Seattle Event: Closing the Opportunity Gap Detracking and De-Testing. An evening with Carol Burris and Wayne Au | Seattle Education

Seattle Event: Closing the Opportunity Gap Detracking and De-Testing. An evening with Carol Burris and Wayne Au | Seattle Education:

Seattle Event: Closing the Opportunity Gap Detracking and De-Testing. An evening with Carol Burris and Wayne Au

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Garfield High School

Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center

400 23rd Avenue

Seattle, WA 98122  

This event is supported by the Garfield High School PTSA, Seattle Equality Educators (SEE),the Center for Race and Equity and the Seattle Education Association.

Carol Burris, Executive Director of the Network for Public Education Foundation, will deliver a keynote address regarding the tremendous benefits of detracking, and how ranking students based on their perceived intellectual abilities creates de facto segregation in our schools.

Wayne Au, Professor of Education at the University of Washington, Bothell, will also be joining us on a panel of local educators and students who will share their stories and insights regarding inclusion and high-stakes testing.

Carol Burris is the Executive Director of the Network for Public Education Foundation and has been a teacher in both middle and high schools. She received her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University, and is a former high school principal. In 2010, she was named Educator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State, and in 2013, she was named SAANYS New York State High School Principal of the Year. Dr. Burris co-authored Detracking for Excellence and Equity (2008) and Opening the Common Core: How to Bring ALL Students to College and Career Readiness (2012), and authored On the Same Track: How Schools Can Join the 21st Century Struggle against Re-segregation (2014). We welcome her to Seattle to share her wisdom, as we strive for equity and excellence in all of our schools.

Click here for a flyer.

Seattle Event: Closing the Opportunity Gap Detracking and De-Testing. An evening with Carol Burris and Wayne Au | Seattle Education:

Boycott Carl Paladino

Boycott Carl Paladino:

To the best of our knowledge, these businesses are owned and/or operated, in part or in total, by Carl Paladino and/or Ellicott Development. While we take pity on the employees of these businesses, we feel no one should work for a known racist.

Charter Schools (read more about Paladino’s charter school dealings here)

• Aloma D Johnson Community Charter School
• Applied Technologies Charter School
• Charter School of Inquiry
• Health Sciences Charter School
• Tapestry Charter School
• West Buffalo Charter School

Convenience Stores

• Big Tree Trading Company - 3405 Big Tree Road, Hamburg
• Hamburg Trading Company - 4973 Clark Street, Hamburg
• Allentown Trading Company - 553 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo
• Elliott Square Trading Company - 295 Main Street, Buffalo
• South Buffalo Trading Company - 1005 Abbott Road, Buffalo
• Downtown Trading Company - 51 Broadway Street, Buffalo

Parking Lots

• Swan Parking Ramp - 48 Swan Street, Buffalo
• Main & Swan Parking Lot - 270 Main Street, Buffalo
• Pearl & Court Parking Lot - 50 Court Street, Buffalo
• Pearl & Swan Parking Lot - 100 Pearl Street, Buffalo
• Washington & Swan Parking Lot - 285 Washington Street, Buffalo
• Elliott Airport Parking - 4301 Genesee Street, Cheektowaga

Hotels

• 500 Pearl Street, Buffalo (read more here) (mixed use)
• Country Inn & Suites Buffalo South - 164 B Slade Avenue, West Seneca
• Days Hotel Buffalo Airport - 4345 Genesee Street, Buffalo
• The Giacomo Hotel - 222 1st Street, Niagara Falls
• Hampton Inn Buffalo South - 1750 Ridge Road, West Seneca
• Staybridge Suites Buffalo-Amherst - 1290 Sweet Home Road, Amherst
• Staybridge Suites Buffalo - 164 Slade Avenue, West Seneca
• Wingate by Wyndham Ellicottville - 11 Mill Street, Ellicottville
• Wyndham Garden Buffalo-Williamsville - 5195 Main Street, Williamsville

Apartment buildings

• 1 Delaware Road, Kenmore Avenue, Kenmore
• 10 Symphony Circle Apartments, Buffalo
• 14 North Street Apartments, Buffalo
• 17 Jewett Parkway, Buffalo
• 172 Franklin Street, Buffalo (mixed use)
• 176 Franklin Street, Buffalo
• 173 Elm Street, Buffalo (read more here)
• 269 Colvin Avenue, Buffalo
• 301 Ohio Street, Buffalo
• 351 Linwood Avenue Apartments, Buffalo
• 373 Elmwood Avenue Apartments, Buffalo
• 414 Franklin Street Apartments, Buffalo
• 857 Delaware Avenue Apartments, Buffalo
• 960 Busti Avenue, Buffalo (read more here)
• 1088 Niagara Street, Buffalo
• 1285 Main Street, Buffalo
• 1350 Eggert Road, Amherst
• 2450 Main Street, Buffalo
• 3900 North Buffalo Road, Orchard Park (mixed use)
• The Antonio - 269 Pearl Street, Buffalo
• The Bellasara - 540 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo
• The Belesario - 514 Main Street, Buffalo
• The Commodore - 1240 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo
• Ellicott Square Building Block - Swan and Washington Streets, Buffalo
• Fairmont Creamery Apartments - 199 Scott Street, Buffalo (read more here)
• The Graystone - 24 South Johnson Park, Buffalo (read more here)
• The Mosey - 5191 Main Street, Williamsville
• Pasquale at Waterfront Place - 132 Lakefront Boulevard, Buffalo
• The Sherwood - 140 Linwood Avenue, Buffalo
• Waterfront Place Townhomes - 13 Ojibwa Circle, Buffalo

Miscellaneous

• Dollar Rent-a-Car - 4301 Genesee Street, Cheektowaga (read more here)
• Thrifty Car Rental - 4646 Genesee Street, Cheektowaga (read more here)
• See Rite Aid entry under the Commercial Realty Section.

Go to the Boycott Carl Paladino: website

New Year, New Congress - Lily's Blackboard

New Year, New Congress - Lily's Blackboard:

New Year, New Congress

We Urge Members to Hear Our Voices.

However painful 2016 was, a new year offers a fresh start.  This year, we will take nothing for granted.  The challenges we will inevitably face may mean that we can see new strategies and new solutions that would have eluded us in the past.  

2017 marks the start of the 115th Congress, and we’re reaching out to members of Congress to encourage them to approach the unfolding year with a different perspective, too. We’re asking them to put families ahead of partisan politics and renew America’s commitment to public education so that all students, regardless of ZIP code, have the support, tools and time to learn.

The 114th Congress made history in 2015, when it passed the end of National Test and Punish and replaced it with the Every Student Succeeds Act. It passed because of bipartisan will in the light of the disastrous No Child Left Untested.  Congress came together and listened to educators, and the real winners were our students.

Please take a minute to read our full message to the 115th Congress. Also, follow the conversation on Twitter @NEAMedia.

New Year, New Congress - Lily's Blackboard:

John Thompson: Can the School Reform Wars Be Scaled Down? | The Huffington Post

Can the School Reform Wars Be Scaled Down? | The Huffington Post - Linkis.com:

Can the School Reform Wars Be Scaled Down?

As 2016 comes to a close, we must think deeply and communicate sincerely about the lessons to be learned from the election of Donald Trump. During the holidays, I forbade myself from writing on policy so I wouldn’t be distracted by specific policy issues, as opposed to contemplating the big picture questions about the causes, the effects, and the alternatives to Trumpism.

I didn’t go cold turkey in forsaking the analysis of school improvement issues, however. When the craving became irresistible, I exchanged emails with neoliberal and conservative school reformers. I proposed that regardless of our positions on test-driven, competition-driven reforms, we should put them on the backburner, unite, and oppose the racism, sexism, and xenophobia that Trump proclaims. The Trump presidency is fundamentally different than even that of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, or George W. Bush. Education activists certainly shouldn’t collaborate with such an administration in order to expand charters or advance any other specific agendas.

Neither should educators take advantage of the split between conservative and neoliberal reformers if it undermines an opportunity for us to collaboratively fight Trump’s hate-filled persona and irresponsible and dangerous policies on immigration, the climate, civil rights, and foreign policy. (If reformers continue to treat teachers as the enemy, however, then our educational civil war will continue to undermine progressive alternatives.) Although the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) Rick Hess may not agree with much of my proposal, I’m pleased that the conservative Hess is responsive to the call for a new conversation.

Hess’ “Seven Reflections on School Reform in 2017” begins with advice to his allies, “Keep an eye out for thought bubbles. It’s easy to talk only to people who think like you do.” He warns top-down school reformers to “steer clear of words that have been stripped of meaning,” such as “best practices,” “differentiation,” “21st century skills,” “rigor,” and “accountability.” The inimitable Hess observes:

Most of the time, it’s not clear what any of these placeholders really mean. They’re often just a way to skip past complicated questions. The problem is that mushy Can the School Reform Wars Be Scaled Down? | The Huffington Post - Linkis.com:

Hasta La Vista Arne! Duncan’s Failed Education Legacy | The Progressive

Hasta La Vista Arne! Duncan’s Failed Education Legacy | The Progressive:

Hasta La Vista Arne! Duncan’s Failed Education Legacy

As the Obama administration winds down, it’s only natural that some officials make their legacy statements. So here comes former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to sum up what, exactly, we have to show for his eight years in office. This may seem like a pointless exercise, but as we move into the Trump-DeVos era, looking at all the targets that Duncan and the current Education Secretary John “Duncan Lite” King set up, shot at, and missed can help us understand where we are.

For those of us who have been following him, Duncan’s narrative was familiar; (you can find similar bits and pieces in his 2010 UNESCO speech). Here’s the gist:

U.S. schools are failing and lying about it—telling students they’re doing well when they aren’t. The answer is national standards to create a uniform data base that would let us measure every student against every other student. That, in turn, would let us find all the great teachers. (And then we will move those teachers around so that all students have access to them). Meanwhile, we will foster the growth of a charter school industry which will foster laboratories of innovation, creating whole new methods of teaching. We’ll get things started early,with pre-K schooling, building an all-inclusive cradle-to-career pipeline, and turn the education system into a lean, efficient machine for cranking out super-duper citizens, who will make the nation so competitive that their educated awesomeness will erase poverty.

Now let’s look at Duncan’s self-proclaimed list of achievements:

• Most states have higher learning standards and better assessments.

The dream of unified national standards, measured by uniform national standardized tests, is dead. The Common Core has gone into hiding, afraid to even speak its own name, and the national testing framework is a shambles.

• We have more children in early learning programs.

As of 2014, only around five states have more than 50 percent enrollment in pre-K. And we have no idea how good any of these programs are. Meanwhile, K-2 programs increasingly cut critical play and recess time for inappropriate academic learning. Duncan also cheers the fact that test scores are up in lower grades; he does not talk about what it has cost to raise those Hasta La Vista Arne! Duncan’s Failed Education Legacy | The Progressive:

Keeping Schools Safe, Happy Places for Everyone - NEA Today

Keeping Schools Safe, Happy Places for Everyone - NEA Today:

Keeping Schools Safe, Happy Places for Everyone

When you walk into school in the morning, you want the climate to be happy, welcoming and supportive. But what if you are unable to feel any of those things? In some schools, hostilities seethe under the surface and boil over into bullying and fights. Rather than connection there’s a sense of alienation that hangs over the school like a storm cloud. In schools with negative school climates, achievement and attendance drop, and teacher churn begins to rise.

Following the tumultuous events of 2016, our schools and our young people are determined more than ever to create positive school climates. Indeed, events from last year—including a factious presidential election—highlighted the importance of a positive school climate, where everyone in the school community feels a sense of safety, belonging and well-being.

To learn more about school climate and what some schools are doing to improve it, NEA Today talked to Maureen Costello, Director of Teaching Tolerance, a program of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

What are some school climate programs in place that educators can adapt for their schools at a low cost?

There are a lot of them – Not In Our School, No Place for Hate , Day of Silence, and one of our programs, Speak Up at School, to name a few. These are all programs that encourage students to be “upstanders” rather than bystanders and to confront bullying and bias when they hear it. Another way to improve school climate is Keeping Schools Safe, Happy Places for Everyone - NEA Today:

 

Girding For The Education Fight Ahead

Girding For The Education Fight Ahead:

Girding For The Education Fight Ahead

If you want to get an idea of what kind of education policies to expect from a Donald Trump administration, Wall St. has a clue for you.

A report from BuzzFeed explains, online charter schools are “gearing up for a boom during the Trump administration, judging by where investors are placing their bets.”

The article points to K12 Inc., which is the country’s largest operator of online charters, whose stock price has risen in value by more than 50 percent since Election Day – hitting a 2-year high at one point.

The article quotes K12 executives who’ve “told investors the company was one of the ‘best positioned under Trump,” especially due to the “‘personal’ experiences that high-level Trump administration members have with the company.”

Among Trump personnel who’ve had these “experiences” with K12 is his pick for US Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.

As the article notes, Betsy DeVos’ husband Dick is “an early investor in K12.” Another in the Trump entourage who is close to online charters is his Vice President-Elect Mike Pence. As governor of Indiana, Pence advocated for more “school choice” in the state, including online charters.

Online charter schools operated by K12 have a particularly poor track record for academic achievement, as the BuzzFeed story notes.

A recent article in the Washington Post reports on a study that finds these schools are so bad that students enrolled in them “lost an average of about 72 days of learning in reading and 180 days of learning in math during the course of a 180-day school year … In other words, when it comes to math, it’s as if the students did not attend school at all.”

A recent assessment of the academic performance of online charter schools in Indiana found that nearly half of them are doing poorly or failing.

Trump’s “school choice” agenda will also likely include a way to give parents school vouchers they can use to pull their Girding For The Education Fight Ahead:

Education issues to watch in 2017 – and predictions of what to expect | EdSource

Education issues to watch in 2017 – and predictions of what to expect | EdSource:

Education issues to watch in 2017 – and predictions of what to expect

The first week in January is like the first day of spring training: Everyone’s an expert on predicting what Gov. Jerry Brown will sign and veto and who’ll win the World Series.

Some forecasters, though, are more clairvoyant than others. A year ago, I predicted with absolute certainty that state voters would defeat a $9 billion school construction bond (they passed it) and that the courts wouldn’t even take up the Vergara lawsuit, involving teacher protections, in 2016 (they ruled on it).

More on those predictions below. Unchastened, I offer 10 K-12 issues to follow in 2017, with a forecast of what, if anything, will happen during the year. The scale ranges from 1 to 5 “Fensters,” with 1 meaning no chance, and 5 meaning highly likely.

The Trump effect

Keep one eye on Washington and the other on Sacramento this year to see if the Trump and Brown administrations are in conflict or in concert on a bunch of issues this year. There may be contentious disagreements.

Vouchers

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump put forward a vaguely-worded $20 billion school choice plan that included vouchers for private schools. Then, as president-elect, he nominated Betsy DeVos as the next secretary of education. She’s a crusader for school vouchers that would give parents tuition for the traditional public, charter, private or religious schools of their choosing. But California voters have twice overwhelmingly defeated private school voucher initiatives, and the Democrat-dominated Legislature and Brown would spurn the idea, too.

There are many scenarios for a Trump-DeVos voucher/school choice plan, some of which would meet more resistance in Congress than others.

Likelihood that Trump immediately will propose a $20 billion voucher plan that would eat into Title I funding for low-income students and require Congress to revise Education issues to watch in 2017 – and predictions of what to expect | EdSource:

Claudio Sanchez Predictions For What Will Happen In Education In 2017 : NPR Ed : NPR

Claudio Sanchez Predictions For What Will Happen In Education In 2017 : NPR Ed : NPR:

5 Education Stories To Watch In 2017

NPR Ed's Claudio Sanchez gives us his top five education predictions for 2017.

LA Johnson/NPR

 Every year for the past few years, I've dusted off my crystal ball and offered a few predictions for the new year. Back on November 9 though, I threw out the ones I had been working on and started over. The election of Donald Trump altered the landscape for K-12 and higher education and created greater political uncertainty in the debate over how to improve schools. Here's my revised, updated list of predictions for 2017.

Prediction No. 1

Donald Trump's focus on school choice, vouchers and his overall ambivalence about the federal role in education will complicate matters for ESSA (the Every Student Succeeds Act). That's the recently revised federal law through which billions of dollars flow to states and local school districts. Most of that money targets low-income kids and students with learning disabilities.

Now, though, how that money is distributed and who gets it is an open question. The new administration is likely to encourage more private, for-profit groups to compete with public schools for that money. Watch for a significant disruption in 2017 as states try to figure out how the Education Department under Trump will move forward, especially on education funding and government sponsored vouchers.

As Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers warns: "There will be a war." Which leads to:

Prediction No. 2

Both the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association — the nation's two largest teachers' unions — have vowed to oppose much of Trump's education agenda. The biggest fights will unfold in GOP-led states where lawmakers have long argued that unions stand in the way of promising reforms because they're more interested in their dues-paying members than they are in children. These political skirmishes will test the political power of unions like never before. I predict that in 2017 we will see unprecedented legal challenges to collective bargaining rights and the unions' power to collect dues.

Prediction No. 3

My third prediction is that one of the casualties of a leaner federal education budget will be early childhood education. Remember that the Obama administration supported the expansion of quality preschool because of the social and academic benefits that the research is pointing to. This created incentives in many states to invest more of their own money in preschool programs by matching federal funds for Claudio Sanchez Predictions For What Will Happen In Education In 2017 : NPR Ed : NPR:

A MUST READ for 2017 - FIRST DO NO HARM – Progressive Education in a Time of Existential Risk

A MUST READ for 2017 - FIRST DO NO HARM – Progressive Education in a Time of Existential Risk by Steve Nelson - Wait What?:

A MUST READ for 2017 – FIRST DO NO HARM – Progressive Education in a Time of Existential Risk by Steve Nelson

Our future depends on preparing today’s young women and men to be thoughtful, creative, engaged citizens. They must be fully alive, in love with the natural world and each other. They must be skeptical, not compliant. They must be deeply idealistic and speak truth to power. They must see the planet as their home, not as an endless source of material goods. They must see all people as their neighbors, not as their competitors in a global contest for military and economic superiority.

-From First Do No Harm, Progressive Education in a Time of Existential Risk

Rather than continue the unrelenting assault on public education that is taking place in the United States, what if we actually worked to develop an American public education system that provided each and every child with the ability to live more fulfilling and productive lives?

That is the essential question that underpins educator and education advocate Steve Nelson’s new book, First Do No Harm, Progressive Education in a Time of Existential Risk.

Using a straight-forward, direct and forceful approach, Steve Nelson lays out the fundamental prospective that rather than turning our classrooms into standardized testing factories and profit centers for the corporate education reform industry, we must reject the dangerous and failed strategies that rely on the expansion of conventional “factory-styled” education, charter schools, the Common Core, the Common Core testing scheme and false assessments that serve as the basis for the notion that punishing students and teachers is was the way to improve academic A MUST READ for 2017 - FIRST DO NO HARM – Progressive Education in a Time of Existential Risk by Steve Nelson - Wait What?:

Bailed-out Oakland schools are back in financial trouble - San Francisco Chronicle

Bailed-out Oakland schools are back in financial trouble - San Francisco Chronicle:

Bailed-out Oakland schools are back in financial trouble

Well before the state had to bail out the Oakland Unified School District in 2003, fiscal experts warned school officials that their overspending was going to land them in big trouble. That didn’t stop the district from running up a $37 million deficit, resulting in a state takeover and record bailout that Oakland Unified is still repaying.

Nearly 14 years later, district officials are once again spending more than they have and acknowledge that urgent action is needed to stave off another fiscal crisis.

As he heads out the door for his new job at the head of the Washington, D.C., schools, Superintendent Antwan Wilson is expected to lay out a dire financial forecast this month showing Oakland’s school spending exceeding its revenue by $30 million next year.

Wilson insists that the situation is different from last decade, when California loaned the district $100 million and removed local control for six years. Back then, the school board was blindsided by an accounting error that hid the true size of Oakland’s deficit, Wilson said in an interview.

This time, there’s a clear picture of a bloated spending plan that well exceeds anticipated incoming Bailed-out Oakland schools are back in financial trouble - San Francisco Chronicle:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: It's Trump who should be worried. #NoDAPL shows up in Pasadena

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: It's Trump who should be worried. #NoDAPL shows up in Pasadena:

It's Trump who should be worried. #NoDAPL shows up in Pasadena

Lots of folks are worried about the fate of the #NoDAPL movement once Trump takes office. I understand their fears. But from my vantage point, it looks like Trump and Dakota Access Pipeline are the ones who should be worried. They thought the movement had gone into hibernation for the winter. They were wrong.

With hundreds of water protectors still dug in up in Standing Rock, look who showed up at yesterday's Rose Parade.

From the L.A. Daily News:

 Hundreds of local water activists, Native American tribes and veterans pushed a float adorned with a “Water is Sacred” teepee and carried the plastic black pipeline as they marched down Colorado Boulevard chanting “Water is life” and “We are water protectors,” among other things.

The protest was organized by the Bernie Sanders Brigade, which marched in support of the then-presidential candidate at last year’s parade. 

“It was important to take over the end of the Rose Parade to unify people to get the Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: It's Trump who should be worried. #NoDAPL shows up in Pasadena:

Important Perspectives on the Danger of Betsy DeVos | janresseger

Important Perspectives on the Danger of Betsy DeVos | janresseger:

Important Perspectives on the Danger of Betsy DeVos

As Donald Trump begins his presidency, a danger is that those of us who care about public education will give up and neglect to stand up for this institution that has defined our society. Maybe—when the Affordable Care Act and stability in the Middle East and civil rights protections and the minimum wage and nuclear nonproliferation and programs to curtail climate change are all being threatened—we’ll just capitulate. Maybe we’ll just hope dysfunction in Washington will thwart Betsy DeVos’s radical quest to steal essential funds from Title I and the already paltry federal budget line for schools to serve children under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and use the money to expand vouchers and charter schools nationwide.  Because we’ve taken our public school system for granted for so long, we may simply forget to defend public education.

Our democracy is complex enough, however, to entertain debate and develop policy simultaneously on a multitude of issues, and no one program or issue is more important than any other. Those of us who care about the public schools must speak up at this juncture when the schools that serve over 90 percent of our society’s children and adolescents are at risk from the policies of this new administration.  We cannot permit the protest against Betsy DeVos and her policies to be characterized merely as a battle between the teachers unions and the Trump administration. We all need to speak up.

Here are some examples of important ways people are speaking up to defend public education and opposing the nomination and likely policies of Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education.

In a wonderful column over the holidays for the NY Times, Timothy Egan profiles the governor of Montana, Steve Bullock, who made sure to mention the public schools in his Important Perspectives on the Danger of Betsy DeVos | janresseger:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: What happened when Washington Middle School dissolved Spectrum?

Seattle Schools Community Forum: What happened when Washington Middle School dissolved Spectrum?:

What happened when Washington Middle School dissolved Spectrum?

Washington Middle School decided, some time ago, to dissolve its Spectrum classes. Spectrum-eligible students at Washington would no longer be in self contained classes for English and Social Studies, but would be mixed in with the general education students, called "scholars".

The school promised that the inclusive classroom would provide more rigorous instruction for all students and that all students would benefit. Is that what happened?

Here is a link to Washington's CSIP. In it, we find the results of their experiment. But first, the propaganda:

Mission Statement: "Our mission at WMS is to create a safe, trusting, collaborative, learning-focused community where we can all be our BEST selves."

"In addition, we will create more rigorous classes by clustering Spectrum and Scholar students in all English Language Arts and Social Studies classes. This practice will end the deleterious results that come from tracking students."

How does filling a class with students of mixed abilities create more rigorous classes? Is rigor a function of who is in the room or a function of what is taught? Why couldn't the rigor of the class be increased without mixing the students? If mixing students of different abilities and achievement increases Seattle Schools Community Forum: What happened when Washington Middle School dissolved Spectrum?:

Guarding Democracy « Dad Gone Wild

Guarding Democracy « Dad Gone Wild:

GUARDING DEMOCRACY

A few weeks ago, the Tennessee Department of Education released an early Christmas present: last year’s TNReady scores. In case you are not familiar with TNReady, it is Tennessee’s version of an annual standardized test. I know, you are probably like me and thinking, “What the hell good are scores from last year in the middle of December?” Releasing them now is just an offshoot of the multiple problems that Tennessee had with standardized testing last year. It’s really no surprise that they are just releasing them now, just in time for some holiday hand wringing.

According to Tennessean reporter Jason Gonzales, “Only 22.8 percent of all high school students are listed as on track or mastered reading in their grade level, and 12.2 percent are on track or mastered their grade level in math.” That means if I walk into a roomful of 100 students in Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), only 23 of them will be reading on grade level and only 12 will be able to do adequate math. Hmmmm…. What about in neighboring Williamson County where they are known for their superior schools? Take that same room of 100 and only 41 will be able to read or do math on a grade level. Anything starting to smell a little fishy?

Think about this. We are giving kids a test where only 41% are deemed on track or better in our very best schools under the very best circumstances. What? If I showed up at your place of employment and gave you a test that less than 41% of the staff could pass, would you not raise questions about the validity of the assessment? So why are we not questioning the validity of these tests? Why are we instead wringing our hands, rending our garments, and blindly accepting that our kids are underperforming?

What if I showed up in a classroom of 6th graders and said that I believe running a 100-yard dash in under 9 seconds is essential to your success as a human being? We all Guarding Democracy « Dad Gone Wild:

Big Name Charters Flee Tennessee’s ASD | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Big Name Charters Flee Tennessee’s ASD | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

Big Name Charters Flee Tennessee’s ASD

Tennessee’s Achievement School District, or ASD for short, is one of the most high profile education experiments in the country.  In 2011, fueled by winning a Race To The Top grant, then education commissioner and former TFA vice president and former husband of Michelle Rhee, Kevin Huffman hired TFA alum and founder of Houston’s YES Prep charter schools Chris Barbic to be the ASD’s first superintendent.

Every three years Tennessee releases a ‘priority schools’ list.  These are the schools whose test scores put them in the bottom 5% of the state.  The way the ASD was set up, schools on the priority list can be taken over by the state and managed by the ASD or the ASD can authorize a charter school to take over one of those schools.  According to their website, “The Achievement School District was created to catapult the bottom 5% of schools in Tennessee straight to the top 25% in the state.”  Their time frame for accomplishing this was five years.  They started with six schools in 2011 and they currently have about 30 schools in the ASD.

In April 2016, Chalkbeat Tennessee published an unofficial priority list, four years into the ASD experiment.  Of the original six schools, Frayser (0.8%), Cornerstone (2.1%), Westside (2.2%), Corning (2.3%), Humes (2.5%), and Brick Church (6.6%), five were in the bottom 3% while one ‘catapulted’ to the bottom 7%.  But they still had one more year to make a comeback.  Unfortunately because of glitches in their state testing, the standardized tests for grades 3-8 in Tennessee were invalidated last year so we will never Big Name Charters Flee Tennessee’s ASD | Gary Rubinstein's Blog: