Schools Matter: The Cucumber Austerity of Teaching: Merit Pay and Grapes

Schools Matter: The Cucumber Austerity of Teaching: Merit Pay and Grapes:

The Cucumber Austerity of Teaching: Merit Pay and Grapes

by P. L. Thomas

This isn't dystopian fiction, but it certainly could be.

Nancy Flanagan led (by way of Twitter) me and Jersey Jazzman to this wonderful and chilling video of monkeys confronting the concept of fairness:

2 Monkeys Were Paid Unequally; See What Happens Next

I agree with Jersey Jazzman that this video makes me think of how teachers are being treated under the Arne Duncan era of austerity in education, how Duncan/Obama have been pulled into the Gates cult of cannibalistic capitalism.

Now, back to the potential dytopian-fiction-as-reality:

The current "No Excuses" Reform exists within a worldview in which teachers are caged monkeys. Most teachers are the monkey on the viewer's left in the video, destined to hand back the stone we are issued, always 

MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 11-20-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Credit-Rating Agency: Charter Schools Are Risky Investment

by dianerav

Well, we are into big-time business talk about education.
For-profit colleges are losing market share.
K12 Inc.’s stock price drops after Wells Fargo downgraded its rating in response to the poor performance of K12′s Colorado Virtual Academy, where the graduation rate is 22 percent.
Now a rating agency finds that despite the passage of an ALEC-style amendment in Georgia, allowing a 

Democracy for Sale?

by dianerav

Somebody is dumping a lot of campaign cash into state and local races.
Michael Petrilli of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute is convinced that the teachers’ unions are the Evil Empire. He says that the unions play Goliath to the poor reformers’ puny David. He says the unions were responsible for the defeat of right-wing Education Idol Tony Bennett in Indiana and the decisive repeal of the Luna Laws in deep-red Idaho.
Wow, who knew the teachers’ unions were so strong in those two red states?
I will wait to hear from readers in those two states about whether their unions are so

Students Who Disgrace Themselves in Public

by dianerav

Students for Education Reform at New York University and Columbia University plan a march to demand that the New York City United Federation of Teachers and the Bloomberg administration reach an agreement on test-based teacher evaluation. These groups are off-shoots of Democrats for Education Reform, the group founded by Wall Street hedge fund managers, the guys with annual incomes in the multiple millions, most of whom went to elite private schools.
The members of SFER pay more in tuition each year than a typical teacher’s annual income. They are students at elite universities. They obviously do not know that testing experts have found the evaluation system called “value-added assessment” to be inaccurate and unstable.
Why are they pushing teachers to accept an invalid measure? Why are these students, many of whom went to 

Why Cheat When You Are Winning?

by dianerav

Newark’s Robert Treat Academy is under investigation for possible cheating on state tests.
This charter school has been highly praised by the media and politicians as “proof” that “poverty is not destiny.”
As Jersey Jazzman points out, and asBruce Baker has documented, the school stacks the deck by taking very small numbers of students with special needs, small proportions of English language learners, and smaller

EduShyster on the Michigan Plan to End Public Education As We Know It

by dianerav

Just to show that great minds think alike, here is EduShyster’s description of the Michigan plan to end public education as we know it.
The plan was designed by the deep thinkers at the free-market think tank called the Mackinac Center.
She calls it a reform “turducken,” which is one reform wrapped inside another, all of them together accomplishing 

For-Profit Colleges in Trouble

by dianerav

No tears from this corner for the for-profit sector in higher education.
It is losing market share and closing campuses as students figure out that the degree from a for-profit college is not entirely respectable.
John Hechinger again proves he is at the top of his game as an education writer.
He knows how to follow the money.
Remember the old days when

Michigan Plan to Dissolve School Districts

by dianerav

As readers of this blog know, Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan is determined to break up public education and encourage privatization as rapidly as possible.
He has been relying on a group called the “Oxford Foundation” to devise his plans. As we now know is customary among corporate reformers, the group is named deceptively. it has nothing to do with Oxford and it is not a foundation. while the website has a section about “transparency,” the website contains no names.
Transparency is for the little people.
This article in the Detroit Free Press identifies the leader of the “Oxford Foundation.” He is Richard McLellan, a 

The Real Story Behind the Bridgeport Election

by dianerav

The recent election in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was a major setback for corporate-style “reform” in that city.
The mayor launched a well-funded campaign to persuade voters to give up their democratic right to elect their school board and to give him control of the public schools.
Miraculously, despite his huge advantage in money and power, the mayor lost. The voters said no. Democracy 

That Teeny Tiny Number of Irreplaceables

by dianerav

Bruce Baker is one of my favorite bloggers. He is smart and irreverent. He is not awed by big names. He actually was a teacher before becoming a researcher. He has the technical skill to crack the statistical analyses that others generate to make spurious claims. Unlike many with the same skill set, he is willing to call a phony a phony. You might say he is our Premier C.D. (Since I have taken a personal pledge not to use vulgarisms on this blog, I will give you a clue to help you figure out what a C.D. is; it is a Cr-p Detector).
In this post, Bruce shows what nonsense The New Teacher Project report “The Irreplaceables” is.
TNTP, you may recall, was founded by either TFA or Michelle Rhee, depending on whom you heard from last. Its purpose was to stock urban districts with shiny new teachers (like TFA) to replace those burned-out veterans with low expectations. Although TNTP is an advocacy group that seeks and wins contracts from urban districts, 

Diane in the Evening 11-19-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: Help This Small Community By Signing Its Petition by dianerav The town of Scottsburg, Indiana, has fewer than 10,000 residents. There is a proposal before the City Council to open a charter school. This will split the town. Some public school parents have started a petition to ask the City Council and the Mayor not to open a charter Why Local School Boards Are Targeted for Destruction by dianerav A local school board in Florida rejected the application of a for-profit charter operator. The board said they had had a bad experience with the last charter scho... more »

Iowa’s Plan for Education Success–Assess, Assess, Assess | Truth in American Education

Iowa’s Plan for Education Success–Assess, Assess, Assess | Truth in American Education:

Iowa’s Plan for Education Success–Assess, Assess, Assess

by Shane Vander Hart

There is nothing earth shattering in the Iowa Department of Education’s latest report  entitled “Overcoming the Achievement Divide: Key Challenges and Solutions for Iowa Schools.”   It’s main goal is to address the news that Iowa is stagnant in seeing growth in math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).  They are using the following qualifiers for the selection of programs at the state level: “focused on instruction, proven effective and scalable.”  Based on that they are focusing on three clusters of activities to support improvement.

1. Teacher quality (“the who”): Focuses energy on ensuring that the best and brightest teaching candidates are recruited and supported, and ensuring that those who do enter the profession have the highest-quality learning experiences that result in highly skilled professionals.

Walker Implicated « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Walker Implicated « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Walker Implicated

by millerlf

Prosecutors: Walker county staff, guv campaign met regularly to ensure ‘good coordination’ 11/19/2012 Wispolitics.comMILWAUKEE — Prosecutors today said Scott Walker had regular meetings with his Milwaukee County staffers and his 2010 guv campaign to ensure there was “good coordination” between the two. Milwaukee County prosecutors made the disclosure during the sentencing of Kelly Rindfleisch, a former Walker county aide who reached a plea deal to settle charges against her stemming from the long-running John Doe probe. Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf said the group that met regularly included people from Walker’s

Beyond Bloomberg: On The 2013 Mayoral Candidate Forum on Education | The Jose Vilson

Beyond Bloomberg: On The 2013 Mayoral Candidate Forum on Education | The Jose Vilson:

Beyond Bloomberg: On The 2013 Mayoral Candidate Forum on Education

by Jose

Blackboard Awards on the 2013 Mayoral Candidate Forum on Education

Tonight, I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Blackboard Awards’ 2013 Mayoral Candidate Forum on Education at the Fordham Law School, moderated by Philissa Cramer of GothamSchools and Lindsey Christ of NY1, Time Warner Cable’s main New York City news station. Five out of the six main mayoral candidates (City Council Speaker of the House Christine Quinn, former city comptroller Bill Thompson, current city comptroller John C. Liu, media mogul Tom Allon, NYC public advocate Bill DiBlasio) showed up to this event. Even for someone with good knowledge of the candidates’ positions, the candidates had a few surprises up their sleeves, particularly Tom Allon, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
I’ll summarize what I got from each candidates’ positions on Christ’s and Cramer’s questions, and then give my 

Fiscal cliff, with federal cuts, not imminent for school districts | EdSource Today

Fiscal cliff, with federal cuts, not imminent for school districts | EdSource Today:

Fiscal cliff, with federal cuts, not imminent for school districts

November 20th, 2012 | Add a Comment | 
By John Fensterwald

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For California’s K-12 districts and federally funded preschools, the “fiscal cliff” that is now consuming politics in Washington is more like a distant canyon.

(Photo by Juan Pablo Garnham)

The abyss refers to an across-the-board 8.2 percent cut in federal discretionary spending, including defense, that will go into effect Jan. 3 if President Obama and congressional leaders don’t reach a deal on taxes and spending to reduce the federal debt by $1.2 trillion over the next decade. Federal student loans, most child nutrition programs and the Children’s Health Insurance Program would be exempt from cuts.

The full cuts to most education programs would be painful indeed if they were enacted: $334 million alone in Department of Education funding for California, plus $75 million less for Head Start and $19 million less in 

Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 11-19-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Nite Cap UPDATE

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

The first mayoral debate on education!

by Leonie Haimson

This afternoon, the first debate on education among the mayoral candidates took place, hosted by Manhattan Media.  The candidates included two Bills, one Tom, one John and one Christine, absent Scott Stringer, given his announcement today that he will run for City Comptroller instead. 

The consensus among most of the observers I talked to afterwards is that the candidates did not distinguish themselves much from one another  on the hot-button issues.  Also, despite the best efforts of the 

Study: More than half of LAUSD students overweight

by By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer

Fewer than half of the Los Angeles Unified students have a healthy body composition and one in three are considered at risk of future medical problems, according to a new state study.

Profiles in Courageousness Wins Prestigious Award

by Representative Kimble

It is an unprecedented feat for a member of Congress to write a book.  The daily grind of making the decisions of which bills to reject while keeping pledges to both the American people and to Grover Norquist don't allow a lot of time for writing.  That's why as a country we are very fortunate that Jack Kimble is a multi-tasker who took advantage of his limited down time and even more limited attention span to cobble together his memoirs into the book that would become known as Profiles in Courageousness.

Sales at Amazon have been brisk, but equally impressive has been the critical acclaim.  Today, Congressman Kimble can add award winner to his growing resume as a writer.  The Profiles in Courageousness Foundation 

Alliance for Education Strategic Plan

by Charlie Mas

"On a mission to ensure every child in Seattle Public Schools is prepared for success in college, career and life."

That's what is says at the top of the Alliance for Education home page. With that mission, the Alliance has no business with anything outside Seattle Public Schools. This includes private schools, schools in other districts, and, of course, any charter schools should they appear.

That mission statement is repeated on the web page for their Strategic Plan. C'mon. You had to know that they would have a strategic plan, didn't you? I suggest you read it. It is an illuminating document. This tells what the Alliance sees when it looks at itself in the mirror. It may be a different vision of what you and I see when we look at the Alliance.

The Alliance includes, among their internal strengths: "Convener of disparate voices" Yeah. Seriously. That 

No Child Left Behind Reauthorization Debate Likely To Continue In Obama Second Term

by Joy Resmovits

In 2008, Barack Obama campaigned on the promise that his administration would oversee the rewriting of the expired No Child Left Behind Act. But four years later, education experts and legislators don't see any end to the negotiations with and within Congress.

"The administration needs to figure out what they want," said Charles Barone, a drafter of the 2002 law who now serves as legislative director at Democrats for Education Reform. "They've been hedgy."

The sweeping No Child Left Behind, a Texas-grown product of the George W. Bush presidency, was roundly criticized as being too onerous and unrealistic in its expectations for student achievement: One hundred percent of students were supposed to perform at "proficient" levels on standardized tests by 2014. Even its creators acknowledge that the law, which expired 1,877 days ago in 2007, was never supposed to exist unmodified for as 

Massachusetts Grants In-State Tuition to Undocumented Students. Sort of.

by Angus Johnston

There’s been a lot of cheering today for the news that Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick plans to direct public colleges in the state to allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition, but a peek at the fine print shows that the policy shift isn’t anywhere near what it could be.
The policy covers undocumented Massachusetts residents eligible for temporary immunity from deportation under the Obama administration’s new DREAM-Act-like policy, but there’s a catch. Actually two.
First, in order to qualify for in-state tuition, you have to have made your way through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) hoops and been granted the reprieve from deportation it provides. That means that if you’ve got qualms about coming forward, or you’re having trouble proving eligibility, or are stuck in the 

We Treat Monkeys Better Than Teachers

by Duke

Hat tip to the great Nancy Flanagan. Here we see two teachers under a merit pay system:

Popout

"Wait!" screams the reformer (or the newspaper editor). "That's not what we mean! We want to reward the monkey who obeys our commands better than the other monkeys!"

Yes, you do.

ADDING: Hat tip this time to the great EduShyster. Because everyone knows in the "real" world, merit pay is totally freakin' awesome:

A few weeks later, the Cravath lawyers assembled and unanimously voted her into the partnership. She received no signing bonus, no guarantee, no special 

Teachers Unions As Evaluators: A Conflict of Interest?

by Duke

Let's say you're a teacher in a city with a large population of children in poverty... like, say, Newark.

Under the district's new evaluation system, you are judged "ineffective." You don't think you've been treated fairly. Maybe you were assigned many children who live in deep poverty, or don't speak English at home, or who are just generally known in your school to be the hardest kids to educate; consequently, your students "growth" on test scores was not as large as your colleagues.

Maybe you don't think your principal wrote up your evaluations correctly, and you're prepared to challenge them. Maybe you're outspoken about changes in your district and the central office administration thinks of you as a 

A Teacher Accused!:When He Said/She Said Turns Ugly!

by Oldschoolteach

I learned about it by accident. I approached my principal about another child and she asked me not to get upset. I wondered why a simple response to a question about a situation with a student, could possibly upset me. And that’s when she told me what a student had accused me of. I really [...]

Gresham-Barlow dedicates Wednesday mornings to teacher collaboration for teacher, student benefit

by Sara Hottman, The Oregonian

The across-the-board late-start Wednesday has fostered teacher collaboration that is already showing results, administrators say. With better information earlier in the year, they expect the change to improve student achievement.

Memorial service set for Charles Hopson, former deputy superintendent of Portland Public Schools

by Nicole Dungca, The Oregonian

Hopson, who was known in the district as a champion of students of color, died Oct. 9.

Original enclosure (charles-hopsonjpg-e7c2e96807445969.jpg)

US DOE: Lowest performing schools are improving

by Maureen Downey

From US DOE on its School Improvement Grants:

The U.S. Department of Education today released an early snapshot of student performance data at schools that have received federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) program funds, a key component of the Department’s blueprint for helping states and districts turn around the nation’s lowest-performing schools.
Under the Obama Administration, the SIG program has invested up to $2 million per school at 

Community college programs in Pasadena and Santa Barbara honored

Community colleges in Pasadena and Santa Barbara have been honored for helping new and underprepared students reach their educational goals.
The First Year Pathway program at Pasadena City College and Santa Barbara City College’s Express to Success program were given the 2012 Chancellor’s Student Success Award at the Community College League of California’s annual convention in Los Angeles.
The Pasadena program guarantees placement of participants in hard-to-obtain English and math classes during the fall and spring semester of their first year and provides counseling and other support services. Data show that