Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 6/18/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Teachers at Online School Say It Abused Student Privacy and Misused Funds - Bloomberg Business

Teachers at Online School Say It Abused Student Privacy and Misused Funds - Bloomberg Business: Teachers at Online School Say It Abused Student Privacy and Misused FundsA group of 16 California teachers filed formal letters of complaint against online charter schools operated by K12 Inc., alleging violations including misuse of public funds and breaches of student privacy rights.Some of the Califo

by mike simpson / 1h 

Sacramento School Closed By Budget Cuts, Slated To Reopen Next Year - capradio.org

Sacramento School Closed By Budget Cuts, Slated To Reopen Next Year - capradio.org: Sacramento School Closed By Budget Cuts, Slated To Reopen Next YearSuperintendent Jose Banda and Councilman Steve Hansen unveil the Opening Fall 2016 sign with neighborhood kids at Washington Elementary.One of seven schools in the city of Sacramento that closed two years ago because of budget cuts will reopen next

by mike simpson / 1h 

Who opts out of state tests? | Brookings Institution

Who opts out of state tests? | Brookings Institution: Who opts out of state tests?Student refusals to take standardized tests surged in New York State this spring, fueled by support from both parent activists and the state teacher’s union. According to the New York Times, the opt-out movement more than doubled the number of students who did not take federally mandated math and English Language Art

by mike simpson / 1h 

Sprawl on - Bites - Sacramento News & Review -

Sacramento News & Review - Sprawl on - Bites - Opinions - June 18, 2015: Sprawl on So Sacramento’s streetcar proposal, Measure B, has failed. Backers of the plan immediately told “no” voters just how small and unimportant they are.Seriously. West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon complained that “98.6 percent of Sacramento’s voters were not eligible to vote,” implying, with no evidence, th

by mike simpson / 2h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Mucking up the data on post-Katrina New Orleans: A tale of two headlines.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Mucking up the data on post-Katrina New Orleans: A tale of two headlines.: Mucking up the data on post-Katrina New Orleans: A tale of two headlines."No Excuses" N.O. charter  ((Mario Tama / Getty Images)In our doc seminar at DePaul, my students like to compare and contrast quantitative (statistical) and qualitative (interpretive) methods. Some argue that st

by mike simpson / 4h 

Tech Thursday: Hunting for CCSS/CTE | commoncorediva

Tech Thursday: Hunting for CCSS/CTE | commoncorediva: Tech Thursday: Hunting for CCSS/CTEHunt Institute has a long history of being Common Core supportive.While it appears all anti CCSS eyes are on the HR5 (the re-authorization of the NCLB), it’s been proven via documents that the HEA re-authorization is just as CCSS tied! Both have been re-authorized in almost the same time periods since their or

by mike simpson / 5h 

The Social Power of Love and the Opt-Out Movement - Avalon Initiative

The Social Power of Love and the Opt-Out Movement - Avalon Initiative: The Social Power of Love and the Opt-Out MovementSometimes in life we overlook what is obvious or important, because we are distracted by something less so. Such is the case of many prominent and influential education reformists.By education reformists, I mean the combine of politicians, bureaucrats, business leaders, philanthr

by mike simpson / 5h 

Ed Notes Online: Parents Object to Success Academy treatment of children with special needs/co-location in Midwood

Ed Notes Online: Parents Object to Success Academy treatment of children with special needs/co-location in Midwood: Parents Object to Success Academy treatment of children with special needs/co-location in MidwoodDear Ms. Ravitch:You had blogged about our letter a month ago to Eva Moskowitz asking for a response, regarding a terribly insensitive comment she made about children with special needs.

by mike simpson / 5h 

NPE Forms Coalition of Education and Civil Rights Groups to Oppose High-Stakes Testing – The Network For Public Education

NPE Forms Coalition of Education and Civil Rights Groups to Oppose High-Stakes Testing – The Network For Public Education: NPE Forms Coalition of Education and Civil Rights Groups to Oppose High-Stakes TestingWe, the below undersigned organizations, oppose high-stakes testing because we believe these tests are causing harm to students, to public schools, and to the cause of educational equity. Hig

by mike simpson / 5h 

Thompson: Washington Monthly Spins NOLA School Reform Impact This Week In Education:

This Week In Education: Thompson: Washington Monthly Spins NOLA School Reform Impact: Thompson: Washington Monthly Spins NOLA School Reform ImpactThe safest summary of evidence on the effectiveness of New Orleans school reforms is Politico's Caitlin Emma.  Emma's The New Orleans Model: Praised but Unproven explains that "mayors and governors from Nevada to Tennessee have sought to replicate t

by mike simpson / 7h 

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Assault on Public Ed Advances

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Assault on Public Ed Advances: PA: Assault on Public Ed AdvancesYou may recall that State Senator Lloyd Smucker has been trying to sell the idea of an Achievement School District, and that he even brought some charter-choice advocates to town to help push the idea. Well, his initiative has made it out of the concept-and-hearings stage and is now an actual bill.Senate Bill 6, th

by mike simpson / 7h 

New Study: Local Media Coverage of Education and Schools Is on the Rise, But

New Study: Local Media Coverage of Education and Schools Is on the Rise, But Coverage of Education Policy Is Declining - WDRB 41 Louisville News: New Study: Local Media Coverage of Education and Schools Is on the Rise, But Coverage of Education Policy Is Declining New Report by Andrew Campanella, “Leading the News: 25 Years of Education Coverage,” evaluates news coverage of education and schools o

by mike simpson / 7h 

“A train wreck you could see coming” – A lesson from Detroit about MPS takeover plan | Educate All Students: Larry Miller's Blog

“A train wreck you could see coming” – A lesson from Detroit about the Darling/Kooyenga MPS takeover plan | Educate All Students: Larry Miller's Blog: “A train wreck you could see coming” – A lesson from Detroit about the Darling/Kooyenga MPS takeover planMilwaukee public schools has been led by Dr. Darienne Driver for one year. In that time MPS has taken unprecedented steps to stabilize its finan

by mike simpson / 7h 

Which Student Data Privacy Bill Will Become Law? | EdSurge News

Which Student Data Privacy Bill Will Become Law? | EdSurge News: Which Student Data Privacy Bill Will Become Law?When data privacy finds its way into thePresident’s State of the Union address, it’s a telltale sign that legislation is on the way—especially when children are involved. Currently three bills to protect student data privacy have been proposed:Student Privacy Protection Act: Senator Dav

by mike simpson / 7h 

Political Parties Present Clear Choices For Education In 2016, So Far

Political Parties Present Clear Choices For Education In 2016, So Far: Political Parties Present Clear Choices For Education In 2016, So FarFor years, there’s been an agreement – a “Washington consensus” – among Beltway policy makers and political elites that America’s schools are in “crisis” and only a punitive program of standards, testing, and accountability can remedy them.Both Republicans and

by mike simpson / 8h 

Similarities Between TTP Trade Deal, Common Core & The Student Success Act » Missouri Education Watchdog

Similarities Between TTP Trade Deal, Common Core & The Student Success Act » Missouri Education Watchdog: Similarities Between TTP Trade Deal, Common Core & The Student Success ActAnother sovereignty grab, this time the Federal sovereignty is to be handed over to an international body. Do you notice similarities between the Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) Trade Dea

by mike simpson / 8h 

Russ on Reading: In Praise of School Librarians

Russ on Reading: In Praise of School Librarians: In Praise of School LibrariansToday a word about school librarians and how important they are to the goal of bringing literacy to children. I suppose first of all we need to deal with the nomenclature issue. Today it is more accurate and politically correct to call these very special folks "media specialists." Certainly the job of the libr

by mike simpson / 8h 

Privatizer, Corporate Matchmaker: Jeb Bush’s Impact on Public Schooling | janresseger

Privatizer, Corporate Matchmaker: Jeb Bush’s Impact on Public Schooling | janresseger: Privatizer, Corporate Matchmaker: Jeb Bush’s Impact on Public SchoolingOn Monday, Jeb Bush declared himself a candidate for President. It’s a good time to review Jeb’s record on public education, and there is a significant record, as Bush made public school reform a centerpiece of his two terms as governor of Fl

by mike simpson / 8h 

Kelly Donnelly to become Chief of Staff for Connecticut Department of Education - Wait What?

Kelly Donnelly to become Chief of Staff for Connecticut Department of Education - Wait What?: Kelly Donnelly to become Chief of Staff for Connecticut Department of EducationThe key role of Chief of Staff for Governor Dannel Malloy’s State Department of Education will go to Kelly Donnelly who was brought in from New Jersey in December 2012 to serves as former Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor’

by mike simpson / 8h 

ASK BILL GATES: Why don’t Americans trust their teachers? - Quartz

Why don’t Americans trust their teachers? - Quartz: Why don’t Americans trust their teachers?What should students in high school and college English classes read?Whether you think they should be reading Ovid and Melville, or only books written by diverse, contemporary authors, or books with no explicit sex, or books with no explicit violence, most people have an opinion on how and what teachers te

by mike simpson / 9h 

The Watchdogs of College Education Rarely Bite - WSJ

The Watchdogs of College Education Rarely Bite - WSJ: The Watchdogs of College Education Rarely BiteAccreditors keep hundreds of schools with low graduation rates or high loan defaults aliveMost colleges can’t keep their doors open without an accreditor’s seal of approval, which is needed to get students access to federal loans and grants. But accreditors hardly ever kick out the worst-performing

by mike simpson / 9h 

RI School Districts Lose Millions to Charter Schools - GoLocalProv

GoLocalProv | RI School Districts Lose Millions to Charter Schools: RI School Districts Lose Millions to Charter SchoolsSchool districts are losing millions in much-needed funds in inflated tuition payments to charter schools, according to a GoLocalProv analysis of data contained in a report from a legislative panel on the education funding formula.Under the new formula, which was adopted in 2010,

by mike simpson / 9h 

Ensure A Reauthorized ESEA Protects Children And Civil Rights

Ensure A Reauthorized ESEA Protects Children And Civil Rights: Ensure A Reauthorized ESEA Protects Children And Civil RightsAdvocacy Letter - 06/18/15Source: The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human RightsRecipient: U.S. SenateVIew the PDF of this letter here.Dear Senator:On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the 36 undersigned organizations, we write to express

by mike simpson / 9h 

Keeping better tabs on California's education funding - LA Times

Keeping better tabs on California's education funding - LA Times: Keeping better tabs on California's education fundingEducational history is full of examples of expensive, well-intended programs that never helped impoverished students.One of Gov. Jerry Brown's greatest and most dramatic accomplishments has been his reform of the way California allocates money to public schools. He used the recess

by mike simpson / 9h 

ANYONE SUPRIZED? Bill Gates Fined $148k for His' horse poop only pays $30.600| www.palmbeachpost

Settlement approved on Bill Gates' horse poop case in Wellington | www.palmbeachpost.com: Settlement approved on Bill Gates’ horse poop code caseWELLINGTON — Billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates has 30 days to pay $30,600 in Wellington to clear up code violations involving a misplaced manure bin.The infractions against Gates’ Mallet Hill estate were resolved during a hearing

by mike simpson / 10h 

Why is HISD Blocking Planned Parenthood's Website on Campus? | Houston Press

Why is HISD Blocking Planned Parenthood's Website on Campus? | Houston Press: UPDATED: IS HISD BLOCKING PRO-CHOICE WEBSITES ON HIGH SCHOOL CAMPUSES?Lamar High School student Grace Wells was denied access to Planned Parenthood's website on campus.Images courtesy Grace Wells(See update at the bottom of this story) Last semester, Grace Wells opened up her school-issued laptop, logged into her student

by mike simpson / 10h 

Arrogance - Change The LAUSD

Arrogance - Change The LAUSD: ArroganceElection season was clearly over on Tuesday afternoon as the LAUSD set about to fulfill the legal requirement of getting public input into the Local Control Funding Formula. Outgoing District 3 representative Tamar Galatzan did not even bother to show up to the meeting. District 2’s Monica Garcia left as public comment began. Even George McKenna’s seat was em

by mike simpson / 10h 

YESTERDAY

Nationally recognized teacher removed from class after allegations of misconduct - LA Times

Nationally recognized teacher removed from class after allegations of misconduct - LA Times: Nationally recognized teacher removed from class after allegations of misconduct Attorneys for a nationally recognized Los Angeles Unified teacher, who was removed from his classroom after allegations of misconduct, are issuing an ultimatum to district administrators: publicly apologize and let him return

by mike simpson / 19h 

Despite All My Rage | The Jose Vilson

Despite All My Rage | The Jose Vilson: Despite All My RageI normally talk to young adults about math and other academics, but recently, because we’re winding up the school year, subjects have expanded to Fetty Wap and flicking wrists. The currency for “young and cool” changes over time, almost as quickly as we age.Yet, on this day, the subject turned to teachers. They went on to gossip about their

by mike simpson / 22h 

'Rigged' charter school ratings need immediate fix, charter critics and backers say | cleveland.com

'Rigged' charter school ratings need immediate fix, charter critics and backers say | cleveland.com: 'Rigged' charter school ratings need immediate fix, charter critics and backers sayCOLUMBUS, Ohio -- Key critics and supporters of charter schools called today for an immediate change to Ohio's main charter improvement effort so that online and dropout recovery schools are included in the fixes.The

by mike simpson / 23h hide  //  save

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 6/17/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP CORPORATE ED REFORMThe Value of Experience | lacetothetopThe Value of Experience | lacetothetop: The Value of ExperienceHow do you quantify an experience? Some things cannot be measured with any degree of accuracy and that is difficult for people who equate “quantify” and “verify” to understand.I remember a nurse coming into my room after the birth of my daughter with a chart that

by mike simpson / 23h 

Teachers at Online School Say It Abused Student Privacy and Misused Funds - Bloomberg Business

Teachers at Online School Say It Abused Student Privacy and Misused Funds - Bloomberg Business:

Teachers at Online School Say It Abused Student Privacy and Misused Funds

A group of 16 California teachers filed formal letters of complaint against online charter schools operated by K12 Inc., alleging violations including misuse of public funds and breaches of student privacy rights.

Some of the California Virtual Academies, which enroll about 14,500 students throughout the state, count truant students as present even for multiple days and on a repeated basis, according to a copy of the complaint letters. The letters were sent to the local districts that oversee the online schools, as well as the California Department of Education.

The number of enrolled students determines how much money the CAVA schools, which are public schools operated by K12, receive from the state. The complaints allege that CAVA paid for conferences in Yosemite and Palm Springs with federal Title I money meant for low-income students.

The letters also said student records, including special education status, psychological reports and family economic status are available to individuals who shouldn’t be permitted to see them on the schools’ shared technology platform.

“Our goal is to see some corrective action and put some oversight in place so we don’t have to worry about a for-profit organization taking advantage of these schools’ funds,” said Danielle Hodge, a special education teacher at CAVA for the past 11 years and one of the those who signed the letter.

Special Education

Hodge also said she typically has a caseload of 38 to 42 special education students, in violation of a legal limit of 28, making it impossible for her to give those children the individualized attention they need.

David Thoming, superintendent of the 5,000-student New Jerusalem School District, where Hodge teaches, said he hadn’t yet had a chance to read the letters. “If there is any validity to their complaints, we will take steps to address them,” he said.

Thoming said he had heard similar claims about the CAVA school in his district before but there was “nothing concrete we could act on.” School attendance is regularly audited, he said, and there had been no problems at CAVA. He also disputed the way the special ed caseload was counted.

Nick Schweizer, deputy superintendent of the California Department of Education, and Katrina Abston, head of the CAVA schools, didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.

Mike Kraft, vice president for Herndon, Virginia-based K12, had no immediate comment.

Michael Milken, the former junk bond salesman, helped found the company and holds a 3.75 percent stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. He is now a passive investor in K12 and isn’t involved in its management, Geoffrey Moore, a senior adviser to Milken, said in an e-mail.

Share Price

Shares of K12 rose 3.6 percent to $14.46 in New York on Thursday. The price was about a Teachers at Online School Say It Abused Student Privacy and Misused Funds - Bloomberg Business:

Sacramento School Closed By Budget Cuts, Slated To Reopen Next Year - capradio.org

Sacramento School Closed By Budget Cuts, Slated To Reopen Next Year - capradio.org:

Sacramento School Closed By Budget Cuts, Slated To Reopen Next Year

Superintendent Jose Banda and Councilman Steve Hansen unveil the Opening Fall 2016 sign with neighborhood kids at Washington Elementary.

One of seven schools in the city of Sacramento that closed two years ago because of budget cuts will reopen next year.

Washington Elementary will offer arts classes in addition to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics or STEM programming.

Maria Ocampo was in front of the school on 18th Street today for the unveiling of the sign that says, "Opening Fall 2016."

She says she is looking forward to re-enrolling two of her children at their old school.

"I told my friends yesterday, I put it on Facebook, 'everybody come to the meeting at 10:30' and I'm coming right now from my job."

The Sacramento City Unified School District expects 200 students from surrounding neighborhoods to enroll next fall and will actively recruit students from other parts of the city to meet its capacity of 600 students.

The school district says it will cost half-a-million dollars for front office staff and custodians and a million dollars for eight teachers.Sacramento School Closed By Budget Cuts, Slated To Reopen Next Year - capradio.org:

Who opts out of state tests? | Brookings Institution

Who opts out of state tests? | Brookings Institution:

Who opts out of state tests?

Student refusals to take standardized tests surged in New York State this spring, fueled by support from both parent activists and the state teacher’s union. According to the New York Times, the opt-out movement more than doubled the number of students who did not take federally mandated math and English Language Arts (ELA) tests, with 165,000 kids—about one in six—not taking at least one of the tests.

These total numbers mask enormous variation across communities. According to the Timesanalysis, barely any students opted out in some schools districts, while in other districts a majority of students refused the tests. Are these differences in opt-out rates random, or are they associated with the characteristics of the community served by each district? Do opt-outs tend to be concentrated among relatively affluent districts, or are they most common in schools that have historically performed poorly on state tests?

The data needed to best answer these questions are the student-level test-score and demographic information collected by the New York State Department of Education. They will allow the state education department to conduct fine-grained analyses, such as comparing the characteristics of students who took the tests to those who did not. But while we are waiting for the state to publish summary information based on those data, some light can be shed on these questions using publicly available data.

My primary data source for the following analysis is a table indicating the number of students who opted out of the math and ELA tests out in each school district this spring. The data were compiled by United to Counter the Core, an opt-out advocacy organization, from a combination of media stories, freedom of information requests, and reports by administrators, teachers, and parents. Data are available for most but not all districts, and there is likely some misreporting.[1] However, to my knowledge, it is the most comprehensive opt-out dataset currently publicly available.

I merged the opt-out information with the most recent available enrollment and demographic data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Common Core of Data.[2] I use total enrollment in grades 3-8 to estimate the percentage of students who opted out (i.e. the number of opt-outs, which are presumably for tests in grades 3-8, divided by the number of students enrolled in those grades).[3] I also calculate the percentage of students in all grades who were eligible for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program, an indicator of socioeconomic disadvantage. Finally, I obtained average student scores on the New York State tests last spring (2014), before opt-out became a widespread phenomenon.[4]

The 648 districts with complete data available had an average opt-out rate of 28 percent (the rates are averaged across the math and ELA tests). But weighting each district by its enrollment shows that an estimated 21 percent of all students at these districts opted out. The difference between these numbers implies that larger districts tend to have lower opt-out rates.

The table below confirms that opt-out rates vary widely across districts, with 19 percent of districts having an opt-out rate below 10 percent, 30 percent of districts in the 10-25 percent range, 38 percent in the 25-50 percent category, and 13 percent seeing a majority of students opt out. Districts with higher opt-out rates tend to serve fewer disadvantaged students and have somewhat higher test scores (which is not surprising given the correlation between family income and test scores). District size is similar across three of the opt-out rate categories, but districts with the lowest opt-out rates tend to be substantially larger, on average.

District Characteristics, by Opt-Out Rate

Notes: Average test scores are reported in student-level standard deviations.

But no single student characteristic is a perfect predictor of opt-out rates. The figure below plots the opt-out rate and free/reduced lunch percentage of every district. There is a clear association, with more disadvantaged districts having lower opt-out rates, on average, but also a large amount of variation in the opt-out rate among districts with similar shares of students eligible for the subsidized lunch program. Could variation in other factors such as test-score performance explain some of those remaining differences?

Relationship between Opting Out and Percent Free/Reduced Lunch

Notes: Line is based on a Lowess smoother.

I address this question using a regression analysis that measures the degree to which percent free/reduced lunch and average test scores are associated with opt-out, controlling for the other factor. In order to make the two relationships comparable, I report the predicted change in opt-out rates expected based on a one standard deviation change in percent free/reduced lunch or average test scores. Among the districts in the data, one standard deviation in percent free/reduced lunch is 21 percentage points and one standard deviation in average test scores is 0.35 student-level standard deviations.

Perhaps the most surprising result of the analysis, reported in the figure below, is that the modest positive correlation between test scores and opt-out seen in the table above becomes negative once free/reduced lunch is taken into account.[5] The results below indicate that a one standard deviation increase in test scores is associated with a seven-Who opts out of state tests? | Brookings Institution:

Sprawl on - Bites - Sacramento News & Review -

Sacramento News & Review - Sprawl on - Bites - Opinions - June 18, 2015:

Sprawl on 

So Sacramento’s streetcar proposal, Measure B, has failed. Backers of the plan immediately told “no” voters just how small and unimportant they are.

Seriously. West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon complained that “98.6 percent of Sacramento’s voters were not eligible to vote,” implying, with no evidence, that a bigger electorate would have approved Measure B. Regional Transit general manager Mike Wiley similarly lamented that, “It’s unfortunate a small number of people didn’t see the value” of streetcar.

Bites would argue that 1,200 voters is a lot more representative than some developers, politicians and a newspaper editorial board or two. A small majority of property owners, and then a small majority of residents in the proposed streetcar district, each said no. This only suggests that Sacramentans are divided about streetcar. There’s nothing to suggest some “silent majority” of streetcar support out there, as streetcar backers imply.

Which means streetcar must go forward, of course. Because, aside from being an unimportant minority, streetcar skeptics also “lack vision” according to Sacramento Bee columnist and money mouthpiece Marcos Breton, who added they are also “opposed to greater public transit and cleaner air.”

Right. Measure B didn’t fail because Measure B’s promises of enormous ridership and fantastic economic benefits were not believable. Or because there’s legitimate disagreement about whether streetcars give you enough bang for your transit buck. The “no” voters are just bad people who hate clean air.

Funny how Sacramento’s self-appointed visionaries keep getting beat at the ballot box. Look at the 2006 arena-sales-tax measures Q and R, or Kevin Johnson’s strong-mayor Measure L. The downtown power crew went to drastic lengths to keep the 2013 Kings arena plan off the ballot, knowing voters would reject it.

On the other hand, tax measures to support libraries and parks and cops have been successful. So, either Sacramento News & Review - Sprawl on - Bites - Opinions - June 18, 2015: