Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Diane in the Evening 1-9-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

Will Massachusetts Open a Charter to Skim $$ from a Great Public School?

by dianerav

Brockton High School has been hailed as one of the best high schools in the nation, celebrated for its excellent programs and high test scores. What makes its success especially impressive is that the school has 4,100 students and a large immigrant population.
Now enters the SABIS for-profit charter chain, seeking to compete with Brockton High School. In this report,

Bruce Baker on Rheeformy Logic & Goofball Rating Schemes

by dianerav

Bruce Baker has prepared what may be the most devastating critique of Michelle Rhee’s absurd state rankings. The criteria are without merit, as are her policy ideas.
Best of all, Bruce says he is eager to see some well-known reformers move to Louisiana to take advantage of the schools that Rhee gave top billing in her report.

Hari Sevugan Responds, But Not Here

by dianerav

A few days ago, I posted a letter from Hari Sevugan on this site, in which he defended Michelle Rhee’s agenda of privatization and high-stakes testing.
I invited him to post again. I wrote:
“I hope he will write again to explain why he thinks that Rhee’s support for for-profit charters, for vouchers, and for the agenda of rightwing governors helps our society’s most vulnerable children.”
Rhee has worked closely with Governor Scott Walker, Governor John Kasich, Governor Rick Scott, and other

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 1-9-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Leave a Comment on PBS Frontline Page by dianerav If you watched the PBS documentary on “The Education of Michelle Rhee,” you should let PBS know what you thought of the program. You can leave a comment here or elsewhere on the website. The (D)Evolution of Denver’s Pay-for-Performance Model by dianerav Jeannie Kaplan is an elected member of the Denver school board. Denver is one of the major sites for corporate reform. Several commenters have asked about Denver’s pay-for-performance plan. I invited Kaplan ... more »

Frontline Rhee-view « InterACT

Frontline Rhee-view « InterACT:

Frontline Rhee-view

by David B. Cohen

I watched the Frontline report on Michelle Rhee last night, and there will be no shortage of more detailed critiques, so I’m going to offer just a couple of observations before moving on to the broader issue. (You can also see Frontline’s webpage for many critiques, and strongly negative reactions to both the reporting in the program and the subject herself). First, I found it striking how much Rhee’s tone and affect shift depending on the topic. When the question is about how she wields power and holds those below her accountable, it’s no nonesense, no excuses, no compassion. When it’s a question of her role in creating a climate that encouraged cheating, and her weak response to the evidence of that cheating, then we get the softer Rhee, smiling, shrugging, and equivocating.
I was also struck by the artificiality of this exercise where she calls principals into her office and puts them on the spot to guarantee a certain gain in test scores for the upcoming year. It’s an exercise in guesswork, conducted in a high-pressure and high-stakes setting, and with little precision or clarity. What exactly would it mean, in terms of students’ actual knowledge, skills, and educational dispositions, if those numbers go up five points vs. ten points vs. fifteen points? With zero experience running any school, did Rhee have any actual idea what these numbers would mean, or what kinds of numeric goals were reasonable? Can anyone really

Zak Malamed: Q & A With Suli Breaks Student Voice

Student Voice:

Zak Malamed: Q & A With Suli Breaks

by admin

Student Voice founding organizer Zak Malamed sits down with Suli Breaks for a Q and A:

Popout
Q: In your video, you provided us with a deeper understanding of the different perspectives students hear when pursuing a degree. How did these perspectives influence your education?
A: They opened my eyes up to what TRUE education is, something I think I failed to acknowledge as a student. That was one of the primary reasons of me doing the poem. To highlight things that I neglected as a student, to other students, and hopefully allow them to gain the most from their education experience.
Q: At the time of this interview, your video has over 1.5 million views. As a student, when did you realize the value of exercising your voice? Do you wish you spoke your mind more as a student?
A: I feel that I realised the value of exercising my voice, after finishing school, hence the videos. That discovery made me

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight:

The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

by Mike Klonsky

"We don't need no stinkin' vote!" Pension robbers Quinn and Nekritz agree. (Sun-Times)

O.K., the great pension robbery has failed -- at least for now. The Quinn-Nekritz gang that couldn't shoot straight, ended up shooting each other and their plot to violate the State Constitution and raid the pension fund of struggling retirees fizzled out with barely a whimper.

But the culprits are still at large, parading around disguised as "progressives." Quinn is already political toast by my reading of the tea leaves. But Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook) still roams the political landscape. There must be a way to punish her at the ballot box. On second-thought, if you've got to fight the pension robbers, maybe it's

The Education of Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee | FRONTLINE | PBS

The Education of Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee| FRONTLINE | PBS:

FRONTLINE examines the legacy of one of America’s most admired & reviled school reformers.

The Education of Michelle RheeFRONTLINE examines the legacy of one of America's most controversial school reformers. (53:37)

FEATURED FROM THIS REPORT

January 8, 2013, 9:34 pmAfter Michelle Rhee: What Happened Next in D.C.’s Schools
January 8, 2013, 9:34 pmHow Do You Measure Success in School Reform?
January 8, 2013, 9:33 pmEducation Department Finds No Evidence Of Widespread Cheating On D.C. Exams

THE LATEST

The Battle over Education Reform

January 8, 2013, 9:45 pm ET · by Azmat Khan

The debate over how to improve K-12 public education in America has long been highly charged and contentious, but in recent years, it’s taken on a polarizing either or mentality.

Live Chat 3:30 pm ET Thursday: Assessing Rhee’s Reforms

January 9, 2013, 8:11 am ET · by Nathan Tobey

Join a live chat on “The Education of Michelle Rhee” with the film’s correspondent, John Merrow, and a panel of leading journalists and experts. You can leave a question now.

Michelle Rhee: “The Bee Eater”

January 8, 2013, 1:25 pm ET · by Jason M. Breslow

As a young elementary teacher in Baltimore, Michelle Rhee struggled to capture the attention of her students. That is, until the day she won over her classroom with a surprising move.

StudentsFirst Gives 11 States Failing Grades on Public Education

January 7, 2013, 1:16 pm ET · by Azmat Khan

Today the education reform group StudentsFirst, led by former D.C. public schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, released a report grading states based on adherence to its platform, giving 11 states failing grades of F. The highest grade any state received was a B-.

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: National Board for Professional Teaching Standards:

Celebrating 25 Years

Our Mission

The mission of the National Board is to advance student learning and achievement by establishing the definitive standards and systems for certifying accomplished educators, providing programs and advocating policies that support excellence in teaching and leading, and engaging National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) and leaders in that process.

The National Board seeks to elevate the status, voice, and role of accomplished teachers in shaping a true profession. This includes: 1) raising public awareness with respect to the cognitive complexity, collaborative, and expertise-driven nature of teachers' work; 2) setting higher standards for entry, advancement, and leadership in the profession; and 3) recognizing accomplished teaching through a rigorous professional certification process comparable to those found in other professions such as medicine, engineering, and law.

Since 1987, more than 100,000 teachers have achieved National Board Certification.

Moving Forward

The National Board enters its second quarter century with two strategic and interconnected goals: promoting educator effectiveness across the career span and helping accomplished teachers lead the way in building a vibrant and respected profession. The National Board is:

Restructuring its certification processes to maintain high and rigorous standards while increasing the accessibility and flexibility of the assessment process for all educators who wish to demonstrate and validate their practice.
Field-testing new assessments for accomplished principals and developing new standards and assessments for teacher leaders.
Building a suite of powerful new tools that educators can use to strengthen their practice. These include VOP (Video Observation Program), which uses videos of accomplished teaching coupled with written analyses that describe the NBCT’s instructional strategies and decision making. The resulting “cases,” in each of the National Board’s 25 certificate areas, are being indexed to the Common Core and other pertinent state and national standards. Several states and districts are already using these tools for evaluator training, supporting struggling teachers, and for teacher professional development.

ATLAS (Accomplished Teaching, Leading and Schools) uses these video cases to help future educators understand what accomplished teaching looks like in a classroom and, more importantly, to demonstrate how accomplished teachers design lessons, provide instruction, build classroom communities, and utilize assessments to facilitate student learning. A recent U.S. Department of Education i3 grant will pilot these tools in preservice and induction programs, with the goal of widespread national adoption.

In sum, the National Board is working on a range of exciting projects to expand the number and impact of accomplished teachers and leaders, while working to elevate the status, standards, and voice of the teaching profession.

And Coming in 2013

The National Board will launch a new and redesigned website and blog to highlight the numerous ways National Board Certified Teachers are advancing education reform and enhancing student learning.

Assistance and Incentives for NBCTs Across America

Clickable Map of the United States of America

Also: Private and International Schools

Share Your Story!

Do you have an interesting or inspiring story to tell about your experiences as an educator? If so, tell us your story! Click here to Share Your Story!

Best of the Ed Blogs | National Education Policy Center

Best of the Ed Blogs | National Education Policy Center:

EduShyster

January 7, 2013

Joy Resmovits: Gates Teacher Study, California Test Pushback: Ed Today

Joy Resmovits: Gates Teacher Study, California Test Pushback: Ed Today:

Gates Teacher Study, California Test Pushback: Ed Today

by Joy Resmovits

How Are Teachers Measured? As we reported yesterday, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation finished its three-year, $50 million study on measuring teacher effectiveness. The researchers found that neither test scores nor observations alone will do the trick. Click here for WSJ's take, and here for another look in the Washington Post.

What Does Nate Silver think?Just as the Gates Foundation released its report, the famous New York Times wonk weighed in on the topic on Reddit: sometimes, he writes, no data is better than bad data. "There are certainly cases where applying objective measures badly is worse than not applying them at all, and education may well be one of those," says

Michelle Rhee's Charter School Push: Good For Kids? The Debate Continues

by Joy Resmovits

Last Friday, I wrote a story about a crop of high-profile Democrats leaving StudentsFirst, the organization run by former Washington, D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee.

Several sources suggested that the move spoke to a broader change in StudentsFirst: a group once extremely self-conscious about its positioning as a bipartisan organization is now more interested in being purist and ideological in implementing its ideas. (This theory played out interestingly on Monday when the group releasedits report card of state education policies).

I was excited to see that the piece spurred dialogue on a few different corners of the web -- particularly on the

Shanker Blog » A Simple Choice Of Words Can Help Avoid Confusion About New Test Results

Shanker Blog » A Simple Choice Of Words Can Help Avoid Confusion About New Test Results:

A Simple Choice Of Words Can Help Avoid Confusion About New Test Results

by Matthew Di Carlo

In 1998, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) lowered the threshold at which people are classified as “overweight.” Literally overnight, about 25 million Americans previously considered as having a healthy weight were now overweight. If, the next day, you saw a newspaper headline that said “number of overweight Americans increases,” you would probably find that more than a little misleading. America’s “overweight” population didn’t really increase; the definition changed.
Fast forward to November 2012, during which Kentucky became the first state to release results from new assessments that were aligned with the Common Core Standards (CCS). This led to headlines such as, “Scores Drop on Kentucky’s Common Core-Aligned Tests” and “Challenges Seen as Kentucky’s Test Scores Drop As Expected.” Yet, these descriptions unintentionally misrepresent what happened. It’s not quite accurate – or at least highly imprecise – to say that test scores “dropped,” just as it would have been wrong to say that the

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Wednesday, January 9, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

State schools chief urges cut in number of tests next year

Education Headlines

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Long Beach school board votes to slash AVID college prep program

A popular Long Beach Unified college prep program will enroll 260 fewer high school students next year and will cease to exist at middle and K-8 schools under the latest budget cuts.

Petition error delays push for special election of Fresno Unified trustee

An error by the Fresno County Office of Education has complicated plans to force a special election in the McLane High trustee area. County Schools Superintendent Larry Powell said Tuesday his office erred in advising petitioners about the number of signatures needed for an election to be called.

Longtime El Dorado County superintendent of schools to retire

Vicki Barber will retire at the end of June, after 30 years with the El Dorado County Office of Education, according to a statement released this afternoon.

After indictment, San Ysidro plans ethics training

The San Ysidro School District governing board held a special closed meeting Tuesday night, presumably to discuss the fate of indicted Superintendent Manuel Paul, but ended up not taking any action.

SD Unified approves restoring some H.R. jobs

A divided San Diego school board voted Tuesday to spend $600,000 to add five management jobs to its human resources department, an unbudgeted expense that comes amid ongoing fiscal uncertainty in a district that has not yet ruled out layoffs for next year.

School district, teachers reach agreement

The Menifee Union School District and its teachers’ union have a reached an agreement on a contract for 2012-13 and it appears unlikely the teachers will have to take any furlough days this school year.

Second phase of L.A. arts fundraising plan begins

The "Art Matters" campaign has brought in more than $750,000 in the last three months for arts in the public schools.

New student tests to focus less on memory

In just two years, California students, along with millions of their peers across the country, will start taking new computerized standardized tests that require them to write, think, analyze and solve problems - a dramatic departure from the fill-in-the-bubble tests in place for decades.

California may ditch fill-in-the-bubble tests

California schools are poised to put those ubiquitous, multiple-choice Scantron tests in the education graveyard, alongside chalkboards and typewriters. The envisioned replacements for such standardized testing are computerized exams that emphasize critical thinking over memorization, complete with essay questions.

Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

FRONTLINE examines the legacy of one of America’s most admired & reviled school reformers.

FEATURED FROM THIS REPORT

Celebrating 25 Years

Our Mission

Moving Forward

And Coming in 2013

Assistance and Incentives for NBCTs Across America

Share Your Story!

Best of the Ed Blogs

Education Headlines