Will Every Student Succeed? Not With This New Law | Alan Singer

Will Every Student Succeed? Not With This New Law | Alan Singer:

Will Every Student Succeed? Not With This New Law

Last week the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to jettison penalties for schools, districted and states mandated by the Bush era No Child Left Behind law. NCLB was signed into law by George Bush in 2002 and was supposedly designed to expose and solve "achievement gaps" in American education. It did this by mandating the continuous testing of students and required that all gaps be eliminated by 2014. While the testing industry has overwhelmed American schools, achievement gaps have not disappeared. The Senate is expected to pass the new bill, known as the Every Student Succeeds Act or ESSA, this week, maybe as early as Tuesday.

In the last fifteen years a lot of children have been left behind. A recent study published by the National Center for Education Statistics based on 2011 middle school math tests found that Black student performance was significantly lower than the performance by White students and the gap increased for Black students who attended racially segregated schools with large numbers of children from poor families. The scoring gap between Hispanic and White non-Hispanic students was not as high, but it continued to be large. NCLB forced almost every state to apply for a series of waivers from requirements because they could not possibly ensure that no child was left behind.

In 2009, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that established his signature educational program, Race to the Top. Obama-EDpromised states educational grants if they imposed Common Core-aligned skill-based tests on public schools and used student scores to evaluate students, teachers, schools, and school districts. To get the competitive federal grants states made impossible promises that stirred up deep resentment from teachers and led to open rebellion by parents opposed to the high-stakes testing regime. It also became an excuse not to Will Every Student Succeed? Not With This New Law | Alan Singer:

At School And At Home, How Much Does The Internet Know About Kids? : All Tech Considered : NPR

At School And At Home, How Much Does The Internet Know About Kids? : All Tech Considered : NPR:

At School And At Home, How Much Does The Internet Know About Kids?

Children's personal information isn't supposed to be an online commodity. But whether kids are using Google apps at school or Internet-connected toys at home, they're generating a stream of data about themselves. And some advocates say that information can be collected too easily and sometimes, protected too poorly.

Last month, a hacker stole personal information and photos of more than six million children after breaking into the computer records of a educational toy company, VTech.

VTech says that they've since hired a security company to deal with the breach. That might not be enough to convince Congress — Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) sent a letter to VTech, wanting to know if the company is complying with a law called the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

The issue, of course, spans beyond VTech. In the toy world, there's the new Internet-connected Barbie doll, which has also been found to have security flaws, for example. And privacy advocates have long waged a battle against cookies and other data collection based on kids' Internet activity.

Google is one of the companies that have come under fire. A nonprofit advocacy group called Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over Google's data mining practices. More than half of classroom computers in the U.S. are Chromebooks and many students and teachers are using Google Apps For Education, a group of tools that include Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and the purpose-built Google Classroom.

Anya Kamenetz of NPR's Ed Team and Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, a staff writer for the tech news website Motherboard who has reported on the VTech data hack, spoke to All Things Considered about the issue of children's privacy. Here are a few At School And At Home, How Much Does The Internet Know About Kids? : All Tech Considered : NPR:

MORE ON SFER – Corporate Money in the 2015 Denver Board of Education Election - Wait What?

MORE ON SFER – Corporate Money in the 2015 Denver Board of Education Election - Wait What?:

MORE ON SFER – Corporate Money in the 2015 Denver Board of Education Election

Last week’s Wait, What? post entitled, “SFER – The $7 million+ “student run” Corporate Education Reform Industry Front Group,” provided an update on how the charter school and broader education reform industry is using a variety of advocacy groups to back their effort to privatize public education and undermine the teaching profession.

The post generated some complaints about the article’s accuracy from SFER, but not a single person was able or willing to point to anything that wasn’t factually correct.

In addition to background about SFER, using information from the Minnesota Post, the Wait, What? post included a review of how the conglomerate of entities (e.g. SFER, SFER Action Network, DFER, Education Reform Now, Education Reform Advocacy, 50CAN, MNCAN and its leaders) funneled campaign donations into Minnesota to support pro-education reform candidates running for the Minneapolis Board of Education.

The “student-led” SFER and many of the same education reform elite were deeply involved in trying to impact the political outcome in Colorado, as well.

Colorado 2014-2015

When parents, teachers and public school advocates in Denver, Colorado decided to challenge the City’s Pro-Education Reform School Board in this year’s city election, the corporate-funded “education reformers” kicked into high gear.

Helping to lead the campaign effort was none other than Students for Education Reform (SFER), the corporate-funded pro-charter school, pro-Common Core, pro-Common Core testing and anti-teacher “education reform” advocacy group.

On June 19, 2015, SFER staff set up a new political action committee aptly named “STUDENTS FOR EDUCATION REFORM (SFER) ACTION COMMITTEE.”

According to the registration documents filed with the Colorado Secretary of State’s MORE ON SFER – Corporate Money in the 2015 Denver Board of Education Election - Wait What?:

Charter applications could provide insight on LAUSD board sentiments - LA School Report

Charter applications could provide insight on LAUSD board sentiments - LA School Report:

Charter applications could provide insight on LAUSD board sentiments

Applications for seven new charter schools will come before the LA Unified school board at itsmeeting tomorrow,the biggest wave of requests since the Broad Foundation proposed a plan to expand the number of charter schools in LAUSD.

In addition, 10 other charters are seeking renewals.

While the board will not vote on the new applications for at least another month, any public discussion on the requests could provide valuable insights into the board’s latest sentiments on charter expansion by an outside group and on more charters, in general. LA Unified is already home to more independent charter schools than any school district in the country.

The plan for rapid expansion in LA Unified is now in the hands of a Broad offshoot,Great Public Schools Now, which intends to raise $400 million to invest in new charters and high-performing public schools that serve low-income students.

The new charter requests come as opposition to the plan is building. The teacher’s union, UTLA, is asking members to protest at the meeting, and two anti-charter resolutions are under consideration. One seeks to oppose efforts to open charters at the expense of the district, an obvious response to GPSN, and that will be voted on; the other, which has been postponed for vote, would create greater scrutiny of charters.

“I have no idea how the board will act,” said Caprice Young, CEO of Magnolia Public Schools, which has eight schools already in the district and is applying tomorrow to open three more. “I have kept my head down during this Broad plan so we’re not really involved in that.”

Young, who served on the school board, noted that it’s part of the responsibilities of the elected officials to make sure that new schools proposed in the district meet educational requirements. It’s also important that the rules are met evenly.

“It’s a good thing that the board looks closely when they are creating a school, and that scrutiny should be the same for all schools,” Young said, adding, “I am hoping that it will not mean that these applications will take more time. It always costs the charter schools more money the more time it takes.”

By board rules, as many as 12 public speakers can address each of the new applications. That could make for a long afternoon. But it also could open the door to telling remarks — critical or otherwise — from board members who will be facing Charter applications could provide insight on LAUSD board sentiments - LA School Report:

Schoolyard Farms to launch 2nd school-based farm at Milwaukie-area high school | OregonLive.com

Schoolyard Farms to launch 2nd school-based farm at Milwaukie-area high school | OregonLive.com:

Schoolyard Farms to launch 2nd school-based farm at Milwaukie-area high school

Oregon non-profit Schoolyard Farms plans to launch its second school-based farm this spring.  

Schoolyard Farms aims to teach students how to grow nutritious food and eat healthy through farms created on school campuses. Schoolyard Farms' first school-based project is located at Candy Lane Elementary in Milwaukie and provides lessons for students and produce for community members, local restaurants and the cafeteria. 

Schoolyard Farms teaches gardening basics at summer camps

Nonprofit Schoolyard Farms runs weekly summer camps at its pilot farm at Candy Lane Elementary. Camps focus on farming basics and healthy foods

Schoolyard Farms' next farm will be at New Urban High School in Oak Grove near Milwaukie, according to a news release from the organization. The magnet school focuses on teaching through hands-on projects and serves students who may have struggled in traditional learning environments. About 130 students were enrolled in the high school this fall. 

The high school's half-acre farm will provide students with weekly lessons in farming, health, business management and more. The farm will also operate as community-supported agriculture program, with shares available for purchase, and fuel the cafeteria. New Urban is within the North Clackamas School District. 

Candy Lane's acre-sized farm provides roughly 3,000 pounds of produce a year and hosted weeklong camps during the summer.

Schoolyard Farms has started a fundraising campaign to cover infrastructure and start up costs, such as fencing, tools, seeds and staff, according to a news release. The goal is to raise $20,000 by March 2016. After that, the farm is intended to be self-sustaining.

"Youth involved in a school farm or garden are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables and develop healthy eating habits," Courtney Leeds, executive director and co-founder of Schoolyard Farms, said in a statement. "By giving students access to the fruits and vegetables that they nurtured and watched grow, we are increasing their chances of good health into their adulthood." 

There are more than 600 school gardens across the state, according to an Oregon Department of Education count this summer. 

-- Laura Frazier

lfrazier@oregonian.com
503-294-4035
@frazier_laura

Schoolyard Farms to launch 2nd school-based farm at Milwaukie-area high school | OregonLive.com:

CURMUDGUCATION: MA: Vulture Convocation

CURMUDGUCATION: MA: Vulture Convocation:

MA: Vulture Convocation

Even as I type this, up in Boston there's a day-long gathering going on that is emblematic of all the wrong things driving ed reform.

It's a conference entitled "Leveraging Research and Policy to Improve K-12 Education in Massachusetts" and it was organized by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the MIT School Effectiveness and Inequality Initiative (which seems like an odd name choice unless MIT has decided to create educational inequality on purpose, and say so).  The conference is going on at the Federal Reserve Bank, and it sounds like a day full o' joy.

After a continental breakfast (cheapskates) there were welcoming remarks from Robert Triest of the FRB and Sanjay Sarma of MIT. Then-- well, let me just run down through the whole program:

9:00 AM-- Alternative School Models

A short presentation about the Lawrence Public Schools Turnaround by three folks from the Harvard Grad School of Education. Lawrence has been pioneering turnaroundiness for a few years, making them beloved by the reformy classes. But they're only the warm-up act for

"Charters Without Lotteries: Testing Takeovers in New Orleans and Boston."  It takes three people from MIT and one from Duke to explain how New Orleans isn't so much about educating students as it is about testing takeover models. And congrats, Boston, for being lumped with NOLA-- be sure to mention that the next time Boston's Mayor Walsh complains that he is being unfairly tarred as a school privatizer. Also note that two of the MIT guys are also NBER guys-- that's the National Bureau of Economics Research, which is great news because economists have always been a boon to public education. 

There's also a panel discussion featuring Christopher Gabrieli (who is somehow the head of both CURMUDGUCATION: MA: Vulture Convocation:

 

The successor to No Child Left Behind has, it turns out, big problems of its own - The Washington Post

The successor to No Child Left Behind has, it turns out, big problems of its own - The Washington Post:
The successor to No Child Left Behind has, it turns out, big problems of its own

U.S. lawmakers always have reasons for what they do, so there must be one for why they didn’t make public the 1,059-page rewrite of the 2002 No Child Left Behind until a few days before Congress began voting on the compromise legislation last week. Could it be that they didn’t want critics to take too close a look?

The Every Student Succeeds Act is now expected to replace NCLB as the newest version of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, an overarching law that defines federal involvement in K-12 education. The House passed it last week and the Senate is expected to pass it this week, with President Obama promising to sign it.

Finally, the No Child Left Behind era — which in fact left many children behind — will be over, and its successor is being hailed by some in the worlds of education, business, and public policy as a big step toward increasing educational opportunities for the nation’s students.

But anybody expecting the Every Student Succeeds Act to be a fix-all will be disappointed.

There are major problems with this legislation; anybody who thinks federal dictates have disappeared are in for a surprise, and anybody who would like to see the federal government exercise its power to fix systemic school funding problems and seriously broaden the scope of reform are in for a letdown, too.

Among the concerns that have been raised:

• Use of federal funds for “Pay for Success” programs allow wealthy investors to make profits from education investments, an issue that has concerned some special education advocates.
• States will be required to fund “equitable services” for children in private and religious schools who are deemed eligible, and they must appoint an “ombudsman” to make sure the schools get their money.
• Provisions in the legislation for the establishment of teacher preparation academies are written to primarily support non-traditional, non-university programs such as those funded by venture philanthropists, and they lower standards for teacher education programs that prepare teachers for high-poverty schools.
• The federal government still will have a say in some areas, such as mandating standardized tests and requiring states to intercede in schools where student test scores are in the lowest 5 percent and then approving the state plans for academic progress.

The ESSA is a compromise bill among Republicans and Democrats who were intent on ending not just No Child Left Behind, the chief education initiative The successor to No Child Left Behind has, it turns out, big problems of its own - The Washington Post:

Detroit teachers take battle to new level

Detroit teachers take battle to new level:

Detroit teachers take battle to new level

The American Federation of Teachers could join the Detroit Federation of Teachers in a trusteeship to shore up the local union’s fight against Gov. Rick Snyder’s school reform proposal and other issues facing the district.

The AFT is calling the move to a trusteeship a “voluntary administratorship,” and it is already sparking controversy. The deal, which would include AFT organizers, communications specialists, political operatives, researchers and education policy experts, has not yet been signed.

At least one critic said the proposal for a trusteeship has nothing to do with helping Detroit teachers.

“It is a desperate move on the part of the AFT and DFT bureaucracy ... to stop Detroit teachers from waging an all-out fight against the governor’s so-called New DPS/Old DPS plan, which seeks to end public education in Detroit,” said ousted DFT President Steven Conn.

The plan is expected to be voted on by the AFT executive council either Monday or Tuesday, said retired DFT president and current AFT Vice President Keith Johnson.

The union has taken a stand against Snyder’s Detroit schools reform plans, which propose paying off millions of DPS debt and creating a new district for Detroit schoolchildren. It also has balked at increased employee health care costs and the Education Achievement Authority, the school system created by Snyder in 2011 to turn around failing Detroit schools.

In a letter to members dated Dec. 4 on the DFT website, DFT Interim President Ivy Bailey said she wrote to American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten in October, saying all that the union has done to fight for educators and their schools has not been enough.

“The crisis we face is growing larger and growing closer,” wrote Bailey. “While we have reason to be proud of our engagement, we must not underestimate the resources we will need to win this fight.

“So, on Oct. 14, I wrote to President Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers, our national union. In my letter, I wrote about the attacks on our healthcare benefits, the continued abuses of the emergency manager, and the harm done to our community by his unilateral decision-making. I also raised the alarm about widespread characterization and neighborhood school closures, as well as efforts by the governor and national corporate interests to privatize and take apart, piece by piece, our public school system. Then I asked for help.”

In the email, Bailey said Weingarten flew to Detroit to meet with the DFT executive board on Oct. 23. On Nov. 2, Weingarten, in a letter to Bailey, suggested “a voluntary administratorship for the DFT as the most effective way at this moment to address our challenges.”

“This voluntary administratorship would be a form of partnership between the AFT Detroit teachers take battle to new level:

Charter school teacher hit with multiple corruption charges for leading Allentown student walkout

Charter school teacher hit with multiple corruption charges for leading Allentown student walkout:

Charter school teacher hit with multiple corruption charges for leading Allentown student walkout

ALLENTOWN — The charter school teacher who encouraged hundreds of students to walk out of Allentown School District schools, claiming the district is failing minority students, has been charged with corrupting youth.

Michael Frassetto is facing at least 38 charges of corruption of minors for a student walkout that occurred Sept. 28. The charges are summary offenses, similar to criminal mischief. People accused receive citations in the mail, and those found guilty at a summary trial before a district judge typically face fines.

"Encouraging Allentown School District students to commit truancy by walking out of school during normal school hours is an unlawful disruption of the students' educational process," the district said in a statement released Friday.

"While the Allentown School District supports freedom of expression, the district cannot condone actions in violation of the law," it said. "Therefore, the district's high school and middle school administrators have taken legal action to hold the organizer, Michael Frassetto, responsible for his actions."

The district would not comment further. Frassetto, 29, did not return messages for comment.

The charges were filed in the last 10 days at various district courts in Allentown. Principals from seven Allentown schools where students left, including Allen High Principal Luke Shafnisky and Trexler Middle School Principal Christine Piripavel, gave sworn statements, according to district solicitor John Freund. He would not comment further.

Frassetto is no longer teaching at the Medical Academy Charter School, the Catasauqua school's CEO, Jose Rosado, said Friday, although he is still employed.

Rosado said the charter school's board of trustees will discuss Frassetto's employment at a meeting Tuesday. Rosado would not say how long Frassetto has been out of a classroom or why he is no longer teaching.

Frassetto, a Parkland High School graduate, believes the district doesn't care about its minority students.

He raised the ire of school officials as well as Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin for leading a series of protests and media campaigns involving students who live in Allentown and either attend Allentown schools or public charter schools.

Frassetto and the students have called for Allentown Superintendent Russ Mayo's resignation, a summer employment program and a representative on the school board who is not elected but is chosen by the students

On Sept. 24, Frassetto and a group of students went to an Allentown School Board meeting, where they banged on glass and doors after being denied access. The district claimed the meeting room would have been too crowded to meet fire codes.

On Sept. 28, he led hundreds of students on a walkout to Allentown's statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King for what was to be a day of protest that

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/Charter_school_teacher_hit_with_multiple_corruption_charges_for_leading_Allentown_student_walkout.html#ilJcDqwSzAZgGwM6.99

$17 million SBAC testing money should be used to prevent the terrible cuts to programs that actually help children. (Guest Post by CT Educator James Mulholland) - Wait What?

$17 million SBAC testing money should be used to prevent the terrible cuts to programs that actually help children.  (Guest Post by CT Educator James Mulholland) - Wait What?:

$17 million SBAC testing money should be used to prevent the terrible cuts to programs that actually help children.  (Guest Post by CT Educator James Mulholland)

A moratorium on the state’s standardized testing frenzy would provide the funding need to maintain critically important education and human service programs for Connecticut’s most children.

As Connecticut policymakers confront a large and growing state budget deficit, veteran Hartford educator James Mulholland correctly recommends that the $17 million in taxpayer funds that are being wasted on the unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) testing scheme should be used, instead, to stop the disastrous cuts that will actually hurt and limit opportunities for Connecticut’s poorest children.

James Mulholland writes;

As Connecticut’s lawmakers wrangle with the budget in the coming days, one area of the budget they have not yet considered for cuts is the state’s SBAC testing program.  The state estimates it will spend $17 million developing and administering standardized tests during the 2015 and 2016 fiscal years. Advocates of standardized testing in general, and the SBAC in particular, have provided two primary justifications for the testing.  The first is to identify underserved subgroups and thereby better address their educational needs.  Advocates contend that the disparity in test scores, often referred to as the “achievement gap,” provides political leverage and forces politicians and other stakeholders to respond to the needs of historically underserved subgroups such as African-American, Hispanic, and low-income students.

Although the final numbers are still being debated, the state’s recent proposed budget cuts as reported by the CT Mirror include almost $24 million from the Office of Early Childhood and the departments of Social Services, Mental Health and Addiction Services, Public Health, and Children and Families.  In addition $16.3 million would be cut from the Department of Education, 

$17 million SBAC testing money should be used to prevent the terrible cuts to programs that actually help children.  (Guest Post by CT Educator James Mulholland) - Wait What?:

Action Needed: ESSA Vote Expected in Senate on Tuesday | Truth in American Education

Action Needed: ESSA Vote Expected in Senate on Tuesday | Truth in American Education:

Action Needed: ESSA Vote Expected in Senate on Tuesday

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, on Tuesday.

There are several ways that you can take action.

You can tweet your Senators, click here to join a Twitter campaign that includes pre-loaded tweets.  You can also leave a comment on their Facebook page or call. Go here for the list of Senators, their Facebook pages and DC office phone numbers.

You can also call the primary U.S. Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Be sure to contact your Senators TODAY!

Here are some talking points from a recent analysis of the bill:

1. PROCESS VIOLATES TENENTS OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT – OF TRANSPARENCY IN THE BILL PROCESS AND DELIBERATIVE DEBATE. Process of forwarding conference report echoes the process of (Un) Affordable Care Act “You have to pass it to see what’s in it” – that is. Congress won’t be reading it.
2. HEAVILY INCENTIVIZES STATES TO MAINTAIN COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS: As a requirement of the Act, states must “demonstrate” to the Secretary that they have adopted standards that are aligned to the same definition of “college and career” standards used to force states into adopting Common Core under NCLB waivers.
3. ASSESSSMENT OF NON-COGNITIVE ATTITUDES, BEHAVIORS, and MINDSETS: Bill will maintain momentum for increasing non-academic data collection of student and family information into statewide longitudinal data systems.
4. PARENT RIGHTS: The Salmon Amendment in HR5 that allowed parents to opt out of high-stakes state assessments is no longer included. Students whose parents opt them out of the test, must be included in the 95% participation formula.
5. EROSION OF STATE POWER OVER EDUCATION: The state accountability system must be structured as per the federal bill.
6. FEDERAL CONTROL OF STANDARDS CONTENT: Bill language appears to require standards that align with career and technical education standards, indicating that the standards must align to the federally approved Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
7. NO CHECKS ON FEDERAL POWER, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS JUDGE AND JURY OF ITS OWN ACTIVITY – NO SUNSET OF LAW: The framework would only “authorize” ESEA for four more years, as opposed to the typical five, but, there’s no sunset provision in the bill, so it could go on in perpetuity.
8. EXPANSION OF GOVERNMENT ROLE IN CHILDCARE/DISINCENTIVE TO ACTIVELY SEEK EMPLOYMENT: Bill is said to expand Head Start to childcare with Child Care Development Block Grant Act of 2014 so that no work requirements will be expected of low income parents to access grant money to pay for childcare.
9. ADVANCES PROFITING BY PRIVATE CORPORATIONS USING EDUCATION DOLLARS THAT SHOULD GO TO CLASSROOMS: Increasing the education budget to fund private investors to implement government- selected social goals is outside the scope of improving education, and outside the authority of Congress as described in the U.S. Constitution.
10. INCREASED ESEA SPENDING: ESSA authorizes appropriations for fiscal years 2017-2020. Spending authority will increase by 2% each year.
11. EROSION OF LOCAL CONTROL: The conference report language encourages states to form consortia that, without congressional approval, may be determined illegal.
12. DATA PRIVACY: Language in the conference report appears to rein in the Secretary of Education’s power and protect student data by inserting prohibitions of collecting additional student data, but makes no attempt to reverse the harm already done by Secretary Duncan’s modification of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Action Needed: ESSA Vote Expected in Senate on Tuesday | Truth in American Education:

Control Experiment | EduShyster

Control Experiment | EduShyster:

Control Experiment

What is it that urban charter schools actually do?

Reader: if you happened to read this recent New York Times piece on urban charter success, you know that the upshot is that Boston charters are *crushing* the achievement gap and sending loads of kids to college. Close reader that I am, though, I couldn’t help but notice that something was missing. Like any description at all of what makes schools like Match Charter Public School, which gets a special NYT shout out, so different from, say, schools in the suburbs where, based on the contents of my mail bag, the NYT article and the research it cites has been greeted with great enthusiasm. Which gave me a wild idea: why not interview a student who attends Match and ask her to describe what her school is like?

The smartest kids in the worldFirst: a bit of context. Last year I embarked on an effort to talk to as many Boston students as possible, inspired by these students who were protesting the planned closure of several schools in the city. More recently I’ve been working with a group of students who are collecting stories from their peers about testing, school funding and discipline. These students have dazzled me with their keen grasp of what’s at stake in the debate over the future of public education in cities like Boston—issues that seem to elude many of the adults who have the mic. The downside of my experiment: I’ve all but lost interest in talking to said adults. Which is why, in the year ahead, you’ll be hearing plenty from students on this page, and in my finally-just-about-to-be-shared-with-the-world podcast series: Have You Heard? But enough about me. You want to hear from Match High School senior Rayauna Moss-Cousin. Rayauna: take it away. 

A love/hate relationship
My name is Rayauna Moss and I attend Match High School, a charter school in Boston. I’ve been in the Match system since middle school and I have a love/hate feeling for the school. I love that Match is so helpful with the college process. We have classes dedicated to doing college applications and applying for financial aid. I appreciate that the most because I feel like I wouldn’t be too far in the college application process without Match.

Often school can feel like a prison to me. When it comes to discipline, my school is very strict. We have a demerit and merit system that tries to teach us to be professional and get us ready for college. However, we are often given unnecessary demerits for offenses like hugging too long in the hallways, or not being in uniform. We aren’t treated as young adults. I’ve been given detention for not having a uniform, for being late, and for chewing gum. If you are not in uniform, you have to trade in your phone or T pass as a rental for Match’s clothes. But many students need their phones to contact their parents and a T pass to get home safely. I don’t understand how demerits and detentions prepare us for college. The school doesn’t have a valid answer about how their Control Experiment | EduShyster:

CURMUDGUCATION: MI: Reformster District Meltdown

CURMUDGUCATION: MI: Reformster District Meltdown:

MI: Reformster District Meltdown

Michigan is one of several states to attempt an "achievement" school district, a special collection of the very bottom schools, run by the state. It was set up in 2011 by Governor Rick Snyder, but its continued existence is now in doubt.

None of the Achievement school districts have been successful (and "successful" is a relative word here, since "success" is often about taking weak schools and turning them into charter/turnaround business opportunities). The head of Tennessee's ASD resigned because the work was taking a toll on his health; his goal of moving the bottom 5% of schools into the top 25% has been a complete and utter failure.

But Michigan, which used its Education Achievement Authority as a blunt instrument to club Detroit schools into submission, has been spectacular in its dysfunction from the very beginning when they hired a chancellor who had lied his way out of his previous job.

Through it all, the messes have been chronicled by Eclectablog, an indispensable resource for Michigan folks. In fact, Eclectablog just collected up all its EAA coverage in one list of links, and it is quite a deep swamp to wade through. But if you want to see just how messy and dirty this kind of state takeover district can get, take some time and work through this "sad, predictable, outrageous and infuriating history."

But now things seem to have really hit the fan. After old chancellor John Covington departed under a cloud, the state brought in Veronica Conforme, who has not exactly cleaned things up. EAA awarded a $1.7 million contract to the eighth-highest bidder-- a company created only to go after that contract and run by Conforme's old buddies (the FBI is on that one). A former EAA principal admitted taking a bribe. EAA administrators have been caught using a ludicrous lie to avoid FOIA requests, which they were doing to hide the fact that EAA schools shove students with disabilities out into public schools. EAA got caught "colluding" with Detroit schools to get control of another sixteen schools.

And now tomorrow could be a Very Bad Day for the EAA.

The EAA exists by virtue of an authorizing agreement between Eastern Michigan University and the CURMUDGUCATION: MI: Reformster District Meltdown:

Ohio Researcher Proves–Yet Again–That Test Scores Measure Primarily Family Income | janresseger

Ohio Researcher Proves–Yet Again–That Test Scores Measure Primarily Family Income | janresseger:

Ohio Researcher Proves–Yet Again–That Test Scores Measure Primarily Family Income

Like the rest the country, Ohio is trapped in a test-and-punish education accountability system that castigates public schools when students’ test scores are persistently low. It is a system that punishes already vulnerable institutions—closing and charterizing schools in the places where scores are low, giving vouchers to help children “escape” so-called “failing” schools, and rating teachers by students’ scores. Ohio practices all of these policies.  The flaw inherent in such a system is that standardized test scores continue to correlate with the aggregate income of the families whose children are enrolled in schools and school districts.  Researchers have demonstrated again and again that, despite that poor children surely can learn and many do thrive academically, aggregate test scores are pretty much an economic indicator, not a measure of the academic quality of the school.  Test score gaps are in place before children enter Kindergarten, and they rarely close as children move through the grades.

Now, once again, Howard Fleeter of Ohio’s Education Tax Policy Institute, has documented that in Ohio, the schools that can brag of the highest test scores are located in the wealthy suburban school districts and the so-called “failing” schools are those that serve children living in poverty.  The ratings attached to school districts by the state based on test scores thus create further incentives for more families to abandon poorer and mixed income communities and move to expensive outer ring suburbs. This blog recently covered how school ratings by Zillow, the online real estate guide, contribute to segregation in the same way.

Here is how the Cleveland Plain Dealer‘s Patrick O’Donnell describes Fleeter’s findings: “State test scores continue to rise right along with a school district’s affluence, and fall as poverty rates increase….  Ohio may have changed academic standards and its state tests last school year, but the recurring relationship between test scores and poverty remains the same…. Fleeter has reported the relationship between test scores and family income on an annual basis the last several years…. He repeated that analysis this week using preliminary test scores from the spring on Ohio’s new math, English, science and social studies tests…. As he Ohio Researcher Proves–Yet Again–That Test Scores Measure Primarily Family Income | janresseger: