California Districts Not Focused on Needs of English Learners

Study of New School Accountability Plans Shows Districts Not Focused on Needs of English Learners:

Study of New School Accountability Plans Shows Districts Not Focused on Needs of English Learners

Report on 1st Year of LCAP Calls for Stronger State Guidance, More Local Commitment to Research-based Approaches and Stronger Engagement With EL Families & Communities

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (May 21, 2015)  - A new report that reviewed the Local Control Accountability Plans of 29 key school districts throughout the state, and the impact those LCAPs are having on English Learner students, was released today by Californians Together.

The report, titled "Falling Short on the Promise to English Learners, A New Report on Year One District Local Control Accountability Plans," found that LCAPs tend to be characterized by woefully inadequate specificity and weak attention to how schools are meeting the various needs of English Learners. In addition, the study, which was conducted in collaboration with the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University, found that districts tended to not identify effective, research-based practices for working with underserved populations. 

"We saw clearly that this has been a missed opportunity for school districts to finally move toward best and proven practices when it comes to delivering education programs and services for the diverse English Learner population," said researcher and report co-author Laurie Olsen of Californians Together. "The state's new Local Control Funding Formula for districts was specifically intended for these communities." 

A sampling of districts with the largest English Learner enrollment, high percentage of English Learners and several with a history of comprehensive services for English Learners were included in the report.  These 29 districts constitute 32 percent of all of California's 1.4 million English Learners.  

"As it is functioning now, the LCAP is far from adequate as an accountability mechanism to target funds and ensure equity and access to educational services to ELs", concluded Dr. Magaly Lavadenz, author and Director for the Center for Equity for English Learners, Loyola Marymount University. Among the key findings presented in the report: 

• There was difficulty in ascertaining actual funding allocations by districts that were related to ELservices and programs.
• The state's year one LCAP design was inadequate to ascertain whether or not districts areplanning for increased or improved services to ELs.
• Very few districts explicitly specify services and programs that align to various EL needs.

The report offered a series of findings and recommendations for six specific areas: 1) English Language Development and Professional Development, 2) Representation of Parents of ELs in the LCAP Process, 3) EL Programs, 4) Course Access, Actions and Services, 5) District- and School-wide funding allocation for EL Needs, and 6) EL Student Outcomes Measures and Data to Inform Goals.

Officials from Californians Together praised the report as a timely spotlight on the critical importance of planning for and delivering quality education to English Learners. 

Xilonin Cruz-Gonzalez, President of Californians Together: "This report can be a valuable tool for engaging and informing policy and practice at the local and state levels to strengthen LCAP development and program implementation for English Learning moving forward. It also serves as a clear call to action for both local and state policymakers." 

The report is attached and can be downloaded at: www.californianstogether.org.

Californians Together is a statewide coalition of 25 parent, teacher, education advocacy and civil rights groups committed to improving policy and practice for educating the state's 1.4 million English Learners.  Since 2001, Californians Together, a nonprofit organization,  has served as a clarion voice on behalf of language minority students in California public schools.  

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FALLING SHORT ON THE PROMISE TO ENGLISH LEARNERS: A REPORT ON YEAR ONE LCAPS

Making it rain tests: Are the new Common Core exams invalid? Inaccurate? | Cloaking Inequity

Making it rain tests: Are the new Common Core exams invalid? Inaccurate? | Cloaking Inequity:

Making it rain tests: Are the new Common Core exams invalid? Inaccurate?

In the Spring of 2015, tests developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium will be administered to well over 10 million students in 17 states to determine their proficiency on the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM). There has been allot of controversy surrounding the development and implementation of the Common Core (See Dewey, Testing Companies, and the Origin of the Common Core), the Opt Out of testing movement (See Who’s the William Wallace of testing: @JessedHagopian or Liz King?) and high-stakes testing (See Does High-Stakes Testing & Accountability= Social Justice & Civil Rights? )

Furthermore, a new analysis of mathematics test questions posted online by Smarter Balanced reveals that, question after question, the tests:

• Violate the standards they are supposed to assess;
• Cannot be adequately answered by students with the technology they are required to use;
• Use confusing and hard-to-use interfaces; or
• Are to be graded in such a way that incorrect answers are identified as correct and correct answers as incorrect.

As a society we can agree that no tests that are flawed should be given to anyone. Certainly, with stakes so high for students and their teachers, I argued that Smarter Balanced tests should not be administered until they are ready and tested to be valid. The boycotts of these tests by parents and some school districts are justified. Responsible government bodies should withdraw the tests from use before they do damage.

So millions of dollars of public tax dollars and countless hours of wasted instructional time have just been spent on Making it rain tests: Are the new Common Core exams invalid? Inaccurate? | Cloaking Inequity:

Hillsborough School Board member: Firing Superintendent MaryEllen Elia is a good deal

Hillsborough School Board member: Firing Superintendent MaryEllen Elia is a good deal:

Board member: Firing superintendent is a good deal 

In other words: Our Gain is NY's Loss!

Tampa, Florida -- One school board member is telling us that paying more than a million dollars to fire Superintendent MaryEllen Elia is actually a good deal for taxpayers.

The Hillsborough County School Board is meeting right now to vote on whether to end Elia's contract. Just last month, she was named Florida's Superintendent of the Year.

One school board member is telling us that paying more than a million dollars to fire Superintendent MaryEllen Elia is actually a good deal for taxpayers.

First, Elia and Griffin have a thorny history. And this conflict is sort of a snapshot that shows why, suddenly, there's an item on the school board's agenda to terminate Elia.

During the last election, Superintendent Elia actually put a sign in her yard supporting the candidate running against April Griffin for school board.

Now, Griffin says, anyone they would hire to replace Elia would make a lot less than Elia's current pay package of $439,000. So, in a few years with a new superintendent, the district would save that million dollars.

But across the Tampa Bay Area, the state, and even the country, Elia is respected and popular.

Elia's colleagues named her the Florida Superintendent of the Year just last month. She's one of four finalists for a national superintendent of the year award.

lia started as a teacher in Hillsborough County in 1986, when she accepted a position at Plant High School as a reading resource specialist. She then spent the next 20 years working her way up, before becoming the head of the eighth-largest school district in the nation in 2005.

So, how likely is this to happen?

To end Elia's contract, four of the seven board members would have to vote "yes" Tuesday.

On their last reviews, three board members gave her an "F." Two members gave her a "B" or better. And two members are brand new on the board. Their opinions aren't really clear.

Those two board members may be the deciding votes at 3 p.m. Tuesday. 10 News will be there, with coverage on wtsp.com and the 10 News mobile app.

Read More:

Former Western New Yorker MaryEllen Elia to be state education chief

Hillsborough School Board terminates Elia

Hillsborough's Gates Foundation-backed teacher evaluation system loses support

Elia major issue in school board election

Breaking: Ex-Superintendent of Hillsborough County, Florida, Will Be Named New York State Commissioner | Diane Ravitch's blog

Breaking: Ex-Superintendent of Hillsborough County, Florida, Will Be Named New York State Commissioner | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Breaking: Ex-Superintendent of Hillsborough County, Florida, Will Be Named New York State Commissioner

The Buffalo News reports that MaryEllen Elia will be selected by the New York Board of Regents as the next state commissioner of education, replacing the controversial John King. The news was repeated by aTampa television station.

The vote will occur sometime today, according to reports. When the news leaked, parents began bombarding the Regents with emails and tweets. As one said, “It is not over until the fat lady sings.” So, listen.

Elia was fired by the Hillsborough Board of Education last February in a 4-3 vote. The business community was upset. But critics complained about micromanagement, a top-down style, lack of transparency, and complaints from parents of students with special needs. One board member who voted to dismiss her “accused Elia of creating a workplace culture of fear and bullying, and failing to pay enough attention to minorities, including Hispanics.” Others, including parents, said that her disciplinary policies had a disparate impact on African American students.

Hillsborough County received about $100 million from the Gates Foundation to design and implement a value-added measurement system for evaluating its teachers. Its plan apparently included a promise to fire the 5% lowest performing teachers every year. Florida has a harsh style of accountability, launched by Jeb Bush and carried forward by Governor Rick Scott and the Republican-dominated Legislature and Breaking: Ex-Superintendent of Hillsborough County, Florida, Will Be Named New York State Commissioner | Diane Ravitch's blog:.

CURMUDGUCATION: Standards: Agreements and Assurances

CURMUDGUCATION: Standards: Agreements and Assurances:

Standards: Agreements and Assurances

 When we talk about standards, we are really talking about two different things-- and only one of them is real.


Agreements

For a while it was in vogue to compare educational standards to manufacturing standards like the standards for electrical outlets.

Those sorts of standards represent an agreement-- the interested parties come to an understanding that in order to play together successfully, we will all agree to play by the same rules. These agreements do not always come easily-- while the AC power that flows into all our homes may now seem like a no-brainer, it is, in fact, the victor of the War of Currents, a battle over whether US homes would be powered by AC or DC power. Think also VHS vs. Betamax, HD vs. Bluray, and Microsoft vs. Apple operating systems. Think about how many various charger cords you have for electronic devices; standards don't always get worked out.

When they do get worked out, it's a matter of folks saying, "Let's make it easier to play together by all driving on the right side of the road" or "Let's make it easier to make money by all using the same currency" or "Let's keep refusing to use the metric system."

Some times the terms of agreement can be dictated by power players. If I control the game, then you must agree to my rules if you want to play. "We control access to the North American continent, so if you want a piece of the action, you must build your railroad cars to our agreed-upon gauge." Microsoft and Apple have not set universal standards, but they dominate the market so effectively that they can dictate the terms of agreement for anyone who wished to play in their sandbox. 

Folks who want to set the terms of agreement have two basic avenues open to them-- seduction or force. Seduction has been the preferred method in game platform wars-- "Buy our console and you will get to play the awesome new game Robotic Beavers Disembowel Ninja Cowboys" on the front CURMUDGUCATION: Standards: Agreements and Assurances:

Geaux Teacher!: Accountability is the Soup du Jour #flipbese

Geaux Teacher!: Accountability is the Soup du Jour:

Accountability is the Soup du Jour

In Louisiana, our top policymaker and his compliant BESE fall in line with U.S. Secretary Arne Duncan in believing that accountability can only be achieved by threats and punishment using standardized test scores as a measuring tool.
High stakes standardized testing along with its punitive consequences are NOT improving the delivery of quality instruction in the classroom where learning takes place. Tying accountability to student test scores has simply been a vehicle for takeover and privatization of our public schools.

Every teacher knows that can't accurately measure individual student learning with a one-size-fits-all standardized test.  You can only measure how many questions on a single test that a student answered correctly as per the test creator's answer key. Doesn't matter how much the student has learned or how much potential the student has for learning unless he knows the prescribed answers to the limited number of questions on the test.
For those readers not familiar with education pedagogy, you can compare using a standardized test for measure learning with an attempt to measure the circumference of a ball with a yardstick. Its inflexibility and poor design for the task make it inadequate.
Maybe John White would spin this analogy and support his use of the yardstick using the fact that you can measure the circumference of a ball with that yardstick if you use it to measure the diameter, which is a Geaux Teacher!: Accountability is the Soup du Jour:

 FLIP THE 
LOUISIANA BOARD OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 
( BESE)

Click Here to Follow Flip BESE on Facebook 

Big Education Ape: FLIP THE LOUISIANA BOARD OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ( BESE) http://bit.ly/1JKBCtL

Encinitas parents are upset over facial recognition software on school-issued iPads. Page 2 of 2 | UTSanDiego.com

Encinitas parents are upset over facial recognition software on school-issued iPads. Page 2 of 2 | UTSanDiego.com:

Parents up in arms over facial recognition software

Critics of the program say it is wasteful spending and does little to allay their concerns over privacy. They also said it’s an unnecessary expense when schools are cutting music, arts and other programs.

For sure, Encinitas is charting new territory with the program, according to experts.

Janice Kephart, chief executive officer of the Secure Identity & Biometrics Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group looking out for the interests of the biometrics industry, said she isn’t aware of any other school district in the United States using biometrics for iPad authentication.

“From a security point of view, biometrics prevents misappropriation of technology on the iPads in the homes of students, and ensures that mom doesn’t use it for work, or dad or older brother watch porn or play video games,” said Kephart, a former counsel for the 9/11 Commission that looked into the circumstances surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Kephart said biometrics first made its way into public schools in 2009 when West Virginia implemented a fingerprint-scan for students participating in the state’s federally subsidized school lunch program. Schools highly dependent on federal dollars had been unable to Encinitas parents are upset over facial recognition software on school-issued iPads. Page 2 of 2 | UTSanDiego.com:

Educators and Parents Demand Less Testing … and Lawmakers Listen - NEA Today

Educators and Parents Demand Less Testing … and Lawmakers Listen - NEA Today:

Educators and Parents Demand Less Testing … and Lawmakers Listen

With congressional efforts underway to reauthorize No Child Left Behind, a burgeoning movement of educators, school administrators, parents and students has blossomed in the fight against high-stakes standardized testing. Consequently, some school trustees, state and local policymakers are finally deciding to let students learn and let teachers teach.

In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott signed legislation in April to eliminate at least one exam and delay the release of school grades until other exams are deemed valid. The Florida Education Association (FEA) and United Teachers of Dade (UTD) had rallied members, lobbied legislators, and worked with parent groups to limit the use of standardized tests.

“It’s time for a new accountability system,” says UTD President Federick Ingram. “One that reduces high stakes testing and uses multiple measures to gauge student progress.”

Miami-Dade, the nation’s fourth largest school district, recently slashed the number of district end-of-course exams from 300 to 10, with other Florida districts taking similar actions. The new law also reduced the weight of student test scores on teacher evaluations from 50 percent to one third.

This month, a new bill to prioritize more class time for teaching was approved by the Colorado General Assembly.

“I’m pleased our legislators moved on the public outcry to dial back the amount of testing,” says Kerrie Dallman, president of the Colorado Education Association (CEA). The bill eliminates Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for Colleges and Careers (PARCC) testing in the 10th through 12th grades, takes steps to alleviate testing for English language learners, and streamlines School Readiness and READ Act testing to give more instruction time to students in kindergarten through third grade.

The CEA worked closely with the bill sponsors throughout the current session, reiterating strong sentiments expressed by educators, parents and voters to end excessive standardized testing.

Capping the Amount of Testing Time

Further north, a grassroots movement has been gaining momentum in Minnesota and in places like Hazelwood, Mo., where more than 300 educators, parents, and students assembled for a highly charged board meeting carrying signs which read, “Let Teachers Teach.” Supported by Hazelwood NEA (HNEA), the crowd handed out Educators and Parents Demand Less Testing … and Lawmakers Listen - NEA Today:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: A 'Mussolini' for the schools?

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: A 'Mussolini' for the schools?:

A 'Mussolini' for the schools?

Take your pick. Mussolini, Ivan the Terrible, or Rahm. 

An editorial in Friday's Trib calls on CPS to put a turnaround expert at the top of the school system, with "Mussolini-like powers to execute and implement."



Two things -- First, it's probably not workable. Don't we already have an autocrat running the schools? Rahm may not be a turnaround expert, but he is the Little Emperor. Does the Trib board want another dictator under the mayor? Who would dictate to whom?

Secondly, who was it on the editorial board that thought the Mussolini reference was a good idea? I mean, did one of the board members actually say: "Hey, I've got a great idea. Let's recommend that the schools be run by someone like Hitler. No...that might be pushing it a bit. How about Mussolini?"



They could have just said, "You know. We really need an education czar," and no Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: A 'Mussolini' for the schools?:

Why Do We Separate the Teacher From the Tech? | My Island View

Why Do We Separate the Teacher From the Tech? | My Island View:

Why Do We Separate the Teacher From the Tech?

We are often bombarded with many posts and articles about the successes and failures of technology in education. Too often these assessments are based upon the technology as if it were the only factor having any effect on the students in the classroom. Of course this overlooks something that has been pounded into educators’ heads for years: The greatest influence on students in the classroom is the teacher. That holds true with or without technology in the classroom.

The environment for learning is created in the classroom by the teacher. The teacher determines the tools selected for learning in the classroom. The teacher determines how much time each subject gets and what should be emphasized over something else. Yes, there are restraints and mandates placed on every teacher by administration, but the majority of the individual learning environments that directly affect students, are environments made by classroom teachers. Whenever I read an article, or post, pointing out the failures of technology in the classroom, my first question is: How well was that teacher trained in the use of that technology and its new methodology in the classroom? My second thought is: was that technology mandated to be there without teacher buy-in, or support? Without both of those requirements being met, coupled with what we know of the teacher’s impact on students in the class, how could technology ever be successful?

Adding technology into a curriculum is not a passive exercise. It requires a teacher to not only understand the basics of the tech, but an understanding of whatever new pedagogies and methodologies accompany that tech. Using technology in the classroom is more than just going from a number 2 pencil to a ball point pen.

I have had too many discussions with adjunct professors/teachers who have justWhy Do We Separate the Teacher From the Tech? | My Island View: 

Eli and Edythe Broad Build a Museum for Their Art Collection - WSJ

Eli and Edythe Broad Build a Museum for Their Art Collection - WSJ:

Eli and Edythe Broad Build a Museum for Their Art Collection

This fall, billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe, will open a namesake museum in downtown Los Angeles, which gathers for the first time their over 2,000 artworks in one place

FROM HIGH in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles’s newest landmark looks like a milky white cube that’s landed amid the spiky jumble of buildings that make up the city’s downtown. Viewed from closer quarters, the expanse of its honeycomb facade comes into focus, punctuated by a giant concave oculus. This is The Broad, L. A.’s latest museum, and although it doesn’t open to the public until the fall, its far-out architecture—and the millions of dollars of contemporary art it promises to unveil—is already attracting attention. Passersby often stop in front of The Broad to pose for selfies, playfully mimicking the building’s giant dimple by pressing their index fingers into their cheeks. Click.

Art invariably serves as a societal self-portrait, and personal art collections are equally telling. Whenever hard-won treasures are put up for public display, they inadvertently reveal their owners’ private obsessions. Few collectors shy away from such a reckoning—in recent years, dozens have opened their own museums, influenced by a combination of ego and altruism. 

RELATED

• Eli Broad’s Entrepreneurial Approach to Philanthropy

The Broad captivates because its founders, billionaire Eli Broad (rhymes with road) and his wife, Edythe, are local legends, transplants who arrived in L.A. from Detroit in 1963 and have spent decades doggedly trying to steer the city’s artistic renaissance. Broad, 81, made his $6 billion fortune selling tract homes and annuities. He speaks with a buck-stops-here candor that’s admired in the Midwest but can rub air-kissing Angelenos the wrong way. Edythe Broad, 79, meanwhile, is his sparkling, chatty foil. Together, their names and donations influence the city’s top art museums and universities; their voucher can supercharge an artist’s career.

Yet for all the Broads’ clout, many of the more than 2,000 works they’ve amassed over the past half-century remain a mystery. Even though the Broads regularly allow museums to borrow work from an art lending library, called The Broad Art Foundation, which they established in 1984, curators say the breadth and merits of their entire collection have never been fully explored or assessed. The museum’s inaugural show, which will feature about 250 pieces, is already the subject of intense speculation. Dealers say the strength of the collection lies in blue-chip masterworks by postwar and contemporary artists. The couple has amassed 124 works by photographer Cindy Sherman, including rarely seen art-school pieces, as well as 34 artworks by Jeff Koons, making them some of the world’s largest collectors of his work. Their trophies include his car-size Balloon Dog (1994–Eli and Edythe Broad Build a Museum for Their Art Collection - WSJ:

Berkowitz w/Barack Obama on School Choice, School Vouchers and racial profiling: On cable tonight | Public Affairs with Jeff Berkowitz

Berkowitz w/Barack Obama on School Choice, School Vouchers and racial profiling: On cable tonight | Public Affairs with Jeff Berkowitz:

Berkowitz w/Barack Obama on School Choice, School Vouchers and racial profiling

Sen. Obama: What I am persuaded by is that there a bunch of creative ways-- whether it is charters creating competition within the schools, or thinking about tax programs that potentially facilitate low income persons to exercise various options-- I think all those things are on the table...

Tonight's City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs features Barack Obama being interviewed on July 13, 2000 by show host Jeff Berkowitz primarily about education issues, with some racial profiling issues also touched on.

The show with the much younger (no gray hair) and then State SenatorBarack Obama airs tonight throughout the City of Chicago at 8:30 pm and midnight on Cable Ch. 21 [CAN TV].

The format for the interview is quite a bit more spontaneous and free wheeling than is President Obama's current practice.  Show topics include, among other items, how to evaluate teachers, teacher accountability,  the National Education Association, competition in education, school choice, charter schools, school vouchers, racial profiling in traffic stops across the State of Illinois and whether race should ever be a factor in a policeman stopping someone.

Jeff Berkowitz: ...under a school voucher system, they could take that money and if they want to supplement it-- and some people have $2500 to supplement it, and the public schools are competing, and that person wants to drive an hour a day to get here (to Winnetka), they can do it:

Sen. Barack Obama: Right.

Jeff Berkowitz: ... And they are not going to have to come to Winnetka [to improve their school choice]. They can go to a variety of areas a lot closer where the [private] schools may be better [than the Chicago Public Schools].

Sen. Barack Obama: Assuming that the schools get created down there [in the City] to supplement the public schools.  Let me just say this: I think this is a legitimate debate to have. I think it is going to continue-

Jeff Berkowitz: So, you are open to the possibility that you may become persuaded that vouchers are a good thing?

Sen. Obama: What I am persuaded by is that there a bunch of creative ways-- whether it is charters creating competition within the schools, or thinking about tax programs that potentially facilitate low income persons to exercise various options-- I think all those things are on the table and I think what we should be doing is, what in fact is taking place right now not just in Illinois but around the country, a lot of different experiments to see how in fact we can make sure that we've got better educational outcomes.Berkowitz w/Barack Obama on School Choice, School Vouchers and racial profiling: On cable tonight | Public Affairs with Jeff Berkowitz:

At Smoky Hill High School, Common Core and tests not always easy sell - The Denver Post

At Smoky Hill High School, Common Core and tests not always easy sell - The Denver Post:

At Smoky Hill High School, Common Core and tests not always easy sell

Teaching to the Core | Part Three of Three

AURORA — Yosef Abuharus is sick of explaining it all.

The ninth-grader at Smoky Hill High School just wants to move on to the next question.

He doesn't want to construct a math problem, figure out the answer, then be told to destroy what he built and pick through the remains so his teacher can understand how he got there.

"Teachers will tell you, 'I want to know what you're thinking,' " he says. "Well, when the question is like, 'Four times four,' my thinking is, 'four times four.' I don't like the extra work, the extra pressure."

Yosef's choice of an example might be extreme, but laments like his are voiced daily in his Algebra 1 classroom, where the demands of the Common Core state academic standards run headlong into teenage rebellion and years of being told getting answers right was enough.

Smoky Hill math teacher Jessica Edwards, in her sixth year of teaching and third at the school, has heard it time and again.

She will recite what has become a mantra: "OK ... the claim. The evidence. The reasoning."

"You can't just say something and not back it up," she tells her students. "If you have 8, I don't know how you got there, how you got 8, whether your neighbor got 8. It's not just the answer that matters."

This has proved to be one of the most significant adjustments in classrooms since Colorado in 2010 adopted the Common Core state standards in math and English language arts.

The Common Core — adopted with little fanfare, now a political football — has been advertised as an improved road map to better prepare students for their next step, whether it's college, a At Smoky Hill High School, Common Core and tests not always easy sell - The Denver Post:

Standardized tests in Pa. making it difficult for some to become a teacher | PhillyVoice

Standardized tests in Pa. making it difficult for some to become a teacher | PhillyVoice:

Tests in Pa. hinder African-Americans who want to teach

Minority students finding entry to teacher prep programs blocked by tests

SOURCE/WWW.LINCOLN.EDU Lincoln University phased out its undergraduate education program, in part, because not enough students were passing the PAPA test.

With two educators as parents, 22-year-old Gyasi Blanton always knew that he wanted to follow in their footsteps.

"I see the passion that they had to teach and that passion was instilled in me,” he said. “I don't see myself doing anything else but teaching."

05262015_GyasiBlanton_TwitterBefore he could even get into a teacher preparation program, however, Blanton, left, had a major hurdle to overcome: a standardized basic skills test in reading, writing, and math. Without passing the test, he couldn’t take 300-level classes at Lincoln University, a historically black college in southern Chester County with satellite campuses in University City and Coatesville. The university would ultimately phase out its undergraduate teaching program because of standard tests.

“I was worried like, OK, I have to pass this or I can't teach, forever. Which is why probably I had to take it so many times, because I worried myself,” he said. He took the reading and writing sections each twice and the math section once before passing, at a cost of around $85 per section.

The United States has been seeing a massive decline in the number of people who want to be teachers in the past few years, with federal data showing that enrollment in teacher preparation programs has dropped 31 percent since 2008. There have been various theories on why this has happened – the increasing politicization of teaching, low pay, stressful work conditions – but one factor that hasn't been as widely explored is standardized tests. For teachers.

In Pennsylvania, undergraduates must pass a basic skills test before they are even allowed to enter a teacher preparation program. They can either submit their ACT/SAT scores or take one of two pre-service tests called PAPA and CORE.

This requirement may be keeping some people from even studying to be teachers – and it has a particularly significant effect on minorities. Data from the state Standardized tests in Pa. making it difficult for some to become a teacher | PhillyVoice:

Editorial: APS board blows off bill for standardized tests | Albuquerque Journal News

Editorial: APS board blows off bill for standardized tests | Albuquerque Journal News:

Editorial: APS board blows off bill for standardized tests

One lesson students should learn is that they are expected to meet their obligations. That includes paying their bills. But last week four Albuquerque Public Schools board members failed to show proficiency in that basic concept.

The board on a 4-3 voice vote said it wasn’t going to reimburse the state $1.46 million for administering a federally mandated test that is tied to millions of dollars in federal funding. It was at best a juvenile and irresponsible action designed to send a politically charged message to the New Mexico Public Education Department.

What should have been a routine vote – so routine that Board President Don Duran didn’t ask for a roll call vote – turned into an unnecessary cause celebre. Voting in favor of paying the bill were Duran, Vice President Analee Maestas and board member Peggy Muller-Aragon. Opposed were board members Lorenzo Garcia, Barbara Petersen, Steven Michael Quezada and David Peercy.

This is the first year the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) was given in New Mexico. And for the first time, the state paid global testing company Pearson directly instead of having the state’s 89 districts deal separately with the firm. The state quite rightly expects to be reimbursed by all of them. APS is the only district to refuse at this point.

PARCC tests have drawn widespread opposition in New Mexico and other states from teacher unions as well as from some parents and individual teachers. Dozens of teachers rallied in front of APS headquarters before Wednesday’s meeting to protest their evaluations that now are tied to student performance on the PARCC and other standardized tests.

The cost of the test shouldn’t be an issue. In fact, the bill for PARCC was less than what APS paid last year for the Standards Based Assessment the district used last year. APS paid $1.53 million to the New Hampshire-based test company Measured Progress for that standardized test.

While some educators and board members may not like the state’s choice of tests, not paying the bill isn’t an option. Especially when not doing so might jeopardize $400 million New Mexico is due to receive in federal funds.

Those APS board members who voted not to pay this bill might remember that APS interacts with PED in many ways. Going out of its way to make a statement could have consequences. Not to mention the poor message it sends to students, parents and the taxpayers who foot the bill.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.Editorial: APS board blows off bill for standardized tests | Albuquerque Journal News: