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Monday, July 14, 2014

Charter Renewals FAQs Section 11 - Resources (CA Dept of Education)

Charter Renewals FAQs Section 11 - Resources (CA Dept of Education):



Charter Renewals FAQs Section 11

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) regarding academic performance determinations for charter renewal.




Academic Performance Determinations for Charter Renewal

Q.1. On what must an authorizer base its determination of a charter school's academic performance for purposes of charter renewal?
A. Charter School Renewals include a determination of pupil academic performance based on meeting at least one of five criteria (California Education Code (EC) Section 47606(b) External link opens in new window or tab.:
  1. Attained its Academic Performance Index growth target in the prior year or in two of the last three years both school wide and for all groups of pupils served by the charter school.
  2. Ranked in deciles 5 to 10, inclusive, on the API in the prior year or in two of the last three years.
  3. Ranked in deciles 5 to 10, inclusive, on the API for a demographically comparable school in the prior year or in two of the last three years.
  4. The academic performance of the charter school is at least equal to the performance of public schools that the charter school pupils would otherwise have been required to attend, as well as the performance of the schools in the school district in which the charter school is located, considering the composition of the pupil population that is served at the charter school.
  5. Qualified for an alternative accountability system per EC Section 52052 External link opens in new window or tab.
Q.2. With recent changes in assessment results, school rankings, and Academic Performance Index (API) growth calculations, what state level data is available for charter school renewals in 2014-15 through 2015-16?
A. Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) pupil assessment results in English/language arts or mathematics are not available for Spring 2014 testing. SBAC pupil assessments results will be available after the Spring 2015 administration.
Assembly Bill (AB) 484 amended EC Section 52052(e)(2)(F) External link opens in new window or tab. giving authority to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, with approval of the State Board of Education (SBE), to permit the use of proxies for the API to meet legislative and/or programmatic requirements in 2013-14 and 2014-15, during the transition to new assessments. On March 13, 2014, the SBE approved not calculating the 2014 Growth and Base APIs and the 2015 Growth API, in the absence of Spring 2014 SBAC results. Calculation of the 2014 and 2015 Growth APIs are suspended and will resume in 2016. Additionally, EC Section 52056(a) requiring API ranking of schools was repealed. Schools rankings were calculated for 2013, based on 2013 Growth API, and will no longer be produced, as a result of the 2013 repeal of the statute. An April 2, 2014 letter describes these changes in academic accountability reporting in greater detail.
The three proxies authorized in EC Section 52052(e) External link opens in new window or tab. to meet legislative and/or programmatic requirements are: (1) the most recent API calculation; (2) an average of the three most recent annual API calculations; or (3) alternative measures that show increases in pupil academic achievement for all groups of pupils school wide and among significant student groups. The California Department of Education (CDE) calculated a weighted and unweighted average of the three most recent APIs. These averages can be located on the API Web Page.
The following chart summarizes available state level data over the next three years:
YearAPI GrowthAssessment DataSchool Rankings
2014-15 School Year
No 2014 Growth API; use 2013 Growth API as most recent, 3-year average API (2011/2012/2013), or alternative measuresNo 2014 SBAC Scores for math and ELA.Use 2013 school rankings or rankings for 2 of last 3 years
2015-16 School Year
No 2015 Growth API; use 2013 Growth API as most recent, 3-year average API (2011/2012/2013), or alternative measuresUse 2015 SBAC scores for math and ELA; can compare results with local schoolsNo 2014 rankings; use 2012 and 2013 rankings for 2 of last 3 years.
2016-17 School YearUse 2016 Growth APIUse 2016 SBAC scores for math and ELA; can compare results with local schoolsNo rankings available
Q.3. How does an authorizer notify the CDE when a charter school is renewed?
A. In most cases, the authorizer will submit a copy of the local board minutes indicating the board's action granting renewal of the charter. However, if the authorizer is using other measures of academic achievement as the basis for charter renewal, as outlined above in Criterion #4 in Question 1, the authorizer must complete the Charter School Renewal Academic Performance Determination (DOC) form. The form is submitted upon charter renewal along with supporting documentation and a written summary of the basis for the academic performance determination. See May 13, 2014 letter to Charter Authorizers.
Q.4. How soon after a charter school submits information documenting alternative measures for academic performance is an authorizer allowed to act?
A. The charter authorizer shall not grant renewal until a minimum of 30 days has elapsed after the charter school submits information to its authorizer specific to this determination.
Q.5. How will the CDE use this information?
The Superintendent of Public Instruction may use this information to make recommendations to the authorizer or as the basis for a recommendation to the State Board to revoke a school's charter.
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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: More polls now indicate Rahm can be had

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: More polls now indicate Rahm can be had:



More polls now indicate Rahm can be had

Emanuel's weakness has been known for months—he lost the left ages ago, and has lost Chicagoans more generally over basic competence issues. In the Sun-Times, his response to the poll is an anonymous insult, "laughable." But this same pollster nailed the 2011 race, which Emanuel entered late and won. -- Politico
h/t Brother Fred
There should be no question now that even with his bloated war chest and friends in high low places,Mayor 1% is beatable in his run for re-election. Wednesday's Early & Often poll conducted by We Ask America, shows Karen Lewis and Toni Preckwinkle either leading Rahm head-to-head, or if several candidates run, at least forcing the mayor into a run-off where he would be vulnerable no matter who finishes second on the initial ballot.
  If the mayoral election were held today, the lightning rod union leader who was the architect behind a 2012 teachers’ strike would beat Emanuel by 9 percentage points in a head-to-head contest, the survey found. Lewis was leading Emanuel 45 percent to 36 percent with 18 percent of the likely voters undecided.
And Emanuel could face an even steeper hill if he faces Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, long considered his most formidable challenger. A head-to-head contest found Preckwinkle in a romp vs. Emanuel by a stunning 24 points.
And Ald. Bob Fioretti looks formidable as well at this early stage, in sight of Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: More polls now indicate Rahm can be had:

CHEAP!

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The Case Against “reformers” | Live Long and Prosper

The Case Against “reformers” | Live Long and Prosper:



The Case Against “reformers”

THE ‘rEFORM’ LIE
Three recent articles did a nice job of summarizing the problems facing public education in the U.S. They add to the already strong case against the so-called “reform” movement.
The ultimate goal of most “reformers” is, apparently, the privatization of America’s public schools rather than improved student achievement. “reformers” use a variety of tools to achieve that goal…tools like union busting, overusing and misusing tests, transferring funds from public to private hands through vouchers, charters and virtual charter schools, political manipulations — such as the recent takeover of the responsibilities of the Indiana school chief, Glenda Ritz (and her DOE) by the Indiana State Board of Education and Governor Pence (see HERE and HERE), funding cuts, school closings, deprofessionalizing the teaching profession by inserting untrained amateurs like Teach For America temps into public schools, general political propaganda, and buying state and federal politicians.
  • They starve schools of needed resources, raise class sizes, eliminate libraries and the arts, deny that the poverty which runs rampant throughout our cities has any effect, and then blame students, parents and teachers when achievement is low.
  • They close schools or turn them over to private corporations with no public oversight.
  • The low achievement of our most economically deprived students is blamed on teachers…yet there’s rarely a comment about teachers when it comes to the high achievement of our nation’s wealthy students.
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St. Paul teachers union boss to take national post - TwinCities.com #AFT14

St. Paul teachers union boss to take national post - TwinCities.com:



St. Paul teachers union boss to take national post

Mary Cathryn Ricker (Courtesy of Education Minnesota)
Mary Cathryn Ricker (Courtesy of Education Minnesota)

St. Paul teachers union president will step down to take a top leadership post with the national American Federation of Teachers.
Mary Cathryn Ricker, head of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, will become AFT's executive vice president, one of the three highest offices in the national union. She was elected on AFT President Randi Weingarten's slate of candidates at the union's convention in Los Angeles.
Ricker, a former middle school English teacher, has led St. Paul educators since 2005. She also serves on the AFT's executive board. Weingarten has called her "one of the most forward-thinking union leaders nationally."
Denise Rodriguez, the St. Paul federation's vice president, will take over the local union and serve out Ricker's term, which ends next summer.

Ricker said she decided to seek the AFT post because of an interest in the connections between public schools, early-childhood education and higher education on a national level. Although she is not required to step down as local leader, she said, "I would want to make sure both positions get undivided attention."
Over the years, Ricker has worked closely with the St. Paul district's administration and joined Superintendent Valeria Silva to emphasize their collaboration; she has also beenSt. Paul teachers union boss to take national post - TwinCities.com:

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7-14-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University)

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University):









Debating Common Core Is Proof that Educators Have Lost

Recently, many within and among the AFT and NEA communities have been applauding that summer conventions have devoted time to debating the Common Core, some going as far as hailing that debate as proof of democracy in action. The key problem with those claims is that the Common Core debate has been decided for educators, and not by educators. And thus, debating the Common Core is proof that educat
by plthomasedd / 0min 


7-13-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University)
the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): ESPN, Mansplaining, and the U.S. MediaWhat do NPR, conservative talk radio/media, and ESPN radio have in common? Upon first blush, likely nothing. And that proves both what they have in common as well as how that unrecognized is the problem. Let’s start with NPR, as Trac
by mike simpson / 1min 




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7-14-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:







Seattle Schools Principal Assignments
From SPS:Dear Catharine Blaine K–8 Community,I am pleased to announce … Ms. Heather Johnson (formerly Swanson) will return to serve as your new principal. Your current principal, Ms. Julie Cox, will be Principal at North Beach Elementary next year.Ms. Johnson spent the past year as a middle school Principal at the American School of Barcelona, in Spain. Previously, she served as principal at Catha
by Melissa Westbrook / 1min 


What is Teaching Time Really About (and how is it counted)?
by Melissa Westbrook / 2min 


7-12-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum Week
Seattle Schools Community Forum:Seattle Schools Community ForumSeattle Schools To Hold Community Meeting on Special EducationFrom SPS Communications:When:  Tuesday, July 22, 2014Time:  6:30 p.m.- 8:30 p.m.Where:  Seattle Public John Stanford Center Auditorium, 2445 3rd Avenue South What:  A family meeting hosted by Seattle Public Schools and the TIERS Group (Teams Intervening Early to Reach all St
by mike simpson / 33min 




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Why Can't Big Data Take a Bow, and then Contribute to the Collaborative Commons? | John Thompson

Why Can't Big Data Take a Bow, and then Contribute to the Collaborative Commons? | John Thompson:



Why Can't Big Data Take a Bow, and then Contribute to the Collaborative Commons?





 Back in the early 1960s, when our elementary school teachers and principal had a particularly important point to make, they brought us across the courtyard into the junior high auditorium. Needless to say, those events made a huge impression. I have a particularly vivid memory of one part of an excursion to watch an old-fashioned film of a television news special.

Our principal introduced and concluded the big event explaining why we need an education. In the near future, as technology relieves us of the worst burdens of physical labor, the workweek will only be 15 to 20 hours. Schools exist to help us take full advantage of the joys of creativity, self-exploration, and learning how to learn in the free time we would share.
Much later, I learned that the documentary and my principal's prediction were inspired by John Maynard Keynes's "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren." Even during the most hopeless part of the Great Depression, Keynes said that "technological unemployment" may be frightening as the need for human labor is reduced, but "much sooner perhaps than we are all aware of" the benefits of this transformation will accrue. As humans are more liberated from the need to toil for a paycheck, we will "devote more of our further energies to non-economic purposes."

Keynes and my principal were a bit too optimistic. But, Jeremy Rifkin's The Zero Marginal Cost Society makes a strong case that both will eventually be proven correct. Although Rifkin may also be too hopeful, he presents an impressive body of evidence in explaining why he anticipates the rise of the Collaborative Commons within the next forty years.
Rifkin argues "The capitalist era is passing - not quickly, but inevitably." After a long and protracted fight, he predicts, the Collaborative Commons will likely be "the primary arbiter of economic life." In other words, we will transition to an economy based on sharing, as opposed to private property, profits, and competition.

Although I fear Rifkin is too optimistic, he makes a strong case. For instance, he Why Can't Big Data Take a Bow, and then Contribute to the Collaborative Commons? | John Thompson:
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Former United Federation of Teachers VP Leo Casey Tries to Twitter-slam Me | deutsch29

Former United Federation of Teachers VP Leo Casey Tries to Twitter-slam Me | deutsch29:



Former United Federation of Teachers VP Leo Casey Tries to Twitter-slam Me

July 14, 2014


I have been asked numerous times to join Twitter. The response I offer to this request: I haven’t the time to keep up with Twitter.
That doesn’t mean that I do not occasionally become the topic of a Twitter exchange, however.
Apparently such an exchange began on July 10, 2014, between New York City teacher Arthur Goldstein and former United Federation of Teachers VP Leo Casey.  The exchange also includes a Kathleen Casey. I do not know who she is.
According to Leo Casey, I “spin conspiracy theories” and that “anyone who disagrees with me” is “in league with the devil.”
Below is the Goldstein-Casey exchange, apparently over my post about American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten’s July 8, 2014, reluctant admission that she is a member of the secretive Democracy Alliance.
Enjoy.
[Leo Casey] Why stop here? There’s always the illuminati to expose.http://t.co/4yNC37Ra2O
<-PAXP-deijE.gif> Randi Weingarten, Twitter, and ‘Secret Society’ Membership m.huffpost.com

[Quote] I wonder exactly what “progressive agenda advancing” organizations Weingarten and her sidekick Ringuette have decided to “invest” in on behalf of AFT members. Just don’t ask her about those investment specifics….

LikeLike · · @LeoECasey on Twitter ·
Share Kathleen Casey likes this.
Kathleen Casey Who is Mercedes Schneider? 10 July at 19:02 ·
Like
Leo Casey She spins conspiracy theories about progressives on the theory that anyone who disagrees with her is in league with the devil.

Arthur Goldstein Mercedes is a public school teacher, a former college professor, a thinker and a writer who’s regularly acknowledged and published byDiane Ravitch. She recently published a book. I’ve spent time with her. She’s quick-witted and soft-spoken. It’s disappointing to see ad hominem attacks against her containing no evidence whatsoever to refute her arguments. It’s further disappointing to see absurd notions planted in her mouth.
Yesterday at 07:56 · Like

Leo Casey All you need to do is read the latest missive, attached to the Former United Federation of Teachers VP Leo Casey Tries to Twitter-slam Me | deutsch29:
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All Things Education: Time for some 21st century honesty

All Things Education: Time for some 21st century honesty:



Time for some 21st century honesty



I am mostly writing this just to have a record of where I stand on so-called 21st century skills. Now, I am not an ed tech or tech expert at all, and though it's a topic I try to read a lot about, I haven't written a lot about it.

For the most part, I don't really believe there is such a thing as "21st century skills." Nor do I believe there are really 20th century skills or 16th century skills or 1st century skills. I don't think how humans learn fundamentally changes; what changes are the tools we use. Searching for information is the same skill now that it was pre-internet; we just use different tools to find it.

What was said in this WaPo article about ed tech pretty much sums up my stance:
"There is hardly any research that will show clearly that any of these machines will improve academic achievement," said Larry Cuban, education professor emeritus at Stanford University. "But the value of novelty, that's highly prized in American society, period. And one way schools can say they are 'innovative' is to pick up the latest device."
And:
After using an interactive whiteboard for a year, William Ferriter, a sixth-grade teacher in North Carolina, came to a similar conclusion, deciding the whiteboard was little more than "a badge saying 'We're a 21st-century school.' " He spent weeks trying to devise collaborative lessons that he knows engage students. The best one, he said, brought kids to the whiteboard, where they used their fingers to sort words describing metamorphic rocks, as a video played to the side. 
"It just allows you to create digitized versions of old lessons," he said. "My kids were bored with it after about three weeks."

Now to play devils advocate to myself: there are skills that that one might use more in one century than another and there are tools that might require a slightly different skill set. Take, for example, driving a motor vehicle. People didn't know how to drive motor vehicles before they existed. However, people did drive horses and chariots and carriages andAll Things Education: Time for some 21st century honesty: 
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We Party Patriots » Postal Worker Solidarity Hits New High as AFT Calls for National Boycott of Staples

We Party Patriots » Postal Worker Solidarity Hits New High as AFT Calls for National Boycott of Staples:



Postal Worker Solidarity Hits New High as AFT Calls for National Boycott of Staples

AFT's always fiery president, Randi Weingarten
AFT’s always fiery president, Randi Weingarten

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This weekend at their bi-annual convention, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) passed a resolution calling for a national boycott of Staples in solidarity with the American Postal Workers Union (APWU).  Despite protests, Staples is moving forward with a pilot program that would open USPS postal counters in 82 of their stores.  
APWU members believe that their unionized jobs will be taken by Staples employees who will earn much lower wages.  The AFT resolution says, “members of the AFT, along with friends, colleagues and family members, are urged to no longer shop at Staples stores until further notice.”
The decision to boycott follows similar resolutions from state and local AFT chapters which focused on the coming ‘back to school’ purchasing surge. These locals include the California Teachers Union, AFT Michigan, AFT Massachusetts and AFT New Hampshire.
“Postal workers are the most amazing public servants,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said following the convention.  ”Who does Staples really want and need to come into its stores every single day? Teachers. The best way we can help is if we say to Staples: ‘You do this to the postal workers, and we aren’t buying supplies in your stores.’”
School supplies make up nearly one-third of Staples’ sales. According to a recent survey from the National School Supply and Equipment Association, the typical American teacher must now spend hundreds of dollars a year to ensure their classroom has proper supplies.  Therefore, a boycott by the 1.6 million We Party Patriots » Postal Worker Solidarity Hits New High as AFT Calls for National Boycott of Staples:
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Video 2014 AFT Convention - YouTube #AFT14

2014 AFT Convention - YouTube:



2014 AFT Convention

  • by AFTHQ
  • 26 videos
  • 286 views
  • 4 hours
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