This Week In Education: Reform: The Problem With "Parents Across America"

This Week In Education: Reform: The Problem With "Parents Across America":

Bruno: A Partial Defense Of Parents Across America

by Paul Bruno

About Alexander's post on Parents Across America, I find myself liking it more than agreeing with it.
On the one hand, while my experience with PAA is pretty limited, at least some of its members seem perfectly willing to question the legitimacy of their opponents based on the interests they appear (or are assumed) to represent.
The tendency of at least some PAA members to operate that way is annoying exactly because it's so fallacious. I take some pleasure, then, in watching Alexander turn that same hypercritical, guilt-by-affiliation lens back on them. 
At the same time, while Alexander was criticizing PAA in roughly the same way they can criticize others, the fact is that PAA shouldn't be making those attacks in the first place and I don't think anything is gained by sinking to that level.
Alexander's argument boils down to the fact that "PAA is mostly not from the low-income minority communities or the dysfunctional schools that are the the focus of so much reform attention," so "it's not at all clear that have

Update: A Young Reformer Loses Faith, Returns To Teaching

by Alexander Russo

It's been a tough secret to keep but the news is finally out -- Seth (Chicago School Wonks) Lavin -- the guy who figured out who the real @mayoremanuel was last spring during his 2nd year as a TFA teacher -- is going back into the classroom in the fall, and shutting down his year-old weekly email newsletter as of this past Friday.
As Lavin explains in his "so long" email (below), it's been an eye-opening year for the former consultant during his year of writing (during which he was out of education). The experience hasn't wrung all optimism out of him, but it's certainly been confusing and disappointing: "Now, after a disastrous year of clumsiness, spin and buffoonery, it frightens me how intractably I’ve come to mistrust Brizard and this entire first attempt at Rahm-style Chicago school reform."
Speaking for myself, it's been a pleasure to get to know Lavin a little bit and to read his work and follow his thinking as it has evolved. I haven't agreed

AM News: Obama Moves On Immigration, Lags On Dropouts

by Victoria Pang

Obama's Immigration Decision Has Impact at College Level HuffPostEdu: Obama’s historic announcement on Friday has far-reaching implications for upwards of 800,000 undocumented immigrants, but what does it mean for college students specifically?
Obama Proposal To Raise School Dropout Age Fall Flat AP: At least 13 states considered legislation this year to raise the age, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, although the bills weren't necessarily introduced in response to Obama.
Senate Appropriations Committee Adds School Improvement Option  Politics K-12: The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill 

90% of Chicago Teachers Vote to Strike If Contract Negotiations Break Down | K-12 News Network

90% of Chicago Teachers Vote to Strike If Contract Negotiations Break Down | K-12 News Network:

90% of Chicago Teachers Vote to Strike If Contract Negotiations Break Down

by admin

Via the Washington Post: as of June 11, 2012, ninety percent of the 26,000-plus teachers in the city of Chicago voted to strike if contract negotiations with the city fall apart. At issue are longer school days minus any corresponding increases in pay, and other disputes over class size, restoration of school libraries, art and music classes, and an end to chronic underfunding. A four percent pay raise was rescinded by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the name of budget cuts.
A fact-finding report from a neutral party is expected in July. The teacher vote now would simply authorize a fall strike if no satisfactory agreement can be made. (These discussions are occurring even as I blog this.)
What the Washington Post story neglects to mention is that the backdrop to parent and teacher unrest is, among other things, the damaging and destabilizing closure of seven schools and “turnaround” planned for ten more. In February of 2012, parents and teachers demonstrated their anger at the Chicago School Board’s decision.
A large number, if not all, of the schools scheduled for closure will re-open and become charter schools. The 

Shanker Blog » Louisiana's "School Performance Score" Doesn't Measure School Performance

Shanker Blog » Louisiana's "School Performance Score" Doesn't Measure School Performance:

Louisiana’s “School Performance Score” Doesn’t Measure School Performance

by Matthew Di Carlo

Louisiana’s “School Performance Score” (SPS) is the state’s primary accountability measure, and it determines whether schools are subject to high-stakes decisions, most notably state takeover. For elementary and middle schools, 90 percent of the SPS is based on testing outcomes. For secondary schools, it is 70 percent (and 30 percent graduation rates).*
The SPS is largely calculated using absolute performance measures – specifically, the proportion of students falling into the state’s cutpoint-based categories (e.g., advanced, mastery, basic, etc.). This means that it is mostly measuring student performance, rather than school performance. That is, insofar as the SPS only tells you how high students score on the test, rather than how much they have improved, schools serving more advantaged populations will tend to do better (since their students tend to perform well when they entered the school) while those in impoverished neighborhoods will tend to do worse (even those whose students have made the largest testing gains).
One rough way to assess this bias is to check the association between SPS and student characteristics, such as poverty. So let’s take a quick look.
The scatterplot below presents the relationship between schools’ SPS in 2011 and the percent of their students receiving subsidized lunch, an imperfect but for our purposes adequate proxy for student poverty.

There is a moderate-to-strong relationship between poverty and SPS (the correlation coefficient is 0.64). Virtually 

Mayors back parents seizing control of schools | Reuters

Mayors back parents seizing control of schools | Reuters:

Mayors back parents seizing control of schools

(Reuters) - Hundreds of mayors from across the United States this weekend called for new laws letting parents seize control of low-performing public schools and fire the teachers, oust the administrators or turn the schools over to private management.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, meeting in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday unanimously endorsed "parent trigger" laws aimed at bypassing elected school boards and giving parents at the worst public schools the opportunity to band together and force immediate change.

Such laws are fiercely opposed by teachers' unions, which stand to lose members in school takeovers. Union leaders say there is no proof such upheaval will improve learning. And they argue that public investment in struggling communities, rather than private management of struggling schools, is the key to boosting student achievement.

But in a sign of the unions' diminishing clout, their traditional political allies, 

KPBJ.COM | Education is the great equalizer, but is becoming the great separator | Business Daily | Don Brunell | KITSAP PENINSULA BUSINESS JOURNAL

KPBJ.COM | Education is the great equalizer, but is becoming the great separator | Business Daily | Don Brunell | KITSAP PENINSULA BUSINESS JOURNAL:

Education is the great equalizer, but is becoming the great separator

JUNE 18, 2012 @ 12:05AM | DON BRUNELL ~ Association of Washington Business

During his term as Washington’s governor, Gary Locke’s mantra was “education is the great equalizer.” Locke, now the U.S. Ambassador to China, was correct, but in our country, today education is becoming the great separator.

Here’s the problem.

First, far too many students drop out of high school — nearly 7,000 each day. That adds up to about 1.2 million students a year who don’t graduate with their peers.

The consequences are clear. Forbes reports that in 2009, the average high school dropout made $19,540 a year, 40 percent less than their classmates who graduate. The deficit continues into the workplace, where the 

Cognitive Dissidence: Walker's Fourth Attack On Educators

Cognitive Dissidence: Walker's Fourth Attack On Educators:

Walker's Fourth Attack On Educators

Scott Walker first launched his offensive against teachers, as well as other public service workers, by falsely maligning them and turning his base out to hate the very people they entrust their children to day in and day out.

Then Walker led his major offensive maneuver by dropping his "bomb" on educators by taking their civil rights of collective bargaining away and trying to bust their unions.

His third offensive tactic came when he revealed his budget which did 

California students’ improvement on AP exams deserves more attention | Thoughts on Public Education

California students’ improvement on AP exams deserves more attention | Thoughts on Public Education:

California students’ improvement on AP exams deserves more attention

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Posted on 6/18/12 • Categorized as 10.1Assessments, Achievement Gap

By Michael Kirst

There is some good news in California student achievement trends. High performers, as measured by passage of the Advanced Placement exam, are increasing, and rank very high in interstate comparisons.

AP is college level work in high school, and indicates that students attending California’s most selective colleges are better prepared than ever. This positive trend is obscured by national studies, like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), that donot focus on the highest achieving students when making interstate and racial/ethnic comparisons. In California, Hispanic growth in both taking and passing the AP exam is 

Daily Kos: Fifty Million

Daily Kos: Fifty Million:

Fifty Million

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

If you were at Netroots Nation, you heard Darcy Burner remind us that one in three woman in America will have an abortion at some point in their lives.  Given a population in excess of 300 million, half of which are female, that is something over fifty million.
You experienced her quietly asking women in the audience if they were comfortable to stand and acknowledge having had an abortion.    As Digby, John and Howie and the Leadership of Blue America put it in an email that went out yesterday, reflecting a post on their site,

One by one at first, and finally all at once, women throughout that huge crowd, in front of all their peers and friends, stood up. That's not an easy thing to do in this culture, even among friends. The right has made it a dishonorable, solitary act, borne in silence, subject to fear and social stigma.

But then Darcy did more.  Quoting again from the Blue America email,

she asked all of those who supported those women to stand up. Everyone in the room came to their feet. There was no sustained applause and no celebration, just a simple public acknowledgement of solidarity and sincere support for the women in all of our lives who have made this choice.

The meaning of this is simple, quoting again

This is the essence of leadership --- a candidate for office taking a stand on one of the most 

Diane Ravitch's blog 6-18

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Is Louisiana the Worst?

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 36 minutes ago

Louisiana is a very strong contender for the worst state in the nation in relation to its treatment of teachers, students, and public schools. Governor Bobby Jindal has been hailed by rightwing privatizers for his bold plan to dismantle public education. And indeed, his legislation established vouchers, charters, and a punitive regime for teachers. If [...]

New Jersey Has a Bad Idea

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 39 minutes ago

A reader sends this note, relevant today, but relevant beyond today. It is part of the rightwing assault on the teaching profession. The state gets to define “effective,” then can take the right to due process away from those who don’t meet the benchmarks arbitrarily created by the state, which is eager to fire teachers [...]

Is North Carolina the Worst?

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 hour ago

A reader writes from North Carolina, where far-right Republicans control state government and are more than willing to hand public schools over to the private sector to mine for profit: In North Carolina, the Republican dominated legislature lifted the cap on charter schools, provided a fast track approval process, and created a new certification board [...]

Is Michigan the Worst?

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 hour ago

In the ongoing effort to learn what is happening in the states under the guise of “reform,” here are reports from readers in Michigan: This is a pretty good list. Let me expand a bit: as with much of the country, we had a huge wave of victories by “tea party” backed candidates in the [...]

Washington State: So Far, OK.

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 hour ago

Readers of this blog are reporting on what is happening in their state, and the extent to which corporate reform has intruded into the schools. The toxic combination, when in full flower, consists of legislation to ban collective bargaining, so that there is no group strong enough to fight against budget cuts and anti-teacher legislation; [...]

Big Money Joins Chicago Fight

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 hour ago

Education Reform Now, a corporate reform group funded by Wall Street and other financial elites, is now involved in the Chicago teachers’ collective bargaining issues. ERN spent millions in New York state last year to attack teachers’ job protections. In the linked article, the group says it is not coordinating with the Mayor’s office, but [...]

Is It “Hysterical” to Worry about Those GSR Monitors?

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 hour ago

A reader, who is a professor of education, writes in response to the ongoing discussion on this blog of the galvanic skin response monitors: I encourage educators to be reflective practitoners, so I know that, to be authentic, it involves regular, honest, deep-seated self-inventories, and I appreciate those efforts. However, it’s an ongoing process and [...]

Is Wisconsin the Worst State?

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 hour ago

This response to my request for information suggests that Wisconsin has the worst, most anti-teacher, anti-public education reforms: Wisconsin. No more collective bargaining. A line in WI Act 10 that specifically states “No local agency or school board shall enter into any collective bargaining agreement…” So much for local control. After that was passed, Gov [...]

Which State Has the Worst Reforms?

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 1 hour ago

I asked readers to report on the destructive reforms imposed in their state. No one has tried to collect this information or to pull it all together into a national picture. Everyone seems to think that their own state is off on a binge of legislation that is anti-union, anti-teacher, and anti-public education. From what [...]

California Struggles to Recover

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 hours ago

California has cut billions of dollars from its education budget over the past decade. There are classrooms with more than 40 students, with many of them non-English-speaking. It is very hard to teach a large class when there are children who don’t understand the language of instruction and when the students no longer have needed [...]

When Does the Achievement Gap Start?

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 hours ago

We know the answer to that question. It doesn’t start in high school. It doesn’t start in middle school. It doesn’t start in elementary school. It starts before the first day of kindergarten. Yet our elites blame teachers for the very existence of the achievement gap. They think that teachers “cause” the gap. They think [...]

Calling Teachers of Special Education

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 hours ago

I am no expert in special education. I would like to get the views of experienced teachers about what is the best means of assessing the progress of students with disabilities. My assumption would be that the range of disabilities is so broad that one-size-fits-all will fit no one. My assumption is that students with [...]

Philadelphia Vs. Privatizers

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 2 hours ago

Philadelphia matters because it is a harbinger of privatization across the state of Pennsylvania. As the letter below notes, some 25 districts in the state would qualify as in need of dramatic action–i.e., privatization–under the terms of a bill now under consideration in the Legislature. This scenario reflects a process we have seen in other [...]

Is Hawaii the Worst State?

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 3 hours ago

This reader provides an overview of what is happening in Hawaii. Those of us who live on the East Coast don’t hear much about education developments in Hawaii, so this is fresh information. It sounds like Obama and Duncan have brought all the worst ideas of corporate reform to Hawaii, via Race to the Top. [...]

This Art Teacher Knows What to Do with Bubble Tests

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 19 hours ago

I have a visceral distaste for the very idea of measuring the arts with a standardized multiple-choice test. This strikes me the sort of technocratic thinking that is driving creativity and ingenuity underground and crushing it whenever it dares to appear in a schoolroom. We know that the only reason this idea is being considered [...]

Five Steps to Destroy Public Education

dianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 19 hours ago

An earlier post described the four-step polka in North Carolina enroute to destroying public education, demoralizing teachers, and enriching the private vendors. Here is a suggestion by another reader, who says it actually is a five-step process. 1. Under-fund/STARVE the schools financially 2. Overcrowd the classrooms, reduce programs, supplies 3. Fail the public school using [...]

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio

"I think people from Mexico are now going to feel, 'Hey come on in and we'll get by with it.' But it won't happen in this county. They will still be arrested." -- After arresting 6-year-old suspected illegal immigrant. 

 Diane Ravitch

Isn’t it strange that you never see a group like “Education Reform Now” or “Democrats for Education Reform” or “ConnCAN” or “50StateCANN” advocating for smaller classes or more librarians or a reversal of budget cuts. -- "Big Money Joins Chicago Fight" 

Gary Orfield

"If you have choice without civil rights policies, it stratifies the systems. People who have the most 

Pop quiz on standardized testing - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Pop quiz on standardized testing - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

Pop quiz on standardized testing

By Valerie Straussh

This was written by Lisa Guisbond, apolicy analyst with FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, in Jamaica Plain, Mass. FairTest is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the misuse of standardized tests. This quiz was first published in Education Week.

By Lisa Guisbond

You can practically hear the collective relief as school testing seasonwinds down across America. It’s not just the sighs of millions of overtested and stressed-out children. Joining them are state officials, school administrators, teachers, and parents. All, for varying reasons, are no doubt happy to close the door on a particularly disastrous season that included public uproar over a confusing reading test question and a scoring fiasco on the Florida writing exam.

Before we put away the No. 2 pencils, though, how about sharpening 

The technology mistake: Confusing access to information with becoming educated

by Valerie Strauss

This was written by Larry Cuban, a former high school social studies teacher (14 years, including seven at Cardozo and Roosevelt high schools in the District), district superintendent (seven years in Arlington, VA) and professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, where he has taught for more than 20 years. His latest book is “As Good As It Gets: What School Reform Brought to Austin.” This appeared on his blog.
Read full article >>

Seattle Schools Community Forum: What's Wrong with Proposed Policy 2200

Seattle Schools Community Forum: What's Wrong with Proposed Policy 2200:

What's Wrong with Proposed Policy 2200

by Charlie Mas

Every so often something comes along that exposes and epitomizes a wide range of problems. This week it is the proposed Policy 2200, Equitable Access to Programs and Services. This proposed revision to Board Policy C56.00 reveals and illustrates problems with the Board's procedures, the Board's practices, the staff, program placement, the allocation of authority, the factors that really drive decisions within Seattle Public Schools, and the whole concept of governance vs. management.

Where to begin?


The History
In 2006 Carla Santorno, the district's Chief Academic Officer under superintendent Raj Manhas, proposed splitting middle school APP between Washington and Hamilton. The APP community hated the idea but there was no resistance to it on the Board. The change was announced in December along with a number of other program placement changes for the coming year. The driving reason given for the split was overcrowding at Washington. District staff claimed that there was no room for neighborhood students at Washington as a result of the growth of APP there. Board Policy D12.00 precluded the creation of additional APP sites in the absence of 

NYC Educator: In a Hurry

NYC Educator: In a Hurry:

In a Hurry

by NYC Educator

This morning, I'm off to read 5 million papers. Our ESL department is going to read the papers of our ESL students. They are all taking the Regents exam, because NY State has decided, in its infinite wisdom, that there is no difference between kids who were born here, kids who have spoken English all their lives, and kids from other countries, who have spoken English only weeks or months.

It's important that we have a standardized test because teachers can't be trusted to construct their own. I, for example, would never exhibit the wisdom of NY State. I would test my kids on things like grammar and usage, the things that show up in their writing, the things they will be tested on when they enter college, and the things they will take no-credit remedial courses to correct. I'm thoroughly corrupt like that, teaching them what 

Jersey Jazzman: Chris Cerf Will Tell You What He Thinks You Need To Know!

Jersey Jazzman: Chris Cerf Will Tell You What He Thinks You Need To Know!:

Chris Cerf Will Tell You What He Thinks You Need To Know!

by Duke

If you blink, you'll miss it:

The entity that handles appeals of rejected requests for public information meets once a month in a first-floor office in Trenton. Windows offer a view of an atrium outside, but it's difficult — literally and otherwise — to look from the outside in. 

Called the Government Records Council, this agency adjudicates appeals from all levels of New Jersey government, from your school board on up to Christie's office. I reviewed its records, excluded obviously frivolous complaints, and found that under Christie, the GRC has ruled on 44 cases involving state departments. 

And all 44 times, the GRC sided with the Christie administration.

The GRC is supposed to have five members appointed by the governor, but Christie has left it with three for most of his term. There are now four, including a Christie campaign donor, Christie's education commissioner, and Christie's community affairs commissioner. [emphasis mine]

Wha, huh, wha!? The ACTING education commissioner - yes, he is unconfirmed - is determining whether or not 

An Open Thank You Letter to Teachers « Cooperative Catalyst

An Open Thank You Letter to Teachers « Cooperative Catalyst:

An Open Thank You Letter to Teachers

by zoeweil

I wanted to share my latest essay published at Common Dreams, a progressive news site. Here’s an excerpt from “An Open Thank You Letter to Teachers”:

“Dear Teachers,
Another school year is over, and there’s a good chance you haven’t been thanked for another year’s hard work. That might actually be quite an understatement. Not only may you have failed to receive real appreciation for your work, your salary and benefits may have been cut while your hours were increased. You may have had more students to teach and more requirements to fulfill. You may not even be sure you’ll be teaching next fall, depending upon budget cuts, even though you are a good and dedicated teacher.
… So if you haven’t received the thanks you deserve, I want to thank you publicly now. And by “you” I mean those teachers who love to teach and do so with all their heart and soul to provide their students with what is important and necessary and inspiring and beautiful and meaningful and true and good and honest. I mean those teachers who care about kids and empower them and ignite their passions and help them achieve their big dreams. I mean those teachers who demand that their students question everything, including what they themselves teach, to ensure that they 

AN ANALYSIS OF THE 2012-13 JOBS AND SERVICES RESTORATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN LAUSD AND UTLA By Dr. John Fernandez - Perdaily.com

AN ANALYSIS OF THE 2012-13 JOBS AND SERVICES RESTORATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN LAUSD AND UTLA By Dr. John Fernandez - Perdaily.com:

AGREEMENT BETWEEN LAUSD AND UTLA By Dr. John Fernandez

by Leonard Isenberg

Not only is the Agreement misleading, tentative, and conditional, the Agreement fails to support the claim that 4,149 jobs will be restored and does not give an exact number of all pending Reduction in Forces (RIFS) and job loses that will take place after June 30, 2012. For instance on page 4 of the Agreement, Section 5a, the subheading states: "TotalEstimated FTE Position Restorations is 4,149." Thus, the 4,149 is an estimate and not an absolute number.

However, in UTLA's official Summary of the 2012-13 Jobs & Services Restoration Agreement, under subheading "RESTORATION OF JOBS", it states:  "Under this agreement, 4,149 full-time equivalent positions will be restored." This statement by UTLA is totally false and misleading.

These are the following Program Restorations and their corresponding FTE positions taken from the Agreement:

Restore K-3 Class Size to current Level--1,583

Restore Grades 4-6 Class Size to