What do parents need to know to find a good school? New federal rules help California find an answer - LA Times

What do parents need to know to find a good school? New federal rules help California find an answer - LA Times:

What do parents need to know to find a good school? New federal rules help California find an answer

California is reimagining how it rates schools, and on Thursday, the Obama administration released regulations on the law that governs this process, the Every Student Succeeds Act. Exterior view of Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. (Mark Ralston / Getty)

lifornia is getting closer to defining what a good school should look like. But how will parents know if their school is one of them?

On Thursday, the federal government released draft regulations for the Every Student Succeeds Act’s provisions on school accountability. Under the guidelines, states have to tell parents how their schools are doing on a range of factors — and also give the school an overall rating. 

The regulations allow for that rating to be in different forms, including a number, grade, or category.

But there’s still a major debate over how to weight the ingredients that define a school’s quality, and how schools should present that measure of quality to parents. 

President Obama signed Every Student in December as a replacement to the No Child Left Behind Act, the federal education law that required annual standardized testing in most grades in reading and math, and tried to hold schools accountable based on those test scores.

Under No Child, each school was either on track or not, a binary ranking many ultimately considered too crude to capture the nuances of what determines whether a school is incredible or awful.

Every Student largely lets states create their own systems for measuring schools — the law requires that states weight academics “much” more than other factors, but also includes at least one non-academic factor.

Under ESSA, states must identify the bottom 5% of poor schools — by whatever accountability systems they devise — as well as schools where a third of students don’t graduate high school on time, and low-income schools where specific groups of students persistently underperform. States must then work to help those schools improve, by any method that is “evidence-based.”

One major question in California had been whether presenting the factors on a "dashboard" — without boiling them all down into a single number — would satisfy the law.

California State Board of Education President Mike Kirst previously said in an interview that he is unconvinced that there is a scientific, proven way to weight the different factors. 

“In some ways, these indicators are apples, bananas and oranges,” he has said. “You throw them into a blender and you get a smoothie — I don’t see how you get one number.” But some advocates and civil rights groups have argued that school ratings need to be boiled down to one grade or number in order for them to be parent friendly.

The federal regulations provide some clarity, but the state board still has questions. According to the regulations, states would have to give schools “comprehensive, summative” ratings, but they don’t dictate how much each ingredient should factor in.

The U.S. Department of Education also ruled that states must have at least three categories for rating schools -- a pass or fail system like No Child's is insufficient. A school that gets the lowest possible score on any particular component can’t get top marks for its overall performance, the rules state. 

In California, the rules come after the suspension of the Academic Performance Index, the previous system used to measure schools that was criticized for over-emphasizing test What do parents need to know to find a good school? New federal rules help California find an answer - LA Times:

Advisers to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Debate Education Policy - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Advisers to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Debate Education Policy - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Advisers to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Debate Education Policy

This post was written by guest blogger Daarel Burnette II. 

Democratic presidential candidates HiIlary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both back more federal investment in pre-K and K-12 programs, and a focus by states on closing achievement gaps between white students and students of color, senior policy advisers to the two said during an education-focused debate Thursday.  

The debate took place at the Newseum in Washington sponsored by The Committee for Education Funding, an organization that advocates for more funding of pre-K and higher education initiatives. Neither candidate attended the event. Clinton was represented by Ann O'Leary, who previously served as the vice president of The Center for the Next Generation, and Sanders by Donni Turner who previously served as the policy director for the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. (Nobody from presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign participated in the debate despite being invited.)

Both Clinton and Sanders have spoken little about K-12 education policies on the campaign trail. Thursday's debate, which lasted less than 30 minutes and was livestreamed, made clear that there are few differences between their K-12 education agendas. Both candidates advocate for expanded Pre-K, wrap-around services and local decisionmaking, their advisers said.  

Regarding the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which hands states greater power to shape their own school accountability systems and teacher evaluations, Turner said Sanders would push for parental involvement in the decisionmaking process. 

"It's been state-driven so far," said Turner. "We want to make sure that there's local input and it's significant, that parents and students have a voice in how curriculum is set, accountability is set and what it means to graduate."

Clinton's adviser,  O' Leary, said that while ESSA's predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act, focused the right attention on achievement gaps, it overemphasized testing.

"I hope that this time around, we're able to recognize we need to have a full curriculum for all students," O'Leary said. "We are all for supporting districts and states figuring out what works for them." 

They both also pushed for more federal spending to help states figure out ways to close achievement gaps and to expand pre-K and access to Wi-Fi for poor families.

But neither adviser specified how the candidates planned to pay for those initiatives.   

After the debate, speakers from think tanks ranging from the conservative to the left-leaning—Lindsey Burke from the Heritage Foundation, Nat Malkus from the American Enterprise Institute, and Carmel Martin from the Center for American Progress—discussed other education policies, including teacher quality, federal spending and closing achievement gaps.  

Watch the entire debate here. 

Advisers to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Debate Education Policy - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Louisiana law institutionalizes charter schools - World Socialist Web Site

Louisiana law institutionalizes charter schools - World Socialist Web Site:

Louisiana law institutionalizes charter schools

On May 12, Louisiana Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards signed Act 91 into law, making privately-owned charter schools a permanent feature of public education in the state.

New Orleans has been in the national spotlight for the privatization of education since 2005, when the hurricane-devastated city initiated the first all-charter district in the United States. The mechanism utilized to destroy the public schools was the state-run Recovery School District (RSD) formed in 2003 by Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Blanco folded the public school system into the state-controlled RSD. This playbook was developed nationally by the Broad Foundation and was largely implemented in Louisiana by Paul Pastorek, now a co-executive director of the Foundation's education work. Pastorek is presently working with Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder in similar efforts to charterize the Detroit Public Schools.

In the media, both local and nationally, Act 91 is being trumpeted as a successful return of RSD schools to "local control." In the sense of local democratic control or public education, it is nothing of the sort. Across the US, “local control” of schools has become a code word for bringing unions and local businessmen on board the national privatization program and providing them a lucrative niche in the billion-dollar education industry.

The new law means that 54 New Orleans charter schools will gradually move back to the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), with similar provisions affecting 9 charters in Baton Rouge and 1 in Caddo Parish. Not only will they remain as charter schools, their operators have been handed control over almost every aspect of education indefinitely by state law. This control includes "school programing, curriculum, instruction, materials and texts, yearly school calendars and daily schedules, hiring and firing of personnel, employee performance management and evaluation, terms and conditions of employment, teacher or administrator certification, salaries and benefits, retirement, collective bargaining, budgeting, purchasing, procurement, and contracting for services other than capital repairs and facilities construction."

School boards will retain the right to determine when new schools will be opened or closed. However, the new law stipulates that charters will be given the right to petition to become a local education agency (LEA) should they want to assume these rights as well.

In charge of this “transition” is a 13-member board, eight members of which are CEOs of charter school companies. The board also includes the superintendents of both the RSD and the OPSB. The function of the board is to assure that the ability of the charters to profit off of public education is not impeded in the transition.

The OPSB, itself fully committed to the charterization of public schools in New Orleans, praised the bill. Speaking for those cashing-in with charter operations and other edubusinesses, OPSB superintendent Henderson Lewis Jr. (a founder of an Algiers district charter school) told the media, “The Louisiana law institutionalizes charter schools - World Socialist Web Site:

Registration now open for PAA’s 2016 Leadership Conference | Parents Across America

Registration now open for PAA’s 2016 Leadership Conference | Parents Across America:

Registration now open for PAA’s 2016 Leadership Conference

Meet us in Philly this summer!

Parents Across America leaders will be meeting in Philadelphia from July 18-20 for our annual leadership conference. The conference is designed for PAA affiliate and chapter leaders and those considering starting or joining a chapter or affiliate.

We’re going to Philadelphia this year instead of our usual Washington DC trip to better honor our founding member, Helen Gym, who is a newly-elected Philly city councilwoman.

We’ll gather at the boutique Penns’ View Hotel, just steps from many key historic Philadelphia landmarks.

REGISTER HERE!

Scholarships for travel and hotel fees will be available. You can apply for scholarships when you register.

We have reserved a block of rooms at the Penn’s View Hotel. Please contact the hotel at 800-331-7634 and mention the Parents Across America conference to reserve your room. Room rates are $150.00 per night plus a 15.5% tax for a standard room with a queen/king bed, private bath, private balcony, cable TV, phone, and free wireless internet and continental breakfast. Parking is available at a discount rate of $26/day adjacent to the hotel. Our discounted room rate is good through June 17.

The conference schedule is here.

Details for the Monday July 18 dinner in honor of Helen Gym are in progress.

We hope to see you in Philly!

- See more at: http://parentsacrossamerica.org/registration-open-paas-2016-leadership-conference/#sthash.pLDVBHEX.dpuf

The Arrogant Ignorance of Campbell Brown: Education Journalism in Decline | gadflyonthewallblog

The Arrogant Ignorance of Campbell Brown: Education Journalism in Decline | gadflyonthewallblog:

The Arrogant Ignorance of Campbell Brown: Education Journalism in Decline

Apparently facts don’t matter much to Campbell Brown.

Though her latest “fact” about public schools has once again been shown to be more truthiness than truth, she refuses to retract it.

During an interview published in Slate where she gave advice to the next president, she said:

“Two out of three eighth graders in this country cannot read or do math at grade level. We are not preparing our kids for what the future holds.”

It’s a scary statistic. The problem is it’s completely unsupported by evidence.

And when education experts called her out on it, she complained that SHE was being attacked.

When pressed, Brown admitted she got this figure from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) a test given to random samples of students in fourth and eighth grades every two years.

However, Brown either misunderstands or misinterprets the scores. If one were to interpret the data in the way Brown suggests, the highest scoring countries in the The Arrogant Ignorance of Campbell Brown: Education Journalism in Decline | gadflyonthewallblog:

How Charter Schools Heighten The Politicization Of Education

How Charter Schools Heighten The Politicization Of Education:

How Charter Schools Heighten The Politicization Of Education

 Last year a breakthrough policy brief from the National Education Policy Center exposed some of the financial machinations charter schools engage in to further the interests of profit-seeking entrepreneurs. But what about the political machinations?

The politics of charter schools are less quantifiable that their financials but troubling nevertheless, and the expansion of these schools will no doubt lead to increased politicization of education in local communities.

Consider the following anecdotes.

Florida Fracas

Recently a Florida news outlet reported about a charter school management company that “disappeared from the scene” after being told by the local school board to explain financial and operational problems. The company that operated four schools had racked up $1.8 million in debt after receiving $4.5 million in taxpayer money.

This seems like pretty blatant fraud, but it gets more complicated when politics get involved.

As the article explains, parents and school leaders at one of the schools, Windsor Prep, felt pretty gung ho about their school and responded to its vanishing manager by pitching in, on a voluntary basis, to take over some school operations. However, the board still felt the obligation to address the problems posed: the missing money, the management company scofflaws, and the welfare of lots of students who need more than just enthusiastic amateurs to oversee their education.

While the local board was attempting to sort out the mess another, other issues involving Windsor Prep continued to surface: unaccounted for grant money and $300,000 in mysterious consulting fees.

Based on these ongoing concerns, the school district’s staff recommended putting Windsor Prep and the other charters on a 90-day notice of termination.

Charter school families, mostly from Windsor, flooded the board meetingto express their disapproval. Families expressed their fondness for their charter schools and complained that finding alternatives would be a struggle. School board members responded by pointing out to parents the available seats at local public schools. But many parents contended the public schools are inferior to charters. They point to the “C” letter grades How Charter Schools Heighten The Politicization Of Education:

Big Education Ape: Analysis: EdVoice with an IE for Dodd; Educational Reform Group Has Ties to Vergara Suit and Wa... http://bit.ly/1SJq26U

Big Education Ape: News Analysis: Education fight ‘over shades of Democrat’ | CALmatters http://bit.ly/25csc6L

Big Education Ape: Local legislative races become battleground in statewide fight over educationhttp://bit.ly/1WMlJKA

Big Education Ape: Edvoice pumps cash into Assembly campaign | News | Palo Alto Online | http://bit.ly/1s8OhSi

Big Education Ape: Charter school groups spending big in California legislative races | 89.3 KPCChttp://bit.ly/1TYIvJj

Helping Children Succeed (Will Require Doing Pretty Much the Opposite of Just About Everything We’re Doing Now) | EduShyster

Helping Children Succeed (Will Require Doing Pretty Much the Opposite of Just About Everything We’re Doing Now) | EduShyster:

Helping Children Succeed (Will Require Doing Pretty Much the Opposite of Just About Everything We’re Doing Now)

I talk to Paul Tough about his new book, which you should really read even if the whole *grit* thing drives you bonkers….

EduShyster: Your new book is subtitled *What Works and Why.* But if I may, I’d like to suggest a different subtitle: *Just About Everything We’re Doing to Low-Income Kids in School is Wrong and Here’s the Neuro-Biological Research to Explain Why.* Was it just me or does the research you write about upend some pretty fundamental assumptions?

Paul Tough: I was struck by that too. Some of the basic principles we have, in terms of discipline, in terms of pedagogy and how we run our schools are not advantageous to kids who are growing up in adversity. This research on just how boring school is really resonated with me, especially the research about how when you’re growing up in a low-income community, school is more likely to be repetitive, boring and unmotivating. I hadn’t really picked up on that as being a significant problem before doing this reporting, but this research was really persuasive to me, not only that it’s true for a lot of kids but that it really matters in terms of their motivation. I think I was also more attuned to what happens in American schools and in classrooms because my older son is now in school.

EduShyster: Do the curiosity worksheets your son is filling out indicate that he’s going to be curious? And note that I didn’t take this opportunity to make a crack about predictive *grit* measurement. 

Tough: He’s not filling out curiosity worksheets. He’s in first grade so there’s still a lot of play and interesting stuff but it’s this glimpse of what public school is like for so many kids, and how different it is from the way that he actually learns things—by doing experiments, by getting interested in something and staying interested in it for a week or even a month. The expeditionary learning model is how he naturally thinks, Helping Children Succeed (Will Require Doing Pretty Much the Opposite of Just About Everything We’re Doing Now) | EduShyster:

My Candidate for President | Diane Ravitch's blog

My Candidate for President | Diane Ravitch's blog:

My Candidate for President

To Readers of This Blog:

I have been consistently even-handed in the Presidential race in dealing with the candidates of the Democratic party. I oppose the Republican party candidates because I don’t agree with their corporate-friendly agenda and their positions on social issues, as well as their embrace of privatization as the solution to the problems in public schools.

As between the Democratic candidates, I have supported neither. I have published posts critical of both Sanders and Clinton. Neither is especially good on the issues that matter most to supporters of public education. Clinton said when campaigning in New York state that she would not want her grand-daughter to opt out of the tests, and she waffled on the issue of charter schools. Sanders voted for the Murphy amendment to the “Every Student Succeeds Act,” which would have retained high-stakes accountability under federal control (fortunately the amendment did not pass). Sanders also is confused about charter schools, having said that he favors “public” charter schools but not “private” charter schools, not realizing that all charter schools are publicly funded but privately controlled. Education has been a non-issue.

 I like Bernie’s ideas (and I share his outrage), and I like Hillary’s experience.

What I don’t like is the passionate denunciation of one or the other of them, by them or by their partisans.

The overwhelming majority of denunciations are directed at Hillary. Some of our readers are as vicious towards her as Donald Trump is. If you read the comments, you would think that Donald Trump is much to be preferred over Hillary because she is allegedly dishonest, corrupt, a war-monger, a tool of Wall Street, etc. The demonization of Hillary is often times over-the-top, angry, and hateful. 

This internecine warfare is not admirable. It should stop. It helps Trump. One candidate will emerge from the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. It will be the candidate who gets the requisite number of delegates. It will be either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. When the convention chooses the candidate, I will support that candidate.

 I will not sit home. I will not vote for a third party candidate. I will not write in the name of someone else. That is irresponsible. Throwing your vote away is a vote for Donald Trump.

I am afraid of Donald Trump. He is not qualified to be president. He knows nothing about foreign affairs or domestic issues, other than those that affected him as a real estate developer and businessman. His statements during the campaign inflame passions, divide Americans, and make us a laughing stock around the world.

Does Trump really plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants? How will he round them up? Will he expand the Immigration and Naturalization personnel so they can go door to door, searching out families to deport? Will they be placed in massive detention camps pending transfer? Will babies born in the camps on American soil be citizens? This proposal is as mad as anything else he has said.

Does Trump really expect to build the Great Wall of America across the U.S.-Mexican border? Will it be 50 feet high? The New York Times My Candidate for President | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Queremos estar libres para graduarnos: Cartas de estudiantes detenidos por ICE - Lily's Blackboard

Queremos estar libres para graduarnos: Cartas de estudiantes detenidos por ICE - Lily's Blackboard:

Queremos estar libres para graduarnos: Cartas de estudiantes detenidos por ICE

Yefri Sorto fue detenido por agentes de inmigración cuando esperaba el bus del colegio en Charlotte, Carolina del Norte. Ahora está en una cárcel luchando contra su deportación y por la posibilidad de graduarse de la escuela junto a sus amigos. Wildin Acosta y Pedro Salmerón también están encarcelados y luchando por salir y terminar sus estudios. Sus maestros y sus compañeros están luchando por ellos y por un alto a las redadas que separan familias.

Estas son las cartas que estos jóvenes escribieron desde la cárcel, donde relatan las condiciones en las que viven y piden por su libertad.

 

Queremos estar libres para graduarnos: Cartas de estudiantes detenidos por ICE - Lily's Blackboard:

As US DOE Releases Proposed Rules For ESSA, Kline & Alexander Threaten To Pull The Plug – Exceptional Delaware

As US DOE Releases Proposed Rules For ESSA, Kline & Alexander Threaten To Pull The Plug – Exceptional Delaware:

As US DOE Releases Proposed Rules For ESSA, Kline & Alexander Threaten To Pull The Plug

The first set of proposed rules for the Every Student Succeeds Act, unofficially released on May 20th, are already drawing the ire of many in Washington D.C. are not too happy with them.  Senator Lamar Alexander (TN) and US Rep. John Kline (MN) issued a press release today advising the United States Dept. of Education and Secretary of Education John King that if the proposed rules for regulation do not match the sprit and intent of the law they will take measures to overturn the proposed rules.

Both Kline and Alexander feel the federal overreach, which ESSA was supposed to get rid of, is still there.  This is not the first time in recent months they have blasted John King over the US DOE’s interpretation of the ESSA.  But as the proposed rules come out, expect a vicious fight in D.C.

Below are the proposed rules sent out for public comment.  They will be published in the Federal Register on May 31st, next Tuesday.  Also below are a summary of the proposed rules, a chart, the press release issued today by the US DOE on the proposed regulations, the Title I approved consensus for regulatory language on assessments, and the press release issued today by Kline and Alexander.

NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING FOR REGULATIONS UNDER ESSA FOR ACCOUNTABILITY, STATE PLANS, AND DATA REPORTING TO APPEAR IN FEDERAL REGISTER ON 5/31/16

US DOE SUMMARY OF PROPOSED REGULATIONS ON ACCOUNTABILITY, STATE PLANS, AND DATA REPORTING UNDER ESSA

Continue reading: As US DOE Releases Proposed Rules For ESSA, Kline & Alexander Threaten To Pull The Plug – Exceptional Delaware:

As US DOE Releases Proposed Rules For ESSA, Kline & Alexander Threaten To Pull The Plug – Exceptional Delaware:

Teacher shortage: Real or fabricated? - NonDoc

Teacher shortage: Real or fabricated? - NonDoc:

Teacher shortage: Real or fabricated?

(Morguefile.com)

It sounds weird, but some school reformers keep denying that teachers are fleeing the classroom. Even stranger, Oklahoma is cited as a place where everybody and their dogs agree that there is a growing teacher shortage, but where all types of stakeholders must be suffering from a mass hallucination. In fact, the Hechinger Report cites central Oklahoma as a place that proves the claims of a shortage are “overblown.” The report argues that central Oklahoma will face an excess of teachers next year, which helps prove that test-driven, competition-driven reform is not driving teachers out of the public schools.

Cue befuddled head scratching.

To understand why even reliable reporters like Hechinger’s Jill Barshay question whether an exodus of teachers is occurring, some historical background is necessary.

As education historian Jal Mehta explains, teaching has always been disrespected as a “semi-profession.” Throughout the 20th century, noneducators have repeatedly imposed test-driven accountability on schools. Even though those experiments have consistently failed, new waves of top-down reform are continually imposed. To admit that educators are leaving the profession at even faster rates is to acknowledge the failure of today’s competition-driven reform.

Since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the test, sort, reward and punish school of reform has driven much of the joy of teaching from our classrooms. For instance, a recent Center for Education Progress survey found that 81 percent of teachers believe we have too much testing. Worse, 49 percent of surveyed teachers also say they’d leave teaching“as soon as possible” if they could find a higher-paying job; another 42 percent agreed with the statement, “I think about  Teacher shortage: Real or fabricated? - NonDoc:

CURMUDGUCATION: Eva Moskowitz Fights Back

CURMUDGUCATION: Eva Moskowitz Fights Back:

Eva Moskowitz Fights Back



Eva Moskowitz, well-paid queen of the Success Academy charter chain, just won the Savas Award from the Reason Foundation. The award is given in honor of City University of New York Presidential Professor and privatization research pioneer E.S. "Steve" Savas, and it recognizes public-private partnership, though since what we're really honoring is privatization, these are partnerships in the same way that mugging is a criminal-pedestrian partnership.

Apparently one of the prizes that comes with the Savas Award is a very friendly and gentle video interview, and ReasonTV delivered an interview for Moskowitz that is softer than a baby's bottom. I have watched it so that you don't have to and, really, unless you have a tub of blood pressure medicine handy, you probably should not watch this. 

The Warm Fuzzy Open

As opposed to a cold open. The piece begins with nice close shots of Success Academy students working hard and studying intensely. The voice-over notes that the halls are quiet and orderly, and it calls the SA schools both successful and controversial.


We toss out a graph that shows just how mightily the school beats other NYC schools on the Big Standardized Test, and you will be not so surprised that these charts are not accompanied by charts showing how Success Academy has a huge attrition rate. The video also does not mention that SA doesn't replace the many students that leave. In other words, SA students may very well get good results on the BS Tests-- but any public school could achieve the same results by pushing out all but its best test-takers.

The voice-over tells us the story of how city councilwoman Moskowitz "sank her political career by speaking out about" how unions were stifling schools (insert stock footage of Randi Weingarten, looking, I guess, amazed at the brave councilwoman calling her on her evil union baloney). So she started a charter, which became a chain, which is "often hailed as a shining example" of what school choice is achieved. Which is a great construction. I myself am often hailed as an educational genius and the inventor of modern rap music. Hey-- you don't know I'm not often hailed as that. You weren't there.

So anyway, Reason Foundation gave her this swell award, and then sat down with her to chat. Here we go!

One of the core ideas of a charter school is that it's partially insulated from politics...?

The interviewer does that sort of vocal lift that turns any string of words into a question. Moskowitz is game.

"Oh. Well," she scoffs. That's probably not reality. There's a cutaway to the interviewer as the next CURMUDGUCATION: Eva Moskowitz Fights Back:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: A collage of what passes for school reform around here.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: A collage of what passes for school reform around here.:

A collage of what passes for school reform around here.

Can Duncan save Lucas' ghastly Star Wars Museum?

If somehow we could collage these four articles from today's Tribune, it would offer a realistic look at the current state of what passes for Chicago school reform:

Article #1 --Yes, Arne Duncan is back in town. In case you were worrying about whether or not Obama's former Ed Secretary would land on his feet after the Race To The Top Debacle, fear not. He's doing fine, thanks to billionaire friends like Mark Zuckerberg, Pricilla Chan, and George Lucas.

Zuckerberg and wife Pricilla hired Duncan for a leadership role in their so-called Emerson Collective where he joins up again with his own former U.S. Education Department deputy secretary Jim Shelton to advise of corporate-style reform and privatization matters.

No word yet on how much they're paying him. Whatever it is, it's just chump change to MZ. He's the guy who once dropped $100M to underwrite Newark's version of school reform underGov. Christie and former mayor, Corey Booker. Nobody knows exactly how all that money was spent. But suffice to say, it hasn't done much to improve teaching/learning. Most of it, I'm told, went into the pockets of the charter school operators.

As backup, Arne has secured a spot on the Lucas Museum's Board of Directors. They are all hoping that this appointment leaves a glimmer of hope that the horrifically ugly Star Wars Museum will still end up on the city's valuable lakefront property, for free.

Duncan, who also served as Chicago Public Schools chief from 2001 to 2009,  previously Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: A collage of what passes for school reform around here.:

TFA’s Latest PR Stunt | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

TFA’s Latest PR Stunt | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

TFA’s Latest PR Stunt

Education Week used to be the gold standard in education reporting.  I can remember how proud I was in October 1995 when, at just 25 years old, I got my first ‘published’ article in a ‘real’ publication, Education Week’s Teacher Magazine, for a piece I wrote called ‘Natural Born Teacher.’  Over the next six years, I was always so proud whenever I’d get a piece accepted into either Teacher Magazine or Education Week.

As the internet grew and Twitter gained popularity, I joined and of course followed Education Week.  Though I’ve found Education Week to be generally slanted toward the Reform side, they are not nearly as bad as something like some of the other sites posing as journalism and they do run some columns by people critical of Waiting For Superman style reform.

Earlier this month I started noticing a lot of tweets from Education Week about the amazing work that TFA is doing.

Here are some examples:TFA’s Latest PR Stunt | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

The Education System Is Rigged Against Low-Income Students, Even In Kindergarten

The Education System Is Rigged Against Low-Income Students, Even In Kindergarten:

The Education System Is Rigged Against Low-Income Students, Even In Kindergarten

The government’s annual “Condition of Education” report shows disparities continue through high school and college.

Students born into poverty enter kindergarten at a disadvantage to more affluent peers. As they advance through the grades, they receive lower test scores. They’re more likely to drop out and less likely to enter higher education. 

The all-too-familiar cycle, in some ways, is getting worse, according to data in a new report from the National Center for Education Statistics.

The report, titled, “The Condition of Education 2016,” is the 42nd of its kind, produced under congressional mandate by The U.S. Department of Education’s data branch, the National Center for Education Statistics. It outlines the latest data on everything from public school enrollment to the median earnings of degree recipients. 

The report starts with a troubling fact. Low-income students often arrive in kindergarten without a “positive approach” to learning — a mindset that allows them to pay attention in class, follow rules and show excitement for learning. Data collected from kindergarten teachers shows that students from lower socioeconomic households are less likely to demonstrate a positive approach to learning than middle-class and affluent students, which makes it harder for them to excel academically.

“In the early years, even before formal schooling begins, children from socioeconomically disadvantaged households typically have less access to resources that have been associated with learning, such as books and educational toys in their homes and quality preschool settings, than do students from more socioeconomically advantaged households,” the report says. 

Students less likely to demonstrate positive approaches to learning have lower average reading and math scores when they enter and leave kindergarten. They have lower average scores by the end of first grade, and again at the end of second grade.

But there were bright spots for lower-income students. The positive relationship between learning approaches and academic gains is particularly strong for low-income students. That means those students who do have positive learning behavior tend to make meaningful academic gains. 

“Students who were performing at the lower end of that learning behavior scale who never exhibited [positive] behaviors, their gains over time were not as strong as those who exhibited those behaviors often,” said Grace Kena, an author of the report. “Even more interesting, those gains over time were greater for students from lower socioeconomic status households, so having those positive learning behavior skills mastered was helpful to students and most helpful to” students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

In the early years, even before formal schooling begins, children from socioeconomically disadvantaged households typically have less access to resources.

Overall, more students are graduating from high school, although black, Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native students are still less likely to get degrees than white and Asian American/Pacific Islander counterparts. After graduating, students from low-income households are more likely to enroll in an occupational certificate program or an associate’s degree program. They are significantly less likely to enroll in a bachelor’s degree program. Students who have high grade-point averages or took advanced high school math courses — like calculus or The Education System Is Rigged Against Low-Income Students, Even In Kindergarten: