Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION: FL: Still Stupidly Punishing Children + ICYMI: Fall kick-off edition

CURMUDGUCATION:

Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION:

FL: Still Stupidly Punishing Children

69by Peter Greene / 5h

Sigh. So you will probably recall that some of Florida's educational leaders have lost their damned minds , having decided that the full force of districts and state powers must be brought to bear in order to beat a bunch of nine-year-old children into compliance. In some school districts, administrators had concluded that third grade children who opted out of the Big Standardized Test could not b

YESTERDAY

Why Charters Love "Public School"

100+by Peter Greene / 1d

The question is up for pseudo-debate once again because of the National Labor Relations Board decided in two separate cases that charter schools are private corporations . The decision is new, but the fact that charters are private businesses is not. While charter fans are trying to act shocked and surprised ., I'm just going to go ahead and link, for the six-zillionth time, to that special occasi

Brookings Fails at Teacher Diversity Research

13by Peter Greene / 1d

This is just exceptional. In mid-August, Brookings released a report looking at the huge inequity in the teacher force , specifically the question of how to get more teachers of color in the classroom. Their conclusion, loosely paraphrased, is that the problem just can't be solved . Which seems, I don't know-- counterintuitive? improbable? wrong? There are some red flags in this report. Right up f

SEP 03

ICYMI: Fall kick-off edition (9/4)

12by Peter Greene / 1d

As always, if you see something that really speaks to you, share it. Michigan Spends $1 Billion on Charter Schools But Fails To Hold Any Accountable Well, that headline for this Detroit Free press pretty well covers it. Schools Open, Schools Close-- Charter Schools and the Ties That Bind From Harvard, a thoughtful consideration of the real costs of school closures Rubric for the Rubric Concerning

Some Gates Charter Personalized Love

16by Peter Greene / 1d

Don Shalvey has been pushing charter schools for many, many years. He was serving a superintendent of the San Carlos School District when he launched the first charter school in California . That was 1992. In 1998 he joined with Reed " Elected Schools Boards Suck " Hastings (Netflix) to for Californians for Public School Excellence, an astroturf group created to push charter school legis

Is Poverty No Longer a Thing?

33by Peter Greene / 2d

Mike Petrilli was over at Campbell Brown's place this week where A) he was oddly billed as a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution and a book author, but not as the head honcho of the Fordham Institute and B) suggesting that we might need to reconsider our stances on poverty, now that it's not so much of a thing. I'm not an economist and I don't play one on tv (though economists pretend

SEP 02

Dyett Opening Again

10by Peter Greene / 3d

You may recall that a year ago, activists launched a hunger strike to protest the closing of Dyett High School in the historic Bronzeville section of Chicago. Chicago Public Schools appeared bound and determined to carve the school up and turn it into one more private turnaround money salad (with gentrification dressing on top), even though community members had done everything just the way they w

SEP 01

Duncan Stops Pretending

100+by Peter Greene / 3d

As the head of the United States Department of Education, Arne Duncan must have felt some pressure to be supportive of public education in this country. But now that he's a private citizen and name-for-hire, he is held by no such restraints. That's made extraordinarily clear in his piece for Atlantic, in which he " examines the issues at the heart of the charter-school debate ." It would

The Struggles of Boy Teacher

16by Peter Greene / 4d

Dylan Felton is an English teacher in his sixth year, working at Collingswood High School, a public school in Camden*, NJ. Felton aspires to be an "educational leader," which makes his recent piece in the Huffington Post all the more extraordinary. In " What It's Like Being a Male Teacher ," Felton mushes together a couple of separate issues, some of which deserve discussion a

AUG 31

Education vs. Poverty

62by Peter Greene / 5d

Ben Spielberg, at 34justice, has put together a short stark piece that juxtaposes five simple pieces of data. There is nothing new here, but putting these five points side by side is compelling. 1) There are achievement gaps already present by the time children enter kindergarten, and they are related to family income. 2) School quality is a minor factor in explaining the testing (aka "achiev

AUG 30

Charter Fans Put Bounty on John Oliver's Head

1Kby Peter Greene / 6d

How much did John Oliver's piece on charter schools upset charter cheerleaders? About $100,000. Yesterday the Center for Education Reform, Jeanne Allen's pro-charter advocacy group, announced the " Hey John Oliver, Back Off My Charter School " video contest, in which your charter school can win $100,000 for creating a video that will show John Oliver "why making fun of charter schoo

AUG 29

English Teacher Side Hustle

3by Peter Greene / 6d

Forbes may be the magazine of the business world, but they aren't above the occasional listcicle. Today my feed coughed up the insta-classic " 15 Easy Side Hustles You Can Start This Weekend ." Ryan Robinson is the writer, and his intro slide sets it all up: Not ready to leave your job, but also not ready to start up? Here are some ideas that can help you earn some extra money on the sid

Mr. Gates Chats with Mr. Bowling

30by Peter Greene / 6d

A week back, Bill Gates took to his blog to report on a sit-down with Nate Bowling. He calls it " A Powerful Conversation about Schools, Poverty and Race ," and that may be overstating the case a bit, but it's worth a quick look. Nate Bowling has won an assortment of teaching awards, most recently Washington State Teacher of the Year. He blogs at A Teacher's Evolving Mind , and his self-

MI: Boatloads of Money

27by Peter Greene / 7d

“People should get a fair return on their investment,” said former state schools Superintendent Tom Watkins, a longtime charter advocate who has argued for higher standards for all schools. “But it has to come after the bottom line of 

 CURMUDGUCATION:

How I Am Researching Technology Integration in Classrooms and Schools (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

How I Am Researching Technology Integration in Classrooms and Schools (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

How I Am Researching Technology Integration in Classrooms and Schools (Part 1)

Beginning last spring, I began publishing posts of classrooms  in which I observed lessons (see here and here). These posts were one part of a larger  research project on technology integration (see here). 

Two questions have guided the case study design of the project:

1. How have classroom, school, and district exemplars of technology integration been fully implemented and put into classroom practice?
2. Have these exemplars made a difference in teaching practice?

 In this and subsequent posts I will detail the methodology I use, what I mean by technology integration and describe models commonly used to determine its extent in schools.

The following posts are drafts that will be revised since I will be visiting more teachers and schools this fall.  I welcome comments from readers who wish to take issue, suggest revisions, and recommend changes.

How I Got Started

In fall 2015, I wrote to district superintendents and heads of charter management organizations explaining why I was writing about instances of technology integration in their schools. At no point did these administrators ask me to define “technology integration” or even ask about the phrase; all seemed to know what I meant. In nearly all instances, the superintendent, school site administrator, technology coordinator, and CMO head invited me into the district. Administrators supplied me with lists of principals and teachers to contact. Again, neither my contacts nor I defined the phrase “technology integration” in conversations. They already had a sense of what the phrase meant.

I contacted individual teachers explaining how I got their names, what I was doing, and asked for their participation. More than half agreed. Because of health issues, I did not start the project until January 2016. For four months I visited schools and classrooms, observed lessons and interviewed staff. I resumed observations this fall and hope to complete all observations by December 2016.

In visiting classrooms, I interviewed teachers before and after the lessons I observed in their classrooms. During the observation, I took notes every few minutes about what both teacher and students were doing. I used a protocol to describe class activities while commenting separately about what both teacher and students were doing. I had used this observation protocol in previous studies. The point of the description and commentary was to capture what happened in the classroom, not determine the degree of teacher effectiveness. I avoided evaluative judgments about the worth of the lesson or teacher activities.

The major advantage of this approach is being in the room and picking up non-How I Am Researching Technology Integration in Classrooms and Schools (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Major Key: What It Means To Have A Leader-ful, Not Leaderless, Movement | The Jose Vilson

Major Key: What It Means To Have A Leader-ful, Not Leaderless, Movement | The Jose Vilson:

Major Key: What It Means To Have A Leader-ful, Not Leaderless, Movement

 I haven’t mentioned much about the presidential debates because a) I’m a socialist and b) the most affable person in the race said he’d step aside if he lost to the Democratic nominee. Even though everyone in the race was / is problematic, a requirement for running the world’s largest empire, it’s weird having such low favorability ratings for the two leading candidates in a presidential election. Compounded with that is the phenomenal work that I continue to see on the ground, the vast movements sweeping the nation to make people move forward, and the hyperlocal, earnest work that so many folks undertake as classroom educators and public intellectuals. While they seem disconnected, activism is one of the most important mechanisms for people’s survival and the betterment of this republic.

All of this reminds me of the famous Malcolm X quote:

“I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda,” I had written to these friends. “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”

In context, I understood this as part of his transformation from the one-man ideology that subsumed Malcolm X’s devotion to Elijah Muhammad to the universal understanding of Islam after his trip to Mecca. Ironically, it’s been used as a touchstone, to suggest that we can literally put anyone in a certain position and, as long as they’re saying all the right things, no one has any more work to do. Worse still is those who think the ways and means aren’t as important as the end.

Nah.

If anything, I don’t think the public – including myself – has held officials accountable enough for not representing us. Just as important, we all must learn how to support the folks who are doing positive, uplifting work around us. Putting in work shouldn’t be an individual effort. If anything, Major Key: What It Means To Have A Leader-ful, Not Leaderless, Movement | The Jose Vilson:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

City Treasurer Kurt Summers and Aldermen Susan Sadlowski Garza and Ricardo Muñoz of the Progressive Caucus lead the way in the 10th Ward Labor Parade on Saturday. Photo credit: Fred Klonsky

Sue Sadlowski Garza remembers Labor Day used to be a grand celebration.

Businesses shut down. Streets were lined with people watching floats go by. Parks hosted neighborhood fireworks shows. "But then it just stopped," said Sadlowski Garza, who is now an alderman in the 10th Ward. "I said 'man, nobody does a Labor Day parade. Let's bring it back.'" -- Tribune

Barack Obama

History has shown that working families can get a fair shot in this country – but only if we are willing to organize and fight for it. -- Open letter to America's workers

Clyde Bellecourt is one of the founders of the American Indian Movement

 "I am 80 years old. I've been jailed, I've been shot. This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. This is what I fought for." -- BBC

Company thugs attack pipeline protesters with dogs, pepper spray.

ESPN'S Paul Finebaum on Colin Kaepernick

"This country is not oppressing black people..."

"Usually people protest when they’ve been oppressed, when they have a legitimate stake in the action. I don’t know where Colin is coming from. What’s his beef with society, other than he’s upset with how the way people, in his mind, are being oppressed in this country?"

Finebaum apologized Thursday 

"I can spend the rest of my life trying to talk my way out of it, but I can't," Finebaum said. "I blew it. I simply did not have a good grasp of the situation. I Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:

State Senator: Get Ready to Sue the PA Department of Education Over Common Core Testing Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

State Senator: Get Ready to Sue the PA Department of Education Over Common Core Testing

By Steven Singer, Director BATs Blogging/Research

Originally published on his blog https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/04/state-senator-get-ready-to-sue-the-pa-department-of-education-over-common-core-testing/

 Pennsylvania State Sen. Andrew Dinniman is mad as Hell and he’s not going to take it anymore.

The West Chester Democrat is furious at the state Department of Education (PDE) over the Keystone Exams.

In February, the legislature unanimously passed a law to delay for two years using the Keystones as a graduation requirement for public school students. The exams will still be given to high school students in Algebra I, Biology and English, but passing them is not necessary to receive a diploma. During this time, the legislature is supposed to investigate alternate assessments above and beyond standardized testing.

However, Dinniman sent out an email to supporters this week claiming PDE is “blatantly ignoring the law and issuing directives to local school districts to use the exam if they want to for graduation.”

This goes against the delay, says Dinniman. The legislature is unsure requiring the Keystone Exam is a good idea, yet the state Senator contends the current administration is advising districts to move forward anyway.

Under the old law that was put on hold by the delay, if parents decided to opt their children out of standardized testing, students had to complete a Project Based Assessment. However, even though there is no test-based graduation requirement for current seniors, Dinniman says PDE still is forcing these children to complete Project Based Assessments.

“It appears that PDE is forcing the children of parents who opted out to take the Project Based Assessment, whose use is currently suspended by the legislature,” he says.

“There seems to be no respect by PDE for the rights of parents concerning their own children.”

Dinniman, who also serves as minority chair of the Senate Education Committee, has long been a critic of the Keystone Exams. He lead the charge to delay their implementation.

Now that PDE seems committed to the project despite concerns by legislators, he is asking for parents and other concerned citizens to contact him about suing the organization.

“If you know parents or organizations who might want to take PDE to court or file amicus briefs, let me know…  This is a matter of great importance. A number of us have been working for years Badass Teachers Association:

A closer look at test scores for English learners, magnet schools and charters - LA Times

A closer look at test scores for English learners, magnet schools and charters - LA Times:

A closer look at test scores for English learners, magnet schools and charters

 More than three million students across California traded in pencils for computers to take their standardized tests last school year.

You might have read about the statewide results of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress: More than half of the state’s public school students in grades 3 to 8 and 11th grade failed to meet benchmarks for college readiness. The test is new and considered harder than previous ones — and scores did increase from 2015, the first year scores were reported.  But they remained low — and certain groups, such as black students, lagged behind.

Some schools and districts performed very well. Some improved greatly from one year to the next. 

Across the Los Angeles Unified School District, 39% of students met standards in English and 29% in math.

At Wonderland Avenue Elementary School in the Hollywood Hills, whose students mostly are white and Asian, 84% of non-magnet students met English standards, and 83% met math standards. The school’s scores are higher still if you factor in the gifted magnet. Principal Sean Teer attributed some of the success to a new math program called “cognitively-guided instruction” that encourages students to create their own strategies for solving problems. 

The tests are aligned to Common Core, a set of standards that are supposed to emphasize critical thinking and in-depth learning over rote memorization. 

Though tests do not tell the full story of what’s happening in the classroom, the scores can be helpful in assessing the kind of education that different groups of students are receiving.

Learn more about this year’s test scores and look up your school at www.latimes.com/test-scores-2016. 

Here’s a closer look:

Magnets

Teacher Viviane Barrios instructs her class at Downtown Magnets High School in August. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Students in L.A. Unified’s magnet schools performed far better on state tests than did students at other district schools or charters. 

The district often touts magnets as examples of academic excellence, especially in comparison to charter schools. Part of its plan to maintain enrollment is to increase the number of these themed schools.

In March, Jesus Perez was an eighth-grade student and English learner in Mountain View Middle School in Moreno Valley. (Allan Gerson)

But the composition of test-takers at magnet schools does not reflect the district as a whole.

The magnets that got the highest scores are the gifted, highly gifted and high ability schools, comprised entirely of students who must meet certain requirements, which can include high scores on this state test. Other magnet schools accept students based on a complex lottery system that doesn’t take academic performance into account.

“This why the district’s strategy is problematic,” said UCLA education professor Pedro Noguera. While the district criticizes charters “for creaming off more privileged kids,” he said, magnets do the same. 

The magnets without such entry requirements still performed better than independent charters or other L.A. Unified schools, but by a smaller margin.

At Downtown Magnets High School, a campus comprised of two magnets, principal Jared DuPree says his schools’ high pass rates — in the 90s for English at both schools — came thanks to a strategy of targeting struggling students. “We celebrate the data but we’re A closer look at test scores for English learners, magnet schools and charters - LA Times:

Working People Standing Together on Labor Day 2016

Working People Standing Together on Vimeo:

Working People Standing Together on Labor Day 2016

Working People Standing Together from Signified Media Group on Vimeo.

Working People Standing Together on Vimeo:

John Oliver's Last Week Tonight charter school clip spurs $100000 contest

John Oliver's Last Week Tonight charter school clip spurs $100000 contest:

John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight charter school clip spurs $100000 contest

A pro-charter school group launches a $100,000 video contest to rebut John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight segment.

Add charter school advocates to the growing list of groups that John Oliver has managed to anger during his time as host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight. His recent segment exposing how some charter schools across the country are poorly managed has led a nonprofit pro-charter organization to offer $100,000 to the school that creates the best video rebuttal to Oliver’s nearly 20-minute tirade.

The Washington D.C.-based Center for Education Reform recently posted what they’ve dubbed as the “Hey John Oliver! Back Off My Charter School!” contest to its website. In a post titled “Wait … who said what about what?,” the organization characterizes Oliver’s rant as a “propaganda piece against charters everywhere,” describing it as a “very unfair, unfortunate, unbalanced, unwarranted and generally unhinged tirade against charter schools.” It also decries the fact that the segment has been viewed by 5 million people, and claims that Oliver’s argument boils down to the idea that since some charter schools have been mismanaged, all charters are bad.

However, in the introduction to the piece, Oliver went out of his way to state that he’s not against the idea of charter schools as a whole, but he was simply highlighting some of the bad ones that need reforming. He went on to explore some of the problems that exists within system. In some states such as Ohio, the privately operated schools have very little regulations and oversight despite the fact that they’re publicly funded, resulting in a mismanagement of taxpayer funds and illegal activity in certain cases, leading Oliver to conclude that it demonstrates one of the problems with running public education institutions as businesses where you allow the free market to decide which schools remain open.

The rules for CER’s competition state that the $100,000 prize is only open to charter schools that submit a video using a smartphone or tablet that runs three minutes or less before the deadline of Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2016. It also encourages prospective participants to “help set the record straight and let people know how much charter schools are helping their children, families, teachers and communities.” All of the entries will be posted online after being reviewed by a panel of judges who will decide which school receives the money, which will come from program funds that are raised from among their more than 1,000 donors, including Bill and Melinda Gates.

Watch the original segment in its entirety below:

NEXT: John Oliver accuses API of stealing Last Week Tonight branding

The reaction comes on the heels of Oliver’s Last Week Tonight clip on the state of the newspaper industry also getting a strongly negative response from the head of the Newspaper Association of America just last month. His reach and influence was also seen after a kids’ book that he recently referenced in a segment regarding Donald Trump’s candidacy received a substantial sales boost on Amazon, leading the New York Post to compare him to Oprah Winfrey and her former book club.

Last Week Tonight is currently on hiatus, but the show continues to post web exclusive clips to its YouTube account, including a recent segment where the host pitched his own superhero movie after complaining about the genre. The series returns on Sunday, September 25 at 11 p.m. on HBO.John Oliver's Last Week Tonight charter school clip spurs $100000 contest:

Breaking from allies, charter group to back Democratic control of state Senate - Times Union

Breaking from allies, charter group to back Democratic control of state Senate - Times Union:

Breaking from allies, charter group to back Democratic control of state Senate
National charter school group set to spend big to advance state party that backs teachers unions

Supporters of charter schools have had no stauncher ally in Albany than state Senate Republicans.

So why is a prominent national charter group saying it will spend money this year to try to flip the chamber to Democrats — many of whom were elected with the strong support of teachers unions, charters' frequent nemeses?

"We understand the dynamic and the shift in the state Senate," Nicole Brisbane, the New York director of Democrats for Education Reform, said in an interview last week. "We're playing a long game."

As the demographics of New York shift more and more toward Democrats — and Republicans continue to hang on to their Senate majority by a thread — there's a growing sense that charter supporters need to "cultivate change in the hearts and minds" of the Democratic conference, Brisbane said.

DFER recently created an independent expenditure committee, called Moving New York Families Forward, that can raise and spend unlimited amounts. The charter backers will support pro-charter Senate Democrats in some general election races against Republicans this year, Brisbane said.

Informed of DFER's strategy, other charter supporters reacted with skepticism and surprise.

"The expectation that State Senate Democrats will have goodwill towards education reform priorities is misplaced," said one person heavily involved in education reform politics and policy. "The only thing that will get accomplished is angering DFER's true allies, Senate Republicans."

As indicated by the group's title, Democrats for Education Reform backs Democratic candidates across the country.

But in New York, that's largely meant backing charter-supporting Democrats in primaries, not going after Republicans in general elections. And it doesn't appear that any charter group has ever openly stated an intention to flip the Senate to Democratic control.

In 2010, DFER and its deep-pocketed donors — a number of whom have made hedge-fund fortunes — were heavily involved in backing challengers in New York City to three Democratic senators aligned with the teachers unions. All the charter-backing candidates lost soundly. After the election, the United Federation of Teachers issued a report calling the group "a letterhead stacked with super-rich backers."

Now the union and DFER are putatively on the same side of the Senate battle.

Brisbane said it was too early in the fundraising process to say how much would be spent. And she declined to say which districts the group will target in the general election, which means it's not clear how much vulnerable Republicans would be impacted. (DFER is also set to back two New York City Assembly Democrats who are supportive of charters.)

Brisbane acknowledged that many members of the Senate Democratic conference don't currently support her group's stands — such as expanding the numbers of charter schools — but wants to make sure "more and more of them are championing our issues." That list also includes increasing accountability through testing, another point of contention with the teachers union, and "Raise the Age" legislation increasing the age of criminal responsibility.

The Republican majority currently depends on the support of a Brooklyn Democrat, Simcha Felder, who conferences with them. And in a presidential election year, Democrats are likely to pick up seats in November, although they will still need to woo the five-member Independent Democratic Conference to join them to have a majority.

DFER's new strategy "gives them protection for their agenda if the Senate goes Democratic without their help," said Diane Ravitch, a prominent education historian and frequent critic of the charter movement. "If they get their favored candidates elected, then it doesn't matter who controls the State Senate."

Leadership of DFER has also shifted: Shavar Jeffries, who in 2014 lost a high-profile race for mayor of Newark, N.J., with the strong backing of charter supporters, became the group's national president a year ago.

In recent election cycles, the New York State United Teachers union has spent millions to attain Democratic control of the Senate. NYSUT has endorsed mostly Democrats in swing districts this year. But with the fate of the Senate uncertain, NYSUT is also hedging its bets and supporting a Republican incumbent for a competitive Hudson Valley seat, while giving maximum $109,000 contributions to each side of the Senate battle.

Another pro-charter group, New Yorkers For a Balanced Albany, spent millions to help Senate Republicans in 2014 and again spent heavily to help Republican Senate candidate Chris McGrath in a May special election on Long Island; that race was Breaking from allies, charter group to back Democratic control of state Senate - Times Union: