Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Note to NEA RA. Two more pieces on testing for accountability and evaluation. « Fred Klonsky's blog #NEARA11

Note to NEA RA. Two more pieces on testing for accountability and evaluation. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Note to NEA RA. Two more pieces on testing for accountability and evaluation.

from Fred Klonsky's blog by Fred Klonsky

The NEA proposal for a policy statement on teacher accountability and evaluation calls on locals to consider student test scores to be used for teacher performance reviews.

Two items delegates might take a look at.

From the Economic Policy Institute:

While there are good reasons for concern about the current system of teacher evaluation, there are also good reasons to be concerned about claims that measuring teachers’ effectiveness largely by student test scores will lead to improved student achievement. If new laws or policies specifically require that

Note to NEA RA. More on testing for accountability and teacher evaluation. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Note to NEA RA. More on testing for accountability and teacher evaluation.

by Fred Klonsky

In a timely blog post, Dana Goldstein writes.

This is bad instruction informed by test-based accountability. Opposing such accountability policies doesn’t necessarily mean that one in anti-test; rather, it’s important to note that the preferable use of tests is to diagnose the strengths

ERN Donor: Walton Family Foundation « DFER Watch

ERN DONOR: WALTON FAMILY FOUNDATION

Posted by ken libby on June 28, 2011 · Leave a Comment

According to the Walton Family Foundation’s website, Education Reform Now received $1,325,000 from the foundation in 2010. This marks the first donation from the WFF to ERN.

In the past, Whitney Tilson said the organization (specifically DFER) couldn’t take money from Walton.

Oh Brother MORE CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: Gulen charter schools in Hawaii

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: Gulen charter schools in Hawaii

Gulen charter schools in Hawaii *STATE* *# ACTIVE* *# PENDING * *# INACTIVE* * *TOTAL* HI 0 0 1 1 * Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status ===================================================================== *SCHOOLS* ...

Gulen charter schools in Colorado ** *STATE* *# ACTIVE* *# PENDING * *# INACTIVE* * *TOTAL* CO 1 0 2 3 * Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status ===================================================================== *SCHOOLS* ...

Gulen charter schools in Arizona *STATE* *# ACTIVE* *# PENDING * *# INACTIVE* * *TOTAL* AZ 7 0 2 9 * Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status ===================================================================== *SCHOOLS* ...

Gulen charter schools in Oregon *STATE* *# ACTIVE* *# PENDING * *# INACTIVE* * *TOTAL* NV 0 0 2 2 * Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status ===================================================================== *SCHOOLS* ...

Gulen charter schools in Utah *STATE* *# ACTIVE* *# PENDING * *# INACTIVE* * *TOTAL* UT 1 0 0 1 * Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status ===================================================================== *SCHOOLS* ...

Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago - Dana Goldstein

Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago

by Dana Goldstein

I'll be off the blog this week, since I'm in Chicago researching women teachers and feminist labor politics at the turn of the century. In the meantime, my friend Michelle Goldberg has written a delightfully devastating review ofLife of the Party, a new memoir by former GOP flack Lisa Baron. You should also check out this Russell Baker essay on Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt's unconventional marriage and political partnership.

In other non-news, I am contemplating one of the great pop music mysteries of the hair band era: How did these guys manage to write this song, which came on in a Walgreen's today, reminding me of its cheesiness, but also its awesomeness and correctness. Enjoy...

Woman Says Principal "Crossed the Line" When Giving Graduation Speech in English and Spanish (VIDEO) - Hispanically Speaking News

Woman Says Principal “Crossed the Line” When Giving Graduation Speech in English and Spanish (VIDEO)

“Class of 2011, I want to congratulate you for all your accomplishments this year,” Principal of Whittell High School in Nevada said to his graduating class. He then said it in Spanish as a nice gesture to the Spanish-speaking students and their family members. He went through his whole speech in this manner.

Principal Crespin Esquivel did not expect that repeating his speech in Spanish at a school whose second largest ethnic group is Hispanic would offend one woman enough that she sparked an online controversy.

The woman, who said she sat through both the English and Spanish speeches, wrote a letter to a local newspaper claiming the principal “crossed the line”, “was inappropriate”, and “took away from the recognition the students deserve.”

The debate over the bilingual comments are similar to a story making headlines after U.S. Soccer Team goalie

Strong words, student attendance mark Senate DREAM hearing | Reuters

Strong words, student attendance mark Senate DREAM hearing

Senator Dick Durbin on Capitol Hill, December 20, 2010. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

By Molly O'Toole

WASHINGTON | Tue Jun 28, 2011 5:57pm EDT

(Reuters) - Strong words and hundreds of students, a number of them undocumented immigrants, kicked off the first Senate hearing on the DREAM Act on Tuesday.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and experts from the Department of Defense, military, and outside groups testified in support of the immigration bill at the hearing Tuesday morning.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a long-time DREAM Act supporter, chaired the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security hearing. He noted estimates that passage of the act could make some 2 million people eligible for citizenship.

The bill would give young people who are illegal immigrants but have lived in the United States for at least five years, graduated from high school,

Census Statistics Visualized | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Concept Board Looks Pretty Easy To Use Concept Board is very easy to use screensharing tool. After registration, you can create up to twenty-five Concept Boards for free. You click on “new Concept Board” and you have one — you can upload presentations, make comments, draw on it, etc. All ...

Census Statistics Visualized The U.S. Census has just unveiled an interactive map that lets you access data for different communities and census tracts. They haven’t release information for all the states yet, but it’s a start. Thanks to Google Maps Mania for the tip.

Now This Is What You Call Perseverance! Both in my book and here on this blog (see The Best Resources For Learning About The Importance Of “Grit”), I have written about the research that shows that grit/perseverance is so incredibly important to success — and how to apply that research in ...

This Week In Education: Thompson: Rocketship & Khan Academy Not That Impressive

Thompson: Rocketship & Khan Academy Not That Impressive [image: Khan] Larry Abramson’s two-part NPR series points a way towards the proper use of educational technology. I would feel more confident that online learning would not be abused, however, if its purpose was to either save money or improve ...

LIFO: Mayors Endorse Seniority Phaseout (No One Notices) [image: 9c2ad92c-eed8-447a-a28f-d40e8e83f717] Resolutions aren't binding. This one about ending LIFO isn't even written that strongly. Ending LIFO is much less of a pressing issue than it might have seemed to be a few months ago with New York City ...

Quotes: Incentive Pay Probably Won't Cover Cosmetic Surgery *[image: image from scholasticadministrator.typepad.com] Of the 100 largest school districts in the country only six offer bonuses on the basis of performance to individual teachers that would be substantial enough to cover the average cost of breast ...

VIDEO: Don't Be Guh - "Read A Book" This Summer Like Jazzy says: "I'm no flower, mad brain power, don't be sour, I read daily for three hours." Also: I knew "gully" but I didn't no "guh." (Anacostia News) Thanks to whomever sent this to me or wherever I found it (sorry forgot).

"Lawmakers disappoint, turn backs on students." June 28, 2011. NYSUT: A Union of Professionals. www.nysut.org

Lawmakers disappoint, turn backs on students Unfortunately, a student's right to a sound, basic education was dealt a blow when lawmakers approved a flawed tax cap to take effect in 2012-13.

NYSUT sues to overturn regulations inconsistent with state law "New York was poised to take the lead in developing a thoughtful, comprehensive evaluation system developed in collaboration with teachers and other stakeholders. Instead, the Regents chose politics over sound educational policy and the cheap way ...

NYSUT sues Regents, State Ed to block teacher evaluation regs Charging that the Board of Regents and State Education Department commissioner have violated state law and exceeded their authority, NYSUT has filed a lawsuit asking the court to overturn problematic portions of the teacher evaluation regulations ...

Special Ed Mandate Relief: SED wants your feedback The New York State Education Department (NYSED) is soliciting comment and has scheduled three public hearings on special education mandate relief proposals intended to increase local flexibility and reduce special education requirements.

Jersey Jazzman: Sanity About Teacher Evaluation

Not Getting What You Paid For - CWA Edition Here the second in my ongoing series of looks at how much money NJ public union workers gave to Democratic candidates who old them out by voting with Chris Christie to slash their health care and pensions. Again: these are the Democrats in the Hall of ...

Sanity About Teacher Evaluation Speaking of Earl Kim, Bruce Baker points me toward a great, short video of Kim testifying before the NJ Senate Education Committee on why the teacher evaluation "framework" developed by the unqualified Teacher Effectiveness Task Force will not work, ...

Crazy, Amoral, Uncle Paul Mulshine Followers of this blog know I call Star-Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine "Crazy Uncle Paul": he's that relative you see on holidays who will actually say things that make sense, followed by the craziest, most insane nonsense imaginable. Crazy Uncle Paul ...

ASCD Inservice: Fog of Common Core (Lessons from Arizona's Adoption)

Fog of Common Core (Lessons from Arizona's Adoption)

by David Griffith, ASCD Public Policy Director

Today marks one year since Arizona adopted the common core state standards, but you wouldn't know it based on any information provided by public officials or the press in Arizona. Indeed, you would have an impossible time finding any details about the Arizona State Board's official action to adopt the standards.

Last year, I wrote about the bizarre situation where states that were completely overhauling their K-12 reading and math standards in favor of the more advanced, 21st century common core state standards were not only downplaying this standards transformation, but in some instances, also appeared to be proactively burying the information.

Arizona fell into this last group as I mentioned last July:

"And then there are Arizona, Nevada, and Wyoming—three states that an Ed Week blog reports adopted the standards but whose respective state departments of education make no reference to adopting the

Rhee assesses her agenda's chance of success in leaked internal document

Rhee assesses her agenda's chance of success in leaked internal document In this leaked internal StudentsFirst document, Rhee sizes up the chances of her lobbying success. Is your state in Rhee’s war path? Rhee’s top priority is ending due process rights for veteran teachers (which she deliberately mislabels “tenure”). ...

New York Times highlights teacher critiques of IMPACT The IMPACT teacher evaluation system was designed by Michael Moody, the then Interim Chief Academic Officer for DC’s Public Schools. While Moody still occupied his DC post his company, Insight Education Group, sold IMPACT to DC, receiving $2.23 ...

Shanker Blog » Suppressing Democracy

Suppressing Democracy

by Matthew Di Carlo

At a recent Shanker Institute conference, a guest presenter from the United Kingdom was discussing the historical relationship between public spending and democracy. I don’t remember the exact context, but at some point, he noted, in a perfectly calm, matter-of-fact tone, that one U.S. political party spends a great deal of effort and resources trying to suppress electoral turnout.

It’s always kind of jarring to hear someone from another country make a casual observation about an American practice that’s so objectionable, especially when you’re well aware it’s plainly true. And perhaps never more so than right now.

There are currently several states – most with Republican governors and/or legislatures, including Wisconsin and

Teachers Commend Gov., Demos for Best Budget in Dire Circumstances « State of Emergency

Teachers Commend Gov., Demos for Best Budget in Dire Circumstances

by Leonard Feldman

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) June 28 – The leader of the 325,000-member California Teachers Association is commending Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic Senators and Assembly Members for approving the best budget they could, given Republican lawmakers’ efforts to “hijack” the spending plan and block an extension of temporary state revenues that would have further protected schools.

In a prepared statement released to the media on June 28, CTA President Dean E. Vogel noted that the budget agreement reached by the governor and legislative Democrats on June 27 “is certainly not a perfect budget plan, but it is what Democratic lawmakers and the Governor were able to do in light of the Republicans’ refusal to work with them to pass a

A “Bad Air Day” for Alter « Parents Across America

A “Bad Air Day” for Alter

by pureparents

Every so often I step back to see what staunch proponents of “corporate reform” are saying now. Maybe there’s new evidence? Maybe I’ve missed some critical research validating the privatization of public education or some new study on merit pay that supersedes a multitude of others stating that merit pay doesn’t work.

Perhaps a political pundit can enlighten me on what’s best for public education?

A corporate reformer would get an earful from the vast untapped resource of involved parents on the front lines. I’ve absorbed a great deal working alongside conscientious teachers and principals on real world issues, or while leading PTAs, or while voting on budgetary issues facing School Advisory Boards.
Wanting to increase my knowledge of corporate reform initiatives, therefore, I tuned in to Dave Sirota’s DenverJune 8th talk show.
Sirota featured a widely promoted debate between two opposing views on education reform. On one side, Bloomberg News journalist, Jonathan Alter, and on the other, education historian and former Assistant Secretary

Note to #NEARA11 Judging teachers on test scores is like doing piece work. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Note to NEA RA. Judging teachers on test scores is like doing piece work. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Note to NEA RA. Judging teachers on test scores is like doing piece work.

by Fred Klonsky

Later this week the NEA RA will consider a policy statement on teacher evaluation and accountability.

It’s not a great policy statement anyway. But the part that is causing the most concern is where it supports local affiliates negotiating teacher evaluation plans that use student test scores as a part of the teacher’s performance review.

Catalyst reports that although student test scores have improved dramatically in Chicago, CEO JC Brizard and

NEA RA. Policy statement on teacher evaluation and accountability.

by Fred Klonsky

Aside from the proposal by NEA President Dennis Van Roekel that the RA should give the Obama administration an early no strings endorsement, an extra issue of concern for many members is the Policy Statement on Teacher Evaluation and Accountability.

While the policy statement probably doesn’t go far enough for IEA lame duck President Ken Swanson and IEA Executive Director Audrey Soglin, the IEA leadership has already endorsed it as it is written.

This is the section that is of primary concern:

Indicators of Contribution to Student Learning and Growth
demonstrating a teacher’s impact on student learning and growth. Such

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Walton money continues to flow into corporate ed reform

Walton money continues to flow into corporate ed reform

by Mike Klonsky

BENTONVILLE, Ark., June 28, 2011 -- Today the Walton Family Foundation announced investments totaling more than $157 million in education reform initiatives for 2010 – a $23 millionincrease over 2009, in which education reform grants totaled $134 million... Having invested more than $1 billion in education reform, the Walton Family Foundation is the largest donor to initiatives that support parental choice and competition within education. -- PR Newswire

Walton money focuses on seven regions throughout the nation that serve high concentrations of low-income families. They include Albany, Denver, East and South Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Newark andWashington, D.C. The foundation started investing in New Orleans schools following Hurricane Katrina, beginning in 2006 – helping create a school system where 70 % of public school students currently attend privately managed charter schools.

In D.C., the Walton Foundation was one of Michelle Rhee's largest patrons while she was chancellor. They

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Troubles continue to plague L.A. charters

Troubles continue to plague L.A. charters

by Mike Klonsky

It's been a rocky year for charters in Los Angeles Unified, which hosts the most charter schools of any district in the nation—183 currently, with roughly another 20 slated to open in the fall. Besides financial mismanagement and the cheating scandal, a principal at another charter was sent to prison for embezzlement and another school was closed for a poor academic record. -- AP Wire

Deasy (L.A. Times)

Deasy approves charters despite cheating scandal

Things may be looking up for the six Los Angeles charter schools caught in a highly organized cheating scandal. LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy has decided to keep the schools open. The LA Times reports:

[Deasy] was satisfied that the Crescendo charter school group had taken appropriate steps to deal with the problems on the South Los Angeles campuses.

ATLANTA:

State school board rescues 11 charter schools

Eleven charter schools whose operating agreements were voided by a state Supreme Court ruling got the final

The Yellow Tulips: Dysfunctional Public School System Continues to Drive Good Educators Away:

Dysfunctional Public School System Continues to Drive Good Educators Away:

by the yellow tulips

Young D.C. Principal Quits and Tells Why
By Bill Turque, Published: The Washington Post, June 25, 2011

Bill Kerlina won a plum assignment when he was hired away from Montgomery County in July 2009 to become a principal in Northwest Washington. Phoebe Hearst Elementary was a small, high-performing school, right across the street from Sidwell Friends.

He grew to love its students, teachers and--for the most part--its parents. "If I could lift the school up and put it in a functional school system, it would be perfect," he said.

Instead, he said, the dysfunction he encountered in D.C. public schools led him to quit this month, fed up

Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

This is bad instruction informed by test-based accountability. Opposing such accountability policies doesn’t necessarily mean that one in anti-test; rather, it’s important to note that the preferable use of tests is to diagnose the strengths

ERN DONOR: WALTON FAMILY FOUNDATION

Strong words, student attendance mark Senate DREAM hearing

Indicators of Contribution to Student Learning and Growth

demonstrating a teacher’s impact on student learning and growth. Such

Young D.C. Principal Quits and Tells WhyBy Bill Turque, Published: The Washington Post, June 25, 2011

Young D.C. Principal Quits and Tells Why
By Bill Turque, Published: The Washington Post, June 25, 2011