NYC Educator: The Accountability Scam

NYC Educator: The Accountability Scam:

The Accountability Scam

Sean Crowley, my brother blogger from Buffalo, has a great column about how educational leaders are popped into place with no public input. A secondary point he makes is about accountability. This is the word we invariably hear when insane systems are initiated. Why should teachers be judged by test scores? Accountability. Why must every kid, no matter where he or she comes from, get the same test? Accountability. Why is our tenure and union under frontal assault? Accountability.

Reformy politicians love accountability. If you didn't know better, you'd think it warmed the remote nether regions of their ice-cold hears. You'd think they care about the progress of our poor underprivileged impoverished children. You'd think that because that, in fact, is what they say when they pimp common core, value-added ratings, and firing as many teachers as possible.

But here's the thing--accountability does not, in fact, mean taking responsibility for real problems. It simply means passing the buck. If the problem in the United States is that children are not getting high enough scores on standardized tests (and it isn't, by the way), you can say, "See? Those lazy teachers aren't doing their jobs! They're sitting around and reading the newspaper while our children are suffering and failing!" That's what a whole lot of editorial and op-ed writers would have you believe.

The problem, though, is not in our stars, nor in ourselves. The problem is in our communities. Despite Governor Cuomo's valuable lip service that some workers in NY State will receive $15 an hour in a few years, a whole lot of people are just not making in in this country. When two parents work 200 hours a week each and still can't make ends meet, they don't have a whole lot of time for parenting. Unfortunately, the people who fund reformies like Andrew Cuomo are profiting enormously from low wage workers. Uber-reformy Whitney Tilson of DFER has no problemshyping and profiting from the likes of Walmart and McDonalds.

But the race to the bottom in American employment is in fact a huge factor in why kids don't do well on tests. Parents who haven't got a minute to read with their kids, who haven't got a minute to read themselves, who haven't got a minute to visit schools or teachers have serious problems. And the very reformies who vilify teachers not only contribute to this problem, but also directly profit from it. And as if that weren't enough, they've now got their fat grubby paws in charters, cyber charters, and various other schemes to divert even more money from those of us unimaginative enough to have to work for a living.

In America, we don't need circuses, because they're everywhere. Over a dozen GOP candidates debate and not one addresses minimum wage. They stand there arguing over how to defund Planned Parenthood and feign outrage when Donald Trump makes some juvenile crack about one of Fox's bleached blond talking heads. They present us corporate funded union-busters and rail about President Obama's program to bring health care to more people. You might leave one of those debates outraged over Obamacare rather than the fact that every other industrialized country offers its citizens health care as a matter of course.

Reformies love accountability only because they can dump it on us. By blaming unionized teachers for all the world's woes, they are held totally NYC Educator: The Accountability Scam:

State commissioner recommends candidate for Buffalo school superintendent - City & Region - The Buffalo News

State commissioner recommends candidate for Buffalo school superintendent - City & Region - The Buffalo News:

State commissioner recommends candidate for Buffalo school superintendent

Board to interview former Memphis chief

After the Buffalo School Board spent more than a year on failed efforts to recruit a superintendent, state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia has stepped in to find a new chief of city schools.

The fact that Elia, less than a month on the job, is recommending a candidate for Buffalo school superintendent reinforces that she will take an active role in trying to fix the Buffalo district.

Kriner Cash, former superintendent of the Memphis schools, will be in Buffalo on Tuesday to interview with the School Board for the position.

Elia’s involvement comes as the board continues to fracture and city school performance languishes.

Carl Paladino sent an email Thursday to colleagues on the School Board, calling for James Sampson’s resignation as president and continuing his lobbying to appoint Principal Kevin Eberle to a Cabinet-level position. Paladino also sent the email to both Elia and Cash. Elia did not responded to a Buffalo News request for comment. Cash declined to comment until he has spoken with the board.

“Despite the shortcoming of knowing zilch about the BPS, its people, problems and institutional history,” Paladino wrote. “I’m willing to hear Cash out only because he comes highly recommended and only if he is agreeable to the appointment of Eberle as operating Deputy and an immediate restructuring of the executive staff as guided by the Board majority.

“The idea of bringing in a black only to pacify the black minority on the Board is abhorrent to me. If he’s the best person for the job considering the unique problems facing the BPS then I’m good with it.”

Paladino’s email prompted members of the board minority bloc to call on Elia to remove him from office and hold the district harmless while they “work to correct damage” that occurred as a result of his actions.

It does not, however, appear that Paladino’s desire to link Eberle to Cash’s appointment – or State commissioner recommends candidate for Buffalo school superintendent - City & Region - The Buffalo News:

Memphis we see how the Gates and Broad Foundations and U. S. Department of Education policy are connected http://bit.ly/1K3VubY

CMS announces three finalists for superintendent job | Pundit House http://bit.ly/1K3VQiW

As head of Memphis schools, Kriner Cash was a man of change - City & Region - The Buffalo News http://bit.ly/1K3X0uD

Cash has broad support in fractious district – at least for now - City & Region - The Buffalo News http://bit.ly/1K3X25J

Buffalo school board to vote on superintendent appointment | KSL.com http://bit.ly/1K3Xf98

Teacher: ‘ We know that what we are doing to children is wrong’ - The Washington Post

Teacher: ‘ We know that what we are doing to children is wrong’ - The Washington Post:

Teacher: ‘ We know that what we are doing to children is wrong’

Some teachers in Florida are speaking out about their concerns that students this year will face way too many standardized assessments — even after the governor, Rick Scott (R), has admitted children are being over-tested.

This video from Fox 35 in Orlando, shows four educators in central Florida being interviewed about the new school year. It is worth watching not for the great detail of information (which isn’t there) but for the genuine emotion and concern that these educators express about the state of public education in their state. As one of the teachers says, they are not anomalies but reflective of what many teachers feel around the country.

Elementary school teacher Melissa Johnson, for example, says: “We know that what we are doing to children is wrong and that’s where we are unhappy.” She is referring to the amount of standardized testing imposed on students and the teach-to-the-test philosophy that dominates in schools and states where test scores are the chief metric of assessment. In Florida, half of a teacher’s evaluation comes from student test scores.

While the video interview doesn’t detail the amount of tests that students take, the number is high — so high that earlier this year the governor admitted it was too much and issued an executive order eliminating one statewide 11th-grade standardized assessment for English Language Arts. That still leaves more than a dozen required standardized tests for students in some counties. For example, in Duval County, students in K-5 take 14 assessments and students in grades 6-12 take as many as 23 per grade.

Florida adopted the Common Core State Standards in 2010 and signed onto a consortium of states, known as PARCC, writing new standardized tests aligned to the standards. But as pushback against the Core grew, Scott “rebranded” them in Florida, changing the name to the Florida Standards and making some changes but keeping most of the Core intact. He also pulled the state out of PARCC and purchased a new test, calling it the Florida Standards Assessments, that is supposed to be aligned to the Florida Standards. There are many other standardized tests given in the state as well.

A report issued earlier this year by the state Department of Education detailed the number of standardized tests students take in different districts:

As indicated by districts, over half of Florida’s districts administered at least five or more assessments throughout the year, per grade in the grade spans of K-5, 6-8, and 9-12.

For grades K-5, counts include the Florida Assessments for 

Teacher: ‘ We know that what we are doing to children is wrong’ - The Washington Post:

Dyett Activists Launch Hunger Strike Demanding Decision on Reopening School - Hyde Park - DNAinfo.com Chicago

Dyett Activists Launch Hunger Strike Demanding Decision on Reopening School - Hyde Park - DNAinfo.com Chicago:

Dyett Activists Launch Hunger Strike Demanding Decision on Reopening School

GRAND BOULEVARD — Twelve school activists started a hunger strike Monday morning, demanding Chicago Public Schools halt delays on determining the future of Dyett High School.

The 12 people who have vowed to subsist on only water and fluids are all supporters of a proposal to reopen Dyett, 555 E. 51st St., as district-run school over two contract school proposals also being considered by CPS.

“We’ve been pushed to the point of putting our bodies on the line to say enough is enough,” said Jitu Brown, one of the organizers of the coalition that includes the Chicago Teachers Union, the Chicago Botanic Garden, Teachers for Social Justice and other groups.

Brown and others said the hunger strike was prompted by what they characterized as a long series of delays to make a final decision on the future of Dyett since announcing in 2009 the school would be phased out in 2015.

Sam Cholke · DNAinfo Reporter

How far should activists go when negotiating with CPS?

•  1

VOICE YOUR OPINION ON NHSQ! 

"Chicago Public Schools is carrying out a community-driven process to select a new high-quality school for the former Dyett site," said Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for CPS. "Identifying a high-quality education option for the former Dyett site is a priority for the district, and CPS is reviewing school proposals to determine the best open enrollment, neighborhood education option for the site."

On Aug. 7, CPS delayed by another month hearings to decide between three proposals to reopen the school. The proposals now to be considered on Sept. 15 include the coalition’s plan for a district-run school with a focus on green technology and two contract school options, an arts-based school run by the Little Black Pearl and a sports- and business-geared school proposed by former Dyett Principal Charles Campbell.

At the time, CPS said it needed extra time to allow new CEO Forrest Claypool and several new board members to educate themselves on all three proposals and resolve broader budget issues.

“They just had a meeting for KIPP charter schools, so it’s not about making our kids a priority,” said Jeanette Taylor, one of those on the hunger strike and the chairwoman of the Mollison Elementary School Local School Council.

McCaffrey said the Chicago Board of Education was now expected to vote on the Dyett proposals at its September meeting, but was not immediately able to comment further.

Among the others on the hunger strike are the Rev. Robert Jones of Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, local school council members from Mollison Elementary School, Dyett and Uplift Community High School and King College Prep, and two CPS teachers.

The group planned to continue their hunger strike Monday in front of Dyett.Dyett Activists Launch Hunger Strike Demanding Decision on Reopening School - Hyde Park - DNAinfo.com Chicago:

What Poverty Does To Your Brain | PopularResistance.Org

What Poverty Does To Your Brain | PopularResistance.Org:

What Poverty Does To Your Brain

Recent research suggests that poverty may have a profound effect on the brain. Imaging studies show that the conditions that go hand-in-hand with poverty — a combination of environmental factors and emotional stressors — can actually slow the development of crucial parts of the brain involved in regulating behavior, impulsivity, and mood. And lacking resources appears to promote certain behaviors (such as excessive borrowing) that perpetuate the poverty cycle.

HOW POVERTY IMPACTS BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

Children from low-income households tend to have poorer academic performance and lower standardized test scores than kids from higher-income families, as well as more emotional and behavioral problems, including ADHD, depression, and anxiety. In adulthood, they typically hold fewer advanced degrees and have truncated earning potential. New research suggests this may, in part, be attributed to the way growing up in an impoverished home changes the brain.

A study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics followed 389 kids and teens, aged 4 to 22, from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds between 2001 and 2006. The researchers, including Jamie Hanson, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Center for Developmental Science, and Barbara Wolfe, Ph.D., a professor of economics, population health sciences, and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that kids living in households just above the federal poverty level had gray matter volumes that were 3 to 4 percentage points below the norm for their age group. The lower volume was concentrated in the brain’s frontal and temporal lobes, regions that are implicated in behavioral and learning problems. Among kids living below the federal poverty line, gray matter volumes were 8 to 10 percent below the norm. On average, these kids performed 4 to 7 points worse on standardized tests.

Hanson, Wolfe, and their colleagues calculated that as much as 20 percent of the disparity in test scores could be explained by these maturation gaps.

“We’re still charting what this truly means for behavior, but we’re starting to try to connect it to the various outcomes you often see, things like educational achievement and health-related behaviors and outcomes,” Hanson tells ATTN:. “The hope is that we’ll find neural signatures of that, and then use them to develop interventions and argue for public policy measures that would help families in need.”

Earlier work by Hanson and Wolfe, published in the journal PLOS ONE in 2013, found similar neurodevelopmental disparities between lower- and higher-income children. That study followed 77 kids from a few months after birth until age 4. They found that children born into families with incomes under 200 percent of the federal poverty level had lower gray matter volumes than kids from high-income families. Gray matter volume in kids from middle-income families did not statistically significantly differ from that of their richer peers, suggesting a poverty-specific effect.

These differences weren’t present at birth, Wolfe says. “We found that before age 1, infants’ brains were basically the same, regardless of whether or not they were growing up in a poor family. But then as we traced them to age 4, we found areas that were developing more slowly among infants in low-income families.”

The brain regions that are suffering are critical, Hanson adds. “The frontal lobe, the region that helps with self-control and strategy and planning, had a slower growth rate for kids in lower-income households.”

Similarly, in a paper published in Nature Neuroscience in March, Kimberly Noble, MD, Ph.D., an associate professor of neurosciences and education at Columbia, and her colleagues imaged the brains of 1,099 kids, teens, and young adults aged 3 to 20. They found that those who came from families with a yearly income of less than $25,000 had What Poverty Does To Your Brain | PopularResistance.Org:

Poll finds for the first time that majority of teachers shun Common Core - The Hechinger Report

Poll finds for the first time that majority of teachers shun Common Core - The Hechinger Report:

Poll finds for the first time that majority of teachers shun Common Core

Just a week after the New York State Education Department confirmed that the proportion of students refusing to take annual state tests had quadrupled from five percent last year to 20 percent this year, the results of a new poll raises questions about how pervasive opposition to testing and the Common Core is around the country.

The poll, sponsored by EducationNext, a journal that covers education reform policies, found that while Common Core – a set of math and reading standards in place in over 44 states and the District of Columbia – has declined in popularity, more people voiced support for annual testing. These findings come at a time when Congress is in the process of revamping the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law that mandates annual testing in grades 3 through 8, as well as once in high school.

Related: The surprising initial results from a new Common Core exam

Martin West, an associate professor at Harvard University’s education school and an executive editor at EdNext, says that while the poll did reveal some changes in public attitudes, it also showed the enduring popularity of testing.

“Testing has consistently drawn strong support from the general public in polls going back a decade now and that remains the case today,” said West. “There’s not, however, overwhelming support for broader changes to the governance of public education, but there are pluralities that support the Common Core, charter schools and various forms of private school support.”

This poll, which was EdNext’s ninth annual survey, gathered 4,000 responses, including approximately 700 teachers, 700 African-Americans, and 700 Hispanics.

Not only is the public at large supportive of current testing policies, 67 percent to 21 percent, parents support testing by a 44 point margin. Teachers, however, were almost evenly split, supporting current federal testing policies by a margin of 47 percent to 46 percent. Yet the poll found that the majority of teachers, parents and the public are against allowing parents to opt their children out of the tests.

Related: With all the tests scored, policymakers are grappling with what Common Core test results mean

West hopes that the poll’s findings will inform the Congressional rewrite of NCLB. The U.S. House of Representatives’ version, differs from the Senate version in that while both mandate annual testing, the House bill would create protections for parents looking to have their kids sit out the tests.

The poll found that as with testing, teachers were the least likely to support the Common Core standards.

In 2013, EdNext found that 65 percent of the public supported the Common Core standards. That dropped to 53 percent last year and has further slipped to 49 percent in this poll – that compares to 35 percent who oppose the standards. The biggest decline in support for the Common Core was among teachers, who supported the standards by a margin of 76 percent to 12 percent in 2013. While support dropped to 46 percent last year, for the first time the poll this year found more teachers were against, 50 percent, the standards than were for them at 40 percent.

Related: Lessons from New York: Don’t expect fast change under Common Core

While the poll, consistent with other recent surveys, found that support for Common Core has dropped, it also found that the public was split on Poll finds for the first time that majority of teachers shun Common Core - The Hechinger Report:

Election 2016: GOP candidates to to be pressed on education reform at summit - CBS News

Election 2016: GOP candidates to to be pressed on education reform at summit - CBS News:

Election 2016: GOP candidates to to be pressed on education reform at summit

Six Republican presidential hopefuls head to New Hampshire this week to take part in an education summit where they will be expected to dive deep into their visions for education reform. Wednesday's event will also be a test for candidates as they confront a thorny issue that has been riling up conservative activists for years: Common Core.

The event is sponsored by former NBC and CNN journalist Campbell Brown and The Seventy Four, Brown's nonprofit news site focused on education issues. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina will each participate in 45-minute, one-on-one conversations with Brown. They're expected to discuss how the federal government should -- and should not -- influence education policy in the U.S.

"Polling shows that education is the most important issue to our country - how our children get educated - and it ends up being very little in terms of what the candidates actually talk about," Brown told CBS News.

Yet this election cycle presents an opportunity to put the issue of education reform front and center due to an array of clashing ideas surrounding unions, vouchers, school choice and standardized testing.

"Last campaign cycle, Romney and Obama agreed on major education policy issues, and education barely got a mention," Brown lamented.

The biggest source of tension on Wednesday is likely to be the debate over theCommon Core State Standards, an initiative that encouraged states to develop similar, competitive benchmarks for student achievement in math and language arts. Though Common Core initially enjoyed broad bipartisan support, some in the GOP turned against the program after the Department of Education tied the disbursement of grant money to an adoption of similar standards.

Jindal, Walker, and Christie once spoke favorably about the standards, but they now oppose them, and they may be asked Wednesday to defend their change of heart. Bush and Kasich, the only 2016 Republican contenders who still support Common Core, may be asked to explain themselves as well.

The standards have some high-profile defenders in the GOP. In an op-ed for The 74, William Bennett, the former U.S. Secretary of Education under President Reagan, criticized "Republican governors who once supported and implemented the Common Core but are now running from it under political pressure." He argued governors have a right to review standards in their states - and most states do - but in the end, they will end up creating standards similar to those of Common Core, just with a different name.

"Christie and the other Republican governors, should be courageous enough to defend the concept -- both in policy and in politics," Bennett wrote. "If a state ends up tweaking and renaming the standards, it will be acting in a way that is entirely consistent with how the Common Core was designed to function - as exemplar standards for states to improve and build upon."

Still, the term "Common Core" has stirred enough passion among the Republican base that even defenders of the program have had to wrestle with how they discuss the issue. Bush dubbed the debate surrounding Common Core "poisonous" last Friday while campaigning at the Iowa State Fair. And he added, "I'm for higher standards - state-created, locally implemented - where the federal government has no role in the creation of standards, content or curriculum."

Kasich told voters at a town hall in New Hampshire last month, "I'm going to make sure, at least in my state, that standards are high and local control is maintained. Now some may call that Common Core. I don't really know, but I'm telling you the way it is in my state."

Beyond Common Core, Brown aims to press candidates on how they'd confront other divisive education issues, including the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, President Obama's "Race to the Top" initiative, and how they plan to use dollars at a state or federal level to incentivize reform.

"There are Republican candidates who have argued that the Department of Education should be abolished... so why are you at this forum? You'll really have an opportunity to see whether or not they really know their stuff," Brown told CBS. "Not everybody can carry on an in-depth education policy [conversation] for 45 minutes. We'll see who has really done their homework."

Brown and The 74 are partnering with the Des Moines Register to host a second education summit for the Democratic candidates in Iowa in October.Election 2016: GOP candidates to to be pressed on education reform at summit - CBS News:

The Real Failure Of Common Core | Ted Dintersmith

The Real Failure Of Common Core | Ted Dintersmith:

The Real Failure Of Common Core

The Common Core State Standards were developed in 2009 in an effort to create more rigorous K-12 curriculum standards in math and literacy. To date, 44 states have adopted the standards. But even with such widespread adoption, the Common Core State Standards are among the most hotly contested pieces of legislation in the country -- and will play a prominent role in the presidential campaign ahead.



Why the disagreements? Many conservatives are outraged at attempts to "federalize" the curriculum. Jeb Bush, an ardent supporter of Common Core, is being vilified for his support -- with Donald Trump going so far as to say that support of Common Core will "kill Bush". Chris Christie, a vocal supporter of the Common Core in 2014, now says his views have "evolved" and opposes it. Ted Cruz chimes in, "We need to repeal every word of Common Core!" On the left, Hillary Clinton called the arguments around Common Core "very painful, because the Common Core started off as a bi-partisan effort," but she has avoided taking much of a position. Others on the left express concern about the increasing number of hours that will be spent on testing, lack of teacher preparation, and inadequate curriculum materials.

As with many issues in politics, very few people -- even those with fierce opinions -- understand what Common Core is or have actually plowed through the nearly 200 pages of the standards documents. And almost no one is asking the right questions: Are these the right standards? Will they increase or diminish students' motivation to learn? And, finally, how do we assess student performance against these standards?



In an effort to implement the policy mandate of "all students college ready," the Common Core state standards have been designed to align with college admissions requirements. Because colleges require all applicants to take advanced math -- at least Algebra II -- this is the math standard that all students in the country will now have to meet, requiring mastery of obscure algebraic procedures that the vast majority of adults never use. In English, high school student writing will be limited to essays on the assumption that skill in writing essays is what is required for college. The ability to tell stories -- an essential tool for making one's point in the adult world -- is not in the curriculum.



Even at its best, the new Common Core tests will not assess any of the so-called soft skills that matter a great deal -- and are hard to teach and to learn. Also, because Common Core standards only exist for language arts and mathematics, the time given to teaching other subjects such as science, history, and the arts will continue to decline. New York City schools, for instance, saw an 84 percent decline in spending for arts supplies and equipment between 2006 and 2013. What's worse, 20 percent of the schools do not have an arts teacher of any kind. But in our current high-stakes testing environment, schools are pressured to spend ever-increasing amounts of class time on the subjects that will be tested.



There is the question of whether the Common Core curriculum will result in students working on material that is merely more difficult (and more frequently tested) rather than spending time on content that actually interests them. Will students be more actively engaged as learners with the new curriculum?



In one popular video about recommended approaches to teaching the Common Core, teachers are encouraged to spend eight days teaching Martin Luther King's famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail." There is no suggestion that the teacher might want to explore students' experiences with racism or other topical issues. Teachers are supposed to require students to "just stick to the text" in the discussions. Outstanding urban teachers who have seen this video laugh at it. One told us, "This guy wouldn't last a day in our classrooms."



While we agree that far too many high school discussions lack rigor, a consideration of The Real Failure Of Common Core | Ted Dintersmith:

States Gaining a Say on School Accountability - Education Week

States Gaining a Say on School Accountability - Education Week:

States Gaining a Say on School Accountability

Whether a rewrite of the No Child Left Behind Act makes it over the finish line this year, the federally driven accountability system at the heart of the law seems destined to go the way of the Blockbuster video.

The Obama administration has already opened the door to major flexibility by issuing waivers from the NCLB law, the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

And now, a pair of ESEA rewrite bills headed to conference in Congress would give states acres of new running room when it comes to setting student achievement goals, figuring out how much tests matter, evaluating teachers, and more.

Even if those bills aren't finished by the time President Barack Obama leaves office, presidential candidates in both political parties have either embraced the general direction of the legislation or demanded even more flexibility for states.

If states do win new freedom, what will they do with it? And will the new systems they build be better than the current ones, or will they leave poor and minority students behind?

Some state chiefs are chomping at the bit for greater control, and the chance to experiment with new approaches.

"You're not going to get innovation on these things unless you allow states to be laboratories of policy change," said John White, the Louisiana state superintendent of education.

If the new federal law blesses a state-driven approach, White is interested in giving schools double credit for helping students with disabilities make progress, something he hasn't gotten permission to do under waivers.

Others aren't so optimistic that new federal freedom will produce good results.

"I don't think there's any basis to say there's going to be a lot of people choosing rigorous accountability," said Sandy Kress, who helped write the NCLB law during President George W. Bush's first term in office.

The law, passed in 2002, capitalized on growing attention to accountability at the state level. But Kress doesn't see that same attention now.

"It's being chosen less and less on its own, particularly without the federal pressure to do it," he said.

Holding the Line

The Obama administration shares those concerns, and has made it clear that it wants strong language on accountability in the final version of the ESEA update.

Shifting Landscape

The federal government got involved in accountability in a big way in 2002, with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. The Obama administration changed the game in key areas, and House and Senate legislation to rewrite the law—the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—would do so as well.

No Child Left Behind Act
The law called for states to develop challenging academic standards and test their students in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school. Schools that missed annual achievement targets—either for all their students, or for a particular group of children, such as English-language learners—faced increasingly serious sanctions. The law’s ultimate goal was to bring every student to the “proficient” level on state tests by the 2013-14 school year, but in practice, no state got all its students over that bar.

NCLB Waivers
In 2011, the Obama administration allowed states to get out from under many of the mandates of the NCLB law–including the 2013-14 proficiency deadline—as long as they embraced the administration’s education redesign priorities. Among those: teacher evaluation through test scores, higher standards, and dramatic school turnarounds for the lowest-achieving 5 percent of “priority” schools, plus interventions for another 10 percent of “focus” schools. Right now, 42 states and the District of Columbia have waivers.

Pending ESEA Reauthorization
Under both House and Senate bills, states would have to stick with the NCLB law’s testing schedule. But they could decide how much weight to give those tests in gauging school performance and could set their own goals for student achievement. There would be no requirement that states identify a certain percentage of schools as low-performing, or use any specific turnaround techniques. Both bills would also open the door to some sort of local assessment, although the House bill goes further than the Senate measure.

For instance, the White House would like to see a final bill require states to single out 5 percent of their schools as low-performing and take the lead in fixing them, like waiver states must do now.

But even if the administration is successful in beefing up protections for struggling students, it's unclear how much those changes will influence some emerging state systems.

California, for example, is already designing a new accountability system that would give districts broad leeway in how they hold their schools accountable. The draft plan is silent on how the state would have to identify and help low-performing schools.

That's a conscious choice, said Keric Ashley, the deputy superintendent.

"I don't think California cares about identifying the lowest 5 percent [of schools] in our state," he said. "That's a federal rule that may continue under ESEA [reauthorization]," and the state will comply, "but that's not going to drive the system we create."

The picture of a state-driven, post-NCLB, post-waivers accountability era is still emerging, and may not come into focus for another four or five years, as states revisit their laws and regulations in the wake of new flexibility, experts say.

Still, waiver applications, trends, and interviews with state chiefs themselves offer clues to what the future may hold.

Some states are beginning to experiment with accountability systems that they say present a more holistic approach to teaching and learning, taking into account noncognitive factors such as "grit," and substituting performance tasks for traditional tests.

States are also moving toward systems that embrace a broader definition of what it means to be "college- and career ready." They're using factors like Advanced Placement participation and dual enrollment, or giving schools credit for career certification.

In some states, not much may change, at least not right away. Chiefs in Minnesota and New Mexico said that, by and large, they're happy with the accountability and teacher effectiveness systems they've developed under waivers.

"We would probably just keep our accountability system the way that it is," said Brenda Cassellius, Minnesota's education commissioner. The legislature may tinker with the state's teacher-evaluation system, which calls for test scores to make up 35 percent of a teacher's overall rating, Cassellius said, but she doesn't envision dropping the test-score requirement altogether.

Minnesota may not be alone there. Thirty-nine states have some sort of teacher-evaluation policy on the books, either in law or regulation, that requires student States Gaining a Say on School Accountability - Education Week:

John Kasich’s Biggest Joke: Ohio Charter Schools

John Kasich’s Biggest Joke: Ohio Charter Schools:

John Kasich’s Biggest Joke: Ohio Charter Schools

John Kasich is a master of making jokes at other people’s expense. His reputation of delivering snide, snarky comments, after nearly 40 years as a performance politician, is legend.

One joke making news Monday is the expectation that Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley will endorse Gov. Kasich for president. This is funny only if backward Alabama, where Republicans dominate state politics even more than in Ohio, is deemed a state whose policies should be bellwethers for the nation. The pending endorsement is framed as an example of Gov. Kasich’s strength stretching “beyond his home state and New Hampshire, and beyond moderate Republicans.”

One joke that isn’t funny and that Gov. Kasich won’t laugh at is Ohio’s education record on for-profit charter schools, which now enroll a record 120,000 students and siphon off billions from better performing public schools.

Various sources have ridiculed the Buckeye State under Gov. Kasich for its ideologically driven partisan plan to dole out billions to for-profit charter schools in spite of state report cards showing just how bad they perform when compared to their public school cousins. Ohio public schools and unionized teachers have long been top targets for Kasich and his for-profit education sponsors and backers, who count on sizable campaign donations to keep the ax of responsibility from falling on them and their business-model schools.

Kasich: “That’s Kind Of The End Of It”

Separate from the generally poor performance of Ohio charter schools, which remains a big thorn in Gov. Kasich’s side as he runs for president, is the potentially criminal conduct of the husband of Gov. Kasich’s chief of staff, Beth Hansen, who now serves as the governor’s presidential campaign manager. David Hansen could find himself in legal cross-hairs for falsifying charter school data to make the industry and its sponsors look less terrible on paper, even when reality shows billions in tax payer dollars taken away from public schools has been squandered by Ohio’s charters, which critics argue should be regulated to the same degree public schools have been forced by the Kasich Administration to dance to the tune orchestrated by he and like-minded hard-right state lawmakers.

One report about the scrubbing said Hansen didn’t include online schools or dropout recovery schools because he thought it was fair to for-profit charter school sponsors.

Hansen did similar data scrubbing before Gov. Kasich hired him as school choice director at more than $100,000 per year in salary. When news broke on Hansen’s allegedly illegal activity, he resigned. Kasich has called a request by seven members of the state school board to investigate Hansen’s conduct at the Ohio Department of Education “political” as he tries to make the troubling issue go away.

Ohio’s twice-elected and now term-limited governor got testy when reporters dared ask about the Hansen affair. Kasich is on record talking about Hansenand why he wants any investigation to stop.

“I mean, the guy is gone. He’s gone. We don’t tolerate any sort of not open and John Kasich’s Biggest Joke: Ohio Charter Schools:

Think It Up - STUDENT POWERED. TEACHER LED. CROWD FUNDED.™

Think It Up:

STUDENT POWERED. TEACHER LED. CROWD FUNDED.™

Think It Up:

Think It Up:

We Are All on the Lunatic Fringe – The Centerless Battle Against Corporate Education Reform | gadflyonthewallblog

We Are All on the Lunatic Fringe – The Centerless Battle Against Corporate Education Reform | gadflyonthewallblog:

We Are All on the Lunatic Fringe – The Centerless Battle Against Corporate Education Reform

It was one of the strangest meetings I’ve ever had with a state legislator.

Why?

First of all, we were all teachers.

Even the legislator. Even his Aide!

Pennsylvania State Rep. Dan Miller (D-Mt. Lebanon) had been a history teacher before he sought a law degree and higher office.

His aide had been a Pittsburgh Public School teacher before she was furloughed and found a place in the representative’s office.

And, of course, there were the seven of us – all teachers at my school district.

We crowded together in his tiny district office to talk about how standardized testing is destroying public schools.

Which brings me to the second strangest thing – Rep. Miller didn’t just agree with us, he did so knowledgeably.

I’ve sat across a table from an awful lot of lawmakers, and they almost always try to find common ground. Disingenuously.

Sure! I agree teachers are important! That’s why we need to fire more of them!

You bet neighborhood schools are vital! That’s why I want to close all the public schools and replace them with charters!

Uh-huh! School funding is critical but not more so than classroom teachers. That’s why we’re cutting your budgets! We want to see what you can do!

None of that at Rep. Miller’s office.

When we brought up how important it is to allow parents throughout the Commonwealth to opt their children out of standardized tests without penalizing their school districts, he praised parent rights.

When we described how the definition of school accountability has changed from We Are All on the Lunatic Fringe – The Centerless Battle Against Corporate Education Reform | gadflyonthewallblog: