SPECIAL Mid Day Banana Break 9-11-14 #edchat #edreform

Big Education Ape - Mid Day Banana Break

The teaching profession is becoming less gray and less green, but more teachers are leaving poor schools

Much ink has been devoted to the teaching profession’s increasingly gray and green complexion — the profusion of teachers at the two extremes of the age spectrum. There are lots of veteran teachers older than 50. Meanwhile, school systems have hired hundreds of thousands of cheaper newbies without much experience in the classroom. That leaves the U.S. school system without as much weight in the h

by Jill Barshay / 11min 

Missouri passes training law for teachers who take guns to schools

Lawmakers approve bill to help train 'school protection officers' in handling firearms, expand open-carry rights

4 9min 

Senior Department Official to Discuss Challenges and Opportunities for English Learners at Conference in San Francisco

Libia Gil, assistant deputy secretary and director of the U.S.

1h 

Washington State High Court Holds Legislature in Contempt on K-12 Funding

The Washington State Supreme Court has ruled that the state legislature is in contempt for failing to identify a long-term plan for substantially increasing public school funding.

3 by Andrew Ujifusa / 1h 

Common Core’s Latest PR Campaign Is Awfully Lame

Common Core still hasn’t found its softer, fuzzy side.Opponents have video of exasperated kids, we don’t need to produce a video with actors when we can talk to real moms, dads, and kids.  On the other side Six One Seven Studios, a group of filmmakers who want to help get the word out about Common Core, made this two minute video. They describe the video, “Pop-pop takes Hector late to his first da

58 by Shane Vander Hart / 51min 

District Clerk Gary Fitzsimmons questions the Dallas ISD board’s dedication to transparency

Gary Fitzsimmons, Dallas County district clerk Gary Fitzsimmons, the Dallas County district clerk, questioned the Dallas school board’s … [visit site to read more]

6 by Tawnell D. Hobbs / 1h 

Accessible playgrounds for all children: Find one near you

; Credit: /John W. Poole/NPR MAP: Find the playgrounds near you Janna Espinoza's daughter Coraline has hearing loss, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and developmental delays. Nearly 2 years old, she can't sit up, stand, creep or use her hands as a typically developing child does. Coraline is among an estimated 6.4 million children in the U.S. with a disability. And for these kids the simple ritual of pl

1 by Anya Kamenetz and... / 1h 

Channeling Rosemary Woods: LAUSD Board Votes To Expunge One Year Old Emails

After just discovering that top ranking district administrators and private vendors effectively fixed a billion-dollar deal ahead of open bidding, this week our school board explicitly voted to thwart uncovering such embarrassments in the future. It was emails obtained by Annie Gilbertson at KPCC that were two years old which spotlighted the LAUSD administration’s tawdry collusion with private ven

36min 

From Newark to Philadelphia: People Demand Local Control

While students in Newark boycott schools demanding the return of local control, the organizations that have been leading the fight to get a November ballot question on abolishing the School Reform Commission were at City Hall today urging Council to honor the wishes of over 40,000 registered voters who sign petitions. City Council acted to table the vote, effectively ignoring this outpouring of de

10 by wearepcaps / 1h 

Breathtakingly Irresponsible Bargain Big Two Teachers and. Microphone Give Arne Duncan an Earful on LAUSD'S DEASY

1 by Rene Diedrich / 12min hide  //  save

Kindergarten teacher: ‘There is a good possibility I will be fired but…’ (update) - The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/11/kindergarten-teacher-there-is-a-good-possibility-i-will-be-fired-but/ (Marlon Correa/The Washington Post) (Update:  Statement from superintendent of district in which teacher works has been added) Teachers are increasingly speaking up about the onslaught of standardized tests that students in all grades — including  kindergarten — are

by Rene Diedrich / 18min

High levels of physical activity are associated with better reading and arithmetic skills in the first 3 school years among boys

A recent Finnish study shows that higher levels of physical activity are related to better academic achievement during the first three school years particularly in boys. The study published in PLOS ONE was conducted in collaboration with the Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children (PANIC) Study conducted at the University of Eastern Finland and the First Steps Study at the University of Jyväsk

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 5min 

Childhood Mentors Have Positive Impact on Career Success

New research from North Carolina State University finds that young people who have had mentors are more likely to find work early in their careers that gives them more responsibility and autonomy – ultimately putting them on a path to more financially and personally rewarding careers.“We wanted to look at the long-term impacts on mentees in naturally occurring mentorship relationships, rather than

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 11min 

Common Core: What’s true, false and fuzzy

  Thomas Scarice, the superintendent of Madison Public Schools in Connecticut, has been a vocal critic of high-stakes test-based school reform. This year  he sent a letter to state legislators explaining why these “reforms will not result in improved conditions since they are not grounded in research” and he has spelled out what he sees as […]

7 by Valerie Strauss / 8min

Curriculum Doesn’t Matter, Unless You Care about Achievement and Mobility

Five years ago, Russ Whitehurst published an important paper comparing the effects of various education reforms. Better teachers and curriculum rose to the top, with what is taught being just as important as who is doing the teaching. But that finding didn’t fit with reformers’ obsession with teachers, so the paper was largely ignored. Two […]

by Lisa Hansel / 15min 

NEA President Salutes Florida Educators For Focusing on the Whole Child | NEA Today

NEA President Salutes Florida Educators For Focusing on the Whole Child | NEA Today: NEA President Salutes Florida Educators For Focusing on the Whole ChildSeptember 11, 2014 by twalker  Filed under Featured News, Top StoriesBy Brenda ÁlvarezNEA President Lily Eskelsen García traveled to Florida this past week (Sep. 4-5) as part of the Association’s Back-to-School tour, where she visited schools i

6 by mike simpson / 2h 

So There’s A Moratorium. Now What? | Taking Note

So There’s A Moratorium. Now What? | Taking Note: So There’s A Moratorium. Now What?by JOHN MERROW on 11. SEP, 2014 in 2014 BLOGS, COMMON CORE Those seeking a moratorium on using high stakes tests to judge teachers seem to have gotten what they asked for. What happens now?Remember that a “moratorium” is nothing more than ‘a suspension of activity.’  It does not imply any pro-active behavior or a r

1 by mike simpson / 3h 

Embrace The Common Core – IQ2 Debates For the Motion: Carmel Martin, Michael Petrilli Against the Motion: Carol Burris, Frederick Hess

Embrace The Common Core – IQ2 Debates:  Illustration by Thomas JamesTUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014In K-12 education, there is nothing more controversial than the Common Core State Standards, national academic standards in English and math. Adopted by more than 40 states, they were developed, in part, to address concerns that American students were falling behind their foreign counterparts and graduati

5 by mike simpson / 3h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Byrd-Bennett promised not to close any more schools. But that doesn't mean she can't militarize them.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Byrd-Bennett promised not to close any more schools. But that doesn't mean she can't militarize them.: Byrd-Bennett promised not to close any more schools. But that doesn't mean she can't militarize them.Study war no more...?The Sun-Times reports:No teachers teach in this school. No students are enrolled. It has nearly no budget. The principal sits miles away in anot

1 by mike simpson / 3h 

New York Times Ignored Teacher Input on Eva Moskowitz | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.

New York Times Ignored Teacher Input on Eva Moskowitz | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.: New York Times Ignored Teacher Input on Eva MoskowitzThe September 7th New York Times Magazine ran a story by Daniel Bergner called “The Battle for New York Schools: Eva Moskowitz vs. Mayor Bill de Blasio”.  Bergner’s piece reads as an astonishing piece of hagiography to appear in the paper of record, ignoring any substant

1 by mike simpson / 3h 

Louisiana Educator: Higher Student Expectations?

Louisiana Educator: Higher Student Expectations?: Higher Student Expectations?What is an acceptable level of performance for an 8th grade math student? All public school teachers are required to set student learning targets (SLTs) each year for each classroom of students. Where should the passing scores be set and what is an acceptable level of student failure? One good point of reference should b

1 by mike simpson / 3h 

9-11-14 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): Morning Read: LA Unified board enforces email deletion ruleMorning Read: LA Unified board enforces email deletion rule L.A. school board approves contract to destroy emails after a year The Los Angeles Unified School District took steps this week to enforce rules under which emails are deleted after one y

1 by mike simpson / 4h 

9-11-14 Curmudgucation - Forever Less Than, Frederick Douglass, and No Excuses

CURMUDGUCATION: Forever Less Than, Frederick Douglass, and No ExcusesMy esteemed colleague and exceptional citizen journalist over at Edushyster has an interview up that is well worth your time to read.She talks to Joan Goodman, director of the TFA program at U Penn, about the no excuse charters of Philadelphia (among other things, the piece is a reminder that we can not knee-jerkingly sort good g

1 by mike simpson / 4h 

New Testing Makes No Sense | The Crucial Voice of the People

New Testing Makes No Sense | The Crucial Voice of the People: New Testing Makes No Sense Two “Super Supers” came to Idaho to bring us their wisdom. It is always good to listen to the voices of experience; it helps clarify things. It certainly threw light on some issues for me.Dr. David P. Driscoll (MA) and Dr. Eric Smith (FL) were brought to Idaho by the Albertson Foundation, which has been financ

1 by mike simpson / 4h hide  //  save

Principals’ Perspectives on Value-Added |

Principals’ Perspectives on Value-Added |: Principals’ Perspectives on Value-AddedPrincipals are not using recent teacher evaluation data, including data from value-added assessment systems, student surveys, and other student achievement indicators, to inform decisions about hiring, placements, and professional development, according to findings from a research study recently released by researche

1 by mike simpson / 5h 

Lecker: Our real national standards - StamfordAdvocate

Lecker: Our real national standards - StamfordAdvocate: Lecker: Our real national standardsWe now know that the fiction that the Common Core State Standards are nationally agreed-upon standards that grew from some grassroots movement in the states is manufactured hype. It is now broadly understood that these standards were developed behind closed doors under the direction of two private organizati

1 by mike simpson / 5h 

Morning Wink 9-11-14 AM Posts #edchat #edreform

BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK  AM POSTSWe coddle bad cops, vilify good teachers - Salon.comWe coddle bad cops, vilify good teachers - Salon.com: We coddle bad cops, vilify good teachersWe defer to cops even when they kill, and scapegoat schools for the ills America has given up on. This must changePAUL ROSENBERG Matt Damon as Colin Sullivan in "The Departed" (Credit: Warner Bros. Ente

3 by mike simpson / 6h 

NEA President Salutes Florida Educators For Focusing on the Whole Child | NEA Today

NEA President Salutes Florida Educators For Focusing on the Whole Child | NEA Today:

NEA President Salutes Florida Educators For Focusing on the Whole Child

September 11, 2014 by twalker  
Filed under Featured News, Top Stories

By Brenda Álvarez

NEA President Lily Eskelsen García traveled to Florida this past week (Sep. 4-5) as part of the Association’s Back-to-School tour, where she visited schools in Miami and Osceola County. The journey took a telescopic look at public education, showcasing the herculean efforts of dedicated educators who focus on the needs of the whole student. They have also created school-community partnerships that enhance learning experiences despite existing challenges, such as Florida’s Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT).

Toxic Testing At is Worst

“No one has it tougher than Florida,” said Eskelsen García during a meeting with local Association members. “When you have your teacher of the year being judged by students she never taught, it becomes us versus stupid,” referring to how standardized tests measure the “wrong things in the wrong way.”

Take Ethan Rediske. At age three, he entered the Orange County Public School system in Florida. By the time he hit the equivalency of third grade, he was required to take an adaptive version of the FCAT, which is used to test disabled students.

“Ethan suffered brain damage at birth,” says his mom, Andrea. “He was cortically blind, didn’t make any purposeful movement, had to be fed through a G-tube, had epilepsy, and a host of other medical issues.”

When she discovered her son had to take the standardized test she thought it was a joke, questioning the school district’s decision to test a child who couldn’t speak, see, or move.

For two years, Rediske was obligated to take the adaptive test. Questions on the test asked the boy, who had to be fed through a tube, about eating food. It asked the wheelchair-bound student about walking and playing outside. His teachers had thought he would respond well to color, light, and touch. Instead, he was asked to look at black and white line pictures, which he could not see or process.

“The questions were entirely inappropriate for his level of ability,” says Andrea, who jumped through district hurdles to get a waiver that she expected would apply this school year.

Seven months ago, Rediske died. Before his death, school officials were asking his family to show proof that he was too sick to take the standardized test. Andrea didn’t take it well, saying they were more concerned about their paperwork and policy then the needs of a dying child and his family. She decided to go public and share her family’s story.

Jennifer Rose, the boy’s teacher, believes something has NEA President Salutes Florida Educators For Focusing on the Whole Child | NEA Today:

So There’s A Moratorium. Now What? | Taking Note

So There’s A Moratorium. Now What? | Taking Note:

So There’s A Moratorium. Now What?

by JOHN MERROW on 11. SEP, 2014 in 2014 BLOGS, COMMON CORE

 

Those seeking a moratorium on using high stakes tests to judge teachers seem to have gotten what they asked for. What happens now?

Remember that a “moratorium” is nothing more than ‘a suspension of activity.’  It does not imply any pro-active behavior or a re-examination of current policies. It’s merely a time of doing nothing.  Should we celebrate because Bill Gates, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Washington (DC) Superintendent Kaya Henderson, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association have gotten what they wanted?  I don’t think so.

This very limited moratorium means that scores on the new Common Core standardized tests won’t be used to evaluate teachers in many places.  That’s what some might call a necessary but hardly sufficient action.

This moratorium doesn’t mean that a truce has been called between the warring sides in the battle over teacher job protection and evaluation. That war is ongoing, sadly.

And this moratorium doesn’t mean that school districts are now going to examine the role or amount of standardized bubble testing.

And there’s a lot of it [1].  Take Lee County, Florida, recently in the news for flirting with the possibility of defying the state on its testing requirements. Believe it or not, that system will be administering a standardized test to some it its students every single day of the school year. Reporter Emily Atteberry of the News-Press wrote, “If the testing calendar is approved, there will be an exam administered every day of Lee’s 180-day school year.  A News-Press analysis of the district’s tentative testing calendar found that there are 175 tests administered over 95 testing windows throughout the year. Some of the testing windows are more than a month long. While there aren’t 175 different tests, many are administered multiple times throughout the year.”

For a close look at the staggering amount of testing there, here are the testing calendars for elementary, middle and high schools there.

On his blog, Secretary Duncan wrote, “Where tests are redundant, or not sufficiently helpful for instruction, they cost precious time that teachers and kids can’t afford. Too much testing can rob school buildings of joy, So There’s A Moratorium. Now What? | Taking Note:

Embrace The Common Core – IQ2 Debates For the Motion: Carmel Martin, Michael Petrilli Against the Motion: Carol Burris, Frederick Hess

Embrace The Common Core – IQ2 Debates:

 

Illustration by Thomas James

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

In K-12 education, there is nothing more controversial than the Common Core State Standards, national academic standards in English and math. Adopted by more than 40 states, they were developed, in part, to address concerns that American students were falling behind their foreign counterparts and graduating high school without the necessary skills for college and the workforce. But is this the reform we’ve been looking for? Has the federal government overreached and saddled our schools with standards that have been flawed from the start? Or will the Common Core raise the bar and improve the quality of our children’s education?

DECLARED WINNER: FOR THE MOTION

ONLINE VOTING

VOTING BREAKDOWN:

 

54% voted the same way in BOTH pre- and post-debate votes (41% voted FOR twice, 9% voted AGAINST twice, 3% voted UNDECIDED twice). 46% changed their minds (6% voted FOR then changed to AGAINST, 2% voted FOR then changed to UNDECIDED, 3% voted AGAINST then changed to FOR, 1% voted AGAINST then changed to UNDECIDED, 23% voted UNDECIDED then changed to FOR, 12% voted UNDECIDED then changed to AGAINST) | Breakdown Graphic

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Byrd-Bennett promised not to close any more schools. But that doesn't mean she can't militarize them.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Byrd-Bennett promised not to close any more schools. But that doesn't mean she can't militarize them.:

Byrd-Bennett promised not to close any more schools. But that doesn't mean she can't militarize them.

Study war no more...?

The Sun-Times reports:

No teachers teach in this school. No students are enrolled. It has nearly no budget. The principal sits miles away in another school’s office. Yet, Chicago Public Schools insists that the Marine Math and Science Academy High School isn’t closed, so it hasn’t violated any state laws or reversed a promise not to close more schools by merging Marine’s students and staff into the former Ames Middle School building.

Chicago already leads the nation in its militarization of public schools. Ames was turned into a Marine academy despite months of protests and public outcry.



Today, Chicago has the most militarized public school system in the nation, with Cadet Corps for students in middle-school, over 10,000 students participating in JROTC programs, over 1,000 students enrolled in one of the five, soon-to-be six autonomous military high schools, and hundreds more attending one of the nine military high schools that are called “schools within a school.” Chicago now has a Marine Military Academy, a Naval Academy, and three army high schools. When an air force high school opens next year, Chicago will be the only city in the nation to have academies representing all of these branches of the military. But Chicago is not the only city moving in this direction: The public school systems of other Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Byrd-Bennett promised not to close any more schools. But that doesn't mean she can't militarize them.:

New York Times Ignored Teacher Input on Eva Moskowitz | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.

New York Times Ignored Teacher Input on Eva Moskowitz | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.:

New York Times Ignored Teacher Input on Eva Moskowitz

The September 7th New York Times Magazine ran a story by Daniel Bergner called “The Battle for New York Schools: Eva Moskowitz vs. Mayor Bill de Blasio”.  Bergner’s piece reads as an astonishing piece of hagiography to appear in the paper of record, ignoring any substantive argument about Ms. Moskowitz’s schools and repeating without critique her organization’s point of view.  Mr. Bergner did make note that he had spoken to critics of Ms. Moskowitz’s approach, notably Dr. Diane Ravitch of New York University whose input he represents thusly:

When I talked with her, Ravitch indicted the hedge-fund titans and business moguls — including Kenneth Langone, a founder of Home Depot, and the Walton family of Walmart — who put their weight behind promising charter schools, leading their boards and lending political clout. “When they call themselves reformers,” she says, “it’s something I gag on.” What these philanthropists are all about, Ravitch says, is making themselves feel good while using charters as a halfway step in a covert effort to pull the country toward the privatization of education. For charter opponents, liberalism is in jeopardy. And from this perspective, Moskowitz, with her results and her readiness to trumpet them, poses the greatest risk.

Knowing something of Dr. Ravitch’s criticisms of charters schools generally and of Ms. Moskowitz specifically, this struck me as an odd and likely incomplete representation of her input.  Sure enough, several days after publication, Dr. Ravitch responded in her own blog at some length. According to Dr. Ravitch, her conversation with Mr. Bergner was not represented in the published article:

spent a lot of time on the phone with the author, Daniel Bergner. When he asked why I was critical of Moskowitz, I said that what she does to get high test scores is not a model for public education or even for other charters. The high scores of her students is due to intensive test prep and attrition. She gets her initial group of students by holding a lottery, which in itself is a selection process because the least functional families don’t apply. She enrolls small proportions of students with disabilities and English language learners as compared to the neighborhood public school. And as time goes by, many students leave.

The only Success Academy school that has fully grown to grades 3-8 tested 116 3rd graders but only 32 8th graders. Three other Success Academy schools have grown to 6th grade. One tested 121 3rd graders but only 55 6th graders, another 106 3rd graders but only 68 6th graders, and the last 83 3rd graders but only 54 6th graders. Why the shrinking student body? When students left the school, they were not replaced by other incoming students. When the eighth grade students who scored well on the state test took the admissions test for the specialized high schools like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science, not one of them passed the test.

She goes on to note that in addition to the phenomenon of selective attrition, she New York Times Ignored Teacher Input on Eva Moskowitz | Daniel Katz, Ph.D.:

Louisiana Educator: Higher Student Expectations?

Louisiana Educator: Higher Student Expectations?:

Higher Student Expectations?

What is an acceptable level of performance for an 8^th grade math student? All public school teachers are required to set student learning targets (SLTs) each year for each classroom of students. Where should the passing scores be set and what is an acceptable level of student failure? One good point of reference should be the state administered 8^th grade LEAP math test. Let's examine what is expected by our Department of Education for 8^th grade Math.

Superintendent John White has repeatedly suggested that the state should have high expectations of all students and that if have high expectations on state tests that students will achieve more. Is he really following his own advice in designing and grading state tests?

Do you think Superintendent White would accept a passing score of slightly over 40%  on a teacher-made final test as acceptable? If the teacher set 40.1% for a minimum score for passing, would it be acceptable for 35% of a classroom of students to score below 40.1%? That's a pretty low expectation isn't it? Yet that's the result of the state-wide performance of our students on the new Common Core aligned 2014 LEAP given this Spring. The official scale score for a level of Basic on the Math 8^th grade LEAP remained at exactly the point total used in the past (321 out of a total of 500 points). But the actual percentage of correct answers needed for a score of Basic (the minimum percentage), has been lowered this Spring to only 40.1%. And even with that low expectation, 35% of students state-wide failed to reach the level of Basic. Yet John White, in releasing the LEAP results in May announced that student performance on the new Common Core aligned LEAP tests was "steady" even though the test was more challenging.

It is also interesting that in an earlier press release the LDOE commented on a survey of students taking the new Common Core LEAP, and concluded that students did not find the new tests to be very difficult compared to their classroom work. Here is the quote:

"Of those students taking the computer-based test during the first phase, nearly 70 percent said the test was easier or about the same as their current school work. And, when asked if there were questions about things they have not learned this school year nearly 85 percent said there were none or few questions."

That's a strange conclusion, because most of the students I taught could always tell when a particular test was more difficult than Louisiana Educator: Higher Student Expectations?:

9-11-14 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):

A teacher finds lessons in the awfulness of 9/11

A teacher finds lessons in the awfulness of 9/11 As with most moments in my adult life, it was my students and literature that taught me the most significant lessons about the meaning of 9/11. That morning felt unremarkable, even after my co-teacher came back into the room in the middle of second period to whisper something to me about planes crashing and terrorism. It was only my second year of t

2 44min 

Children’s Defense Fund names Alex Johnson as CA chief

Children’s Defense Fund names Alex Johnson as CA chief Alex Johnson, who finished behind George McKenna in the race to fill the LA Unified District 1 board seat, has added two new lines to his resume since the August election runoff. Nominated by his former boss, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Johnson is now a member of the LA County Board of Education, which mediates a variety of school district disputes, a

2 43min 

Two years later, teachers fighting changes at Crenshaw High

Two years later, teachers fighting changes at Crenshaw High A labor board hearing opened yesterday with a dozen LA Unified teachers, including UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl, claiming the district used the reorganization of Crenshaw High School in 2012 to rid the campus of active union leaders who posed a threat to Superintendent John Deasy. The teachers union filed the unfair labor practice cha

by Vanessa Romo / 3min 

Morning Read: LA Unified board enforces email deletion rule

Morning Read: LA Unified board enforces email deletion rule L.A. school board approves contract to destroy emails after a year The Los Angeles Unified School District took steps this week to enforce rules under which emails are deleted after one year, raising concerns about whether important public records would be destroyed in the process. LA Times Hearing opens on Crenshaw teachers’ claims of a

2 26min 

9-10-14 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): Reps for LAUSD, teachers union talk about computers, not salariesReps for LAUSD, teachers union talk about computers, not salaries Another bargaining session came and went today and still no contract agreement between LA Unified and the teachers union, UTLA. The district said in a press release, “union le

1 by mike simpson / 13h 

9-11-14 Curmudgucation - Forever Less Than, Frederick Douglass, and No Excuses

CURMUDGUCATION:

Forever Less Than, Frederick Douglass, and No Excuses

My esteemed colleague and exceptional citizen journalist over at Edushyster has an interview up that is well worth your time to read.She talks to Joan Goodman, director of the TFA program at U Penn, about the no excuse charters of Philadelphia (among other things, the piece is a reminder that we can not knee-jerkingly sort good guys and bad guys based simply on their affiliations). The interview i

9 by Peter Greene / 37min 

9-10-14 Curmudgucation - Common Core 2.0?

CURMUDGUCATION: Common Core 2.0?Over at the Washington Post. Lindsey Layton is reporting on a survey by the Education Commission of the States about the Common Core. The ECS bills itself as a non-partisan research group, headed by a different governor each year, with a history stretching back to mid-sixties. They've produced a handy list that shows all the cool new names states have come up with f

1 by mike simpson / 14h 

New Testing Makes No Sense | The Crucial Voice of the People

New Testing Makes No Sense | The Crucial Voice of the People:

New Testing Makes No Sense

 Two “Super Supers” came to Idaho to bring us their wisdom. It is always good to listen to the voices of experience; it helps clarify things. It certainly threw light on some issues for me.

Dr. David P. Driscoll (MA) and Dr. Eric Smith (FL) were brought to Idaho by the Albertson Foundation, which has been financially supporting standards development in Idaho since 1997.

In describing their visit here, the Supers indicated that they were given some of our state data to review. It showed a couple of things that many across the country have known for years; we have a lack of consistency in the quality of our schools and those schools that show up on the bottom of the performance pile tend to do so repeatedly.This we have known.

These experts came to their conclusions by reviewing the data they were given; some of us have lived the reality, shouted it from the rooftops, and been brushed aside — because our observations were anecdotal, we can’t do our own research, attempt to draw logical conclusions from data, or we didn’t graduate from the right colleges? (I have no idea what the answer to that question is but Harvard was mentioned more than a couple of times during the evening.)

Anyway, now because of The Common Core “You will see for the first time in history,millions and millions being tested on the same level,” Driscoll said. “We will have strong standards and strong assessments and finally we’ll know what we need to work on.”

… O.K., so here is the point where I revert to my upbringing and talk straight.

Dude, you just said we had the data to pinpoint the problem schools, why do you need another set of standards and another new test to point at the same old schools that were already identified? We already knew! This is EXACTLY what we did when we started with this whole standards-based accountability scheme that became the No Child Left Behind disaster.

“We” (as in we observant people) never NEEDED to prove it again. I walked away New Testing Makes No Sense | The Crucial Voice of the People:

Principals’ Perspectives on Value-Added |:

Principals’ Perspectives on Value-Added

Principals are not using recent teacher evaluation data, including data from value-added assessment systems, student surveys, and other student achievement indicators, to inform decisions about hiring, placements, and professional development, according to findings from a research study recently released by researchers at Vanderbilt University.

The data most often used by principals? Data collected via their direct observations of their teachers in practice.

Education Week’s Denisa Superville also covered this study here, writing that principals are are most likely to use classroom-observation data to inform such decisions, rather than the data yielded via VAMs and other student test scores. Of least relevance were data derived via parent surveys.

Reasons for not using value-added data specifically? “[A]access to the data, the availability of value-added measures when decisions are being made, a lack of understanding of the statistical models used in the evaluation systems, and the absence Principals’ Perspectives on Value-Added |:

Lecker: Our real national standards - StamfordAdvocate

Lecker: Our real national standards - StamfordAdvocate:

Lecker: Our real national standards

We now know that the fiction that the Common Core State Standards are nationally agreed-upon standards that grew from some grassroots movement in the states is manufactured hype. It is now broadly understood that these standards were developed behind closed doors under the direction of two private organizations, and were bankrolled by Bill Gates. The imposition of the Common Core coincided with the increasing awareness -- by parents, teachers and experts -- that after 20 years of reform by high-stakes standardized testing, the method has failed. As it becomes clear that an increased emphasis on new computerized standardized tests is the true purpose of the Common Core initiative, parents, students, teachers and elected officials, from across the country and the political spectrum, are rising in opposition.

While the national revolt against these artificial national standards gains momentum, on Aug. 29, a Texas judge reminded the nation we already have democratically derived national education standards.

In his ruling, Judge John Dietz found the Texas school finance system unconstitutional. He was guided in his decision by the fundamental purpose of education as articulated by the Texas constitution. According to the state constitution, education is "essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people. It is the foundation of our democracy."

This view is echoed in state constitutions across the United States. From Vermont, to Wyoming, to Kentucky, to New York, courts have resoundingly held that the framers of their constitutions intended that public education prepare our young children for their roles as citizens.

Dietz found that to prepare children for citizenship, every school must have a basic set of essential resources: pre-K, small class size, enough teachers, libraries, books, technology, support staff -- including counselors, social workers and paraprofessionals -- and extra services for children with extraordinary needs, adequate facilities and a suitable curriculum. After a lengthy trial, the judge ruled that Texas' school-finance system failed to ensure schools had these basic resources and that, as a result, children in these schools were being denied their constitutional right to an education.

Across this nation, courts in school funding cases have found that these same resources are essential to a constitutionally adequate education in their states. Like Dietz, they heard evidence from national educational experts and local educational experts -- superintendents and teachers who work with public school children every day. These judges heard what children need and what works best to help children learn. From Kansas, to Washington, to Lecker: Our real national standards - StamfordAdvocate: