Latest News and Comment from Education

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 3/18/17


Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 3/18/17
Featured Post

Vouchers do not improve student achievement, Stanford researcher finds | Stanford News






Rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry dies, age 90
Rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry dies, age 90 : Rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry dies, age 90 Rock and roll legend and electric guitar pioneer Chuck Berry has died at age 90. St. Louis’ KSDK Channel 5 reported Saturday that police were summoned to the home of the guitarist’s home around 12:40 p.m. on Saturday and found an unresponsive male. They attempted resuscitation but were unsuccessful. Ch
Rest In Peace EVAAS Developer William L. Sanders | VAMboozled!
Rest In Peace EVAAS Developer William L. Sanders | VAMboozled! : Rest In Peace EVAAS Developer William L. Sanders Over the last 3.5 years since I developed this blog, I have written many posts about one particular value-added model (VAM) – the Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS), formerly known as the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS), now known by some states as the TxV
Vouchers do not improve student achievement, Stanford researcher finds | Stanford News
Vouchers do not improve student achievement, Stanford researcher finds | Stanford News : Vouchers do not improve student achievement, Stanford researcher finds Education professor Martin Carnoy analyzed 25 years of research and found that voucher programs do not significantly improve test scores. Carnoy says vouchers distract from proven policies and programs with proven impact on test scores and
Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION
CURMUDGUCATION : Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION The Lost Years 100 by Peter Greene / 6h After years of hearing how kindergarten has been turned into the new first grade, you'd think at the other end of the K-12 pipeline we would find highly advanced students. And yet-- not so much. I am not going to report a ton of research on this, because the available research is bogus and part of the actual tes
Keeping retirement weird. Escalating the war on the poor families, kids and the elderly. | Fred Klonsky
Keeping retirement weird. Escalating the war on the poor families, kids and the elderly. | Fred Klonsky : Keeping retirement weird. Escalating the war on the poor families, kids and the elderly. Budget director Mick Mulvaney parsing words after cutting grants for food for the hungry. David Brooks wants Trump to unleash Steve Bannon. As I read Brooks (so you don’t have to and throw up your breakfa
Trump’s Budget Slashes Funding For Public Schools | PopularResistance.Org
Trump’s Budget Slashes Funding For Public Schools | PopularResistance.Org : Trump’s Budget Slashes Funding For Public Schools While Giving 1.4 Billion For Privatization Donald Trump’s education budget is a declaration of war on public education and our nation’s neediest children. It was surely designed by Betsy DeVos. Trump’s budget would axe after-school programs known as the 21st Century Commun
Despite “photo op” Trump budget slashes $85M from Historically Black Colleges & Universities | The Edvocate Blog
Despite “photo op” Trump budget slashes $85M from Historically Black Colleges & Universities | The Edvocate Blog : Despite “photo op” Trump budget slashes $85M from Historically Black Colleges & Universities By now everyone knows that President Trump and ED Secretary DeVos staged a grossly insincere photo-op with the leaders of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). Tha
Many of My Most Difficult Students End Up Loving Me | deutsch29
Many of My Most Difficult Students End Up Loving Me | deutsch29 : Many of My Most Difficult Students End Up Loving Me I began teaching in 1991-92. Most of my years in the classroom are full time, though a few have been part time. Most have been in the Louisiana public high school setting. Some have been in the Georgia alternative school setting, one in which every new student had been expelled fr
IRTA: These 80 Programs Would Lose Federal Funding Under Trump’s Proposed Budget | Reclaim Reform
IRTA: These 80 Programs Would Lose Federal Funding Under Trump’s Proposed Budget | Reclaim Reform : IRTA: These 80 Programs Would Lose Federal Funding Under Trump’s Proposed Budget The Illinois Retired Teachers Association (IRTA*) has researched and listed the cumulative assaults on America’s responsibilities to its citizens by President Trump’s White House. These are obvious attempts to dismantl
Creating Pathways to Teaching (Not Building Walls): Eliminating the Academic Literacy Skills Test Will Produce More and More Effective Teachers | Ed In The Apple
Creating Pathways to Teaching (Not Building Walls): Eliminating the Academic Literacy Skills Test Will Produce More and More Effective Teachers | Ed In The Apple : Creating Pathways to Teaching (Not Building Walls): Eliminating the Academic Literacy Skills Test Will Produce More and More Effective Teachers Every year the Alumni Association of the City College of New York hosts a “How to Get a Job
School layoffs planned more than 40 California school districts | 89.3 KPCC
School layoffs planned more than 40 California school districts | 89.3 KPCC : School layoffs planned more than 40 California school districts More than 40 school districts took steps to prepare for staff layoffs because of expected budget deficits, according to California's largest teachers union. The school districts with the largest number of "Reduction in Force" notices mailed to staff include
California School Dashboard, LAUSD - Perdaily.com
California School Dashboard, LAUSD - Perdaily.com : CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS' NEW DISCONNECTED DASHBOARD (Mensaje se repite en Español) If you know Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, the Ides of March- or March 15th- is the date in 44 BC when Julius Caesar was assasinated. The Ides of March in 2017 California might in the future just be looked back on with the new California School Dashboard (CSD) stude

YESTERDAY

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 3/17/17
Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 3/17/17 Featured Post Trump's budget slashes funding for disadvantaged students while giving 1.4 billion for privatization - Network For Public Education Betsy DeVos’s Hiring of For-Profit 

Top Posts This Week


Rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry dies, age 90

Rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry dies, age 90:

Rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry dies, age 90






Rock and roll legend and electric guitar pioneer Chuck Berry has died at age 90.
St. Louis’ KSDK Channel 5 reported Saturday that police were summoned to the home of the guitarist’s home around 12:40 p.m. on Saturday and found an unresponsive male. They attempted resuscitation but were unsuccessful.
Charles Edward Anderson Berry Sr. — known to the world as Chuck Berry — was pronounced deceased at 1:26 p.m., said a statement from the St. Charles County Police Department.
Rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry dies, age 90:










Rest In Peace EVAAS Developer William L. Sanders | VAMboozled!

Rest In Peace EVAAS Developer William L. Sanders | VAMboozled!:

Rest In Peace EVAAS Developer William L. Sanders

Over the last 3.5 years since I developed this blog, I have written many posts about one particular value-added model (VAM) – the Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS), formerly known as the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS), now known by some states as the TxVAAS in Texas, the PVAAS in Pennsylvania, and also known as the generically-named EVAAS in states like Ohio, North Carolina, and South Carolina (and many districts throughout the nation). It is this model on which I have conducted most of my research (see, for example, the first piece I published about this model here, in which most of the claims I made still stand, although EVAAS modelers disagreed here). And it is this model that is at the source of the majority of the teacher evaluation lawsuits in which I have been or still am currently engaged (see, for example, details about the Houston lawsuit here, the former Tennessee lawsuit here, and the new Texas lawsuit here, although the model is more peripheral in this particular case).
Anyhow, the original EVAAS model (i.e, the TVAAS) was originally developed by a man named William L. Sanders who ultimately sold it to SAS Institute Inc. that now holds all rights to the proprietary model. See, for example, here. See also examples of prior posts about Sanders hereherehereherehere, and here. See also examples of prior posts about the EVAAS hereherehereherehere, and here.
It is William L. Sanders who just passed away and we sincerely hope may rest in peace.
Sanders had a bachelors degree in animal science and a doctorate in statistics and quantitative genetics. As an adjunct professor and agricultural statistician in the college of business at the University of Knoxville, Tennessee, he developed in the late 1980s his TVAAS.
Sanders thought that educators struggling with student achievement in the state should “simply” use more advanced statistics, similar to those used when modeling genetic and reproductive trends among cattle, to measure growth, hold teachers accountable for that growth, and solve the educational measurement woes facing the state of Tennessee at the time. It was to be as simple as that…. I should also mention that given this history, not surprisingly, Tennessee was one of the first states to receive Race to the Top funds to the tune of $502 million to further advance this model; hence, this has also contributed to this model’s popularity across the nation.
Nonetheless, Sanders passed away this past Thursday, March 16, 2017, from natural causes in Columbia, Tennessee. As per his obituary here,
  • He was most well-known for developing “a method used to measure a district, school, and teacher’s effect on student performance by tracking the year-to-year progress of students against themselves over their school career with various teachers’ classes.”
  • He “stood for a hopeful view that teacher effectiveness dwarfs all other factors as a predictor of student academic growth…[challenging]…decades of assumptions that student family life, income, or ethnicity has more effect on student learning.”
  • He believed, in the simplest of terms, “that educational influence matters and teachers matter most.”
Of course, we have much research evidence to counter these claims, but for now we will just leave all of this at that. Again, may he rest in peace.Rest In Peace EVAAS Developer William L. Sanders | VAMboozled!:


Vouchers do not improve student achievement, Stanford researcher finds | Stanford News

Vouchers do not improve student achievement, Stanford researcher finds | Stanford News:

Vouchers do not improve student achievement, Stanford researcher finds
Education professor Martin Carnoy analyzed 25 years of research and found that voucher programs do not significantly improve test scores. Carnoy says vouchers distract from proven policies and programs with proven impact on test scores and graduation rates.


Proponents of “school choice” say that voucher programs – which allow parents to use state education funds to enroll their children in private schools – promote learning by providing access to different types of schools and by fostering competition that motivates public schools to improve.
But there’s no evidence that voucher programs significantly increase test scores, according to a new report by Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) Professor Martin Carnoy.
At best, they have only a modest impact on high school graduation rates, Carnoy found – and the risks they pose outweigh any advances.
“The evidence is very weak that vouchers produce significant gains in learning,” Carnoy said. “They also carry hidden costs, and they’re distracting us from other solutions that could yield much higher returns.”

Assessing the impact

The report, published by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), was initiated shortly after Betsy DeVos was nominated to serve as U.S. Secretary of Education. DeVos, who was confirmed Feb. 7, has pushed for the expansion of school vouchers nationwide.
Carnoy analyzed research conducted over the past 25 years, including studies of programs in Milwaukee, New York City, Washington, D.C., Indiana and Louisiana. Most studies have evaluated the impact of vouchers through test scores (as a proxy for student achievement) and high school graduation and college enrollment rates (indicators of school performance).
In Milwaukee, where the nation’s second-largest (after Indiana’s more recent) voucher program has been operating for almost 20 years, only a quarter of students attend their neighborhood school. “If choice were the answer, Milwaukee would be one of the highest-scoring cities in the country,” Carnoy said.
But test score data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tell a different story. Among black eighth-graders in 13 urban school districts, Milwaukee – where black students make up more than 70 percent of all voucher recipients – ranked last in reading and second-to-last in math.
In cases where test scores did improve, Carnoy said, the increase appeared to be driven by increased public accountability, not vouchers. A four-year study in Milwaukee found no greater gains in state test scores among voucher students attending private schools until the legislature announced that all private schools accepting voucher students would be required to take the test and that the results would be made public. Researchers concluded that publicizing the results for the first time pressed these schools to focus more teaching on elements that might appear on the test, which helped increase their scores.
While research has found some small gains in voucher schools’ graduation and college enrollment rates, Carnoy said there’s no evidence indicating whether this was due to private school competition – as free-market proponents contend – or to private high schools’ willingness to shed less-motivated students.

Hidden costs

The report also disputes the common claim that vouchers cost less per student than traditional public education. “The cost argument is flawed,” Carnoy said, because the savings that private schools enjoy couldn’t be sustained if voucher programs were implemented much more widely.
For one thing, a private school that accepts vouchers can ease out low-performing students, even if initially required to admit them by lottery. Also, administering a voucher plan is expensive: Carnoy cited research estimating that record-keeping, student transportation and other costs associated with vouchers could raise public educational costs by 25 percent or more.
One alarming long-term cost of a voucher system, Carnoy said, is the impact it could have on the teaching pipeline. Public education’s tenure and pension system offers security that compensates for relatively low pay and that helps to retain experienced teachers. Without these benefits, he said, fewer young teachers would be likely to enter and remain in the profession.
Private schools in a largely public system save money by hiring young teachers who seek training and experience and have the option to go on to competitive positions at public schools. A mainly private Vouchers do not improve student achievement, Stanford researcher finds | Stanford News:


Reader Comment:

Elizabeth Davis 

Washington teachers union29 minutes ago  -  Shared publicly
 
DC doesn't want or need a school voucher program and imposing a federal voucher program on DC residents is undemocratic and an attack on DC Home Rule. The reauthorization of the DC voucher program was crammed down the throats by Chaffetz and other members of the Trump Administration who advocate for the privatization of our public schools

The Washington Teachers’ Union and its national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers, have long been opposed to school vouchers because of their negative impact on public education and the lack of evidence that they improve the education of students who receive them.

The DC voucher program takes millions of dollars, that would be better spent funding the District’s public schools; away from neighborhood public schools. Many of the private schools participating in the DC voucher program can pick and choose which students to accept and do not adhere to all federal civil rights laws and public accountability standards that public schools must meet. The program has been plagued by a lack of oversight and issues concerning quality as documented by GAO reports and a Washington Post special investigation

Most private schools, even those receiving taxpayer-funded voucher money, do not have to meet standards for curriculum, testing, teacher qualifications or school quality. Eighty percent of students using vouchers in DC attend private religious schools, which operate outside federal civil rights protections and the non-discrimination provisions of the DC Human Rights Act.

Private schools participating in the DC voucher program can pick and choose which students to accept and do not have to provide the same rights and protections to students as public schools, including protections in key provisions of the Civil Rights Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Every Student Succeeds Act.

The WTU will continue to stand with DC residents in urging the Mayor and the Council of the District of Columbia to actively and publicly oppose the DC school voucher program and give the $20 million to improve our public community schools of right.