Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 5/13/15

Special Nite Cap 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Mistakes made with teacher evaluation scores, CPS admits | Catalyst Chicago

Mistakes made with teacher evaluation scores, CPS admits | Catalyst Chicago: Mistakes made with teacher evaluation scores, CPS admitsCiting a computer coding error, district officials have acknowledged that they miscalculated last year’s REACH performance task scores for one out of every five educators.Only a tiny fraction of the 4,574 errors were significant enough to result in ratings changes, h

1 by mike simpson / 2h 

Mapped: The places where most public school children are poor - The Washington Post

Mapped: The places where most public school children are poor - The Washington Post: Mapped: The places where most public school children are poorUrban InstituteEarlier this year, the Southern Education Foundation reported that America's public schools had reached a dispiriting milestone: A majority of children attending them are now low-income. As The Post's Lyndsey Layton noted at the time, we h

1 by mike simpson / 2h 

CURMUDGUCATION: I Should Support Charters

CURMUDGUCATION: I Should Support Charters: I Should Support ChartersI'm a big fan of the opt-out movement when it comes to testing. I believe, in general, that it's better for people to have a choice, to be free to consider options. It would make a certain amount of sense for me to be a supporter of school choice in general and charter schools as an expression of that choice.And yet, I am not a su

1 by mike simpson / 3h 

Schooling in the Ownership Society: In L.A., Deasy gone but leaves in his wake, feds, grand juries, and litigation

Schooling in the Ownership Society: In L.A., Deasy gone but leaves in his wake, feds, grand juries, and litigation: In L.A., Deasy gone but leaves in his wake, feds, grand juries, and litigationThis is getting to sound repetitive. Post-Deasy L.A. is sounding a lot like post-Byrd-Bennett Chicago. Former LAUSD Supt. John Deasy is gone. They've provided a soft landing for him at the Broad Leadership

1 by mike simpson / 3h 

Didn’t dullard Duncan say Katrina was the best thing to happen to New Orleans?

Didn’t dullard Duncan say Katrina was the best thing to happen to New Orleans?: Didn’t dullard Duncan say Katrina was the best thing to happen to New Orleans?MAY 13, 2015 BY ROBERT D. SKEELS * RDSATHENE LEAVE A COMMENT“…let me be really honest. I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina.” — Arne DuncanThe absolute worst education President, an

1 by mike simpson / 3h 

Pro-Common Core group takes issue with blog post — and the author responds - The Washington Post

Pro-Common Core group takes issue with blog post — and the author responds - The Washington Post: Pro-Common Core group takes issue with blog post — and the author respondsSouth Side High School Principal Carol Burris ( Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday)Regular readers of this blog are familiar with Carol Burris, an award-winning principal in New York who has written repeatedly over the past few years on

1 by mike simpson / 3h 

Lack of Oversight of Charter Schools Designed as a Plus; $3.3+ Billion Spent (Part 2) | PR Watch

Lack of Oversight of Charter Schools Designed as a Plus; $3.3+ Billion Spent (Part 2) | PR Watch: Lack of Oversight of Charter Schools Designed as a Plus; $3.3+ Billion Spent (Part 2)“The waste of taxpayer money—none of us can feel good about,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services and Education just last month.Yet, he is calling

1 by mike simpson / 3h 

Does High-Stakes Testing & Accountability= Social Justice & Civil Rights? | Cloaking Inequity

Does High-Stakes Testing & Accountability= Social Justice & Civil Rights? | Cloaking Inequity: Does High-Stakes Testing & Accountability= Social Justice & Civil Rights?Last week I had the opportunity to give the Social Justice Keynote for The California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators (CALSA) at the University of San Diego for their Sixth Annual Research to

1 by mike simpson / 4h 

How Testing is Driving More Oklahoma Teachers, and Other Educators Across the Nation, Out of the Classroom | John Thompson

How Testing is Driving More Oklahoma Teachers, and Other Educators Across the Nation, Out of the Classroom | John Thompson: How Testing is Driving More Oklahoma Teachers, and Other Educators Across the Nation, Out of the ClassroomKOSU's Emily Wendler reports that Robyn Venable taught for 31 years. She is one of the wave of Oklahoma teachers who are reluctantly leaving the profession. Ms. Venable l

1 by mike simpson / 4h 

A parent’s guide to K-12 school success

A parent’s guide to K-12 school success

3 by mike simpson / 4h 

Stop the Blame Game Over Achievement Gap | Al Jazeera America

Stop the Blame Game Over Achievement Gap | Al Jazeera America: Stop the blame game over achievement gapWe need to invest in programs that help students learn and succeed, not argue about who's responsible for failureDebates about the shortcomings of K–12 education in the United States typically focus on identifying who or what is to blame for the achievement gap — the lower standardized test score

1 by mike simpson / 6h 

Should teachers be evaluated on how ‘gritty’ their students are? - The Washington Post

Should teachers be evaluated on how ‘gritty’ their students are? - The Washington Post: Should teachers be evaluated on how ‘gritty’ their students are?This story has been updated.A growing number of education policymakers are interested in judging schools and teachers in part on whether they contribute to the growth of children’s character, pointing to research that shows a solid link between suc

1 by mike simpson / 7h 

Arne Duncan Fouls Out on Common Core

Arne Duncan Common Core: Arne Duncan Fouls Out on Common CoreThe Failure of Coercion in Public EducationOpposition to the Common Core Standards and the tests tied to them is rising, as a recentWall Street Journal article (May 6) underlined. Approval for Common Core is now languishing at a mere 17 percent while disapproval has shot up to 40 percent. The article continues: “This year hundreds of tho

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Seattle Council PTSA supports the Seattle Education Association teacher walk-out, well, sort of | Seattle Education

Seattle Council PTSA supports the Seattle Education Association teacher walk-out, well, sort of | Seattle Education:Seattle Council PTSA supports the Seattle Education Association teacher walk-out, well, sort ofWhereas, these are unprecedented times in Washington state’s history as the State is in contempt of court for failing to comply with the Supreme Court’s orders in the McCleary decision and

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Stevie Wonder knew: The Real Problem With How People View America’s Inner City Public Education | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing

Stevie Wonder knew: The Real Problem With How People View America’s Inner City Public Education | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing: Stevie Wonder knew: The Real Problem With How People View America’s Inner City Public Education“Wow, new york, just like I pictured itSkyscrapers and everything [Verse 5] Hey hey brother, hey come here slick
Hey you look, you look hip manHey you wanna make yourself

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Kooyenga and Darling’s plan to kill the Milwaukee Public Schools | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Kooyenga and Darling’s plan to kill the Milwaukee Public Schools | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!: Kooyenga and Darling’s plan to kill the Milwaukee Public SchoolsJay Bullock 5/13/2015 BlogIt’s out there now, the Republican plan to start peeling off Milwaukee Public Schools and handing them over to private operators. And it’s awful.Sponsored by suburban Republicans Rep. Dale Kooyega an

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm's 'fear Detroit' campaign worked. But then there's this...

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm's 'fear Detroit' campaign worked. But then there's this...: Rahm's 'fear Detroit' campaign worked. But then there's this...Remember Rahm Emanuel's fear campaign, the one that -- along with $20 million -- helped get him re-elected?John Kass ridiculed it in the Tribune:...what if Chuy wins?How long will it take Chicago to become Detroit, as threatened by the Rahmu

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

Russ on Reading: Chris Christie’s Lessons for School Children

Russ on Reading: Chris Christie’s Lessons for School Children: Chris Christie’s Lessons for School ChildrenBy definition a leader is “one who shows the way.” Citizens, including school children, look to their leaders for lessons in terms of character, doing the right thing, behavior in public and how to treat those less powerful. Since the moment that he entered office, New Jersey Governor Chris C

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

Chris Christie’s fresh humiliation: The new scandal that could finally put the kibosh on his presidential hopes - Salon.com

Chris Christie’s fresh humiliation: The new scandal that could finally put the kibosh on his presidential hopes - Salon.com: Chris Christie’s fresh humiliation: The new scandal that could finally put the kibosh on his presidential hopesThe Christie administration could be facing a new round of indictments, this time for misappropriated pension fundsIf after last week’s Bridgegate indictments you t

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

A Teacher's View of Parents | D. A. Russell

A Teacher's View of Parents | D. A. Russell: A Teacher's View of Parents There is perhaps no more heated a topic in the teacher lunchroom than the role of parents in education. The overwhelming bulk of parents, even in the most challenged schools I researched, remain the best allies a teacher could ever want. But teachers are human (at least most of us), and by human nature all those good parents

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

The pros and cons of standardized testing — in one highly unusual list - The Washington Post

The pros and cons of standardized testing — in one highly unusual list - The Washington Post: The pros and cons of standardized testing — in one highly unusual listMayfield High School junior Laura Cruz, 18, holds sign on March, 2, 2015, during a student-organized walkout to protest the PARCC Common Core exams in Las Cruces, N.M. (AP Photo/Las Cruces Sun-News, Robin Zielinski)Any reader of this bl

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

Is student privacy erased as classrooms turn digital? - Yahoo News

Is student privacy erased as classrooms turn digital? - Yahoo News: Is student privacy erased as classrooms turn digital?Privacy researcher Elana Zeide says schools need more transparency about how student data is used by educational publishers and software companies.When parents and school officials in New Jersey discovered that educational publisher Pearson recently monitored students' Twitter a

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

Eighth-grade Student Tells What standardized tests really do to schools - - San Mateo Daily Journal

What standardized tests really do to schools - - San Mateo Daily Journal: What standardized tests really do to schoolsAs an eighth-grade student, I am on the brink of a grueling, three-week period of standardized testing featuring state and nationwide mandatory tests such as the CAASP, SBAC, STAR, MARS, Scholastic Reading Tests, Class Placement Tests and Learning Diagnostics.I will be taking tests

by mike simpson / 10h 

Teachers rally against standardized tests - NewsTimes

Teachers rally against standardized tests - NewsTimes: Teachers rally against standardized testsChanting "Let us teach," about 500 educators from around the state went from their classrooms to a rally at the state Capitol in Hartford late Tuesday afternoon, urging lawmakers to reduce the number of required standardized tests given to public school students."It's too much," said

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

Real New vs. Paid "News" 3 Articles on The AFT-BAT Teachers Survey

American Federation of Teachers Union Survey Finds 7 Out Of 10 Teachers Are Stressed : News : ISchoolGuide: Real New vs. Paid "News" 3 Articles on The AFT-BAT Teachers Survey Can You Guess Which Story is Paid for By Corporations?American Federation of Teachers Union Survey Finds 7 Out Of 10 Teachers Are StressedA new online survey by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has sparked

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

The unintended consequences of public school reform

The unintended consequences of public school reform: The unintended consequences of public school reformWhile the goal of K-12 school reform is admirable, there are a number of unintended consequences that keep some public school systems from operating at their highest level of effectiveness.The measure of test scoresAmong the many responsibilities public schools face on a daily basis, one reigns

1 by mike simpson / 11h 

The Soft (and Not-So-Soft) Bigotry of High Stakes Testing | Tucson Weekly

The Soft (and Not-So-Soft) Bigotry of High Stakes Testing | The Range: The Tucson Weekly's Daily Dispatch | Tucson Weekly: The Soft (and Not-So-Soft) Bigotry of High Stakes Testing Monday I wrote about seven Arizona schools that have been accused of cheating on the high stakes AIMS test. I decided to look at the percentage of students on free/reduced lunch at the schools, and here's what I found.T

1 by mike simpson / 11h hide  //  save

YESTERDAY

TFA Exec Kira Orange-Jones As TIME “100 Most Influential” Material? | deutsch29

TFA Exec Kira Orange-Jones As TIME “100 Most Influential” Material? | deutsch29: TFA Exec Kira Orange-Jones As TIME “100 Most Influential” Material?For some reason, TIME magazine has decided that Teach for America (TFA) Louisiana executive director Kira Orange-Jones is one of the most influential people in 2015.I have been in the room with Orange-Jones at meetings of the Louisiana Board of Element

1 by mike simpson / 21h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 5/12/15

Special Nite Cap CORPORATE ED REFORMsolidaridad: Ref Rodriguez's Game of Hide the PUC Auditsolidaridad: Ref Rodriguez's Game of Hide the PUC Audit: Ref Rodriguez's Game of Hide the PUC AuditMay 12, 2015Contact: Bennett Kayser HQCell: 323-535-9930 DEFLATE GATE AT LAUSD AS RODRIGUEZ SUPPORTER GARCIA TRIES TO SQUASH RODRIGUEZ AUDIT SHOWING BAD BUSINESS.  BAD BOOKS AND VIOLATIONS – AUDIT DISAPPEARS, A

6 by mike simpson / 1d 

Mistakes made with teacher evaluation scores, CPS admits | Catalyst Chicago

Mistakes made with teacher evaluation scores, CPS admits | Catalyst Chicago:

Mistakes made with teacher evaluation scores, CPS admits

Citing a computer coding error, district officials have acknowledged that they miscalculated last year’s REACH performance task scores for one out of every five educators.

Only a tiny fraction of the 4,574 errors were significant enough to result in ratings changes, however. A total of 166 teachers were given corrected ratings earlier this year, and most moved up a category, CPS officials say. Teachers whose ratings dropped won’t be penalized.

The coding error involved matching student rosters with scores on performance tasks, the subject- and grade-specific assessments that were developed by committees of CPS teachers.

Though the problem was not extensive, the number of mistakes – and the possibility that there are still others – has renewed criticisms about the use of such a complex system to evaluate educators and put jobs on the line.

On the front end, the REACH (Recognizing Educators Advancing Chicago’s Students) evaluation system relies on teachers and principals to do classroom observations, administer tests and input data into a computer system. On the back end, REACH relies on a web of CPS departments, custom-designed software and third-party vendors to calculate student improvement on assessments, verify class rosters and tabulate final ratings.

“There needs to be an effort to reduce the complexity so teachers are getting fair, accurate, timely feedback,” says Jen Johnson, the CTU’s special coordinator for teacher evaluations. “This is serious stuff that leads to problems with potential job security.”

CPS Accountability Chief John Barker, whose office wrote the computer code that contained the error, says it’s now been corrected. He repeatedly stressed that the impact of the incorrect scores was minimal.

“Yes, that is something we are absolutely interested in as a district in getting it right. And getting it right means changing some scores,” Barker says. “What is important to know is that those are very, very minor issues. The number of changes in those scores that resulted in a teacher moving out of one category into another category is very, very small.”

It’s unclear, however, whether all of the errors have been corrected. Two teachers who spoke withCatalyst say their newly downgraded ratings no longer take all of their students’ growth on the performance task into account.

In one case, an elementary school teacher said her new score only counted half of the students who took the performance task at the beginning and end of the year. The other students -- who she says were counted the first time around -- are now missing from her data.

Similarly, an arts teacher at another school doesn't understand why her updated summative evaluation report now says that none of her students' performance task scores were counted toward her rating calculation. The "student growth" portion of her evaluation is now based entirely on her school's NWEA metrics – and not the performance task growth.

“Now we’re about to issue the second round of REACH Performance Tasks task for this school year,” she said. “And I ask myself, ‘Why am I even doing this? Who is to say it’s not going to be lost Mistakes made with teacher evaluation scores, CPS admits | Catalyst Chicago:

Mapped: The places where most public school children are poor - The Washington Post

Mapped: The places where most public school children are poor - The Washington Post:

Mapped: The places where most public school children are poor

Urban Institute

Earlier this year, the Southern Education Foundation reported that America's public schools had reached a dispiriting milestone: A majority of children attending them are now low-income. As The Post's Lyndsey Layton noted at the time, we haven't seen such demographics in public schools at any point over the past half-century. And they mean that teachers must increasingly prioritize combating the effects of poverty — ensuring children feel safe, fed and well-clothed — before the learning even begins.

This picture of poverty in the classroom, however, varies widely across the country, between North and South, and between urban counties and nearby suburban ones. The Urban Institute on Wednesday released interactive mapsshowing that the concentration of poor children in public schools is remarkably high in some of these places relative to others — and that these geographic disparities are magnified for children of color.

The above map shows the share of children in public schools in each county who come from low-income families (low-income is defined here as households making at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty line, the cutoff for free and reduced-price lunch programs). Particularly striking is the "belt of rural poverty" across the South, as the Urban Institute puts it.

The share of low-income children is also high in several metropolitan areas: in Dallas County (73 percent), in Cook County around Chicago (66 percent), in the District of Columbia (61 percent). In several Lakota counties in South Dakota, the number of public school children who come from low-income families approaches 100 percent.

This concentration of poverty, which reflects underlying patterns in where the rich and poor live, also means that a poor child in America is much more likely than a middle-class or wealthier child to attend a high-poverty school. About 40 percent of low-income children attend public schools where 75 percent of the other students are low-income, too. The same is true of just 6 percent of non-poor kids.

"This is concentrated disadvantage," writes Urban Institute researcher Reed Jordan, "the children who need the most are concentrated in schools least likely to have the resources to meet those needs."

Across the country, black children are also about six times more likely to attend high-poverty schools than white children. In many counties in the rural South, nearly all of the black children attend high-poverty schools:

Urban Institute

Disparities in the level of school poverty that white and black children experience often vary as well within the same region. Jordan again:

In some metropolitan areas, the racial concentration of school poverty is so severe that black and white students effectively attend two different school systems: one for middle- and upper-middle-income white students, and the other for poor students and students of color.

This happens, for example, in Cook County around Chicago. There, 75 percent of black students attend high-poverty schools. For white children, the share is less than 10 percent.

These maps reflect the importance of better integrating schools, creating environments in which poor children learn alongside upper-income peers. But that's a goal that will be hard to achieve if we don't talk as well about the housing patterns and policies that helped create these maps.

You can navigate the full data and interactive maps here.Mapped: The places where most public school children are poor - The Washington Post:

Emily Badger is a reporter for Wonkblog covering urban policy. She was previously a staff writer at The Atlantic Cities.

CURMUDGUCATION: I Should Support Charters

CURMUDGUCATION: I Should Support Charters:

I Should Support Charters

I'm a big fan of the opt-out movement when it comes to testing. I believe, in general, that it's better for people to have a choice, to be free to consider options. It would make a certain amount of sense for me to be a supporter of school choice in general and charter schools as an expression of that choice.

And yet, I am not a supporter of either-- at least not as currently proposed and practiced.

But I think any time one finds inconsistencies rattling around in one's head, intellectual honesty and a desire to live with as much integrity as one can muster demand that one considers what that inconsistency means.

So-- why am I a fan of choice, except when it comes to school.

Dishonesty about the cost

Choice and charter systems are currently constructed as a zero-sum game. In many districts, the charter system forces multiple schools to finance multiple systems with a pot of money that isn't even sufficient to finance a single system. This means that one school must be the loser, and charter policies are written so that the loser is always the public school. This system creates several problems.

There's a problem with rampant inequity-- students who most need extra support are left behind in public schools that have the least per-pupil ability to support them.Challenging application processes, targeted marketing, counseling out, and non-backfilling can all help insure that the public school becomes the holding ground for the students who most need help even as charters strip away the public school's financial ability to deal with them. And that's before we start to consider how a school climate is affected by the absence of the top-tier students.

The system is also unsustainable. Taxpayers funding multiple systems are essentially footing the bill for excess capacity spread over several schools. Schools have to cut programs so that they can have seats for students who may or may not show up on their doorstep. Furthermore, initial stages of a charter system work on a simple dynamic-- all charters drain their money from the public system. But as the market saturates, the charters begin stripping resources from each other. That adds to

System instability and impermanence

Market-driven systems pretty much demand a cycle of growing too much capacity followed by shucking off that capacity. In other words, a choice system is going to have closing schools as a regular feature. This never seems to stop surprising people, particularly when the closing is mid-year and unannounced.

A school should be a permanent feature of a community, not a temporary business venture. A school should not be a store in a strip mall, but a pillar of the community that is, in fact, paying taxes to provide exactly that. A commitment to operate a school should be "until the community decides to CURMUDGUCATION: I Should Support Charters:

Schooling in the Ownership Society: In L.A., Deasy gone but leaves in his wake, feds, grand juries, and litigation

Schooling in the Ownership Society: In L.A., Deasy gone but leaves in his wake, feds, grand juries, and litigation:

In L.A., Deasy gone but leaves in his wake, feds, grand juries, and litigation

This is getting to sound repetitive. Post-Deasy L.A. is sounding a lot like post-Byrd-Bennett Chicago. 

Former LAUSD Supt. John Deasy is gone. They've provided a soft landing for him at the Broad Leadership Academy. That's where school superintendents like Barbara Byrd-Bennett learned how to dole out no-bid contracts to companies like SUPESand Pearson. It's also where public education and democracy go to die. 

But look at Deasy left behind when he got out of Dodge.



Governing reports:

Today, LAUSD is exploring possible litigation against Apple and Pearson, the world’s largest education publishing company, to recoup millions of dollars; a criminal grand jury is investigating possible ethics violations by district officials; the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission have launched their own inquiries into possible wrong-doing; and Deasy resigned... 

...The SEC in April also launched an inquiry into whether L.A. school officials complied with legal guidelines in the use of bond funds to finance the iPad deal. Using construction bonds to purchase Internet infrastructure is common, but the LAUSD also used money from the bonds to purchase the iPads, which break down after a few years. Some critics of the plan have said LAUSD should have set aside a sum from its operating budget to purchase the tablets...

...Meanwhile, LAUSD took action of its own in April, announcing it would seek to recoup millions of dollars from Apple because it was “dissatisfied with their product.” The district’s demands for a refund stem from materials that didn't adapt well for students who weren't proficient in English and a lack of software tools to analyze how well the curriculum functions.

How many more urban districts will be stuck with the tab of corporate reform after the Broad superintendents flee the scene?Schooling in the Ownership Society: In L.A., Deasy gone but leaves in his wake, feds, grand juries, and litigation:

Didn’t dullard Duncan say Katrina was the best thing to happen to New Orleans?:

Didn’t dullard Duncan say Katrina was the best thing to happen to New Orleans?

MAY 13, 2015 BY ROBERT D. SKEELS * RDSATHENE LEAVE A COMMENT

“…let me be really honest. I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina.” — Arne Duncan

The absolute worst education President, and Secretary of Education in U.S. history.

---

For Immediate Release: May 13, 2015
Contact: Madison Donzis, madison@fitzgibbonmedia.com, 210.488.6220

New Report Exposes Holes in Louisiana’s Charter School Program and Millions in Taxpayer Dollars Wasted on a Broken System

Coalition for Community School New Orleans and the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) Highlight Consequences of Louisiana’s Failed Academic and Financial Oversight of Charter Schools

**See the report here: http://bit.ly/1Fc50qR** 

A new report released this week finds that the drastic growth of overinvestment in charter schools and underinvestment in oversight has left Louisiana’s students, parents, teachers and taxpayers at risk of academic failures and financial fraud. The report, “System Failure: Louisiana’s Broken Charter School Law” cites billions of taxpayer dollars plunged into charter schools since Hurricane Katrina hit, including over $831 million in the 2014-15 school year alone. 

Since 2005, charter school enrollment in the state has grown 1,188 percent. The Louisiana Department of Education’s Recovery School District, originally created to facilitate state takeover of struggling schools, is now the first charter-only school district in the country. 

The report identifies five fundamental flaws with the financial and academic oversight of Louisiana’s charter schools: 

1.    Oversight depends too heavily on self-reporting by charter schools or the reports of whistleblowers. Louisiana’s oversight agencies rely almost entirely on audits paid for by the charters themselves and whistleblowers. While important to uncover fraud, neither method systematically detects or effectively prevents fraud. 

2.    The general auditing techniques used in charter school reports do not uncover fraud on their own. The audits commissioned by the charter schools use general auditing techniques designed to expose inaccuracies or inefficiencies. Without audits specifically designed to detect and uncover fraud, however, state and local agencies will rarely detect deliberate fraud without a whistleblower.

3.    Inadequate staffing prevents the thorough detection and elimination fraud. Louisiana inadequately staffs its charter-school oversight agencies. In order to carry out high-quality audits of any type, auditors need enough time. With too few qualified people on staff—and too little training for existing staff—agencies are unable to uncover clues that might lead to fuller investigations and the discovery of fraud.

4.    Underinvestment in systems that help struggling schools succeed. Lawmakers and regulators have invested in systems that set high standards and then close schools that fail to meet them, rather than helping them improve to meet the standards. This investment in a severe accountability system does not support schools achieve academic success.

5.    Heavy reliance on data that is vulnerable to manipulation. The state’s academic oversight system relies largely on sets of data that can be manipulated by regulators, authorizers, or the charters themselves. Without reliable data, schools, parents and the public have no way to accurately gauge academic quality at their schools.

Since 2005, approximately $700 million in public tax dollars has been spent on charter schools that currently have not achieved a C or better on the state’s Didn’t dullard Duncan say Katrina was the best thing to happen to New Orleans?:

Pro-Common Core group takes issue with blog post — and the author responds - The Washington Post

Pro-Common Core group takes issue with blog post — and the author responds - The Washington Post:

Pro-Common Core group takes issue with blog post — and the author responds

South Side High School Principal Carol Burris ( Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday)

Regular readers of this blog are familiar with Carol Burris, an award-winning principal in New York who has written repeatedly over the past few years on school reform in her state. She chronicled the botched adoption and implementation of a new educator evaluation system and wrote about her conversion from a Common Core supporter to an opponent. She has also written about her support for the opt-out movement, in which many parents and educators are resisting certain high-stakes standardized tests. Last month, she wrote a post about why she is retiring early and planning to advocate for public education in different ways.

Burris is the principal  of South Side High School in the Rockville Centre School District. Before she took that position in 2000, she taught at the middle- and high-school levels and earned a doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her dissertation, which studied her district’s detracking reform in math, received the 2003 National Association of Secondary Schools’ Principals Middle Level Dissertation of the Year Award. She was named New York’s 2013 High School Principal of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and was tapped as the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State.

[Principal: Why I once supported Common Core but changed my mind]

Burris is one of the many guest writers I publish on The Answer Sheet.

Recently I received an e-mail sent to The Post by Jon Weinstein, vice president of Mercury, a lobbying firm, in its New York office, where he specializes in media strategy. Weinstein said he was writing on behalf of High Achievement New York, a coalition of business and civic leaders and educators that promotes the Common Core State Standards. Weinstein wrote, among other things, that “it is evident” to High Achievement that I have “ceded” my blog to Burris.

He also attached a letter from Steve Sigmund, executive director of High Achievement New York, who takes issue with Burris. Sigmund, according to this City and State article, was appointed executive director earlier this year to “oversee communications, public policy and government outreach efforts for the organization which represents Association for a Better New York, Business Council of New York State, New York Urban League, Educators 4 Excellence, America Achieves and StudentsFirstNY.”

Following is the letter from Sigmund, and then a response from Burris.

From Steve Sigmund:

In your May 3rd blog post on the Answer Sheet, “Why the movement to opt out of Common Core tests is a big deal,” the author, Carol Burris, promotes selective facts that don’t tell the real story.

Burris cites a number of suburban Long Island districts where opt-out numbers were high, and then spuriously uses those very small towns to conclude that African Americans and Hispanics are a major part of the opt-out movement. This is fuzzy math and categorically false.

In New York City, the largest school district in the state, fewer than 1 percent of students opted out of this year’s tests. Across all

Pro-Common Core group takes issue with blog post — and the author responds - The Washington Post: