Is Alabama the New, New Mexico? | VAMboozled!

Is Alabama the New, New Mexico? | VAMboozled!:

Is Alabama the New, New Mexico?

In Alabama, the Grand Old Party (GOP) has put forth a draft bill to be entitled as an act and ultimately called the Rewarding Advancement in Instruction and Student Excellence (RAISE) Act of 2016. The purpose of the act will be to…wait for it…use test scores to grade and pay teachers annual bonuses (i.e., “supplements”) as per their performance. More specifically, the bill is to “provide a procedure for observing and evaluating teachers” to help make “significant differentiation[s] in pay, retention, promotion, dismissals, and other staffing decisions, including transfers, placements, and preferences in the event of reductions in force, [as] primarily [based] on evaluation results.” Related, Alabama districts may no longer use teachers’ “seniority, degrees, or credentials as a basis for determining pay or making the retention, promotion, dismissal, and staffing decisions.” Genius!

Accordingly, Larry Lee whose blog is based on the foundation that “education is everyone’s business,” sent me this bill to review, and critique, and help make everyone’s business. I attach it here for others who are interested, but I also summarize and critique it’s most relevant (but also contemptible) issues below.

For the Alabama teachers who are eligible, they are (after a staggered period of time) to be primarily evaluated (i.e., for up to 45% of a teacher’s total evaluation score) on the extent to which they purportedly cause student growth in achievement, with student growth being defined as the teachers’ purported impacts on “[t]he change in achievement for an individual student between two or more points in time.” Teachers are also to be observed at least twice per year (i.e., for up to 45% of a teacher’s total evaluation score), by their appropriate and appropriately trained evaluators/supervisors, and an unnamed and Is Alabama the New, New Mexico? | VAMboozled!:

How one student asked the state to tackle a looming education question - LA Times

How one student asked the state to tackle a looming education question - LA Times:

How one student asked the state to tackle a looming education question

Oakland High School junior Sky Lowe addressed the Board of Education on Wednesday.

 (Pamela Palma)

The roomful of grownups closed their eyes because a teenager told them to. 

“Imagine if you are 16 years old. It’s only Tuesday, and all you have left is $10,” Sky Lowe, a junior at Oakland High School, said to the California State Board of Education on Wednesday. “You sit there and you ponder: ... Will it be bus money to get to school, or will it be laundry detergent for clean clothes? You can open your eyes now.” It’s a decision he was forced to make after his mother lost her job.

The student was one of several who addressed the State Board of Education at its January meeting Wednesday. At stake is the entire foundation of the state’s education system: how California’s public schools are evaluated for their performance.

The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, the replacement of the No Child Left Behind Act, is requiring the state to rethink how it grades schools. In addition to measures of academic progress, under the new law states must take into account at least one out-of-the-classroom factor, such as suspension rates, attendance or school climate, a sense of how safe students feel in school. 

The state board was going in that direction anyway, but now that the federal law requires compliance by the 2017-2018 school year, it has to figure out exactly how to weight the factors, and how to use them to determine which schools need extra help. The new direction reflects a sense across the country that standardized testing has gotten out of hand, and that academic results don’t provide a complete picture of school performance.

Because Lowe didn’t have enough bus money, he missed a lot of school this semester — enough, he told the board, that in the parlance of school accountability, “you would call [it] chronic absence.” He found himself ready to give up on school altogether, let alone college.

One of his teachers, though, sensed he was struggling and helped him in a number of ways, including giving him a bag of quarters for laundry. “I decided to get my grades up and back on track,” he said. “That is what it looks like to make school engagement a How one student asked the state to tackle a looming education question - LA Times:

Detroit teachers fed up with shoddy school conditions - CBS News

Detroit teachers fed up with shoddy school conditions - CBS News:

Detroit teachers fed up with shoddy school conditions

View More: Live News|More News Videos

DETROIT -- Many teachers in the Detroit Public Schools spent a third day out sick Wednesday in protest of conditions in the debt-strapped school district. Since Monday, nearly 70 schools have had to close due to a teacher sickout. Teachers claim the health of 46,000 is in danger.

At Spain Elementary School, some kindergarteners wore their coats in class. In several rooms, it's just too cold for five-year-olds.

A kindergarten student wears her coat in a cold classroom at Spain Elementary School in Detroit on January 13, 2016

CBS NEWS

School counselor Lekia Wilson led CBS News on a tour, when we noticed a smell.

"You can smell the mold through the hallway," Wilson said.

An entire section of the school is closed off, including the gym. It's been ripped up for a year.

"You're seeing the result of rain coming right into the school," Wilson explained.

Water leaking from the roof warped the wood floor, and now the smell of mildew fills the air.

Spain Elementary School in Detroit has been without a gym for a year, due to a leaking roof that damaged the floor.

 CBS NEWS

The school's swimming pool has been waiting for repairs for five years. How do you teach gym without a gym?

"We do conditioning in the hallway," gym teacher Andre Harlan told CBS News.

The state took over financial management of Detroit Public Schools in 2009. The district is still $515 million in debt.

"We kept talking, and talking, and talking and talking, and it was going on deaf ears," said Ivy Bailey, interim head of the teachers' union. "Nothing was changing. And teachers were just fed up."

Darnell Earley is the emergency manager appointed by Michigan's governor to fix the problems.

"Certainly if we don't get the money that we need to deal with the debt situation, Detroit teachers fed up with shoddy school conditions - CBS News:

Where in the world teachers make the most money, and the least - Quartz

Where in the world teachers make the most money, and the least - Quartz:

Where in the world teachers make the most money, and the least

Teaching often involves long hours and grueling effort for little financial return, making the take-home pay of educators the subject of recurring political debates and protests around the world.

But the value placed on teacher’s time varies widely globally, the latest figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which tracks international education trends, show.

OECD’s data reveal that the paychecks of lower secondary (in the US, middle school) teachers in 2013 ranged from a paltry starting salary of $10,647 in Hungary to a comfy $138,920 for accomplished teachers in Luxembourg. Take a look at the data set below. (All salaries have been adjusted for cost of living using the Purchasing Power Index and converted to US dollars.)

On average, the OECD says, lower secondary teachers around the world get a starting salary of $31,013, which slowly inches up to $57,201 when they reach the peak of their qualifications and careers. But there are wide swings on either side of the average; teachers in the Slovak Republic and Estonia make roughly 7% of what those in Luxembourg do, for example. And in the US, where concerns are often raised about underpaid educators, teacher salaries are actually relatively high in comparison to those in other Western countries like France and England (although not compared to their peers in the private sector).

American teachers are also among the hardest-working in the world, according to a recent analysis by teacher resource site Chalk.com based on OECD data. Among all the countries tracked, Colombian teachers spend the most time teaching—but are among the most poorly compensated.

Chalk’s data points to Luxembourg as not only having the highest annual salary for teachers, but also providing the highest payment for hours worked. If you’re one of the millions of teachers appalled by the numbers on your paycheck every month, you might want to seriously consider a relocation.Where in the world teachers make the most money, and the least - Quartz:

How Walton is Doubling Down on Charter Schools - Inside Philanthropy: Fundraising Intelligence - Inside Philanthropy

How Walton is Doubling Down on Charter Schools - Inside Philanthropy: Fundraising Intelligence - Inside Philanthropy:

How Walton is Doubling Down on Charter Schools

Recent volatility in the stock market has been giving investors plenty of jitters lately, but the Walton Family Foundation has no such worries about its investment in the nation's charter school movement.

The funder is so confident, in fact, that it just announced a major new initiative to grow new charter schools and keep existing ones running. Walton announced it will spend $1 billion—that's billion with a "B," folks—over the next five years. That's almost equal to the amount the funder has spent on K-12 education initiatives in the last two decades, and signals that the the funder will continue its high funding levels in this area of recent years. (WFF spent around $200 million on K-12 in 2014, a big jump from the previous year.)

Related: A 900-Pound Gorilla Gets Even Bigger: Walton Ramps Up Its Education Funding

The Walton announcement also comes a few months after the unveiling of a $500 million plan, spearheaded by the Broad Foundation, to double the number of students in charter schools in Los Angeles. That ambitious effort, which involves a number of foundations including Walton, suggests that key ed reform funders haven't lost faith in charter schools despite questions about their effectiveness over the years. 

Related: If You Thought Charter School Funders Might Be Losing Steam, Think Again

The Walton announcement also comes on the heels of news that several members of the Walton family recently set aside $400 million for philanthropy—above and beyond the normal flow of funds into the family's foundation. The bigger picture, here, is that the Waltons are reducing the size of their stake in Walmart, which has the potential to free up vast new resources for philanthropy. Collectively, the Walton heirs were worth nearly $150 billion last year, according to Forbes. 

It's not surprising that the Waltons would choose to double down on charter schools, which have been a signature focus of the family's giving for years, along with the infrastructure that supports such schools. Charter management organizations, charter school associations, pro-charter policy advocacy and research, and organizations such as Teach For America—a major source of teachers for the nation's charter schools—all have received funding from Walton. About a quarter of charter schools nationwide have received start-up grants from Walton. Last year alone, the foundation supported 100 new charter school startups with more than $20 million in grants—or one in five of all new charter schools that opened in 2015. 

Walton plans to spend the new $1 billion over the next five years in areas where the funder already has a presence. The funding will create new charter schools and develop "pipelines of talent," according to Marc Sternberg, Walton's director of education philanthropy. The foundation also indicates that it will continue to invest in K-12 research and policy advocacy, an area that it has given a lot of attention to in recent years.

In a public five-year strategic plan, the foundation says that it's realized that it needs to do more to promote environments that support school choice. Originally, it says, the "thought was that more choices would generate more competition. Competition would catalyze systematic How Walton is Doubling Down on Charter Schools - Inside Philanthropy: Fundraising Intelligence - Inside Philanthropy:

 

Charter schools campaign draws strong pushback from teachers’ union - The Boston Globe

Charter schools campaign draws strong pushback from teachers’ union - The Boston Globe:

Charter schools campaign draws strong pushback from teachers’ union

News that a business-backed coalition with ties to Governor Charlie Baker could spend up to $18 million on a campaign to increase the number of charter schools in Massachusetts drew a reaction from teachers’ unions this week.

A strong one.

American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts president Tom Gosnell released a statement Tuesday calling the planned spending – which kicked off with direct mail to Democrat-controlled districts, including that of Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg – “a downpayment on the over $100 million in public funding they could rob from our locally controlled public schools every single year.”

The campaign, run by the Great Schools Massachusetts coalition, is seeking to pressure lawmakers to consent to legislation that would raise the cap on charter schools. But organizers are also preparing, if the legislative results don’t go their way, for a November ballot question. AFT, which claims 25,000 members, and its allies are gearing up to fight both measures.

Continued Gosnell, “If they think they can rip off Massachusetts voters and taxpayers with sleek mailers and slick ads, they’re wrong. If they think they can come from out of state and tell legislators and communities in the top-ranked state for education how to improve our schools, they’re wrong.”

Play nice, everybody.Charter schools campaign draws strong pushback from teachers’ union - The Boston Globe:

 

Teachers union plans "Enough is Enough!" rally in capital - Florida Politics

Teachers union plans "Enough is Enough!" rally in capital - Florida Politics:

TEACHERS UNION PLANS “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!” RALLY IN CAPITAL

The Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers union, is planning a noon rally in the Capitol courtyard Thursday to show lawmakers their “anger and exasperation” with how the Legislature handles education issues.

The group announced the “Enough is Enough!” event in a Wednesday news release.

Parents, public school supporters and others “will express their anger and exasperation with Florida’s testing mania, the blaming and shaming of teachers, the state’s unfettered support for vouchers and for-profit charters, the state’s refusal to fairly implement the class size rules voters placed in the state constitution, changes in higher education and the need for a higher minimum wage,” the release said.

Before the rally, there will be a “March for Public Education” from the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center to the Capitol, beginning at 11:15 a.m.

On a separate web page, the group posted: “Our children are being cheated out of a good education by policy makers and education reforms that are designed to meet the needs of adults rather than the needs of our children: High stakes testing, demonizing of teachers, voucher school and charter school profiteering disguised as ‘choice’ and schemes to undermine Florida’s class size amendment.”

Featured speakers include FEA President Joanne McCall, FEA Vice President Fedrick Ingram, FEA Secretary-Treasurer Luke Flynt, Florida PTA President Mindy Haas, NAACP Florida State Conference President Adora Obi Nweze ,and Service Employees International Union Florida State Council President Monica Russo. 

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Teachers union plans "Enough is Enough!" rally in capital - Florida Politics:

Anonymous no more - Sacramento News & Review

Sacramento News & Review - Anonymous no more - News - Local Stories - January 14, 2016:

Anonymous no more

Second month of City Hall homeless protest propels issue to front pages

Police confiscated most of the City Hall homeless protesters supplies this past Saturday—but by Monday, activists had regrouped along Ninth Street.

PHOTO BY NICK MILLER

When homeless activists started the occupation of City Hall grounds on December 8, there wasn’t much action in the local media. But this past Monday night, the 35th day of this homeless campout in the shadow of the city’s headquarters, nearly every television station in town was parked on Ninth Street. Cameras rolled at 5 p.m. as protesters elevated signs and shouted “We demand / a right to rest.” And, online, videos allegedly from hacker group Anonymous trickled on to YouTube.

It’s been a long five weeks for the homeless occupiers. On New Year’s Day, the city manager’s office sent some 50 police officers, many sporting riot gear helmets and masks, into the camp just before midnight, which led to seven citations, including four arrests.

Subsequent police actions eased up on the show of force. Yet enforcement persists; 12 arrests in total this year, plus at least five citations for illegal camping. The first court date for protesters is next week, January 21.

This past Saturday morning, January 9, police confiscated all the tables, blankets, Sacramento News & Review - Anonymous no more - News - Local Stories - January 14, 2016:

How Two Opt-Out Leaders View the Presidential Race - Politics K-12 - Education Week

How Two Opt-Out Leaders View the Presidential Race - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

How Two Opt-Out Leaders View the Presidential Race

The testing opt-out movement—and progressive voices on K-12—have big plans to expand their influence after the passage of the Every Student Succeds Act, the latest version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. 

So how do a couple of the opt-out movement's leaders view the 2016 presidential race?

Diane Ravitch, the president of the Network for Public Education and a leading voice against the use of high-stakes tests, acknowledged to me that when it comes to Democratic candidates, most of her blog's readers, at least, prefer Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Sanders shared his views on "privately run" charter schools and public school funding, voiced during a recent town hall event:

That isn't the first time Sanders has criticized charters. Consider his comments in that video side-by-side with his response to an American Federation of Teachers "Election 2016" questionnaire, in which Sanders wrote that he thought charters schools should be held to the same standards as traditional public schools, and that those standards should be extended to both nonprofit and for-profit charter management organizations.

And Sanders has caught fire with progressives in other ways. You may also remember that Stephen Sawchuk zeroed in on dissatisfaction among some National Education Association members in particular when the NEA endorsed Clinton in the Democratic primary last year, instead of giving more serious consideration to Sanders. Recall also that the AFT backed Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary over Obama, and the NEA didn't endorse Obama until the general election.

Still, Ravitch gave credit to Clinton for her recent critical remarks about some charter schools. She said people shouldn't view those critical statements as a cynical political shift; there's simply more information available about charter schools today for Clinton to consider, Ravitch said, than several years ago.

So in the end, does Ravitch have a preference in the presidential contest? She does—she'll back How Two Opt-Out Leaders View the Presidential Race - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

State board no longer willing to let Washington drive accountability | EdSource

State board no longer willing to let Washington drive accountability | EdSource:
State board no longer willing to let Washington drive accountability

Meeting for the first time since President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act, members of the State Board of Education expressed optimism Wednesday that they can create a single system that meshes federal, state and local approaches to school improvement.

But, in identifying areas of uncertainty and some potential conflicts between the federal demands and the state’s vision, several board members made clear that the state should be driving the design of the system – not Washington. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, the federal law’s predecessor, Congress made the state’s acceptance of $1.5 billion in federal Title I funding for low-income children contingent on adhering to federal rules defining failing schools and dictating how to fix them.

Now the state has become the primary funder of money for low-income children and English learners through the Local Control Funding Formula, with $71 billion in proposed funding next year, said board member Sue Burr, likening Title I dollars to “budget dust” in comparison.

SOURCE: CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION WEBCAST.

State Board member Sue Burr said that requirements of the Local Control Funding Formula should drive the state’s plan for school accountability, not the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

The new federal law “gives us a wonderful opportunity” to align the federal and state school accountability systems, Burr said, “but we have flipped the way we fund the system for vulnerable children. I want to flip the equation: How can we make sure the federal government conforms to what we want to do as well?”

The Every Student Succeeds Act does significantly curb the power that former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan assumed under No Child Left Behind, creating conflicts with California. Instead, the new law adopts California’s approach to determine which low-performing schools need intervention through the use of several measurements, of which standardized test scores will be only one. Others will be high school graduation rates, growth on test scores, how soon English learners become proficient in English and a state’s choice of at least one non-academic indicator. It could be a measurement of college and career readiness, or, if student and civil rights advocates can persuade the state board, measurements of school climate and student engagement, such as chronic absenteeism. (See explanation of new law prepared by attorney Julia Martin, a consultant for the California Department of Education.)

The new law does offer states flexibility, and next week, in a U.S. Department of Education hearing in Los Angeles, state officials will ask federal officials to respect that commitment in forthcoming regulations. They will deliver the message contained in a two-page letter to the department that state board President Michael Kirst and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson issued on Wednesday, in which they urge federal officials “to grant State board no longer willing to let Washington drive accountability | EdSource:

Ed Notes Online: Detroit Sickout Mystery: Who is Leading and Who is Trying to Stop It?

Ed Notes Online: Detroit Sickout Mystery: Who is Leading and Who is Trying to Stop It?:

Detroit Sickout Mystery: Who is Leading and Who is Trying to Stop It?



Why am I reporting so much on the Detroit wildcat sickout? Because of comments I've seen by dissident teachers here in NYC who are hoping for a UFT loss on Friedrichs and feel that with a weaker union teachers will arise from their slumber and revolt - and Detroit may be a model for a weak union. So I'm trying to decipher exactly what is happening - are there leaders who organized this? To what extent is this spontaneous combustion?

...the DFT [Detroit Federation of Teachers]—discredited for its willingness to sign onto any concessions contract, layoff and school closure handed down by a succession of emergency managers—has been unable to stop or control the sickouts and has gone into crisis mode. For the DFT and its national parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), it is now ‘all hands on deck’ to try to quell the protests while at the same time trying to prevent further loss of union membership come next June, when members will be able to opt-out under the state’s right-to-work law.

Meanwhile, the corporate media, from the local Detroit press to the New York Times and UK-based Guardian, have falsely claimed ousted DFT president Steve Conn is the leader of the protests. But teachers have gone through an experience with Conn’s brand of pseudo-left racial politics and unprincipled maneuvers with the Democratic Party, and the organizers of the sickouts have specifically dissociated themselves from him.... the 4th International, World Socialist Website

There is too much information coming in on what forces are behind the revolt in Detroit which may be a true rank and file movement independent of the official union, the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) and Steve Conn and his group BAMN.

We've reported on Steve Conn's story of being elected as president and then removed and tossed from the union. Knowing the Ed Notes Online: Detroit Sickout Mystery: Who is Leading and Who is Trying to Stop It?:

My Reaction to the President's State of the Union Address | The Jose Vilson

My Reaction to the President's State of the Union Address | The Jose Vilson:

My Reaction to the President’s State of the Union Address

Anytime the president of the United States shouts out teachers, that’s definitely a plus. Well, sorta.

As a math teacher, I appreciate the emphasis on STEM in that it has the potential to open doors to students who normally don’t get those opportunities, or that’s the presumption. I graduated with a degree in computer science, and through the four years at Syracuse U, I saw my brethren of color either drop out completely or transfer to another major within the first couple of years. This wasn’t for lack of intelligence, either. The learning curve for some of my colleagues, even the ones who graduated, was steeper than people who already had coding languages in their middle and high school curricula. It taught me that much of the talk around tech needs to start in the K-12 sector across the board, integrated with the maths and sciences in a way that allows students to deconstruct problems on their own.

But, after last night’s State of the Union Address, I had a few questions that pressed upon my chest the minute President Barack Obama was done with the STEM segment in his speech.

First, does every school have the same opportunities to chase their dreams, and, as a corollary, is “college and career-readiness” the prime objectives for schools? If so, how do we assure that the My Reaction to the President's State of the Union Address | The Jose Vilson:

CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA, Fordham and Accountability: An Open Letter to Mike Petrilli

CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA, Fordham and Accountability: An Open Letter to Mike Petrilli:

ESSA, Fordham and Accountability: An Open Letter to Mike Petrilli

TO: Mike Petrilli, Fordham Institute
FROM: Peter Greene, English teacher

RE: Design competition

You recently announced a design competition for developing a state-level design for accountability under the new ESSA. I totally meant to indicate my interest in throwing my hat into the ring, but it's the end of the grading period here and the start of rehearsals for school musical (Beauty and the Beast-- it's going to be good) and I missed the Jan 11 deadline for indicating interest. But since I intend, at a minimum, to roundly criticize your winner, I feel it's only fair to put up so that I don't have to shut up.

The competition is to design a school accountability system for elementary schools in some average-sized, demographically diverse state. The focus is to rate the schools, and not to answer the question of what to do with the ratings.

1. Design objectives. What are the priorities of the system, which I understand to mean what is the system supposed to care about or value, as much as a system can do such a thing.

You listed some options, but of all of them "a holistic view of school quality" comes closest. However, my design would prioritize a holistic view of student, health, well-being, growth and educational achievement. All other priorities are important only insofar as they effect the health and well-being of the child; and the health, well-being and growth are the entire purpose of the school. Period, full stop. 

Strong local control. Well-paid, well-supported autonomous teaching staff. Well-maintained physical plant. Broad, well-rounded, developmentally appropriate educational program. Solid funding. These CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA, Fordham and Accountability: An Open Letter to Mike Petrilli:

IS FRIEDRICHS VS. CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION A DEATH KNELL FOR ALL UNIONS - Perdaily.com

IS FRIEDRICHS VS. CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION A DEATH KNELL FOR ALL UNIONS - Perdaily.com:

IS FRIEDRICHS VS. CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION A DEATH KNELL FOR ALL UNIONS

The ramifications of the Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association (CTA) that is now pending before the United States Supreme Court go far beyond the public sector unions and employees litigating this case with specious allegations of their 1st Amendment free speech rights being violated by what Justice Kennedy called "coerced speech."

In reality, it also has very little to do with the fair-share agency fees required of all public employees like teachers who are exclusively represented by a union like CTA, but choose not to be members of that union, because they do not share the political views and support given by that union to predominantly Democratic candidates and issues. Already public employee unions must segregate the funds collected to defray the costs of collective bargaining on behalf of all workers- who they have had the exclusive right to represent- and any supplemental political actions the union chooses to engage in and fund only from members dues.

In a country where only 6.6% of workers in the private sector and 35.7% of public sector workers remain unionized, the clear purpose of the Friedrichs case seems to be in dealing a final mortal blow to what remains of unions in this country. If Rebecca Friedrichs and her co-plaintiffs being represented by Michael Carvin and other elite conservative attorneys given carte blanche by the billionaire boys club are successful, not only will they not have to pay for union representation, but it is highly likely that a high percentage of the remaining 325,000 union membership in CTA will quit the union in much the same manner as we have already seen after Governor Scott Walker's siege against unions in Wisconsin.

Since Governor Walker's attack on unions, "American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has lost 18,000 of its previous 32,000 members and has seen its annual revenue fall from $10 million to $5.5 million." In addition, "The state's largest teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, has lost more than a third of its members." It seems highly unlikely that unions that have spent $1.7 billion in the 2012 elections will be able to do so in IS FRIEDRICHS VS. CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION A DEATH KNELL FOR ALL UNIONS - Perdaily.com:

How Would California Reshape Accountability in the New ESSA Era? - Politics K-12 - Education Week

How Would California Reshape Accountability in the New ESSA Era? - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

How Would California Reshape Accountability in the New ESSA Era? 

The No Child Left Behind Act may be a thing of the past, but its replacement, the Every Student Succeeds Act, won't be fully in place until the 2017-18 school year.

So where does that leave states without waivers from NCLB when it comes to some of the most hated vestiges of the old law—"adequate yearly progress" and the requirement that districts set aside money for choice and tutoring if their schools fail to meet targets?

California may soon find out. The Golden State is asking the U.S. Department of Education for a reprieve from both AYP (the yardstick at the heart of NCLB) and the requirement that 20 percent of federal Title I money must be set-aside for school choice and tutoring.

California has asked for the flexibility on Title I funding before and been rebuffed. But the state may have more luck now that ESSA, which doesn't call for the set-aside, is the law of the land.

What's more, other folks seem to be hoping for similar leeway. Jeff Simmering, a lobbyist for the Council of the Great City Schools, pleaded with the department to make it clear that states and districts no longer have to hold back funds for old interventions on Monday, during a public meeting on ESSA regulation.

On the state's other ask: California has already gotten big wiggle room on AYP. But it's unclear if that will continue going forward. ESSA makes provisions for states with waivers (more than 40 states in all). It says those states must continue to focus on their lowest performing schools during the 2016-17 school year, until their new accountability plans are in place. But it's less certain what happens for states that never had waivers, like California. We should find out soon.

Meanwhile, the Golden State, which has arguably been a thorn in the Obama administration's side when it comes to K-12, has some advice for the acting secretary John King and his crew as they try to regulate the new law.

Maybe unsurprisingly, California's state board president, Mike Kirst, and its state chief, Tom Torlakson are going for maximum flexibility here.

Their suggestions dovetail with California's own still-under-construction accountability system, which seeks to look holistically at school performance and put districts in the drivers' seat.

Specifically California officials want states to be able to:

• Go for "continuous improvement of schools" rather than reaching for a specific long-term goal; 
  
• Use multiple measures when examining school performance, not just a single score on an index or state rating system; 
• Avoid giving a numerical weight to every factor they look at for accountability (like tests, or school climate). States should just make sure they consider each factor in some way to differentiate school performance;
  
• Consider a wide range of factors, not just test scores, when figuring out which schools are low-performing; 
• Rate low-performing districts, not just schools. (Massachusetts and about ten other states already do this.)

More here.

Kirst, Torlaksen, and the rest of the California gang will get a chance to voice these recommendations next week, when the education department holds a public meeting on ESSA regulation out in Los Angeles.How Would California Reshape Accountability in the New ESSA Era? - Politics K-12 - Education Week: