A White Suburban Dad Named Arne Duncan Needs Out This Week In Education: Thompson

This Week In Education: Thompson: A White Suburban Dad Named Arne Duncan Needs Out:

Thompson: A White Suburban Dad Named Arne Duncan Needs Out

 New York  Board of Regents Chancellor Meryl Tisch says that "it’s been well over a year since I’ve had someone talk to me about instruction and curriculum. Everyone has talked to me about evaluations."

Well duh!

We are in the middle of a wonderful democratic moment as the Opt Out movement is poised to kill the high stakes testing vampire. And, even Tisch ridicules the idea that the test, sort, and punish school of reform can be saved by punishing parents who are standing up for their children. She says, “I would say to everyone who wants to punish the school districts ... Really, are you kidding me?”

But, Arne Duncan has even surpassed his previous political blunder of dismissing the concerns of "white suburban moms" whose kids might not be as brilliant as they think. He again demonstrates political sensitivity comparable to that of Southpark's Eric Cartman. As Chalkbeat's Patrick Wall reports, in As Opt Out Numbers Grow, Arne Duncan Says Feds May Have to Step In, Duncan now threatens to punish low-income schools in states which fail to hit participation rate targets.

The Education Czar demands, "Respect My Authorit-iii!"

Even better, Duncan reveals his lack of education judgment by asserting that his children aren't being injured by punitive testing mandates. After all, testing hasn't sucked all of the oxygen out of elite schools. Whether Duncan knows it or not, its under-the-gun, high-challenge schools that face the most pressure to impose drill and kill. He remains clueless about the inevitable ways that the toxicity dumped on teachers and administrators flows down onto the kids.

Duncan, the white suburban father, knows best. He, not moms and students, should decide how much of the joy of learning should be sacrificed in the name of bubble-in accountability.

Duncan's gaff is the best news since the announcement that 185,000 New York students have already opted out. He has just thrown more gasoline on the irreversible fire that is spreading through states that first adopted his extreme version of test-driven  accountability.

Once again, Duncan demonstrates his love for collective punishment in order to advance his corporate reform agenda. A huge part of the problem he created is due to his coercion of the states into adopting This Week In Education: Thompson: A White Suburban Dad Named Arne Duncan Needs Out:

To Meet New Student Standards, We Must Support and Empower Teachers | Ellen Moir

To Meet New Student Standards, We Must Support and Empower Teachers | Ellen Moir:

To Meet New Student Standards, We Must Support and Empower Teachers



 We have at our doorstep, a once in a century opportunity for education in America. Almost every state in America is introducing higher, more rigorous standards for all students. New assessments that strive to assess students' critical thinking and problem solving abilities alongside their basic comprehension are being developed. These new standards and assessments are helping forge a new vision for teaching and learning so all students graduate college and career ready -- no matter their zip code.

How can we make sure this vision becomes reality? Simply put, we need to support and empower educators to become continuous learners who are curious, persistent and reflective -- the core capabilities and dispositions these new standards require.

No Child Left Behind did some great things -- namely, shining a spotlight with data on the inequities in our educational system that harm our most marginalized groups of students. However, when these data were laid at our feet and accompanied by high-stakes assessments, our collective reaction did little to create opportunities for all students to be college and career ready.

The higher the stakes, the worse our response. Our actions disproportionately impacted the highest needs students in unintended ways that did not improve their educational outcomes. In the name of closing the achievement gap, we doubled down on foundational reading and math instruction. We scripted our curriculum. We removed or severely reduced all subjects -- like science, art and music -- that serve as excellent vehicles for teaching core skills like literacy and numeracy. We bubble-tested our students in the name of "test-prep." The poorer the school district, the greater the negative impact.

We taught to a test and not to a student. Affluent schools and districts were able to keep up their programs, supplementing at school with fundraising or after school activities, and rest on their successes on a narrow, standardized test. Fifteen years later the data tell us the same story. Children in America are not achieving at the same level as their international peers. African-American and Latino children are not achieving at the same level as their White and Asian peers. Children with learning differences are not progressing far enough or fast enough.

Teachers who have become accustomed to scripted lessons, standardized worksheets and bubble-laden assessments must now decide, on their own and through collaborating with other educators, how to best help students reach the standards. This change will be hard. But there is good news. This is the change teachers want. This is the change that empowers our teachers to apply their largely untapped talents. This is the change that elevates the role of the teacher from script-reader to facilitator of learning. Most importantly, this is the change our students deserve.

This change will be hard and the scale is massive -- there are 3.4M teachers in K-12 public schools in America. Add to this number, the millions of principals, parents, teacher educators, and students who have become accustomed to the reductionist approach to teaching and learning that has been dominant for nearly two decades.

The good news is teachers have a passion for improving student outcomes and are willing to do whatever it takes to grow as professionals. A report released this week at the Education Writers Association National Seminar by The VIVA Project ​and Education Post confirms what we've heard from teachers: they are excited about the possibilities and hopeful they will receive the training and support they need to make sure their students are successful. This will require a combination of autonomy and intentionality.

A classroom example should help illustrate this point.

Let's think about Maria, a 4th grade teacher with a classroom of 26 bright-eyed students. Several struggle with decoding and others with reading Harry Potter. Some have deep-seated math phobias and others are getting ready for algebra. Some have multiple supports at home and others don't. All learn differently, and all need to reach these newer, higher standards. First and foremost, Maria creates a positive and nurturing learning environment where all students feel safe to learn and contribute to the classroom community. She knows every student well and uses that knowledge to meet students where they are and get them to where they need to be. With a deep toolbox of strategies and resources across all disciplines, she teaches in a way that makes sure all students are succeeding. And most importantly, she develops the core capabilities and dispositions that help her know which strategy or resource to use with which students, and when. A trusted source carefully selects those strategies and resources, and Maria has the autonomy to determine their use.

How, exactly, can we couple autonomy with intentionality -- at scale -- in a way that To Meet New Student Standards, We Must Support and Empower Teachers | Ellen Moir:

Don't Miss The Queen of Soul and The Supremes at the NPE Conference In Chicago

The Queen of Soul and The Supremes at the NPE Conference In Chicago

Karen Lewis 

The Queen of Soul

Diane Ravitch and The Supremes

Can't Make it to the

NPE Conference In Chicago this Weekend?

You Can "Virtually" Be There!!!

THE NETWORK FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION NATIONAL CONFERENCE

I know not everyone can make it to Chicago this weekend -- but you can still be part of the action via the Livestream that will broadcast on as many as three channels. All the keynotes and many of the workshops will be available live, starting Saturday at 8:30 am central time at   www.schoolhouselive.org

 Please tweet with the hashtag ‪#‎NPEChicago‬ and help us trend #1 again like we did twice last year.

LIVE FROM CHICAGO, APRIL 25-26

THE NETWORK FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION NATIONAL CONFERENCE

CHECK OUT ALL THREE CHANNELS!

http://www.schoolhouselive.org/

The Deliberate and Intentional Lie About the Disappearance of Elective Courses in Public Schools | M. Shannon Hernandez

The Deliberate and Intentional Lie About the Disappearance of Elective Courses in Public Schools | M. Shannon Hernandez:



The Deliberate and Intentional Lie About the Disappearance of Elective Courses in Public Schools

 

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I am honored to feature D.A. Russell on the blog today. Don is exposing more of the truth about what is really happening in urban public schools around the country. Through years of research, Don has collected the data and published a book called, Lifting the Curtain: The disgrace we call urban public education. 

Today, Don is sharing the lies about electives and why they are disappearing from public schools. It has nothing to do with funding–although that is what the “media” and career bureaucrats continue to report. In the end, the teachers of electives and the students are the people who are suffering. It’s time to start speaking the truth so we can offer a well-rounded education to our public school children.

The decline in music and arts courses in our schools is shocking. Even the most stressed-out classroom teacher will admit music and arts teachers have it worse than the rest of us. All teachers face the constant pressure of mandates that force us to dumb down education and teach to the test. All of us work in an environment of cronyism where teachers who speak out on the real problems in education are the target of intimidation and bullying to be silent. Teachers across the nation cringe when we see an administrator change a failing grade to passing, because we know how much that hurts the child.

But on top of all this, music, arts, and electives teachers have to face the constant threat of eliminating their courses entirely — and the worst part is knowing that cancellation is almost always based on two deliberate and intentionally misleading lies by school administrators covering up the real reasons for cancelation.

The big lie – cancellation is a school funding issue

In the urban high schools I researched over three years before writing Lifting the Curtain, almost all of them had eliminated arts and music electives. In each case it was under the patently false pretense that it is due to a “…lack of funding.” The truth was, in each case that additional funding, if given, would always be applied to programs other than arts and music – because no matter what the funding level, there was no room in the curricula for these courses anymore.  The elective class periods had all been preempted for standardized test prep. And non-teaching mandates take up so much urban high school classroom time that teachers are prevented from the level of teaching that would make prep classes for standardized tests totally unnecessary.

Look at a typical 5-course freshman or sophomore day in school 20 years ago when today’s parents were in school:

• Math
• English
• Science
• History
• Electives

The electives slot was the joy for children.  Here is where we painted, crafted, and learned about music (other than Elvis and the Beatles!).   Here were study halls and gym (more than just one day per week).  But look at the same 5 course schedule today:

• Math
• English
• Science
• History
• Standardized test preparation

The real reason for canceling arts and music now becomes clear.  Disingenuous administrators claim it is a “budget” issue. But their real reason has nothing to do with budgets – it’s that there are no open freshman or sophomore open course slots for electives, because all are being used for test prep.

In almost all urban high schools, there are no electives, music, or arts courses in the freshman and sophomore years! All available course slots are used for prepping for the standard tests that occur in those two years. Only in the last two years of high school, after the standard test are over, does a period become available for electives. But sadly, those electives that require continuity and a progression of skills, like music and the arts, are no longer possible. It is akin to a football program – you sometimes get a freshman star, but the heart of a good team is the seniors who have been in the program for four years of development. A two-year football program will not be very good. A two-year band will have a hard time marching with John Philip Sousa.

The little lie – music and arts are too expensive

The second lie is one that sounds reasonable – music and arts are far too expensive for today’s school budgets. After all, it is true that equipping a large band or orchestra is expensive.  But school administrators intentionally leave out an important factor in their effort to hide the need for test preparation classes. Today’s children dearly want low-budget music appreciation courses, not the high cost performance courses administrators use as a false red herring.

So, we have hit upon yet another unintended consequence of mandates (standardized testing and penalties to schools with low results, and non-teaching mandates in the classroom) that shortchange our children. In every urban high school I researched, the freshman and sophomore children had at least one class each term dedicated to helping pass standardized testing – often one for both English and one for Math. All but two had no freshman or sophomore courses for any electives such as art and music.  Literally hundreds of emails and Facebook posts I have received confirm the same situation in schools nationwide. Many schools are even starting to look at adding more such “test preparation” classes for bio, chemistry, and history as those topics become part of standardized testing. After all, the sanctions on a school that does not meet mandated test results can be very severe.

And reprehensibly, many of the schools that still claim to have music and arts programs treat them as second class citizens with little support.

In every one of  the urban high schools I studied, I found administrators focused only on protecting their positions and the school’s status by concentrating curricula on passing the tests, rather than helping teachers be freed up from micromanaging mandates so those same teachers could teach again in their classrooms, making test prep classes unnecessary.

So do the math – who loses when one or two classes each day are tied up with remedial test prep training? A typical school has just 5-6 classes per day. If two (and soon to be more than two) are for additional Math and English training to help with passing standardized tests, where is there room for electives anymore? Where is there a space for creative writing? For law? For small business issues? For psychology? For that matter, where is there a slot for band, art, home economics, study hall, or carpentry?

Once again, the real reason for the loss of arts and music in our schools is simple – too many mandates trying to compete for too little time. The career bureaucrats, year after year, do not understand something as obvious as that 7-8 classes cannot fit into a 5-6 class day – and our children are the losers.

This post is part of the WOW! Women on Writing Book Tour series for D.A. Russell’s book. You can read a full interview about Don and his book here.The Deliberate and Intentional Lie About the Disappearance of Elective Courses in Public Schools | M. Shannon Hernandez:

Parental Choice, Magical Thinking, and the Paralysis of Indirect Solutions | the becoming radical

Parental Choice, Magical Thinking, and the Paralysis of Indirect Solutions | the becoming radical:

PARENTAL CHOICE, MAGICAL THINKING, AND THE PARALYSIS OF INDIRECT SOLUTIONS

 Parental choice #1: Seeking a school for their white children so they will not have to attend classes with black or brown children.

Parental choice #2: Seeking a school where their wealthy children will not have to attend classes with poor children.

Parental choice #3: Seeking a school where children will be taught Intelligent Design, but not evolutionary biology.

Parental choice #4: Not allowing their children to be vaccinated.

Parental choice #5: Smoking in the house and car while children are present.

I could continue for quite some time with the hypotheticals, but let’s turn to what we know about parental choice and education.

A 2007 study by a pro-school choice organization in Wisconsin reached the following conclusions:

Taken as a whole, these numbers indicate significant limits on the capacity of public school choice and parental involvement to improve school quality and student performance within MPS. Parents simply do not appear sufficiently engaged in available choice opportunities or their children’s educational activities to ensure the desired outcomes.

This may be just as well. Relying on public school choice and parental involvement to reclaim MPS may be a distraction from the hard work of fixing the district’s schools. Recognizing this, the question is whether the district, its schools, and its supporters in Madison are prepared to embrace more radical reforms. Given the high stakes involved, district parents should insist on nothing less.

More recently, in School Choice Versus A Public System of Education: The Big Picture, Jan Resseger explains:

Promoters of school choice tout the idea that competition through choice will make everybody try harder and improve traditional and charter schools alike.  But large studies conducted in the past year in Chicago and New Orleans show that parents aren’t always looking for academic quality 

Parental Choice, Magical Thinking, and the Paralysis of Indirect Solutions | the becoming radical:

Hillary Clinton should champion public schools : Wsj

Ruth Conniff: Hillary Clinton should champion public schools : Wsj:

Ruth Conniff: Hillary Clinton should champion public schools

In the video announcing her run for president, Hillary Clinton declares, “Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion.” To make that campaign slogan credible, Clinton needs to take a clear position defending public schools.

All over the country, a growing movement of parents, teachers and students is rising up against overtesting, school closings and shady schemes that channel public funds into private schools.

A recent front-page article in The New York Times described Clinton’s dilemma on the issue.

On one side, charter school operators and hedge fund managers are urging her to adopt their union-bashing, pro-privatization agenda. On the other side, communities all over the country are experiencing education “reform” as a major threat to their local public schools.

Outrage over school closures in Chicago drove the campaign against Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a chief proponent of the corporate education reform agenda. Emanuel kept his seat, but only after being forced into a runoff by a relatively unknown grassroots candidate.

In Little Rock, Arkansas, community groups are using a nationwide petition drive to drum up support for their fight against the state Legislature, which, backed by the largest business interests in the state, voted to dissolve the elected school board and to replace neighborhood public schools with for-profit, corporate-owned schools. In the petition, Arkansas Community Organizations points out the historic integration of Little Rock Central High that exposed the injustice of “separate but equal” education. Today, school privatization poses a new threat to the basic, democratic promise of public education.

It’s an issue that puts Clinton in a difficult position, pitting some of her big Wall Street supporters against the “everyday Americans” whose votes she is courting.

School choice lobbyists have spent enormous sums of money around the country to promote the idea that public schools have “failed” and to support privatization. But the data don’t back up their claims. National research shows charter and voucher schools perform no better, on average, than traditional public schools. To offer a fair shot at success to all students, public schools need more resources, not punitive, test-and-punish “reforms” or dubious school privatization schemes.

I recently attended a forum in Reedsburg where community members packed an elementary school gym to talk about school budget cuts and the expansion of voucher and charter school programs that will drain desperately needed money away from their local public schools. These citizens do not want to see their local public schools destroyed or their tax dollars go to pay private school tuition for families whose children have never even attended public school, which has happened under Gov. Scott Walker’s school voucher expansion in Wisconsin.

As she campaigns for president, Clinton should pay close attention to what “everyday Americans” who support their public schools are trying to tell her.

Conniff is editor-in-chief of The Progressive in Madison. This column was distributed by the Tribune News Service and Progressive Media Project: pmproj@progressive.org and www.progressive.org.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/guest/ruth-conniff-hillary-clinton-should-champion-public-schools/article_274e7c7b-6605-52fc-9559-b517caae8dc9.html#ixzz3YA4bJ7Cd

Jon Stewart: Cheating teachers go to jail. Cheating Wall Streeters don’t. What’s up with that? - The Washington Post

Jon Stewart: Cheating teachers go to jail. Cheating Wall Streeters don’t. What’s up with that? - The Washington Post:

Jon Stewart: Cheating teachers go to jail. Cheating Wall Streeters don’t. What’s up with that?

 

(AP Photo/Brad Barket, File)

This is one of those videos that make you want to laugh and cry at the same time. I you didn’t watch it, take a few minutes, and if you did see it, watch it again and see what you missed amid the layers of deep analysis for which “The Daily Show” is known.

Jon Stewart on Wednesday night made the inevitable comparison between the former teachers and administrators in Atlanta who were sentenced for cheating on standardized tests — a few for as much as seven years — with Wall Street denizens who in 2008 connived in a way that nearly brought down the country’s financial system. Only one was sentenced to 12 months in jail.

The Atlanta convictions, of racketeering and other crimes in a standardized test-cheating scandal, were believed to be the worst of a wave of test cheating in nearly 40 states and Washington, D.C. — not by students but by teachers and administrators who were under pressure to meet certain score goals at the risk of sanction if they failed.

The case stemmed from a 2013 indictment by a grand jury of Beverly Hall, the now-deceased Atlanta schools superintendent, and 34 teachers, principals and others. Twelve teachers eventually went to trial; one was acquitted of all charges and the 11 others were all convicted of racketeering — under a law used against the Gambino organized-crime family — plus a variety of other charges. Prosecutors alleged that Hall had run a “corrupt” organization that used test scores to financially reward and punish teachers. Hall passed away earlier this year.

The judge in Atlanta is said to be reconsidering his harshest sentences.

Stewart compares the cases and finds a surprising number of similarities — except the sentences.

Here it is:

Valerie Strauss covers education and runs The Answer Sheet blog.Jon Stewart: Cheating teachers go to jail. Cheating Wall Streeters don’t. What’s up with that? - The Washington Post:

Beyond Education Wars - NYTimes.com

Beyond Education Wars - NYTimes.com:

Beyond Education Wars

For the last dozen years, waves of idealistic Americans have campaigned to reform and improve K-12 education.

Armies of college graduates joined Teach for America. Zillionaires invested in charter schools. Liberals and conservatives, holding their noses and agreeing on nothing else, cooperated to proclaim education the civil rights issue of our time.

Yet I wonder if the education reform movement hasn’t peaked.

The zillionaires are bruised. The idealists are dispirited. The number of young people applying for Teach for America, after 15 years of growth, has dropped for the last two years. The Common Core curriculum is now an orphan, with politicians vigorously denying paternity.

K-12 education is an exhausted, bloodsoaked battlefield. It’s Agincourt, the day after. So a suggestion: Refocus some reformist passions on early childhood.

I say that for three reasons. First, there is mounting evidence that early childhood is a crucial period when the brain is most malleable, when interventions are most cost-effective for at-risk kids.

Researchers are finding that poverty can harm the brains of small children, perhaps because their brains are subjected to excessive cortisol (a stress hormone) and exposed less to conversation and reading. One study just published in Nature Neuroscience found that children in low-income families had a brain surface area on average 6 percent smaller than that of children in high-income families.

“Neuroscience tells us we’re missing a critical, time-sensitive opportunity to help the most disadvantaged kids,” notes Dr. Jack Shonkoff, an early childhood expert at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Growing evidence suggests what does work to break the poverty cycle: Start early in life, and coach parents to stimulate their children. Randomized controlled trials, the gold standard of evidence, have shown this with programs like Nurse-Family Partnership,Reach Out and Read, and high-quality preschool. These kinds of interventions typically produce cognitive gains that last a few years and then fade — but, more important, also produce better life outcomes, such as less crime, fewer teenage pregnancies, higher high school graduation rates, and higher incomes.

The second reason to focus on early interventions is that the low-hanging fruit has already been picked in the K-12 world. Charter schools like KIPPshowed that even in high-poverty environments, students can excel. In New York City, which under Michael Bloomberg became a center for education reform, high school graduation rates rose to 66 percent in 2013 from 47 percent in 2005.

I support education reform. Yet the brawls have left everyone battered and bloodied, from reformers to teachers unions. I’m not advising surrender. Education inequity is America’s original sin. A majority of American children in public schools are eligible for free or reduced price lunches, and they often get second-rate teachers in second-rate schools — even as privileged kids get superb teachers. This perpetuates class and racial inequity and arises in part from a failed system of local school financing.

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But fixing K-12 education will be a long slog, so let’s redirect some energy Beyond Education Wars - NYTimes.com:

I CRIED TODAY! - Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

I CRIED TODAY!



By:  Robyn Brydalski

 I cried today. Tears streamed down my face as I entered the sterile hallway to walk the dreaded tests to the secure return location. I cried for my students. For three solid days and over two hundred minutes, these bright eyed eight year olds gave it their all. I cried for the teaching profession. In the fifteen years I have dedicated to this profession I have experienced many changes to curriculum, grading and assessing, but never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined education could have evolved to this current state of disorder. I cried tears of anger because had I been given the professional trust and freedom to implement units and lessons of days gone by, my students would have been far better prepared for the impossible tasks they were expected to complete this week. My Language Arts program would have incorporated a variety of genres and author studies, multiple ways to respond to reading, guided reading, Readers Theater and lessons designed on (gasp) student interests, all while interconnecting the arts, music and theater into a well-rounded learning experience.



I complied with district and state expectations by teaching a scripted module. These modules were supposed to prepare our students for the test. The over 50% focus on non-fiction text would better prepare our students for their futures. The scripted lessons were to create cohesiveness among a grade level, a district and a state. Instead, it set us further behind. NYSED knew exactly what it was doing when it presented ENGAGENY’s modules to districts. The modules that were written because of the Common Core would be a perfect, inexpensive way to cover our bases. We all ate the forbidden fruit and now we will suffer the consequences.



My blood boiled and anger seethed from the deepest parts of my heart when I saw the confusing passages and misleading questions. This test played on an eight year old mind taking advantage of these literal thinkers full knowing, on their own, very few students would be able to analyze, synthesize and evaluate an author’s message. The sheer volume of passages was exhausting. One of my brightest students was so confused by a question that she shut down and gave up. She looked at me and said, “I’m just stupid, I guess.” She is eight years old. No eight year old deserves to feel this way. I cried tears of pain when many of my students looked to me for guidance and clarification. I encouraged them but I knew without a teacher guiding them, they would not be successful with the expected question and my students knew this. How is this right? How is this just? How is this a true measure of good teaching? My students persevered through day one, toughed it out for day two but Badass Teachers Association:

Superintendent Nyland, threatening teachers isn’t a growth mindset. | Seattle Education

Superintendent Nyland, threatening teachers isn’t a growth mindset. | Seattle Education:

Superintendent Nyland, threatening teachers isn’t a growth mindset.

Both of my children attend schools with amazing teachers. Educators who teach to the whole child, not just the parts which can be measured by standardized tests.

That’s why it burns me up that Superintendent Nyland is threatening Nathan Hale’s teachers for deciding —  in a democratic manner — to boycott the 11th grade SBAC test.

The irony is Washington State’s adoption of the Common Core Standards, with their accompanying assessments, was – to put it politely, less than transparent.

This is the first year teachers in Seattle Public Schools have had a chance to review, in depth, the SBAC — which is the new test tied to the Common Core Standards, developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).

Now that teachers have seen the SBAC, questions and concerns have surfaced – not only about the quality of the test, but also about its implementation.

Elementary school teachers are concerned the SBAC may not be developmentally appropriate. They are especially worried this assessment could discourage students with IEPs and English Language learners.

According to a report by the Smarter Balanced Consortium, only 15.8% of 3rd graders with IEPs will pass the English Language portion of the SBAC. For English language learners, the pass rate is 13.6%. Overall, only 38.1% of 3rd graders will pass the English language portion of the SBAC.

Teachers are also worried about the loss of instruction time. Many elementary schools have been doing practice tests in technology class since the end of February.

This week, my third grader’s class spent 6 hours on the English language portion of the SBAC. The test was scheduled during math time, which means there was zero math instruction for the last week. (Another 6 hours of testing for the math portion of the SBAC is scheduled for April.)

A Superintendent who was truly interested in student learning, would take this type of feedback from principals and teachers and see if it had merit. If the concerns were valid, the next step would be to work to improve the assessment or – if this wasn’t possible –  de-emphasize the value placed on it.

Instead, Nyland has taken this information and decided the problem is messaging. All of these concerns can be explained away with a FAQ link.

 Some of you have expressed concern about the administration of the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA). Concerns have included questions about the utility of the assessment, the instructional time lost due to testing and the likelihood of lower test scores. I encourage you to visit our newly developed Frequently Asked Questions on our district website.

What’s most unfortunate is Nyland’s choice to defend a flawed assessment, rather than the principals, teachers, and students who have to struggle with its shortcomings. Adding insult to injury, if any of these administrators or teachers speak up — acting on their Superintendent Nyland, threatening teachers isn’t a growth mindset. | Seattle Education:

Anti-‘Common Core’ activists leak state’s English exam online | New York Post

Anti-‘Common Core’ activists leak state’s English exam online | New York Post:

Anti-‘Common Core’ activists leak state’s English exam online

A copy of the state’s English Language Arts test that students took last week was leaked online Wednesday in an apparent act of sabotage by anti-testing activists.

More than three dozen photographs of the exam appeared Wednesday morning on theFacebook page “Education is a journey, not a race — USA,” which has posted screeds against Common Core-linked tests since March 2013.

It’s not known who released the test online, as the Facebook page is anonymous — but the post had been shared 163 times by Wednesday night.

Education experts believe the saboteur posted the passages in solidarity with a statewide movement in which thousands of kids opted out of the test. The leak will mean portions of the test will have to be rewritten next year.

“This is a political act and it will be interesting to see whether [test-creation company] Pearson or the state Department of Education understands it as that or goes after them for civil or criminal liability,” said Brooklyn College education Professor David Bloomfield, who called the post an act of “civil disobedience.”

State education officials would not confirm whether they were investigating the leak but said the makeup period for the exam had concluded before the test became public, meaning no one was able to cheat using the leaked exam.

“The real consequence is additional taxpayer dollars and more class time on field tests to replace the exposed questions,” said state Education Department spokesman Dennis Tompkins.

Parent activists criticized the state for refusing to release the test on its own.

“It just increases the lack of confidence parents have in the competence of the state Education Department,” said parent activist ­Leonie Haimson. “We do need full transparency. Whoever posted this on Facebook did a public service.”

The leak included parts of the English exam with questions about Amelia Earhart, mountain biking and amusement parks, as well as excerpts from “The Night the Bat Got In” by Virginia Kroll.

Parents and teachers have mobilized to encourage skipping the test in defiance of Gov. Cuomo’s plan to link a larger portion of a teacher’s evaluation to student exam results.

Meanwhile, state officials tussled over a Nov. 15 deadline to fix the teacher-evaluation system after lawmakers agreed to tie in the system with billions of dollars of education funding in the budget.

Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said school districts risk losing money if Regents members cannot reach an agreement in time, and asked Cuomo for an extension until September 2016.Anti-‘Common Core’ activists leak state’s English exam online | New York Post:

California bill would require union buy-in for teacher evaluations - Yahoo News

California bill would require union buy-in for teacher evaluations - Yahoo News:

California bill would require union buy-in for teacher evaluations

 SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - The degree to which student test scores in California could be used to evaluate teachers' job performance would be decided in union negotiations rather than by school districts or lawmakers under a bill that advanced Wednesday in the state legislature.

The bill to repeal a portion of the state law governing how teachers job performance is evaluated in the most populous U.S. state is one of several under consideration this year, as lawmakers try to balance the sometimes competing concerns of school reformers, who want to make it easier to fire teachers, and unions who say educators need more job protections.

"We’re trying to look at evaluations in a positive sense," said Democratic state Senator Carol Liu, the bill's author and chair of the senate education committee, who says efforts to tie teachers' job evaluations to testing have taken a punitive tone that blames teachers for problems in the educational system.

She characterized her bill, which passed the education committee on Wednesday, as a first step toward forging a compromise between the two extremes.

"We want to encourage teachers to grow, using not only test scores but all sorts of other measures to evaluate progress," Liu said in an interview.

Her bill requires teachers to be evaluated in part on student progress, including such objective measures as testing, but mandates that the specifics be worked out in collective bargaining.

It also would require trained evaluators to observe teachers in their classrooms as part of the job review process.

"Offering unions this power affords them the opportunity and incentive to water down teacher evaluations," a coalition of groups including Democrats for Education Reform and the California Chamber of Commerce said in a letter to Liu.

The Sacramento-based reform group Students First called the bill misguided, saying it ignored research on what makes an evaluation effective, and puts the state at risk of losing federal support.

Last year, a superior court judge in Los Angeles declared six laws protecting teacher jobs in the state unconstitutional, partly because they made it too hard to fire incompetent teachers.

The ruling in a civil rights lawsuit funded by an education reform advocate and now under appeal further inflamed debate over how to fix the state's troubled education system.

In its wake, Democrats have sponsored bills to protect teachers, while Republicans are seeking reforms called for by plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including weakening teacher tenure laws.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein)California bill would require union buy-in for teacher evaluations - Yahoo News: