Missouri Education Watchdog: Is DESE telling the truth on Common Core Standards?

Missouri Education Watchdog: Is DESE telling the truth on Common Core Standards?:

Is DESE telling the truth on Common Core Standards?

by stlgretchen

James Shuls, education policy analyst at Show-Me Institute, finds claims that the Common Core State Standards will not influence instructional practices downright disingenuous and obviously false.

He writes in Jay P. Greene's blog an article challenging Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's claims that CCSS will not affect curriculum.  From Constructive Criticism for Common Core Constructivism Deniers:

In a recent Twitter exchange, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education informed me that the CCSS don’t “tell teachers how to teach.” This is a phrase that has been echoing across the country as the Common Core has come under attack from the left and the right.

The fact is that curriculum standards don’t tell teachers how to teach in the same way that a high jump bar doesn’t tell a jumper how to jump. You could theoretically jump over a high jump bar in whatever way you would like; but because of how the jump is structured there is 

GO Public Schools’ Proposal Gets an F from OUSD Teacher | Classroom Struggle

GO Public Schools’ Proposal Gets an F from OUSD Teacher | Classroom Struggle:

GO Public Schools’ Proposal Gets an F from OUSD Teacher

by ClassroomStruggle

We post a fiery letter  from an OUSD teacher who attended GO Public Schools’ event Wednesday night.  There GO and a coalition of other organizations (including SEIU 1021, Youth Together, Youth Uprising, OCO, and Education Trust-West) proposed to evaluate, fire, and hire teachers according to student test score data.  Click here for the report.  The teacher is as angry for what it leaves out as what it proposes.  A must read on a very relevant issue for Oakland, as GO and Tony Smith appear to be making a full-court press to evaluate teachers by test scores.

Dear Great Oakland Public Schools, National Council for Teacher Quality and the Oakland Effective Teaching Coalition,

These are my thoughts about your “Teacher Quality Roadmap” and your event tonight, March 20th.

You presentation was based on an analysis of exceptional, average and weak teachers.

The only brief explanation of how you determine who is an exceptional teacher, average or weak teachers was in the number of years a student’s learning increases within a school year (based on standardized test scores I imagine although this was not explicitly stated). They said that highly effective teachers 

Schools Matter: AERA's Bill Tierney: Clueless Per Usual

Schools Matter: AERA's Bill Tierney: Clueless Per Usual:

AERA's Bill Tierney: Clueless Per Usual

by Jim Horn

Ever since Bill Tierney began his not-so-subtle business-friendly nods to the austerity zealots and the plutocrats who think they know more about education than educators, his emails to the AERA membership have consistently shown him to be a neoliberal do-gooder who has no notion of what it means to do social science research that matters to the educational, political, and cultural health of democratic societies.

Here's an example from near the end of his latest email that offers a failed opportunity to take up the subject of poverty in a way that would lay down a challenge to researchers and academics:

I am suggesting that, based on our mission, we must not simply produce high-quality research with various theoretical frames and methodologies. We must engage directly with policy makers and local communities, and we must take part in thoughtful dialogue with people who disagree with us. . .

Here Tierney offers us a classic false dichotomy of either doing rigorous research that upholds some element 

Not by the numbers Former teacher falls out of good graces with district over school-closure disagreement Sacramento News & Review -

Sacramento News & Review - Not by the numbers - Bites - Opinions - March 21, 2013:

Not by the numbers

Former teacher falls out of good graces with district over school-closure disagreement

Cosmo Garvin 
cosmog@newsreview.com

Read 4 reader submitted comments

This article was published on 03.21.13.

Related stories: Fail Those who supported the deeply flawed Sacramento city school-closure process and outcome need to be held accountable in the media—and in the next election. SN&R, 02.28.13. Laugh it up The Actor’s Theatre of Sacramento presents comedy galore. SN&R, 02.17.11.

Karen Swett is something of a guru when it comes to school budgets, particularly in the Sacramento City Unified School District, where she was once a teacher.
Though retired from the district, she was until a few weeks ago given access to the school district’s online budget data. It’s all public information, but most of us have to go through the district public-information office to get it. Swett got to pull information for herself, accessing the online system, called Escape, and the ability to generate reports on her own.
She says the access came from Superintendent Jonathan Raymondhimself, so that she might help the community better understand school budgets. Swett used her access and her knowledge to work with parents and with the many official school site councils—made up of teachers and parents and principals—who meet to figure out how to make the best of the limited dollars available to each school. She even formed a little nonprofit called Making Cents Work, to help school sites and residents navigate the sometimes bewildering terrain of school finance.
For the most part, Swett kept a pretty low profile, even when she saw things at the district she didn’t agree with. But she couldn’t keep quiet about the district’s mass closure of schools in Sacramento low-income neighborhoods. It didn’t make any sense to her, didn’t save much money, and much more money was being wasted or left on the table in the form of “categorical” funds from the state.
She said so, leading community meetings and working with others who are fighting school closures to come up with an “alternative budget.” She tried to talk some members of the Sac city school board of trustees, hoping to show them just how damaging and unnecessary the 

Rep. Honda's STEM Education Bill Puts a Band-Aid on the Real Problem | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education

Rep. Honda's STEM Education Bill Puts a Band-Aid on the Real Problem | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education:

Rep. Honda's STEM Education Bill Puts a Band-Aid on the Real Problem

by Kate_Lenox

From the article about STEM Education:  "Here's an overview of the problem: If a school district focuses only on performing well on a high-stakes California state test, an opportunity to experience and make applications in science, engineering design and computer science is lost. Rote memorization of facts and figures is over-valued. Our students' school experience, consequently, becomes a test prep factory, a setting devoid of meaningful human interaction and richer curricular connection. A child's spirit of wonder and intrigue becomes a sterile test score result."
There's no arguing with that statement. Business interests have been complaining about schools since the turn of the last century when somehow it was decided that the purpose of public schools was not to educate citizens to participate in our democracy, but to train workers to participate in the economy. These days businesses have a point when they say schools place too much emphasis on testing and rote learning, but it seems they are complaining to the wrong people. It's not individual school district's that place emphasis on testing, it's federal education policy. Why aren't Fortune 500 companies lobbying the federal government ? Why aren't the Silicon Valley companies  that value real learning speaking out against Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. It seems 

Diane in the Evening 3-21-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Karen Lewis on Chicago School Closings

by dianerav

The mass closing of public schools in Chicago should be the lead story on every news channel tonight. It is not. The fact is that a dozen years of No Child Left Behind and three-plus years of Race to the Top has persuaded the American public that closing schools is “reform.”
It is not.
It is a dereliction of responsibility. It is an abdication of any oath of office that a public official in this country takes. It is a betrayal of any commitment to equality of educational opportunity. It is a capitulation to corpora

Outrage! School Closings in Chicago

by dianerav

Guess whose schools were closed? The poorest, the neediest, the children of color. Now the charter operators will decide which ones they want. They will take the “strivers.” Who will take the others?
Which children will be left behind in the era of No Child Left Behind?
Which children come in last in Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top?
How will the PR folks spin the mass closure of 50 public schools as a victory in “the civil rights issue of our 

TFA: Follow the Money

by dianerav

To regular readers of this blog, the story is not new.
Teach for America is one of the richest nonprofit organizations in the United States, yet it passes the begging bowl as if it desperately needs cash.
TFA is a brand, a money machine. Its tax reports got out on the Internet, and now everyone who wants to know knows that TFA collected nearly a billion dollars in a five-year period. And that Wendy Kopp, its CEO, pays 

Who Decided to Close 50 Public Schools in Chicago?

by dianerav

The mass closure of 50 public schools is unprecedented.
Who decided?
This from a reader:
I am appalled at the lack of objectivity, fairness and independence that was brought to the table by the Commission on School Utilization, which conducted the study of school utilization and found, of course, that schools were underutilized. The Chicago Teachers Union has reported that this commission is staffed with those 

Kirp vs. Rhee on L.A. Election

by dianerav

In this pairing of opposites, David Kirp takes on the mythology of corporate reformers and says we should fix theschools we have, rather than close them. He boldly challenges the claims of Michelle Rhee and disparages the hapless Race to the Top
On the same page, Michelle Rhee displays her inability to speak truth. She reviews the Los Angeles school board election and makes the bizarre claim that school board president Monica Garcia won even though she was “strongly targeted” by the United Teachers of Los Angeles.
She neglects to mention that Garcia had the help of the $4 million fund raised by Rhee and friends, while the 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 3-21-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Indiana: Who Is Pushing for and against Common Core by dianerav Indiana voters booted out State superintendent Tony Bennett because of a strange coalition: Democrats who disliked his all-out assault on teachers and public education, allied with Republicans who disliked his fierce advocacy for the Common Core. Now the struggle against the Common Core continues in that state, as advocates like the rightwing Stand for Children run an advertising campaign to suppo... more »

Weekly Leg Fax: Democratic governance of schools | Parents Across America

Weekly Leg Fax: Democratic governance of schools | Parents Across America:

Weekly Leg Fax: Democratic governance of schools

by pureparents

Parent Voices Weekly Education Fax

March 20, 2013

 Support democratic governance of public schools

The story: Legislative proposal seeks to strengthen local control of schools

Last November, voters in Bridgeport, Connecticut rejected a corporate reform-backed effort to strip voters of their right to an elected school board. PAA Connecticut member Wendy Lecker wrote, “Bridgeport’s voters were not fooled by the reformers’ claims. A sound majority elected to retain their right to vote, maintaining public accountability for education.”

87% of last fall’s voters in Chicago favored of an elected school board in the 35 of 50 wards where the advisory referendum was on the ballot**. The initiative was supported by PAA Chicago affiliates 19th Ward Parents Organization and PURE. 19th Ward’s Becky Malone said, “As long as we have an appointed board accountable only to the Mayor, we will never see real change in our public schools.”

Now, Representatives Aaron Schock and Pat Meehan have announced their intention to introduce the Local School Board Governance and Flexibility Act, which will reaffirm the role of local educational agencies as the principal democratic governance body in determining how children in local communities are educated.

Unfortunately, in recent years, this local authority has been unnecessarily eroded through policies and requirements unilaterally established by federal agencies. One such example is the federal Department of Education placing additional requirements on schools boards in order to receive a federal grant.

PAA’s position: PAA strongly supports democratic governance of schools, including elected parent-majority school site councils. We have opposed mandates like Race to the Top which require states and districts to enact questionable policies in order to win federal funding. We also support the right of local communities to approve or disapprove the establishment of charter schools in their communities, either through direct vote or through their school board or other locally-elected body, rather than through appointed commissions.

PAA recommends that Congress give this proposal due consideration when it is introduced.

Louisiana wants to link student funding to test scores:

Louisiana wants to link student funding to test scores

Posted by Valerie Strauss on March 21, 2013 at 1:52 pm

Just when you think there are no other ways to pervert the use of  high-stakes standardized test scores, school reformers show just how creative they are.

Its not enough, apparently, to judge students, teachers, principals, schools, districts and states, on test scores, not to mention the Education Department’sproposal to evaluate education schools based on the test scores earned by the students of their graduates. (Got that?) Now Louisiana Education Superintendent John White has come up with a novel idea: He wants to link the funding for students labeled “gifted” to how well they do on standardized tests. Really. Money for test scores.

The plan, already approved by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and set to be considered by the Louisiana legislature this spring, is part of an overall $3.5 billion school funding proposal.

One part, according to The Advocate, would apply to gifted and talented high school 

Students seek to repeal Alabama law forcing teachers to say homosexuality is criminal

by Valerie Strauss

In Alabama, a 1992 state law requires that sex education teachers tell students that homosexuality is a crime and that it is “not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public.” Now two Alabama students have started a petition on change.org … Continue reading →

Restraining Special Needs Students-A Practice that Must Be Stopped | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Restraining Special Needs Students-A Practice that Must Be Stopped | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

Restraining Special Needs Students-A Practice that Must Be Stopped

by Special Olympics Project UNIFY

The following blog post is from Samantha Huffman and was written in response to a recent article about a special needs student who was bound with duct tape during school.
Samantha is a former National Youth Activation Committee member and current senior, studying Elementary Education at Hanover College. Samantha has been a student leader in Project UNIFY for many years.
I recently went to a conference where a young man with cerebral palsy kept bringing up how we needed to focus on students with disabilities being tied down to chairs or restrained and/or harmed in some other way by educators. I kept thinking to myself how this wasn’t important because this would never be allowed to happen in a school in today’s society. I’m a senior Elementary Education major and never once in my four years of classes have we addressed the idea of restraining students because that’s just plain wrong, isn’t it? Well, apparently I was living in some kind of dream world and this young man at the conference was living in the real world.
read more

Schools Matter: Another "Reformer" Cherry-Picks Data

Schools Matter: Another "Reformer" Cherry-Picks Data:

Another "Reformer" Cherry-Picks Data

by John Thompson

Not all reformers read a quantitative study that seems to confirm their opinions and then get rhapsodic in speculating about Mr. Keating, the teacher at the “tony prep school” portrayed in the classic film, Dead Poet’s Society.  But, Sarah Rosenberg’s “Oh Captain! My Captain!” illustrates the common pattern of wonks who cherry-pick studies in order to support their preferred policies.

Rosenberg misstates the findings of the Calder Center’s “Portability of Teachers Effectiveness Across Schools,”by Zeyu Xu, Umut Ozek, and Matthew Corritore. It uses value-added data from tens of thousands of elementary and secondary school teachers in North Carolina and Florida, and it found, on the average, “either no change or a slight increase in a teacher’s measured effectiveness after changing schools.”

She then goes overboard in arguing, “This research should muffle critics of high-stakes evaluation systems who argue that teachers in low-performing schools cannot reach the same student achievement gains as other teachers and are punished when student achievement is incorporated into a teacher’s evaluation.”

Actually, Xu, et.al find the “pattern is most likely to be driven by regression to the mean and that it is not 

UPDATE: Today, the Illinois House is killing us + The battle is joined. Protesters gather in front of Board President Vitale’s home. | Fred Klonsky

The battle is joined. Protesters gather in front of Board President Vitale’s home. | Fred Klonsky:

Yesterday it was the Senate. Today, the Illinois House is killing us.

by Fred Klonsky

Chicago Sun-Times:

SPRINGFIELD-The Illinois House voted Thursday to limit compounding annual cost-of-living increases for state retirees in a constitutionally questionable move targeting the largest driver of the state’s $97 billion pension crisis.

The Senate-bound measure, sponsored by House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), passed the House on a 66-50 roll call and would affect current and retired state workers, university employees, legislators and downstate and suburban teachers. Judges weren’t included.

Under the measure, current and future public employees would have to wait until age 67 or five years after retirement to begin collecting retirement benefits. State employees” annual cost-of-living adjustments would be capped at the lesser of 3 percent or $750 per year.

“This single benefit is the most expensive single component of the pension 

The battle is joined. Protesters gather in front of Board President Vitale’s home.

by Fred Klonsky

As the names of schools to be closed are slowly released today by the Chicago board of education, protesters gather in front of board President David Vitale’s home. On Wednesday, thousands will meet at the Daley Center at 4PM. Many have been training for massive acts of non-violent civil disobedience to keep public schools open in all neighborhoods.

UPDATE: Are the Vetting Measures in Seattle Schools HR Adequate? + Seattle Schools Community Forum: It's Time to Turn the Page on Math in Seattle Schools

Seattle Schools Community Forum: It's Time to Turn the Page on Math in Seattle Schools:

How big is the policy book?

by Charlie Mas

In a discussion about the 12th grade humanities class at The Center School, commenter parent wrote:
"They've got so many procedures and policies, it's impossible to follow them." I have heard Director Martin-Morris describe them as a long shelf stuffed with binders. That's not accurate.

I hear this sort of thing all the time. I also observe the reaction I get from people when my knowledge of School Board policies is displayed. They are generally surprised. That's not appropriate.

Here's the truth: You could probably read all of the policies in a single sitting in a single afternoon.

There aren't that many policies and most of them are pretty brief. You, too, could become a policy expert 

Alliance for Education Community Breakfast

by Charlie Mas

There’s still time to RSVP to join the Alliance for Education and hundreds of other supporters of public education in celebrating the students, teachers, and principals of Seattle Public Schools at the Alliance for Education's 11th annual Community Breakfast on Thursday, March 28.

This year’s keynote speaker, John Danner, co-founder and former CEO of Rocketship Education is currently working as the founder of a newly established online education software development company. He will share lessons he has learned in advancing blended and personalized K-12 learning through technological innovation.

The event will take place on Thursday, March 28, 2013 at The Westin Seattle, 1900 Fifth Avenue 98101. Doors will open at 7:00am, the breakfast program begins at 7:30am, and the program is scheduled to conclude at 8:45am.

Are the Vetting Measures in Seattle Schools HR Adequate?

by Melissa Westbrook

It would seem something is amiss.

From Q-13 News:

The 12-year-old special education student at Hamilton International Middle School reported the alleged incident Wednesday to school officials, who called police.

The substitute teacher isn’t employed by the school district, but a spokesperson said he won’t get any other assignments in the district until the police investigation is complete.

The boy, who is not being identified since he is underage, said the alleged incident happened between classes 

It's Time to Turn the Page on Math in Seattle Schools

by Melissa Westbrook

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Guest Post by Rick Burke

Days are getting longer, the weather is warmer.  The smell of spring is in the air.  But if you inhale deeply down by JSCEE, there’s another smell.  It’s the smell of math.  After years of sideways movement, the stars are aligned for systemic changes to math instruction in Seattle Public Schools.

When you look at Seattle kids’ math achievement against other urban districts, Seattle might seem to be doing OK.  As a district-level statistic, we’re not too bad.  But closer inspection of disaggregated data and the view from inside the system prompt a cry for help.  Seattle still has a large number of struggling students and a persistent achievement gap which we can’t shake.  Outside tutoring has become commonplace, with math as the most frequent remediation subject.  However, recent national and state developments have identified common ground and outcome-proven methods which can serve as a model for Seattle.

This brings us around to a community support initiative for math education.  Seattle has a math-focused School Board, and Seattle’s new superintendent, Jose Banda, came to Seattle from proven math success with a diverse student population in Anaheim.  Recent news reports are that staff at JSCEE are planning a K-8 math instructional materials adoption soon.  Examples of success are scattered through Seattle classrooms and it's 

ASCD Recognizes Outstanding Young Educators — Whole Child Education

ASCD Recognizes Outstanding Young Educators — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

ASCD Recognizes Outstanding Young Educators

March 21, 2013 by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

ASCD salutes a new generation's passion for education excellence through this year's selection of two Outstanding Young Educator Award winners: Joshua Garcia, deputy superintendent of Tacoma Public Schools (Wash.), and Parkville High School (Parkville, Md.) teacher Ryan Twentey. Twentey teaches art, photography, and interactive media production and also serves as the school's technology liaison.

This award celebrates teachers and administrators who demonstrate outstanding leadership, as well as a passion for and commitment to educating the whole child; improving student engagement, achievement, and learning; and contributing to the education profession.

Joshua Garcia

Garcia strongly believes in creating success for every learner. "Every student can graduate prepared for higher education," Garcia says. "In order to provide each child with a whole child education, school and community leaders must relentlessly dissolve barriers and build cohesive systems that foster excellence. 

Natalie Meier – On the Importance of Allyship Student Voice

Student Voice:

Natalie Meier – On the Importance of Allyship

by admin

At my school, we have an LGBTQ* club, a Black Women’s Collective, a Mujeres Unidas club for students who identify as latina/o, and even an Asian Pacific Islander club. There is no question that these organizations are all incredible networks of support for the students who identify with them and proudly call themselves members.

What we have a lack of, are connections between those clubs. Specifically where gender identity and expression are concerned.
A few weeks ago in Mouthing Off, the LGBTQ* club on campus, we discussed what it means to be an ally to a student of color who also identifies as LGBTQ*. Many students expressed confusing feelings about the fact that Mouthing Off was a space for them to discuss their sexuality, while other racially identified clubs were places where they could discuss their racial identities. However, a common denominator among their statements was that they did not feel that there was a place for those identities to coexist.   
While this realization alone is unsettling, it sparked a productive conversation that ultimately led to the