker philanthropy: Can we trust it?

Mark Zuckerberg’s hacker philanthropy: Can we trust it?:

Can We Trust the Hacker Philanthropists?

We now rely on tech billionaires to solve our most pressing problems. That’s a problem, too—and it’s our fault.

Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker. Photo by Mike Windle/Getty Images for Vanity Fair, Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images, ravl/Shutterstock (http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-55346263).

he billionaires are here to save us. As the governments of the world twiddle their thumbs in Paris over carbon emissions, on Monday Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg announced an ambitious philanthropic undertaking to fight climate change. That was followed by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan’sannouncement Tuesday that he plans to donate nearly all of his money to philanthropic efforts. In a letter to his newborn daughter Max, Zuckerberg poured out the milk of human kindness:

The internet is so important that for every 10 people who gain internet access, about one person is lifted out of poverty and about one new job is created … If our generation connects them, we can lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. We can also help hundreds of millions of children get an education and save millions of lives by helping people avoid disease.

 This magnificent magnanimity provokes two inevitable reactions: 1) What great guys! and 2) Wait—are they really so great? As much as we might appreciate the generosity of our software billionaires, their raining of money over good causes also highlights the direness of a world in which a handful of individuals, through a combination of skill and luck, end up with monetary resources beyond that of most small nations. There but for the grace of Zuckerberg go we.

This reaction is natural. Zuckerberg’s announcement is the closest thing we can see to the unconstrained action of a single person shaping the world. President Obama is hamstrung by Congress. Pope Francis exerts indirect influence instead of direct power. Xi Jinping works within the apparatus of the Chinese Communist Party. Mario Draghi spends his time trying to mop up Europe’s messes. But a Gates or a Zuckerberg doesn’t face such impediments. When Zuckerberg decides to donate his money after the birth of his child, it feels as though he’s casting himself as the protagonist and the entire world as his philanthropic canvas. It’s natural for the rest of us, who have no say in how he spends his billions, to feel a bit slighted.

Spurred by Sean Parker’s exhortations for “hacker philanthropy” in the Wall Street Journal, Michael Massing recently wrote in the Intercept about the problems with a philosophy that calls for “hacking” the world’s problems using money instead of code. Massing is scathing, and rightly so, on Gates’ philanthropic efforts in education. Thanks to a top-down, results-oriented approach but little attention to details, the Gates Foundation’s efforts have exacerbated the worst instincts of the school-reform movement, embodied in figures like Michelle Rhee and outgoing Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan (whose agency has helped push pseudoscience into public schools). The problem isn’t the intentions, but the belief that the unilateral throwing of money at a problem alongside performance-based metrics can solve any problem just as easily as they once enabled Windows to crush its competition.

In contrast, efforts in public health and research have gone better. The Gates Foundation’s programs in Africa have helped to reduce measles by 90 percent in the past 15 years, among other successes. In realms where a functioning infrastructure already exists—such as medicine—an influx of cash can bolster existing projects and help organizations see them through more quickly and effectively. Where theMark Zuckerberg’s hacker philanthropy: Can we trust it?:

The Power of Home Visits to Connect Teachers With Kids and Their Families | The California Report | KQED News

The Power of Home Visits to Connect Teachers With Kids and Their Families | The California Report | KQED News:

The Power of Home Visits to Connect Teachers With Kids and Their Families

The teacher home visit is making a comeback in California because it’s proving to be a good way for teachers to build relationships with families. The state now requires schools to make family engagement a priority, so more districts are turning to the Parent Teacher Home Visit Project in Sacramento that has been training teachers for years to visit students and families on their own turf.

It turns out the low-tech home visit can radically improve what happens in the classroom. The mechanics of it, though, are deceptively simple.

The Home Visit, Not Because Anything’s Wrong

On one fall evening, teachers Cristina Bautista and Stephanie Smith, from Sacramento’s Oak Ridge Elementary School, are sitting in fourth-grader Nevaeh Hamilton’s living room. They aren’t grilling Nevaeh or her parents about her academics or behavior at school. They’re chatting about what Nevaeh likes to do at home. The conversation runs from karaoke to nail polish to drawing and then to the school garden.

“Did you tell your mom about the salsa we made and you guys tried at the barbecue?” asks Bautista.

“It was really good,” laughs Nevaeh.

“Everything came straight from the garden,” adds Bautista.

“I like the outdoor classroom where Mr. Wagner says you can’t walk through the invisible walls,” says Nevaeh.

Then she’s off to show the teachers her room.

“Did you clean it?” teases Smith.

Neveah’s giggling — she’s so excited her teachers are at her house. Her mom, Alicia Smith, also opens up to the teachers.

“My goals, hopes and dreams are just for them to be successful in The Power of Home Visits to Connect Teachers With Kids and Their Families | The California Report | KQED News: