Time for Congressional Hearings into the misuse of standardized testing The Network For Public Education | Grassroots Toolkit:

The Network For Public Education | Grassroots Toolkit: Time for Congressional Hearings into the misuse of standardized testing:

Grassroots Toolkit: Time for Congressional Hearings into the misuse of standardized testing

March 7, 2014 NPE Tool Kit

Will Your Congressperson or Senator Join Us?

On March 2, 2014, The Network for Public Education issued a call for congressional hearings into the overuse and misuse of tests in our schools. Our campaign is gaining steam! We need your help in getting even more traction. We are asking our friends and allies to reach out to your Senators and Representatives.

Below are two ways that you can help out. The first is a letter that you can send via mail or email to your Congressperson or Senator. The second is a guide to making an appointment with their staff. Thank you for taking the time to do one or both of these actions?

1. Write a letter to a member of Congress using the following template.

Dear Representative/Senator_______

On March 2nd the Network for Public Education called for Congressional hearings about high-stakes standardized testing. As (identify yourself—a retired teacher, a parent, etc), I encourage you to accept NPE’s request to hold formal hearings.  I believe that it is important to investigate the overuse and misuse of high stakes standardized testing.  These tests are having a negative impact on children, public schools, and communities.  Tests should be diagnostic or evaluative. Currently, high stakes tests are used to punish rather than to benefit children.  These tests are not being used in an instructionally appropriate manner, and are wasting precious time and money.The Network for Public Education is calling on Congressional leaders to pursue the following eleven questions concerning testing:

1. Do the tests promote skills our children and our economy need?
2. What is the purpose of these tests?
3. How good are the tests?
4. Are tests being given to children who are too young?
5. Are tests culturally biased?
6. Are tests harmful to students with disabilities?
7. How has the frequency and quantity of testing increased?
8. Does testing harm teaching?
9. How much money does it cost?
10. Are there conflicts of interest in testing policies?
11. Was it legal for the U.S. Department of Education to fund two testing consortia for the Common Core State Standards?

I encourage you to visit the NPE website here (http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/2014/03/npe-call-for-congressional-hearings-summary/), to study the questions, and to answer the call for a formal hearing.

Sincerely,

Name
address
phone
email

2. Schedule a meeting with a Congress person or their staff.

Put together a group of like minded constituents (e.g. school board members, teachers, administrators, parents, students.) and contact your Representative or Senator. If you plan to make an appointment with a legislator by email, write the words “SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT in the subject line.

What do you say and do when you get there?

• Have specific talking points. Have a specific focus or goal in mind.
• Prepare stories and facts to share that show why Congressional hearings are needed.
• Bring handouts that you can leave with them.

Don’t forget to follow up by sending an email or letter. Consider writing a thank-you note to let the legislator know you appreciate their time and interest. Be sure to ask if they need any further information. Also consider writing letters and op-eds in local newspapers making the call for congressional hearings.

Your congressional delegation will be home March 17-21 for constituent work week. Now is the perfect time to get in touch and urge them to hold the hearings.

To contact your senators, go here:
https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

For your congressional representative, go here:
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

The following web pages explain The Network for Public Education’s call for Congressional Hearings. Please distribute widely!

PRESS RELEASE: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/2014/03/press-release-npe-calls-for-congressional-hearings/

SUMMARY: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/2014/03/npe-call-for-congressional-hearings-summary/

FULL TEXT: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/2014/03/npe-calls-for-congressional-hearings-full-text/

5-13-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):

City, LAUSD announce an LA-wide summer learning program

Mayor Eric Garcetti and LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy, along with several private groups, today announced new  citywide initiative to keep youth engaged in learning this summer, the Los Angeles Summer of Learning. The program provides access to 100 learning opportunities online and in person at LA parks and libraries, LAUSD schools and museums and cultural institutions, such as the Getty Ce

2 10min hide  //  save

School Board Candidate McFrazier wants focus on students needs

Hattie McFrazier Sixth in a series of profiles of candidates for the LA Unified’s open District 1 board seat. Community and union activist Hattie McFrazier, one of seven candidates on the ballot for LAUSD’s District 1 board seat, has worked in LA Unified for more than 30 years, giving her what she believes is a firm grasp on what District 1 needs. As a result, she has a clear message for Superint

3 by Yana Gracile / 1h 

Commentary: LA schools’ health effort should expand

Via the Los Angeles Daily News | By Monica Garcia, Beatriz Maria Solis and Maria Brenes Schools have long served as trusted and safe places for community and families to gather. In addition to being places where parents entrust their children for education, schools have inherent connections to communities as parent centers, polling places, and venues for town halls and other gatherings. The creati

18min 

LIVESTREAM coverage of today’s LAUSD school board meeting

Today the Los Angeles Unified School Board tackles a hefty agenda that includes hammering out details of next year’s budget in a meeting that could extend late into the evening. While there’s no vote on the budget until early summer, the board has been hearing from community and labor groups on how to allocate new money from the state. Superintendent John Deasy submitted his version of the budget

4 20min hide  //  save

Morning Read: LAUSD School taking on spending priorities

LA Schools budget debate: more teachers, custodians, health services The Los Angeles Unified school board is scheduled to discuss Superintendent John Deasy’s 2014-2015 proposed budget at its meeting Tuesday – and it promises hours of debate over long lists of competing wants. Board members commended the superintendent’s $6.8 billion proposal when it was released last month, but are now pushing for

2 20min 

5-12-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District): In LAT, community groups press LAUSD to help high-need studentsMore than 40 education and community groups signed a full-page ad that ran in today’s Los Angeles Times, urging the LA Unified school board to provide more support for high needs students in the up-coming budget. The ad appears a day before a

by mike simpson / 21h

Researchers give failing marks to national effort to measure good teaching | Education By The Numbers

Researchers give failing marks to national effort to measure good teaching | Education By The Numbers:

Researchers give failing marks to national effort to measure good teaching

School systems around the country are trying to use objective, quantifiable measures to identify which are the good teachers and which are the bad ones. One popular approach used in New York, Chicago and other cities, is to calculate a value-added performance measure (VAM). Essentially, you create a model that begins by calculating how much kids’ test scores, on average, increase each year. (Test score year 2 minus test score year 1). Then you give a high score to teachers who have students who post test-score gains above the average. And you give a low score to teachers whose students show smaller test-score gains. There are lots of mathematical tweaks, but the general idea is to build a model that answers this question: are the students of this particular teacher learning more or less than you expect them to?  The teachers’ value-added scores are then used to figure out which teachers to train, fire or reward with bonuses.

Two academic researchers from the University of Southern California and the University of Pennsylvania looked at these value-added measures in six districts around the nation and found that there was weak to zero relationship between these new numbers and the content or quality of the teacher’s instruction.

“These results call into question the fixed and formulaic approach to teacher evaluation that’s being promoted in a lot of states right now,” said Morgan Polikoff, one of the study’s authors, in a video that explains his paper, “Instructional Alignment as a Measure of Teaching Quality,” published online in Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis on May 13, 2014. ”These measures are not yet up to the task of being put into, say, an index to make important summative decisions about teachers.”

Polikoff of the University of Southern California and Andrew Porter of the University of Researchers give failing marks to national effort to measure good teaching | Education By The Numbers:

High school guidance counselors must honor students’ individual dreams, ambitions

In New Orleans schools there are a lot of teachers, principals and guidance counselors who encourage students to go to college so much and so vigorously that it seems as though they are forcing the idea of college on them. I have advisors who encourage me to attend a four-year university at both my high school, Lake Area New Tech, and at Bard Early College, a college preparation program I attend p

by Thea Tucker / 7min hide  //  save

A Pennsylvania district takes on cyber charters

The class on dramatic irony promised to be cool. Seniors in Nicole Roeder’s English class at Quakertown Community High School had to watch a set of videos, including the trailers from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and a scene from “Othello” as interpreted by two different theater troupes. But the computer program wasn’t working and the Othello scenes had stalled. So Cheyenne Knight, 18, switched gear

by Sarah Garland / 7min 

5-13-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum Week

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Times Op-Ed On NCLB Waiver by President Peaslee

If you blinked, you might have missed it.The Times does some really weird thinking on how long they allow education opinions/op-eds to stay (1) on their front page of their website and (2) on the Opinion page of their website.  I've seen some stay for just a day, some for a week or more and some, you cannot find even if you search.This one is a bit of a record as it was just there this morning on

by Melissa Westbrook / 1h hide  //  save

Seattle Schools - Newest Enrollment Numbers for North-End Middle Schools

And guess what?  These numbers are different from previous ones.Yes, we all know that forecasting numbers is not an exact science but we all also know how many times SPS has gotten it wrong.  Very wrong. Tell me again why we should put faith (not to mention tax dollars) into these forecasts?And again, why are these numbers kind of weird to begin with?  Most projections are generally round numbers

by Melissa Westbrook / 2h

Tuesday Open Thread

The Seattle International Film Festival Opens this week.  They have some great programming for families in their Films4Families section and FutureWave section for teens (note: some of this section's programming is for mature teens - check out the films before you send them off). Anyone attend a Director community meeting this weekend? What's on your mind?

by Melissa Westbrook / 1h 

5-12-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum Week

Seattle Schools Community Forum: WSJ Story on RttT OutcomesThere was a story in the Wall Street Journal on May 3 about Race to the Top grants that casts them in a rather dim light. A number of grant winners did not actually move forward with the promised reforms and a number of the reforms did not actually provide any positive outcomes.Surprise, surprise, surprise.A lot of this might be just the u

by mike simpson / 20h 

5-13-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

Brown is Dying, and Friedman Lives On

In 1954 SCOTUS declared in a 9-0 decision that separate schools are inherently unequal.  And thus began the beginning of the end for Jim Crow.  But Old Jim has proven to be very resilient, and even today his grandson, James Crow, Jr. Esq. continues the racist work of his grandfather.   Old Jim has had many allies between the segregated schools of the 1950s and the segregated schools of the 2010s.O

2 by Jim Horn / 2h 

No Oversight for Pennsylvania's Billion Dollar a Year Charter Industry

While the profiteers and privatizers threaten, demean, and berate students and teachers for more accountability, the Vampire Squid unleashed by billionaires has its blood funnel deep into the public jugular of Philadelphia.  As public schools re-use copy paper and shutter libraries and fire counselors, the billionaires and hedge funders walk away with state government and handsome profits.  When w

by Jim Horn / 32min 

No Child Left Behind Documentary

This film was produced by Lerone Wilson on a shoestring budget -too bad, it's taken more than 10 years for the rest of the nation to catch on.So much damage has been done because of high stakes standardized testing.Only two students this week at my school threatened to commit suicide.Could it be related to the NJ Ask Test?Perhaps someone should "ask" those students.

by freetoteach / 1h 

Responding to Joanne Jacobs on Her KIPP "Character" Defense

Joanne Jacobs applies her own distinct brand of mild mommish corporate apologia to defend against the insightful essay last week by Jeff Snyder on KIPP's "value-free" character indoctrination program developed by Dr. Martin Seligman and Dave Levin.  In fact, Joanne would be entirely on board if Dave and Marty would add "citizenship" to grit, zest, self-control, optimism, gratit

2 by Jim Horn / 1h 

5-11-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: KIPP Pre-Ks With 8-9 Hour DaysKIPP's segregated charter reform schools are widely known for their 10 hour days, plus 2 hours of homework each night.  With tons of federal cash soon up for grabs for those who promise to replace the effect of poverty with cultural and character sterilization programs, KIPP has plans to take the lead in the 3-4 year old market.  KIPP would like to sta

by mike simpson / 12min 

Florida’s VAM-Based Evaluation System Ruled “Unfair but Not Unconstitutional” |:

Florida’s VAM-Based Evaluation System Ruled “Unfair but Not Unconstitutional”

 From Diane Ravitch’s blog comes an important update re: on the lawfulness of VAM-based systems that I want to be sure readers of this blog didn’t miss.

She writes: “A federal judge in Florida dismissed a lawsuit against the state evaluation system, declaring that it was unfair to rate teachers based on the scores of students they never taught but not unconstitutional.

The evaluation system may be stupid; it may be irrational; it may be unfair; but it does not violate the Constitution. So says the judge.

An article in the Florida Education Association newsletter described the ruling:

“The federal lawsuit, known as Cook v. Stewart, was filed last year by the FEA, the National Education Association and seven accomplished teachers and the local education associations in Alachua, Escambia and Hernando counties. The lawsuit challenged the evaluation of teachers based on the standardized test scores of students they do not teach or from subjects they do not teach. They brought suit against the Florida commissioner of education, the State Board of Education and the school boards of those three counties, who have implemented the evaluation system to comply with 2011’s Senate Bill 736.

“On Tuesday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker dismissed FEA’s challenges to the portions of SB 736 that call for teachers to be evaluated based upon students and/or subjects the teachers do not teach, though he expressed reservations on the practice.

We are disheartened by the judge’s ruling. Judge Walker acknowledged the many Florida’s VAM-Based Evaluation System Ruled “Unfair but Not Unconstitutional” |:

UPDATE: Feds offer school climate improvement grants :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet

Feds offer school climate improvement grants :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

No major improvements for schools in May Revise

(Calif.) Focusing his attention and much of the $2.4 billion in unanticipated state revenue in other directions, Gov. Jerry Brown offered a revised education budget Tuesday with few major changes from what he proposed in January.

by Tom Chorneau / 1h 

MAY 13, 2014

Feds offer school climate improvement grants

by Tom Chorneau

(District of Columbia) As students in many parts of the country work on a transition this spring to new standards and new testing systems, there’s also renewed attention being paid to the conditions within schools that impact social, emotional and behavioral needs.

In an effort to improve school safety and, in turn, promote achievement, the U.S. Department of Education is accepting applications from local educational agencies to compete for a share of $23.6 million in school climate grants.

Research increasingly demonstrates that use of an evidence-based, multi-tiered behavioral framework, such as Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, can help improve overall school climate and safety. A report issued by the U.S. Secret Service and the Education Department in the wake of the Columbine shooting found one of the best methods for improving school climate is to increase trust and communication between school staff and students.

The School Climate Transformation Grant is intended to supports states and LEAs in “developing, enhancing, or expanding systems of support for, and technical assistance to, schools implementing evidence-based multi-tiered behavior frameworks for improving behavioral outcomes and learning conditions for all students.”

School districts, charters and county offices of education are eligible to apply with a range of award estimated to be between $100,000 and $750,000 annually. The grant term would be up to five years.

Although proposed projects can build on existing activities, including the Safe and Healthy Students program and the School Mental Health program, federal officials said they are interested Feds offer school climate improvement grants :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Schools look for boost in Brown’s revised budget

(Calif.) For the first time in nearly a decade, there’s little drama playing out for schools around Tuesday’s release of Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised May budget plan.

by Kimberly Beltran / 1h