Lying with Statistics | Deborah Meier on Education

Lying with Statistics | Deborah Meier on Education:

Lying with Statistics

Posted on January 16, 2014 by debmeier

To avoid being fooled by statistics requires using the knowledge we already possess. A lost art? I struggle with this constantly.

To print data claiming that: Shanghai and Singapore have a better educated workforce than the USA when they certainly must realize that (1)  neither is a country; and (2) to ignore the fact that China’s low-income workforce are treated as part-time immigrants  in Shanghai, whose children are not allowed to attend their schools and/or in most cases (including Singapore)  live beyond these city’s boundaries, means either purposely miss using data or not using one’s own knowledge. Not to mention the naiveté of accepting any data’s reliability when dealing with a totalitarian regime. These are simple facts that any journalist reporting on these statistics should know. As we gentrify the remaining sections of Manhattan where low-income people of color still reside, we might enter Manhattan in the world’s test score rankings. In fact, we have several states that would rank pretty high up if we decided to call them separate nations, much less excluded the scores of “immigrants.”  It’s bad enough when they—the US media-—take US test score data at face value, much less accepting without question the data from nations we know often lie to us and their own people.

Our dilemma is far more serious than upgrading our math courses in order to better compete with Asia. Where they outdo us is not in having enough highly skilled workers but in low paid ones. Maybe we’ll be more successful competitors if we continue to lower our wage scales to match theirs?  (Which requires getting rid of 

Christie and Koch in Cahoots? It's Time to Subpoena the Committee for Our Children's Future

Christie and Koch in Cahoots? It's Time to Subpoena the Committee for Our Children's Future:

Christie and Koch in Cahoots? It's Time to Subpoena the Committee for Our Children's Future

Thursday, 16 January 2014 11:26By Greg Palast, Truthout | News Analysis

• 7
• font size   
• Print 
• Email

(Photo: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie continued his "New Jersey Comeback" theme at a town hall meeting held at the Westfield Armory located in Westfield, New Jersey on February 8, 2012 via Shutterstock)

Far more insidious, more corrosive and dangerous than the Governor of New Jersey playing traffic warden is the story of Gov. Chris Christie's secret meetings with a gaggle of billionaires - and the legality of the spending by the front organization set up following these hidden hugger-muggers.

In 2012, a tax-exempt "social welfare organization" called Committee for Our Children's Future, CCF, ran a series of TV ads telling America that Governor Christie has performed more miracles in New Jersey than Jesus did with loaves and fish. The New York Times found some old college chums who said they set up the "Children's" crusade for Christie. But the ads cost about $6 million. The Times didn't ask how Christie's buddies, not wealthy guys, found the six big ones.

But CCF was not started in 2012. When I heard "Children's Future," my nose started twitching. I smelled Koch.

The whiff of sulfur took me back to seven thick investigation binders nearly two decades old - each one marked "KOCH." In Volume 3, I found it: CCF - Campaign for Our Children's Future.

Just days before the 1996 election, "Campaign for our Children's Future," previously unheard of, paid for some of the most vicious smear ads ever run. The nasty blast, disseminated in coordination with a mysterious operation called "Citizens United," accused one Democrat of associating with a child molester (false), another of being "a Jewess" (true) and so on.

Most of the 29 targeted Democrats, blindsided and unable to swing at the phantom "Children" and "Citizens," were creamed. The result, to everyone's surprise, was that the Republicans kept control of Congress.

(Image: Ted Rall)

Everyone's surprise but Charles and David Koch. The head of "Children's Future" confessed to federal investigators he'd signed over $700,000 in blank checks to ananonymous donor running funds through Children's.  The money-laundering 

A Whale of a Tale | EduShyster

A Whale of a Tale | EduShyster:

A Whale of a Tale

 Are Massachusetts Officials Out to Harpoon New Bedford High School?

Ahoy, matey! That great looming specter in the distance is not a mighty white whale but New Bedford High School being turned upside down and shaken till 50% of its teachers fall out. School turnaround time has come to this scenic, hard-scrabble seaport and our trusty state education captains have launched a full sail operation to convince New Bedford residents that throwing half of the high school’s teachers overboard is the only way to reach the distant shores of Excellence. But are the captains on a fool’s errand that could end up capsizing the ship of public education in the Whaling City?

Davey Jones Locker
First: a bit of back story. New Bedford High School is listing. Home to 2,500 mostly low-income students, 1/4 of whom speak a first language other than English, the school was recently classified as Level 4 by the state—the Davey Jones Locker of academic performance—for chronically low test scores. Fortunately there is an easy fix at hand, at least if you listen to New Bedford’s newly installed schools captain, Superintendent Pia Durkin. According to Durkin, righting New Bedford High’s ship is as simple as replacing the entire administration and half of the teaching staff. That’s because, as Durkin insists, this 

It’s time to invest in summer learning | EdSource Today

It’s time to invest in summer learning | EdSource Today:

It’s time to invest in summer learning

January 16th, 2014 | Add a Comment |
By John Deasy / commentary

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy

As our fellow school superintendents across the state consider their budget priorities, we urge them to consider investing in summer learning programs, a cost-effective, yet highly impactful strategy to help achieve their school district’s most pressing priorities.

In our own districts, we’ve seen firsthand that summer learning programs are key to advancing some of our top priorities, including Common Core implementation, supporting students’ social-emotional growth and enhancing teacher/staff professional development.

In a new series of reports, Putting Summer to Work: the Development of High-Quality Summer Learning Programs in California, the Summer Matters campaign profiles summer learning in our school districts and explores how high-quality summer learning programs have enriched students and teachers alike, and prevented “summer learning loss” among students from low-income families and English Language Learners.

For example, our teachers are using the summer months as learning laboratories for Common Core implementation. Summer learning programs give our educators a unique opportunity to experiment with new lesson plans and assess their effectiveness in low-pressure, but very genuine, learning environments. All our summer programs use project-based learning to better engage and motivate students, a strategy consistent with the Common Core that challenges our teachers to change their practices.

Credentialed teachers used the summer learning programs they led to try out new teaching approaches that they are now repeating and sharing with other teachers during the school year. From gardening projects to summer robotics classes, our teachers practiced techniques to 

Special Interests Threaten Future of Public Education as Money Drives Politics | janresseger

Special Interests Threaten Future of Public Education as Money Drives Politics | janresseger:

Special Interests Threaten Future of Public Education as Money Drives Politics

Posted on January 16, 2014 by janresseger

In Winner-Take-All Politics, political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson describe the impact of organized money on our national politics:  “The foremost obstacle to sustainable reform is the enormous imbalance in organizational resources between the chief economic beneficiaries of the status quo and those who seek to strengthen middle-class democracy.  Powerful groups defending the winner-take-all economy—business coalitions, Wall Street lobbyists, medical industry players—are fully cognizant of the massive stakes involved, and they are battle-ready after years of training.” (p. 291)

Last weekend the NY Times launched a series of articles that demonstrate the power of organized money in state politics as well.  Powerful organizations, able to designate themselves as not-for-profit, are wielding enormous political influence as money is bundled and distributed to skirt even the political funding regulations of the most careful states.  Such funding has permitted political groups to “flip states,” contributing to the reality that 36 states are now run by one-party—one political party holding majorities in both houses of the legislature and the governor’s mansion.  Today 13 state governments are controlled solely by Democrats and 23 by Republicans.

The NY Times reports, “Both sides rely on interlocking networks of political action committees, party organizations and nonprofit groups, often based in states with forgiving campaign finance rules, that work in concert to raise contributions and shuffle money to thousands of local races around the country.  In some states, liberal or conservative donors have established political nonprofits that function like shadow parties, often exempt from the contribution limits or disclosure requirements that apply to candidates and traditional 

1-16-14 Wait What?

Wait What?:

NEWS FLASH: Kids win, Malloy/Jepsen lose as judge rules school funding trial to begin this summer

In a stunning defeat of Governor Malloy’s political strategy to push off CCEJF v. Rell school funding debate until after the 2014 gubernatorial election, a superior court judge ruled today that the trail will begin as scheduled. The trial date for the CCEJF .v Rell was scheduled to begin July 2014 beck in December 2011, […]The post NEWS FLASH: Kids win, Malloy/Jepsen lose as judge rules school fun

by jonpelto / 0min 

Look Out! The Common Core Test is coming to a school near you

January 2014 and it still isn’t clear exactly which Connecticut students will be forced to take the new Common Core (Smarter Balanced Test) this year. With the gubernatorial campaign only 10 months away, Governor Malloy and Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor have been telling towns that they have the option to stick with the Connecticut Mastery […]The post Look Out! The Common Core Test is coming

by jonpelto / 25min 

1-15-14 Wait What?

Wait What?: Michele Rhee’s StudentsFirst “education reform” group gives Louisiana a B-, Connecticut a D+Michele Rhee and her corporate education reform industry advocacy group are back with their annual “report card.” Over the last three years Rhee and StudentsFirst (called GNEPSA here in Connecticut) have been one of Governor Malloy’s strongest supporters, helping to fund the most expensive lobby

by mike simpson / 7min 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Thursday, January 16, 2014

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

Feds issue guidelines against bias in school discipline

Education Headlines

Thursday, January 16, 2014

FCMAT provides links to California K-12 news stories as a service to the industry. However, some stories may not be accessible because of newspapers' subscription policies.

Restroom misunderstanding puts two schools on lockdown

A misunderstanding involving a student in a restroom led to two Indio schools being placed on lockdown Wednesday morning.

Concerns raised over how funds for higher-needs kids will be used

Parents will converge on the Capitol today to rally for more stringent rules tying education funding to direct services for children. The state Board of Education is scheduled to take up the plodding work of sorting through legal wording to guide spending under the new local control funding formula for schools.

Kern High School District restricts superintendent search to insiders

The Kern High School District has decided to limit to internal candidates its search for a successor to retiring Superintendent Don Carter.

Feds issue guidelines against bias in school discipline

Federal officials kicked up their campaign against discriminatory school discipline policies last week, issuing first-ever guidelines for school districts on how to avoid racial disparities in student punishment.

O.C. students accused of hacking, changing grades may face expulsion

The roughly dozen Corona del Mar High students accused of hacking into the school's computers to access tests and change grades are still facing the possibility of expulsion from the district, Newport-Mesa Unified officials confirmed Tuesday afternoon.

Azusa Unified hears district’s financial history in exploration of bond measure

The Azusa Unified school board heard an overview of its financial history on Tuesday as part of ongoing studies into a potential general obligation bond.

MPUSD board rejects MAOS charter proposal

Trustees of the largest school district on the Monterey Peninsula rejected plans to spin off a successful academy into its own charter school.

MPUSD superintendent search firm vows smooth process

The district picked the Fairfield firm out of four finalists for the task to help screen candidates for superintendent. It is an important job under any circumstance, but is particularly crucial after the search for a superintendent imploded last year.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Farmersville students, parents seek superintendent's ouster

About 80 Farmersville High students and parents sought the removal of Superintendent Christina Luna at a protest rally Tuesday morning. Protesters told reporters that Luna should be fired for allegedly launching a campaign to fire popular principals and teachers and for allegedly mismanaging district funds.

Parent: School ceremony at church violates law

For the past two years, Los Alamitos Unified School District’s two middle schools have held their combined graduation ceremony in the large auditorium at Cottonwood Church. Now, the district is determining whether it can continue holding school events at Cottonwood and other churches after a parent, along with a national atheist group, objected to the arrangement, arguing that it violates the separation of church and state.

New GED testing requires computer skills, more knowledge

Adults who dropped out of school will have to dig deeper to pass the new GED, which was revamped this year for the first time since 2002. Rather than answer multiple-choice questions on paper, test-takers have to solve interactive math problems, analyze social studies passages and demonstrate critical thinking through essay responses on a computer.

San Juan district trustees censure board member in 3-1 vote

San Juan school district trustees narrowly approved a resolution Tuesday night censuring board member Larry Masuoka for what investigators said was his failure to report complaints of employees’ bullying and intimidation by the district superintendent.

Bond funded modernizations to begin at Chula Vista schools

Glamorous, they ain’t. Yet, the renovations and modernizations slated this year for three of Chula Vista Elementary School District’s oldest schools have got officials downright giddy.

Luza takes helm of Salinas City Schools

The educator who has led the Salinas City Elementary School District as interim superintendent for the past six months has been given the job full time.

NEA - Congressional Report Card

NEA - Congressional Report Card:

NEA Releases Annual Legislative Report Card

Report shows glimmer of hope in bipartisan work on key issues around equity

WASHINGTON –While partisan rancor continues to create obstacles toward passage of critical education laws, there have been signs of bipartisan accord in the Senate on key issues around opportunity and equality, according to information from the National Education Association’s Legislative Report Card, released today. In fact, there is a notable increase in Republican senators earning grades of A, B or C in the report card, which reflects selected votes and other legislative actions for the first session of the 113th Congress. The annual report card measures members’ of Congress overall support for public education, students and educators, with each member receiving a letter grade of A through F.

Sixteen Senate Republicans earned grades of A, B or C in 2013, compared to just 5 in the 2011-12 ratings and 11 in the initial 2005-06 ratings. These statistics indicate that Senate Republicans are increasing the rate at which they vote for legislation that is important to students and educators. Top issues include immigration reform, college affordability, state taxation of online sales, and non-discrimination in the workplace.  By contrast, only 25 House Republicans earned grades of A, B or C in 2013, compared to 35 in the 2011-12 ratings and 52 in the 2005-06 ratings. These numbers appear to confirm that there is an unfortunate downturn in the number of House Republicans who support bipartisan efforts to advance legislation that would address inequalities in schools, workplaces and communities.

  

“We’re encouraged by the uptick in bipartisan support on certain issues in the Senate, but there remains so much work to be done in both education policy and on issues that impact students, their families, and educators across the country,” said NEA director of Government Relations Mary Kusler. NEA

NEA continues to work with Congress to reauthorize ESEA, expand early childhood education opportunities— particularly for children most in need—and to enact comprehensive immigration reform, among other issues. While there was some movement in 2013, political obstruction and lack of meaningful discussion to find consensus on key education issues remains an obstacle.

“Will 2014 be a year where Congress surprises the pundits and finds a way to reach some accord, or will we continue to see a Congress that is all too often stuck in partisan gridlock?” asks Kusler.

In addition to votes, the Report Card grades also reflect other key legislative actions, such as behind-the-scenes advocacy for education and educators, bill co-sponsorships, committee votes and members’ accessibility to education advocates in their home state or district.

Follow NEA at twitter.com/neamedia. See NEA’s letters to Congress here.

Should Mayor de Blasio Unravel Bloomberg's Reforms? - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

Should Mayor de Blasio Unravel Bloomberg's Reforms? - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com:

Should Mayor de Blasio Unravel Bloomberg’s Reforms?

INTRODUCTION

Mayor Bill de Blasio and his new schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, tour the Bronx School of Young Leaders. Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio named Carmen Fariña schools chancellor. The appointment of this 40-year veteran of the New York City school system signals a “sharp departure from the education policies” of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who focused on test scores, closed low-performing schools and brought in charters.

Is she what the city needs?

DEBATERS

• 
  DIANE RAVITCH
  Diane Ravitch, a historian of education, is the author of several books, including"The Great School Wars," a history of the New York City public schools.
• 
  BRUCE FULLER
  Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of the forthcoming "After the State and Market."

---

Don’t Be Too Quick to Dismiss the Former Mayor’s Efforts

BRUCE FULLER 12:08 PM

Mayor Bill de Blasio has tapped Carmen Fariña as schools chancellor. Choosing someone who has been critical of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's efforts to reform New York City schools suggests that many of the changes that defined Bloomberg's tenure are about to be reversed.

Is this the end of student testing? Are teacher evaluations over? Will charter schools be shaved back? Will the teachers union regain its power over classroom staffing? Although I didn't agree with all of Bloomberg's policies, de Blasio should think twice before dismissing what the former mayor accomplished.

Too much testing is nutty, but a moratorium on testing isn't the answer.

De Blasio says he will stop closing mediocre schools. Yet when such schools were closed, small and nurturing high schools sprouted in their stead, helping to improve the graduation rate to 69 percent from 51 percent over the past decade. De Blasio also wants to slow growth of charter schools and make them start paying rent in the buildings they share with traditional schools. But hard findings show the truth is that these human-scale options raise the learning curves of city students – half from neighborhoods in which the average family earns under $38,000 annually – more steeply than kids attending regular public schools.

Fariña once worked for the Bloomberg administration but quit in 2006, worried that excessive testing was subverting the wider aims of education. Her boss, Chancellor Joel Klein, went on to require four more annual exams on top of Albany’s yearly testing regime. Too much testing is nutty, but a moratorium on testing isn't the answer. City schools need clear measures of student progress; they are essential for tracking racial achievement gaps and detecting lousy teachers. If de Blasio backs away from testing, he will never know whether a child’s destiny is defined by how hard she works or by her ZIP code.

Many parents now hunger for a return of art and music classes, an enlightened pedagogy that deepens writing skills and delves into rich literature and challenging mathematics. Bloomberg’s trust in local principals sparked kaleidoscopic innovations along these lines, helping to attract middle-income and affluent parents back to city schools. Tracking progress requires smarter, not fewer, exams as teachers ramp-up for the state’s rigorous Common Core curriculum.

De Blasio’s focus on inequality is right: Learning gaps among fourth- and eighth-graders have failed to budge in reading and math over the last 12 years, defined by students’ race or social class, according to federal data released last month. But the rookie mayor’s penchant for entitlements could reinforce, not close, yawning disparities. We know that quality preschool spurs early learning for poor childrenbut not in sustainable ways for middle-class and well-off peers. And shrinking class size, habitually pressed by union leaders, typically yields pallid benefits unless focused on poor students.

As de Blasio and Fariña move beyond populist rhetoric, hard evidence and not political expediency should drive their emerging policy thrusts, even those crafted by the former mayor.

---

De Blasio Should Fix What Bloomberg Did Wrong

DIANE RAVITCH 12:08 PM

At the end of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s third term, the issue where he had the least public support was education. The latest New York Times poll showed that only 26 percent of New Yorkers approved of his education policies. After 12 years of claims about “historic” gains, the public had had enough.

The Bloomberg education program began at the same time as President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind program, and the two were like twins. They both relied on testing, choice, accountability and competition, but neither succeeded in winning the hearts and minds of educators and parents.

The Bloomberg administration imposed three major reorganizations on the school system, going from districts to regions to autonomous schools judged by data. It destroyed most of the city’s comprehensive high schools and replaced them with hundreds of small schools. It encouraged the opening of nearly 200 privately managed charter schools, enrolling 6 percent of the city’s children. Many of the new schools, both charter and public, tried to avoid students with disabilities and English learners.

Public schools function best when they have the resources and a collaborative relationship with parents and the local community.

The Bloomberg administration’s signature policy was closing schools and opening schools. Schools with low scores were closed and replaced. Large schools were closed and replaced. Some new schools were closed and replaced by other new schools. At public meetings of the school board, tightly controlled by the mayor, thousands of parents, students and teachers protested, but their voices were ignored. The schools belonged to the mayor, and he was free to close them whenever he wanted.

Mayor de Blasio should stop closing schools. Public schools are vital community institutions. His goal should be a good public school in every neighborhood. The mayor should listen to parents and the community about the fate of their neighborhood school and do whatever it takes to make it better instead of closing it.

Mayor de Blasio should stop grading schools on the A-F scale borrowed from former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. It serves no purpose other than to stigmatize schools and set them up for closure. The mayor should be a steward for the schools, not an executioner.

Mayor de Blasio should stop the expansion of charter schools and stop co-locating charter schools in public space. They are privately managed, they have private boards of directors, and they have private sources of funding (the Robin Hood Foundation raised $80 million in one night mostly for charter schools). More than a dozen charter leaders are paid more than the city schools’ chancellor, with two of them earning nearly half a million dollars a year.

Mayor de Blasio should scrap the Leadership Academy, which not only failed to produce exemplary leaders but also demoralized every administrator who spent years as an assistant principal learning to be a principal.

Mayor de Blasio should reduce the emphasis on testing, which narrows the curriculum only to what is tested, and he should insist that all schools have a full curriculum, including the arts, foreign languages and daily physical education.

Mayor de Blasio should fulfill the true promise of mayoral control by making sure that every school has regular access to the city’s social services and to a health clinic so that children get regular medical checkups. Every school should be a community center that serves families as well as children.

Bill de Blasio has the chance to be a national leader in the revitalization of public education. Having been a member of a local school board as well as a parent of children in the public schools, he understands that public schools function best when they have the resources they need for the children they enroll and a collaborative relationship with parents and the local community.

---

Bloomberg Was Right to Push Choice and Empower Principals

BRUCE FULLER 12:08 PM

How our children are nurtured inside schools, which students enjoy the strongest teachers and who gets to decide remains an essential democratic debate. So, yes, Bloomberg too often limited dissent locally, aggressively pushing technocratic change without the consent of teachers -- taking it to them, not collaborating with them, to paraphrase Mayor de Blasio.

The evidence is in. Corporate reform is a train wreck.