A Back to School Checklist- opt out and data privacy – Missouri Education Watchdog

A Back to School Checklist- opt out and data privacy – Missouri Education Watchdog:

A Back to School Checklist- opt out and data privacy

Astonishing amounts of student and family data are being collected and stored online by schools and this data is also shared. Sharing your child’s personal information outside of the school should be your decision, students should be able to control their own data, but alas, they can not.

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Here are some things you can do

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INFORM

Let the school know you are concerned about data privacy. Don’t be afraid to ASK questions and advocate for your child and don’t settle for someone telling you they don’t collect data and don’t share data outside of the school. Not all teachers or principals will know all the ways that data is collected.  Be patient, educate, don’t blame . Inform others that:  all online programs collect data and can use algorithms to predict and profile children.  Anything in a student’s education record, including IEP information, health records can be shared, anything in the state longitudinal data system, SLDS  (found in every state) can also be shared. Because of a 2011 change to a long standing federal law,  FERPA , your  child’s data can be collected and shared without your consent.  Many now realize that student data collection in out of control and soon to beeven more so with the advent of student data badges and hidden online competency based education,  tests, and data collection.  Be aware, don’t blindly sign away personal information that could be used to PREDICT or PROFILE your child; their data foot print can affect their future jobs, insurance, and chances at college.

ASK: SHOW ME THE DATA

The law states that education agencies (schools, districts, state ed departments) must keep logs of who has requested to see your student’s personally identifiable information (pii) and they must provide that information to parents. We wrote about this  existing code requiring education providers to keep very detailed records of data requests and disclosures and they must provide that information to parents. Use this template letter , send to each education provider to see who has been given access to your child’s pii.   Under FERPA, you also have the right to inspect your child’s data in the SLDS and school education record to make sure it is accurate.

OPT OUT  and REFUSE State Mandated Standardized Tests

Check your state to see if you have adopted a law allowing students and parents to opt out of the end of year High Stakes Tests like PARCC, SAGE, SBAC, without retribution or threats.  Even if you do not have an ” opt out law” , you CAN refuse the test for your child, simply submit A Back to School Checklist- opt out and data privacy – Missouri Education Watchdog:

Corporate Reformers Spin the Test Score Data - Living in Dialogue

Corporate Reformers Spin the Test Score Data - Living in Dialogue:

Corporate Reformers Spin the Test Score Data

By John Thompson.

The education sector is plagued by “astroturf” think tanks that issue “reports” that repeatedly conclude that (surprise!) reform is working. To do so, pro-reform scholars cherry-pick data in order to provide attractive, multi-colored graphics that show an upward trajectory, or at least would indicate growth to readers who don’t carefully study the charts. The worst example may be the “meteor” theory of school improvement. It attributes growth from the late-1990s boom years to the NCLB Act of 2001. Yes! They claim that improved scores on tests taken years before NCLB were caused by the law. This teleological explanation is based on the claim that the 1990s gains were due to “consequential accountability” that was not dissimilar to NCLB. But, reformers can’t even agree on which states supposedly had consequential accountability or even what it supposedly was.

The new report from the Urban Institute about increased student performance in the District of Columbia, by Kristin Blagg and Matthew Chingos, is just as brazen of an act of misrepresenting issues. Blagg and Chingos acknowledged that “the proportion of white and Hispanic students in DC has roughly doubled, while the proportion of black students has declined.” Their analysis of NAEP scores from 2005 to 2013 indicates that those demographic changes account for only four to six points of that eight-year increase. They thus minimize the effects of D.C.’s gentrification on test score growth. But, hold on there! Doesn’t gentrification include more than a shift in children’s skin color?

Blagg and Chingos do not adjust for “any measures of family income!” And, that is not even the most intellectually dishonest part of their spin!

Any education scholar would understand why policy makers would be interested in whether D.C. scores were due to gentrification or improvements in the classroom. D.C. became the epicenter in the clash over Corporate Reformers Spin the Test Score Data - Living in Dialogue:

The Ambitious Education Plan of the Black Lives Matter Movement - The Atlantic

The Ambitious Education Plan of the Black Lives Matter Movement - The Atlantic:

How Black Lives Matter Activists Plan to Fix Schools

Activists are calling for an end to charter schools and juvenile detention centers.

 Black Lives Matter activists have already successfully pushed some colleges to address racism on campus and make curriculum more inclusive. But the movement as a whole has been less visible in the K-12 space. That’s changing.

As my colleague Vann Newkirk has noted, the Movement for Black Lives Matter coalition recently published a platform outlining a range of specific policies it would like to see take shape at the local, state, and federal levels. The education proposals are rooted in the K-12 space, activists who helped draft them told me, because the U.S. public-school system is so broken that college is never an option for many young people of color. And while many universities are privately controlled, the group sees an opportunity to return control of K-12 public schools to the students, parents, and communities they serve.

Public schools, even in the nation’s most affluent cities, remain highly segregated, with black children disproportionately likely to attend schools with fewer resources and concentrated poverty. There are more school security officers than counselors in four of the 10 biggest school districts in the country. And whereas spending on corrections increased by 324 percent between 1979 and 2013, that on education rose just 107 percent during the same time.

The coalition’s proposals are wide-ranging and, depending on who is talking, either aspirational or entirely unrealistic. They range from calling for a constitutional amendment for “fully funded” education (activists say federal funding is inadequate and not distributed equally) and a moratorium on charter schools to the removal of police from schools and the closure of all juvenile detention centers.

Mostly, said Jonathan Stith, the national coordinator for the Washington-based Alliance for Educational Justice and one of the lead authors, the propositions are an attempt to crystallize what the movement supports and to provide activists with a platform from which to move forward. “It’s always been clear what we’re against, but [articulating] what we’re for, what we want to see, was a real labor,” Stith, 41, said. The document is also an effort to connect education priorities to health care, the economy, criminal justice, and a range of other public-policy areas, and to, as Stith put it, force progress “in concert.”.

The plan, which lambasts the “privatization” of education by foundations that wield fat wallets to shape policy and criticizes charter-school networks for decimating black communities and robbing traditional neighborhood schools of resources, drew immediate criticism from education reformers who see charters and groups like Teach for America (the plan calls for its demise) as providing badly needed services to students of color. Some of these reformers said it signaled that the movement was cozy with teachers’ unions and the status quo. Lily Eskelsen Garcia, the head of the National Education Association, one of the country’s two main teachers’ unions, wrote in an emailed comment, “The NEA is honored to stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and proud to be a partner The Ambitious Education Plan of the Black Lives Matter Movement - The Atlantic:

Choosing Democracy: Voting for Funding Schools Proposition 55

Choosing Democracy: Voting for Funding Schools _ Proposition 55:

Voting for Funding Schools Proposition 55

Current budget projections show that unless we maintain the current income tax rates on the wealthiest Californians, our schools will face nearly $4 billion in cuts. Under Prop. 55 the wealthiest Californians will continue paying the same amount they are now to protect public schools and vital services from deep cuts.

Funding from Prop. 55 will provide local schools the money they need to hire teachers and staff and reduce class sizes. It will help community colleges offer more courses and help keep tuition rates stable. And it will help improve access to health care services for low-income children so they can stay healthy and thrive.

Join the California Democratic Party, California Teachers Association, California State PTA, California Federation of Teachers, California Labor Federation, Children's Hospital Association and so many others and please add your name in support of our kids right now! Because our children and schools matter most.

Thanks for helping us do the right thing for California's children. 

Sincerely,

Tom Torlakson
State Superintendent of Public Instruction

 Choosing Democracy: Voting for Funding Schools _ Proposition 55:

Education Department Announces Next Step in President's Testing Action Plan | U.S. Department of Education

Education Department Announces Next Step in President's Testing Action Plan | U.S. Department of Education:

Education Department Announces Next Step in President's Testing Action Plan

The U.S. Department of Education today announced the next step in President Obama's Testing Action Plan—a grant competition to help states get the resources they need to innovate and improve the quality of assessments, enhance reporting for parents, educators and other stakeholders, and reduce redundant and ineffective tests in the state and their districts that builds on the plan released in October that sets forth principles and steps to restore the balance on testing in the nation's classrooms.

This year, the Department is focusing on working with states to improve the quality of testing items, ensure effective public reporting of scores and results, and reduce unnecessary testing.

"The President's Testing Action Plan encourages thoughtful approaches to assessments that will help to restore the balance on testing in America's classrooms by reducing unnecessary assessments while promoting equity and innovation," said U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. "This grant competition is the next step as part of that plan, and will help states and districts improve tests to allow for better depiction of student and school progress so that parents, teachers, and communities have the vital information they need on academic achievement."

When done well and thoughtfully, annual assessments can provide meaningful information and provide clear, objective and actionable data that can be used to improve academic outcomes and promote equity for educators, families, the public, and students. When done poorly, assessments can provide inaccurate or misleading information and detract from valuable classroom time. This grant competition seeks to improve the quality of state assessments and provide opportunities for innovative solutions to create better, more meaningful tests so that parents and educators will have the information they need, and states and districts can better identify resources to support students and schools.

"President Obama wants to ensure that all the tests our students take are fair, worthwhile, and they are the best possible measures of student achievement," said Roberto Rodriguez, deputy assistant to the President for education. "He recognizes that too many poor-quality tests have too often taken the joy out of learning for our students, and that we must do more to ensure we are using the best possible measures of how our students are doing. These grants represent an important step forward toward that goal."

The Department will select winners that demonstrate a focus on collaborating with institutions of higher education, other research institutions, or other organizations to improve the quality, validity and reliability of state academic assessments; gauging student academic achievement using a variety of measures; charting student progress over time; and evaluating student academic achievement through the development of comprehensive academic assessment instruments, such as performance and technology-based tools. Applicants will compete for $8.86 million in grants. Applications are due by Sept. 22, 2016.

Earlier this spring, the Administration negotiated proposed regulations with stakeholders regarding the provision of Title I of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) that every state administer a high-quality assessment system that is worth taking and provides meaningful data about student success and equity. Those consensus-based regulations were released for public comment last month. In addition, in July the Administration released proposed regulations to encourage states to create the next generation of assessments through the innovative assessment demonstration pilot.

The Department expects to announce winners of the 2016 Enhanced Assessment Grants competition in January 2017.Education Department Announces Next Step in President's Testing Action Plan | U.S. Department of Education:

Ed. Dept. Announces $8.6 Million Grant Competition for States to Improve Testing - Politics K-12 - Education Week - http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2016/08/new_ED_grant_testing_improve_help_states.html

Education Lessons From A Sparkly District

Education Lessons From A Sparkly District:

NJ State Board of Ed Ignores Public Testimony

If the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) and the New Jersey State Board of Ed (NJSBOE) are not listening to the public, who are they listening to? What is their reaction to all of our testimony? NJDOE provided responses to testimony when they released the August 3rdagenda and this is what stood out for me.

In some cases they simply disagreed and said so. In other cases, they had some interesting citations to back up their claims related to validity. And, for the special education-related comments, clarification of just who is in control of the graduation requirements for students with IEPs.

One comment, in particular, stuck out (besides the ones that were aimed at me) because the testimony belonged to Dr. Eric Milou, a Rowan University professor, recipient of the Max Sobel Outstanding Mathematics Educator Award, former president of Association of Mathematics Teachers of New Jersey (AMTNJ) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. This is exactly the kind of education professional this board should have listening to, but this is their response:

40. COMMENT: The commenter stated there is no evidence the PARCC assessment is an improvement over previous standardized tests, raises student performance, provides useful diagnostic information, or indicates career or college readiness.  The commenter also stated only rigorous curriculum, instruction, and the use of formative assessments will have a significant impact on student educational success. (99)

RESPONSE: Several studies (e.g., National Network of State Teachers of the Year, 2015; Massachusetts Executive Office of Education, 2015; Center for American Progress, 2016; Fordham/Human Resources Research Organization, 2016; American Institutes for Research, 2016) have supported PARCC as an accurate measure of college and career readiness and endorsed PARCC as an improvement over previous assessments.

Dr. Milou got right to the heart of what's wrong with standardized tests in general and what's Education Lessons From A Sparkly District:

You can count an apple's seeds but not the seed's apples - NonDoc

You can count an apple's seeds but not the seed's apples - NonDoc:

You can count an apple’s seeds but not the seed’s apples

Even if my colleagues disagree, they will understand why I believe that teaching high school history and government is the best job in what must be the best career imaginable.

Typically, my students were more socially conservative than I was. They were aware that I was a former ACLU/OK board member and a pro-choice lobbyist, but they knew that all of their opinions, values and judgments would be treated with equal respect. They also knew how much I preferred addressing persons who disagreed with me on abortion with the term “pro-life” instead of “anti-choice.” OK, my (very few) black Republican students would get some extra ribbing, but often they asked for it by reality-challenged trash-talking during our lunch-hour basketball games (asserting that I fouled?!)

Teaching with an open door produced a bonus. Students, patrons or other visitors continually joined our debates. Often, parents would send their children back to school with their counter-arguments about politics, culture and the meaning of life. The same pattern occurred with preachers, who might urge prayers for me, but not censorship. One junior brought his pastor to class to present an alternative worldview, and he concluded with the words, “We can count the seeds in an apple, but not the apples in a seed,”

The metaphor speaks to last week’s 2016 Democratic Party Convention. We can count Bernie’s delegates, but we can’t even guess as to the number of future voters and activists baptized in the fires of the Bern. The metaphor also speaks to the unprecedented number of Oklahoma teachers who are running for office. We can count the number of educators who are elected this year, but we can’t predict the number of new leaders the grassroots rising of classroom teachers of all types will produce.

Teachers respectfully embrace opinions

Fortunately, teachers and our unions are uniquely poised to help make America unified You can count an apple's seeds but not the seed's apples - NonDoc:

DFER, Achievement First Inc and the flow of charter school money into Connecticut campaigns - Wait What?

DFER, Achievement First Inc and the flow of charter school money into Connecticut campaigns - Wait What?:

DFER, Achievement First Inc and the flow of charter school money into Connecticut campaigns

The Charter School industry and their corporate education reform allies continue to ramp up their effort to impact the political landscape in Connecticut.  Closely associated with Governor Dannel Malloy and his anti-public education policies, the elite behind the education reform and privatization movement are engaged in a broad based effort to control the dialogue and votes in the Connecticut legislature.

As reported yesterday in, Charter School Political Action Committees target Connecticut legislative races, two new corporate funded political action committees (PACS) are have recently been created and are spending money to elect pro-charter school candidates and defeat public school advocates in races for the Connecticut General Assembly.

Change Course CT, a front-group for Democrats for Education Reform, was formed on July 18, 2016.

Charters Care, a new appendage of the Northeast Charter School Network, was formed a few days earlier on July 13, 2016.

Both Democrats for Education Reform and the Northeast Charter School Network are corporate-funded charter school advocacy groups based in New York City and both receive the bulk of their money from the billionaires and millionaires who are trying to privatize public education in the United States.

According to forms filed with the Connecticut State Elections Enforcement Commission, all the funds collected by Change Course CT come from Education Reform Now Advocacy, a non-profit 501 (c) 4 corporation that is operated in conjunction with New York City based Democrats for Education Reform Now and Education Reform Now.

Signing the official documents on behalf of Change Course CT has been Jenna A. Klaus, who appears to be the daughter of Jeff Klaus and Dacia Toll.  Toll is the CEO of Achievement First, Inc., the large charter school management company that owns and operates charter schools in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island.  In addition to DFER, Achievement First Inc and the flow of charter school money into Connecticut campaigns - Wait What?:

How U.S. Charter Schools May Be Tied to Turkey's Political Unrest - WNYC

How U.S. Charter Schools May Be Tied to Turkey's Political Unrest - WNYC:

How U.S. Charter Schools May Be Tied to Turkey's Political Unrest

The attempted coup in Turkey last month refocused attention on a Turkish dissident currently living in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania, an imam named Fethullah Gulen who is suspected of having financial ties to charter schools across the United States.

Just this week, a Turkish court issued an arrest warrant for Gulen. Although he has denied any involvement in the coup attempt, Gulen's critics claim he’s leading a movement to undermine the current Turkish government, a movement they say is funded in part by a network of about 150 charter schools.

The charter schools share characteristics, such as being run by Turkish immigrants. There are six of them in northern New Jersey and four in upstate New York. The FBI and other federal agencies are investigating charter schools in Ohio and Illinois with possible links to Gulen and a Georgia audit found found three schools engaged in bid-rigging to vendors with ties to him.

The New York charters were audited by the state comptroller in 2013. The office cited problems with their bidding processes. The audit of the Buffalo Academy of Science Charter found the school leased its building in a way that netted millions of dollars for a New Jersey company with ties to Turkey, Apple Educational Services. In the end, the company sold the building to the Buffalo charter.

The director of Buffalo Academy of Science, Mucahit Polat, argued the deal was legal and sound. Polat, who came to the U.S. from Istanbul to study, also said there was nothing nefarious about Turkish immigrants getting involved in charter schools. Turks who come here for an education, he said, often work in the education field and network.

When asked about his views on Gulen, Polat called him a "great scholar." He strongly denied any direct involvement with the man or his movement. Rather, he explained, many educated Turkish immigrants support Gulen because he preaches about the importance of education, science and pluralism.

"Since those ideas are really great to admire, when you ask those people who are in education they’ll say 'I really like his ideas,'" Polat said. "But that’s kind of a social setting it’s not kind of a cult setting."

Gulen's movement espouses religious tolerance, science and high regard for education. The charter schools often have science themes. They enroll tens of thousands of students nationally and receive hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds.

They also share particular characteristics, according to Robert Amsterdam, an attorney who is counsel to Turkey's government in a civil lawsuit against Gulen accusing him of human rights abuses in Turkey. 

"They all have majority Turkish board members," he said. "Number two, they only take foreign teachers from Turkey. Number three, around 75 percent of all vendors are Turkish, and normally have strong ties to Gulen."

He said the suspicion is that school staff and related vendors pay Gulen's movement from their salaries and business deals.

Polat said his school has hired teachers from Turkey, but only for positions in science and math which, he said, were harder to fill with American teachers. He said he currently has just one Turkish teacher, who teaches Turkish.

The other charters in Syracuse, Utica and Rochester also hired many teachers from Turkey over the years, according to documents obtained by New York State United Teachers. Spokesman Carl Korn called this a violation of visa rules.

"The visa program is supposed to be used to fill jobs that cannot be filled by American workers," he said. "They’re filling positions for biology teachers, physical education teachers, English teachers, guidance counselors, with Turkish nationals."

Both Korn and Amsterdam, the counsel for Turkey, said the pattern of financial problems cited in various state audits of the schools, and the federal investigation in the Midwest, prove charter schools need more oversight.

"The U.S. charter school industry is a perfect host for this kind of thing because the whole aspect of charter schools is lack of regulation," said Amsterdam. "So if you’re a foreign entity like Mr. Gulen and you’re in need of funding they see it as a great source."

But Andrea Rogers, New York State Director of the Northeast Charter Schools Network, called that a "smear campaign" by opponents of charters.

"The authorizers see the audits and if there was any evidence of wrongdoing, they would have been all over it," she stated.

Jonathan Burman, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Education, which authorized the four charters upstate, said his agency had "worked extensively" with them following the comptroller's 2013 audits.

"The department requires all charter schools that have audit findings to adopt a corrective action plan to fully implement the audit’s recommendations" he said, adding that the agency will continue to monitor them.How U.S. Charter Schools May Be Tied to Turkey's Political Unrest - WNYC:

CURMUDGUCATION: More Moskowitz Baloney

CURMUDGUCATION: More Moskowitz Baloney:
More Moskowitz Baloney

Eva Moskowitz was given some space by her buddies at the New York Post to run one more advertisement for her Success Academies, this time featuring a twisty interpretation of recently released test scores.


She actually starts from an accurate place, noting that the mayor and chancellor are not really entitled to victory laps about the test results because, as State Ed Honcho Elia already noted, this year's test results are not comparable to last year's. It's a different test, taken under different conditions (most notably, a non-time-limit condition for this year's test). The Big Standardized Test in New York was arguably massaged not to improve its ability to collect useful data, but to make it more politically palatable.

After Moskowitz notes that test conditions make "apples-to-apples comparisons with prior years impossible," she then proceeds to make apples-to-oranges to tout the results at Success Academy. In Moskowitz's worldl, it is, literally, only okay for charter schools to make comparisons between this year and last years test results. 

Charter scores went up this year by a big chunk. That could mean any number of things, including that charters are getting really good at gaming the test and at identifying the kind of students who will help them do it. It's a good example of how folks can play with statistics. For instance, Moskowitz can say it this way:

The benefits to minority students of receiving a charter-school education are particularly remarkable. An African-American student is more than twice as likely to be proficient in math if he attends a charter school rather than a district school (48.8% vs. 20%), and a Hispanic student is nearly twice as likely (46.9% vs. 24.4%).

But we could also read that data to mean that an African-American student who is proficient in math has twice as much chance to be admitted by a charter school. That data don't show that the charters are good at anything except selecting students. When Moskowoitz takes over a NY CURMUDGUCATION: More Moskowitz Baloney:

Report Shows How California Charter Schools Break the Law by Choosing Their Students | janresseger

Report Shows How California Charter Schools Break the Law by Choosing Their Students | janresseger:

Report Shows How California Charter Schools Break the Law by Choosing Their Students

Charter schools are established and regulated primarily in state law, and there is wide variation in degree to which state legislatures protected the rights of children and families back in the mid-1990s when this new education sector emerged across the states. California’s legislature seems to have taken more care than some other states to protect the rights of children and families in charter schools, but the ACLU of Southern California and Public Advocates have just published a report that exposes poor implementation of the law. The report puts Californians on notice that selection screens being imposed by charter schools are illegal under California law; some of these practices even violate federal civil rights statutes. The joint report of the Southern California ACLU and Public Advocates, Unequal Access: How Some California Charter Schools Illegally Restrict Enrollment, explains exactly what the law says and tells parents how to go about filing complaints when their rights are violated.  The report also challenges charter school authorizers and the California Department of Education to enforce the law.

The report explains: “Charter schools are governed by fewer rules than traditional public schools; they have the flexibility to develop unique learning environments and pursue innovative pedagogical approaches. However, under California law… charter schools still must accept all students who apply if space permits. If the school is at capacity, it must use a random lottery to select students. In California, charter schools may not deny admission to students who have struggled academically in their previous schools or push out students who do not meet certain performance standards. Indeed, charters should embrace those students because they may benefit most from the schools’ innovative educational philosophies.” Merely based on their websites, 253 California Charter schools were identified by the Southern California ACLU and Public Advocates as currently violating California law. Because the authors investigated only violations apparent on charter schools’ websites, the report’s authors declare: “The policies identified in this report are likely only the tip of the iceberg.”

The report describes charter schools whose websites present barriers like completing eighth Report Shows How California Charter Schools Break the Law by Choosing Their Students | janresseger:

PA Charter Schools Caught Gaming the System for $2.5 Million | gadflyonthewallblog

PA Charter Schools Caught Gaming the System for $2.5 Million | gadflyonthewallblog:

PA Charter Schools Caught Gaming the System for $2.5 Million

Should a charter school be reimbursed for a lease to itself?

That’s the question at the center of yet another scandal about the industry.

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale found nine Pennsylvania charter schools taking $2.5 million from the state to pay themselves back for properties they already own.

“What we found in some of our audits the same people who own and operate charter schools create separate legal entities to own the buildings and lease them to their charter schools,” DePasquale says. “We keep finding it and supplying the information to the department and they do nothing with it.”

His office found this happening in nearly a third of the 40 charter school audits done since he took office in 2013.

This goes against Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) guidelines adopted 14 years ago, says DePasquale. A charter school is not eligible for lease reimbursement if it owns the building.

PDE spokeswoman Casey Smith agrees. Charter school CEOS “are required to sign a PA Charter Schools Caught Gaming the System for $2.5 Million | gadflyonthewallblog:

 

Text of My Speech in Little Rock, AR (Decenter Yourself) | The Jose Vilson

Text of My Speech in Little Rock, AR (Decenter Yourself) | The Jose Vilson:

Text of My Speech in Little Rock, AR (Decenter Yourself)

I gave this speech at the Clinton School for Public Service in Little Rock, AR as part of Noble Impact’s NobleTalks series. For those who read the last post, I deviated from this text somewhat after my visit to Central High School. Special shouts to Chris Thinnes for hearing me say this aloud in the wee hours of the night. 

Good evening, class.

Thank you for having me here in Little Rock, AR.

We are living in the best of times and worst of times, but the one place that always gives me hope is my classroom.

My classroom has four turquoise-painted walls, long, tall windows, and a bookshelf that’s about seven feet high.

In the back, I keep a poster of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, centered so every time I see myself getting tired, I can look at him with outstretched hands greeting the thousands of onlookers who are listening to him give the greatest speech of the 20th century. In the speech, he spoke truth to power by speaking to the aspirations of his people, not just his own.

Just to the left of that poster is a huge bulletin board dedicated to our lives mattering, images and quotes from the current street movement, one which I’m still learning from.

In my classroom, a typical student might ask, “Mr. Vilson, what’s the answer?” I tell them, “I don’t know.” They’re visibly frustrated, and they ask again, “What’s the answer?” I tell them, “I don’t know.” They get mad some more, smoke coming out of their little ears, and they ask, “Yo, Vilson, what’s the answer to this?” To which I reply, “I don’t know.”

They eventually learn to ask the right questions, and I say, “Well, have you thought about this?” I then proceed to pepper them with questions they hadn’t considered and reflect back the answers they told me.

After a few minutes, they say, “I think I got it.” And I say, “OK, good. Bye.” and walk to the next table.

In a small, yet simple act of deflection, I managed to decenter myself and put the onus of learning on the students so they can take ownership. I ask them to imagine “What if I wasn’t there? Would you Text of My Speech in Little Rock, AR (Decenter Yourself) | The Jose Vilson:

Laura’s Back and She Still Doesn’t Like Common Core

Laura’s Back and She Still Doesn’t Like Common Core:

Laura’s Back and She Still Doesn’t Like Common Core

Summer is ending, and school is starting in some places. I hope parents and teachers will encourage students to read for fun even though the summer is over. Most who I know will do that.

I hope students will not be hampered by being made to time how much they read after school. I hope they won’t be bribed to read like it is some awful chore they must work through.

I especially hope that adults won’t push children to read before they are developmentally ready.

I also hope parents and teachers will read plenty of picture books and stories to children that are funny and exciting, and that they won’t stop every few seconds and test students to see if they listened. I promise you that they will listen if it is a good Laura’s Back and She Still Doesn’t Like Common Core:

Walt Amses: Teachers unions do make a difference | VTDigger

Walt Amses: Teachers unions do make a difference | VTDigger:

WALT AMSES: TEACHERS UNIONS DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Editor’s note: This commentary is by Walt Amses, a writer and former educator from North Calais.

With the culture’s ascension to post-factual political discourse, it becomes increasingly vital to clarify myths masquerading as gospel truth because when they go unchallenged, or are endlessly repeated, an inordinate number of people believe they’re true. One such fantasy is the conservative-fueled assertion that collective bargaining and teachers unions protect bad teachers, consequently lowering the quality of education.

Several states have moved to limit the union’s ability to negotiate contracts, scapegoating teachers as the primary suspects in educational decline while ignoring their own bare bones spending that’s decimating school programs and poverty levels that undermine learning for many children. Although this is not necessarily a new right wing initiative, last week’s GOP convention clearly illustrated what a post-factual world might look like, a powerfully frightening vision of a political party creating and then capitalizing on a series of affirmations that are simply untrue.

It would seem our only defense against such post-factual rhetoric is an informed and educated electorate capable of synthesizing what they hear and being able to separate fact from fiction. Our public education system, once the envy of the globe, would be the logical place to acquire such skills, but it is under constant assault from the same people who see America as a wasteland; a dystopia with bands of illegal immigrants and radical Islamists murderously roaming the countryside with one objective — to kill us all.

Of course they would also have you believe that the only rational response is to buy guns, lots lots and lots of guns, ban millions of people for practicing a particular religion, or break up families to deport 12 million immigrants who have lived in this country for decades. And as we evolve through this election cycle we learn that beliefs are strong and in many cases overshadow facts. “Believing” something makes it true. Reality is yours for the creating.

The skill of discernment is taught in school. Identifying the sources of what you say and what you write and why they are accurate. Unlike politicians, students need to back up their statements. They learn what facts are and how they differ from opinions. They learn that just saying something is inadequate. It’s no wonder conservative fabulists undermine education every chance they get; their biggest fear is being exposed as the charlatans they are.

But a research study done in 2015 calls into question the entire foundation of their anti-education initiatives, demonstrating that teachers unions do not lower the quality of education. On the contrary, they actually improve it, as well as reducing the dropout rate and helping ensure unqualified teachers are dismissed during their probationary period. Unionized teachers know that having colleagues who are not up to the task makes everyone else’s job more difficult.

For many districts it’s simple economics. Where collective bargaining is allowed, wages are higher, which encourages more careful evaluations during probationary periods to weed out ineffective teachers, thus avoiding the higher salaries that come if tenure is awarded. Unionized schools also have a higher retention rate of teachers, which raises the level of academic performance since the teachers remaining on the job are far more likely to be highly qualified.

In Finland, which has the highest rated schools in the world, school administrators and Walt Amses: Teachers unions do make a difference | VTDigger:

Approx. 400 SAT Items Leaked To Reuters News Agency

Approx. 400 SAT Items Leaked To Reuters News Agency:
Approx. 400 SAT Items Leaked To Reuters News Agency

After his stint as a “lead architect” for the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), David Coleman landed the presidency of one of the CCSS insider groups, the College Board.

He decided to “redesign” the SAT– but he apparently did not redesign the test security to go along with it.

Ineptness from the College Board, including under David Coleman’s leadership,  is not news. 

What is new, however, is that someone decided to send Reuters news agency hundreds of questions from the redesigned SAT, as Reuters reports on August 03, 2016:

Just months after the College Board unveiled the new SAT this March, a person with access to material for upcoming versions of the redesigned exam provided Reuters with hundreds of confidential test items. The questions and answers include 21 reading passages – each with about a dozen questions – and about 160 math problems.

Reuters doesn’t know how widely the items have circulated. …

The materials provided to Reuters contain a wealth of items for upcoming tests: reading passages drawn from novels, historical documents, scientific journals, essays and other texts, each accompanied by questions. Also among the materials were math problems involving geometry and quadratic equations.

To verify the authenticity of the items, which totaled approximately 400, Reuters Approx. 400 SAT Items Leaked To Reuters News Agency:

No One's Kid Is Ready for Kindergarten, According to This School's Checklist

What Kids Should Know Before Starting Kindergarten - Is Your Child Ready for Kindergarten?:

This List of Requirements for Incoming Kindergarteners Will Make You So Mad

​This more than a little bit unrealistic.

 One surprised parent took to Reddit this weekend to share a letter she had received from her child's elementary school. The letter included a list of 11 things that the Hamilton County, Tennessee, school says children should be able to do before starting kindergarten — and we have to say, it's unbelievably unrealistic.

According to this school's requirements, incoming kindergartners should already know how to write their names, use scissors correctly and identify colors and shapes (among other things) by the time they walk through the door on the first day of school. Take a look at the full list here:

You might have noticed that the note also includes "identify 30+ letters" as a requirement, which leaves us a little confused. Although it's probably safe to assume that they're taking both uppercase and lowercase letters into account, Reddit user zarideremery said what we're all thinking in this response to the post: "I can only identify 26 letters :( I'm not ready for kindergarten." Apparently, none of us are!

Ultimately, this ridiculous list leaves us with just one question: Isn't learning these things what kindergarten is for?

[h/t POPSUGAR] What Kids Should Know Before Starting Kindergarten - Is Your Child Ready for Kindergarten?: