Tentative settlement reached between teachers and L.A. Unified - LA Times

Tentative settlement reached between teachers and L.A. Unified - LA Times:

Tentative settlement reached between teachers and L.A. Unified

 The L.A. Unified School District and the teachers union reached a tentative contract settlement Friday night for a three-year deal that includes a 10% salary increase over two years. There also are terms affecting class sizes, the number of counselors at schools and the district’s teacher evaluation system.
The deal could end more than a year of strained relations and organized agitation by United Teachers Los Angeles, whose members have not received a raise for eight years. The pact must be ratified, however, by both the union membership and the Board of Education.
The apparent breakthrough, after a long mediation session on Friday, will halt, at least for now, talk of a possible strike.
“This is an important step in restoring trust and partnership between LAUSD and UTLA,” said school board member Steve Zimmer. “Our message to our teachers is simple: We believe in you. I look forward to the stability and renewed collaboration this agreement will bring and to all us working together to improve outcomes for all students in L.A.”
A statement from the union echoed those sentiments: “LAUSD and UTLA believe this agreement is good for students, educators, the community and the stability of the district moving forward.”
Friday marked the fourth formal mediation session after the union declared an impasse in negotiations.
The agreement represents a compromise between the two parties, but the teachers union has achieved a larger settlement than other employee groups. It was not immediately clear if “me too” provisions would result in like gains for other employees.
Full details of the accord were not available Friday night.
In its most recent demands, the union had sought an immediate 8.5% pay increase and a $1,000 annual stipend for supplies as well as full, prorated pay when teachers attend training sessions outside of work hours.
The district had proposed a 4% raise for this year and an additional 2% next year in the form of four additional work days for training. L.A. Unified also offered to increase the pay of starting teachers to at least $50,000.
Other topics under negotiation included class sizes, the teacher evaluation system, the decision-making process at campuses, the student discipline policy and the treatment of employees under investigation for alleged misconduct.
Earlier this week, the Board of Education voted 6-1 to approve a multi-billion dollar plan for districtwide health benefits that preserves the district’s generous benefits package.
The benefits deal factors in modest annual increases in expenses and resolves some long-term unfunded costs for L.A. Unified. But it could cause strains to the budget in future years, possibly contributing to layoffs or cutbacks in services, officials said.
Long-term financial concerns could magnify with the proposed settlement.
The deal also has political implications. It could reduce the motivation for union members to back endorsed school board candidates. Or, alternatively, it could free the union to focus more intensely on board races.
The union recently transferred a portion of its strike fund into its political coffers, making the dollars available for use in upcoming board elections, scheduled for May 19. A contract settlement could result in additional dollars being available for political purposes.
Twitter: @howardblume 

Tentative settlement reached between teachers and L.A. Unified - LA Times:

Common Core Means No Child Left Untested | Alan Singer

Common Core Means No Child Left Untested | Alan Singer:

Common Core Means No Child Left Untested

 After the first day of New York State's high-stakes Common Core aligned standardized testing, Newsday reported, "Thousands of Long Island elementary and middle school students -- in record numbers in some districts -- refused to take the state's English Language Arts exam." According to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in the Fairport school district where the superintendent Bill Cala is an outspoken critic of testing, "67 percent of its students" opted out. In Westchester the children of the County Executive planned to opt out of the tests and in some Hudson Valleycommunities the unofficial opt out rate hovered around 50%. In suburban Buffalo the opt-out rate in some districts reached 70%. Statewide the unofficial opt-out total is probably over 100,000.

In response to widespread protests by parents and teachers, the United States Senateis pushing forward a bipartisan bill Every Child Achieves. It would revise the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that initiated the current high-stakes testing craze and the opt-out movement in the United States. If the Senate bill ever becomes law, students, schools, districts and states will no longer be penalized because of student test scores. States will still be expected to test students annually in reading and math grades 3 through 8 and at least once in high school, however they will be allowed to devise their own supposedly "challenging" academic standards.

While it will be good to have the threat of punishment lifted, these revisions in the law will permit some of the poorest performing states, where legislatures do not adequately fund education, to lower standards by either making tests easier or simply lowering the passing "cut" scores. They will also authorize additional charter schools, further undermining public school systems. No child will be left untested, but public education will be threatened and many children will be left uneducated.

There is also a bill (H.R. 452) in the House of Representatives to eliminate annual testing. It has bipartisan support across the political spectrum and its co-sponsors include some of the less extreme Republicans. The website Gov.us, however, gives it almost no chance of being approved.

The opt-out movement that precipitated the reexamination of NCLB is growing rapidly, but it is also a fragile coalition. It draws support from people and organizations with conflicting visions for the future of education. Conservative forces from "red states" want less federal oversight, which I think is a bad idea. The teachers' unions want student tests separated from teacher evaluations and will probably back out of the movement if they achieve this limited objective. Middle-class parents raise legitimate concerns about the stress these tests place on students but many have not endorsed broader goals such as school equity. My major problem with the tests is that they transform schools, especially lower performing schools in inner-city minority communities, into test prep academies where little real learning takes place. This includes some of the miracle charter school that boost student scores by doing nothing but tests preparation.

At the Hofstra University Conference on the George W. Bush presidency I was on a panel discussing Bush education policy with Anne-Imelda Radice, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the United States Department of Education from 2003-2005 and Edward Rollins, a long time Republican Party political operative and a former advisor to President Ronald Reagan. When I was critical of No Child Left Behind for promoting a testing agenda in American schools and the "Houston Miracle" that turned out to be fraud, Radice responded that Bush and Rod Paige, his first Secretary of Education, Common Core Means No Child Left Untested | Alan Singer:

Chicago Teachers Union | Latest CPS Scandal Highlights Chicago’s Need for Democratically Elected, Representative School Board

Chicago Teachers Union | Latest CPS Scandal Highlights Chicago’s Need for Democratically Elected, Representative School Board:

Latest CPS Scandal Highlights Chicago’s Need for Democratically Elected, Representative School Board

BY CTU COMMUNICATIONS  |  04/16/2015

CHICAGO—The federal investigation of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Chief Executive Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s role in a no-bid $20.5 million contract underscores why the majority of Chicagoans expressed their support for a democratically elected representative school board (ERSB). Appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, members of the Board of Education and high-ranking school district administrators have faced repeated ethics scrutiny since assuming power in 2010.

Dr. Byrd-Bennett, the fifth schools chief in the last 48 months, is under an FBI investigation for her role in the awarding of a lucrative, no-bid contract to her former employer, SUPES Academy in 2013. The contract was approved in the same session that closed the largest number of public schools in U.S. history. SUPES offers professional development to principals and has been publicly denounced by participants and education critics as a costly and ineffective public policy initiative.

Now many taxpayers, including parents, educators and students, are bracing themselves for the possible appointment of a sixth CPS chief executive officer in the wake of this new fiscal scandal. It should be noted, Byrd-Bennett has not been accused of a criminal act and remains at the CPS helm.

Because Mayor Emanuel has been steadfast in his opposition to an ERSB in Chicago, the Board’s decision to blindly award the SUPES contract without stronger scrutiny rests at his feet. “Twenty million dollars can put teachers, counselors, librarians and nurses in our schools,” said CTU President Jesse Sharkey. “The mayor has the ultimate authority over what’s happening in our district. This new scandal leads to more instability in our school buildings and more revolving doors at CPS.

“Educators don’t know what to expect when they continue to bear the brunt of the so-called ‘shared sacrifices’  being heaped upon them while CPS officials spend millions on new furniture; dole out multi-million dollar contracts to their cronies; and, appear to profit from the decisions they make,” Sharkey added.

In December, the CTU called for the immediate resignation of Chicago Board of Education memberDeborah Quazzo amidst reports that companies she owns have been paid nearly $3 million by CPS since her appointment to the Board by the mayor. Coupled with the nearly $1 million in contracts paid to Quazzo’s companies from 2010 until her June 2013 appointment, the Board’s newest member continues to profit at the expense of the city’s school children to the tune of nearly $4 million from her private investments in companies with lucrative contracts with CPS. Quazzo is a leading tech “edu-preneur” involved in expanding the profiteering of tech companies from public schools.

In another possible breach of public trust, Board president David Vitale advocated for toxic interest rate swap agreements with Loop Capital, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and the Royal Bank of American that will cost the district more than $430 million over the lifetime of the agreements. Having been president of the Chicago Board of Trade, Vitale came directly from the world of speculative finance, where he often worked with these same partner banks to construct such toxic agreements. Recently, he has refused to consider filing suit to claw money back from the district’s costly deals. The board president is also the former board chairman of the Academy of Urban School Leadership (AUSL), which has greatly expanded the number of schools and funding it receives from “turnarounds” decided on by the mayor’s handpicked Board since Vitale began his tenure.

Board member Carlos Azcoitia voted to turnaround three schools in 2014 and five schools in 2013, but recused himself from voting on the contract with AUSL because he currently serves as Distinguished Professor of Practice in Educational Leadership at National Louis University. National Louis is the AUSL’s exclusive teacher preparation partner.

Board member Mahaila Hines is the mother of Grammy Award-winning rapper Common. She also serves as president of the Common Ground Foundation which hosted its AAHH! Fest in 2014, co-sponsored in part by Aramark, a company that was awarded a lucrative custodial contract in in Feb. 2014, and the Chicago Urban League.  It should be noted, the controversial company which been plagued with allegations of poor sanitation and unfair labor practices also took over the school district’s food contract in 2012 following a scandal with the previous food contractor. Dr. Hines and CPS Board member Andrea Zopp, who heads the Urban League, reportedly skipped the Aramark vote.

CPS Chief Administrative Officer Tim Cawley was a finance administrator at AUSL before taking a position at the Board as Chief Operating Officer.  He was also quoted describing the Board’s rationale of deliberately starving schools of resources and upgrades when CPS anticipates a future closure or turnaround.

While no Board member or other CPS administrator has been accused of any wrongdoing, both past and current relationships some of them have with companies that profit from their authority over the city’s school district continue to raise eyebrows.

“There's a culture of conflict of interest that is highly destructive of the public's trust,” Sharkey said.

Chicago has never had an elected school board, unlike 98 percent of school districts across the U.S., and all other districts in Illinois. Over the years the City had a series of arrangements, including City Council appointments and nominating commissions. In 1995, the state legislature gave the mayor full authority over CPS, including the appointment of the Board of Education. On February 24, voters in 37 of Chicago’s 50 wards overwhelmingly endorsed an ERSB, calling for an end to mayoral control. A similar referendum in 2012 resulted in 87 percent of Chicago residents voting in 13 percent of the city’s precincts for an ERSB in a non-binding referendum.

The Chicago Teachers Union is currently in contract negotiations with the Board of Education.Chicago Teachers Union | Latest CPS Scandal Highlights Chicago’s Need for Democratically Elected, Representative School Board:

Drastic cuts to suburban Detroit school district

Drastic cuts to suburban Detroit school district - World Socialist Web Site:

Drastic cuts to suburban Detroit school district

The suburban Detroit, Michigan city of Hazel Park is laying off nearly a quarter of its school district staff and slashing the pay of the remaining teachers and support personnel.

The “inner-ring” Detroit suburb was established as a bedroom community of autoworkers in the 1940s. At one time, 75 percent of the residents worked at the nearby Ford Motor Company Highland Park plant. The city has no significant industrial tax base, but it has historically relied on a now aging horse-racing track, where revenues have drastically declined.

Since 2008 Hazel Park has been hit hard by declining residential home values and foreclosures, compounded by a drop in state revenue-sharing dollars by one third.

Revenue sharing is a redistribution policy mandated by the state constitution, but in recent years the formulas for this redistribution have been continuously violated. The state legislature, under both Democrats and Republicans, has funded increasingly lavish tax cuts for big business, while cutting revenue-sharing to localities that are tasked with funding public services.

According to the non-partisan Citizens Research Council, this “raid” of assets amounts to some $5 billion. Detroit alone lost $732 million in revenue-sharing, which was a significant factor in the city’s bankruptcy.

In February, Hazel Park voters passed a millage to increase homeowner property taxes in order to prevent the closure of the Hazel Park fire and ambulance services. Without a series of such regressive tax increases, the city would have joined the growing numbers of Michigan municipalities that have been placed under the control of an emergency manager, forced to sign a consent agreement with the state or thrown into bankruptcy.

These same economic factors, combined with declining enrollment, have put the school district on a path of growing deficits. Accounting discrepancies have also allegedly served to conceal the extent of the deficit until earlier this year.

A Deficit Elimination Plan has now been put into place that will cut 46 teachers and a total of 169 staff positions, devastating the already struggling district. Unionized staff will take another $2.1 million in cuts, and food services will be outsourced.

The unions involved have uniformly agreed to the cuts and concessions. Stating their acquiescence to the gutting of the schools, Hazel Park Education Association (HPEA) President Amy Zitzelberger told the media, “The layoffs will certainly be hard on our unit, but we understand the necessity of these cuts.” The HPEA represents 199 teachers, social workers, counselors and psychologists in the district.

The sentiment among students and staff is much different. In discussions with the World Socialist Web Site, students and staff opposing the cuts raised a wide range of political and social issues connected to the defense of public education, including the role of the unions, the growth of social inequality and the government’s massive spending on imperialist war.

Even as the US is involved in an escalating number of predatory wars and conflicts across the globe, spending on K-12 schools has been cut in 44 out of 50 US states, and some 300,000 school district jobs have been eliminated nationally since 2008.

Brianna and her friend

Brianna, 15, was angry about the cuts to her school. “They’re laying off three English teachers and three math teachers. We were told at least three teachers were being cut from every subject. We need more teachers, not less. When I first came here there were 45 kids in my math class. They’re cutting junior varsity cheerleading, and if they cut music it would be completely outrageous.

“More and more the teachers are telling us to do our work online. I think they are using technology to replace teachers. But if we’re learning from a computer instead of in school, how are we going to make friends or learn how to problem-solve? Most kids already have problems communicating; this will only make it worse.”

Dr. Rick Repicky, Interim Superintendent, admitted as much when he stated in a public Q&A session that “these cuts may force … classes to go online, but the reality is that online classes are the norm…”

Referring to the pay cuts teaching and support staff face, Brianna continued, “Teachers work very hard. The kids here are not always the nicest. If anything they should get a raise for working with us.”

When asked about the fact that the government was spending trillions on wars, Brianna responded, “People need education more than they need to go to war.”

An educator with 40 years experience at the nearby Ferndale Schools stopped to speak with the WSWS, saying, “They tell young people to ‘pull themselves up from their bootstraps.’ That was never possible. But now you see children facing problems like never before. In Inkster there used to be one out of every five children living in poverty. Today it’s three out of every five. I have special training, and my position uses federal Title One money so I can intervene and help at-risk kids. But these programs are constantly being cut.”

“MT”

MT, a senior at Hazel Park High School, added, “It’s wrong to fire teachers when kids need an education. It’s obvious that we need to be educated and go to college and be somebody. Students want to do something about this! We’d like to fight to change it.

“I myself think it’s unnecessary that we have these wars going on. It’s why schools are going broke—all the money is going to war.”

Two Hazel Park High School custodial workers, Dave and Celia, discussed the crisis. “They are cutting and cutting and cutting. It’s layoffs and pay cuts for all of the staff, ” said Dave.

“I can’t see why we are paying for someone else’s mistake,” said Celia, referring to the district’s accounting discrepancies.

Celia said she had been notified that she was losing her job after four years of service. “I moved to Hazel Park for this job. I had been out of work for two or three years and wasn’t a ‘spring chicken,’ so I moved into the district to work here.

“This really hits hard,” she emphasized. “I live in Hazel Park. I am a taxpayer with a child in Hazel Park Schools. This will make the classrooms larger for the kids- how can it not with so many teachers being let go?

“In my opinion, the teachers are saints for what they do,” Celia affirmed. “Meanwhile the district is privatizing everywhere. I am all for public educators.”

Custodians Dave and Celia

Dave also objected to the constant elimination of jobs. He pointed to the decades of devoted service by those in the custodial department. “I use the term ‘indentured servant’ all the time around here. We all do a lot of things that are not in our job description—to go above and beyond. We help parents find their children and do whatever we can to help.

“The fact is that most of these kids will graduate, leave this school and join Drastic cuts to suburban Detroit school district - World Socialist Web Site:

South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny | Miami Herald Miami Herald

South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny | Miami Herald Miami Herald:

South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny

The state’s largest charter school management company has come under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Education for potential conflicts of interests in its business practices, federal authorities have confirmed.

The Education Department’s Inspector General Office is auditing the South Miami-based Academica Corp. as part of a broader examination of school management companies nationwide. The audit will be complete this summer, department spokeswoman Catherine Grant said.

A preliminary audit report obtained by the Herald/Times identified potential conflicts of interest between the for-profit company Academica and the Mater Academy charter schools it manages. One example the auditors cited was the transfer of money from Mater Academy to its private support organization, which shares the same board of directors.

When asked about the potential conflicts of interest raised in the report, Academica attorney Marcos Daniel Jiménez, in an email to the Herald/Times, touted the charter school network's academic record and commitment to its students.

Jiménez also said Academica had sent a response letter to the U.S. Department of Education correcting what he called “inaccuracies and false statements” contained in the preliminary report. But Academica declined the Herald/Times request to be provided the response, saying the Education Department considered the report and the response from Academica to be confidential.

The Education Department’s findings come as the Florida Legislature considers a bill that could weaken school districts’ ability to control business practices at new charter schools.

Under current law, school systems have the power to negotiate contracts with new charter schools. HB 7083 would mandate the use of a standardized contract, meaning school districts would give up most of their leverage.

Charter schools are funded by tax dollars, but run by non-profit governing boards that function independently of local school boards. Some are managed by for-profit companies like Academica.

Academica oversees nearly 100 charter and virtual charter schools in Florida, according to its website. It also manages schools in Texas, Nevada, Utah, California and Washington, D.C.

The preliminary audit report hones in on the Mater Academy family of schools in Miami-Dade County.

Academica President Fernando Zulueta founded the original Mater Academy in 1998 and was a member of its governing board until Sept. 2004.

The auditors found that three of the schools in the Mater network — Mater Academy, Mater High and Mater East — entered into leases with development companies tied to the Zulueta family. Two of the leases were executed while Zulueta sat on the Mater board.

In addition, Mater Academy hired an architectural firm from 2007 through 2012 that employs Fernando Zulueta’s brother-in-law, state Rep. Erik Fresen, the report said.

“We identified four related-party transactions, two of which indicated, at a minimum, the appearance of conflicts of interest between Mater Academy and its CMO [charter-management company],” the auditors wrote.

Fresen declined to comment Friday.

The report also pointed to a potential conflict of interest between Mater Academy in Hialeah Gardens and its non-profit support organization Mater Academy Foundation.

“Mater Academy shares the same board of directors with the foundation and based on our review of the board of directors meeting minutes at Mater Academy, there is evidence of Mater Academy’s board of directors transferring public funds to the foundation,” the auditors noted.

The Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools declined to comment on the report Friday, saying it was not yet complete.

Charter school critics said the Inspector General’s findings were a reason to push back on HB 7083, the bill that could weaken the power of school districts over new charter schools.

“Obviously, there are some serious questions about the way the system works in Florida,” Miami-Dade School Board member Raquel Regalado said. “The prudent thing for the Legislature to do would be to wait for the federal government to finish its work [on the audit] and then consider changes to the charter school law.”

Jeff Wright, of the Florida Education Association, agreed. “If an audit like this is going on, the Legislature should not give charter schools more opportunities to game the system,” he said.

But Rep. Manny Diaz, the Hialeah Republican sponsoring the bill, said his proposal would not open the door to questionable business practices.

“This is not about opening up the Wild Wild West,” said Diaz, who left his job with the Miami-Dade school district last year to become dean of anSouth Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny | Miami Herald Miami Herald:

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article1963142.html#storylink=cpy

This Article May Be Illegal – Lifting the Veil of Silence on Standardized Testing | gadflyonthewallblog

This Article May Be Illegal – Lifting the Veil of Silence on Standardized Testing | gadflyonthewallblog:

This Article May Be Illegal – Lifting the Veil of Silence on Standardized Testing

 Warning!

What you are about to read may be a criminal act.

I may have broken the law by putting this information out there.

Edward Snowden leaked data about civilian surveillance. Chelsea Manning released top secret military documents.

And me? I’m leaking legal threats and intimidation students and teachers are subject to during standardized testing.

Not exactly a federal crime is it?

No. I’m asking. Is it?

Because teachers are being fired and jailed. Students are being threatened with litigation.

All because they talked about standardized tests.

The US government mandates public school children be subjected to standardized assessments in reading and math in grades 3-8 and once in high school. Most schools test much more than that – even as early as kindergarten.

And since all of these assessments are purchased from private corporations, the testing material is ideological property. The students taking these exams – regardless of age – are no longer treated as children. They are clients entering into a contract.

At the start of these tests, students are warned of the legal consequences of violating the terms of this agreement.

In particular, the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests require students to read the following warning on the first day of the assessment:

DO NOT PHOTOGRAPH, COPY OR REPPRODUCE MATERIALS FROM THIS ASSESSMENT IN ANY MANNER. All material contained in this assessment is secure and copyrighted material owned by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Copying of material in any manner, including the taking of a photograph, is a violation of the federal Copyright Act. Penalties for violations of the Copyright Act may include the cost of replacing the compromised test item(s) or a fine of no less than $750 up to $30,000 for a single violation. 17 U.S.C. $ 101 et seq

So the first act of testing is a threat of legal consequences and possible fines.

There are no such warnings on my own teacher-created tests. Sure I don’t want students to cheat, but I don’t threaten to take them to court if they do.

The school has a plagiarism policy in place – as just almost every public school does – which was created and approved by the local school board and administration. The first infraction merits a warning. The second one results in a zero on the assignment, and so on.

Moreover, this is something we go over once at the beginning of the year. We do not reiterate it with every test. It would be counterproductive to remind students of the dire consequences of misbehavior right before you’re asking them to perform at their peak ability.

Okay, Brady! Go out there and win us a football game! By the way, if you deflate that football, you will spend the rest of your life in jail. Go get ‘em!

But that’s not all.

In Pennsylvania, we also force kids to abide by a specific code of conduct for test This Article May Be Illegal – Lifting the Veil of Silence on Standardized Testing | gadflyonthewallblog:

Applause for No Child Left Behind rewrite, but concerns remain - Yahoo News

Applause for No Child Left Behind rewrite, but concerns remain - Yahoo News:

Applause for No Child Left Behind rewrite, but concerns remain

The Senate bill would continue to require some current levels of testing, but it would allow states to set up their own accountability systems.

A bipartisan Senate bill to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as No Child Left Behind, took a big leap forward Thursday. The legislation passed out of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions unanimously, after members considered 57 amendments over the course of several days.

Now dubbed the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015, the legislation would continue to require the current level of testing in reading, math, and science. It also would require the reporting of data for subgroups of students according to categories such as race, gender, income, and disability. But it would allow states to set up their own accountability systems. Although states must work toward improving their lowest-performing schools overall, they would no longer be required to intervene in schools where students in various subgroups have fallen behind.

The “consensus is this: Continue the law’s important measurements of academic progress of students but restore to states, school districts, classroom teachers and parents the responsibility for deciding what to do about improving student achievement,” said committee chairman Lamar Alexander (R) of Tennessee in a statement. He and the top Democrat on the committee, Sen.Patty Murray of Washington, negotiated the meat of the bill over the past several weeks and received widespread praise from various stakeholders for forging a compromise.

Recommended: Are you as well-read as a 12th grader?

“On the Democratic side, they really drew the line at keeping the annual standardized testing regime and reporting disaggregated subgroup data, and they got that. What Republicans wanted was to loosen up a lot on the accountability and school-improvement [requirements], and they got that,” says Patrick McGuinn, a political science professor at Drew University in Madison, N.J.

Yet the compromise means that few policy groups are fully satisfied with the bill in its current form. And debate in the full Senate, which hasn’t yet been scheduled, is likely to spark some partisan fireworks over issues ranging from vouchers to the level of the power the US Department of Education should have when it comes to ensuring schools are improved for disadvantaged students.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan applauded the bill for allowing states and districts to use federal education dollars to improve early-childhood education, but he joined various civil rights and business groups in calling for accountability measures to be strengthened.

One of those groups is The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which joined 40 other organizations in sending a letter to Senator Alexander critiquing the bill earlier this week.

“We refuse to stand by and watch the fragile progress we’ve made in holding schools accountable for educating vulnerable students wither away,” said Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president for The Leadership Conference, in a statement Thursday.

Advocates of stronger accountability for high schools were disappointed that amendments did not pass that would have required states to identify schools with low graduation rates, give them more support, and set graduation-rate improvement goals. The bill does require transparent reporting of graduation rates, however.

“With more than 1,200 high schools still graduating less than two-thirds of their students, now is not the time to be tough on data and weak on action,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. “Of the more than 1.1 million students attending these schools, most are students of color and low-income students.”

Still, the bill received overall praise from groups ranging from the National School Boards Association – which said it marked a victory for local control – to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, which likes provisions for supporting the growth of high-quality charter schools.

The bill also includes support for magnet schools, which advocates of racial and socioeconomic integration say have a good track record for furthering such goals because they draw students voluntarily from a wide variety of neighborhoods.

The bill rolls back current federal power in several ways: It affirms state control over standards and does not allow the federal government to mandate or incentivize the adoption of certain standards, including Common Core.

It also takes away any federal definition for “highly qualified teachers,” allowing states to define that. And states would not be required to mandate teacher evaluation systems. Such systems are also not required under No Child Left Behind, but they have been pushed as part of the waivers that many states have sought from the US Department of Education to obtain some relief from NCLB requirements.

Two of the amendments passed by the Senate committee this week acknowledged growing public concern about students being overtested. One allows states to use federal funds to examine the quality and quantity of testing and eliminate low-quality tests, while the other would ensure that the federal law cannot preempt local or state laws that allow parents to opt out of testing for their children, Education Week reports.

If the bill passes the Senate, then there’s the question of what will happen in the House. That “would be a much more formidable battle,” Professor McGuinn says. Another option would be for the House to take a vote on the version sponsored by Education Committee chairman John Kline(R) of Minnesota and then try to work out a compromise with the Senate. When it passed out of committee, that legislation had the backing of only Republicans (and not all of them). 

A third option, the least optimistic scenario for those hoping to see something get through Congress this year: “They can do nothing and allow the Senate bill to die, thus almost certainly dooming ESEA reauthorization until well after the 2016 election,” writes Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

But for now, plenty of people are celebrating the momentum created this week by the Senate HELP committee. The agreement they reached “is so rare that the crowd still on hand on the third day of markup applauded” when the unanimous vote finally took place, CQ Roll Call reports.Applause for No Child Left Behind rewrite, but concerns remain - Yahoo News:

Opt-out movement accelerates amid Common Core testing - Yahoo News

Opt-out movement accelerates amid Common Core testing - Yahoo News:

Opt-out movement accelerates amid Common Core testing

ATLANTA (AP) — Thousands of students are opting out of new standardized tests aligned to the Common Core standards, defying the latest attempt by states to improve academic performance.

Related Stories

1. Thousands likely to sit out New York English, math tests Associated Press
2. More Students Opt Out of N.Y. State Exams The Wall Street Journal
3. Rejecting Common Core is Not an Education Policy The Fiscal Times
4. Common Core tests OK, but Nevada gives leeway to schools Associated Press
5. Common Core Testing Optional in Montana The Wall Street Journal

This "opt-out" movement remains scattered but is growing fast in some parts of the country. Some superintendents in New York are reporting that 60 percent or even 70 percent of their students are refusing to sit for the exams. Some lawmakers, sensing a tipping point, are backing the parents and teachers who complain about standardized testing.

Resistance could be costly: If fewer than 95 percent of a district's students participate in tests aligned with Common Core standards, federal money could be withheld, although the U.S. Department of Education said that hasn't happened.

"It is a theoretical club administrators have used to coerce participation, but a club that is increasingly seen as a hollow threat," said Bob Schaeffer with the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, which seeks to limit standardized testing.

And so the movement grows: This week in New York, tens of thousands of students sat out the first day of tests, with some districts reporting more than half of students opting out of the English test. Preliminary reports suggest an overall increase in opt-outs compared to last year, when about 49,000 students did not take English tests and about 67,000 skipped math tests, compared to about 1.1 million students who did take the tests in New York.

Considerable resistance also has been reported in Maine, New Mexico, Oregon and Pennsylvania, and more is likely as many states administer the tests in public schools for the first time this spring.

The defiance dismays people who believe holding schools accountable for all their students' continuing improvement is key to solving education problems.

Assessing every student each year "gives educators and parents an idea of how the student is doing and ensures that schools are paying attention to traditionally underserved populations," U.S. Department of Education Spokeswoman Dorie Nolt said in an emailed statement.

Opposition runs across the political spectrum.

Some Republicans and Tea Party activists focus on the Common Core standards themselves, calling them a federal intrusion by President Barack Obama, even though they were developed by the National Governors Association and each state's education leaders in the wake of President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind program.

The Obama administration has encouraged states to adopt Common Core standards through the federal grant program known as Race to the Top, and most have, but each state is free to develop its own tests.

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In this Thursday, April 16, 2015 photo, Meredith Barber, right, jokes with her daughter Gabrielle Sc …

In California, home to the nation's largest public school system and Democratic political leaders who strongly endorse Common Core standards, there have been no reports of widespread protests to the exams — perhaps because state officials have decided not to hold schools accountable for the first year's results.

But in deep-blue New York, resistance has been encouraged by the unions in response to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's efforts to make the test results count more in teacher evaluations.

In Rockville Centre on Long Island, Superintendent William H. Johnson said 60 percent of his district's third-through-eighth graders opted out. In the Buffalo suburb of West Seneca, nearly 70 percent didn't take the state exam, Superintendent Mark Crawford said.

"That tells me parents are deeply concerned about the use of the standardized tests their children are taking," Crawford said. "If the opt-outs are great enough, at what point does somebody say this is absurd?"

Nearly 15 percent of high school juniors in New Jersey opted out this year, while fewer than 5 percent of students in grades three through eight refused the tests, state education officials said. One reason: Juniors may be focusing instead on the SAT and AP tests that could determine their college futures.

Much of the criticism focuses on the sheer number of tests now being applied in public schools: From pre-kindergarten through grade 12, students take an average of 113 standardized tests, according to a survey by the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents large urban districts.

Of these, only 17 are mandated by the federal government, but the backlash that began when No Child Left Behind started to hold teachers, schools and districts strictly accountable for their students' progress has only grown stronger since "Common Core" gave the criticism a common rallying cry.

"There is a widespread sentiment among parents, students, teachers, administrators and local elected officials that enough is enough, that government mandated testing has taken over our schools," Schaeffer said.

Teachers now devote 30 percent of their work time on testing-related tasks, including preparing students, proctoring, and reviewing the results of standardized tests, the National Education Association says.

The pressure to improve results year after year can be demoralizing and even criminalizing, say critics who point to the Atlanta test-cheating scandal, which led to the convictions 35 educators charged with altering exams to boost scores.

"It seems like overkill," said Meredith Barber, a psychologist from the Philadelphia suburb of Penn Valley who excused her daughter from this year's tests. Close to 200 of her schoolmates also opted out in the Lower Merion School District, up from a dozen last year.

"I'm sure we can figure out a way to assess schools rather than stressing out children and teachers and really making it unpleasant for teachers to teach," said Barber, whose 10-year-old daughter, Gabrielle, will be in the cafeteria researching Edwardian history and the TV show "Downton Abbey" during the two weeks schools have set aside for the tests.

Utah and California allow parents to refuse testing for any reason, while Arkansas and Texas prohibit opting out, according to a report by the Education Commission of the States. Most states are like Georgia, where no specific law clarifies the question, and lawmakers in some of these states want protect the right to opt out.

Florida has another solution: Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill strictly limiting testing to 45 hours each school year.

In Congress, meanwhile, lawmakers appear ready to give states more flexibility: A Senate committee approved a bipartisan update of No Child Left Behind this week that would let each state determine how much weight to give the tests when evaluating school performance.

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Contributors include Associated Press writers Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York; Geoff Mulvihill in Trenton, New Jersey; and Christine Armario in Los Angeles.Opt-out movement accelerates amid Common Core testing - Yahoo News: