Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/18/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

What happens when magnet school suddenly drops admission criteria? | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

What happens when magnet school suddenly drops admission criteria? | Philadelphia Public School Notebook: What happens when magnet school suddenly drops admission criteria?Hill-Freedman parent Sabrina Townsend speaks with Superintendent William Hite after Tuesday's hearing.For many Philadelphia families, the city's special admissions magnet schools are key resources that keep them from moving out

by mike simpson / 8min 

2016 California Educator Excellence Summit - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education)

2016 California Educator Excellence Summit - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education): State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces 2016 California Educator Excellence SummitSACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today announced that the California Department of Education (CDE) is sponsoring a summit to improve professional learning for California educators."The summit wil

by mike simpson / 1h 

Hillary Is Right about Charter Schools! | John Thompson - Linkis.com

Hillary Is Right about Charter Schools! | John Thompson - Linkis.com: Hillary Is Right about Charter Schools!Charter school supporters can't deny that Hillary Clinton is factually correct in saying, "most charter schools ... don't take the hardest-to-teach kids. Or if they do, they don't keep them."Even the most doctrinaire true-believer in school choice is not likely to claim the opposi

by mike simpson / 3h 

CURMUDGUCATION: Evil L.A. Teacher Unions

CURMUDGUCATION: Evil L.A. Teacher Unions: Evil L.A. Teacher UnionsThe Center for Education Reform is a charter promotion group, perhaps one of the most cynical and self-serving of the reformster groups. Search their website for information or ideas about education-- the actual pedagogy and instruction in a classroom-- and you will find nothing, because the Center has no actual interest in educatio

by mike simpson / 4h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Warning: Be careful who you embed with

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Warning: Be careful who you embed with: Warning: Be careful who you embed withem·bedəmˈbed/ verb 1. fix (an object) firmly and deeply in a surrounding mass.No, my warning isn't directed at Charlie Sheen's "goddesses". Probably too late for them. It's also too late for GOP current poll leader Ben Carson whose ignorance on foreign policy just got exposed (as

by mike simpson / 4h 

OPT OUT A NATIONAL MOVEMENT _ At least 500,000 students in 7 states sat out standardized tests this past spring - The Washington Post

At least 500,000 students in 7 states sat out standardized tests this past spring - The Washington Post: At least 500,000 students in 7 states sat out standardized tests this past springAbout 500,000 public school students in seven states “opted out” and refused to take federally required standardized tests in math and reading in the spring, according to a national group that wants to reduce the u

by mike simpson / 4h 

Growing dropout of states in Common core testing :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet

Growing dropout of states in Common core testing :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet: Growing dropout of states in Common core testing(Colo.) Five years after 43 states and the District of Columbia officially adopted a new set of national education goals, fewer than half will actually administer assessments this year fully aligned to the Common

by mike simpson / 7h 

Prejudice of Poverty: Why Americans Hate the Poor and Worship the Rich | gadflyonthewallblog

Prejudice of Poverty: Why Americans Hate the Poor and Worship the Rich | gadflyonthewallblog: Prejudice of Poverty: Why Americans Hate the Poor and Worship the RichTake a breath.Take a deep breath. Let your lungs expand. Let the air collect inside you.Hold it.Now exhale slowly. Feels good doesn’t it? You’d never realize there are hundreds of contaminates floating invisible in that air. Dirt, germs

by mike simpson / 7h 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Can We Duplicate These Teachers' Methods?

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Can We Duplicate These Teachers' Methods?: Can We Duplicate These Teachers' Methods?Via ABC News:This Florida Special Ed teacher,  Chris Ulmer, starts the school day with uplifting words to his students.Read more »Title IX work left undoneAs soon as the Title IX news moved off the headlines, the Title IX work in Seattle Public Schools moved off the agenda.The annua

by mike simpson / 7h 

CT Leaders propose cutting funding for public schools while protecting charter school increases - Wait What?

CT Leaders propose cutting funding for public schools while protecting charter school increases - Wait What?: CT Leaders propose cutting funding for public schools while protecting charter school increasesIn the face of yet another budget deficit, Governor Dannel Malloy and leaders in the Connecticut General Assembly have been laying out competing plans to cut the state budget.  All plans include

by mike simpson / 7h 

Congressional Compromise to Reauthorize Federal Education Law Rebukes Arne Duncan | janresseger

Congressional Compromise to Reauthorize Federal Education Law Rebukes Arne Duncan | janresseger: Congressional Compromise to Reauthorize Federal Education Law Rebukes Arne DuncanArne Duncan will leave at the end of December, turning over the leadership of the U.S. Department of Education to John King, an acting superintendent whose name will not even be submitted to Congress for confirmation as se

by mike simpson / 7h 

Live Webcast: Senate Expected to Meet with House on ESEA This Afternoon | deutsch29

Live Webcast: Senate Expected to Meet with House on ESEA This Afternoon | deutsch29: Live Webcast: Senate Expected to Meet with House on ESEA This AfternoonThe following ESEA reauthorization update comes from Politico’s Morning Education post dated 11-18-15. The first ESEA House-Senate conference committee meeting is scheduled for today (2:30 ET) and is to be webcast (watch it live here).NCLB conf

by mike simpson / 8h 

Nonprofit is formed to advance charter-school plan in Los Angeles area - LA Times

Nonprofit is formed to advance charter-school plan in Los Angeles area - LA Times: Nonprofit is formed to advance charter-school plan in Los Angeles areaBackers of a plan to greatly expand successful charters and other high-quality public schools in the Los Angeles area have formed a nonprofit organization to move the effort forward, The Times has learned.The new organization, called Great Public

by mike simpson / 8h 

LAUSD board wants superintendent candidates with teaching experience | 89.3 KPCC

LAUSD board wants superintendent candidates with teaching experience | 89.3 KPCC: LAUSD board wants superintendent candidates with teaching experienceThe Los Angeles Unified school board on Tuesday took another step in its march towardhiring the next district superintendent by detailing the kinds of candidates it wants to interview."These characteristics are meant, as I read them, our aspirat

by mike simpson / 8h 

Gates Foundation Puts New Focus on Transforming Teacher Prep - Education Week

Gates Foundation Puts New Focus on Transforming Teacher Prep - Education Week: Gates Foundation Puts New Focus on Transforming Teacher PrepThe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will invest some $34 million in cooperative initiatives designed to improve teacher-preparation programs’ overall effectiveness.The Seattle-based philanthropy announced the three-year grants Nov. 18. Gates awarded the fun

by mike simpson / 8h 

Yes, the teacher shortage is bad, but California voters don’t want fast tracked teachers either - The Hechinger Report

Yes, the teacher shortage is bad, but California voters don’t want fast tracked teachers either - The Hechinger Report: Yes, the teacher shortage is bad, but California voters don’t want fast tracked teachers eitherCalifornia teachers need more student teaching experience prior to teaching, poll sayshools are desperate for teachers in California, but attempts to fast track teachers into classrooms

by mike simpson / 8h 

Poll: California voters say state must take action to address teacher shortage | EdSource

Poll: California voters say state must take action to address teacher shortage | EdSource: Poll: California voters say state must take action to address teacher shortageCalifornia registered voters regard the emerging shortage of K-12 teachers as a very serious problem and think that the state should be taking decisive action to rectify the situation, according to a poll commissioned by EdSource a

by mike simpson / 8h 

Teachers, parents say changes to standardized test so far won't deter the boycott movement | WRVO Public Media

Teachers, parents say changes to standardized test so far won't deter the boycott movement | WRVO Public Media: Teachers, parents say changes to standardized test so far won't deter the boycott movementListenListening...4:08The state’s education commissioner said parents who are thinking of opting their children out of standardized tests again this school year should stick with the exams because t

by mike simpson / 9h 

To Mark Zuckerberg from a former classmate: Why I’m ‘alarmed’ by your new school reform effort - The Washington Post

To Mark Zuckerberg from a former classmate: Why I’m ‘alarmed’ by your new school reform effort - The Washington Post: To Mark Zuckerberg from a former classmate: Why I’m ‘alarmed’ by your new school reform effortEmily Talmage is an elementary school teacher in Lewiston, Maine, who happened to be a classmate of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg when they both attended Phillips Exeter Academy as teen

by mike simpson / 9h 

Making the Case for a Good-Enough Diploma - Pacific Standard

Making the Case for a Good-Enough Diploma - Pacific Standard: Making the Case for a Good-Enough DiplomaCommon Core and big business have combined to make the lot of the upwardly mobile high school dropout even more dire.Jennifer Neustedt is a caregiver—her job includes changing bedding, helping patients with eating, and monitoring their medicines—in an elder-housing facility in Bellingham, Washing

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

Overtime scandal in Newark schools–union demands ouster of personnel chief | Bob Braun's Ledger

Overtime scandal in Newark schools–union demands ouster of personnel chief | Bob Braun's Ledger: Overtime scandal in Newark schools–union demands ouster of personnel chiefRodriguez–both the school board and the teachers’ union want her out.The Newark Teachers Union and its president, John Abeigon, have filed a legal action asking the state’s education commissioner to fire the so-called “chief tale

by mike simpson / 18h 

Massachusetts Dumps MCAS for PARCC-stuffed “MCAS 2.0” | deutsch29

Massachusetts Dumps MCAS for PARCC-stuffed “MCAS 2.0” | deutsch29: Massachusetts Dumps MCAS for PARCC-stuffed “MCAS 2.0”On November 12, 2015, the PARCC consortium announced that it will now offer several “testing options,” which amounts to little more than PARCC now becoming a test item vendor by degrees.Weeks before, on October 19, 2015, Massachusetts Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester pr

by mike simpson / 21h 

ESEA Reauthorization Moving Forward: House Appoints Conference Committee Members | deutsch29

ESEA Reauthorization Moving Forward: House Appoints Conference Committee Members | deutsch29: ESEA Reauthorization Moving Forward: House Appoints Conference Committee MembersHouse, Senate, and, likely, White House negotiations regarding the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) have been happening behind the scenes since roughly late September. It seems that a single

by mike simpson / 21h hide  //  save

Attention: Aurora Public School Families; Atención: Familias de alumnos de las Escuelas Públicas de Aurora - UNITED OPT OUT

Attention: Aurora Public School Families; Atención: Familias de alumnos de las Escuelas Públicas de Aurora - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform: Attention: Aurora Public School Families; Atención: Familias de alumnos de las Escuelas Públicas de AuroraAurora Public Schools in Aurora, Colorado, recently posted their Opt Out guidance notice on their website, as required by

by mike simpson / 22h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/17/15

CORPORATE ED REFORMOrganizations and Individuals Rise Up to Support Fair Share, Tell Court to Uphold 'Abood' - NEA TodayOrganizations and Individuals Rise Up to Support Fair Share, Tell Court to Uphold 'Abood' - NEA Today: Organizations and Individuals Rise Up to Support Fair Share, Tell Court to Uphold ‘Abood’Hundreds of groups and individuals—representing all levels of government and civil right

by mike simpson / 1d 

What happens when magnet school suddenly drops admission criteria? | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

What happens when magnet school suddenly drops admission criteria? | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

What happens when magnet school suddenly drops admission criteria?

Hill-Freedman parent Sabrina Townsend speaks with Superintendent William Hite after Tuesday's hearing.

For many Philadelphia families, the city's special admissions magnet schools are key resources that keep them from moving out of town.

But what would happen if one of these schools was suddenly required to drop its acceptance requirements and begin enrolling students performing at far lower academic standards?

One Northwest Philadelphia public school is on track to find out.

Demagnetizing a magnet

HIll-Freedman principal Anthony Majewski has been in a quandary over the past few years.

Parents at his high-performing special admissions middle school wanted the program toexpand into a high school, but the building physically didn't have enough space.

"I think we have one of the most amazing programs in the city," he said. "However, to sell it – and not have a home – is very difficult."

Majewski got the green light from the District to expand anyway – boosted by a grant from the Philadelphia School Partnership. But the solution was to put the high school kids in another building a mile away.

So last year and this year, he's been running back and forth as principal at both.

"The feeling of community is rough," he said. "I feel like I can't really delve into the school when I'm jumping back and forth everyday."

In October, District leaders came up with a new solution for Hill-Freedman, unveiled as part of a slate of changes that Superintendent William Hite promises will increase opportunities for 5,000 students at 12 schools.

Hite proposed closing nearby Leeds Middle School -- a long-struggling school which accepts all-comers from the neighborhood -- and moving the entire Hill-Freedman operation into the Leeds building.

But here's where the proposal gets thorny for many Hill-Freedman parents: The 133 kids in Leeds' current 6th and 7th grades would stay in the Leeds building next year and be mixed into the incoming classes of magnet school students.

"I have concerns, and I have questions," said Sandra Carter, whose daughter is a current Hill-Freedman 7th-grader.

"I'm all for giving kids an even opportunity, and I do believe that there are some situations where some kids were not afforded an opportunity because of whatever -- bad school, bad neighborhood, bad parents. But the reality is, my child tested to come in. And by testing, she had to meet certain criteria," said Carter. "And I do have a question, as to, if you can't meet those grades today, then why are you given an opportunity to come into this school?"

Integration

Unlike many debates about integrating schools, this one is not about race. Both schools have an overwhelmingly Black student population.

But they do differ significantly in terms of economic class, which often translates into access to additional supports, early literacy proficiency and perceived school quality.

Read the rest of this story at NewsWorks

What happens when magnet school suddenly drops admission criteria? | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

2016 California Educator Excellence Summit - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education)

2016 California Educator Excellence Summit - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces 2016 California Educator Excellence Summit

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today announced that the California Department of Education (CDE) is sponsoring a summit to improve professional learning for California educators.

"The summit will share promising, research-supported ways to improve professional learning for teachers throughout California," said Torlakson. "Successful professional learning programs give our hardworking, dedicated teachers additional tools to help our students succeed."

The 2016 California Educator Excellence Summit will be held Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at the Sacramento Convention Center.

The summit is designed for educators who will participate in building and improving professional learning systems in local educational agencies. The event is especially relevant because participants are among those who will decide how to allocate $490 million in professional learning funds for teachers provided in the 2015-16 State Budget by the Legislature and the Governor with strong support from Torlakson, a former high school science teacher.

Linda Darling-Hammond, an emeritus education professor at Stanford University and president and CEO of the new Learning Policy Institute, will serve as keynote speaker at the event, which will focus on areas such as recruiting and distributing excellent educators to all communities, educator preparation, induction of teachers and leaders, opportunities for professional learning, educator evaluation, and leadership and career development.

For more information regarding the summit, including registration details, please visit the CDE 2016 Educator Excellence Summit Web page. Details of the California 2015 State Plan to Ensure Equitable Access to Excellent Educators can be found on CDE's Improving Teacher & Quality Web page through a PDF.(PDF)

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Last Reviewed: Wednesday, November 18, 2015

2016 California Educator Excellence Summit - Year 2015 (CA Dept of Education):

Hillary Is Right about Charter Schools! | John Thompson - Linkis.com

Hillary Is Right about Charter Schools! | John Thompson - Linkis.com:

Hillary Is Right about Charter Schools!

Charter school supporters can't deny that Hillary Clinton is factually correct in saying, "most charter schools ... don't take the hardest-to-teach kids. Or if they do, they don't keep them."

Even the most doctrinaire true-believer in school choice is not likely to claim the opposite, and say that "most charter schools ... take the hardest-to-teach kids ... [and] keep them."

In our toxic, competition-driven edu-politics, corporate reformers must strike back and protest Clinton's failure to prove her seemingly obvious statement. Education is divided by an intense and emotional civil war that mostly pits some liberals, neo-liberals, and civil rights advocates against other liberals, civil rights advocates and families who are sick and tired of the use of bubble-in testing as the ammunition in this conflict.

The immediate battleground is the fight for Clinton's support. And it sounds like theedu-battle for Hillary's heart and soul has been won!

It is appropriate that the education headlines focus on the big issue - the political question of whether Hillary Clinton would once again listen to her corporate funders like Eli Broad or to teachers, unions, and parents who are fed up with the test, sort, reward, and punish approach to school improvement, as well as the spin of reformers benefiting from the best public relations campaigns that money can buy.

So, before addressing a wonky issue about what do we mean when we refer to kids Hillary Is Right about Charter Schools! | John Thompson - Linkis.com:

CURMUDGUCATION: Evil L.A. Teacher Unions

CURMUDGUCATION: Evil L.A. Teacher Unions:

Evil L.A. Teacher Unions

The Center for Education Reform is a charter promotion group, perhaps one of the most cynical and self-serving of the reformster groups. Search their website for information or ideas about education-- the actual pedagogy and instruction in a classroom-- and you will find nothing, because the Center has no actual interest in education.

Check out their board of directors-- you will find a combination of money managers and charter school operators. That is where the Center's interest lies-- in getting more money into more charters.

And what stands in the way of these corporate interests making a better, bigger buck? Well, those damn unions, of course. The Center may not have any section devoted to actually educating children, but they have a whole tab devoted to those damn unions, and here's What They Believe:

We believe that the special interests that draw funds from the tax dollars funding public education, and that have become an intransient [sic-- pretty sure they mean "intransigent," though "intransient" as in "won't move away to some other place" might suit them as well] force in political and policy circles, have outlived the usefulness of the associations they once had and have become obstacles to programs and activities that can best and most judiciously serve children. Such groups—from teachers unions, to the associations of administrators, principals, school boards and hybrids of all (e.g., “The Blob”)—should be free to organize but without access to the dollars that are spent to fund schools and should be free to recruit but not mandate members, but they should not have a CURMUDGUCATION: Evil L.A. Teacher Unions:


Gates Takes Aim at Teacher Education

As noted today at Education Week, the Gates Foundation has fastened its aim on teacher preparation programs. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is ready to drop $34 million cool ones on "cooperative initiatives designed to improve teacher-preparation programs' overall effectiveness."

So what does that mean? Good news? Bad news?

The three year grants are based on four principles:

* developing strong partnerships with school districts
* giving teacher-candidates opportunities to refine a specific set of teaching skills
* using data for improvement and accountability
* ensuring that faculty mentors are effective at guiding novices into the profession

The first sounds great. The second sounds... well, I don't know. Exactly what specific set are we talking about, and what does that even mean? Becoming an interrogatory specialist? Learning to excellent at teaching fractions? I'm worried that the Gates tendency to believe that all complex activities can be broken down in to disconnected, context-free skills is at play here, in which case I'm doubting this will be useful.

Third? Well, if I thought "data" meant what I mean by "data, I'd think this was fine. I use data every minute of every day. But since this is Gates, I'm afraid that "data" means "results from a computer-based bunch of competency-based-baloney" or even "more of the useless data from those dreadful 

Gates Takes Aim at Teacher Education

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Warning: Be careful who you embed with

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Warning: Be careful who you embed with:

Warning: Be careful who you embed with

em·bed

əmˈbed/ verb 1. fix (an object) firmly and deeply in a surrounding mass.

No, my warning isn't directed at Charlie Sheen's "goddesses". Probably too late for them. It's also too late for GOP current poll leader Ben Carson whose ignorance on foreign policy just got exposed (as if we hadn't noticed) by his "close adviser" and professional embedded "journalist", Armstrong Williams.



So just consider this a warning to everyone who feels they may need it -- AFT, NEA leaders?

Armstrong Williams

For those too young (or too old) to remember, William's approach to journalism was to embedhimself with the Bush administration and in particular with Bush's ed secretary, Rod Paige. In January 2005, USA Today reported that documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that Williams had been paid $240,000 to promote No Child Left Behind. USA Today found that Williams was hired "to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same".



Now Armstrong has betrayed Carson. I guess Dr. C must not have left enough Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Warning: Be careful who you embed with:

OPT OUT A NATIONAL MOVEMENT _ At least 500,000 students in 7 states sat out standardized tests this past spring - The Washington Post

At least 500,000 students in 7 states sat out standardized tests this past spring - The Washington Post:

At least 500,000 students in 7 states sat out standardized tests this past spring

About 500,000 public school students in seven states “opted out” and refused to take federally required standardized tests in math and reading in the spring, according to a national group that wants to reduce the use of standardized tests.

The National Center for Fair and Open Testing and its affiliated groups surveyed school districts and monitored state government reports to come up with “opt-out” estimates for seven states. They are New York (240,000 students opted out), New Jersey (110,000), Colorado (100,000), Washington state (50,000), Oregon (20,000), Illinois (20,000) and New Mexico (10,000).

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education could not confirm those numbers, saying that states are not expected to report opt-out data to the federal government until December, and some have indicated they may not do so until February.

Test participation rates are important because the current federal education law, No Child Left Behind, requires every school to annually test at least 95 percent of its students in math and reading in grades 3 though 8 and once in high school.

Testing advocates say the public needs a clear annual measure of whether schools are educating all students, including those who have been historically underserved, and testing every student provides the best indication of school performance.

Critics say a test score does not fully measure what a student knows and blame the federal emphasis on math and reading tests to a narrowing of curriculum, an unhealthy focus on test preparation and an explosion in other tests designed to measure whether students are ready for the federally required exam.

Lawmakers in Oregon recently passed a law that allows families to opt out of state tests.

A study released last month found that the number of standardized tests U.S. public school students take has exploded in the past decade, with most schools requiring too many tests of dubious value. A typical student in a major U.S. school district takes 112 mandated standardized tests between pre-kindergarten classes and 12th grade, the study by the Council of the Great City Schools found. By contrast, most countries that outperform the United States on international exams test students three times during their school careers.

[Standardized testing has overwhelmed U.S. schools, study finds]

In October, President Obama offered a mea culpa of sorts, acknowledging that some of his administration’s policies, such as Race to the Top, a competitive grant program for states, have exacerbated overtesting. He vowed to help dial back the number of tests given in public schools.

Meanwhile, students and parents across the country have been pushing for the right to opt out of federally required tests. Some oppose the tests themselves, others object to overtesting and still others, including teachers unions, object to using test scores to measure the performance of schools and teachers.

Opt-out rates vary wildly among schools, and state averages can mask hot spots: Although the state participation rate for Oregon in the 2014-2015 At least 500,000 students in 7 states sat out standardized tests this past spring - The Washington Post:

Growing dropout of states in Common core testing :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet

Growing dropout of states in Common core testing :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Growing dropout of states in Common core testing

(Colo.) Five years after 43 states and the District of Columbia officially adopted a new set of national education goals, fewer than half will actually administer assessments this year fully aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

New research out this month reveals that not only are fewer states administering exams tied to the new standards but that membership has declined in the two national consortia that developed those tests – Smarter Balanced and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career.

In fact, that drop in membership is very likely behind an announcement last week by PARCC that it is restructuring its testing system to provide access options to more states, including non-member states, said researchers from the Education Commission of the States, a non-partisan education research and policy tracking agency based in Denver.

“That, I think, is in response to some states exiting and some of the political backlash over the assessments,” said ECS’s Julie Woods, the lead researcher on a report identifying state summative assessments being given in all 50 states. “Both of the consortia have started to sort of open up a little bit to more flexibility and I think you see that in PARCC’s announcement.”

The analysis comes even as student assessment systems in many states are still evolving. In just the past year alone, at least 15 states have made significant changes to their assessment systems, said Woods in an interview last week. That number, she said, includes states that have left one of the two testing consortia and have developed their own assessments or those that have taken their own “unique route” and created tests that blend elements of their consortia’s exam with state-specific items.

“It’s really difficult, frankly, to keep track of,” Woods said. “I know this piece we just put out will probably be out of date within a month.”

For now however, just six of PARCC’s 12 member states and the District of Columbia plan to administer the consortium’s full assessment this year, ECS found, and 14 of Smarter Balanced’s 15 member states (the U.S. Virgin Islands and select schools in the Bureau of Indian Education are with Smarter Balanced as well) will give that consortium’s full range of tests.

At least 25 states will administer state-specific assessments while the remaining handful is still in development stages.

Louisiana, a former PARCC member that dropped out due to political controversy over the Common Core standards, announced on Friday that it would use PARCC content for just under half of a new state assessment system it is developing.

Massachusetts allowed its districts last year to choose between administering PARCC assessments or its existing MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System). There continues to be debate Growing dropout of states in Common core testing :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Charter group calls for closure of two of its own

by Kimberly Beltran

(Calif.) The state’s preeminent arbiter of charter school performance is calling this week for the closure of two campuses deemed to be falling short of meeting even minimum academic standards.

The petitions authorizing Oasis Charter Public School in Monterey County and Century Academy for Excellence in Los Angeles County should not be renewed, the California Charter Schools Association said Wednesday, because they have consistently ranked among the lowest performing schools in the state and have not demonstrated substantial growth over time.

“We understand that closing a school is a heavy decision and is difficult for families, but keeping students in schools that are not providing the education they deserve is far worse,” Myrna Castrejon, acting CEO of CCSA, said in a statement. “Furthermore, the time and resources needed to overcome several years of low performance are a far less effective use of public funds than it is to close a chronically underperforming school.”

The organization’s annual “call for non-renewal” of low performing charters comes as California is in the midst of transitioning to a new school accountability system – based on the Common Core standards – that, while still using test scores, also takes into account other indicators of student achievement.

While public charter schools are subject to some of the same state accountability requirements as traditional schools, they also operate with a greater degree of autonomy from government regulation in exchange for meeting the terms of their locally- or state-approved petition to operate. Those terms generally call for demonstrated success in the areas of student academic achievement, Charter group calls for closure of two of its own

Prejudice of Poverty: Why Americans Hate the Poor and Worship the Rich | gadflyonthewallblog

Prejudice of Poverty: Why Americans Hate the Poor and Worship the Rich | gadflyonthewallblog:

Prejudice of Poverty: Why Americans Hate the Poor and Worship the Rich

Take a breath.

Take a deep breath. Let your lungs expand. Let the air collect inside you.

Hold it.

Now exhale slowly. Feels good doesn’t it? You’d never realize there are hundreds of contaminates floating invisible in that air. Dirt, germs, pollution – all entering your body unnoticed but stopped by your immune system.

If only we had such a natural defense against prejudice. Racism, classism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia – we take all that in with every breath, too.

It may not seem like it, but all these value judgments are inherent in American culture. They’re as much a part of life in the United States as the flag, football and apple pie. And to a greater or lesser extent, you have subconsciously accepted them to help construct your ideas of normality.

What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a woman? How should black people be treated? To whom is it appropriate to be sexually attracted? What makes a person poor and why? All of these questions and so many more have been answered one way or another for us by the dominant culture. Not everyone accepts this Prejudice of Poverty: Why Americans Hate the Poor and Worship the Rich | gadflyonthewallblog: