About those Ed Regs for Improving Teacher Equity: A preview of new (old) findings | School Finance 101

About those Ed Regs for Improving Teacher Equity: A preview of new (old) findings | School Finance 101:

About those Ed Regs for Improving Teacher Equity: A preview of new (old) findings 

Doc student Mark Weber and I have been blogging a bit less lately and digging in on a number of interesting academic papers ranging from analyses of charter school expenditures to inter and intra-district resource inequality.  Among these papers is an analysis of data provided by ED for states to run preliminary analyses of measures of teacher equity across schools.

As states roll out their plans, this topic is again getting some ed media attention, most of which (if not all) misses entirely the point that regulatory pressure passed by states along to local public districts will achieve little or nothing in equalizing the distribution of teacher/teaching/instructional resources across schools and children statewide. That is, without any attention to inter-district disparities in school funding, whichas I have noted, have only continued to get worse. Bottom line, you can’t fix cross-school, statewide disparities in resources without fixing between district disparities in funding. Here are a portion of the intro and conclusions of our current draft:

Intro:

New federal regulations (State Plans to Ensure Equitable Access to Excellent Educators)[1] place increased pressure on states and local public school districts to improve their measurement and reporting of gaps in teacher attributes across schools and the children they serve, and ultimately to mitigate revealed disparities. But, these regulations largely sidestep the extent to which availability of financial resources might influence the distribution of teachers, pointing a finger instead at “root causes” such as lack of effective leadership, lack of comprehensive human capital strategies and otherwise ineffective and inefficient personnel policies.[2] Failure to emphasize the potential role of broader financial disparities as a root cause of inequitable access to excellent educators, and thus failure to mitigate those disparities, may undermine the administration’s goals.

Despite a lack of explicit attention to inter-district fiscal disparities as possible root causes of inequitable access to excellent educators, the administration provides guidance on measuring teacher equity using existing data sources and measures which either directly or indirectly involve financial resources. While broadly referencing “inexperienced, unqualified, or “out-of-field teachers” as a concern,[3] the administration’s guidance also cites measures of teacher salaries and cumulative school site spending on teacher compensation (as reported in the recent CRDC collection).[4]

Coinciding with these new federal regulations are a series of legal challenges in states including California and New York which claim that state statutes providing due process protections and defining tenure status for teachers are a primary cause of deficiencies in teacher qualifications, specifically in districts and schools within districts serving disadvantaged minority populations (Black, 2016). Implicit in these legal challenges is an assumption that if statutorily defined tenure status and due process requirements pertaining to teacher dismissal did not exist, statewide disparities in teacher qualities between higher and lower poverty schools (under the statutes in question) would be substantially mitigated. Like the federal regulations, this approach fails entirely to consider that disparities in district financial resources may be substantial determinants of statewide variations in teacher attributes.

As a basis by which inequality should be determined, the administration places 

About those Ed Regs for Improving Teacher Equity: A preview of new (old) findings | School Finance 101:

FUSD board divided on need for outside investigation of bidding processes | Fresno Bee Fresno Bee

FUSD board divided on need for outside investigation of bidding processes | Fresno Bee Fresno Bee:

FUSD board divided on need for outside investigation of bidding processes

 The Fresno Unified School District Board of Trustees remains divided in the wake of acontroversial construction deal that was recently deemed illegal by the 5th District Court of Appeal.

Board members disagree about whether an independent investigation should be conducted to answer questions about how and why the district went outside the scope of typical bidding processes when it signed a near-$40 million contract with Harris Construction to build Rutherford B. Gaston Middle School.

While the board has not taken up the matter in a public meeting, with board leadershipshutting down requests to get it on the agenda, trustees have taken their arguments public anyway, signing off on two conflicting letters to the editor in The Bee in the past week.

In a letter to the editor in Tuesday’s paper, trustees Janet Ryan and Christopher De La Cerda say fellow trustees’ call for an outside investigation is unnecessary, and defend lease-leaseback deals — the process used in the Harris Construction case. Lease-leaseback deals were designed for cash-strapped districts that want to build schools. The method allows school districts to handpick developers who will pay the upfront building costs, then the district pays to lease the school until it’s paid off.

The appellate court found the Gaston Middle deal was not a true lease-leaseback deal because Fresno Unified had the money to pay it off immediately, and the decision has left critics alleging district officials broke the rules in order to favor Harris Construction.

I WOULD SUGGEST THAT THE ON-GOING CRITICISM HAS BEEN WORTH IT.

Fresno Unified Trustee Christopher De La Cerda, citing construction of Gaston Middle School as a positive development being overshadowed by the debate of how it was paid for

“As a current board member and former educator, I continue to remind myself what is at the center of this issue. The district finally built a state-of-the-art middle school for a part of our community that lacked one for more than 30 years. The positive impact that it has had on the children, their families and the community is just beginning to be realized,” De La Cerda said Tuesday in an email. “For that, I would suggest that the on-going criticism has been worth it.”

De La Cerda and Ryan point to other cases where other school districts in California have gone to court and won regarding the lease-leaseback method, and say any investigation would be “unwise” while the case is still pending a final court decision. The board voted to appeal the most recent court decision, asking that the case move to the California Supreme Court. The district has already spent $117,000 litigating the case, according to a district official.

The case was not addressed at a Fresno Unified Audit Committee Meeting on Tuesday, but it could be in the future, according to Ryan.

The committee — made up of some trustees, district staff and community members — meets quarterly with an external auditor, required to oversee districts by state law, and an additional internal auditor that Fresno Unified employs voluntarily to keep an eye on finances and business practices.

Ryan said that while she doesn’t think an investigation is needed, she would support a move to have the firm already employed by the district — Price, Paige & Company — to conduct an audit of the bidding process in question.

“I’m a part of this committee and I trust these guys and think they do a good job,” Ryan said Tuesday. “In September, if we want to put that on the agenda, that’s something I would support.” The Audit Committee voted Tuesday to renew its contract with Price, Paige & Company, extending its seven-year business relationship.

But three of the seven Fresno Unified trustees want new eyes on the case and are asking that the board consider hiring an outside firm that has no prior ties to the district to look into the Harris Construction contract.

THE PUBLIC SHOULD BE OUTRAGED.

Fresno Unified Trustee Brooke Ashjian, lamenting what he says is a lack of open discussion about how bond dollars are being spent

Trustee Brooke Ashjian said the board’s current focus on the purpose of lease-leaseback deals is a red herring, and that the concern is more about the deals that happened between Fresno Unified and Harris Construction prior to the company’s selection for the project. Harris Construction agreed to do consulting for free in exchange for winning the project’s contract — and without the full board’s approval.FUSD board divided on need for outside investigation of bidding processes | Fresno Bee Fresno Bee:

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education/article25922365.html#storylink=cpy

Rewriting @MichelleMalkin’s bodyslam of Teach For America | Cloaking Inequity

Rewriting @MichelleMalkin’s bodyslam of Teach For America | Cloaking Inequity:

Rewriting @MichelleMalkin’s bodyslam of Teach For America

Not long ago Fox News contributor and columnist Michelle Malkin issued a stinging critique of Teach For America in the New York Post entitled The militant takeover of the ‘Teach for America’ corps. I was surprised that the right was turning on Teach For America. They have been huge supporters of their temporary teacher model over the years. I tweeted the following.

This single tweet caused a 1,000 tweet Twitter storm directed at me by Teach For America supporters. I couldn’t even keep up with all of the tweets flying around so I had to bring Chad Sommer, Annie Tan and other TFA alum dissidents into the Twitter conversation as backup. The predominance of tweets tried to frame my tweet as agreeing with Malkin’s entire thesis (See for example Choosing A Battle in the Fight for Educational Justice). I explained to the Teach For America supporters on Twitter (deluging me with tweets) that I only agreed with the portion about the need to stop public funding. They weren’t satisfied with that point.I don’t think there is any mystery why I have levied critiques against TFA and proffered that they reform for their “reform.” I have blogged extensive counter narrative here at Cloaking Inequity. For all of Cloaking Inequity’s posts on Teach For America click here. So I found the attacks on Twitter disingenuous. But, to make my perspective more clear relative to Malkin’s argument, I have taken some creative liberty and rewritten Ms. Malkin’s column. I use the parts of her argument that I agree with verbatim, and then made modifications where my perspective diverges from her’s.

It’s increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Teach for America — whose leaders are at the forefront of anti-teacher, privatizing forces in New Orleans, Chicago and elsewhere — and right-leaning foundations such at the Walton Family Foundation (TFA’s largest donor) and the Broad Foundation (another large donor). Guess what, taxpayers? You’re paying for it! Wendy Kopp founded Teach for 

Rewriting @MichelleMalkin’s bodyslam of Teach For America | Cloaking Inequity:

Who Is Left In PARCC and Smarter Balanced? | Truth in American Education

Who Is Left In PARCC and Smarter Balanced? | Truth in American Education:

Who Is Left In PARCC and Smarter Balanced?

Since there has been some changes with the membership of both PARCC and Smarter Balanced I thought it would be a good idea to bring you an updated list.

PARCC is in trouble.  The big news this week is that Ohio Governor John Kasich signed the budget the Ohio Legislature sent him that prohibited PARCC.  Maryland’s Governor (they are the current fiscal agent) Larry Hogan has doubts about the assessment and is looking for a way to ditch Common Core and PARCC.

Massachusetts is still in process of deciding between PARCC and MCAS so they could still end up leaving.  Arkansas is out the door unless the state’s board of education decides to sue Governor Asa Hutchinson.  Louisiana’s future with the assessment consortia is in doubt as well.  It stayed in this school year when a state judge overruled Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s executive order.  A review of Common Core and PARCC will be underway soon.  Mississippi is pulling out of PARCC after this year as well.

So basically we have a consortia that once had 25 members is now down to 8 states plus DC with three of those states’ future being uncertain: Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia.

Smarter Balanced is in better shape, but has lost a few members.  They are slow at updating their Who Is Left In PARCC and Smarter Balanced? | Truth in American Education:

How the Increase in Class Sizes Is Leading to a Decrease in Teachers in America - The Atlantic

How the Increase in Class Sizes Is Leading to a Decrease in Teachers in America - The Atlantic:

Too Many Kids

School districts are packing more and more students into classrooms—and that’s pushing teachers out.

Erica Oliver has worked for the Atlantic City School District for a decade, teaching first grade and a few reading programs. Early in her career, Oliver typically taught no more than four students at a time. The small classes meant that students who struggled could be easily targeted, lessons could be tailored to individual needs, and progress could be expedited, she said. Over the years, however, Oliver has seen her class sizes grow: first to 16 students, and then to 24 or 25 kids per class. She found it harder to manage her classroom, properly supervise reading groups, and encourage her students to complete projects efficiently. All of this slowed down the group’s collective achievement.

Unfortunately, things aren’t going to get any easier for Atlantic City’s teachers and students. The city has struggled to offset an increase in tax rates because of a decline in property-tax revenues and is forced to make budget cuts as a result. While the school board initially rejected a proposal to cut more than 220 jobs, the the state monitor ultimately overrode the vote in an effort to rein in spending: In late May, 147 Atlantic City educators were notified that their contracts were not going to be renewed.

Although Oliver, who’s African American, hasn’t been let go, the alternative isn’t much rosier. The massive layoffs mean that classrooms will likely become even more crowded, and Oliver and others fear that could take a toll on student learning, in part because children will receive less individualized attention and have to work fewer school supplies. Also on the chopping block are extracurricular activities, including summer programs designed to keep students on track to graduation.

Reduced class sizes can help close the achievement gap between students of color and their white peers.

The cuts could prove especially detrimental for the district considering the population it serves. Nearly half of children ages 5 to 17 in the school district live with families living in poverty, according to census data. A majority of students are black or Latino, while just 2 percent identify as white. Atlantic City is also home to one of the worst graduation rates in New Jersey, with only about two-thirds of high-schoolers getting their diplomas.

The situation parallels budget crises facing other school districts across the country. Philadelphia, for example, has eliminated thousands of staff positions in the past two or so years, and officials have warned that some campuses will have to pack as many as 40 students into a classroom. Arizona’s Sunnyside Unified How the Increase in Class Sizes Is Leading to a Decrease in Teachers in America - The Atlantic:

U.S. DOE Continues to Force Test Failure on Children with Special Needs and ELL Students

U.S. DOE Continues to Force Test Failure on Children with Special Needs and ELL Students:

U.S. DOE Continues to Force Test Failure on Children with Special Needs and ELL Students

According to information given to me by Deborah Abramson Brooks, the U.S. Dept. of Education is insisting that the New York Board of Education continue to force all students with disabilities, except for those with the severest disabilities, to take the tests matching their chronological age, not their developmental age, ignoring their cognitive disabilities. HERE is the notification from June 29.

In addition, they are still insisting students struggling to learn English must take the regular tests after one year instead of two.

They will not consider the waiver requested by the Regents.

Both requests were aimed at reducing stress on students and yielding more useful results. State officials say that federal rules that require testing students at their chronological age, with narrow exceptions for students with very severe disabilities, set up some disabled students for failure and turn the tests into stressful guessing games. School officials in districts with many immigrant students say one year often is not enough for new arrivals to be ready to take language arts exams written in English.

Certain civil rights groups, as we know, have been behind this draconian testing too, along with, U.S. Assistant Education Secretary Deborah Delisle who is leaving to be the new CEO of the ASCD. The requirements, she says, are “necessary to ensure U.S. DOE Continues to Force Test Failure on Children with Special Needs and ELL Students:

This Week In Education: Thompson: We Need a Marshall Plan for Schools and Prisons

This Week In Education: Thompson: We Need a Marshall Plan for Schools and Prisons:

Thompson: We Need a Marshall Plan for Schools and Prisons

I grew up in the post-World War II era known as "Pax Americana." We all knew that our ambitious New Deal/Fair Deal era policies, ranging from G.I. Bill to the rebuilding of Europe with the help of the Marshall Plan, were not perfect. But, we knew in our bones that tomorrow would be better than today. Government and social science would both play a role in the campaigns to expand the promise of America to all.

The Marshall Project's Eli Hager, in What Prisons Can Learn from Schools, pulls two incredibly complicated social problems together in a concise and masterful synthesis. Hager's insights are deserving of a detailed analysis. This post will merely take a first step towards an explanation of why Democrats and liberals, especially, must heed his wisdom.

School and prison reform are both deeply rooted in the Reaganism and the lowered horizons of the 1980s. The defeat of the "guns and butter" approach to the Vietnam War demonstrated the limits of our power. The Energy Crisis of 1973, along with a decade and a half of falling or stagnant wages, was somehow blamed on liberalism. The U.S. entered the emerging global marketplace without the confidence that had marked our previous decades, meaning that we were more preoccupied with surviving competition than building community. 

Americans lowered our horizons. As Hager explains, we were loath to tackle the legacies to the "overwhelming unfairnesses of history."  So, we broke off schools and prisons into separate "silos," and sought less expensive solutions for their challenges. We rejected the social science approach to tackling complex and interconnected social problems that were rooted in poverty. Our quest for cheaper and easier solutions would soon coincide with the rise of Big Data as a substitute for peer reviewed research in service to a Great Society.

I was researching the legal history of Oklahoma County when forces unleashed by the Reagan administration transformed my world. Its repudiation of the supposedly liberal regulation of finance brought down the savings and loan industry and the banking system in the Southwest. Virtually overnight, "Supply Side Economics" destroyed most of our high-quality blue collar jobs, and the "War on Drugs" further devastated families.

Oklahoma's criminal justice system of the 1980s still had one foot squarely planted in the old Jim Crow. Although records often were kept the old-fashioned way, data-driven policies were common, as should be clear to anyone who was ticketed by law enforcement officers needing to meet their "quota." In the Oklahoma County Courthouse, we had barely outgrown a numbers-driven ritual that should This Week In Education: Thompson: We Need a Marshall Plan for Schools and Prisons:

Democrats: There Are Better Choices Than School Choice to Improve Education | Arthur Camins

Democrats: There Are Better Choices Than School Choice to Improve Education | Arthur Camins:

Democrats: There Are Better Choices Than School Choice to Improve Education

Over the next year we can expect to hear a lot from Republican presidential candidates about school choice- the word of choice to marshal political support to expand the number charter schools and vouchers for private schools. Democrats, except maybe the governor of New York, have traditionally opposed public funding for vouchers. However, many have supported the idea of choice by sending scarce tax dollars to charter schools. We have yet to hear clear statements from the Democratic candidates about where they stand.

As policy framing rhetoric, the word choice is meant evoke the imagery of democracy and equity. Words are powerful, especially in framing and influencing political debates. Words can conjure positive or negative emotional responses. However, sometimes words clarify and sometimes they obscure underlying values. So it is with choice.

In our culture the "the right to choose" suggests an almost inalienable individual right, making for powerfully resonant political rhetoric. However, behind the easy-to-swallow positive connotation of choice, there is underlying message in its use in the context of education. If stated explicitly, the message might cause a little indigestion: Be out for yourself and don't worry so much about your neighbors or community.

I do not say this to castigate parents who choose to send their children to charter schools or the teachers who work in them. However, what is moral or sensible for an individual does not make for sound or just education policy for a society. The moral burden falls not on parents, but on those who knowingly advance the wellbeing of the at the expense of the many.

Many centuries ago Rabbi Hillel sagely wrote,

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?" Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14.

It is time to reframe the policy dialog from choosing just for me to choosing to ensure better schools for us.

There is reason for hope. While choice is a deeply held American value, so is community responsibility. In fact, reference to individualism and community responsibility in politics has ebbed and flowed in recent American history. The New Deal of the 1930s and the Great Society of the 1960's- catalyzed by the labor and civil rights movements- represented high points for collective solutions, such as Social Security or Medicare, to complex problems. Alternatively, the election of Ronald Reagan initiated a sustained period of individualism. In periods of relative or growing equity and shared prosperity individualism may foster personal interests and Democrats: There Are Better Choices Than School Choice to Improve Education | Arthur Camins:

'We Have Grown Complacent About Racially Isolated Schools' - OpEducation - Education Week Teacher

'We Have Grown Complacent About Racially Isolated Schools' - OpEducation - Education Week Teacher:

'We Have Grown Complacent About Racially Isolated Schools'

The causes of violence, whether at the hands of police or private individuals, are obviously complex, even more so for interracial violence. It is healthy for institutions to consider their part in perpetuating or stemming the violence. But it is a mistake to believe that any single institution is solely responsible or can solve the problem on its own.

James E. Ryan

That said, it seems clear that, as a nation, we have not done nearly enough to teach our children how to look across lines of race and class and see similarities rather than differences—to see themselves and their friends reflected in the faces of others rather than unknown and perhaps unknowable strangers. It seems equally clear that we will continue to fail in this task if our schools remain as racially separated as they are today. As Justice Thurgood Marshall astutely observed in 1974, "Unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever begin to live together."

Schools of education can play a not-so-minor role by doing more to promote integrated schools and prepare students to teach and lead in those schools. Through our research, we can identify obstacles to integration and the most effective ways to remove or avoid those obstacles. Through our teaching, we can intentionally prepare our students to teach and lead in integrated schools, recognizing that it takes work to ensure that diversity is a source of strength rather than division. 

Two concrete examples help illustrate what education schools can do. Last year, we began a communitywide, year-long discussion around the theme of "fulfilling the promise of diversity," which included lectures, a common reading, panel discussions, and workshops designed to help our students begin the work to build more diverse schools and ensure those schools are more successful because of their diversity. We will extend that conversation this year. We will also launch the Integrated Schools Project, which will combine teaching, field research, and partnerships with a network of diverse schools to create relevant metrics, identify best practices, and share those findings with the network and beyond. 

As a country, we have grown complacent about racially isolated schools, just like we were 'We Have Grown Complacent About Racially Isolated Schools' - OpEducation - Education Week Teacher: