Sharp climb in number of students opting out of state standardized tests | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Sharp climb in number of students opting out of state standardized tests | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Sharp climb in number of students opting out of state standardized tests

But the overall percentage of opt-outs in Pennsylvania is still minuscule – a fraction of 1 percent. In New York state, 20 percent opt out.

In a sign that the opt-out movement continues to grow, the number of elementary school students who refused to take Pennsylvania's state standardized tests rose dramatically over the last two years.

From 2013-14 to 2014-15, opt-outs on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment math test more than tripled – from 1,017 students to 3,270. That's a 220 percent jump.

In the same years, PSSA English language arts opt-outs jumped 139 percent – from 1,355 to 3,245.

Opt-outs on the science test jumped 263 percent – from 309 to 1,123.

These are the largest jumps in nine years of available data.

These numbers, though, actually account only for parents who formally opted out. The state also counts students whose parents refused to have them take the test without going through the opt-out process.

When both categories are combined, the increases are starker in math and English.

Between 2013-14 and 2014-15, the PSSA math test saw total exclusions jump by 240 percent – from 1,292 to 4,394.

Likewise, the PSSA English language arts test saw total exclusions jump 155 percent – from 1,789 to 4,567.

Total exclusions on the science test jumped 258 percent – from 456 to 1,635.

"It's a recognition that there's already substantial concern among some parents about the climate with standardized testing," said Adam Schott, director of policy research at Research for Action. "And so it's just important that policymakers be attentive going forward."

Opt-out numbers for the Keystone exam taken by high schoolers were not yet available.

Although the PSSA opt-out increases are high, total exclusions represent an extremely small fraction of the state's students.

Read the rest of this story at NewsWorks

Sharp climb in number of students opting out of state standardized tests | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

The Hunger Games, Race to the Top, ECAA Bells & Whistles | Reclaim Reform

The Hunger Games, Race to the Top, ECAA Bells & Whistles | Reclaim Reform:

The Hunger Games, Race to the Top, ECAA Bells & Whistles

Peggy Robertson and the leaders of United Opt Out National realize the political gambit, a minor exchange of a small compensation to gain full advantage, intended to make compromise appear reasonable while pushing forward the ultimate goal of dismantling public education for all.

Will public education for all be dismantled for the private profit of corporate education reform via the paid politicos in the U.S. Department of Education and Congress? Is compromise reasonable and possible?
Peggy Robertson addresses these questions.

“This revolution has the potential to tear down the test and punish system. It has the potential to demand and get equitable funding for fully resourced schools…

Compromise could potentially kill this revolution.  The energy and time it takes to negotiate a compromise deprives activists of the time and energy needed to push forward a revolution.
Compromise also does something to the soul I think. It changes it. It creates a false sense of peace and success and it’s very seductive – if I allowed it in, I could sit back and say, well – we did get that.
And for that we should be grateful.
No.

I’m not grateful.  I’m not grateful that folks pushed hard to get ECAA through with a few bells and whistles that are supposed to make me jump for joy.

Those who compromise may have good intentions.  However, I fear some do not – there is much money, ego, and status to be gained by supporting ECAA.”
– Peggy Robertson

These mere excerpts are not enough to give full voice to Peggy Robertson and United Opt Out National’s concerns. Please read her full “I’m Not Grateful for Compromise” article The Hunger Games, Race to the Top, ECAA Bells & Whistles | Reclaim Reform:

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Pissed By Fed's D - California Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program - School Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

California Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program - School Nutrition (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Disappointed By Federal Decision

Limiting Local Control over Programs to Help Low-Income Students

SACRAMENTO—A U.S. Department of Education decision denying California a waiver that has been given to 43 states and eight large districts in California reduces the access of academically struggling students to high-quality programs and prevents districts from designing programs that best suit their students’ needs, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said today.

"California has led the way in giving districts the opportunity to make their own decisions about how best to use state and local resources to meet their local needs," he said. "Unfortunately, this decision goes in the other direction and retains policies that significantly limit local control and decision-making, and reduce student access to high-quality extended-day instruction."

California requested a four-year waiver of the provisions of Section 1116 (e) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) regarding supplemental educational services. Some districts are required to provide these services using 20 percent of Title I federal funds, which are allocated based on the number of students eligible for free or reduced-priced lunches.

The code section set up a system that largely relies on private providers to assist students away from school. During three school years, California schools spent about $507 million on this program with little evidence to show improved academic performance by students who participated.

California sought to allow those districts to decide how best to provide instruction outside the regular school day. Under the proposal by both the California Department of Education and the State Board of Education, the instruction would be developed and administered by districts, which would rely on highly qualified teachers to design and monitor the programs. In addition, districts would be more likely to offer the assistance on a school site, making it more convenient for parents and giving teachers continuous feedback about student progress. Districts also would be free to continue to use private providers.

"We strongly believe decisions about how and where to provide services to students are best made at the local level," said Torlakson. "Districts are in the best position to design extended-day intervention strategies to provide assistance to low-income students who are struggling academically in subjects such as English language arts, mathematics, and science."

Currently, the U.S. Congress is considering two separate pieces of legislation that would reauthorize the ESEA. Torlakson noted that neither bill retains the current requirement of setting aside 20 percent of Title I funds for supplemental educational services. Consequently, under both bills districts would have more say than they do now over spending decisions and programs involving low-income students who are struggling academically.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Big Education Ape: SES IS A MESS: State’s ESEA waiver request related to tutoring requirement denied | EdSource http://bit.ly/1L714f6

California Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program

The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, administered by the California Dept of Education, provides schools with funding to offer students a free fresh fruit or vegetable snack during the school day.

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The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) is a reimbursement grant program that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers at the federal level. At the state level, the California Department of Education (CDE) Nutrition Services Division (NSD) administers the FFVP and selects schools to receive a year-long grant (July–June) to implement the program. The purpose of this federal assistance program is to provide an additional free fresh fruit or vegetable snack to students during the school day as a supplement to (and not part of) the School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP), and to teach students about good nutrition. The FFVP also encourages grantees to develop partnerships at the state and local level for support in implementing and operating the program.

Contact Us

For questions regarding the content of this Web page, please contact the FFVP team by phone at 800-952-5609 or by e-mail atFFVP@cde.ca.gov.

• Background
 
• Grant Overview
 
• Resources
 
• Online Modules
 
• Frequently Asked Questions

Background

Program History

The FFVP began as the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program, authorized by Congress under the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-171) in a limited number of states and schools. The purpose of the pilot was to identify best practices for increasing fresh fruit and vegetable consumption among students and to determine feasibility and student interest.

The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Farm Bill) amended the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act by adding Section 19, the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. Section 19 authorized the program nationwide to 50 states (as well as the District of Columbia and the territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) and provided significant funding increases, beginning with $40 million in Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2009 and growing to $150 million by 2012. After FFY 2012, annual changes are made in accordance with the Consumer Price Index.

Program Goals

The goal of the FFVP is to improve healthier school environments by providing healthier food choices, and to:

• Expand the fruits and vegetables children experience

• Increase children’s fruit and vegetable consumption

• Make a difference in children’s diets to affect their present and future health

The program is seen as an important catalyst for change in efforts to combat childhood obesity and by helping children learn more healthful eating habits.

Program Funding

California first participated in the FFVP in July 2008 with 24 pilot schools and the program continues to grow each year:

• Received $12.2 million in SY 2015–16 and funded 371 school sites

• Received $11.98 million in SY 2014–15 and funded 367 school sites

• Received $11.3 million in SY 2013–14 and funded 367 school sites

• Received $11.2 million in SY 2012–13 and funded 342 school sites 
• Received $10.8 million in SY 2011–12 and funded 315 school sites

• Received $7.6 million in SY 2010–11 and funded 209 school sites

• Received $5 million in SY 2009–10 and funded 144 school sites

• Received an additional $2.5 million in October 2008 and funded an additional 107 schools during School Year (SY) 2008–09

• Received $184,101 in July 2008 and funded 24 pilot schools

Questions:   Nutrition Services Division | 800-952-5609

Jersey Jazzman: Anti-Union, Freeloading Teachers Sound Off

Jersey Jazzman: Anti-Union, Freeloading Teachers Sound Off:

Anti-Union, Freeloading Teachers Sound Off

If you're a teacher, get ready to hear this name a lot this year: Rebecca Friedrichs. She's the lead petitioner in a case that will go before the Supreme Court in its next term; if she wins, the unions that represent teachers will face an enormous threat.

Friedrichs v. California Teacher Association hinges on a central question: can a public employee union compel all of the employees its represents in collective bargaining to pay for representing them in negotiations? Understand that no one is ever forced to join a union, as doing so would violate the First Amendment. But governments can and do designate in law that unions are the representatives of public employees in collective bargaining agreements.

Because these unions must represent all workers, whether they are members or not, they have a problem: free riders can benefit from negotiations yet not have to pay the costs for having unions represent them at the bargaining table. So unions charge "agency fees" to all of the employees they represent. These fees are a fraction of the total costs of membership dues, albeit a large fraction. If any public employee chooses to opt out of membership, they are refunded a part of those dues.

Ostensibly, this keeps public employees from subsidizing political activities, like lobbying, that members may disagree with. Of course, the workers who opt out can still benefit from those political activities, which means there is plenty of potential for free-riding already baked into the system.

A 1977 case called Abood v. Detroit Board of Education upheld the constitutionality of this - See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/08/anti-union-freeloading-teachers-sound.html#sthash.RsvDIxsf.dpuf

Top Pa. court to decide if SRC can cancel teachers' contract | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Top Pa. court to decide if SRC can cancel teachers' contract | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Top Pa. court to decide if SRC can cancel teachers' contract

Members of the School Reform Commission voted to cancel its contract with Philadelphia District teachers last year. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will decide whether that move was a legal one. (NewsWorks file photo)

A battle between the Philadelphia School Reform Commission and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is heading toward  the state's highest court.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will decide if the SRC has the authority to unilaterally cancel the teachers' contract.

In October, the SRC voted to cancel the teachers' contract and impose health care concessions on teachers in order to achieve $200 million in savings.

The SRC argued it had that power based on the 2001 law that took local school control away from the city.

In January, the state Commonwealth Court rejected that argument.

Now, in response to an appeal by the SRC and the District, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear the case.

No date has yet been set.

Read the rest of this story at NewsWorks

Top Pa. court to decide if SRC can cancel teachers' contract | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Amplify in the dumper. Another Joel Klein/Chris Cerf loser.

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Amplify in the dumper. Another Joel Klein/Chris Cerf loser.:

Amplify in the dumper. Another Joel Klein/Chris Cerf loser.

Rupert Murdoch and Joel Klein

"A lot of poor quality work passed off as final products, most everything is worked out in production leading to many hot fixes and more long hours. Little respect for teachers or end-users in many within the company.... No, I would not recommend this company to a friend." -- A 2013 Review from a former Wireless Generation employee

What happened to Amplify? It's a bust. School districts who bought in are screwed. Thanks Joel Klein and Chris Cerf.



Rupert Murcoch's News Corp spent nearly $1 billion on its digital education business, In 2010, they paid $360 million for a 90% stake in Wireless Generation, a company based in Brooklyn that specializes in education software, data systems and assessment tools which was supposed to help teachers analyze student performance and customize lessons.



Once the Murdoch criminal scandal in Europe died down, former N.Y. schools Chancellor Joel Klein led the company’s aggressive push into the U.S. education market and New Jersey schools chief Chris Cerf left his job to become chief executive of Murdoch's Amplify Insight ed tech firm.



Murdoch, Klein and Cerf became the darlings of U.S. corporate school reformers and international criminal Murdoch, whose company is an ALEC supporter, even keynoted Jeb Bush's 2011 Education Summit.



Hundreds of cash-strapped public school districts (including Chicago) were encouraged to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars in no-bid contracts and handed Murdoch's people control of all student records and family information. Amplify, became a top industry seller.



But News Corp. announced today that it would cease actively marketing Amplify’s Access products to new customers. It claims it will continue to provide Schooling in the Ownership Society: Amplify in the dumper. Another Joel Klein/Chris Cerf loser.:

CURMUDGUCATION: NY To Parents: Get Stuffed

CURMUDGUCATION: NY To Parents: Get Stuffed:

NY To Parents: Get Stuffed

The final "official" numbers are in for last year's New York opt out, and they are huge-- in the Empire State, one out of five students did not take the Big Standardized Test.

Faced with that kind of massive revolt, one might expect that the Head Honcho of Education in NY might select any of the following strategies;

1) Take a good, hard look at the test and ask why it is seems to have alienated so many parents and families.

2) Reach out to the Opt-Out community to ask why, exactly, they have such a problem with the BS Test.

3) Go back to the drawing board and ask if the BS Test is really measuring any of the things it's supposedly measuring 

4) Make a commitment to use information gathered to improve, alter or otherwise make less odious the BS Testing.

One might expect that the Head Honcho would even choose all three of those options. But it turns out that one would be wrong, because instead state education commissioner MaryEllen Elia selected

5) Ignore the opt-out parents and make threats against the schools that their children attend.

Yep. In a conference call with reporters, Elia said that "the state Education Department is in conversations with the U.S. Department of Education working on a plan regarding possible sanctions for districts with high opt-out rates."

Those sanctions could range from a phone call to the superintendent along the lines of, "What the CURMUDGUCATION: NY To Parents: Get Stuffed:

Are Newark’s mayor and the state-appointed school chief cooperating? Well, maybe. | Bob Braun's Ledger

Are Newark’s mayor and the state-appointed school chief cooperating? Well, maybe. | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Are Newark’s mayor and the state-appointed school chief cooperating? Well, maybe.

Deseret Segura, 16, comforts her sobbing grandmother, Deseret Richardson, 83, outside the “enrollment center” in Newark last year. The older woman was overcome  fear her granddaughter would not be safe traveling from her neighborhood, travel required by “One Newark.”

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Wednesday held a press conference at which he announced the creation of “enrollment assistance sites” designed to help families register  their children for school this fall. The official statement released indicates five sites, one in each ward (locations listed below with the mayor’s statement), would be staffed by  “volunteers and staff from the Newark Public Schools.”  Unsurprisingly, Newark schools superintendent Christopher Cerf saw the statement as  support for the “One Newark” enrollment plan and put out this statement: “I support any initiative that provides parents with information and resources to help them choose a school that works best for their child. Our teams have been in communication about this effort and we believe it will complement the work already underway at the District’s Family Support Center.”

Confusing? Well, yes.

This is the headline in the NJ.COM coverage of the same story: “Baraka says ending One Newark ‘the only answer” to Newark school issues.” The full story can be found at http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2015/08/baraka_says_ending_one_newark_the_only_answer_to_n.html#incart_river

On the one hand, the mayor appears to be criticizing the “One Newark” plan as he had in the past. Still, Cerf is expressing gratitude for the cooperation he is receiving from Baraka in helping “One Newark” work.

It shouldn’t be missed, however, that in the mayor’s statement, the needs of wrongly enrolled special education and other special needs students would be a priority of his “enrollment assistance centers.”  This is what the statement says:

“The Enrollment Assistance Sites will support families that have been placed in schools that don’t meet their needs or that cannot provide services to which Are Newark’s mayor and the state-appointed school chief cooperating? Well, maybe. | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Movies: School-Based Comedy Raises Issues Spanning Charter-District This Week In EducationDivide

This Week In Education: Movies: School-Based Comedy Raises Issues Spanning Charter-District Divide:

School-Based Comedy Raises Issues Spanning Charter-District Divide

There is much to like about the low-budget mockumentary called "Teacher of The Year (TOTY)" now available for streaming on Netflix and other VOD services. 

First and foremost, TOTY isn't really about education politics or specific approaches to improving schools. This is nothing like Waiting For Superman, Standardized, Bad Teacher, Won't Back Down, Race to Nowhere, and all the others you may have seen or heard about recently. 

Yes, it's set at a charter school, at which there is -- atypically - both union representation of the teachers and some form of tenure that allows veterans to speak their minds. But the charter status of the school and the union representation are mostly plot vehicles, not central aspects of the story. There's no Common Core, or standardized testing. Heaven. 

The plot centers around two main dramas. First is the decision that the aforementioned Teacher of the Year must make about what to do with his future. Like some real-life state teachers of the year (seehere and here), he is frustrated with his work environment and is being tempted to do something else that's much more lucrative and perhaps less stressful. The second plot element is an accusation leveled against one of the other teachers by a student, which could result in the teacher being fired despite his long-standing reputation for being committed to the school and to his students.

But mostly @TOTYmovie is a comedy -- a conglomeration of all the schools you've ever been in before, full of eccentric characters and a mix of high and low humor. There's the handsomely bland  vest-wearing protagonist, Mitch Carter, who breaks up fights, shares his lunch with a hungry student and helps him understand what Shakespeare is all about. There's the perfectly awful Principal Ronald Douche, played by Keegan Michael Key (of Key & Peele), who wants to be superintendent but might not listen to his teachers enough. There's a robotics teacher who thinks that HE should have been Teacher of the Year (and might be right). There are two deliciously horrible guidance counselors (played by the comic Sklar brothers). The assistant principal is a hapless disciplinarian handing out detention slips to bemused students. 

The comparisons to TV comedies The Office or Parks & Recreation are understandable. (The Cleveland Plain Dealer called it a "sweet, gonzo comedy.")

The filmmakers -- Lainie Strouse (the producer) and writer/director Jason Strouse (who's also the principal of an orthodox Jewish school in LA) -- say that their goal was to make something like Spinal Tap or Best In Show -- set in a high school. Another comparison that they like is Ferris Bueller's Day Off (from the point of view of teachers).  Excited about the film's success at 18 festivals over the past year and now online on Netflix and Amazon, the gist of what they had to say during a phone interview last week is that they wanted to make a film about the what it's like teaching in a real school, to tell the story in a silly but realistic way, and to focus on the teachers' perspective rather than the kids'. 

They won't say what school the film was shot at, though part of the deal was giving students jobs as PAs and walk-ons. They told me shooting was done in just 11 days spread out over six months -- and that much of the film was captured in the last few days. The shooting schedule was so fragmented that some of the actors didn't even know that they were in the same film together. 

As for their concerns about education, the filmmakers' only "issues" are that teachers don't make much as other college graduates and sometimes leave for more lucrative careers, and that school and district bureaucracies are a cumbersome bother. The rules and norms of schools breed frustration and tamp down innovation, they feel -- which is why so many people they know used to be teachers but aren't any more (and why highly-qualified non-teachers can't easily become second-career teachers).

Maybe that's the real appeal of TOTY, which is that it's neither glorifying nor tearing teachers down, and raising issues that span charter and district environments alike rather than divide them. This Week In Education: Movies: School-Based Comedy Raises Issues Spanning Charter-District Divide:

How many kids opted out of Common Core tests - Business Insider

How many kids opted out of Common Core tests - Business Insider:

The numbers are in, and a shocking number of kids boycotted New York's standardized tests

A record number of students in New York opted out of statewide standardized tests this year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The roughly 20% of opt-outs quadrupled from the previous year, and indicated that the movement to boycott the tests linked to the Common Core standards had some success.

In April, at the start of New York's standardized testing cycle, there were estimates that huge numbers of parents were set to boycott standardized tests. Those estimates have now been confirmed with about 200,000 of the approximated 1.1 million eligible test-takers refusing to take the exams.

The opt-outs follow a year of acrimony between proponents and critics of the standardized tests.

AP / Rogelio V. Solis

Parents across the state voiced their frustration over the implementation of the Common Core, voicing concerns that the tests contain puzzling questions and that too much of their children's valuable time in the classroom is taken up by preparing for tests.

And Karen Magee, the president of New York State United Teachers — the largest teachers union in the state — urged for a mass opt-out of Common Core testing in March, sparking criticism from advocates of the standardized testing.

Magee, for her part, claimed the tests are not "valid indicators of student progress" and that they exist only to punish teachers, according to the New York Daily News, which reported on her appearance on upstate public radio’s “The Capitol Pressroom.” Diagnostic tests conducted by teachers are an alternative and one she sees as more beneficial to students and teachers, she said.

 But Critics — including Merryl Tisch, the Chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents — fear encouraging parents to opt out of Common Core testing could result in the loss of federal funds to schools and districts that don't hit 95% participation levels.

This poses a more dire problem if schools that receive Title 1 funding — federal supplemental funding for at-risk and low-income students — don't hit participation requirements.

The students opting out were concentrated in suburban and rural areas, and were heavily from average need districts that under-performed on the 2014 test, according to High Achievement New York (HANY), a nonprofit coalition of business and education groups.

That is a harmful trend for students in districts that need additional help, HANY claims.

As for the issue of Title 1 funding, the implications, and potential punishments, will become more clear for districts in time.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-kids-opted-out-of-common-core-tests-2015-8#ixzz3idS5kKLY

My Children are not Guinea Pigs! My battle against Common Core.

My Children are not Guinea Pigs! My battle against Common Core.:

My Children are not Guinea Pigs!

It is true.  Unelected organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Achieve, Inc. (funded by Gates), NGA, CCSSO and MANY more are dictating how and what your children will learn.  None of these organizations are elected or accountable to the public.  What gives Bill Gates the authority to dictate what our children are learning or how they should learn it?  He is obviously brilliant, but has no background in education or child development.

Mr. Gates, (a man that dropped out of college) is calling the shots regarding our children's education.  It's also important to note that he is peddling something he won't subject his own kids to.  A few quotes from Gates:

“It would be great if our education stuff worked, but that we won’t know for probably a decade.”

Our children are Bill Gates experiment in his eyes.  Data.  Profit.  Not children.  He doesn't sit with them and dry their tears and console them while they are doing homework.  He doesn't see them struggle with spelling, despite the fact that these kids are bright.  He doesn't see the weight of the world on their shoulders when they are dropped off at school.  School once was fun and exciting, but now our children are developing anxiety and physical symptoms because of the damage Gates little project is doing to them.

More quotes from Gates...

"This is encouraging—but identifying common standards is not enough. We’ll know we’ve succeeded when the curriculum and the tests are aligned to these standards."

"to create just these kinds of tests—next-generation assessments aligned to the common core. When the tests are aligned to the common standards, the curriculum will line up as well—and that will unleash powerful market forces in the service of better teaching."

"For the first time, there will be a large uniform base of customers eager to buy products that can help every kid learn and every teacher get better."

In an interview, Gates said his role is to fund the research and development of new tools, such as the Common Core, and offer them to decision-makers who are trying to improve education for millions of Americans.  It's up to the Government to decide which tools to use, but someone has to invest in their creation.

It's up to the Government?  What?

There are three federal laws that prohibit federal departments or agencies from directing, supervising or controlling elementary and secondary school curricula, My Children are not Guinea Pigs! My battle against Common Core.:

What Ohio Gov. John Kasich is doing to public education in his state - The Washington Post

What Ohio Gov. John Kasich is doing to public education in his state - The Washington Post:

What Ohio Gov. John Kasich is doing to public education in his state

With two-term Ohio Gov. John Kasich joining the crowd of candidates for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, it’s a good time to look at the public education mess that has developed in his state under his leadership.

Kasich has pushed key tenets of corporate school reform:

*expanding charter schools — even though the state’s charter sector is the most troubled in the country

*increasing the number of school vouchers that use public money to pay for tuition at private schools, the vast majority of them religious — even though state officials say that fewer than one-third of those available were used by families this past school year

*performance pay for teachers — even though such schemes have been shown over many years not to be useful in education

*evaluating educators by student standardized test scores in math and reading — even though assessment experts have warned that using test scores in this way is not reliable or valid.

Meanwhile, the Ohio Education Department in Kasich’s administration is in turmoil. David Hansen, his administration’s chief for school choice and charter schools resigned over this past weekend after admitting that he had unilaterally withheld failing scores of charter schools in state evaluations of the schools’ sponsor organizations so they wouldn’t look so bad. (Hansen’s wife, incidentally, is Kasich’s chief of staff, who is taking a leave from that post to work on his campaign.) There are growing calls now for the resignation of the Kasich-backed state superintendent of education, Richard Ross.

John Kasich, in his own words(1:42)

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is a contender for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. Here's where he stands on the Iran deal, marriage, health care for the mentally ill and more, in his own words. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

[Teacher: I’ve loved my ‘very difficult’ job. Now Ohio has made it ‘impossible.’]

Under his watch, funding for traditional public schools — which enroll 90 percent of Ohio’s students — declined by some half a billion dollars, while funding for charter schools has increased at least 27 percent, with charters now receiving more public funds from the state per student than traditional public schools, according to the advocacy group Innovation Ohio. This despite the fact that many charters are rated lower than traditional public schools. Meanwhile, local governments have been forced to pass levies to raise What Ohio Gov. John Kasich is doing to public education in his state - The Washington Post:

Arizona Gets Schooled: Update on Ban of Mexican American Studies « NewsTaco

Arizona Gets Schooled: Update on Ban of Mexican American Studies « NewsTaco:

Arizona Gets Schooled: Update on Ban of Mexican American Studies

ethnicstudiesnow.com/

*A huge victory for Mexican-American studies in general, and for the opponents of Arizona’s ban in specific.Tony Diaz gives us a very complete and detailed account of the issue and the federal court proceedings. Our thanks to Tony for leading on this charge. VL

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By Tony Diaz/El Librotraficante,Huffington Post Latino Voices

Discrimination is the only explanation for Arizona’s banning of Mexican American Studies, threatening intellectual freedom for the entire nation.

A federal appeals court suggested as much in their opinion on July 7, 2015.

“… the federal judges schooled Arizona with their probing and questioning.

This is the ruling regarding the court case against Arizona’s law used to ban Mexican American Studies. The court heard “Maya Arce vs Huppenthal”, now called “Maya Arce vs Douglas,” in January.

The law prohibits courses that promote the overthrow of the government. However, as the judges pointed out, it was enforced on only the K-12 Mexican American Studies (MAS) program at Tucson Unified School District (TUSD).

This was a monumental ruling because the court recognized the discrimination apparent in the state’s banning and gave the plaintiffs the chance to document it.

It appears that the federal government is ready to put in check Arizona’s rebellion.

The Librotraficantes were honored to be in the court room to witness history and hear first hand the oral arguments. Arizona’s testimony bordered on parody, but the federal judges schooled Arizona with their probing and questioning. Below are some highlights from the proceedings.

Arizona as Opposite Land:

Arizona argued that “student achievement is irrelevant.”

Arizona began its oral arguments by trying to deport America to Opposite Land.

The Cabrera Report and the Cambium Audit are 2 major studies that prove Mexican American courses helps students pass standardized Math and English tests and graduate. Arizona fought to keep the findings from being used as evidence in court.

Arizona’s justification for ignoring the data was mind-blowing. Arizona argued that “student achievement is irrelevant.”

Evidently, generations of teachers have the concept all wrong. Here we thought just the opposite.

The sense this makes is nonsense. And the judges thought so, too.

One judge said that ignoring the findings, “. . . would seem to demonstrate evidence of discriminatory intent.”

You really do have to see it to believe it, and to do so-click here for a link to a video of the oral arguments. And here are more highlights:

The worst job on earth must be serving as lawyer for Arizona. The state’s lawyer was flustered and stuttering when she was pressed to provide an example of a course that could satisfy the different components of the law. She could not.

It looked just like the Daily Show interview where Al Madrigal asked Michael Hicks, TUSD School Board Member, opponent of MAS, to explain how to teach African Americans students about slavery without creating resentment. He too fumbled with Arizona Gets Schooled: Update on Ban of Mexican American Studies « NewsTaco: