Things educators know about schooling that the public needs to know | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Things educators know about schooling that the public needs to know | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Things educators know about schooling that the public needs to know

It has been 32 years since "A Nation at Risk" was published. The report, issued in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan's National Commission on Excellence in Education, established the belief that schools across the nation were failing, and that we needed to demand more of our teachers and our students.

"A Nation at Risk" was the blueprint for our country's hyperfocus on ‘measurable growth’ that education stakeholders experience today. It catalyzed a shift in the American concept of education. Outcomes, not input, would determine the quality of instruction. Standards, not knowledge, would dictate what gets taught, how, and for how long. Students’ “seat time” would be favored over other activities that required physical engagement.

Over a decade after many of the tenets from the report were institutionalized in 2001 through the No Child Left Behind Act and further validated with the Race to the Top initiative in 2009 (under the premise that these policies were necessary for the United States to maintain its competitive nature) the results have been mixed.

The idea that American schools would have to overhaul curricula and expectations based on ideas plucked primarily from the business world did not resonate well with educators. To this day, teachers who leave the profession cite the emphasis on accountability as the reason: Why make students demonstrate growth from one lesson to the next, when all available research shows cognitive development is far more complex, different for each child, and in many cases, difficult to measure.  

The effects of such policies are far more prevalent in urban public schools, where poverty is clustered. Here are some truths that are self-evident to educators, but might not be as clear to the public at large.

1. Predictability is a luxury seldom experienced in urban districts. From year to year, districts across major cities have to contend with whether or not they will have adequate funds to maintain buildings, academic programs, staffing levels, roll out new initiatives, or planning that goes beyond 180 days. This has been the norm for my district, where the conversations in spring and summer turn to how much money is left to begin the following year, or how big the hole in the budget is, and if so, who will be laid off or what will be cut.

2. Class size matters. Educators know if there is one proven strategy that helps students gain skills and knowledge is small class sizes. Contrary to popular belief, the cost of maintaining small class sizes pays for itself. This is well documented in the National Education Association’s 2008 policy brief, "Class Size Matters: A Proven Reform Strategy." The NEA’s report showed that a cost-benefit analysis of the famous STAR project estimates that reducing class sizes from 22 to 15 in grades K-3 results in a $2 return on every $1 spent. Currently, the three kindergarten classrooms in my school average 25 students, and the two 1st grades stand at over 30.

3. Standardized assessments are a poor predictor of success or ability. Daily, students Things educators know about schooling that the public needs to know | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Aldermen hand Rahm a big win. Biggest property tax increase in history hits hardest on poor.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Aldermen hand Rahm a big win. Biggest property tax increase in history hits hardest on poor.:

Aldermen hand Rahm a big win. Biggest property tax increase in history hits hardest on poor.

Parents and community groups carry anti-privatization signs as they gather in front of Ald. Will Burns (4th) office Tuesday morning, demanding that Burns be replaced as Education Committee chair with someone who will not stifle fair community representation.

Remember how Rahm got elected? Along with buying $30 million worth of votes with bankster pals' money, he savaged Chuy Garcia during the campaign debate with lies about him voting for "the largest property tax increase in history"? During the first of five mayoral debates, Emanuel pulled the property tax charge out of his pocket like a trump card.

“You increased property taxes to the largest amount ever with your vote,” he told Garcia.

Today compliant aldermen will vote for Rahm's own $720 million property tax increase, truly the largest ever. The largest previous hike was Mayor Daley's which Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Aldermen hand Rahm a big win. Biggest property tax increase in history hits hardest on poor.:

John Thompson: Pity the Disposable Principals | Diane Ravitch's blog - Linkis.com

John Thompson: Pity the Disposable Principals | Diane Ravitch's blog - Linkis.com:

John Thompson: Pity the Disposable Principals

John Thompson, historian and teacher, says that he usually doesn’t worry about principals, but this piece demonstrates that he knows the stress they are under in the current context of fire first, aim later.

Principals and assistant principals give up the best job in the world, teaching, for one of the most stressful of careers. In my experience, they do it in order to help more students. Three excellent articles describe the additional pressure that is being placed on principals in an age of reform.

Clearly, these efforts will not be sustainable if we do not start treating school leaders as valuable resources that can’t be squandered.

My principals all had to claim to believe that better instruction, data, “High Expectations!,” and leadership were enough to turn around the highest-challenge schools. The few who really believed that systemic progress could be driven by instruction within the four walls of the classroom could be annoying, but they were sincere. For instance, one of those frustrating assistant principals faced down a student with a loaded gun rather than take the safe path and allow the police to handle it.

For over a decade, the prime method of turning around schools with the highest concentrations of generational poverty and kids who have survived extreme trauma has been to use up and throw away dedicated teachers and principals. Chalkbeat NY’s Geoff Decker, in “Q&A with Automotive High’s Principal: ‘There’s Always Pressure in This Building,’” featured one of those principals, Caterina Lafergola. She has fought the good fight at New York City’s Automotive High School since 2011.

Lafergola says, “You can’t do this work unless you love it because it will chew you up and spit you out. I love the work. I love the kids.”

The principal cites two huge problems, the “compliance issues” that a school leader must handle, and students’ trauma. Lafergola says of her students, “They’re traumatized. Last year, one of our babies was murdered. Died like a dog in the street.”

Automotive is no longer a “madhouse,” where it took 20 minutes to transition between classes and where there were rampant gang affiliations and drugs. If the standard school improvement model was working, by now Automotive would be creating some stability. But, of Lafergola’s 32 teachers, 14 are brand new. On the other hand, perhaps under Chancellor Carmen Farina and Mayor Bill de Blasio and with the implementation of Restorative Practices, more improvement will be John Thompson: Pity the Disposable Principals | Diane Ravitch's blog - Linkis.com:

With Federal Millions, “Wild West” of Charters Is about to Get Even Wilder | PR Watch

With Federal Millions, “Wild West” of Charters Is about to Get Even Wilder | PR Watch:

With Federal Millions, “Wild West” of Charters Is about to Get Even Wilder

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has announced the winners of the next round of state (SEA) grants under the quarter-billion-dollar-a-year Charter Schools Program (CSP) designed to boost the charter sector.

While eight state departments of education shared a $125-million pot of federal taxpayer money for 2015, the biggest recipient by far for this round of grants is Ohio. It landed a whopping $32.6 million grant to the dismay of public school advocates.

With its lax-to-non-existent charter school laws, and vast number of unaccountable authorizers, Ohio has long been an embarrassment even to the charter school industry.

“It’s more broken than the Wild West,” a spokesperson for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers told Cleveland’s Plain Dealer last year.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?

But as CMD has documented, ED has never quite decided whether to bet on the sheriff or the outlaw in its approach to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provides for the federal largesse that has fueled the charter school industry, even with its numerous failures.

To a certain extent, the charter school funding mechanisms were designed to reward “lawlessness”—that is, states in which authorizers call the shots while the departments of education act like banks or conduits for cash but lack any real statutory authority to hold the ultimate recipients accountable. This comes under the mantle of “flexibility” recited by charter advocates.

This flexibility has been a recipe for disaster in state after state, but Ohio—which has already received CSP grants of nearly $125 million—offers a particularly bleak picture.

CMD conducted a review of the schools in the Buckeye State that were awarded money under the 2007-2011 grant cycle, and found that:

• Out of the 88 schools created by the grant money, at least 15 closed within a few years (this is a conservative estimate based on Ohio's Closed School Directory; the status of some of the other schools remains unclear)–but not before pocketing more than $4.9 million (out of a total $32.6 million) in planning and implementation grants.
• Seven charter schools never even opened to students.
• The majority of the schools that remain open scored in the bottom 16 percent (letter grades D-F) on the 2014 Ohio Performance Index, as measured by student performance on state assessments.

As Accountability Scandal Rocks Ohio...

This time around, however, things are bound to be different, right?

Such was the optimism of Nadya Dabby, assistant deputy secretary with ED. When asked by Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post why the state “with multiple charter school problems received the biggest federal grant,” she assured her that Ohio has improved its oversight of charters.

“Although,” noted Layton, “she could not provide details.”

But a look at documents released yesterday shows that the reviewers contracted by ED to score the applications have

- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/node/12944#sthash.NAN23uMb.dpuf

For Whom The Bell Tolls; It Tolls For Rhee | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

For Whom The Bell Tolls; It Tolls For Rhee | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

For Whom The Bell Tolls; It Tolls For Rhee

One of the benefits of the Common Core, supposedly, is that we can finally compare the performance of schools in different states.  Originally the dream was that a majority of states would sign on to use common tests from either the PARCC from Pearson or SBAC from Smarter Balanced.

Michelle Rhee-Johnston became chancellor of Washington DC schools in 2007.  As proof that a major problem in education is the absence of standardized test scores in teacher evaluation, Rhee-Johnston frequently said, in speeches, that when she came to DC, only 8% of 8th graders were proficient in math while 97% of teachers were rated as effective.

In a feature on the CNN blog in 2009, it said:

Her plan is ambitious: To completely transform the District’s system within eight years for its 50,000 children. The plan focuses on top-down accountability, quantitative results like standardized test scores and, ultimately, working to close what she describes as “the achievement gap between wealthy white kids and poor minority kids.”

“I think it’s absolutely possible within an eight-year period,” she said.

Reformers are always saying things like “Kids can’t wait.  We have to act with urgency.”  Ironically, though, they seem to have a near infinite amount of patience while watching For Whom The Bell Tolls; It Tolls For Rhee | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

Emperor Gates Has No Clothes | Jay P. Greene's Blog

Emperor Gates Has No Clothes | Jay P. Greene's Blog:

Emperor Gates Has No Clothes 

Last week Bill Gates gave a speech to articulate his foundation’s strategy for education reform and the basis for that strategy. Unfortunately, throughout the speech Gates misreads and distorts findings from research, including research that the foundation has funded or conducted itself.  Why hasn’t anyone called Gates on these errors?

Look, I’m not surprised that a non-researcher misunderstands research.  And I’m not surprised that a foundation is pursuing a strategy that is not well-supported by research.  Frankly, he’s entitled to pursue any strategy he wants for any reason he prefers.  But Gates gets up there, puts on his metaphorical lab coat, and declares that Science says… It’s then the job of actual scientists, even social scientists, to correct him.  If we don’t, then we are letting Gates corrupt science.  The Gates foundation doesn’t, for the most part, buy false research findings.  But Gates is contributing to the corruption of social science as researchers obviously feel the need to stay quiet when he and other foundation leaders misread and distort findings.

How do I know Gates is distorting and misreading research?  For one thing, several researchers involved in the studies he is referencing have told me so.  They know that he, Vicki Phillips, and other senior Gates officials are mis-describing the results of their work.  It’s no secret among researchers that this is occurring, they are just reluctant to do anything about it.

When I asked one researcher involved in the Measuring Effective Teachers(MET) project why they hadn’t corrected Vicki Phillips’ inaccurate description of their work, he agreed “it was Vicki’s mistake” but “anyone who reads the original paper can see the actual findings. I guess this is like lots of policy-relevant papers…”  That is, he just accepted the corruption and trusted that his results would speak for themselves.  Others with whom I have spoken who have worked on MET and other Gates-funded projects have not been quite so passive, but none feel brave enough to correct the Emperor.

I also know that Gates is distorting and misreading research because what he says clearly contradicts what researchers have found.  For example let’s look at how Gates claims that research supports his foundation’s shift in strategy from small schools of choice to measuring effective teaching:

Early on, we thought smaller schools were the way to drive up college-ready rates. We set out to build the model of a 

Emperor Gates Has No Clothes | Jay P. Greene's Blog:

“High Expectations” and the Criminalization of America’s Students

“High Expectations” and the Criminalization of America’s Students:

“High Expectations” and the Criminalization of America’s Students

By now most of us have seen the video of the resource officer using brute force to yank a female student out of her desk. Appalling, most agree. But this country has been criminalizing students, if not violently, inhumanely and subtly, in their schools for a long time. Why do Americans put up with it?

They have permitted this to happen through arbitrary “no excuses” zero tolerance rules.

Wiki defines zero tolerance as a policy of punishing any infraction of a rule,regardless of accidental mistakes, ignorance, or extenuating circumstances. In schools, common zero-tolerance policies concern possession or use of illicit drugs or weapons. Students, and sometimes staff, parents, and other visitors, who possess a banned item for any reason are always (if the policy is followed) to be punished.

For starters, in 1994, before the sad event at Columbine, zero tolerance was put into place to curb school gun violence and drugs. If you’re a parent you know the mere mention of guns and schools scares you to death. So getting a resource officer for the school sounds like a good bet—an added measure of protection.

In most places, school resource officers are good people who blend in with the school administration. In the middle and high schools where I worked, the resource officers worked closely with the school guidance counselors. As teachers, we knew they were “High Expectations” and the Criminalization of America’s Students:

Pennsylvania: How to Create a School Financial Crisis | The Progressive

Pennsylvania: How to Create a School Financial Crisis | The Progressive:

Pennsylvania: How to Create a School Financial Crisis

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is in the grip of a major public education financial crisis. How did we get here? Well, Rome wasn’t burnt in a day. There are several stations on the way to schoolmageddon.

Start With Built-in Disparities

Everyone knows that Pennsylvania is home to urban behemoths Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, but we also have huge rural areas. Take Forest School District, a district that covers roughly 500 square miles, serves about 530 students, and a resident population of just under 5,000 (with a median income of $33K). Pennsylvania deals with all manner of poverty and population. Any solution our urban-heavy representatives come up with will be an ill fit for somewhere else in the state.

That much variation also means any funding system based on real estate taxes will have baked-in inequities. Pennsylvania also run has the fourth-highest senior citizen population in the country—people who frequently oppose having their fixed income eaten away by increased taxes on their homes.

Mess With the Money

Remember how the stimulus money wasn’t supposed to be used to finance existing expenses? Yeah, here in Pennsylvania we kind of ignored those instructions. Under Governor “Smilin’ Ed” Rendell (D), the state spent less on education but used the ARRA money to make it appear as if we were actually spending more. When the stimulus money went away, Rendell’s successor Republican Tom Corbett was in a hole.

Toss a Pension Crisis on the Fire

Pennsylvania’s pension mess is complicated and long-brewing. The crisis started in 2001

- See more at: http://progressive.org/news/2015/10/188378/pennsylvania-how-create-school-financial-crisis#sthash.6s6Jp0bM.dpuf

Schools Matter: President Spellings

Schools Matter: President Spellings:

President Spellings

Anyone with the intellect to appear brilliant to George W. Bush is probably not smart enough to stay out of the public eye.  The re-emergence of Margaret Spellings as president of a prestigious state university system proves as much.

Having ballooned her bank accounts since 2008 as she criss-crossed the nation serving on executive boards and offering corporate education consultation as chief proprietor of her modestly named company, Margaret Spellings, Inc., it appears that Spellings has once again been called upon by the billionaires to use her hammy fists and her drunk cowgirl persona to beat down one of the last remaining civilized institutions of our dying planet.

When Spellings left the White House, she carried with her the knowledge of how to become the most despised education official in the land to everyone, at least, who does not fly on a corporate jet. 

Along with Bush's bagman, Sandy Kress, Spellings used her extensive knowledge (a B.S. in poly-sci) to craft an education policy for the nation that would deconstruct public education and hand out the remaining chunks to billionaires and their underemployed Ivy League drones.  By the time she left her office at ED, billions in ed funds were going into the pockets of Bush cronies, almost half of U. S. schools were on the NCLB failure list, and the charter school industry was draining public school budgets in 40 states. 

A few of the other Bush accomplishment that Spellings oversaw:

Since NCLB became law in 2002, Bush budgets have underfunded NCLB by nearly $90 billion dollars (pdf). Head Start has been cut back by 11 percent. Career education programs, educational technology, and other programs Schools Matter: President Spellings:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: NAEP Scores Drop; Duncan Says,"Don't Worry"

Seattle Schools Community Forum: NAEP Scores Drop; Duncan Says,"Don't Worry":

NAEP Scores Drop; Duncan Says,"Don't Worry"

Now what if there were NO Common Core standards being enacted?  Would he be quite so calm?  He was quite happy in 2013 when the scores went up and he crowed about how all eight states using CCSS showed improvement in at least one score with none declining.  Today?

“Big change never happens overnight,” Duncan said. “I’m confident that over the next decade, if we stay committed to this change, we will see historic improvements.”

From The Answer Sheet:

NAEP is often called the nation’s report card because it is the only measure of student achievement given periodically to a sampling of students around the nation. It is seen by many as a high-quality test though it has many critics, too, some of whom say that the NAEP definition of “proficiency” is unnaturally high, and that the test cannot measure many of the qualities students must develop to be successful.

My Post colleague Emma Brown reports in this story that math scores for fourth-graders and eighth-graders across the United States dropped this year, the first time since the federal government began administering the Seattle Schools Community Forum: NAEP Scores Drop; Duncan Says,"Don't Worry":

Seattle Schools Community Forum: How Did Washington State Students Do on NAEP? http://bit.ly/1MiBy1C



Seattle Schools Community Forum: Wonder What He Would Do to K-12? http://bit.ly/1MiBBue

CURMUDGUCATION: NAEP: Further Evidence of Reformy Failure

CURMUDGUCATION: NAEP: Further Evidence of Reformy Failure:

NAEP: Further Evidence of Reformy Failure

Mike Petrilli of the Fordham Institute has gone so far as to call the new NAEP scores "heartbreak." The scores on the Nation's Report Card are crappy, ranging from "barely stagnant" to "plunging."

Petrilli and other reformsters have started the business of finding an explanation for this tragic result (more about that in a moment), but while we are thinking about what did make this happen, let's not lose sight of what didn't happen.

Test-driven accountability tied to national standards did not make NAEP scores rise.

Fifteen years of reformsterism has not moved the needle. Well, actually, that's not entirely true-- the NAEP trend has been ever upward since before the Reformster Era, so we could argue that ed reform actually stopped the needle from moving. So, worse than nothing.

But let's not quibble for the moment. The bottom line is still clear: reformsterism is failing. The reform programs, which are in fact our current status quo, are failing. And we all know what reformsters have been telling us, over and over and over again, about the status quo-- when it's not working, it must be changed.

Now, honestly, I'm not all that concerned about the Nation's Report Card. There are many reasons to suspect that the NAEP is not a reliable benchmark of student learning. But it was part of the rules CURMUDGUCATION: NAEP: Further Evidence of Reformy Failure:

Report calls for more support for black students in California | EdSource

Report calls for more support for black students in California | EdSource:

Report calls for more support for black students in California

A new report released Wednesday by the student advocacy group Education Trust­-West calls for an increased focus on helping black students thrive in California schools.

Called “Black Minds Matter: Supporting the Educational Success of Black Children in California,” the 32­-page report highlights disparities in academic achievement and discipline between black students and their non­-black peers from preschool through college. It also lists several programs throughout the state that could serve as models to others hoping to close achievement and “opportunity gaps,” and includes 36 recommendations for state policymakers and education leaders aimed at remedying inequities.

“Although we’ve made some progress, black students continue to face an education system that squanders their talent,” said Ryan Smith, executive director of Ed Trust–West, in a prepared statement. “The deaths of unarmed youth by law enforcement across the country tell black youth that their lives matter less than other lives. Similarly the decisions made within our education systems tell black students that their minds and futures matter less as well.”

California has the fifth­-largest black population in the nation, including about 900,000 African­-American youth under 25. About 6 percent of California students are African-American, according to the state Department of Education. The highest percentages of black students are concentrated in five Northern California counties: San Francisco, Contra Costa, Alameda, Sacramento and Solano, where 10 to 16 percent of students are black, the report says.

“Often we make assumptions about why outcomes are lower for students of color, assumptions that place the blame on students and their families,” Smith said in an e­ mail. “However the data reveals that students of color and low­-Report calls for more support for black students in California | EdSource:

Bombshell Report Exposes Federal Failure to Oversee Charters | janresseger

Bombshell Report Exposes Federal Failure to Oversee Charters | janresseger:

Bombshell Report Exposes Federal Failure to Oversee Charters

I was once in a meeting where Education Secretary Arne Duncan declared: “Good charters are part of the solution. Bad charters are part of the problem.” Unfortunately, Secretary Duncan has done nothing to increase federal oversight for the purpose of addressing what he called “the problem.”  A new report from the Center for Media and Democracy, Charter School Black Hole, exposes the U.S. Department of Education’s total abrogation of responsibility for oversight of an education sector to which it has granted $3.7 billion since 1995. The federal Charter School Program (CSP) awards grants to state departments of education to encourage charter school expansion.

Who’s in charge?  Really nobody: “The system insulates each element from accountability for what actually happens in charters.” The federal government has relinquished oversight to the states receiving federal grants, states which have then turned over regulation to  charter school authorizers in what the Center for Media and Democracy calls, “a classic example of ‘industry capture’ of the agencies charged with oversight by the industry they are tasked with overseeing.” “This is due in part to the way laws governing charters have been built by proponents, favoring ‘flexibility’ over rules…  Charters are policed—if they are policed much at all—mainly by charter proponents….”  “Theoretically, the charters are held ‘accountable’ to charter authorizers.  However, enforcement of standards by charter authorizers appears lax in many instances, and states have said they lack legal authority under statutes that created the charter option to demand compliance.”  “As a consequence, the public does not know how much federal seed money each charter has received and does not know how it has really been spent…” “Unlike truly public schools, which have to account for prospective and past spending in public budgets provided to democratically elected school boards, charter spending is largely a black hole.”

The Center for Media and Democracy gathered the information in the report through a series of formal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the U.S. Department of Education as Bombshell Report Exposes Federal Failure to Oversee Charters | janresseger:

Bronin reports another $174,000 collected with seven days to go until Election Day - Wait What?

Bronin reports another $174,000 collected with seven days to go until Election Day - Wait What?:

Bronin reports another $174,000 collected with seven days to go until Election Day

Having already spent a record-breaking $1 million to try and buy himself the mayor’s job in Hartford, Dannel Malloy wannabee, political newcomer and Greenwich native Luke Bronin has raised another $174,000 for his campaign effort according to a campaign finance report filed with the Hartford Town Clerk late yesterday afternoon.

Bronin and the Hartford Stadium Developers

Bronin’s latest collection plate overflows with another $11,750 from the developers of Hartford’s new Dunkin Donuts Yard Goats Baseball Stadium.  The latest bundle of stadium money comes in addition to the thousands of dollars Bronin had already raised from those whose who are directly benefiting financially from the stadium contract.  (See: And now Luke Bronin is collecting big bucks from developers of the Hartford Dunkin’ Donuts Stadium)  The additional bundle of checks to pay for Luke Bronin’s political aspirations includes a $1,000 check from lead developer Bob Landino.

Having sharply criticized the stadium project earlier in the campaign, Bronin waited until after the reporting deadline for the September 16, 2015 Democratic primary to start collecting the big money from contractors hired to build the new baseball stadium.

However, in recent weeks, Bronin has more than made up for lost time, raising tens of thousands of dollars from DONO developers including Centerplan Development, Centerplan Construction Company, JCJ Architecture, Freeman Companies, BETA, McDowell Jewett and Greenskies Renewable Energy.

The Hartford Stadium contributions to Luke Bronin come at the same time that the stadium developers are seeking permission to postpone ground breaking for Phase II of the DONO project which was supposed to include the grocery store, retail and housing portions of the development plan.  The developers are also asking to reduce the amount of housing to make room for a new hotel that they’d like to build instead.

Luke Bronin’s wife, Sarah Bronin, is the chairperson of the Hartford Planning and Zoning Commission and a special meeting of the Commission has been scheduled for Wednesday, Bronin reports another $174,000 collected with seven days to go until Election Day - Wait What?:

NAEP Scores Released Today, Showing the Fiasco of NCLB and Race to the Top | Diane Ravitch's blog

NAEP Scores Released Today, Showing the Fiasco of NCLB and Race to the Top | Diane Ravitch's blog:

NAEP Scores Released Today, Showing the Fiasco of NCLB and Race to the Top 

Sometimes events happen that seem to be disconnected, but after a few days or weeks, the pattern emerges. Consider this: On October 2, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that he was resigning and planned to return to Chicago. Former New York Commissioner of Education John King, who is a clone of Duncan in terms of his belief in testing and charter schools, was designated to take Duncan’s place. On October 23, the Obama administration held a surprise news conference to declare that testing was out of control and should be reduced to not more than 2% of classroom time. Actually, that wasn’t a true reduction, because 2% translates into between 18-24 hours of testing, which is a staggering amount of annual testing for children in grades 3-8 and not different from the status quo in most states.

Disconnected events?

Not at all. Here comes the pattern-maker: the federal tests called the National Assessment of Educational Progress released its every-other-year report card in reading and math, and the results were dismal. There would be many excuses offered, many rationales, but the bottom line: the NAEP scores are an embarrassment to the Obama administration (and the George W. Bush administration that preceded it).

For nearly 15 years, Presidents Bush and Obama and the Congress have bet billions of dollars—both federal and state– on a strategy of testing, accountability, and choice. They believed that if every student was tested in reading and mathematics every year from grades 3 to 8, test scores would go up and up. In those schools where test scores did not go up, the principals and teachers would be fired and replaced. Where scores didn’t go up for five years in a row, the schools would be closed. Thousands of educators were fired, and thousands of public schools were closed, based on the theory that sticks and carrots, rewards and punishments, would improve education.

But the 2015 NAEP scores released today by the National Assessment NAEP Scores Released Today, Showing the Fiasco of NCLB and Race to the Top | Diane Ravitch's blog:

NAEP Test Scores Demonstrate Failure of Corporate Reforms – The Network For Public Education

NAEP Test Scores Demonstrate Failure of Corporate Reforms – The Network For Public Education:

NAEP Test Scores Demonstrate Failure of Corporate Reforms

October 28, 2015

Today’s release of stagnant and declining NAEP scores is one more indication that the test-based reforms emanating from NCLB and Race to the Top are not working. The Network for Public Education (NPE) once again calls for a change in course from over a decade of ineffective policies.

NPE President, Diane Ravitch said, “The decline in NAEP scores is a wake-up call to the nation. It is a clear indication that No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have failed to improve our children’s education. Educators have warned for years that the strategy of test-and-punish was a grave error. President George W. Bush launched these so-called reforms, and President Obama built on Bush’s flawed foundation by using test scores to fire teachers and principals and close thousands of public schools. It is past time to abandon the failed Bush-Obama “reforms.”

NAEP scores have been used since the 1970’s to assess the impact of national education policies on the literacy and numeracy of American students. For example, the NAEP achievement gap between white students and black students dramatically narrowed in the 1970s and ’80s, during the height of school desegregation efforts. In contrast, the small narrowing of gaps in 2015 are not attributable to the improvement of black student scores, but rather to declines in the scores of white students.

According to NPE vice-chairperson, Anthony Cody, “Test scores, we have been told, should be used “to keep kids on track.” For all too many students, these tests are used to place them on a track that leads nowhere. It is time to return assessment to where it belongs, in the hands of classroom teachers, and toss standardized test-based accountability out for good.”

Disappointing NAEP results mirror the recent drop in SAT scores, which declined by 7 points in one year. “Clearly the Common Core, its tests, and the evaluation of teachers by test scores are not having a positive, transferable impact on the reading and math skills of America’s students,” said NPE Fund Executive Director, Carol Burris.

Former teacher and NPE vice-chairperson, Phyllis Bush observed, “For many reformers/policy makers/politicians/know-it-alls, data seems to be the only means of assessment that they understand.  If data is “the measure” of reform, NAEP scores are sending a message that is loud and clear–using assessments for high-stakes purposes, rather than to diagnose and evaluate what students know, is just not working.”

Contact: Carol Burris
Executive Director of the Network for Public Education Fund
burriscarol@gmail.com

NAEP Test Scores Demonstrate Failure of Corporate Reforms – The Network For Public Education: