4-13-14 Wait What?

Wait What?:

The growing list of reasons to vote against Dannel “Dan” Malloy’s re-election

The growing list of reasons to vote against Dannel “Dan” Malloy’s re-election Malloy’s “education reform” legislation has earned him the title of the most anti-teacher, anti-public education, pro-charter school Democratic governor in the nation.  Malloy’s decision to hand Connecticut’s public education system over to Charter School advocate, now Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor has ushered [

by jonpelto / 2min 

4-12-14 Wait What? All Week

Wait What?:  Wait What? All WeekMalloy brags about his support for $10.10 minimum wage, but takes campaign money from Wal-MartIf you’ve been getting Dannel “Dan” Malloy’s recent campaign emails you know that the incumbent Governor is using his recent support for a higher minimum wage to raise money for his re-election campaign. What doesn’t show up in those emails is the fact that the Malloy campa

by mike simpson / 8h

Only a Test Question | EduShyster

Only a Test Question | EduShyster:

Only a Test Question

 A teacher wreaks havoc upon her students’ college-and-career readiness by denying them the test prep they’ve come to expect…

By Sarah Lahm
In a shocking display of misplaced priorities and poor judgment, a teacher in [INSERT NAME OF CITY OR TOWN HERE] made an irreparable error this week. Instead of *teaching to the test,* as she had been subtly yet repeatedly instructed to do, this teacher committed the unforgivable sin of teaching her students about the test. This shocking breach occurred in the middle of what used to be known as April but will hence forth and forever be known as National High Stakes Testing Month.

The scene of the crime
Yes, it is true. As soon as we heard about this horrible mishap, we rushed over to College or Bust Middle School, to interview as many of the affected children as we could. First up? One Michael Lawrence, who described the situation this way:

“A couple of weeks ago, we stopped reading about the Spanish Inquisition and started getting ready for testing, which is what we always do. Our teacher’s name is Ms. Lucid, and she’s pretty new at our school. So, she must have gotten the wrong instructions or 

American Statistical Association (ASA) Position Statement on VAMs |:

American Statistical Association (ASA) Position Statement on VAMs

 Inside my most recent post, about the Top 14 research-based articles about VAMs, there was a great research-based statement that was released just last week by the American Statistical Association (ASA), titled the “ASA Statement on Using Value-Added Models for Educational Assessment.”

It is short, accessible, easy to understand, and hard to dispute, so I wanted to be surenobody missed it as this is certainly a must read for all of you following this blog, not to mention everybody else dealing/working with VAMs and their related educational policies. Likewise, this represents the current, research-based evidence and thinking of probably 90% of the educational researchers and econometricians (still) conducting research in this area.

Again, the ASA is the best statistical organization in the U.S. and likely one of if not the best statistical associations in the world. Some of the most important parts of their statement, taken directly from their full statement as I see them, follow:

1. VAMs are complex statistical models, and high-level statistical expertise is needed to
   develop the models and [emphasis added] interpret their results.
2. Estimates from VAMs should always be accompanied by measures of precision and a discussion of the assumptions and possible limitations of the model. These limitations are particularly relevant if VAMs are used for high-stakes purposes.
3. VAMs are generally based on standardized test scores, and do not directly measure
   potential teacher contributions toward other student outcomes.
4. VAMs typically measure correlation, not causation: Effects – positive or negative –
   attributed to a teacher may actually be caused by other factors that are not captured 

4-13-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Seattle Schools This Week

Basically, it's Spring Break week so no meetings.Saturday, April 19thDirector Blanford finally has a community meeting.  It's from 10-11am at the Douglass-Truth library.I attended both Director Carr and Director Martin-Morris' community meetings yesterday.Director Carr had about eight parents in attendance (and one little girl who was reading her book and laughed out loud a couple of times - good

by Melissa Westbrook / 42min 

Seattle Times editorial on Initiative 1351

The Seattle Times wrote an editorial to discourage people from signing petitions to put Initiative 1351, Class Size Reduction, on the ballot. The editorial was, of course, full of lies, misrepresentations, and unprincipled statements.I don't know where other people stand on initiatives. Lots of states don't have an initiative process. They are certainly open to abuse. We have seen Costco use the i

by Charlie Mas / 42min 

4-12-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum Week

Seattle Schools Community Forum:Seattle Schools Community ForumFriday Open ThreadDid your senior write a great college essay?  Here's a link to an award for $5,000 through Medium.com.  The deadline is May 19.  (Great judges like Anna Quindlen, Wally Lamb, and Mary Roach.) This is not "new" news but the Gates Foundation invests in a private prison company as well as a company with 19 juve

by mike simpson / 8h 

Peg with Pen: UOO to CEA: How Can We Help?

Peg with Pen: UOO to CEA: How Can We Help?:

UOO to CEA: How Can We Help?

The CEA Delegate Assembly just ended here in Denver. I was a delegate this year. My first time. I met a lot of amazing folks and learned a lot. We attempted to get an NBI passed that stated:

OPT OUT: CEA will work with various parent groups and CDE in clarifying the rights of parents to opt out their children from taking standardized tests. CEA will work with CDE to define the procedures for opting out and will communicate this to parents. Students, teachers, schools, and districts will be held harmless. 

There was a lot of misinformation shared on the floor during debate. I spoke once and signed up to speak again, yet debate was closed before I had a chance to clarify.  

The NBI did not pass. This didn't surprise me. It also doesn't deter me from moving forward. I posted the following on FB that night to clarify some of the misunderstandings shared on the floor:

Opt out DOES NOT count as a zero. Opt out DOES NOT diminish funding in Title 1 schools - funding is typically re-allocated to test prep. Opt out makes it impossible to evaluate teachers because there is NO DATA that can be used to evaluate - if 6% per subgroup refuses the test the data is not valid - CDE must take that into consideration. Opt out does drop us on the performance framework but we are going to DROP ANYWAY due to PARCC. I learned patience in 2013 and I still have it thank god It's all good. The greatest concern from folks was harming teachers and schools - what I wanted to say was that we are already harmed - opt out won't harm us - opt out is our one and only chance to be saved if PARCC indeed stays put next year. PARCC is designed to harm everyone - and it will. It will destroy us. It's always fascinating to me that opt out is still viewed as harmful when the harm surrounds us on every front - slowly strangling us to death. PARCC will devour us next year - not just harm us. Opt 

4-13-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:

Mark Stefanik. A week filled with irony.

- Mark Stefanik is a middle school language arts teacher and frequent contributor to this blog. It continues to be a week filled with irony. Today’s episode stars former IEA President Bob Haisman who is, once again, outraged at Fred Klonsky’s voice in IEA affairs. Let’s get something clear, Santa. Cheerleading for the impotence and mismanagement of our union’s policy-makers after the most recent

by Fred Klonsky / 5min 

Sunday reads.

On April 12, 1983 Chicago elected Harold Washington as mayor. Charter schools are an investment opportunity. Corporate school reformers lover choice, right? Not really. DFER’s summer camp for corporate school reformers. Chicagoland. Whites only. Fox discusses race and politics. You have made public employees and retirees scapegoats of another insidious pension reform bill that will never resolve

by Fred Klonsky / 38min   

4-12-14 Fred All Week Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: Fred All Week Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacherKeeping Retirement Weird. Not at the RA.One of the good things about losing the state-wide election for IEA RA Retired delegate is that this morning I am on the back porch sipping coffee and munching on buttered toast, rather than

by mike simpson / 8h 

Marcos Breton: Sacramento’s teachers have won this battle - Marcos Breton - The Sacramento Bee

Marcos Breton: Sacramento’s teachers have won this battle - Marcos Breton - The Sacramento Bee:

Marcos Breton: Sacramento’s teachers have won this battle

By Marcos Breton
mbreton@sacbee.com

Published: Sunday, Apr. 13, 2014 - 12:00 am

You might have missed it, but there was a sea change within the Sacramento City Unified School District last week.

Some call it a complete surrender by the district to the unrelenting tactics of the local teachers union. When district policy is announced at the teachers union hall, as it was last week, that point is hard to argue.

Time will tell whether the union won a single battle or a broader war over district control, but we know this: Efforts to link teacher performance to student test scores in Sacramento city schools have been abandoned for the near term.

One of President Barack Obama’s key goals for improving accountability and classroom performance simply was not happening within Sacramento city schools, which have emerged as a home base for teacher union power. Last year, the district joined with seven others in California in a consortium that pledged to find ways to improve education in failing schools – and, as part of that, to tie teacher evaluations to test scores. In exchange, the U.S. Department of Education granted the consortium the nation’s first district-level waivers from the punishing mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Officials with the Sacramento City Teachers Association say they opposed the consortium agreement because they were left out of the conversation on teacher accountability – but the truth is they didn’t want to have the conversation at all. They simply refused to engage in discussion on a range of issues central to moving the district forward until the accountability piece – “the antichrist,” as the current interim superintendent called it – was dropped from consideration.

Sara Noguchi, the interim superintendent, did just that on Wednesday – at SCTA headquarters. A photo of the event on the website of EdSource Today shows SCTA President Nikki Milevsky looking commanding while Patrick Kennedy, the school board president now running for county supervisor, stands awkwardly to one side with his hands in his pockets.

It stands to reason: Because of its waiver this school year, Sacramento City Unified gained autonomy in spending about $4 million in federal dollars to aid low-income students. Appeasing the union likely means losing control of the $4 million.

It also means Sacramento schools once again will be held to task by the standards of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law. Under the law’s provisions, all but a handful of the district’s schools have been deemed failures for falling short of ever-rising math and English standards many call unrealistic.

But the union hated the idea of test scores factoring into teacher evaluations even more than it hated the law – and got its way. To some, last week’s announcement spoke volumes about the balance of power in the district.

“They own you and everybody knows they own you,” said Jonathan Raymond, the former Sac City superintendent who resigned last year after exhausting years of tussling with the union. “The Marcos Breton: Sacramento’s teachers have won this battle - Marcos Breton - The Sacramento Bee:

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/04/13/6319944/marcos-breton-sacramentos-teachers.html#storylink=cpy

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-13-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

A Note About My Schedule

In an earlier post, I shared with you the fact that I took a bad fall, landed on my knee, and tore the ACL ligament. The MRI showed the damage was even more extensive than it first seemed. I not only tore my ACL, I managed to take out several other ligaments as well that provide stability. So much for enthusiasm and striving boldly into the challenges of life. As a result, this is the new schedul

32 by dianeravitch / 1h 

Please Help Send EduShyster to Camp Philos!

EduShyster needs our help to go to Camp Philos to hear the great thoughts of such brilliant educational philosophers as Governor Andrew Cuomo, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson (Michelle Rhee’s husband), Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Whatz-is-name the mayor of Denver. She has raised $600. She needs $400 more. I made a contribution. Will you? EduShyster promises to share with us all she le

1 by dianeravitch / 40min 

Sara Stevenson: Watch Out, Texas: VAM Is a Sham

Sara Stevenson, librarian at O. Henry Middle School in Austin, published an article in the Austin American-Statesman, written as a warning to Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams. The article appeared on April 11, amd it is behind a paywall is I have no link. Stevenson did an excellent job of reviewing the research literature on value-added measurement and warned Commissioner Williams tha

3 by dianeravitch / 39min 

Paul Thomas: Cynicism or Skepticism about the Obama Education Agenda?

Paul Thomas has been a consistent critic of the Obama education policies of standards, testing, accountability, choice, competition.   Rightly so, since those policies are no different from those of the Bush era, only worse.   He now wonders if the administration’s criticism of zero tolerance might be a hopeful turn.   But he does not note that the administration does not associate “zero tolerance

by dianeravitch / 8min 

Vivian Connell Asks for Your Support

A while back, I posted a moving statement by Vivian Connell about her discovery that she has ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and a limited life-span. I called it “Vivian Connell: The Face of a Hero,” recognizing the grace and dignity with which she was facing a dread diagnosis. She wrote about her plans to do good works in whatever time was left to her, and one of her goals was to take a group of stude

4 by dianeravitch / 11min 

Peter Greene on Arne’s Néw Message

Peter Greene has a large appetite for listening to our educational leaders. In this post, he describes speeches given by Arne Duncan and John King, defending the status quo. They want all children tested, they all teachers evaluated by test scores. They want everyone to stop making so much noise. They want everyone to listen to them. Now. As Greene puts it, Arne’s new message is: “Shut up.”

by dianeravitch / 2min 

Billionaires Rule! How Governor Cuomo and Hedge Fund Managers Protected Charter Schools

I am late posting this article because it appeared about the time I started dealing with health issues (a bad fall that took out the ACL in my left knee). It deserves wide reading because it is an accurate portrait of the money and power behind the charter school movement. I commend the writers, Javier C. Hernandez and Susanne Craig for getting the story that took place behind closed doors in Alb

7 by dianeravitch / 58min hide  //  save

Ohio: Extremists in Legislature Seek to Change Constitution

Just when you think the attacks on public education can’t get worse, some rightwing legislature has a new bad idea. It is probably intended to pave the way for more money for charters, vouchers, and the online industry, which make generous campaign contributions to the GOP. Did this come from ALEC? The following report comes from Bill Phillis of the Ohio Equity and Adequacy Coalition, which fight

16 by dianeravitch / 1h 

Leo Casey: Is New York the Mississippi of Our Time?

Leo Casey, director of the Albert Shanker Institute, writes here about the recent report of the UCLA Civil Rights Project. That report found that Néw York has the most racially segregated schools in the nation. Casey writes: “Last month saw the publication of a new report, New York State’s Extreme School Segregation, produced by UCLA’s highly regarded Civil Rights Project. It confirmed what New

10 by dianeravitch / 2h  

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 4-12-14 #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2

Diane Ravitch's blogLISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONGDIANE RAVITCH'S BLOGDavid Berliner on PISA and PovertySince there is always a lot of chatter about what international tests scores mean, I invited David Berliner to share his views. Berliner is one of our nation’s pre-eminent scholars of education.     Dear Diane,   A few weeks ago you asked me a question about recent PISA test results and t

by mike simpson / 9h 

4-13-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

Newark Teacher Responds to an Ed Deformer

"When trust is low-as it is presently in Newark, there are not enough data decks, community presentations, evidence, research, or Power Point presentations, to keep good people from reading bad things into evolving plans developed by outsiders, who are perceived as less interested in helping children than in building their resumes for personal gain. In a bifurcated, oppositional, often conten

by ed notes online / 24min 

DOE Use Arrest Tactic to Stop Teachers Stop Teachers Wh Fight Back Publicly

The nest of vipers that is DOE legal has grown like a cancer and infested the NYPD where cops arrest fellow unionists for protesting abusive administrator tactics. We've been waiting for the Lydia Howrilka case to go public since the Portelos arrest a few weeks ago for his satiric blog post. In many ways this is even more egregious -- a principal who ends a first year teacher's career with a Disco

by ed notes online / 32min hide  //  save

UFT Astroturf AQE Wants "Credit" for Horrendous Cuomo Ed Budget with Charter Giveaway

At certain critical moments in labor struggles, things really do evolve to the point of it all being about Them and Us.Them: so-called reformers, made up of edu-preneurs, privateers, malanthropists, PR flacks and advocates, opportunists, naifs, parasites and political enablers: the entire reform-industrial complex. Them.Us: classroom teachers, students, parents and supporters of public education a

by ed notes online / 32min 

LA Teacher Gains Public Support for Standing Up to Student Disruptor

Groundswell of support for teacher who wrestled disruptive student to the floor shows the public is fed up with the disciplinary problems and bureaucracies that impede education....When the cellphone video made the evening news, the student's family was offered support by the district's superintendent — who publicly chastised Black and placed the teacher on leave.... For many of us, this goes beyo

by ed notes online / 9h  

4-12-14 Ed Notes Online Week

Ed Notes Online: Ed Notes OnlineReaching Kids with Street Law 101: Jeff Kaufman Featured in Article in School StoriesA fascinating piece on Jeff and his teaching career. Where did they get that MORE is left wing? They must not know about Mike Schirtzer.http://school-stories.org/2014/03/street-law-101/Reaching Kids with Street Law 101by Annum Khan Posted on 28 March 2014. It was sixth period in Jef

by mike simpson / 8h