Sunday, February 10, 2013

by robinclane

Just finished watching Jon Stewart’s interview with Michelle Rhee. She mostly focused on specific policies she highlights in her new book — teacher evaluation, “accountability,” school closings, etc. — that many of us progressive educators can agree are anti-student as well as anti-teacher. But beyond all of that, there are two things I haven’t heard much discussion about that I’d like to bring up about Rhee and the premise from which she functions.
1. Michelle Rhee wasn’t an effective teacher, by her own definition of the word.
So, I just wikipedia’ed her (I know, not the most reliable, but I did check the sources) and it turns out that in her first year of teaching, her students’ test scores — as meaningless as those may be — diminished significantly. Then, in her second two years, she looped with the same students and had a co-teacher, and her students’ scores increased. So… if what Michelle Rhee needed to be a successful teacher by her standards (aka – your

I have some concerns about the #studentvoice in #edreform – @ the chalk face

I have some concerns about the #studentvoice in #edreform – @ the chalk face:

I have some concerns about the #studentvoice in #edreform

by Chalk Face, PhD

I will keep this brief. I have other things to do.
But I have some concerns that I feel like I need to air to see if I’ve got this correct or if anyone else is feeling it too.
Right now, groups on numerous sides of the education reform debate are finally asking students to speak out. There’s a bunch of different student-organized clubs or groups that advocate for education-specific causes. That’s excellent. We can’t complain if teachers are left out of the debate as we ignore students.
But I’m starting to feel icky. There’s one student advocate out there right now who will remain nameless. This person was catapulted into the spotlight, the head of every edreform table as of late. I am very excited to hear about this person. I’ve spoken to them and I look forward to meeting them in the not too distant future.

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Apparently, I'm Not the Only One

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Apparently, I'm Not the Only One:

Apparently, I'm Not the Only One

by Melissa Westbrook

In the continuing saga over opposing the BEX because of the interim plan vote, I have seen some new e-mails.

One interesting item to note is that BOTH the Eckstein PTA as well as the Seattle Council PTSA support both levies. It would seem Eckstein's elected parent leadership is for the BEX. And, if the Seattle Council PTSA had serious issues with either levy, you'd think they would have brought them up.

One PTA president (who will remain nameless) asked Ms. Sweet to cease and desist sending out the emails, calling them "unprofessional."

(Ms. Sweet had sent out an e-mail to the presidents of the Seattle PTAs (all that she could find - I know, it's tough trying to find them all and the Seattle Council PTSA won't help you). But she did say something telling:

"Based on what we have learned, we imagine that other schools may be facing similar issues related to capacity

Testing - What Does it Reveal?

by Melissa Westbrook

Psychology Today put forth this article by researcher Susan Engel, "What Test Scores Don't Tell Us: The Naked Emperor." Ms Engel reviewed over 200(!) studies of K-12 standardized tests.

What I have discovered is startling- most tests used to evaluate students, teachers, and school districts predict almost nothing except similar scores on subsequent tests. I have found virtually no research demonstrating a relationship between those tests and measures of thinking on the one hand, or life outcomes on the other. To grasp what we do and do not (yet) know about standardized tests, it’s worth considering a few essential puzzles:

School Tech Connect: The View From Sunday

School Tech Connect: The View From Sunday:

The View From Sunday

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

Man, the gloom hanging over Chicago today was intense.

Anyway, Rogers Park Neighbors For Public Schools is on the march, growing so fast I can hardly keep up with it. At the end of today's meeting I realized we had organizational activities every night this week, which means my dogs will be very, very unhappy by Friday night.

On a positive note, I've learned enough about computers over the past two years that I managed to repair my own MacBook Pro, which if you'll remember, I dropkicked down the escalator at the train station. I work with some kids who never, ever give up on a repair, and the experience has rubbed off on me.

Our Book Club: A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey | United Opt Out National

Our Book Club: A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey | United Opt Out National:

Our Book Club: A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey

by admin

United Opt Out National began an online book club approximately two months ago and it appears that it is here to stay; we’d like to invite everyone to join us. Our meeting time is on Sunday at 4 p.m. EST on our Occupy the DOE in DC page. Next week we will finish the final chapter of The Future of Our Schools: Teachers Unions and Social Justice by Lois Weiner and we will begin by reading the introduction of A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey. See you Sunday. If you are interested in learning more about our event in April please check out our official schedule.

Help Has Arrived!: Banishing NCLB’s Narrow Paradigm | Cloaking Inequity

Help Has Arrived!: Banishing NCLB’s Narrow Paradigm | Cloaking Inequity:

Help Has Arrived!: Banishing NCLB’s Narrow Paradigm

How can we banish NCLB’s top-down and narrow paradigm? Here is how you do it…

Accountability should foster collective community goals.
In education, there are many measures of student success from school entry through graduation and beyond.

Here are Community-Based Accountability Executive Summary and Key Features. Please forward and circulate widely. These are living documents and will be revised as feedback and comments occur.

I am giddy, are you ready for a new idea for accountability that emphasizes local control?

I have included the Key Features of Community-Based Accountability below.

Birth of Accountability

Texas was one of the earlier states to develop statewide testing systems during the 1980s. The state adopted

Webinar: Teacher Jesse Hagopian of Garfield High School- How it can happen at your school « Seattle Education

Webinar: Teacher Jesse Hagopian of Garfield High School- How it can happen at your school « Seattle Education:

Webinar: Teacher Jesse Hagopian of Garfield High School- How it can happen at your school

by seattleducation2011

A webinar with Garfield High School Teacher Jesse Hagopian

A free webinar featuring Jesse Hagopian, Garfield teacher and alumnus, as he discusses the background and current state of the fight to Scrap The Map.

Today at 5pm PST.

You must register via email to receive an invitation to the webinar:

Write to garfieldteacherswebinar@gmail.com

You will then receive a link to the webinar and easy technical directions for utilizing the free, online, web meeting service.

Daily Kos: Sacramento School District Rushing to Close 1/5 of its Elementary Schools

Daily Kos: Sacramento School District Rushing to Close 1/5 of its Elementary Schools:

On January 16th, the Sacramento City Unified School District announced that it was planning to close 11 elementary schools - 1/5 of the total elementary schools in the entire district. This came as a shock to many, since city voters had just overwhelmingly passed Measures Q and R, providing $414 million in bonds to fund repairs and expansion recommended by the District's own Facilities Master Plan. Now, two months later, the same officials are claiming that a"District Right-Sizing" plan is urgently needed to address budget problems and declines in enrollment. These cuts are so pressing, according to the District, that a final vote on the school closures is being held on February 21st, just five weeks after they were announced.

Parents in Sacramento are raising serious concerns about the process used to select schools to close, the District's failure to follow established practices for school closures, and the possible motives behind this sudden rush to close schools. We'll look into these questions, and local reaction, after the jump.

The Sacramento City Unified School District claims that the 11 schools selected for closure

Missouri Education Watchdog: Another State Legislative Hearing on the Common Core Standards

Missouri Education Watchdog: Another State Legislative Hearing on the Common Core Standards:

Another State Legislative Hearing on the Common Core Standards

by stlgretchen

MO Coalition Against Common Core Brochure

Click on the brochure to download a copy.

From politicalchips.org:

Time: February 14, 2013 from 1:30pm to 2:30pm
Location: State Capital
City/Town: Topeka, KS
Event Type: hearing

The legislators in various states are finally waking up to the enormous costs of the unfunded Federal mandate which leave local and state school boards with no authority over what and how our K-12 students are taught. This hearing on the 14th is an important

UPDATE: THE Enemy is TESTING + Fear of Creativity – @ the chalk face

Fear of Creativity – @ the chalk face:

Fear of Creativity

by Kris Nielsen

On her blog, Kate Edson (who is a spare-time frugality researcher) tells about a book she is reading and offers these words:

Everyone is born creative. However sometime between kindergarten and today, perhaps during the tumultuous time called adolescence, doubt creeps in and we may think we aren’t creative. Fear

THE Enemy is TESTING. Enlist educators against it.

by Chalk Face, PhD

Testing is the disease.

21st Century Education Is the Way Forward | toteachornototeach

21st Century Education Is the Way Forward | toteachornototeach:

21st Century Education Is the Way Forward

by aristotlethewise

21st Century Education Is the Way Forward

by John Thomas
Everywhere you turn in education today, you hear mention of “21st Century Learning.” It is very natural that whenever there is talk about “change,” there is anxiety and confusion until people fully understand what is meant by the change. A parent in a very direct and honest way reached out to me recently after hearing me talk about the growing emphasis of teaching, collaboration, creativity, and critical problem solving. “I don’t get it!” he said, “I went to school and did well. My oldest kids have gone through school and it looked exactly the way it was when I went to school. I didn’t like school, but I got through it and I’ve done well.” Then he added, “So what is this talk about “changing” school? I don’t understand what you mean by 21st Century Learning? What’s the definition of it?”
It is hard to fully grasp such an abstract concept when we have been all through school and have all succeeded. “Why fix what’s not broken?” is a common refrain. But let’s be honest — education is broken. The world is changing. The skillset needed in the world today is far different than the one needed just a few years ago. The

What is the truth about the new Windham STEM Magnet? - Wait, What?

What is the truth about the new Windham STEM Magnet? - Wait, What?:

What is the truth about the new Windham STEM Magnet?

by jonpelto

A major controversy is brewing about the operating agreement that will govern Windham’s new Charles H. Barrows STEM Academy. Recruitment for the K-8 magnet school is beginning and the school will be opening in September 2013.

The Agreement, as proposed by Windham’s Special Master Steven Adamowski and approved by the Windham Board of Education, includes the concept that “New students entering beyond grade 3 must be reading at grade level.”

As Windham’s Board of Education Chairman explained in a recent email, “That language is in a section referring to students who transfer into openings in an ongoing Magnet School class. It does not apply to ANY student applying to enroll in initial classes during

Diane in the Evening 2-10-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Exclude Students with Disabilities to Raise Test Scores

by dianerav

This is not a new trick. It is proven to work. Remove students with disabilities from the mandated tests and the scores go up.
You won’t be surprised where this is happening. Read about it here.
After all, what matters most? Kids or test scores? In another era, we might have said without thinking twice that kids mater most. But in the age of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, that’s no longer true. The fate of schools, principals, and teachers depend on test scores.
This is sad. It’s wrong. It’s unethical. It’s malpractice.

Georgia: “The Chaos Theory of Running Our Schools”

by dianerav

Myra Blackmon, a columnist for the Athens, Georgia, Banner-Herald, explains how the state legislature is determined to destabilize and disrupt public education with a wacky “parent trigger” bill. Read her terrific analysishere.
It won’t do anything to improve education nor will it “empower” parents, but it will make ALEC and others advocates of privatization very happy.

Amazing Reporting on New Orleans Charters

by dianerav

Bobby Jindal went to Virginia to boast of the miraculous transformation of education in Louisiana, all attributable to the magic of replacing public schools with privately managed, deregulated charters.
This is an oft-told tale, repeated again and again by advocates of privatization in both political parties and endlessly regurgitated by an uncurious and credulous media.
But something amazing happened when th

Bad News from Sacramento

by dianerav

A reader from Sacramento warns that privatization is moving rapidly in his city:
Here in Sacramento we are facing an all out assault by the privatisation armies. Sacramento City Unified School District has slated eleven elementary schools for closure under their “Children First” and “Right Sizing” plan. Instead of following the six month plan our state dept of ed suggests for closing a school they are pushing it to a vote in one month. We have about a week and a half until eleven of our communities are decemated. Our superintendent – Jonathan Raymond – is a big player in the republican hierarchy with no educational experience. He hired a local charter school bigwig as his chief of staff. To make matters worse our mayor – Kevin Johnson –

This Boy Is Not a Striver

by dianerav

A few weeks ago, I posted a column by Mike Petrilli defending the idea that charters skim the best, most ambitious kids from public schools. The column was refreshing in that Mike abandoned the usual reformer pretense that charters enroll “exactly” the same children as public schools and get amazing results. Mike said that charters are for “strivers,” not for the others.
Here is a story about a non-striver and his teacher. Would the charters want him?

We Must Out-Educate and Out-Innovate Other Nations | Group Think | BillMoyers.com

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago

We Must Out-Educate and Out-Innovate Other Nations | Group Think | BillMoyers.com: We Must Out-Educate and Out-Innovate Other Nations By Diane Ravitch, Professor, New York University [image: Diane Ravitch] Diane Ravitch My fellow Americans, I have said in previous addresses on this occasion that the key to our future success is to make sure that the education we provide our young people is the best in the world. I have said that we must out-educate and out-innovate other nations. Over the past four years, I have learned what we need to do. First, we must end the pressure on teachers... more »

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-10-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Could Mark Zuckerberg Please Fix This Newark Problem? by dianerav Mark Zuckerberg paid out $100 million to fix Newark’s schools. Millions have been spent on consultants. Probably lots more charters too, free to push out kids they don’t want. But couldn’t some of Mark’s millions be spent to Great News: How to Succeed without Corporate Reforms by dianerav In this superb article in the New York Times, David Kirp shows how the public schools of Union City, New Jersey,succeeded despite all the obstacles of pov... more »

House Charter School Bill Corrupted by Cozy Relationship Between Tony Bennett and Charter Schools USA | Scathing Purple Musings

House Charter School Bill Corrupted by Cozy Relationship Between Tony Bennett and Charter Schools USA | Scathing Purple Musings:

House Charter School Bill Corrupted by Cozy Relationship Between Tony Bennett and Charter Schools USA

by Bob Sikes

House Charter School Bill Corrupted by Cozy Relationship

Between Tony Bennett and Charter Schools USA

Chris Moya, Charter Schools USA lobbyist testified this week that Rep. George Moraitis charter school bill was about ‘improving accountability”. Moya and Florida Charter School Alliance lobbyist Jim Horne’s smug performances this week were justified. The new bag of goodies for their clients are assured of being delivered. The fix is already in.
Within several clauses of PCB CIS 1301 are numerous references to “high performing charter schools” who would benefit from the public school facility take-over intentions of the bill. This prompted inquiry as to what criteria established such a lofty status. FLDOE official, Michael Kooi, a former charter school lobbyist himself, dryly brushed aside such concerns as the bill’s nuances would only benefit one – KIPP Schools of Jacksonville. There’s no way that Moya and Horne were going to correct their colleague and call attention to

Sorry, Kirp’s Fix Another Flawed Discourse on Ed Reform – @ the chalk face

Sorry, Kirp’s Fix Another Flawed Discourse on Ed Reform – @ the chalk face:

Sorry, Kirp’s Fix Another Flawed Discourse on Ed Reform

by plthomasedd

Before I could find David Kirp’s “The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools,” I received by email and discovered on Twitter a series of enthusiastic praise from friends, colleagues, and like-minded progressives and left-leaning radicals.
So let me be the first to say, “Sorry, but Kirp’s fix is yet another flawed public commentary about the state of schools and the needed education reform.”
Now, briefly, let me count the ways:
(1) The headline reinforces the “bad” schools narrative that keeps the political and public gaze on the school as the sole cause-agent of educational outcomes.
(2) Kirp’s description of Union City triggers the flawed and misleading “miracle” school narrative.

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Corporate reformers and union haters target Zimmer in L.A. board race

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Corporate reformers and union haters target Zimmer in L.A. board race:

Corporate reformers and union haters target Zimmer in L.A. board race

by Mike Klonsky

I have done several posts on various local school board elections which recently have become targets for corporate reform types bent on district takeovers. Their aim is to gain control of hundreds of school district budgets and shift money away from neighborhood public schools and into the pockets of private charter school operators.

In October, I referred to a piece in The Nation which asked

Short Notes: Dear Chris Lehmann [This Time, It's About You] | The Jose Vilson

Short Notes: Dear Chris Lehmann [This Time, It's About You] | The Jose Vilson:

Short Notes: Dear Chris Lehmann [This Time, It's About You]

by Jose Vilson

Chris Lehmann and … Chris Lehmann

A few links:

Amidst all the talk about Obama’s lack of action regarding Chicago’s daily murders, First Lady Obama attends Hadiya Pendleton’s funeral. [The Root]
ITeach4Change ruminates on the situation at Garfield High School in Seattle. We still need serious reform. [Cooperative Catalyst]
The NAACP asks you to nominate a local hero

Latest News and Comment from Education

Sunday, February 10, 2013