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Saturday, May 30, 2015

Common Core: A Matter of Perspective | WagTheDog

Common Core: A Matter of Perspective | WagTheDog:

Common Core: A Matter of Perspective



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Part of the reason there has been such strong disagreement and debate regarding the Common Core is people “see” ed reform and the new Standards very differently, depending on their perspective.
For example when teachers express concern regarding the validity of VAM and the use of standardized test scores to measure student learning and teacher quality, many ed reformers and even the media will claim that teachers don’t want to be evaluated or held accountable for their students’ performance.
When teachers raise the issue of poverty and how it impacts student learning many reformers respond that “poverty is not destiny” and accuse teachers of furthering a #beliefgap rather than just acknowledging that students living in poverty are disadvantaged and they will require additional supports and services.
Most teachers understand that it would be misleading to suggest that students living in poverty are destined to be unsuccessful in life just as it is disingenuous to claim that a single data point can determine and predict the college readiness of elementary students or measure the effectiveness of their teachers.
Ed reformers have a strong belief and faith in the “power” of higher standards to act like a Common Core: A Matter of Perspective | WagTheDog:
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CURMUDGUCATION: Punching the Eight Year Olds

CURMUDGUCATION: Punching the Eight Year Olds:

Punching the Eight Year Olds






In some special states, it's not just the end of testing season-- it's also punish third graders by telling them that all their hard work this year was a waste of their time because they have failed a single reading test, and so they have officially flunked third grade. 

Mississippi is just open more example of a state that thinks eighth-year-olds need to be pummeled mercilessly so that they will stop holding out, because clearly any third grader who can't pass a Big Standardized Reading Test must not have been threatened enough. Clearly some folks believe that once facing the prospect of failure, a nation of third graders will declare, "Well, then, I'll stop messing around and learn how to read, because previously I had no interest in learning that fundamental skill-- at last not as much as I wanted to get into fourth grade." Yes, surely that's what will happen.

“We have had dozens and dozens of studies on this topic,” said [Linda] Darling-Hammond. “The findings are about as consistent as any findings are in education research: the use of testing is counterproductive, it does not improve achievement over the long run, but it does dramatically increase dropout rates. Almost every place that has put this kind of policy in place since the 1970s has eventually found it counterproductive and has eliminated the policy. Unfortunately policy makers often are not aware of the research and they come along years later and reintroduce the same policies that were done away with previously because of negative consequences and lack of success.”

This whole Failing Third Graders policy argument is what I've learned to recognize as a standard reformster construction. The basic argument structure looks like this:

1) This is a real problem. We will tell you just how real a problem it is.
2) Therefor a bicycle, because a vest has no sleeves.

Step 1 sometimes involves a big slice of deep fried baloney, but sometimes it's an actual issue. Third grade reading is probably an actual issue-- students who can't read well-ish by third grade seem not run into issues down the road (although-- correlation or causation-- those problems might be CURMUDGUCATION: Punching the Eight Year Olds:
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A Young Teacher’s Voice: The Devastating Effects of Evaluation by Common Core Test Scores | Round the Inkwell

A Young Teacher’s Voice: The Devastating Effects of Evaluation by Common Core Test Scores | Round the Inkwell:

A Young Teacher’s Voice: The Devastating Effects of Evaluation by Common Core Test Scores




The other day I received this email from a South Side graduate who became a teacher.  This young woman is brilliant–just the sort of person we want in our profession.  She is presently teaching in a Washington DC high school.  Read how she describes the effects of the evaluation of teachers by test scores, especially since the Common Core arrived.
I have protected her identity, because sadly, that is what must be done in times like these.  Read her story and share it. How can anyone claim that students benefit from these reforms?
Good Morning Dr. Burris,
I am not sure if you remember me, but I was a student at SSHS.  I went on to become a teacher and started my career right out of college at a high school in Washington DC.  In the four years since, I have seen what education reform has done to teaching and learning.
While I did not have any experience as a teacher prior to the introduction of common core, I have seen enough to know that this used to be a different game.  My first year of teaching, I felt incredible.  I worked in a school for students who struggled in mainstream classroom environments due to emotional or behavioral issues, but I had managed to figure out a way to reach them and make them excited about learning.  I found texts that not only challenged them academically, but also encouraged them to change the way they looked at the world.  I taught them the foundation skills they were missing and maintained a level of rigor throughout each lesson.
I was evaluated by my principal, assistant principal, and two “master educators” (unknown persons who show up in your classroom unannounced whenever they please).  I received a score of highly effective, which was to come with great A Young Teacher’s Voice: The Devastating Effects of Evaluation by Common Core Test Scores | Round the Inkwell:
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Marie Corfield: This Week in Weird (Ed Reform) NJ—Part 2

Marie Corfield: This Week in Weird (Ed Reform) NJ—Part 2:

This Week in Weird (Ed Reform) NJ—Part 2



This is a real publication
Holy moly! Just when I thought ed 'reform' in the Garden State couldn't get any weirder, all this happened in the past seven days. So, here's your one-stop shop for all the ed 'reform' news that's fit to print, whether it makes sense or not: 



  • *5/23 Thousands of Newark students defied Superintendent Cami Anderson's threats of consequences and walk out of classes to protest her regime and demand return of local control and fair funding of their public schools. Sounds like that 'reform' plan of hers is going swimmingly well!
  • 5/24 The Star Ledger posts yet another pro-PARCC shill piece (more on this below).
  • *5/25 Newark's Central High School Principal, Sharnee Brown, risks her job by starting a petition on MoveOn.org calling for an end to the practices of Anderson's signature 'One Newark' plan that discriminate against the district's special education students.
  • *5/28 Newark Mayor, and former Central High School principal, Ras Baraka calls on the citizens of his city to take back the school district from Cami, Christie and Co.
  • 5/28 Gov. Christie says the Common Core State Standards aren't working, and vows to have parents and teachers involved in writing new ones. Wait, what? 
  • 5/29 Before the ink is dry on Christie's CCSS speech, the Star Ledger posts a pro Common Core piece by the Center for American Progress's Daniella Gibbs Leger that, once again, touts the magical ability of education 'reform' to Marie Corfield: This Week in Weird (Ed Reform) NJ—Part 2:



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Inside California Education | A New Public Television Series

Inside California Education | A New Public Television Series:

Inside California Education 
Inside California Education Logo



Inside California Education takes a fresh approach to presenting compelling stories and relevant information, communicating to millions of Californians how our state's education system affects our lives and lives of our children. The program explores the many critical, complex, and increasingly challenging issues in public education.
Inside California Education is co-produced by KVIE— the Sacramento Public Television station, and NationalEdOnline— a California educational non-profit organization. Each 30-minute episode of Inside California Education will present informative stories and insightful interviews.
Our Inside California Education team of reporters will show you how education is structured and supported at the most basic levels. We will give the viewer the inside story of how California parents and their children are impacted by our state's education system.

Series Premiere 26:22




Suggest a Story

Click here to suggest a story for an upcoming episode of Inside California Education!

Inside California Education is a co-production of:



Inside California Education On Facebook Click Here

Also see: Big Education Ape: The High School Where Students Wear Scrubs - NationalJournal.com http://bit.ly/1AAd7NJ

The High School Where Students Wear Scrubs

A Sacramento public high school blends work-based learning, medical science, and academics for a new generation of vocational education.

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You never know who you'll meet on a good walk Children are more than test scores:

Children are more than test scores: You never know who you'll meet on a good walk:

You never know who you'll meet on a good walk





Thomas Paine said" “The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” I am standing next to Mark Naison here, a man whose religion is to do good. Especially for the ones a young Jewish poet named Emma Lazarus called to America in her poem found at the Statue of Liberty.
He talks the talk, and walks the talk of her words in the "The New Colossus"
I remember my third grade teacher Mrs Gitter reading Emma's poem on top of her desk holding an old kerosene lamp making every word come alive. Reading:
"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her Children are more than test scores: You never know who you'll meet on a good walk:
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What is the story about Governor Dannel Malloy’s little Bronx Charter School for Excellence - Wait What?

What is the story about Governor Dannel Malloy’s little Bronx Charter School for Excellence - Wait What?:

What is the story about Governor Dannel Malloy’s little Bronx Charter School for Excellence






Faced with a mountain a state debt, insufficient revenues to maintain vital services and his unwillingness to require the rich to pay their fair share in taxes, why would Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy be saying that he will not sign any new state budget that doesn’t include the taxpayer funds that Steve Perry wants in order to open his privately owned, but publicly funded charter school in Bridgeport and the money a small charter school in the Bronx is demanding so that they can save Stamford, Connecticut by opening up a charter school in his home city.
Perhaps even more incredibly, Malloy is demanding that the Democrats in the Connecticut Legislature put the extra charter school money into the budget at the same time that he wants them to adopt a budget that makes record cuts to Connecticut’s public schools, including schools in the legislators’ own districts.
It is a question that every public schools student, parent, teacher and taxpayer should be asking.
To some degree the answer appears to be that given the choice, Malloy will always go for the campaign donations rather than the needs of Connecticut’s public schools, teachers and students.
In an amazing piece of investigative journalism, the Hartford Courant’s Jenny Wilson lays bare Malloy’s relationship with some of his campaign donors who are part of the charter school elite.  See Hedge Fund Managers Back Charter Schools, Democrats’ Campaigns
While Malloy’s true motivations behind holding up a $40 billion, two-year state budget, in order to funnel about $15 million a year to two new charter schools remains a mystery, the connection between the charter school industry and politicians is not.
From sea to shining sea, the corporate executives who support charter schools are pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into political campaign and with Malloy becoming chair of What is the story about Governor Dannel Malloy’s little Bronx Charter School for Excellence - Wait What?:
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With A Brooklyn Accent: Teach for America Is As Toxic Pedagogically As It Is Politically

With A Brooklyn Accent: Teach for America Is As Toxic Pedagogically As It Is Politically:

Teach for America Is As Toxic Pedagogically As It Is Politically




When I organized a panel for the Labor and Working Class History Association Conference in Washington on "Why Progressive Faculty Should Boycott Teach for America," what was foremost in my mind was the role that TFA was playing in supplying replacement labor for school districts firing veteran teachers and its training of leaders promoting school privatization, but what I came away from the panel with was a much enhanced understanding of the damage TFA pegadogy is doing in inner city schools.


   This is not a subject I had much familiarity with, since i am not a teacher educator, or someone involved with training teachers or developing curricula, but the composition of the panel, which included two teacher educators,Dave Green and Joan Croce Grim, and two former TFA Corps members, Desmera Gatewood and Annie Tan, ended up focusing much of the discussion on what TFA teachers bring into the classroom.

   And here, what i learned was horrifying. Basically, because TFA teachers are thrown into extremely challenging school settings with only five weeks of training, and no student teaching experience, they are given a template which includes cookie cutter formulas for handling discipline and class management issues,  and an approach to teaching which ONLY emphasizes preparing students for standardized tests.  TFA teachers are required to follow this template even when it isn't working, even when it alienates students, and even though it totally excludes any attempt to make instruction relevant to cultural background and traditions of the students they are working with.

     The results of this can be disastrous in any school, but they 
With A Brooklyn Accent: Teach for America Is As Toxic Pedagogically As It Is Politically:
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Subscribe to Hoosier School Heist TV - YouTube

Hoosier School Heist TV - YouTube:

Subscribe to Hoosier School Heist TV - YouTube




Hoosier School Heist TV is Doug Martin's channel featuring videos of his book tour across Indiana speaking on the corporate takeover of public education. Order Hoosier School Heist at http://hoosierschoolheist.com/.
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