The Big Lie Behind Trump’s Education Budget

The Big Lie Behind Trump’s Education Budget:

The Big Lie Behind Trump’s Education Budget

Public school supporters are angry at President Trump’s budget proposal, which plans to cut funding to the Department of Education by 13 percent – taking that department’s outlay down to the level it was ten years ago. But the target for their anger should not be just the extent of the cuts but also how the cuts are being pitched to the public.

Trump’s education budget cuts are aimed principally at federal programs that serve poor kids, especially their access to afterschool programs and high-quality teachers.

At the same time, Trump’s spending blueprint calls for pouring $1.4 billion into school choice policies including a $168 million increase for charter schools, $250 million for a new school choice program focused on private schools, and a $1 billion increase for parents to send their kids to private schools at taxpayer expense.

The way the Trump administration is spinning this combination of funding cuts and increases – and the way nearly every news outlet is reporting them – is that there is some sort of strategically important balance between funding programs for poor kids versus “school choice” schemes, as if the two are equivalents and just different means to the same ends. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A False Equivalency

Shortly after Trump unveiled the plan, his Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos was quick to echo the false equivalency.

“The president promised to invest in our underserved communities and The Big Lie Behind Trump’s Education Budget:

5 Out of 5 Pinocchios 

History Lesson Only for President Trump

History Lesson Only for  President Trump

The Test is Coming Soon

The Joy of Opting Out of Standardized Testing | gadflyonthewallblog

The Joy of Opting Out of Standardized Testing | gadflyonthewallblog:

The Joy of Opting Out of Standardized Testing

Testing season is a gray period in my classroom.

But it’s a joy in my house.

As a classroom teacher with a daughter in the public school system, I’m always struck by the difference.

In school I have to proctor the federally mandated standardized tests. But I’ve opted my own daughter out. She doesn’t take them.

So at home, I get to see all the imaginative projects she’s created in her class while the other kids had to trudge away at the exam.

“Daddy, daddy, look!” she squeals.

And I’m bombarded by an entire Picasso blue period.

Or “Daddy, will you staple these?”

And I’m besieged byThe Joy of Opting Out of Standardized Testing | gadflyonthewallblog:

CURMUDGUCATION: Which Choice Would You Choose?

CURMUDGUCATION: Which Choice Would You Choose?:

Which Choice Would You Choose?

 If you were (or are) a parent, which one of the following options would you prefer?


OPTION A

Your neighborhood is served by a single public school.

That school is well-staffed with a range of young and experienced professional educators, well-trained and committed to the needs of their students, and they are well-managed and well-paid so that they stay on as the foundation of a stable school community. The school is a well-maintained facility, clean and safe. It offers a wide variety of quality programs under one roof, with the flexibility for students to explore different educational paths and even change their minds (because young folks sometimes do that), as well as allowing them to enrich one path with samplings from others (in other words, your future biologist won't have to give up band). The school is fully funded and has a full range of up-to-date quality resources.

The school is transparently managed and controlled by an elected board of local community members who meet in public and are available to be contacted by any resident or taxpayer in the district. The management of the school is nimble, flexible, and open to input from all stakeholders.

OPTION B

In this option, your neighborhood is served by many schools, and you have plenty of choices that you may be able to access by using your voucher or some other sort of choice mechanism.

Choice #1: Never mind. This elite private school is out of your price range, even with your state-issued modest voucher.

Choice #2: This Christ-centered private school will gladly accept your child, as long as that child behaves properly, which includes a properly worshipful attitude in daily devotions and Bible readings. And don't worry-- we won't be teaching your child any of that foolish evolution-filled "science" stuff.

Choice #3: Our experts have determined that this is the kind of school People Like You need for CURMUDGUCATION: Which Choice Would You Choose?:

US justices reject Gorsuch in win for disabled student

US justices reject Gorsuch in win for disabled student:

US justices reject Gorsuch in win for disabled student

he U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected legal reasoning used by President Donald Trump’s high court nominee Neil Gorsuch in his role as an appellate judge, ruling in favor of an autistic student who said he was denied an adequate education.

The 8-0 ruling, authored by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, was issued at the same time Gorsuch was facing questions during his Senate confirmation hearing about a 2008 case in which he ruled against an autistic child who sought a public education more tailored to his needs.

The Supreme Court ruled that public schools must offer disabled students a special educational program sufficiently ambitious to ensure they make progress.

Democrats called the Supreme Court ruling a rebuke of the Republican president’s nominee and suggested Gorsuch was not a mainstream judge.

“This is part of a continued, troubling pattern of Judge Gorsuch deciding against everyday Americans – even children who require special assistance at school,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

Gorsuch rejected that suggestion, saying he was following court precedent and has ruled in favor of disabled students in other cases.

“If anyone says I like a result where an autistic child happens to lose, it’s a heartbreaking accusation,” Gorsuch testified.

Responding to Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, Gorsuch said the 2008 case and others like it were unanimous three-judge decisions on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, on which he sits.

“I was wrong because I was bound by circuit precedent, and I’m sorry,” Gorsuch said.

The justices unanimously ruled in favor of a student referred to as Endrew F and his family, who said his local public school district in Colorado’s Douglas County had failed him. They said schools must offer more than the bare minimum in educational benefits to disabled children, setting aside a lower court ruling that had found the school district had satisfied federal law by doing so.

In 2008, Gorsuch was part of a three-judge panel that ruled against a student in a similar position. Gorsuch, citing court precedent, said the Colorado school district involved in that case was required to provide only a minimum education benefit.

But Roberts wrote that under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act US justices reject Gorsuch in win for disabled student:

A Continuum on Personalized Learning: First Draft | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

A Continuum on Personalized Learning: First Draft | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

A Continuum on Personalized Learning: First Draft

After visiting over three dozen teachers in 11 schools in Silicon Valley and hearing an earful about “personalized learning,” I drafted a continuum where I could locate all of the different versions of “personalized learning” I observed and have read about.

If readers have comments about what’s missing, what needs to be added or how I organized the continuum conceptually, I would surely appreciate hearing from you.

In 2016, when I visited Silicon Valley classrooms, schools and districts, many school administrators and teachers told me that they were personalizing learning. From the Summit network of charter schools to individual teachers at Los Altos and Mountain View High School where Bring Your Own Devices reigned to two Milpitas elementary schools that had upper-grade Learning Labs and rotated students through different stations in all grades, I heard the phrase often.

But I was puzzled by what I saw and heard. When asked what a teacher, principal or district administrator meant by “personalized learning“ I heard different definitions of the policy. Not a surprise since the history of school reform is dotted with the debris of earlier instructional reforms that varied greatly in definitions (e.g., New Math, Socratic seminars, mastery learning, individualized instruction). No one definition of personalized learning monopolizes the reform terrain. [i]

When I went into classrooms to see what “personalized learning” meant in action, I observed much variation in the lessons and units that bore the label. None of this should be surprising since “technology integration” and other reform-minded policies draw from the hyped-up world of new technologies where vendors, promoters, critics, and skeptics compete openly  for the minds (and wallets) of those who make decisions about what gets into classrooms.

Not only have definitions of “personalized learning” among policymakers and entrepreneurs varied,  but also diverse incarnations have taken form as the policy   percolated downward from school board decisions, superintendent A Continuum on Personalized Learning: First Draft | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Special Education Student : NPR Ed : NPR

Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Special Education Student : NPR Ed : NPR:

The Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of A Special Education Student

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the unanimous opinion in today's ruling.

Andrew Harnik/AP

School districts must give students with disabilities the chance to make meaningful, "appropriately ambitious" progress, the Supreme Court said Wednesday in an 8-0 ruling.

The decision in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District could have far-reaching implications for the 6.5 million students with disabilities in the United States.

The case centered on a child with autism and attention deficit disorder whose parents removed him from public school in fifth grade. He went on to make better progress in a private school. His parents argued that the individualized education plan provided by the public school was inadequate, and they sued to compel the school district to pay his private school tuition.

The Supreme Court today sided with the family, overturning a lower court ruling in the school district's favor.

The federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act guarantees a "free appropriate public education" to all students with disabilities. Today's opinion held that "appropriate" goes further than what the lower courts had held.

"It cannot be right that the IDEA generally contemplates grade-level advancement for children with disabilities who are fully integrated in the regular classroom, but is satisfied with barely more than de minimis progress for children who are not," read the opinion, signed by Chief Justice John Roberts.

The case drew a dozen friend of the court briefs from advocates for students with disabilities who argued that it is time to increase rigor, expectations and accommodations for all.

"A standard more meaningful than just above trivial is the norm today," wrote the National Association of State Directors of Special Education.

The ruling seems likely to increase pressure from families and advocates in that direction.

Significantly, Judge Neil Gorsuch, currently in confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court's vacant ninth seat, has repeatedly ruled the other way on similar cases.

Gorsuch's opinions in eight out of 10 cases involving students of disabilities all tended toward limiting the responsibilities of school districts — for example, if they leave school of their own accord out of frustration. IDEA's standard of a "free appropriate public education," reads Gorsuch's opinion in one of these cases, "is not an onerous one."

When questioned on his record, in light of this new ruling, during his hearing today by Texas Sen. John Cornyn, he said "I was wrong, Senator, because I was bound by circuit precedent, and I'm sorry."Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Special Education Student : NPR Ed : NPR:

Murray to Colleagues: Stand Up for Students and Fight Public School Privatization | The U.S. Senate HELP Committee

Press Releases | Press | Ranking Member's Newsroom | Ranking Member | The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions:

Murray to Colleagues: Stand Up for Students and Fight Public School Privatization

Without the strong accountability required for public schools, private schools receiving vouchers allow struggling and at-risk students to fall through the cracks

Privatization programs particularly hurt students with disabilities and students in rural communities

(Washington, D.C.) –Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released a memo to the Democratic caucus, outlining the repercussions an education privatization agenda would have on students, schools, and communities. As President Trump and Secretary DeVos double down on their privatization agenda, Senator Murray is urging her colleagues to stand up for the high-quality, public schools they worked to invest in and improve in the Every Student Succeeds Act.

“Education is at the heart of true opportunity in our country, and instead of investing in and improving our public schools, President Trump and Secretary DeVos are promoting a privatization agenda that would weaken public schools and hurt our students,” said Senator Murray. “Through the Every Student Succeeds Act, we made a commitment to students and parents that their schools would be held accountable, but the Trump-DeVos privatization agenda undermines this promise. So I am going to keep fighting to invest in strong public education for all students, and I am going to fight as hard as I can against this Administration’s attempt to privatize our public schools and hurt our students.”

In the memo, Senator Murray highlighted some of the most damaging effects privatization efforts, including vouchers, have on students, including lack of accountability and transparency; challenges for rural schools and communities; and inability or unwillingness to protect students’ rights, including students with disabilities.

Senator Murray also outlined her vision of a path forward for improving our schools, which includes investing in neighborhood public schools, promoting community engagement, and ensuring that all public school options for parents adhere to three core principles: civil rights protections for students are not optional, accountability and transparency in all school is essential, and community and parental involvement are key to student and school success.

Senator Murray will expand on her vision for the future of public education later today as the keynote speaker at an event at the Center for American Progress entitled, “Federal Voucher Programs: Implications for Public Schools and Vulnerable Students.”Press Releases | Press | Ranking Member's Newsroom | Ranking Member | The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pension

Read or Download complete memo: Murray_Privatization Caucus Memo.pdf

Or Murray_Privatization Caucus Memo.pdf

An Obama Decree Continues to Make Public Schools Lawless - WSJ

An Obama Decree Continues to Make Public Schools Lawless - WSJ:

An Obama Decree Continues to Make Public Schools Lawless
To improve education, allow teachers to administer discipline regardless of race.

In 2012 the Education Department released a national study showing that black students are suspended from school at a higher rate than whites, and the findings fueled a predictable debate over whether school discipline policies are racist. Two years later, the department sent a letter to school districts warning them to do something about the disparity—in effect, to stop suspending so many disruptive black students or risk becoming the subject of a federal civil-rights investigation—and the results have been just as predictable.

The title alone of a new report on the fallout, “School Discipline Reform and Disorder,” might tell you all you need to know. The author, Max Eden of the Manhattan Institute, notes that 27 states and more than 50 of the country’s largest school districts have moved to reduce suspensions in recent years, often to the dismay of those on the front lines. A Chicago teacher said her school became “lawless” after the new discipline policy was implemented. A teacher in Oklahoma City said “we were told that referrals would not require suspension unless there was blood.” A Buffalo teacher who was kicked in the head by a student said his charges are well aware of the new policy. “The kids walk around and say ‘We can’t get suspended—we don’t care what you say.’ ”

WSJ OPINION LIVE FROM DALLAS

Jason Riley will join Paul Gigot, Karl Rove and Kimberley Strassel next Tuesday for a discussion about President Trump’s first 100 days. Watch the event live on WSJ.com/Opinion, and sign up to get an email reminder here.

Mr. Eden’s report isn’t just a collection of anecdotes. It also includes plenty of empirical data that point to a change for the worse in school order. In New York City, home to the nation’s largest school system, suspensions rose steadily between 2002 and 2011 under former mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose policies targeted disruptive students in the most violent schools. But Mr. Bloomberg softened his position somewhat in 2012 for first-time offenders, and his successor, Bill de Blasio, who assumed office in 2014, has made it much more difficult to suspend even those students who’ve committed repeated infractions.

Following the implementation of these reforms, school suspensions in New York fell by nearly 50%, but survey data of students, teachers and parents show that the learning climate in many schools has suffered. Moreover, the effects of the new policies haven’t been evenly distributed, especially under the current mayor, writes Mr. Eden. “Under de Blasio’s discipline reform, of An Obama Decree Continues to Make Public Schools Lawless - WSJ:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Personalized Learning; What's Happening Out There

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Personalized Learning; What's Happening Out There:

Personalized Learning; What's Happening Out There

I've written about "personalized learning" before and I will continue as this becomes an ever-growing story.  There is absolutely every reason to consider new and better ways to use technology to increase academic outcomes and hopefully that drills down to each and every student's learning style.  But there are many factors to consider like:

- costs.  I just read a tweet from WA State Teacher of the Year, Nate Bowling from Tacoma, who asked for fully-funded schools so that student computers aren't "more than a decade old."  Technology is moving a lot faster than school budgets.  All the great technology in the world is only as good as the computer and wifi at your child's school.  You then have to ask what the ROI is for all that investment in technology.

- developmental appropriateness.  I get mighty nervous over the amount of time students are spending with screens, both in and out of class.  While schools cannot control what happens outside of class, they do need to consider that many students already are using screen devices for many hours in the day.  

- who benefits?  As I said, the ROI to schools must be there.  It certainly is going to Seattle Schools Community Forum: Personalized Learning; What's Happening Out There:

Huge Win in Supreme Court for Special Education

by Melissa Westbrook / 1h

From NPR: School districts must provide students with disabilities the chance to make meaningful, "appropriately ambitious" progress, the Supreme Court said today in an 8-0 ruling. The decision in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District could have far-reaching implications for the 6.5 million students with disabilities in the United States. "It cannot be right that the IDEA generally contemplacosts. I just read a tweet from WA State Teacher of the

What the Plan is for Your Child's Education?

by Melissa Westbrook / 1h

Here's an event you might consider attending: Parents Across America Presents Alison McDowell " Future Ready Schools: How Silicon Valley is Reshaping Our Schools" Saturday, March 25th from 10:30 am to noon at the Lake City library 

How Well Are American Students Learning? The 2017 Brown Center Report on American Education | Brookings Institution

The 2017 Brown Center Report on American Education | Brookings Institution:

The 2017 Brown Center Report on American Education

How Well Are American Students Learning?

Download the full 2017 Brown Center Report

This Brown Center Report (BCR) on American Education is the sixth and final edition in the third volume and the 16th issue overall. The series began in 2000. As in the past, the report comprises three studies. Also in keeping with tradition, the first section features recent results from state, national, or international assessments; the second section investigates a thematic topic in education, either by collecting new data or by analyzing existing empirical evidence in a novel way; and the third section looks at one or more education policies.The 2017 Brown Center Report on American Education | Brookings Institution:

 

In Part I, this year’s focus is on the latest results from two international tests, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Both tests were administered in 2015, and the U.S. participated in both. TIMSS tests fourth and eighth grade students in math and science. PISA tests 15-year-olds in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy. TIMSS began in 1995. From 1995-2015, the U.S. made statistically significant gains on TIMSS fourth grade math, eighth grade math, and eighth grade science assessments. The four-point scale score gain in fourth grade science is not statistically significant. PISA began in 2000. Since PISA’s inception, U.S. scores have been flat on all three subjects; however, the 2015 math score of 470 marks a significant decline from 481 in 2012 and 487 in 2009.

Continue Reading

Part II revisits one of the most popular studies in BCR history, a 2001 survey of foreign exchange students. The same survey was conducted in 2016. The idea is simple, asking kids from abroad who have attended U.S. high schools what they think about U.S. education and their American peers. Comparing the results, 15 years apart, suggests that not much has changed. International students still think U.S. schools are much less challenging than schools in their home countries and that American teens are more focused on success at sports compared to their peers back home.

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Part III examines race and school discipline. Exclusionary punishments, those that remove students from schools, have come under fire in recent years. California officials have been pushing schools to reduce out-of-school suspensions, especially because of the racial disparities associated with that form of discipline. The policy has succeeded in reducing suspensions in the state—they are down dramatically—but racial disparities persist. Black students continue to be suspended at three to four times their proportion of student enrollment. The study examines three years (2013-2015) of California school-level data (a sample of 7,180 schools) to identify characteristics of schools that are correlated with high- and low-suspension-rates for African-American kids.

Schools with large populations, schools exclusively serving middle school grades (e.g., grades six to eight), and schools serving a high proportion of poor or black students are all associated with elevated suspension rates for African-Americans.  Disciplinary reformers have promoted restorative programs as alternatives to exclusionary punishment, but the approaches are controversial and the empirical evidence of their impact is limited. The current study cannot draw causal conclusions, but altering the structural characteristics of schools associated with higher suspension rates should be considered in future reform efforts.

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The 2017 Brown Center Report on American Education | Brookings Institution:

Are computers teachers? Tennessee court might weigh in

Are computers teachers? Tennessee court might weigh in:

Are computers teachers? Tennessee court might weigh in

Do the rights of Tennessee students to a public education extend into the right to have a teacher, and if so, does a computer program count?

Those questions were posed to a state appeals court Tuesday during oral arguments in a case involving a Nashville student, Toni Jones, that could set a statewide framework defining school districts' obligations to their students.

Jones was a freshman at Pearl-Cohn High School who was pulled out of an algebra class before an end-of-course test and placed into a computer-based credit recovery program, Jones' lawyer, Gary Blackburn, said. He said the student was struggling in the algebra class but had a passing grade.

The appeal stems from a lawsuit Blackburn filed in 2015, alleging the district was padding test scores by moving Jones and others to the other program. Several teachers who spoke out about the testing practices are suing the district in a separate case, saying they were inappropriately reprimanded by the district.

He said precedent set in Tennessee court cases entitled Jones to a teacher, and that due process protections were violated when she was moved into the other class without notice to Jones or her family.

"The slippery slope so to speak is that if a teacher is not essential, then a school system can be offered entirely by computers," he said. "Students can be placed in a gymnasium and put a computer on a desk, and say, here is your teacher. And we're going to have a hall monitor to keep you from acting up. That is basically what happened to Toni Jones. That's not teaching."

► READ MORE: Nashville schools suit could spur statewide changes

Metro argues that the judges should uphold a prior ruling dismissing the case. In February 2016, Nashville Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle agreed with Metro's argument and dismissed the case.

Blackburn argues in the appeal it should be reopened. The Tennessee Education Are computers teachers? Tennessee court might weigh in:

California Teachers Form Statwide Alliance to Fight for Real School Reform | Diane Ravitch's blog

California Teachers Form Statwide Alliance to Fight for Real School Reform | Diane Ravitch's blog:

California Teachers Form Statwide Alliance to Fight for Real School Reform

Teachers organizations from across the state of California have formed an alliance to fight for genuine School reform.

CALIFORNIA: 8 Teacher Union Locals Unite Against the Trump/DeVos Agenda, Fight for Public Schools through Collective Bargaining, Community Power

United around common struggles and a shared vision, The California Alliance for Community Schools is a groundbreaking coalition of educator unions from 8 of the largest cities in California, representing more than 50,000 educators. The alliance officially launches tomorrow, Thursday March 23 and includes: Anaheim Secondary Teachers Association, Oakland Education Association, San Bernardino Teachers Association, San Jose Teachers Association, San Diego Education Association, United Educators of San Francisco, United Teachers Los Angeles and United Teachers Richmond.

All 8 unions are uniting around statewide demands, through local bargaining as well as legislation, for more resources in schools, charter school accountability, lower class sizes and other critical improvements. Most of the locals are in contract bargaining or are interested in organizing around these key issues. The alliance plans to expand to include other labor and community partners.

As California faces a statewide teacher shortage, school districts issued more than 1,750 pink slips for educators last week. Trump released his proposed federal budget, which slashes funds for disadvantaged children, afterschool programs, teacher trainings and other vital services. Trump wants to spend $1.4 billion to expand vouchers, including private schools, and would pay for it from deep cuts to public schools. Voters in California have twice rejected voucher plans.

“We are reaching a state of emergency when it comes to our public schools,” said Hilda Rodriguez-Guzman, an Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment member and charter school parent since 1994. “We must support and reinvest in public education. I join educators in the fight for well-resourced, transparent, accountable, and democratically run schools, at the bargaining table and beyond.”

All 8 unions will use the power of bargaining and statewide organizing to fight for:

Lower class sizes

Resources for high-needs schools and students

Shared decision-making at local school sites, critical to student success

Charter school accountability

Safe and supportive school environments

The first significant step is the launch of the bargaining platform and petition, which includes statewide demands and specific contract demands for each local union. The petition reads:

“As educators in large urban school districts across California we face many of the same challenges. We are particularly concerned about California Teachers Form Statwide Alliance to Fight for Real School Reform | Diane Ravitch's blog: