5-20-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

Pearson Allows Me to Quote 400 Board-meeting Words

At the American Enterprise Institute in March 2014, billionaire Bill Gates explained why the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are necessary above and beyond individual state standards that might be better: You get more free market competition. Scale is good for free market competition. Individual state regulatory capture is not good for competition. [Emphasis added.] In […]

2 by deutsch29 / 1h 

Post-apocalyptic Mindset in a Civilized World

Post-apocalyptic Mindset in a Civilized World. via Post-apocalyptic Mindset in a Civilized World.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical

1 by plthomasedd / 1h hide  //  save

“A Sustained Critique of the Entire System”

“A Sustained Critique of the Entire System”. via “A Sustained Critique of the Entire System”.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical

1 by plthomasedd / 1h 

La. Superintendent John White Requires Districts to Embargo LEAP Summary Public Reports

When it comes to the 2014 Louisiana Education Assessment Program (LEAP) scores he was supposed to release on Friday, May 16, 2014, Louisiana State Superintendent John White has apparently found himself in an unfamiliar fix regarding his characteristic “water muddying.” It seems that in this instance, his Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) underlings have refused to airbrush […]

1 by deutsch29 / 2h 

5-19-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: An Open Letter to TFAers Tempted to Diagnose ADHD, Among Other IssuesDear Teach for America (TFA) Corps Member: In 1985, I graduated from high school. So did TFA founder, Wendy Kopp. She and I happen to be only five weeks apart in age. In April 2014, I published a book. Kopp has her own chapter. She attended college at Princeton from 1985-89. I also attended college, at […]5 by d

by mike simpson / 8h

5-20-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs

With A Brooklyn Accent:

The Passing of Dr Vincent Harding- Minister, Scholar, Activist- Proud Product of the Bronx

Today, I just learned of the passing of Dr Vincent Harding, a minister, civil rights leader, and pioneering scholar in the emerging field of Black Studies. Dr Harding's odyssey led him from a childhood in the Bronx, where he graduated as valedictorian of Morris High School, to work with Dr King in Atlanta, Selma and Birmingham, to the founding of the Institute of the Black World in Atlanta, toward

by Mark Naison / 4h

5-18-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs

With A Brooklyn Accent: Charter Schools: The Education Equivalent of Subprime MortgagesCharter Schools are looking more and more like the educational equivalent of subprime mortgages---a short cut to greater equity and opportunity that becomes the basis of a huge unregulated industry, which gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to make quick profits, and the very wealthy tax breaks and opportunities

by mike simpson / 7h 

5-20-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University):

Post-apocalyptic Mindset in a Civilized World

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. Henry David Thoreau, Walden Since October 1999, when I experienced several weeks of unrelenting panic attacks, I have been negotiating my lifelong struggle with anxiety—many of those years spent completely unaware of the problem and then coming to recognize and even understand a condition that to most people seems completely irrational (even silly

7 by plthomasedd / 59min hide  //  save

“A Sustained Critique of the Entire System”

Please read and consider carefully: The Master’s House Is Burning: bell hooks, Cornel West and the Tyranny of Neoliberalism

3 by plthomasedd / 1h  

5-18-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): Autonomy Must Precede AccountabiltyNearly 2.5 years ago, I wrote directly about the essential flaw with the thirty-plus-years accountability movement in K-12 U.S. public education. That essential flaw is that accountability built on standards and high-stakes testing is a

by mike simpson / 9h 

5-20-14 Curmudgucation Week

CURMUDGUCATION:

Go Home, Gramps!

In the ongoing battle to get older, more experienced, and (most importantly) more expensive teachers out of schools, the only surprise is that the latest push didn't come sooner.Education Next, the magazine by and for the discerning corporate conservative educrats at the Fordham Institute, Harvard Kennedy School, and the Hoover Institution, brings us an article about incentive programs for early r

3 by Peter Greene / 9min 

Further Proof Researchers Don't Understand Humans

Most of us suffer from employment bias, the belief that we are doing work that is self-evidently important. On that list of Things They Don't Teach You In Teacher School is the realization that while we can see how obviously important our work is, not everyone shares that belief.Our employment bias simply sets us up for discouragement. But the employment bias of the folks who work with surveys and

17 by Peter Greene / 1h 

5-19-14 Curmudgucation Week

CURMUDGUCATION: Rigorizing Eight Year OldsOne of the most odious policies to emerge from the Reformster swamp is the mandatory retention of all third graders who don't pass the Big Test in reading. And now Mary Laura Bragg, the director of Florida's program, has popped up to help us all understand just how anti-child this policy is.She has popped up in North Carolina (motto: Strapping schools to a

by mike simpson / 8h 

Pearson’s Behavioral Assessments for Students. Welcome to School Hell. | Missouri Education Watchdog

Pearson’s Behavioral Assessments for Students. Welcome to School Hell. | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Pearson’s Behavioral Assessments for Students. Welcome to School Hell.

inShare

The role of public schools today. Behavioral observation and tracking.

Anne previously wrote about permission requested from parents for their children to be subjects of a Pearson Research Project for Behavior Assessments.  Read about it here: Is Pearson Using Your Child For Research?

This letter came home to a parent in Saline County this week. It seeks parental permission to have their children be the subjects of a Pearson research project for their Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC). The letter says that this survey is looking at “student behavior,” that teachers will be using the “Teacher Rating Scale” survey to observe the child, and the big win for the school is that they will have the “opportunity” to earn iPads for “some” classrooms.

Let’s break this down.

1. Teachers and students are being asked to be free labor for an international for profit company. Sure they say they will give the school “some” iPads, but as far as the parents know that could be 1 or 2 that will not necessarily benefit their child directly. In fact, from the Pearson letter to parents, the only educational benefit to their child is that the school can get mentioned in the manual for this for profit product and that the school as a whole could get included in the “national norms.”  Hardly a measurable benefit for a child’s education. The teacher’s time is purely gratis.

And what is this product for which your school’s name could be in the manual? The BASC is, according to one website, “a useful tool that teachers or parents may choose to implement to monitor the progress and behavior patterns of young minds.”

2.  Ok, but what are those behavior patterns they are looking for? They include your child’s focus, intellectual and interest levels, how your child relates to others in a social setting. Teachers are looking for emotional triggers such as anxiety, anger and hyper-Pearson’s Behavioral Assessments for Students. Welcome to School Hell. | Missouri Education Watchdog:

U.S. Department of Education Takes First Step toward Regulating Charters | janresseger

U.S. Department of Education Takes First Step toward Regulating Charters | janresseger:

U.S. Department of Education Takes First Step toward Regulating Charters

Posted on May 20, 2014 by janresseger

Last week something important happened, “finally,” as Valerie Strauss emphasized in herWashington Post report.  The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil rights issued new guidance confirming that charter schools must comply with the same civil rights protections as public schools.

As quoted by Education Week, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Cathrine E. Lhamon issued the following: “I am writing to remind you that the Federal civil rights laws, regulations, and guidance that apply to charter schools are the same as those that apply to other public schools.  For this reason, it is essential that charter school officials and staff be knowledgeable about federal civil rights laws.  These laws extend to all operations of a charter school, including recruiting, admissions, academics, educational services and testing, school climate (including prevention of harassment), disciplinary measures (including suspensions and expulsions), athletics and other nonacademic and extracurricular services and activities, and accessible buildings and technology.”

While Education Week‘s Evie Blad explains that the new guidance applies particularly to admissions, provision of services for students with disabilities and English language learners, she continues:  “In addition to those areas, charter schools should ensure their policies and practices comply with all federal civil rights law, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination based on sex; and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which prohibits discrimination based on disability.”

Does the new guidance mean that the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education has the enforcement capacity to tour the country examining the policies aU.S. Department of Education Takes First Step toward Regulating Charters | janresseger:

Here’s The Painful Truth About What It Means To Be ‘Working Poor’ In America | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Here’s The Painful Truth About What It Means To Be ‘Working Poor’ In America | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Here’s The Painful Truth About What It Means To Be ‘Working Poor’ In America

Filed under: Poverty — millerlf @ 7:42 am 

Posted: 05/19/2014 Huffington Post

In a nation that has long operated on the principle that an “American Dream” is available to anyone willing to try hard enough, the term “working poor” may seem to have a bright side. Sure, these individuals struggle financially, but they have jobs — the first and most essential step toward lifting oneself out of poverty, right?

If only it were that simple.

According to 2012 Census data, more than 7 percent of American workers fell below the federal poverty line, making less than $11,170 for a single person and $15,130 for a couple. By some estimates, one in four private-sector jobs in the U.S. pays under $10 an hour. Last month, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have raised the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, despite overwhelming public support for the measure.

And these numbers don’t say anything about the many Americans who earn well above the official poverty line and still barely stay afloat. In HuffPost’s “All Work, No Pay” series, the working poor told their own stories, painting a devastating portrait of their day-to-day struggles.

They’re a diverse range of people: single parents, couples with and without children, young women with graduate degrees, business owners, seniors and everyone in between. Their financial situations, however, show many similarities. Jobs generally provide them with the means to barely scrape by, treading paycheck-to-paycheck, earning just enough to keep from going under, swallowing their pride sometimes to take food stamps or visit food banks. Others are entirely out of work, tirelessly seeking employment and relying on other means to survive.

Through their words, we see what it’s really like to be “working poor” in America — and just how much more it looks like rock bottom than most would imagine.

Being working poor means toiling through “pure hell” for next to nothing.

Earlier this year, 55-year-old Glenn Johnson was making about $14,000 a year — or $7.93 an hour — at a Miami-area Burger King. He’d been in and out of the fast food industry for more than 30 years. Recently he watched as his employer reported a 37 percent increase in its quarterly profit, while continuing to resist a minimum wage increase that workers like Johnson Here’s The Painful Truth About What It Means To Be ‘Working Poor’ In America | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

La. Superintendent John White Requires Districts to Embargo LEAP Summary Public Reports | deutsch29

La. Superintendent John White Requires Districts to Embargo LEAP Summary Public Reports | deutsch29:

La. Superintendent John White Requires Districts to Embargo LEAP Summary Public Reports

May 20, 2014

When it comes to the 2014 Louisiana Education Assessment Program (LEAP) scores he was supposed to release on Friday, May 16, 2014, Louisiana State Superintendent John White has apparently found himself in an unfamiliar fix regarding his characteristic “water muddying.”

It seems that in this instance, his Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) underlings have refused to airbrush LEAP scores in order to create a false luster of behalf of the predominately-charter-showcased Recovery School District (RSD).

What to do?

Well, for starters, refuse to honor the deadline. Never mind how much of a selfish, self-serving ripple such an action forces upon all state districts that are trying to wrap up one school year while planning for another– which includes planning for requisite LEAP summer remediation.

Also, be sure to provide districts with a directive on how to report scores, including new, fuzzy score report “groupings” that conceal the precision of the standard five levels of LEAP achievement (unsatisfactory, approaching basic, basic, mastery, and advanced).

Add to that the directive that public releases of score reports are to be embargoed until LDOE says it’s okay to release them. Districts are only allowed to issue individual score reports.

John White does not want the public to see the 2014 LEAP-score big picture.

Here are White’s/LDOE’s words, an amazingly obvious attempt to conceal less-than-favorable LEAP results:

All public releases, other than individual student reports to parents and 

Test consortium offers work readiness tool :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet

Test consortium offers work readiness tool :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

MAY 20, 2014

Test consortium offers work readiness tool

by Kimberly Beltran

(Olympia, Wash.) School districts struggling to adequately prepare students who want to enter the workforce after graduation now have a new tool to guide them in that endeavor.

Developed over the last year by a task force of industry experts from member states of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, the newly-adopted Career Readiness Frameworks provide sample templates for charting an academic path for students interested in a job in one of 16 career/industry segments.

By endorsing the frameworks, the Smarter Balanced website noted, “governing states affirmed their expectation that all students should achieve a level proficiency in English language arts and math that prepares them for success in a wide range of careers, including those that require postsecondary education or training.”

Designed to provide guidance and information to students, parents, teachers and counselors as students develop their career and academic goals, the career frameworks are likely to inform discussions taking place now in many states over measuring achievement that shows students are prepared to enter the workforce after graduation.

In many states transitioning to the new Common Core curriculum standards and aligned assessments, officials are restructuring academic performance measurement systems to include more than just test scores and other college-readiness indicators. But trying to document achievement toward workforce readiness has proved to be a challenge, mostly because there is no relevant data upon which to base universal benchmarks.

Identifying minimum workforce requirements and equating them to testing levels, such as the Career Frameworks do, may be a first step toward creating those benchmarks.

There are 16 model frameworks, one for each of the career clusters identified and developed by the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium. Many states Test consortium offers work readiness tool :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

As reading scores climb overall, gap persists

(Calif.) Despite higher reading scores in classrooms across the nation, the achievement gap between white, black and Hispanic youth has seen very little improvement according to a report released last week by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that monitors how children and teens use media.

by Alisha Kirby / 5h

Shanker Blog » Expectations For Student Performance Under NCLB Waivers

Shanker Blog » Expectations For Student Performance Under NCLB Waivers:

Expectations For Student Performance Under NCLB Waivers

Posted by Matthew Di Carlo on May 20, 2014

A recent story in the Chicago Tribune notes that Illinois’ NCLB waiver plan sets lower targets for certain student subgroups, including minority and low-income students. This, according to the article, means that “Illinois students of different backgrounds no longer will be held to the same standards,” and goes on to quote advocates who are concerned that this amounts to lower expectations for traditionally lower-scoring groups of children.

The argument that expectations should not vary by student characteristics is, of course, valid and important. Nevertheless, as Chad Aldeman notes, the policy of setting different targets for different groups of students has been legally required since the enactment of NCLB, under which states must “give credit to lower-performing groups that demonstrate progress.” This was supposed to ensure, albeit with exceedingly crude measures, that schools weren’t punished due to the students they serve, and how far behind were those students upon entry into the schools.

I would take that a step further by adding two additional points. The first is quite obvious, and is mentioned briefly in the Tribune article, but too often is obscured in these kinds of conversations: Neither NCLB nor the waivers actually hold students to different standards. The cut scores above which students are deemed “proficient,” somewhat arbitrary though they may be, do not vary by student subgroup, or by any other factor within a given state. All students are held to the same exact standard.

That may seem like a semantic point, but there is a big difference between varying schoolwide targets by student subgroup and establishing different passing scores for different students.

The second point I would like to make on this issue is perhaps even less frequently-acknowledged: The simple proficiency targets in the NCLB waivers get all the controversy, but setting different growth expectations for different students is also an inherent feature of most value-added and other growth models. Although these models do not necessarily need to include controls for student characteristics such as race/ethnicity and income (i.e., subsidized lunch eligibility), most of them do control for prior achievement (test scores in the previous year), and the models Shanker Blog » Expectations For Student Performance Under NCLB Waivers:

NYC Educator: ATR--A SImple Twist of Fate

NYC Educator: ATR--A SImple Twist of Fate:

ATR--A SImple Twist of Fate

Note-This story originally appeared in Gotham Schoools, now Chalkbeat NY.  One of the most disturbing features of this contract is the two-tier due process we've established for ATR teachers. I don't see how we, as union, can justify a different and lower standard for their due process. I could've easily been an ATR for being at the wrong place at the right time. My former school faced closure and managed to stay open by the skin of its teeth. My friends at Jamaica High School, alas, have not been so lucky. Anyone can become an ATR--me, you, and any working teacher. I always remember that.

A lot of people think teaching is somehow a job for life — that no teachers can be fired for any reason, no matter what they do, who they kill, or whether or not they sleep in garbage cans. It’s not true. In fact, the Department of Education tries to take away teacher jobs all the time. I recently read about one teacher who’s up on charges for giving watches to kids who scored 90 or above in his class. Clearly, dangerous individuals like that must be dealt with severely.

Those of us who aren’t up on charges have other worries. For example, we can become “ATRs.” ATR is an acronym for “Absent Teacher Reserve.” When the cit closes a school, it’s required to retain 50% of “qualified” teachers. This translates to fewer than 50% of actual teachers. If the “reorganized” school doesn’t offer French, for example, 100% of working French teachers say adieu, teaching schedule and bonjour, Absent Teacher Reserve.

The ATR situation started in 2005. Tabloid editorial writers were jumping up and down about the new UFT contract. God bless teachers, they declared. Finally, they said, principals could decide who they wanted to hire. It was morning in America again. Several weeks passed before they went back to vilifying us, as tradition dictates.

In any case, teachers would no longer be sent to schools simply because there were open positions. Instead, they’d become ATRs, teaching NYC Educator: ATR--A SImple Twist of Fate:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Randi tours Chicago with Karen Lewis. Leaves blasting the mayor.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Randi tours Chicago with Karen Lewis. Leaves blasting the mayor.:

Randi tours Chicago with Karen Lewis. Leaves blasting the mayor.

"It feels that the Chicago mayor wants to kick the public [school] system in the teeth at every opportunity."

AFT's Randi Weingarten and NEA's Dennis Van Roekel have been trying to ride two horses at the same time, courting approval from Obama/Duncan while bucking their own rank-and-file in their support for Common Core. Feeling increasing pressure from below, they recently shifted their stand and now say they still support CCSS but "not how they're being implemented."

So CTU Pres. Karen Lewis took Randi on a tour of some Chicago schools to show her exactly how they're being implemented. Spending time with Karen seems to have had some affect. Randi responded by opening up on Rahm Emanuel (better late than never) saying "it feels that the Chicago mayor wants to kick the public [school] system in the teeth at every opportunity."

 Weingarten, who is president of the American Federation of a Teachers, has supported Common Core. But on a Monday she defended the CTU's recent resolution calling on state officials and the AFT to reverse their approval, saying she had been expecting the move for months. "People keep asking for help, asking for resources, and none of that is forthcoming in Chicago," Weingarten said at the national Education Writers Association seminar in Nashville on Monday evening. -- Early & Often

After the CTU passed it's anti-CCSS resolution, Duncan used two of his former assistant ed secretaries, Carmel Martin and Peter Cunningham as attack dogs to go after the union. In her May 17th Sun-Times commentary, Martin, who served as Duncan's former assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development, stooped about as low as one can go by insinuating the union was in bed with Glen Beck and the Koch Bros. Cunningham Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Randi tours Chicago with Karen Lewis. Leaves blasting the mayor.: