Thursday, December 3, 2020

Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now | Diane Ravitch's blog

Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now | Diane Ravitch's blog
Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now




Audrey Amrein Beardsley writes here about Houston’s experience with value-added evaluation of its teachers.

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) contracted with William Sanders’ SAS to provide a model to calculate the “value-added” of its teachers from 2007-2017.

Teachers objected that the method of calculating their scores was opaque. They couldn’t learn how to improve their practice because Sanders’ methodology was proprietary and secret.

Teachers were fired based on their VAM scores.

The Houston Federation of Teachers sued to stop the use of the “black box” method.

In 2017, a judge agreed and enjoined the use of VAM.

Thus by now, after a decade of VAMMING teachers, Houston should have identified and removed all the “bad” teachers and employ only “effective” or “highly effective” CONTINUE READING: Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now | Diane Ravitch's blog

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How a soccer club won a $1.2 million grant to open a charter school from DeVos’s Education Department - The Washington Post

How a soccer club won a $1.2 million grant to open a charter school from DeVos’s Education Department - The Washington Post
How a soccer club won a $1.2 million grant from DeVos’s Education Department to open a charter school



Here’s a new, rather remarkable story about charter school grants recently awarded by the Education Department — including one for more than $1 million that went to a soccer club in Pennsylvania that had no experience running a school.

This is one of a number of pieces I have run in recent years about the Federal Charter School Program, which has invested close to $4 billion in these schools since it began giving grants in 1995.

Charter schools, a key feature of the “school choice” movement, are financed by the public but privately operated. About 6 percent of U.S. schoolchildren attend charter schools, with California having the most charter schools and the most charter students.

Charters had bipartisan support for years, but a growing number of Democrats have pulled back from the movement, citing the fiscal impact on school districts and repeated scandals in the sector.

Charter supporters say the 30-year-old movement offers important alternatives to traditional public schools, which educate the vast majority of U.S. students, and that the movement is still learning. Opponents say there is little public accountability over many charters and that they drain resources from traditional districts.

Research shows student outcomes are, overall, largely the same in charter and traditional public schools, although there are failures and exemplars in both.

This piece, like a number of earlier ones on charters, was written by Carol Burris, a former New York high school principal who serves as executive director of the Network for Public Education, a nonprofit group that advocates for public education.

Burris, who opposes charter schools, was named the 2010 Educator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State, and in 2013, the National Association of Secondary CONTINUE READING: How a soccer club won a $1.2 million grant to open a charter school from DeVos’s Education Department - The Washington Post

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CURMUDGUCATION: Election Polling and the Big Standardized Test

CURMUDGUCATION: Election Polling and the Big Standardized Test
Election Polling and the Big Standardized Test




From the Washington Post to the Wall Street Journal to the Atlantic and beyond, writers weeks after the election castigating the pollsters for yet another less-than-stellar year. But education writer Larry Ferlazzo moved on to another question—”Could Polling Errors in the 2020 Election Teach Us Something About The Use Of ‘Data’ In Education.”

He’s onto something there. Thinking about the Big Standardized Test from a polling perspective helps illuminate why the tests themselves, and the data-driven philosophy in education, have worked out so poorly.

After all, those big “measure everyone” standardized math and reading tests that states are mandated to give every year are similar to opinion polls—they are trying to measure and quantify what is going on in peoples’ heads. And to work, there are several things the data-gatherers have to get right.

Ask the right questions.

For an election poll, this seems simple enough. “Which candidate are you going to vote for?” But trying to fold in other information like political leanings, positions on other issues, the strength of the voter’s opinions—that gets harder.

For math and reading tests, this part is trickier. Imagine, for instance, you want to know if a student can find the main idea of any piece of writing. Could you measure that by asking just a couple of multiple choice questions? How many questions do you think it takes to figure out whether or not CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Election Polling and the Big Standardized Test
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Politics in the Zoom Room – Have You Heard

Politics in the Zoom Room – Have You Heard
Politics in the Zoom Room




The pandemic pivot to online learning has amped up accusations that teachers are indoctrinating students, as parents “see” what their kids are being taught. We talk to teacher Christina Torres about why politics belongs in the classroom now more than ever. And historian Jon Zimmerman walks us through the long tradition of parents pushing back against classroom content – for good and ill. Complete transcript is here. Have You Heard is entirely listener supported. Help keep the podcast going by supporting us on Patreon or PayPal. 



Big Education Ape: 100th Episode: A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door – Have You Heard - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/100th-episode-wolf-at-schoolhouse-door.html


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LESS TEAM FIDELITY AND MORE TEAM WORK WOULD BE WELCOME – Dad Gone Wild

LESS TEAM FIDELITY AND MORE TEAM WORK WOULD BE WELCOME – Dad Gone Wild
LESS TEAM FIDELITY AND MORE TEAM WORK WOULD BE WELCOME




“I’m stuck on this planet with you. And honestly, I’m glad. I’ve been exposed to a lot of awful people in the last few months, but I’ve met so many more that are amazing, thoughtful, generous, and kind. I honestly believe that is the human condition. And if the Carls are testing us, this final test is the hardest to accomplish. If you pay attention, there is only one story that makes sense, and that is one in which humanity works together more and more since we took over this planet. Yeah, we fuck it up all the time, yeah, there have been some massive steps backward, but look at us! We are one species now more than we have ever been. People fight against that, and they probably always will, but could there be any time in history when what Carl is asking would be more possible?”
― Hank Green, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

I was talking to a friend earlier this week about the current pandemic. “The CDC is predicting that by the end of June, everybody who wants a vaccination will be able to get one’, he said, “but I’m afraid what that means for Tennessee is that we’ll become one of the first states to pass legislation allowing people to opt-out of vaccine’s.”

As outlandish as that statement may seem, I can’t disagree. It would be consistent with how we approach every issue and development these days. Research, analysis, followed by the formation of opinion, have been replaced by the creation and selection of teams. Teams that repeatedly consists of the same players.

Think about every issue we’ve faced recently. Be it the wearing of masks, the severity of the virus, the opening of school buildings, it’s all almost instantly devolved into 2 camps. Once the teams are formed, the arguments shift to discrediting the opposition, instead of finding solutions for the issues at hand.

Look at the opening of the school buildings. Once again, 2 camps. The prevailing arguments assert that all of those who are pushing for school buildings to be open are just looking for baby sitters for their children and a return to their privileged lives. On the other hand, those advocating for schools CONTINUE READING: LESS TEAM FIDELITY AND MORE TEAM WORK WOULD BE WELCOME – Dad Gone Wild

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Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007



Here’s A Message From Santa To You, & Your ELL Students Can Easily Create Their Own!
by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h
OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay SynthesiaSanta invites you to write a script for what you want Santa to say and then uses artificial intelligence to create a video showing Santa actually saying it! English Language Learner students would have a ball with it! I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn About Christmas, Hanukkah, & Kwanzaa . Here’s a message from Santa to readers of this blog: https://
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Ed Policy Issues
by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h
Here are some recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues (You might also be interested in THE BEST ARTICLES, VIDEOS & POSTS ON EDUCATION POLICY IN 2019 – PART TWO ): How DeVos May Have Started a Counterrevolution in Education appeared in The NY Times. States Push to Ditch or Downplay Standardized Tests During Virus Surge is from Ed Week. Could Biden Find a Middle Path on Studen
Thursday’s Must-Read Articles On School Reopenings
by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h
stevepb / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : Europe’s schools still open, still relatively safe, through covid-19 second wave is from The Washington Post. California is failing to provide free and equal education to all during pandemic, suit alleges is from The L.A. Times. This entire second-grade D.C. class fell behind in reading
Ed Tech Digest
by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h
Nine years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be interested in THE BEST ED TECH RESOURCES OF 2020 – PART TWO , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . Here are this w
This Free History Resource Is GREAT For ELL Newcomers!
by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h
Yesterday, I published Here’s An Example Of What I Want To See In A U.S. History Book For Newcomers (& Here’s What Is Out There Now) , where I shared responses to my tweet seeking a U.S. History text accessible to newcomers. Today, I received another tweet: Core Knowledge student readers are free PDFs. They are great! — Rachel (@msschnguyen) December 2, 2020 DUH! I had completely forgotten about
Latest Federal Stimulus Proposal Has Billions For Education
by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d
jaydeep_ / Pixabay Senate Majority Leader McConnell began circulating a draft plan yesterday for a new stimulus package and, depending on who you listen to, it either has $82 billion or $105 billion for education. Both of those amounts are less than the $150 billion the White House offered in the last negotiations they did with Speaker Pelosi but, nevertheless, it’s still not chump change. At thi
A Look Back: Learning From Our Students
by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d
I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my best posts from over the years. You can see the entire collection here . Some people make fun of teachers who say they learn a lot from their students (see The Onion’s Teacher Who Learns More From Her Students 
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