New Orleans RSD Memory Lane, with a Stop at Falling Scores Statewide in 2016 | deutsch29

New Orleans RSD Memory Lane, with a Stop at Falling Scores Statewide in 2016 | deutsch29:

New Orleans RSD Memory Lane, with a Stop at Falling Scores Statewide in 2016

New Orleans Recovery School District (RSD) is a modern miracle, and, as such, it should be celebrated by reflecting on how far that state-run wonder has advanced based on the principle measure that matters in the world of corporate ed reform: the almighty test score.

Let us restrict our celebration to high school test scores, such as the ACT and Louisiana’s End-of-Course (EOC) subject area tests.

We will begin our stroll down RSD Memory Lane with this fine moment in September 2012, as such was publicized on the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) website:

RECOVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT-NEW ORLEANS MAKES GAINS ON ACT

Sep 18, 2012

School District Also Boasts Largest Increase in Number of Students Taking Exam

BATON ROUGE, La. – The average composite score on the ACT for students in the Recovery School District (RSD) New Orleans rose four-tenths of a point from 16.4 to 16.8 from 2011 to 2012 – representing an increase four times the statewide average which rose one-tenth of a point from 20.2 to 20.3 during the same timeframe.  In the last two years, the average composite score for RSD New Orleans has increased a total of 1.2 points, up from 15.6 in 2010, ranking fifth in the state for overall progress.

“Students in New Orleans continue to make significant strides in academic achievement,” said Patrick Dobard, Superintendent of the Recovery School District.  “The steady increase in results, year after year, proves what we have always believed – that all students can learn and achieve.  We will continue to work until each and every child gains the knowledge and skills to succeed in college and careers after graduation.”

A marvel, truly. RSD New Orleans ACT score New Orleans RSD Memory Lane, with a Stop at Falling Scores Statewide in 2016 | deutsch29:

Schools Matter: Understanding KIPP Model Charter Schools: Part 3

Schools Matter: Understanding KIPP Model Charter Schools: Part 3:

Understanding KIPP Model Charter Schools: Part 3

Part 1 and Part 2: Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys Through "No Excuses" Teaching

 

Chapter 3

Neoliberalism Goes to School

by Scott Ellison

...just as modern mass production methods require the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called ‘equality.’ –Eric Fromm (Brookfield, 2004. p. 161)

            In popular debates over education policy, it has now become quite common to see terms such as neoliberalism and neoliberal education reform bandied about in political debates in order to describe this current era of education reform. The neoliberal descriptor is indeed apt, but there is a problem with its common usage. Unfortunately, it is all too often the case that this terminology is used as a substitute for analysis, a pejorative shorthand used alongside terms such as corporate reform and privatization.

This unfortunate use of terminology obscures the reality that neoliberalism represents a dynamic political ideology, with a specific intellectual and political history, that has come to dominate not only debates over education policy but the political discourse and major institutions of American society.  This chapter will attempt to flesh out what is known as neoliberal education reform by tracing three overlapping, mutually reinforcing societal trends that have fundamentally restructured the landscape of education policy over the past 30-40 years.

The first section will trace the development of a political convergence around a set of education policy reforms in the United States informed by neoclassical economic theory and globalization practices that have radically shifted education policy talk and implementation to the political Right. The second section will examine the power dynamics behind this political convergence by examining the emergence of an increasingly assertive business and philanthropic community that has constructed a private superstructure around public education policy in order to transform America’s schools.  The third section will look at how economic globalization and orthodox neoclassical economic theory entered into popular discourse and how these ideas came to define both the “why” and “how” of public education.

            It is, of course, not possible to give an exhaustive account of the broad transformations taking place in the politics of Schools Matter: Understanding KIPP Model Charter Schools: Part 3:

The Glass Ceiling in Education - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

The Glass Ceiling in Education - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

The Glass Ceiling in Education

You've probably seen it--the cartoon with three children's heads. There's a speech bubble over all three kids, saying "I could be President!" Underneath the first--a white boy--the caption reads: Since 1789. Under the second, a black boy, it says: Since 2008. And under the third, a girl, the text is: Since Tuesday.

This isn't a political blog, by the way--it's about education. You know, one of the limited number of fields where women are supposed to be welcomed and excel, like nursing or being someone's uber-efficient administrative assistant. When folks think of a third grade teacher, their mental image is usually a sturdy woman in a denim skirt--with lots of pockets--and comfortable shoes.

Ask about the HS band director, however--and you're probably picturing a harried man in an aging uniform with a stripe on his pant leg, megaphone in hand, directing 100 similarly attired teenagers on the football field. Things are changing--in the late 1970s, there were only seven women HS band directors in the state of Michigan, which has 500+ school districts--but in secondary and university music education, it was a man's world for a century or more.

For all of us who have been discouraged from taking on education jobs that traditionally belonged to men, Tuesday night was a glass-shattering celebration, even for those who aren't Hillary fans. My friend Pat Brumbaugh, who has an impressive resume' as a music educator, wrote this:

When I was very young I was told that I couldn't go to college because I was a girl. I was told that I couldn't play the instrument I wanted to play because I was a girl. I couldn't go hunting or fishing with my Dad because I was a girl. I couldn't learn to fix things because I was a girl. I couldn't be a 

The Glass Ceiling in Education - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

 

Hillary Clinton Breaks The Glass Ceiling

The Charter School Petty Cash Audit You Will Never See – Exceptional Delaware

The Charter School Petty Cash Audit You Will Never See – Exceptional Delaware:

The Charter School Petty Cash Audit You Will Never See

Delaware State Auditor Tom Wagner has a lot of explaining to do.  And possibly Governor Markell as well!

Things are getting a bit clearer now.  On the Kavips blog, Delaware State Representative Kim Williams wrote a comment on Kavips take on the Kathleen Davies situation playing out at the Delaware Auditor of Accounts office.  She wrote about how she contacted the auditor’s office last September regarding some concerns she had with a Delaware charter school’s petty cash activity on Delaware Online Checkbook.  The report was near completion prior to Kathleen Davie’s abrupt “leave of absence”.  Williams even had a comment she approved that would have appeared in the petty cash audit inspection.

Williams emailed Delaware State Auditor Tom Wagner to find out the status of it following Davies’ leave.  Wagner told her he stopped the audit and issued letters to all the charter schools instead.  Really Wagner?  I know which school Williams found on the petty cash situation.  When the Charter School of Wilmington wrote in their board minutes that the auditors were there to review their petty cash accounts, I knew something was up.  So I checked all the charter schools petty cash activity.  Some of them were quite egregious compared to what they are allowed to have in those accounts.  But I figured I would wait to see the report before I wrote about it.  In other board minutes, CSW board members asked where the audit was and they were going to contact the auditor to find out.  I find it very interesting they chose to write about this one particular audit, not once, but twice.

So now we have an elected official voluntarily choosing to cover up information.  This makes the very bizarre action against Davies’ look even more suspicious.  Who knows what other activity is being “stopped” by Tom Wagner.  Lord only knows how much else she found.  We also have the woman who was in charge of the Office of Management and Budget involved in this scandal as well.  Ann Visalli reported to one man, and one man only… Delaware Governor Jack A. Markell.  We have an obvious set-up against Davies with a lot of BIG Delaware power figures involved.  I hope her attorney eats them up!

Hey… Tom Wagner… where is the audit on Delaware Met?  Where is the audit from the tip I submitted about Academy of Dover and Newark Charter School?  What other audits are you cancelling?  Why do you keep ignoring emails from The Charter School Petty Cash Audit You Will Never See – Exceptional Delaware:

NYC Educator: Our Billionaire Is Better than Your Billionaire

NYC Educator: Our Billionaire Is Better than Your Billionaire:

Our Billionaire Is Better than Your Billionaire

That's a pretty ridiculous message, but it seems to be the one the Democrats tried to send us from the convention floor. I didn't watch Bloomberg speak because I have a pretty reliable gag reflex, but that's what people are telling me.

This is a really hard year for me. As a teacher, I find very deep flaws in candidate Hillary Clinton but even deeper ones in Donald Trump. Here's the thing--people on Facebook are always trying to persuade me to vote for this or that person.

Oddly, many who want me to vote for Hillary Clinton try to persuade me by telling me what a moron I am. Or they tell me if I'm not supporting Hillary I'M SUPPORTING TRUMP AND THEY PLACE IT IN ALL CAPS WITH LOTS OF EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Aside from letting me know how stupid, ignorant, and evil I am, some people tell me stories. One of my favorites came from this guy who let me know that all Bernie Sanders supporters were Hollywood elites, and that none of them spoke second languages. One of the examples he gave to prove his point was the brilliant activist actress Rosario Dawson, who happens to speak Spanish with native fluency. (Full disclosure---I speak Spanish too, though not perfectly.)

The other day, even after I'd said I'd decided to vote for Hillary, the same guy let me know that Sanders was just like Reagan. I have no idea why he made that comparison, and he didn't explain. Like all Sanders supporters, I suppose, I'm fluent only in English and could not quite make contact with the voices in his head that gave him this info.

But the biggest whopper of them all was Hillary's presentation of former NYC Emperor Michael Bloomberg as the good billionaire.  He's ourbillionaire, you see, because he stood up on that stage in Philly and spoke at the DNC. Even people in my family are telling me how Bloomberg is a much better billionaire than Trump. As you can tell from the picture above, they've always been natural enemies and have never ever had anything in common. (Perish forbid they should opportunistically oppose one another for the sake of an election.) 

This notwithstanding, I lived through twelve endless years of Michael Bloomberg. I lived through his ridiculous Chancellors Klein, What's-Her-Name, and Walcott. I watched as they sold us out to the reformies. I watched as children stood freezing on the streets via his no bid bus NYC Educator: Our Billionaire Is Better than Your Billionaire:

Why is Common Core Still Here? | gadflyonthewallblog

Why is Common Core Still Here? | gadflyonthewallblog:

Why is Common Core Still Here?

Common Core has become a national joke.

In fact, the set of academic standards has inspired a new genre of grade school humor – Common Core comedy.

For instance:

One student turns to another and says, “Common Core is about making us college and career ready.”

The other student replies, “It’s working. It’s making me drink more everyday.”

Here’s another one:

Question: Why can’t mommy help you with your Common Core math homework?

Answer: She only has a four-year degree.

And finally:

Question: How many whiteboards does it take to show you how to screw in a light Why is Common Core Still Here? | gadflyonthewallblog:

NEA President DNC Speech Education Student Debt

NEA President DNC Speech Education Student Debt:

How One Woman Went From Lunch Lady To Leader Of The Country's Biggest Union

Lily Eskelsen Garcia’s story isn’t exactly a rags-to-riches tale in the traditional sense. There was never any fairy godmother waiting in the wings for her.

But that doesn’t mean that there was no magic in her rise.

In her more than 40 years in the education system, Garcia, 61, has gone from lunch lady to the highest-ranking Latina woman in labor — rising through the ranks of education to serve as the president of the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the United States.

Garcia's launch started in 1989, when she was named teacher of the year in Utah.

“I’m pretty outspoken," she told Refinery29, so when she was given a public platform and asked what she thought of policies surrounding education in her home state of Utah, the chance to speak her mind was a little too tempting.

“I never call people names, but you can let people know that you think the governor is not doing a very good job in some very nice ways,” she said, laughing.

Garcia used that platform and leveraged it into a run (and win) for president of her state teacher’s union at the age of 34, unusually young for such a high-level role. But she didn't rest on her laurels, instead following it up with runs for the national union, moving from the executive committee of the NEA, to secretary-treasurer, then vice president, and finally, to her current role as president since 2014.

IF WOMEN ARE GOING TO WAIT TO BE ENCOURAGED TO RUN FOR NONTRADITIONAL ROLES, YOU’RE GOING TO BE WAITING A LONG TIME.

LILY ESKELSEN GARCIA

It’s a long road for someone who never even expected to go to college.

“It wasn’t in my family’s experience,” she said.

After high school, Garcia applied for a job at a local school because she liked working with children. She worked as a lunch lady, then a teacher’s aide. One day, a teacher she worked with took her aside and told her she should consider college.

“I was 20 before anybody said [that],” Garcia recalls. “[It] was very wonderful, this teacher NEA President DNC Speech Education Student Debt:

CORE districts want state waiver to continue their work | EdSource

CORE districts want state waiver to continue their work | EdSource:

CORE districts want state waiver to continue their work

The six California school districts that designed their own school accountability and improvement model are asking the State Board of Education for permission to continue to develop their hybrid system in 2017-18 and beyond. The board will discuss and possibly vote on the proposal at its next meeting in September.

The districts have operated through a nonprofit, the California Office to Reform Education, or CORE. They established a School Quality Improvement System under a waiver from funding restrictions and penalties of the federal No Child Left Behind Act that former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan granted in 2013. But the waiver ended when Congress replaced NCLB with the Every Student Succeeds Act and turned over to the states the job of designing their own new school accountability systems using multiple measures of achievement. CORE and the California State Board of Education have taken that approach.

In two July letters to the State Board of Education (here and here), CORE requested that it be designated a research pilot, providing data and insights to the board as it considers broadening its initial accountability system into areas in which the CORE districts are already doing innovative work. CORE’s CORE districts want state waiver to continue their work | EdSource:

How education reform exacerbates sexism #EDUCOLOR

How education reform exacerbates sexism:

How education reform exacerbates sexism

Firing thousands of female teachers and expelling black girls props up patriarchy

The National Interest: Once a month, this column is tackling broader questions about what the country should do about gaps in achievement and opportunity, especially for boys of color, in a partnership with The Root.

Tucked away from the hoopla and ruckus of the Democratic National Convention at a quaint restaurant a few miles away, approximately 200 people gathered at “Rights4Girls at the DNC” to rally around issues ostensibly washed out in the convention hall.

Instead of red, white and blue streamers, the room was festooned with art and info-graphics, which described the state of girls and women in the United States. A picture inspired by a 12-year-old girl who was trafficked for sex in California was put up for auction. A poster read, “Girls are the fastest growing segment of the juvenile justice system.”

“One of the priorities that we would add to a platform for marginalized young women and girls is to dismantle the sexual abuse to prison pipeline that’s criminalizing our girls, in particular our girls of color, for being victims of sexual abuse,” said Yasmin Vava, executive director of Rights4Girls.

The event did more than simply highlight injustices suffered by school-aged girls, it launched a new campaign that illustrates how school reform often ends up making those injustices worse. Our society is so weighted by the gravity of sexism that our laws, “solutions” and “reforms” contribute to the victimization of those we are supposed to protect.

Related: Democratic political infighting over education pulls the rug out from under black families

During the event, Vava and honored guests spoke to the criminalization of victims of child sex trafficking in the United States. Speakers made clear there should be no difference between abusing a child and paying to abuse a child through prostitution. In many states trafficked children aren’t always protected by statutory rape laws. There is no such thing as a child prostitute; it’s How education reform exacerbates sexism:

#ASKLILY Q&A: The Education Stakes in Election 2016 | Alternet

Q&A: The Education Stakes in Election 2016 | Alternet:

Q&A: The Education Stakes in Election 2016

A conversation with NEA President Lily Eskelsen García on what 2016 means for K-12 education.

Last October, the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, gave Hillary Clinton one of her earliest organized labor endorsements. Since then, the powerful group has been one of Clinton’s most vocal supporters. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump have spent much time discussing public K-12 education issues during the primary season. But recently, elementary and secondary education topics have attracted more attention. Clinton began articulating her education policy ideas at union conventions this month and Republican leaders championed school choice at their national convention last week.

The American Prospect’s Rachel Cohen sat down in Philadelphia with Lily Eskelsen García, the president of the three million-member NEA, to discuss the upcoming election, and what’s at stake for teachers and students. What follows is an edited and condensed transcript of that conversation.

---

Rachel Cohen: I’ve been paying close attention to the Clinton campaign’s public statements surrounding charter schools, including her adviser Ann O’Leary’s remarks at the Democrats for Education Reform’s forum Monday. Hillary says she opposes for-profit charters, but supports high-quality ones. What does the NEA want to see specifically from Clinton on the charter school issue?

Lily Eskelsen García: When we talk about charter schools, there’s been an evolution from what [former American Federation of Teachers president] Al Shanker once said, that we should be able to have these innovative incubators of great, creative ideas that can inform the whole system and that we should try them in some places before we explode them all over a system.

We now have franchised for-profit charter schools, the big chains. Those are the ones that say we’re proprietary, we’re copyrighted, we’re here to make money, and we’re not here to inform anybody. Sometimes even the nonprofit ones have proprietary suppliers with owners on their charter board—so there are conflicts of interest. [These schools] have nothing whatsoever to do with improving the system.

Hillary Clinton is on the exact same page as we are, [she] says there are some innovative charter schools that were designed to impact the system, to try something creative. But if a charter has any other reason for existing, like making someone money, then she does not support those, and neither do we. I don’t care if they call it a for-profit or if it’s technically a nonprofit.

There’s been a renewed national discussion around school integration since the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education two years ago. School Q&A: The Education Stakes in Election 2016 | Alternet:

Reading, writing and religion? Dallas-area charter schools come under fire (again). | Dallas Morning News

Reading, writing and religion? Dallas-area charter schools come under fire (again). | Dallas Morning News:

Reading, writing and religion? Dallas-area charter schools come under fire (again).

Big Education Ape: KILLING ED: 120 American Charter Schools and One Secretive Turkish Cleric -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/01/killing-ed-120-american-charter-schools.html

Advantage Academy is “God’s school.” The Dallas-area school puts the Bible in every subject, according to the former pastor who founded it.

That’s a problem, critics say, because Advantage Academy is a public charter school and can’t push a particular religion.

A Wisconsin-based watchdog group filed a complaint last week with the Texas Education Agency, saying it has “serious constitutional concerns” with Advantage Academy, which enrolls more than 1,800 students at four campuses - one in Dallas, two in Grand Prairie and one in Waxahachie.

“We ask that the TEA investigate Advantage Academy and take action to prevent its schools from endorsing Christianity to its students,” said the complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit group that works to keep church and state separate.

In a statement Friday, the school said it follows the law. “Advantage Academy is neutral and does not endorse any church or religious practice,” the statement said.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation posted an excerpt of a sermon that Beck gave at a church in November. The original video of that sermon is here. 

The Texas Education Agency is reviewing the complaint against Advantage Academy, agency spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said Friday.

Advantage Academy is one of Texas’ oldest charter schools, founded in 1998 by an educator and former pastor named Allen Beck. (The News wrote about the school in 2010.) It’s far from the only charter school in the Dallas area with religious ties. Turkish Muslims helped found Harmony Public Schools. Critics have accused Harmony of having ties to a Turkish imam named Fethullah Gulen - but school leaders say there’s no connection. Some other Dallas-area charter schools, including Life School andGolden Rule Charter School, were founded by pastors and have held classes in church buildings.

Charter schools can hold classes in a church. They can be run by preachers. But they can’t promote a particular religion, Culbertson said. For instance, students can read the Reading, writing and religion? Dallas-area charter schools come under fire (again). | Dallas Morning News:

 Big Education Ape: Texas Opens Probe Into Gulen Connection to Charter Schools - WSJ -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/07/texas-opens-probe-into-gulen-connection.html

If Test Scores Go Up Did Education Improve?

If Test Scores Go Up Did Education Improve?:

If Test Scores Go Up Did Education Improve?

On Friday afternoon July 29, 2016, New York State released the results of student test scores on Common Core aligned standardized tests administered last spring. If you missed the announcement, that’s probably why scores were released on a Friday afternoon the day the Presidential campaign went into full swing. The New York Times reported on the release in Saturday’s paper on page 18.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is facing a tough reelection battle in 2017 was ecstatic with the test results. The percentage of New York City students who passed state English exams was up by nearly eight percentage points to almost 38 percent passing. For the first time this matched the overall state passing average. According to de Blasio, “These results represent important progress and outline real improvements across each borough of our city. We congratulate our students, families and devoted educators for this critical step forward.”

Carmen Fariña, de Blasio’s Schools Chancellor, was also pretty happy. “We have seen incredible improvement on these exams and it’s so important that we’ve seen it in every single school district — a testament to not only the hard work of students, but the importance of having strong educators at the helm: our superintendents, principals and teachers.”

Of course these results mean that 62% of New York City students still failed the English tests, but why point a damper on improvement? Over a third of the city’s students passed the math test, which was a slight improvement.

Unfortunately, State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia also put a damper on the test scores. Because significant changes were made to the tests this year, comparisons with previous scores are invalid. The tests may have better. They were certainly shorter and were administered without a time limit. But they are clearly not the same.

Even with the changes, scores on the English test for students who are non-native English speakers did not improve. Fewer than 5% passed the exam. The If Test Scores Go Up Did Education Improve?:

Report charges many charter schools exclude children in violation of the law | EdSource

Report charges many charter schools exclude children in violation of the law | EdSource:

Report charges many charter schools exclude children in violation of the law

Over 1 in 5 of California’s charter schools have restrictive admissions requirements or other exclusionary practices that keep out many students with the greatest academic needs, a report released today by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the public interest law firm Public Advocates alleges.

These practices, the report alleges, “violate the California Education Code, the California and U.S. Constitution, and state and federal civil rights laws.”

The report, titled, “Unequal Access: How Some California Charter Schools Illegally Restrict Enrollment,” says that according to the California Charter Schools Act of 1992, charter schools are required to “admit all pupils who wish to attend,” except for space limitations.

See California Education Code Section 47605(d)2)(A)

“Charter schools may not enact admissions requirements or other barriers to enrollment and must admit all students who apply, just as traditional schools cannot turn away students,” the 28-page report charges.

Of the  1,228 charter schools in California, the report said that it has identified 253 that have practices that are “plainly exclusionary,” based on information posted on the schools’ websites.

GOING DEEPER

Report:  Unequal Access: How Some California Charter Schools Illegally Restrict Enrollment

Response from California Charter School Association

These practices include:

• Denying enrollment to students who have weak grades or test scores;
• Expelling students who do not have strong grades or test scores;
• Denying enrollment to students who do not “meet a minimum level of English proficiency;”
• Requiring students to meet “onerous” requirements for admission, including students or parent having to write essays or be interviewed;
• Discouraging students from immigrant background from applying by requiring parents or students to provide social security numbers or other citizenship information;
• Make enrollment conditional on parents volunteering or donating funds to the school.

In a lengthy statement, Jed Wallace, president and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association, said, “We agree with Report charges many charter schools exclude children in violation of the law | EdSource: