Ohio: Voucher Students Are Not Required to Take State Exams | Diane Ravitch's blog

Ohio: Voucher Students Are Not Required to Take State Exams | Diane Ravitch's blog

Ohio: Voucher Students Are Not Required to Take State Exams

Apparently, the voucher schools were embarrassed by the Ohio study showing that kids who use vouchers lose ground academically.

There were two ways to respond to that finding: 1) improve instruction in the voucher schools by requiring them to hire certified teachers; 2) obscure the data.

The voucher lobby chose the second route.

The Republican-dominated legislature is now vastly expanding the state’s failing voucher program. But a few years ago, it decided that voucher schools would no longer be required to give the same exams that students in public schools are required to take. The conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute worried about the change, because it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to draw comparisons between students in public schools and their peers in private and religious schools.

That’s the goal.

Many other states that offer vouchers allow those schools CONTINUE READING: Ohio: Voucher Students Are Not Required to Take State Exams | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: Do Rising Charter Tides Lift All Boats?

CURMUDGUCATION: Do Rising Charter Tides Lift All Boats?

Do Rising Charter Tides Lift All Boats?

So lately we've been getting the charter-pushing return of the notion that the rising tide lifts all boats. Here's Fordham Institute's head honcho Mike Petrilli at The Hill, throwing in a side of "follow the science" because Petrilli is great (and I say this with all sincerity) at working the angles. 

The "science" that he's referring to is a 2019 study-ish thing that Fordham put out (with Walton financing), authored by David Griffith, entitled Rising Tide: Charter School Market Share and Student Achievement. The idea he sets out to prove is that when charters open up, the resulting competition causes all students in all schools--both public and charter--to do better. The rising tide lifts all boats.

Griffith's background is a BA in Politics and Philosophy; later on he went back to school for a Master's in Public Policy. He worked as a political aid for a couple of years, worked briefly as a "research assistant" at two different outfits, did some TA work after grad school, taught for one whole year at a DC charter prep school, then landed a job at Fordham as a Research and Policy Associate. Make of that what you will.

The "study" depends, as always, upon Big Standardized Test data. Its finding included a claim that "high charter market share is associated with" big gains for Black and Hispanic students, but no CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Do Rising Charter Tides Lift All Boats?

Carol Burris: Fordham Study Misleads the Public About Fiscal Harm of Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris: Fordham Study Misleads the Public About Fiscal Harm of Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Carol Burris: Fordham Study Misleads the Public About Fiscal Harm of Charter Schools

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently published a study claiming that charter schools do no fiscal harm to public schools, and may even lead to greater funding. Dr. Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Schools, has visited public school districts that are in a deep financial hole because of the financial drain caused by the proliferation of charter schools. She read the Fordham study with care and concluded that it was misleading and inaccurate.

Her article was published on Valerie Strauss’s “The Answer Sheet,” along with a response by the author of the study, Mark Weber. Weber agreed with her main point: – That said, I agree that my report does not provide evidence that charter school growth does not harm school district’s fiscal health. That fact is that this report can’t answer that question. My hope, however, is that it does provide a framework for having a more informed discussion about the costs of charter schools on the entire K-12 system.

Her full post is here.

It begins like this:

A recent study published by the Thomas B. Fordham CONTINUE READING: Carol Burris: Fordham Study Misleads the Public About Fiscal Harm of Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Why Does the Thomas B. Fordham Institute Control Education Policy in Ohio? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Why Does the Thomas B. Fordham Institute Control Education Policy in Ohio? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Why Does the Thomas B. Fordham Institute Control Education Policy in Ohio?

Writing in ohiocapital.com, Jeanne Melvin and Denis Smith denounced the central role that the Thomas B. Fordham Institute plays in directing education policy in Ohio. TBF is the think tank of the Ohio Republican Party; that party has controlled the state in recent years. It is curious that TBF directs education policy in Ohio since TBF is based in Washington, D.C.

Melvin is a parent activist, and Smith worked for the Ohio Department of Education.

In Ohio, TBF has been a strong advocate for high-stakes testing and school privatization. It has pushed charter CONTINUE READING: Why Does the Thomas B. Fordham Institute Control Education Policy in Ohio? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Peter Greene: Phooey to Resuming the Big Standardized Tests | Diane Ravitch's blog

Peter Greene: Phooey to Resuming the Big Standardized Tests | Diane Ravitch's blog

Peter Greene: Phooey to Resuming the Big Standardized Tests

The “reform” lobby, never content without testing and data, has argued in a host of opinion pieces that children really need to be tested this spring. The reformers believe that school is unthinkable and teachers won’t know what to do without annual standardized testing. They have completely imbibed the Texas Miracle That Wasn’t, the “miracle” that justified No Child Left Behind’s testing mandate. The achievement gaps remain large, with no sign of closing, but facts never got in the way of datamania.

Peter Greene wrote in Forbes in response to the reform clamor for more tests. He specifically responded to Aaron Churchill of the Thomas Fordham Institute, who wrote in the Columbus Dispatch about the importance of giving the annual tests this spring.

How can children possibly be educated if they aren’t taking tests and we don’t have data? If you can’t get enough of Peter Greene on the BS Test, here is more.

Greene rebuts each of six points.

The tests do not collect valuable information. They are CONTINUE READING: Peter Greene: Phooey to Resuming the Big Standardized Tests | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: OH: Ed Disruptors Want Their Big Test

CURMUDGUCATION: OH: Ed Disruptors Want Their Big Test

OH: Ed Disruptors Want Their Big Test

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Aaron Churchill, the Fordham Institution's Ohio research director, popped up in the Columbus Dispatch today as a "guest columnist." It's worth noting that his job is "aimed at strengthening education policy in Ohio," which is of course not the same thing as improving education and certainly not the same thing as supporting public education. Churchill's previous job was program manager at Junior Achievement in Western PA; his college degrees are in History, Exegesis, and Public Policy and Management. 

It helps to understand that Fordham is all in for school choice, that they in fact operate some charter schools in Ohio. Which explains a lot about Churchill's arguments here for making sure that Ohio administers the Big Standardized Test this year. The headline is "Don't cancel K-12 testing when we need data more than ever" and "we" is doing a lot of work here. But as testocrats keep pushing schools to waste precious time and money on testing this year, it's useful to understand what those testophiles are after.

Churchill opens with a quick recap--pandemic, closed schools, big mess, the usual. And in the midst of this, some folks are pushing to waive state assessments again this year. 

"Huge blunder," says Churchill. Analysts predict big learning loss, "yet without state tests nobody can measure the size and scope of the damage. How many Ohio students have been knocked off course CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: OH: Ed Disruptors Want Their Big Test