Why did retired teacher Roberta Rebb die the Sunday before Christmas? | Reclaim Reform

Why did retired teacher Roberta Rebb die the Sunday before Christmas? | Reclaim Reform:

Why did retired teacher Roberta Rebb die the Sunday before Christmas? 

Roberta Rebb was a genuinely good person and an excellent teacher who had taken early retirement for health reasons. Most people ask how old she was or what disease she died from. It is most important in Roberta’s life to ask why she died on the Sunday before Christmas.

I blogged one of my friend Roberta’s emails to me with her permission while withholding her name at her request. It seems reasonable now to re-post her email and my blog to allow us all to see what the assault against retired teachers, and so many other victims of political crimes, have caused or worsened. Roberta simply tells the truth about what she was subjected to.

(Friends and fellow bloggers have filled in even more details about Roberta. From Fred Klonsky. From Glen Brown with a comment by John Dillon.)

Below is Roberta’s email and my commentary from October 25, 2015. You decide why Roberta died specifically on the Sunday before Christmas.

Dear Friends,

I just wanted you all to know how [IL Gov. Bruce] Rauner’s unconstitutional act of not providing a signed budget has affected me at my most vulnerable.   As you all know, my cancer returned this past summer and I am forced to undergo more chemotherapy which is an exhausting ordeal.  I was informed this week that my doctor could no longer treat me, despite my paying my premiums and Cigna approving 100% payment the State of Illinois could no longer make payments and has informed my doctor’s office that it would take over a year to process his invoices.  I will now have to drive 37 miles one way for treatment at Rush University which is still accepting my insurance.  With winter approaching and the exhaustion following the treatments, I will have to once again impose on friends or The American Cancer Society to get me to Chicago and back home again.

Something needs to be done about a governor holding the legislature and its citizens hostage so that he can destroy collective bargaining rights and tromp on workers’ rights.  I thank you all for your continued advocacy and willingness to fight for those of us who cannot do so.

With gratitude,
(Name withheld by request) [Roberta Rebb]

Because of a political power battle between Gov. Rauner (R) and 30+ year Speaker of the House Madigan (D), the state is not paying its bills and has no signed budget. The Why did retired teacher Roberta Rebb die the Sunday before Christmas? | Reclaim Reform:

NYC Public School Parents: Part III: Highlight's from NYSED's FOILed emails about inBloom in 2012

NYC Public School Parents: Part III: Highlight's from NYSED's FOILed emails about inBloom in 2012:

Part III: Highlight's from NYSED's FOILed emails about inBloom in 2012

NYSED's emails to the Gates Foundation about inBloom and Wireless Generation from 2012 are below; highlights include a dinner party at Merryl Tisch's home, to which Commissioner King invitesan array of corporate reform leaders -- to the dismay of  Joe Scantlebury of the Gates Foundation.  Also amusing is their account when I crashed a Gates-sponsored " SLC Learning Camp" designed to lure software developers into designing products to take advantage of the wealth of personal student data to be gathered and shared by inBloom.  You can also check outPart I and Part II for more background on this FOIL and excerpts from 2011. 

1/6/12: Sandeep Chellani of NYC DOE warns Asst. Commissioner Ken Wagner and Doug Jaffe of the Regents Research Fund that the NYC Comptroller John Liu is about to reject the DOE’s renewal of its contract with Wireless for the DOE data system known as ARIS.  “This information will likely … create challenges for us pushing this through.  As this might have down streams [sic] effects on your work we wanted to give you a heads up…” 

NYC Comptroller John Liu

This rejection is announced ten days later, on Jan. 16, 2012.  According to the NYC Comptroller, the DOE re-assigned the last month of the expiring five-year, $83 million contract from IBM to Wireless, which then allowed them to give Wireless two more years without undergoing competitive bidding.  “Under that move, Klein’s company’s inherits IBM’s option to a two-year renewal.” 

Susan Lerner of Common Cause comments: “This definitely has the appearance of an arrangement to avoid proper scrutiny and public oversight…In this time of budget shortfalls and economic challenge, we need greater transparency and scrupulous competitive bidding to ensure the public is receiving the greatest benefit from these large highly specialized contracts.” 

Yet the rejection only delays the awarding of the contract but doesn’t stop it – as unlike the State Comptroller's cancellation of the NYSED's Wireless contract, the NYC Comptroller doesn’t have the authority to cancel DOE contracts, just delay them.  

1/10/12: Rachel Monahan writes in the Daily News that the earlier State Comptroller’s rejection of NYSED’s Wireless contract may endanger their $700M Race to the Top grant, since it could delay the data tracking of student performance. “New York . . . has recently hit a roadblock that not only impedes Race to the Top but could threaten other key reform initiatives as well,” said US Education Secretary Arne Duncan.”

An email follows from Joan Lebow of Wireless to Tom Dunn and Dennis Tompkins of NYSED:  “Did you guys see Rachel’s latest story?  Do you have a PR contact in Duncan’s office?  Her lead is the most absurd A equal C stretch of fiction.“  Yet later, when opposition to inBloom intensified, Ken Wagner NYSEDNYC Public School Parents: Part III: Highlight's from NYSED's FOILed emails about inBloom in 2012:

The charter school shell game in Washington State: Money laundering at its best (or worst?) by way of OSPI | Seattle Education

The charter school shell game in Washington State: Money laundering at its best (or worst?) by way of OSPI | Seattle Education:

The charter school shell game in Washington State: Money laundering at its best (or worst?) by way of OSPI

If you haven’t been keeping up with the fight over charter schools in our state, for now just know that the Washington State Supreme Court recently ruled that charter schools are not common schools and therefore unconstitutional and cannot receive public money.

With so much money spent on preparing for charter schools in our state with funding from Bill Gates through orgs such as LEV and SFC and through political donations, and the money to be made by charter school franchises, Teach for America, Inc. and online learning corporations, the fight is still on in our state but now the deals are being made behind the scenes and under the table in a way that looks, sounds and smells like contempt of court to me.

Honestly, if Bill Gates wants to determine the fate of our schools, he should simply run for State Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). It would be far more democratic than providing OSPI with over $42M since 2009 and strong-arming OSPI into doing Bill’s bidding.

So let’s get to the deets.

OSPI, with lame duck State Superintendent Randy Dorn at the helm, has been receiving millions from Gates for the last six years.  It is questionable whether a state office can legally or ethically receive private money but that’s worthy of another investigation and The charter school shell game in Washington State: Money laundering at its best (or worst?) by way of OSPI | Seattle Education:

Here Comes the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss | Diane Ravitch's blog

Here Comes the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Here Comes the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

Valerie Strauss has a good column introducing you to the new Acting Secretary of Education John King. Why will he be “acting”? Apparently there is some concern that, in light of his controversial tenure as state commissioner in New York, he might not be confirmed. Maybe busloads of angry parents will arrive from New York to testify against him. Whatever.

As you will see, John King as an impressive resumé. He earned both a law degree from Harvard and a doctorate from Teachers College at the same time! The resumé doesn’t mention that King was one of the leaders of the Uncommon Schools network, which is an unusually harsh “no-excuses” charter chain. Not long ago, his school had the highest suspension rate in the state of Massachusetts.

You will also read that he managed to alienate many parents in New York and was probably the spark plug for the Opt Out movement. He Here Comes the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss | Diane Ravitch's blog:

What’s with the Foundations? | Save Maine Schools

What’s with the Foundations? | Save Maine Schools:

What’s with the Foundations?

Last spring, one of our state education officials explained to me in an email that our one-of-a-kind proficiency-based diploma mandate was critical for producing the types of graduates that businesses in Maine are desperate to find.

“My friend at Texas Instruments tells me that he has over 120 openings that they simply cannot fill,” he wrote to me.

This struck me as odd, because when we first moved to Maine, my husband – who has a computer science degree – had a difficult time finding a decent paying job. I had done a bunch of job searching for him, and never once saw that many openings for any company in Maine.

And so I looked it up to confirm. Sure enough, Texas Instruments had only two job openings posted – and one was for an unpaid internship.

“You might want to tell your friend that a good way to fill job openings is to actually advertise them,” I wrote back.

The myth of the useless high school diploma, of course, is the latest story being spun by corporate reformers, as they seek to remake our system into one based on the purported needs of the workforce. Out with grade-level cohorts led by experienced educators, they demand, and in with ill-defined “competencies,” online learning, digital badges, and growth-trajectories with big-red warning systems for students who fall off track.

There are a lot of things that disturb me about all of this, but one of the things that me troubles me the most is how orchestrated it all appears to be.

In response to my snarky reply, our state education official sent me a link to a document from Georgetown University’s Center on What’s with the Foundations? | Save Maine Schools:

Gadfly’s Choice – Top 5 Blogs (By Me) You May Have Missed from 2015 | gadflyonthewallblog

Gadfly’s Choice – Top 5 Blogs (By Me) You May Have Missed from 2015 | gadflyonthewallblog:

Gadfly’s Choice – Top 5 Blogs (By Me) You May Have Missed from 2015

There are an awful lot of great blogs out there.

Especially if you’re into education. But many are telling the same story.

You don’t hear much about it in the mass media, yet our public schools are being systematically starved to death. They’re being set up to fail while the vultures of privatization and free enterprise drool over the corpse.

Phony philanthropists offer schools fake donations with more strings attached than Pinocchio and noses twice as long. To secure these financial “gifts,” schools are forced to pay out more than they receive for reforms that ultimately benefit the benefactor more than the beneficiary.

And even when these philanthro-capitalists are absent, our government is pretending to hold schools accountable by forcing them to enact these sameunproven, disproven or counter-factual policies that actually make things worse. Then when these schemes fail, lawmakers use that as a justification to close schoolsand gift them to for-profit companies who squeeze every ounce of profit they can from what’s left while further cheating students out of resources.

It’s a scam, a heist, a racket – and you’re paying for it with your tax dollars.

But if you’ve been reading the plethora of excellent edu-blogs out there, you already know this.

Who writes about this public school shakedown? Often it’s the same teachers, parents, professors and bonafide education experts whom policymakers haveexcluded from the conversation.

As a public school teacher, myself, with more than a decade in the classroom, a masters degree and a national board certification, my empiricism and experience is not valued. So like many folks burdened with real-world knowledge, I write a blog.

In only a year and a half, I’ve had more than 487,000 hits and 9, 208 followers. In my last post I listed my 10 most popular articles from 2015.

Today I propose to continue a tradition I stole from fellow blogger Russ Walsh. I Gadfly’s Choice – Top 5 Blogs (By Me) You May Have Missed from 2015 | gadflyonthewallblog:

Merit pay could go down in flames | www.myajc.com

Merit pay could go down in flames | www.myajc.com:

Merit pay could go down in flames

Gov. Nathan Deal’s merit pay proposal for teachers runs the risk of becoming the hoverboard of education, a smooth way to advance our goals but apt to explode from poorly made parts.

The incendiary issue will dominate the opening of the Legislature next week, according to House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge. Meeting with wary teachers in his home ground of Fannin and Gilmer counties over the last few weeks, Ralston said Georgia is not ready to roll out a fair and equitable pay for performance model.

“The case has not been made to me for merit-based pay,” he said. “I’m troubled by how you quantify and measure and get to the point that the concept wants to get at. And I am hearing this is going to have some impact on recruiting teachers.”

Ralston relayed how a veteran teacher who hoped her child would one day follow in her footsteps told him her “daughter has now quit talking about wanting to be a teacher and she’s quit wanting her to be a teacher.”

Gov. Deal plans to push for pay for performance as part of a broad package of education reforms that also features a new funding formula. Deal’s conviction that student academic performance should influence teacher pay is shared by the Obama administration and outgoing U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who tied test scores to teacher evaluations in their Race to the Top grants, from which Georgia received $400 million.

Merit pay counts as one of those education ideas — and there are many — that sound perfectly reasonable until field tested. Not long ago, bonuses were touted as an incentive to push teachers to higher levels of instruction. But a RAND study out of New York and a National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University suggested many teachers were already running as fast as they could and bonuses made no impact on student achievement.

Nor is merit pay a new concept. Donald Gratz, author of “The Peril and Promise of Performance Pay,” quotes a 1907 lament from Merit pay could go down in flames | www.myajc.com:

CURMUDGUCATION: How SAT Saves Market Share

CURMUDGUCATION: How SAT Saves Market Share:

How SAT Saves Market Share

The College Board, manufacturers and sellers of the SAT "suite" of tests as well as AP materials, has been struggling to regain share of the lucrative college gateway test market.

Not that they're hurting. When the company brought in Gasper Caperton to help solve some cash flow issues, he announced that he didn't want to run just "a testing company." Caperton boosted fees, increased market by (among other things) getting states to punch PSAT tickets for students, and selling student information to colleges. Revenue reports for the non-profit College Board run from "$500 million to $1 billion" The College Board's Form 990 from 2013 shows total revenue of $840,672,990 with a whopping $98,894,865 left over after expenses.

The College Board is a non-profit, which means it doesn't have to share any of that $100 million profit with shareholders or owners. When Caperton left, he was making more than the head of Harvard, more than the head of the American Red Cross. Nineteen other executives were making over $300K. David Coleman, in his first full year of head honchoship after being hired mid-2012,received a full $734,192 in compensation.

Meanwhile, the SAT is battling for market share with ACT. Part of that battle has involved a CURMUDGUCATION: How SAT Saves Market Share:

What Are John King's Edu-Predictions for 2016? - Politics K-12 - Education Week

What Are John King's Edu-Predictions for 2016? - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

What Are John King's Edu-Predictions for 2016?

Happy 2016! And just in time for the new year, we have a brand new (acting) education secretary: John King. So what is he predicting will happen over the next 12 months?

Here's a run down: 

More than 20 states will increase spending for high-quality preschool. That could be accomplished through the continuation of the preschool development grant program in the newest iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. (Which, incidentally, scraps some of the quality requirements of the previous version of the program, including a requirement that preschool teachers have bachelors' degrees, according to my colleague Christina Samuels of Early Years fame.)

Ten million more students will have high-speed Internet access. (Sounds like King has high hopes for the administration's revamp of the e-rate program, ConnectED.)

America's high school graduation rate will set a record—again. High school graduation rates—a lagging indicator of student achievement—have been rising steadily for years. But scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress actually fell last year, for the first time in more than two decades.

One hundred more colleges will implement innovative approaches to help students—especially those who are most vulnerable—complete their postsecondary education. That was a key goal of the administration's "First in the World" fund, a sort of Investing in Innovation grant program for colleges that was zeroed out in this year's budget. 

One million more users will access the College Scorecard. The scorecard was something the department settled on to help students garner information about different colleges, after it abandoned a full-fledged college ratings plan opposed by many in academia.

Fun fact: King's list is pretty similar to what Arne Duncan predicted for 2015. In fact, some items are identical. And Duncan was indeed right on some things—we did have another record high graduation rate.

Others are more of a mixed bag; while some states may have increased spending on early-childhood programs, the majority still don't provide as much money for K-12 as they did before the recession hit in 2008, according to this recent report.

Not on King's list? Any predictions about how implementation of the new Every Student Succeeds Act will go or (understandably) who will win the presidential election, and who they'll put at the helm at the U.S. Department of Education. What Are John King's Edu-Predictions for 2016? - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

What Arne Duncan Didn’t Do for Special Education

What Arne Duncan Didn’t Do for Special Education:

What Arne Duncan Didn’t Do for Special Education

So the tree is down and the egg nog is drunk and Arne is leaving. Everyone is sharing their parting thoughts, so I thought I would address Arne’s big moments with special education.

Arne’s Letter to Parents

Perhaps the place to start is the letter Duncan sent in 2010, making it sound like he understood parents and their needs when it came to their students with disabilities. I think it is interesting and especially disingenuous that he begins by saying, We need to move beyond the bubble tests. And we need to better support our teachers. To build a first-rate accountability system, states have to significantly improve existing assessments used to measure our students’ growth and move beyond fill-in-the bubble tests.

We need to ask ourselves where we wound up with that. The answer is, there is more of a focus on testing students with special needs with bubble tests than ever before! And about that support for teachers…HERE is the recent NPR report.

Arne Wants Proof Students with Disabilities are Achieving

Big news came June 24, 2014, when Duncan, who never taught as a real teacher a day What Arne Duncan Didn’t Do for Special Education:

CURMUDGUCATION: Gates Odd Good News

CURMUDGUCATION: Gates Odd Good News:

Gates Odd Good News

Back in mid-December, Bill Gates blogged about the top six good news stories of 2015. It's a fair enough list except for one notable and head-scratching inclusion.

Items on the list include:

* Africa went a year without a single polio case.
* Neil deGrasse Tyson won an award and made a bad-ass short speech in support of science
* The Nobel Prize went to developers of a cure for a widespread disease for the poor
* Mobile banking did really well in Kenya
* Rubella appears to have been wiped out in the Americas

And those are all pretty good news stories, even if they aren't particularly sexy or mainstream media-ready. But the list also includes this item (at spot #4)

* Khan Academy offers free SAT prep

First of all, unless you have access to a free computer with free internet connections, the Khan Academy materials are not "free."

Second, I have even better news-- nobody needs to take the damn SAT in the first place! The SAT test is a product produced by a for-profit corporation; why Gates wants to include a advertisement for that company in the midst of his "good news" is a puzzler. Not only that, but it is the number two product of its type, in the midst of a redesign to claw back some market share from the ACT.

There are so many odd assumptions buried here, not the least of which is the idea that everyone should go to college and everyone needs to take the SAT to get there.

But more significant is the repeat of the notion that the only reason that socio-economic status CURMUDGUCATION: Gates Odd Good News:


 Simple Sabotage (h/t CIA)

In the 1940's the Office of Strategic Services was the US precursor to the CIA, collecting information and taking covert action in support of US interests overseas.

Well, now you, too, can enjoy the secrets of subterfuge by perusing the 1944 OSS classic, Simple Sabotage Field Manual. I am not making this up. Last year the CIA de-classified the manual, and you can now give it a read. It's actually a brief thirty-four pamphlet-sized pages, and while I've read it, you may well want to take a look. Does it have applications in the education world? Oh, my. Yes.

First, what audience was such a manual designed for?

Sabotage varies from highly technical coup de main acts that require detailed planning and the use of specially-trained operatives, to innumerable simple acts which the ordinary individual citizen-saboteur can perform. This paper is primarily concerned with the latter type.

No special equipment is involved; no high risk is faced. Just simple things you can do to screw up an enterprise with ordinary tools you'll find lying around the house.

The manual contains some words about motivating the civilian saboteur-- making him feel he's part of a larger cause, fighting destructive foes. But then we get to the fun-- the specific techniques.

The most simple principle is reversing thinking-- you can screw up an enterprise just by being lazy and careless. Let your tools get dull. Make dumb mistakes at work.  "Frequently you can 'get away' with such acts under the cover of pretending stupidity, ignorance, over-caution, fear of being  Simple Sabotage (h/t CIA)


ICYMI: Big List for the New Year!

Must be the holidays-- either I was reading more or people were writing more. But the list of must-reads this week is long.

In America, Only the Rich Can Afford To Write about Poverty

This came out back in August, but this Guardian piece by Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickled and Dimed) reflecting on how most writing about poverty is done by people who are anything but poor-- this is well worth the read.

The Inside Story on What Really Caused the Occupy Wall Streer Movement To Collapse

Another non-education piece, but in the process of talking about the meltdown of the Occupy movement by an insider, this has much to say about how movements can lose their way,

The Martian Allegory of Whose Lives Matter

Paul Thomas's brain lives at he intersection of deep thinking and pop culture, and consequently he produces pieces that nobody else can. Here he takes a look at The Martian and what it tells us about just who is worth time, effort and expense to save.

Staring Down Goliath

Super profile of Justin Oakley, the Just Let Me Teach wristbands, and his new message to teachers-- Vote. Or. Die.


Gross National Happiness

From the Teacher Tom blog-- a look at other ways of measuring the success of children.

Students, Not Standards in 2016

Yes, Paul Thomas again, this time remembering an influential teacher in his own life, and reminding us where the focus should be in a classroom.

Look Out 2016 

At educarenow, Bill Boyle takes a look at the language of deficit and how a few simple word choices signal a serious problem in approaching the "problems" of schools.

Um-- There Are These Kids We Call Students

Ah, a rant after my own heart. Blue Cereal Education rips reformers about the use of students as passive props in their reformy melodrama.

 Of course, the end of the year is always a time for listicles. Consider this top post list from the always-essential Jose Luis Vilson or this list of book recommendations from Russ Walsh or check out Nancy Bailey's list of good news from 2015 and even Rick Hess's tongue-in-cheek list of 2016 news stories.

And finally, here's Valerie Strauss and Carol Burris's primer on why nobody is exactly excited about having John King as Acting Pretend Secretary of Education.

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Flawed Logic of Testing as a Strategy to Reduce Inequality

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Flawed Logic of Testing as a Strategy to Reduce Inequality:

The Flawed Logic of Testing as a Strategy to Reduce Inequality

Anyone who studies economic data, or carefully examines social conditions in low and moderate income neighborhoods knows that families are under extreme stress. As wages remain stagnant, as jobs with security and benefits disappear, and as larger and larger portions of the adult population remain out of the labor force, more and more American children are living in stressful circumstances. A growing number are homeless or in foster care, but a much larger number are part of families that are doubled and tripled up or are forced to take in borders to pay the rent. Such conditions in the worst instance lead to physical and sexual abuse, but more often result in sleep deprivation, anxiety, and stress related disorders.

Given these conditions, what young people most need is schools which provide them with stability, security, nurturing, strong relationships with teachers, access to counseling and ample opportunities for exercise, and self expression.

What they are getting instead, especially in high poverty neighborhoods, is schools which are tense and stress filled as a result of relentless testing and test based accountability, which makes teachers and administrators fear for their jobs and students feel that their performance on tests is the only thing that matters.

A more ill considered and destructive strategy in current economic conditions could not be imagined

We are putting intolerable pressure on young people who already live with far more pressure than they should.

This is inhumane. This is wrong. This is profoundly destructive.

We need to change course, and fast. Parents, students, teachers. Stop the testing machine. Now.

With A Brooklyn Accent: The Flawed Logic of Testing as a Strategy to Reduce Inequality:

Why Are IEPs So Expensive and Frustrating for Schools and Special Education Students and Their Parents? - The Atlantic

Why Are IEPs So Expensive and Frustrating for Schools and Special Education Students and Their Parents? - The Atlantic:

The Special-Education Charade

Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, are one of the greatest pitfalls of the country’s school system.

I am in hell—or its equivalent. Specifically, I am in an IEP (Individual Educational Plan) meeting for my 14-year-old daughter, a special-education student in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Sitting across from me is an educator who is describing one option that she says would be a great place for my daughter to attend ninth grade: a program at one of the county’s lower-performing public high schools for adolescents who have emotional disabilities or autism. (My daughter has ADHD, an auditory processing disorder, and some major anxiety issues, but she does not have autism and does not qualify as “emotionally disabled.”) Another option is a school for kids with language-based learning disorders. My daughter’s reading comprehension and vocabulary skills are ranked as “very superior,” according to the county’s own psychological testing; her learning issues center on math.

All this leaves us one more option: a school in Baltimore for college-bound kids with a variety of learning disabilities. That could be a possibility—but today is July 7. School starts in six weeks. Even if all the paperwork gets processed this week—and often this kind of thing takes a month or more, because there are so many special-education kids and so few special-education caseworkers—my husband and I would still be making the momentous choice of where to send our daughter to high school under deadline pressure, without the benefit of visiting the school when its students were actually there. School visits should have happened last spring, except there was a mixup with her paperwork, and these bureaucratic mistakes can take forever to rectify. But playing the blame game at this point just uses up time, which is what we don’t have. So here I sit, stifling my mounting rage Why Are IEPs So Expensive and Frustrating for Schools and Special Education Students and Their Parents? - The Atlantic:

December 2015 Is Gone, and So Is Arne Duncan– But USDOE Nonsense Remains | deutsch29

December 2015 Is Gone, and So Is Arne Duncan– But USDOE Nonsense Remains | deutsch29:

December 2015 Is Gone, and So Is Arne Duncan– But USDOE Nonsense Remains

December 2015 is gone, and so is US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, whoannounced in October that he would be leaving DC in December.

In this January 02, 2016, NBC “Meet the Press” article, President Obama offers an unsubstantiated statement in an effort to portray Duncan’s tenure in Washington, DC, as successful:

“Arne has dedicated his life to the cause of education — and sometimes in the nicest possible way, he has gotten on people’s nerves because he has pushed them and prodded them,” Obama said at the signing of the Every Student Succeeds Act.

“Had he not been, I believe, as tenacious as he was, I think that we would not have as good of a product as we do here today. And so I could not be prouder of Arne Duncan,” the president added.

I wonder exactly what that “as good of a product” is. Obama isn’t offering details.

The NBC article is generous in its assessment (funny word choice) of Duncan’s accomplishments. For example, NBC credits Duncan with “helping convince” states to adopt the Common Core State Standards (CCSS):

Duncan helped convince 42 states to adopt education goals based on the Common Core, and 21 of them to use tests that directly align with those standards, which were created by a bi-partisan group and attempt to both make U.S. schools more challenging and the curriculum more similar from state-to-state.

Recall that CCSS was supposedly “state led.” Too, the wording that CCSS was an “attempt” to make schools more challenging is wording polished to a glossy sheen given the rush to write and implement CCSS before America knew what had hit it.

And let me add a corrective finger wag to NBC– CCSS isn’t supposed to be acurriculum— even though taking hold of standards on one end and assessments on the other will indeed drive the curriculum in the middle.

Arne was just “helping” with all of this.

Note, however, that the CCSS push was in the works before Duncan arrived in 2009 December 2015 Is Gone, and So Is Arne Duncan– But USDOE Nonsense Remains | deutsch29:

American Press - Edwards' willingness to listen on ed issues a start

American Press - Opinion:

Edwards' willingness to listen on ed issues a start

Gov. Bobby Jindal has spent his eight years as the leader of Louisiana first fighting for its people and then seemingly forgetting about them.

But as his days wind down, the former presidential candidate seems to have one pet project he wants to see continue.

On Jan. 11 governor-elect John Bel Edwards will take office and the democrat is expected to make changes all over the place. One of those areas he has talked about changing is in the field of education.

Jindal hopes that his successor takes a good, long look at one of his favorites, that of student vouchers.

Vouchers allow low-income students who attend troubled public schools to qualify for state aid so they can attend private schools.

It seems like a good idea, helping those in need get the best opportunities to help themselves.

Jindal, a republican, has asked Edwards, a known critic of vouchers, to at least meet with some of the families that have benefited from the program before making any decision.

To his credit, Edwards has said he would do so. He has also said he does not want to scrap the program but wants to make sure it goes to low-income students who are at failing schools.

The voucher program in the state started in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. It has since expanded to the rest of Louisiana.

We credit our governor for doing the odd request, showing that he is still concerned about the future of our state.

We also credit Edwards for being open to meeting with the parents and families of those who the system has helped. Their stories put faces to what has been used as a political football.

No matter what side of the debate you are on, listening to the people should be something our politicians do before they make any major decision.

While we know the program is costly, and the state is far from in great economic shape, we still believe that giving as many children the opportunity at a bright future through education is perhaps the most important thing our leaders can do.

Far too often they have made poor political decisions in such issues, selecting votes over what can help the most people.

Opponents of the voucher system say they are a drain on the state’s budget and have failed to deliver on what was promised.

What we do ask is that state officials make sure the voucher system is used to benefit the students who need them the most. It is up to those officials to make sure they are used the right way.

But one thing continues to trouble us: the way leaders use education for politics.

Louisiana still needs a lot of work when it comes to educating our children, and it would seem with a new administration this would be a good time for parties on both sides to come together and find a way to do what is best for our kids.

The fact that Edwards is at least willing to listen could be a good start.American Press - Opinion:

MaryEllen Elia plans to push school reforms despite teacher opposition - The Buffalo News

MaryEllen Elia plans to push school reforms despite teacher opposition - City & Region - The Buffalo News:
MaryEllen Elia plans to push school reforms despite teacher opposition 
Legislature, union stand in way of planned reforms

MaryEllen Elia, the state education commissioner, isn’t backing down on her insistence on education reforms including high standards and accountability.

And neither is Karen Magee, president of New York State United Teachers. She won her office on a promise to fight the education reforms coming out of Albany, like Elia’s.

Their commitment to these opposing views was evident during a panel discussion that has been airing on the state’s public television network as part of the Connect:NY series, which is focusing on the state’s top education issues. The show is also available online.

The discussion marks the two education leaders’ most extensive remarks following the state Board of Regents’ decision in mid-December to delay using standardized tests to evaluate teachers, and foreshadows what will likely be a continued debate about how – and whether – to reform New York’s school systems.

Whether the state takes a route somewhere in the middle of Elia’s and Magee’s drastically different views, or whether one view prevails, will become apparent in the coming months as the Legislature and policymakers grapple with these issues in Albany.

That means the decision on what New York’s new accountability system might look like doesn’t fall to Elia alone.

The continued battle over the Common Core will play out in a political environment where NYSUT continues to exercise significant influence. In recent years, the union has funneled millions of dollars into political campaigns to elect lawmakers most likely to support its agenda. Along with passing education law, those legislators also appoint members to the state Board of Regents, which drives policy decisions and hires the commissioner.

Last year, NYSUT’s growing influence in that process resulted in the ouster of former Regent Robert M. Bennett of Tonawanda, who was a strong supporter of high standards and school accountability.

Three other Regents’ terms are ending in 2016, and already two reform-oriented members – including Chancellor Merryl Tisch, who brought Elia to the job – have indicated they will not seek reappointment.

Whether Elia can advance a reform agenda is a major question going into the new year.

Although the governor and Board of Regents embraced the recommendation to delay using test scores to evaluate teachers until 2020, it is unclear whether that will require action by the State Legislature, which last year approved a law mandating that scores account for 50 percent of a teacher’s rating. Elia has said she believes the Board of Regents action will be sufficient.

Meanwhile, Elia cautions not to take the delay as any indication that she plans to abandon the Common Core standards. Rather, the commissioner acknowledges problems with how the standards were rolled out and said stakeholders need to have a conversation about what the standards mean for districts. Proponents of the standards have argued that there is a great deal of misinformation and confusion surrounding Common Core, largely because it was rolled out at the same time as new tests and a push for teacher evaluations.

New federal legislation still requires states to have standards and accompanying tests, although prior programs that encouraged states to embrace the Common Core standards no longer exist.

“I’m here as commissioner saying we’re going to do it,” Elia said.

“The tests are still in there, as is an accountability system,” she added. “The new law is putting it more in the states’ hands.”

Along with the statewide reforms, Elia remains intent on maintaining a new receivership law that allows a superintendent to make changes at certain schools without the approval of the MaryEllen Elia plans to push school reforms despite teacher opposition - City & Region - The Buffalo News: