Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, January 29, 2021

More states seek federal waivers from standardized tests as Biden extends deadline for requests - The Washington Post

More states seek federal waivers from standardized tests as Biden extends deadline for requests - The Washington Post
More states seek federal waivers from standardized tests as Biden’s Education Department extends deadline for requests




The Biden administration is giving states extra time to seek a waiver from annual standardized tests mandated by federal law as New York and Michigan announced they don’t want to subject students to the exams this year during the covid-19 pandemic.

“In light of the ongoing pandemic, we have determined that the Spring 2021 state assessments cannot be safely, equitably and fairly administered to students in schools across the state,” New York Board of Regents Chancellor Lester W. Young, Jr. said in a statement announcing the state’s intention to seek a waiver.

This is the second straight year that states are asking for waivers. In 2020, Betsy DeVos, then the education secretary in the Trump administration, told all states they did not have to administer the tests after schools were abruptly closed when the pandemic hit. She said last year, however, that if she remained education secretary, she wouldn’t give the waivers again.

This week, the U.S. Education Department sent a letter to chief state school officers this week saying the Feb. 1 deadline for seeking a waiver was being extended though it didn’t set a new deadline. It promised states that it would soon provide details on submitting waiver requests as well as state assessment plans to comply with the 2015 federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

It did not, however, promise to approve the waivers, and it is still unclear where Miguel Cardona, the state superintendent of education in Connecticut who Biden chose as his nominee to be education secretary, stands on the issue. Shortly before he was tapped by Biden to run the Education Department, he said he wanted students to take the exams this spring but didn’t want the results used as an assessment measure for individual teachers, schools and districts.

ESSA requires public schools to give most students standardized tests each year in math and English language arts and to use the results in accountability formulas. Districts evaluate teachers and states evaluate schools and districts — at least in part — on test scores. What’s more, districts and states have added other high-stakes standardized tests on students for purposes including graduation, grade promotion and teacher bonuses. CONTINUE READING: More states seek federal waivers from standardized tests as Biden extends deadline for requests - The Washington Post

ASD Light – Tennessee Education Report

ASD Light – Tennessee Education Report
ASD LIGHT




State Senator Ferrell Haile of Sumner County has filed SB 122, a bill creating a “School Turnaround Pilot Program.” Maybe Haile has never heard of the Achievement School District? It’s difficult to understand why someone who has served on the Senate Education Committee for some time now and should have at least a vague familiarity with education policy in our state would want to recreate one of the biggest public policy failures of the last decade.

Here’s a bit of text from his bill:

(a) The department shall create and develop a five-year school turnaround pilot program for district schools that are in need of intervention pursuant to § 49-6-3604.
(b) The department shall select twenty (20) schools in need of intervention that are diverse geographically, including rural and urban schools and schools in different regions of the state, and diverse in grade levels for the pilot program.
(c) From the twenty (20) schools in need of intervention selected for the pilot program, the department shall randomly select ten (10) schools to be a control group and ten (10) schools to participate in a school turnaround group.
(d) The department shall operate and administer the school turnaround pilot program for five (5) school years beginning with the 2021-2022 school year.

The basis for admission into this “turnaround group” is scores on Tennessee’s failed TNReady test.

Just in case Haile hasn’t been paying attention, here’s a bit of what’s been happening with the Achievement School District since its inception:

Gary Rubinstein refers to the ASD as the Edsel of school reform:

The Tennessee Achievement School District, or ASD, is the Edsel of school reform. Created with a Race To The Top Grant and developed by TFA alum Kevin Huffman, CONTINUE READING: ASD Light – Tennessee Education Report



Dr. Fauci has conversation with teachers' union about reopening schools in President Joe Biden's first 100 days - ABC7 San Francisco

Dr. Fauci has conversation with teachers' union about reopening schools in President Joe Biden's first 100 days - ABC7 San Francisco
Dr. Fauci has conversation with teachers' union about reopening schools in Biden's first 100 days





SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Reopening most schools within President Biden's first 100 days is a big commitment. Many, including teacher unions, are questioning whether or not that is even possible.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had a livestream conversation with unions about this goal.

RELATED: In-person learning during pandemic is possible with right precautions, CDC says

Back in July, Dr. Anthony Fauci said we should try to get children back to school for their psychological welfare and for the good of working families but safety, he said, was paramount.
Today, six months later, the Biden administration is counting on Dr. Fauci's expertise to make sure the necessary school safety standards are in place.

This is what he told the big teachers unions:
"The American Rescue Plan is something that hopefully will provide the resources for masking, for better ventilation, for whatever resources the schools might need to protect students and the teachers.""We need the CDC guidance, we need these rapid tests, we need to make sure we have the accommodations and the vaccine. I hear that a lot," expressed Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers.

Fauci then said his daughter is constantly reminding him of what teachers need to stay safe.

"As you know, I have a personal interest in this because my daughter is a teaching science in the 3rd CONTINUE READING: Dr. Fauci has conversation with teachers' union about reopening schools in President Joe Biden's first 100 days - ABC7 San Francisco

NYC Public School Parents: Last night's historic vote of the Panel for Educational Policy to reject the Pearson contract for assessing "giftedness"

NYC Public School Parents: Last night's historic vote of the Panel for Educational Policy to reject the Pearson contract for assessing "giftedness"
Last night's historic vote of the Panel for Educational Policy to reject the Pearson contract for assessing "giftedness"




Last night was truly one for the history books, at least in the history of NYC public schools:  the Panel for Educational Policy, composed of a majority of mayoral appointees, voted down a DOE contract. 

After more than six hours of testimony by CEC members, elected officials, students and parents, most of whom opposed its renewal, eight panelists voted to reject the highly controversial Pearson contract to provide the "gifted" test, administered to kids as young as four years old; with only seven members voting yes.  This is despite the fact that the Mayor appointed two new representatives in the last two weeks and personally lobbied his appointees to approve it. Stories here: NY1ChalkbeatNY Daily News and Gothamist.  

It was the first time the PEP ever voted to reject a contract, since they were given this authority in 2009 -- which was meant to provide stronger oversight and a check on corruption. [As I testified in 2011, it didn't work and the panel has rubber-stamped many corrupt and wasteful contracts ever since.]  

 I wrote about this unsupportable Pearson contract for the Gotham Gazette last week, though I really didn't expect it would be rejected.  I also discussed it on my "Talk out of School" podcast with  Akil Bello of FairTest, who explained how the test had no validity or reliability, had clearly racially biased results, and to continue giving it especially during a pandemic was absurd.  

Even the Chancellor last night admitted that "There is no research, there is no pedagogical reason why one test to four-year-olds should be a sole determinant"  to entry to a gifted program, while tepidly urging the panel members to renew it for just one more year.

Of all the unprecedented events of last night, perhaps the most bizarre was that Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan was brought into the meeting  to justify it.  Fuleihan couldn't log on at first, so there were about seven minutes of empty time, but when he finally managed, he haplessly tried to explain that now, city officials were serious about changing the program and the screening method and would start planning this after this year.  They would go on "listening tours", and ask PEP members for their input, yada yada yada.  

This is after the DOE already had a full year to work on changing this process, which they promised they would do the last time they asked the PEP to renew the contract, sometime last year.  Also see the leaked DOE memo from  July - showing DOE had already been discussing how to proceed for many months.  

Chalk this down to more indecision and inefficiency of Mayoral control -- depending on one, very fallible person to make all decisions for nearly a million public school students.  The total ineptitude of the process recalls de Blasio's CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: Last night's historic vote of the Panel for Educational Policy to reject the Pearson contract for assessing "giftedness"

Dr. Cardona, Please Cancel the Tests - Network For Public Education

Dr. Cardona, Please Cancel the Tests - Network For Public Education
Dr. Cardona, Please Cancel the Tests




Dear Dr. Cardona:

On December 14, 2019, President Joe Biden participated in the 2020 Public Education Forum held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Early childhood expert, Dr. Denisha Jones, explained the damage done by standardized testing and then asked, “If you are elected President, will you commit to the ending of standardized testing in public schools?”

Joe Biden’s response was immediate, direct, and clear. “Yes.” He continued, passionately declaring that “teaching to a test underestimates and discounts the things that are most important for students to know.” As you listen to his full remarks regarding why he is opposed to standardized testing, you will hear the authentic response of someone who is not only married to a teacher but who, growing up with a disability, may have felt the brunt of standardized testing himself.

We, the undersigned understand that the pandemic has inflicted enormous social, emotional, physical, and academic harm on America’s children. We also know that the consequences of the pandemic have not fallen equally on some children’s shoulders. Those who were disadvantaged prior to Covid-19 are . CONTINUE READING: Dr. Cardona, Please Cancel the Tests - Network For Public Education




NEA’s top priorities in Congress - Education Votes

NEA’s top priorities in Congress - Education Votes
NEA’s top priorities in Congress




By Barbara Moldauer and Amanda Menas

Educators have high hopes for improving racial and social justice within school communities under the Biden-Harris administration during the 117th Congress. NEA, which represents 3 million educators nationwide, is calling on Congress to ensure that the lives of all of our students–Black, White, Latino, Native, LGBTQ+, and newcomers–are valued, and that all students have access to high quality public education and protections against discrimination.

NEA is dedicated to rebuilding public schools with an emphasis on equity, returning to the classroom safely, protecting vulnerable students, and helping educators navigate their rights and responsibilities during the pandemic.

“We will get into good trouble every day, in every state, in every community all across this nation to keep our students and educators safe and center our schools in equity and excellence during the COVID-19 crisis,” NEA President Becky Pringle has promised.

To ensure all students and educators are safe from discrimination, educators want Congress to pass the Equality Act. This bill would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

Because all students deserve communities where they can live without fear, Congress should enact meaningful law enforcement reforms, for example by passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

Another priority is comprehensive immigration reform that provides legal status and pathways to citizenship for Dreamers–people brought to the United States as minors who know no other CONTINUE READING: NEA’s top priorities in Congress - Education Votes

Teacher Tom: Disarming

Teacher Tom: Disarming
Disarming



There was once a time when I felt I always had to don my armor to go out into the world. You know what I'm talking about it, of course: everything from the clothing to the attitude that I wear when I leave the safety of home. It's the way we protect ourselves from a world that we fear will harm us if it sees who we really are.

The hostility of the world is real. Black people better protect themselves in America. Gay people too. Difference, or otherness, be it based on skin color, sexuality, ethnicity, gender, ability, neurotype, or whatever other arbitrary dividing line, makes one an especially likely target. One might think that old, straight white men would have the least need for armor in our world, yet it seems that ours also weighs heavily on our shoulders.

The problem with armor, of course, is that it means we're all walking around as armed people, protective, defensive. Some go so far as to arm themselves with offensive weapons, say the aggressive trappings of toxic masculinity, but most of us CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: Disarming

Andrea Gabor: What the Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman Taught Us | Diane Ravitch's blog

Andrea Gabor: What the Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman Taught Us | Diane Ravitch's blog
Andrea Gabor: What the Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman Taught Us



Andrea Gabor has written recently about the importance of civics education. She has reminded us that the obsession with standardized testing has robbed students of the joy of learning and consumed time that could be better spent in other ways.

The 22-year-old Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, who spoke so beautifully at the inauguration of President Joe Biden, reminded her that we have lost the study of poetry in our mad Race to Leave No Child Behind and to force testing on every student and teacher.


I heartily agree with Gabor. I have always loved poetry. I edited two collections that included many iconic poems: The American Reader and The English Reader (with my son Michael). During a time when I was grieving the loss of a child, I read poetry and found solace in a poem by Ben Jonson. When my children were young, we read poetry together, and they learned the fun of wordplay.

Gabor writes in her article about the need to allot more CONTINUE READING: Andrea Gabor: What the Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman Taught Us | Diane Ravitch's blog

Ohio Senate Killed New School Funding Plan: Now We Hear That Money Doesn’t Matter | janresseger

Ohio Senate Killed New School Funding Plan: Now We Hear That Money Doesn’t Matter | janresseger
Ohio Senate Killed New School Funding Plan: Now We Hear That Money Doesn’t Matter



Ohio Auditor Keith Faber explained on Tuesday that, “The Auditor of State’s Office recently completed a performance audit for the Ohio Department of Education.” Faber says that the purpose is to make recommendations about “economy, efficiency, and/or effectiveness in the areas reviewed…”

One of the subjects of the new report from the Ohio Auditor’s office is the correlation of school districts’ expenditure per pupil with their school performance as measured by standardized tests.  Here, from the Performance Audit Summary, is what the Auditor discovered: “Conclusion: Expenditure per pupil has a loose association with Achievement in Ohio, particularly at the high performing districts.  As total district spending increases, there is no single expenditure category driving this increase.”  Later in the body of the report, the Auditor states: “The analyses in this section indicate that it is not necessary for districts to spend more to get better results. The data show that lower spending districts can achieve at the same level as higher spending districts, a point which parents and taxpayers should take into consideration in their personal decision-making surrounding financial and performance issues in their district. ODE and LEAs should consider if there is a point of diminishing returns in spending, where additional district revenue and expenditures will not necessarily increase student success.”

The Plain Dealer‘s Emily Bamforth digs deeper, explaining to readers that one purpose of the Audit was to discover which practices in high spending school districts are most essential for CONTINUE READING: Ohio Senate Killed New School Funding Plan: Now We Hear That Money Doesn’t Matter | janresseger

NYC Educator: NY Times Continues Its Battle on Common Sense

NYC Educator: NY Times Continues Its Battle on Common Sense
NY Times Continues Its Battle on Common Sense




I've been amazed for years as the NY Times, with some notable exceptions, offered the worst education reporting in Fun City. This is a revered name, with generations of history, and yet you always feel they hate union as much as the tabloids. Of course, the Times has had to deal with union and likely would have made more money if all those who worked for it were doing the whole $7.25 an hour thing. So much for the bastion of liberalism so reviled by Trump and his goons.

Over the last year, I've gotten the distinct impression its education reporter takes regular swipes at us, and why not? Teachers are public enemy number one. Who the hell do we think we are, getting paid to educate children? What the hell kind of public service is that? Wouldn't the world be better off if we were all writing for some fancy paper, filling our news stories with personal and/ or company bias, while wholeheartedly opposing Trump for doing precisely the same thing?

The big issue, of course, is opening schools. We aren't sufficiently pushing for it, evidently. Never mind that we're the only city in the country that's opened as long and far as we have. Perhaps we should be out striking for the right to fully open schools CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: NY Times Continues Its Battle on Common Sense

Teacher Comments on Being Tech Skeptics | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teacher Comments on Being Tech Skeptics | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
Teacher Comments on Being Tech Skeptics




I am fortunate to have many readers who are classroom teachers. I have published posts over the past few years about my research on exemplary teachers who integrated technology into their lessons. Some of those posts triggered responses from teachers. Here are a few of their comments.

Louise Kowitch, retired Connecticut social studies teacher:

….The impact of technology can vary greatly depending on the subject matter (among all the other things you’ve addressed). While some pedagogical practices are universal, when “doing the work of the discipline”, content-specific practices,and by extension the impact of technology, might vary widely.

I mention this to say that as someone who lived through the IT revolution in the classroom (from mimeographs, scantrons, and filmstrips to floppy disks and CD-ROM, and finally to smart boards, Skype and Chromebooks), by the time I reached three decades as a full time classroom teacher, I was spending MORE time on my lessons and interacting with students, than less. Some tasks were indeed more efficient (for example, obtaining and sharing maps, artifacts, art, primary sources). Others, like collecting data about student performance for CONTINUE READING: Teacher Comments on Being Tech Skeptics | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Capital Union President Lied To Every Single Teacher In Capital School District | Exceptional Delaware

Capital Union President Lied To Every Single Teacher In Capital School District | Exceptional Delaware
Capital Union President Lied To Every Single Teacher In Capital School District



For the past several months, teachers at Dover High School have been grappling with Covid, remote learning, hybrid learning and the district itself. But it appears their greatest enemy might just be their own union that is supposed to protect teachers.

This past Monday, WDEL had an explosive article about teachers at Dover High School. The news shocked Delaware teachers up and down the state but it didn’t come as a surprise to many. For Leann Ferguson, her actions in reporting the incidents to WDEL were met with mixed results. Many teachers hailed her as a hero for finally reporting things many would not. Others branded her a traitor to the district and Dover High School.

The article dealt mainly with accommodations teachers could get through the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and how the district responded to those requests. According to the article and Ferguson, one teacher was fired after they were denied an CONTINUE READING: Capital Union President Lied To Every Single Teacher In Capital School District | Exceptional Delaware

The Hierarchy Of The Teachers Union In Delaware | Exceptional Delaware - https://wp.me/p4JboV-5Mb via @ExcptlDelaware

NYC Public School Parents: Reimagine our City Schools: alternatives to Mayoral control on Sunday at 8 PM

NYC Public School Parents: Reimagine our City Schools: alternatives to Mayoral control on Sunday at 8 PM
Reimagine our City Schools: alternatives to Mayoral control on Sunday at 8 PM





The deep flaws and persistent problems with Mayoral control are even more evident to many people, given the de Blasio’s push to have the Pearson contract for the gifted test approved, and when it failed last night at the PEP, even among many of his own appointees, his insistence to continue this controversial program anyway.  Teachers of NYC are sponsoring a discussion of what alternative governance system would be best on Sunday at 8 PM.

We continue our collective journey to build a coalition of community right-holders to Reimagine Our City Schools. 

This Sunday, January 31 at 8 PM we will discuss viable 21st-century alternatives to mayoral control that democratize school governance.  

This is a must-attend event if you want to reclaim our city schools for our New York city children and neighborhoods.

Join education activists and advocates from The People's Board of Education and the Parent Commission as they share their visions for schools FOR AND BY THE PEOPLE.

Meet like-minded educators, parents, and leaders championing fundamental change of our public schools that anchor our city's communities.

RSVP for the Zoom discussion at: 

http://tinyurl.com/reimagine2

We only have 100 spots available if you want to be part of the interactive Zoom session. Register now!

You also be able to view the livestream on the Teachers of NYC Facebook Fan Page.


CURMUDGUCATION: Selling Roboscoring: How's That Going, Anyway?

CURMUDGUCATION: Selling Roboscoring: How's That Going, Anyway?
Selling Roboscoring: How's That Going, Anyway?



The quest continues--how to best market the notion of having student essays scored by software instead of actual humans. It's a big, bold dream, a dream of world in which test manufacturers don't have to hire pesky, expensive meat widgets and the fuzzy unscientific world of writing can be reduced to hard numbers--numbers that we know are objective and true because, hey, they came form a computer. The problem, as I have noted many times elsewhere, is that after all these years, the software doesn't actually work. 

But the dream doesn't die. Here's a paper from Mark D. Shermis (University of Houston--Clear Lake) and Susan Lottridge (AIR) presented at a National Council of Measurement in Education in Toronto, courtesy of AIR Assessment (one more company that deals in robo-scoring). The paper is two years old, but it's worth a look because it shows the reasoning (or lack thereof) used by the folks who just can't let go of the robograding dream. 

"Communicating to the Public About Machine Scoring: What Works, What Doesn't" is all about managing the PR when you implement roboscoring. Let's take a look.

Warming Up

First, let's lay out the objections that people raise, categorized by a 2003 paper as humanistic, defensive and construct.

The humanistic objection stipulates that writing is a unique human skill and cannot be evaluated CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Selling Roboscoring: How's That Going, Anyway?

For Data Privacy Day — take our Survey: online apps used by districts and their privacy provisions | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

For Data Privacy Day — take our Survey: online apps used by districts and their privacy provisions | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy
FOR DATA PRIVACY DAY — TAKE OUR SURVEY: ONLINE APPS USED BY DISTRICTS AND THEIR PRIVACY PROVISIONS



Today, January 28th is Data Privacy Day, the international annual day of action and awareness to promote the privacy of our personal data.

The Parent Coalition for Student Privacy is researching which ed tech apps schools are asking students to use and whether they are sufficiently protective of children’s privacy.

Since the pandemic hit, school districts across the nation have purchased many commercially-produced online apps and programs to implement remote learning. Even before last spring, districts had been using a large number of programs, many of which have access to personal student information. Many of these apps collect and use personal student data in ways that are not transparent and we do not understand.

More recently, this past December, the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) warned about “malicious cyber actors … targeting kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12) educational institutions, leading to ransomware attacks, the theft of data, and the disruption of distance learning services.” This follows another warning the FBI put out in 2018 that the use of ed tech apps in schools posed a serious threat to children’s privacy and safety.

Please let us know what online apps and programs your district or school is using, and check to see if they have been transparent about their privacy policies. Your name and district will be kept confidential.

Click here to take the survey.

On Data Privacy Day and every day, it is important to protect children’s information. Below are a few resources to help.

The 2019 State Student Privacy Report Card lists and rates state laws based on Transparency, Parental and Student Rights; Limitations on Commercial Use of Data; Data Security Requirements; and Oversight, Enforcement, and Penalties for Violations. https://studentprivacymatters.org/map/map.html

Federal Laws enabling parents to protect their Children’s Privacy: FERPA, PPRA and COPPA https://studentprivacymatters.org/ferpa_ppra_coppa/ . Read how FERPA was weakened here and how to request to inspect your child’s education record maintained by your school or the state here.

Parent Toolkit for Student Privacy https://www.studentprivacymatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Parent-Toolkit-for-Student-Privacy.pdf

Top 10 back to school privacy tips and resources https://studentprivacymatters.org/top-10-back-to-school-student-privacy-tips-and-resources-for-parents/

A VERY BUSY DAY Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007

 Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007


This Is A Simple Reflection Activity I Used At The End Of The Semester
I’m not suggesting this is any kind of brilliant innovation, but putting the above text on an editable Google Slides presentation for students to complete (along with an invitation to decorate their slide anyway they would like) ended up to be a pretty nice activity. After students completed the sentence starters, they shared them in breakout rooms, and then they shared what they had heard from o

YESTERDAY

My Latest BAM! Radio Show Is On Retrieval Practice
Retrieval Practice: What Is It, Why It Matters, How It Works in the Classroom is the topic of my latest ten-minute BAM! Radio Show. I’m joined in the discussion by Luiza Mureseanu, Vivian Simmons, and Blake Harvard, who have also all contributed written commentaries to my Education Week column. I’m adding it to All My BAM Radio Shows – Linked With Descriptions .
Friday’s Must-Read Articles On School Reopenings
geralt / Pixabay Here are new additions to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE FALL : Chicago Public Schools suspends in-person learning as possible teachers strike looms is from The Washington Post. looking through the most recent data from the

 Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007