Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/30/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

SBE Agenda for January 2016 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)

SBE Agenda for January 2016 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education): SBE Agenda for January 2016Agenda for the California State Board of Education (SBE) meeting on January 13-14, 2016.State Board MembersMichael W. Kirst, PresidentIlene W. Straus, Vice PresidentSue BurrBruce HoladayFeliza I. Ortiz-LiconPatricia A. RuckerNiki SandovalTing L. SunTrish WilliamsMichael S. McFarland, Student M

by mike simpson / 0min 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Policy 3208, Sexual Harassment Annual Report

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Policy 3208, Sexual Harassment Annual Report: Policy 3208, Sexual Harassment Annual ReportHere's the latest in a recurring topic.School Board policy 3208, Sexual Harassment, requires an annual report.The Superintendent shall make an annual report to the Board reviewing the use and efficacy of this policy and related procedures. Recommendations for changes to this p

by mike simpson / 15min 

UOO Conference, February 26 – 28, 2016: Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution

UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform - United Opt Out National UOO Conference, February 26 – 28, 2016: Transcending Resistance, Igniting RevolutionIt is time for revolution. It is time for non-negotiable demands. It is time to reclaim our public schools and demand all for all children. Join us in Philly as we dialogue with an incredible group of revolutionary leaders whoR

by mike simpson / 1h 

Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part III (Pages 90 – 105) | deutsch29

Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part III (Pages 90 – 105) | deutsch29: Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part III (Pages 90 – 105)I am in the process of carefully reading the 1,061-page Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the December 10, 2015, reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), and writing a series of posts that will form a digest of those 1,061 pages.This ESSA digest wi

by mike simpson / 2h 

NYC Public School Parents: Our inBloom email saga Part I: Waiting for John King to respond to the FOIL

NYC Public School Parents: Our inBloom email saga Part I: Waiting for John King to respond to the FOIL: Our inBloom email saga Part I: Waiting for John King to respond to the FOILI have taken  time during this holiday break to finally write up my experiences with my attempt to FOIL communications of the NY State Education Department regarding inBloom Inc.  Below is Part I.  Part II with excerpts f

by mike simpson / 3h 

A letter that shows how big business pushed Common Core - The Washington Post

A letter that shows how big business pushed Common Core - The Washington Post: A letter that shows how big business pushed Common CoreIn recent days, education activists have become incensed with Rex Tillerson, the ExxonMobil chief executive, for remarks he made about public schools that were part of a story about the Common Core State Standards in Fortune magazine.The article, titled “Business Ge

by mike simpson / 3h 

On the Obsession with Outcomes | Save Maine Schools

On the Obsession with Outcomes | Save Maine Schools: On the Obsession with OutcomesAccording to Tom Vander Ark, Summit Public Schools have a “college and career readiness system will track growth trajectory of knowledge, skills, and success habits against college goals, and “students falling short of their planned growth trajectory, on any front, will see a big red warning system.”Let that sink in

by mike simpson / 3h 

A Historian Reflects on Failing at National Board Certification - Living in Dialogue

A Historian Reflects on Failing at National Board Certification - Living in Dialogue: A Historian Reflects on Failing at National Board CertificationBy John Thompson.Even as I tried to distance myself from the computer over the holiday season, edu-politics kept drawing me back. Since my book, A Teacher’s Tale, has been released, I reread the manuscript’s my first draft. Mostly, I did so to revisit

by mike simpson / 6h 

Empower LA – Neighborhood Council Online Election Voter Registration

Empower LA – VRP: Welcome to the 2016 Neighborhood Council Online Election Voter Registration PortalEmpowerLA is excited to announce that in addition to having polling locations on election day, 35 of the 96 Neighborhood Councils in the City of Los Angeles are also piloting Online Voting for their elections, which provides an opportunity for voters to register in advance of the election day and vo

by mike simpson / 6h 

Connecticut ALERT: Malloy/Wyman Administration to punish schools and taxpayers for protecting parental rights - Wait What?

Connecticut ALERT: Malloy/Wyman Administration to punish schools and taxpayers for protecting parental rights - Wait What?: Connecticut ALERT: Malloy/Wyman Administration to punish schools and taxpayers for protecting parental rightsLast spring, in response to the State of Connecticut’s attempt to force students to take the unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory Common Core Smarter Balanced Asse

by mike simpson / 7h 

With A Brooklyn Accent: Are We Becoming What We Have Been Taught to Fear?

With A Brooklyn Accent: Are We Becoming What We Have Been Taught to Fear?: Are We Becoming What We Have Been Taught to Fear?Within the last year, two novels set in Nazi Occupied France- "All the Light We Cannot See" and "The Nightingale"- have become national best sellers. Now, a symbol of teacher resistance in Nazi-Occupied Norway-the Paper Clip- is being adopted by teachers i

by mike simpson / 7h 

A Tale of 2 States: Lessons to Be Learned (Frederick Hess and Sarah DuPre) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

A Tale of 2 States: Lessons to Be Learned (Frederick Hess and Sarah DuPre) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: A Tale of 2 States: Lessons to Be Learned (Frederick Hess and Sarah DuPre)Frederick M. Hess is director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Sarah DuPre is a Research Assistant in Education Policy at American Enterprise InstituteU.S. News an

by mike simpson / 7h 

Why Philanthropy Hurts Rather Than Helps Some of the World's Worst Problems | The Progressive

Why Philanthropy Hurts Rather Than Helps Some of the World's Worst Problems | The Progressive: Why Philanthropy Hurts Rather Than Helps Some of the World's Worst ProblemsIn America today, big time philanthropists are often lauded for helping to even the playing field for those less fortunate. Every week, millionaires flock from TED conferences to "idea festivals" sharing viral new presen

by mike simpson / 7h 

Exploring Cross-State Variations in Resources, Outcomes and Gaps | School Finance 101

Exploring Cross-State Variations in Resources, Outcomes and Gaps | School Finance 101: Exploring Cross-State Variations in Resources, Outcomes and GapsFor the past several years now, the Education Law Center of New Jersey and I have been producing a roughly annual report on the state of school finance systems. As that report has evolved, we have taken advantage of publicly available data to constr

by mike simpson / 7h 

Teaching for Justice & Rebellion | @ THE CHALKFACE

Teaching for Justice & Rebellion | @ THE CHALKFACE: Teaching for Justice & RebellionLet me just say that I agree with most of my more progressive colleagues out there in their calls for teaching with a bend towards social justice, activism, and rebellion.Take this for example: From the Progressive on “Teaching Rebellion.”To wit:Why waste precious class time doing a close read of a technica

by mike simpson / 7h 

Looking back over 2015. | Fred Klonsky

Looking back over 2015. | Fred Klonsky: Looking back over 2015. Some posts from the past year:Before the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in our favor, I started 2015 out by saying if we want to win our pensions we must also fight for peace and justice.The IEA might lose 600 adjunct members from Columbia College. And they did.I was an early supporter of the Progressive Caucus in the Chicago City Counc

by mike simpson / 7h 

CURMUDGUCATION: Why Do the Feds Heart Testing?

CURMUDGUCATION: Why Do the Feds Heart Testing?: Why Do the Feds Heart Testing?It has been a fact of educational life for so long, that we don't take the question out and ask it much any more, but really--Why is there a federal requirement to give students a standardized test?Why has that provision, that requirement, that burden been given the weight of federal regulation? Even as ESSA tore down an

by mike simpson / 7h 

6 Reasons Your Kid Could Have Less Standardized Testing in 2016 - Yahoo News

6 Reasons Your Kid Could Have Less Standardized Testing in 2016 - Yahoo News:6 Reasons Your Kid Could Have Less Standardized Testing in 2016It’s been a rough year for standardized testing—the timed, fill-in-the-bubble-with-a-No. 2-pencil mental gauntlets feared by students, loathed by teachers, and loved by education policy makers, perhaps because they no longer have to take them. Testing started

by mike simpson / 8h 

Too few students taking state exams; Washington could face sanctions | The Seattle Times

Too few students taking state exams; Washington could face sanctions | The Seattle Times: Too few students taking state exams; Washington could face sanctionsA dozen states were asked to address test-participation rates that dipped lower than the required 95 percent.Washington is one of 12 states that could face sanctions if it fails to get more students to take state exams next spring.The U.S. De

by mike simpson / 8h 

How Congress Left Behind Public-School Choice - WSJ

How Congress Left Behind Public-School Choice - WSJ: How Congress Left Behind Public-School ChoiceObama calls the new law a ‘miracle.’ Tell that to students no longer able to transfer from bad schools. When President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act earlier this month, he celebrated the bipartisan support for the legislation—which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act—as a “Christmas mi

by mike simpson / 8h 

New California Law Limits Use of Student Data - US News

New California Law Limits Use of Student Data - US News: New California Law Limits Use of Student DataThe statute bars companies from using student data for advertising.For technology companies in California, ringing in the New Year will mean adjusting to a new privacy law that limits how they can collect and use student data.The data privacy legislation was originally signed into law by Gov. Jerr

by mike simpson / 8h 

States’ Pension Woes Split Democrats and Union Allies - WSJ

States’ Pension Woes Split Democrats and Union Allies - WSJ: States’ Pension Woes Split Democrats and Union AlliesLeft-leaning politicians are increasingly supporting more aggressive revamps of retirement benefits despite opposition from labor officials A $1 trillion U.S. pension gap is dividing two longtime allies: Democrats and unions.Left-leaning politicians from Rhode Island to California are

by mike simpson / 8h 

Know Who's Psyched for Hillary? Teachers Unions. – InsideSources

Know Who's Psyched for Hillary? Teachers Unions. – InsideSources: Know Who’s Psyched for Hillary? Teachers Unions.Lily Eskelsen García is feeling good these days.As president of the country’s largest labor union, the National Education Association, she was overjoyed by this month’s passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act — legislation President Barack Obama signed to end President George W. Bush

by mike simpson / 8h 

Ohio Charter School Report: Ohio tells federal investigators that charter schools are getting better

Ohio tells federal investigators that charter schools are getting better, but evidence isn’t convincing - Break News - Ohio: Ohio tells federal investigators that charter schools are getting better, but evidence isn’t convincingAs the Ohio Department of Education defends itself in a federal investigation of whether it can properly manage charter schools, reports at home raise questions as to wheth

by mike simpson / 8h 

2015 In Review: Lawmakers Reform Charter Schools While Top Education Officials Come Under Fire | WVXU

2015 In Review: Lawmakers Reform Charter Schools While Top Education Officials Come Under Fire | WVXU: 2015 In Review: Lawmakers Reform Charter Schools While Top Education Officials Come Under Fire2015 was the year Ohio lawmakers worked to overhaul the charter school system while a data scrubbing scandal was playing out at the state’s department of education. In January, when the brand-new Speaker

by mike simpson / 9h 

A year of change: The top five education stories of 2015 | EdSource

A year of change: The top five education stories of 2015 | EdSource: A year of change: The top five education stories of 2015 This year brought several changes to public schools in California, beginning with a robust economy that added billions of dollars to boost K-12 per-pupil spending. In a year of multiple developments, EdSource has selected its top five stories of 2015.  As lawmakers in Sacra

by mike simpson / 9h 

5 of the Worst Examples of Biased and Distorted Media Coverage of Education in 2015 | Alternet

5 of the Worst Examples of Biased and Distorted Media Coverage of Education in 2015 | Alternet: 5 of the Worst Examples of Biased and Distorted Media Coverage of Education in 2015There were some big time fails.2015 was an important year in education policy, with the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the beginning of the 2016 election campaigns, and local fights for teachers and pub

by mike simpson / 9h 

View: Reconsidering Race to the Top

View: Reconsidering Race to the Top: View: Reconsidering Race to the TopA former Regent has some regrets but believes the state board did much important workIn 2000, when my friend, former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, asked me to stand for election to the state Board of Regents, I was reluctant, because it meant giving up my position as chairman of the board of Westchester Community College. But w

by mike simpson / 9h 

Experts Share Their Outlooks on K-12 Education in an Era of Broken Schools - The Atlantic

Experts Share Their Outlooks on K-12 Education in an Era of Broken Schools - The Atlantic: Can Schools Be Fixed?Experts on K-12 education offer their reasons for optimism and pessimism going forward.It’s been a tumultuous year for America’s schools—one marked by an expanding minority-student population, an increasingly discontent teaching force, a backlash against standardized testing, and shiftin

by mike simpson / 9h 

A Conversation with Dr. Diane Ravitch | netnebraska.org

A Conversation with Dr. Diane Ravitch | netnebraska.org: A CONVERSATION WITH DR. DIANE RAVITCHDr. Diane Ravitch is known as one of our nation’s leading advocates for public education. A renowned professor of education at New York University and former Undersecretary of Education in the George H.W. Bush administration, Ravitch has emerged as a vocal critic of current education strategies. Drawing o

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

Hechinger's top stories of 2015 - The Hechinger Report

Hechinger's top stories of 2015 - The Hechinger Report: Hechinger’s top stories of 2015 ’s been another big year for The Hechinger Report. We unveiled a new website, held a successful crowd funding campaign and published a record-breaking 652 stories.  If you found it hard to keep up with them all, fear not! We chose some must-reads to squeeze in before the ball drops. (And don’t forget to sign up

by mike simpson / 19h 

Feds say too few students took required tests in 148 CT schools | The CT Mirror

Feds say too few students took required tests in 148 CT schools | The CT Mirror: Feds say too few students took required tests in 148 CT schoolsAfter thousands of Connecticut students failed to take required statewide achievement tests last spring, federal officials want to know what Connecticut education leaders are doing to ensure it doesn't happen again."The U.S. Department of Education is

by mike simpson / 22h 

“We do not count within the political process” —Chris Hedges

teacher/poet/musician/watch cat: “We do not count within the political process” —Chris Hedges: “We do not count within the political process” —Chris Hedges “…This truth, emotionally difficult to accept, violates our conception of ourselves as a free, democratic people. It shatters our vision of ourselves as a nation embodying superior virtues and endowed with the responsibility to serve as a beaco

by mike simpson / 22h 

You say you want a revolution

With A Brooklyn Accent: What Is The Paper Clip Revolution?: What Is The Paper Clip Revolution?The paper clip became a symbol of resistance in Nazi Occupied Norway. Thousands of Norwegian teachers who refused to teach the fascist curriculum were sent to prison camps. The resistance of these teachers, as well as over 200,000 parents caused the government to abandon their plan. We as educators have d

by mike simpson / 22h 

The Charter School Business (Racket)

The Charter School Business: The Charter School BusinessAnd how to keep it from being the charter school racket: An interview with Bruce Baker.Rachel M. Cohen is a writing fellow at The American ProspectAP Photo/The Topeka Capital-Journal, Ann WilliamsonTong Athwai, 16, studies during his Intro to Algebra class at the Highland Park Success Academy in Topeka, Kansas. Rutgers University professor Br

by mike simpson / 23h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/29/15

CORPORATE ED REFORMSeattle Schools Community Forum: Ignite Yourself (or something like that)Seattle Schools Community Forum: Ignite Yourself (or something like that):  Ignite Yourself (or something like that)I normally don't publicize events or Ed Lab stories from the Times.  (We're not fans of each other and I'll leave it at that although I have enjoyed working with a number of ed reporters there

by mike simpson / 1d

SBE Agenda for January 2016 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)

SBE Agenda for January 2016 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education):

SBE Agenda for January 2016

Agenda for the California State Board of Education (SBE) meeting on January 13-14, 2016.

State Board Members

• Michael W. Kirst, President
• Ilene W. Straus, Vice President
• Sue Burr
• Bruce Holaday
• Feliza I. Ortiz-Licon
• Patricia A. Rucker
• Niki Sandoval
• Ting L. Sun
• Trish Williams
• Michael S. McFarland, Student Member

Secretary & Executive Officer

• Hon. Tom Torlakson

Executive Director

• Karen Stapf Walters

Schedule of Meeting	Location
Wednesday, January 13, 2016 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time ± STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION Public Session. Public Session, adjourn to Closed Session – IF NECESSARY.	California Department of Education 1430 N Street, Room 1101 Sacramento, California 95814 916-319-0827

Please see the detailed agenda for more information about the items to be considered and acted upon. The public is welcome.

Schedule of Meeting	Location
Thursday, January 14, 2016 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time ± STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION The Closed Session will take place at approximately 8:30a.m. (The Public may not attend.)	California Department of Education 1430 N Street, Room 1101  Sacramento, California 95814  916-319-0827

The Closed Session (1) may commence earlier than 8:30 a.m.; (2) may begin at 8:30a.m., be recessed, and then be reconvened later in the day; or (3) may commence later than 8:30 a.m.

CLOSED SESSION AGENDA

Conference with Legal Counsel – Existing Litigation: Under Government Code sections 11126(e)(1) and (e)(2)(A), the State Board of Education hereby provides public notice that some or all of the pending litigation follows will be considered and acted upon in closed session:

• California School Boards Association, et al. v. California State Board of Education and Aspire Public Schools, Inc.,Alameda County Superior Court, Case No. 07353566, CA Ct. of Appeal, 1st Dist., Case No. A122485, CA Supreme Court, Case No. S186129
• Cruz et al. v. State of California, State Board of Education, State Department of Education, Tom Torlakson et al.,Alameda County Superior Court, Case No. RG14727139
• D.J. et al. v. State of California, California Department of Education, Tom Torlakson, the State Board of Education,Los Angeles Superior Court, Case No. BS142775,CA Ct. of Appeal, 2nd Dist., Case No. B260075
• Emma C., et al. v. Delaine Eastin, et al., USDC (No.Dist.CA), Case No. C-96-4179
• Options for Youth, Burbank, Inc., San Gabriel, Inc. Upland, Inc. and Victor Valley, Notice of Appeal Before the Education Audit Appeals Panel, EAAP Case Nos. 06-18, 06-19- 07-07, 07-08 OAH Nos. L2006100966, L2006110025, L20070706022, L2007060728, Los Angeles County Superior Court, Case No. BC 347454
• Reed v. State of California, Los Angeles Unified School District, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O’Connell, California Department of Education, and State Board of Education, et al., Los Angeles County Superior Court, Case No. BC432420, CA Ct. of Appeal, 2nd Dist., Case No. B230817, CA Supreme Ct., Case No. 5191256

Vergara et al. v. State of California, Governor Edmund G. Brown, Tom Torlakson, the California Department of Education, the State Board of Education, Los Angeles County Superior Court, Case No. BC484642, CA Ct. of Appeal 2nd Dist., Case No. B253282, B253310

Conference with Legal Counsel – Anticipated Litigation: Under Government Code sections 11126(e), the State Board of Education hereby provides public notice that it may meet in Closed Session to decide whether there is a significant exposure to litigation, and to consider and act in connection with matters for which there is a significant exposure to litigation. Under Government Code sections 11126(e)(1) and (e)(2), the State Board of Education hereby provides public notice that it may meet in Closed Session to decide to initiate litigation and to consider and act in connection with litigation it has decided to initiate.

Under Government Code Section 11126(c)(14), the State Board of Education hereby provides public notice that it may meet in Closed Session to review and discuss the actual content of pupil achievement tests (including, but not limited to, the High School Exit Exam) that have been submitted for State Board approval and/or approved by the State Board.

ALL TIMES ARE APPROXIMATE AND ARE PROVIDED FOR CONVENIENCE ONLY

ALL ITEMS MAY BE HEARD IN A DIFFERENT ORDER THAN HOW THEY ARE LISTED ON THE AGENDA ON ANY DAY OF THE NOTICED MEETING

THE ORDER OF BUSINESS MAY BE CHANGED WITHOUT NOTICE

Time is set aside for individuals desiring to speak on any topic not otherwise on the agenda. Please see the detailed agenda for the Public Session. In all cases, the presiding officer reserves the right to impose time limits on presentations as may be necessary to ensure that the agenda is completed.

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION FOR ANY INDIVIDUAL WITH A DISABILITY

Pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, any individual with a disability or any other individual who requires reasonable accommodation to attend or participate in a meeting or function of the California State Board of Education (SBE), may request assistance by contacting the SBE Office at 1430 N Street, Room 5111, Sacramento, CA 95814; by telephone at 916‑319-0827; or by facsimile at 916‑319-0175.

---

CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

FULL BOARD AGENDA 
Public Session Day 1

Wednesday, January 13, 2016 – 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time ±
California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Room 1101
Sacramento, California 95814

• Call to Order
• Salute to the Flag
• Communications
• Announcements
• Report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction
• Special Presentations 
  Public notice is hereby given that special presentations for informational purposes may take place during this session.
• Agenda Items
• Adjournment

AGENDA ITEMS DAY 1

SBE Agenda for January 2016 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education):

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Policy 3208, Sexual Harassment Annual Report

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Policy 3208, Sexual Harassment Annual Report:

Policy 3208, Sexual Harassment Annual Report

Here's the latest in a recurring topic.

School Board policy 3208, Sexual Harassment, requires an annual report.

The Superintendent shall make an annual report to the Board reviewing the use and efficacy of this policy and related procedures. Recommendations for changes to this policy, if applicable, shall be included in the report. The Superintendent is encouraged to involve staff, students, and volunteers and parents in the review process.

I have written to the Board on numerous occasions over the past two years - since the NatureBridge incident - asking for this annual report. Every time before that I have asked for it, I have been told that no such report has ever been made.

That story just changed. I just got an email from the Board office saying that the report has been made. How did I miss it? Because the claim is pretty weak.

They now claim that the report was made verbally in August and September of 2014 to the Board Operations Committee. A review of the meeting minutes, however, makes it pretty clear that the report made at those meetings was not responsive to the policy. They were Title IX reports on incidents of sexual harassment, not a review of the use and efficacy of the policy. The Title IX reports did not include any recommendations for changes to the policy. There was no community input to these reports.

Here's what the committee minutes show for August:

Title IX sexual harassment student update: The first half of the 2013-14 Title IX report was presented by Pegi McEvoy on Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) non-sexual harassment and sexual harassment student data. The adult data for the 2013-14 school year will be presented next month. Given that the Board has asked for annual school data, the district staff recommend that the annual Title IX report be routinely scheduled for August Operations Committee to allow time to assemble a report and make recommendations based upon complete school year data. Additionally, the superintendent has asked staff to Seattle Schools Community Forum: Policy 3208, Sexual Harassment Annual Report:

Yoo Hoo, Washington Legislature (and Governor Inslee)

I was just in Minnesota - great place with good education.  (Funny thing - in my sister's city, they have an out-of-retirement superintendent running their district.)

UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform - United Opt Out National 

UOO Conference, February 26 – 28, 2016: Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution

It is time for revolution. It is time for non-negotiable demands. It is time to reclaim our public schools and demand all for all children. Join us in Philly as we dialogue with an incredible group of revolutionary leaders whoRead more

UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform - United Opt Out National 

Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part III (Pages 90 – 105) | deutsch29

Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part III (Pages 90 – 105) | deutsch29:

Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part III (Pages 90 – 105)

I am in the process of carefully reading the 1,061-page Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the December 10, 2015, reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), and writing a series of posts that will form a digest of those 1,061 pages.

This ESSA digest will be a long-term endeavor.

My first entry covers the first 47 pages.

My second entry continues by adding info from pages 47 to 90.

And now, I offer information on pages 90 to 105.

Sometimes I alter the format of quoted excerpts for ease of reading. Sometimes I comment, and sometimes I just summarize.

We will just dive in:

In my last installment, I left off on page 90 with schools determined to be in need of “comprehensive support and improvement.” As a condition for receiving Title I money, a state must notify a district regarding any school determined to be one tagged for needing improvement. The district and “stakeholders (including principals
and other school leaders, teachers, and parents)” are to “locally develop and implement a comprehensive support and improvement plan for the school to improve student outcomes” and which satisfies the following conditions:

(i) is informed by all indicators described in subsection (c)(4)(B) [centered on the federally-mandated annual testing], including student performance against State-determined long-term goals;

(ii) includes evidence-based interventions;

(iii) is based on a school-level needs assessment;

(iv) identifies resource inequities, which may include a review of local educational agency and school-level budgeting, to be addressed through implementation of
such comprehensive support and improvement plan;

(v) is approved by the school, local educational agency, and State educational agency; and

(vi) upon approval and implementation, is monitored and periodically reviewed by the State educational agency (pages 90-91).

There is also the additional requirement that states are to “establish exit criteria” for schools in need of comprehensive improvement– including setting a deadline not to exceed four years and to “result in more rigorous State-determined action, such as Schneider’s ESSA Digest, Part III (Pages 90 – 105) | deutsch29:

NYC Public School Parents: Our inBloom email saga Part I: Waiting for John King to respond to the FOIL

NYC Public School Parents: Our inBloom email saga Part I: Waiting for John King to respond to the FOIL:

Our inBloom email saga Part I: Waiting for John King to respond to the FOIL

I have taken  time during this holiday break to finally write up my experiences with my attempt to FOIL communications of the NY State Education Department regarding inBloom Inc.  Below is Part I.  Part II with excerpts from those emails will follow soon.

John King, now Acting US Secretary of Education

Fighting inBloom took a long time, especially here in New York;  we were the first state to organize a campaign against this data-grabbing project of the Gates Foundation, starting in January 2012,  and  the last state to pull out, in April 2014, due to the amazing ability of our Commissioner, John King, to ignore the vehement opposition from the State legislature, including the leaders of both parties, the school boards, the state superintendents, the teacher union, emails from thousands of parents, and finally the Governor.   (Background on the inBloom controversy is provided on the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy here; newsclips here.)

While in other states, it took only a few months to a year of  protests for their State Education chiefs to feel the pressure and pull out of inBloom, here in NY it took two and a half years and an act of the State Legislature as part of the budget deal on March 31, 2014 to convince our Commissioner this data-sharing arrangement was now illegal and thus could not be sustained.  (Here is a timeline of events.) 

But nothing was more frustrating than the year and half wait we had to endure, even after inBloom had closed its doors, to receive the emails between State Education Department officials and the private entities with whom they intended to share our most sensitive student data.   Here is that story.

On June 17, 2013, with the help of attorney Norman Siegel, we requested all email communications between officials of the NY State Education Department and the Gates Foundation, inBloom, the Shared Learning Collaborative LLC (inBloom's name before it became a separate corporation) , Wireless Generation (the major subcontractor for inBloom, hired to build the data system), and Amplify (Wireless Gen's new name after it was bought by Rupert Murdoch and hired Joel Klein to run this company as a division of News Corporation.) 

We asked for the communications between January 1, 2011 and May 1, 2013 through a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request.  Actually, the request was made on behalf of the PS 75 PTA in District 3 in Manhattan and the Community Education Council in District 14 Brooklyn, whose members were very concerned about the inBloom plan and agreed that this was important information that parents had a right to know.    

In NYC and throughout the state, as well as in all the other nine inBloom states and districts, parents were understandably concerned about the decision of their State Education Departments to share the highly sensitive personal information of their children with all these private NYC Public School Parents: Our inBloom email saga Part I: Waiting for John King to respond to the FOIL:

A letter that shows how big business pushed Common Core - The Washington Post

A letter that shows how big business pushed Common Core - The Washington Post:

A letter that shows how big business pushed Common Core

In recent days, education activists have become incensed with Rex Tillerson, the ExxonMobil chief executive, for remarks he made about public schools that were part of a story about the Common Core State Standards in Fortune magazine.

The article, titled “Business Gets Schooled” and written by Peter Elkind, describes how involved some leaders of big business entities were in promoting the Core standards in recent standards. It has long been known that Microsoft founder Bill Gates funded the creation and promotion of the Core through his foundation, but the extent of involvement by some other business leaders was not as well known.

[Dear Mr. Tillerson: ‘Please leave our children alone’]

After describing an unsuccessful effort by Gates to persuade Charles Koch to stop funding conservative groups opposing the Core, Elkind writes:

This extraordinary tête-à-tête is just one example of how the war over Common Core has personally engaged—and bedeviled—some of America’s most powerful business leaders. Hugely controversial, it has thrust executives into the uncomfortable intersection of business and politics.

In truth, Common Core might not exist without the corporate community. The nation’s business establishment has been clamoring for more rigorous education standards—ones that would apply across the entire nation — for years. It views them as desperately needed to prepare America’s future workforce and to bolster its global competitiveness. One measure of the deep involvement of corporate leaders: The Common Core standards were drafted by determining the skills that businesses (and colleges) need and then working backward to decide what students should learn.

Organizations such as the Business Roundtable have devoted considerable effort to the initiative. The education chair for that association of CEOs, Exxon Mobil XOM -0.97% chief Rex Tillerson, has played a particularly prominent role. A stern, commanding figure with an Old Testament glare and a chewy Texas drawl, Tillerson is an unlikely person to lead a campaign of persuasion. (Never a fan of the press, he declined to speak to Fortune for this article.)

Tillerson gave a number of speeches promoting the Core — and he lobbied policymakers in states to stick with the Core when some began to back away A letter that shows how big business pushed Common Core - The Washington Post:

On the Obsession with Outcomes | Save Maine Schools

On the Obsession with Outcomes | Save Maine Schools:

On the Obsession with Outcomes

According to Tom Vander Ark, Summit Public Schools have a “college and career readiness system will track growth trajectory of knowledge, skills, and success habits against college goals, and “students falling short of their planned growth trajectory, on any front, will see a big red warning system.”

Let that sink in.

“Students falling short of their planned growth trajectory, on any front, will see a big red warning system.”

Vander Ark describes the system with breathless admiration: “I don’t know of anyone else thinking about goal-focused tracking on these dimensions,” and at a White House summit on next-gen high schools, Isabelle Parker, CFO of Summit Public Schools, boasted: “We cultivate in our children the real-life habits and skills that lead to success in today’s world. And we ensure every minute of every day at school is supporting this type of student-centered learning.”

But I wonder: what kind of effect might an outcome-obsessed system like this have on a young person’s mind?  What happens to those transformative literary experiences like the one I had with Great Expectations?  Are students trapped into believing that the “outcomes” they are working toward are all there is?

If you’ve not yet read it, please take a moment to read this exceptional essay by Peter Greene called “One Wrong Move.”

Greene, who has taught for 30 years in the same town, describes an experience with a class of juniors who were “so paralyzed with fear they couldn’t do much of anything.”

“These were honor students,” Greene writes. “The top students that my rural/small town high school had to offer. And they couldn’t get past their On the Obsession with Outcomes | Save Maine Schools:

A Historian Reflects on Failing at National Board Certification - Living in Dialogue

A Historian Reflects on Failing at National Board Certification - Living in Dialogue:

A Historian Reflects on Failing at National Board Certification

By John Thompson.

Even as I tried to distance myself from the computer over the holiday season, edu-politics kept drawing me back. Since my book, A Teacher’s Tale, has been released, I reread the manuscript’s my first draft. Mostly, I did so to revisit the stories of students that were edited out, but I also stumbled across accounts of issues that I previously avoided when blogging. I also sought to come clean on mistakes I’d made that were cut from the manuscript. Fortunately, none were as indefensible as the unforced errors that were caused by corporate reformers’ micromanaging of worlds that they knew nothing about.

As the Gates Foundation’s “teacher quality” initiatives collapse, the obvious question is why did they attempt to reinvent the wheel. Why did they not invest in scaling up National Board (NBPTS) teacher certification? Since I’m a NBPTS washout, my endorsement of that program is pretty unbiased. The process was enormously valuable to me and I was not punished by failing to pass its tests. The national certification process also produced a great record of my students’ experiences during my training. So, this post will get my constructive criticisms with the NBPTS grading out of the way so that subsequent posts can focus on my students.

I fell 39 points short of earning NBPTS certification. I took consolation in the numbers showing that it wasn’t so much the evidence of my instructional quality that brought my score down. The tests on knowledge of subject matters had cost me 77.63 points. Then and now, it seemed clear to me that I had more academic knowledge about those subjects than the test-makers did but maybe I, the historian, and they, the education test-makers, spoke past each other. So, I might as well get my big, systematic concern out of the way, while touching on my complaint about questions and answers regarding educational expertise.

Then and now, it is hard for the education profession to admit that equally great teaching looks very different in high-performing as opposed to low-performing schools. Moreover, most teachers do not work in extremely high-challenge schools, so many or most (and most test graders?) have limited knowledge of the circumstances that undermine instruction in the most at-risk schools.

My scores on the lessons in the type of classes that most educators would recognize were 3.00 and 3.25 on a A Historian Reflects on Failing at National Board Certification - Living in Dialogue: