New York State Senator: Concerns About Common Core Not Limited to Small Contingent | Truth in American Education

New York State Senator: Concerns About Common Core Not Limited to Small Contingent | Truth in American Education:

New York State Senator: Concerns About Common Core Not Limited to Small Contingent

Filed in Common Core State Standards, Education at State Level by Shane Vander Hart on January 9, 2014 •0 Comments

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State Senator George Latimer (D-Westchester) the ranking member on the New York Senate Education Committee wrote an op/ed for the Times Union.  An excerpt:

There are many issues with New York’s implementation of Common Core, and the concerns are not limited to a small contingent, as some have suggested. Real people who have students in schools and are of every ethnic, socioeconomic, gender, age and geographic makeup share reservations about the Common Core. It is also an issue that does not pit Democrats versus Republicans; it is truly about the students…

…The critics of elements of the Common Core, myself included, are not against having 

Connecticut Department of Education Says No to Opting Out of Assessments

Connecticut has received a number of parental opt-out requests from assessments.  Steve Martin, an education consultant with the Connecticut State Department of Education last month wrote a two page primer on the “background, history and suggested protocols for addressing parent requests for students to ‘opt-out’ of mandated state testing.”The Department is tells local education agencies fielding

by Shane Vander Hart / 6h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Gates threatens to pull $40 in Pittsburgh funds unless union caves on VAM

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Gates threatens to pull $40 in Pittsburgh funds unless union caves on VAM:

Gates threatens to pull $40 in Pittsburgh funds unless union caves on VAM

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten's sudden turn against so-called Value-Added Models (VAM) of teacher evaluation or not.

But I see that in Pittsburgh, Bill Gates is threatening to renege on $40 million he promised the district if the teachers union and PPS don't "work in harmony" to develop a VAM plan in which teachers are evaluated and paid on the basis of their student's test scores. Collaboration in this case obviously means that the city's teachers are forced to accept anything the district throws at them for fear of being blamed for losing the Gates money.

Gates pulled the same crap in D.C.

You may remember that Gates, Broad, and Walton pulled the same crap in D.C. when they, along withArne Duncan,  threatened to pull out millions in district funding if voters booted out Mayor Fentyand Michelle Rhee. They did.

But Fenty's replacement Vincent Gray and his current Supt. Kaya Henderson (Rhee's assistant) have bowed to the power philanthropists and continuedRhee-ism (including VAM), without 

1-9-14 Education Research Report: Quality Counts 2014

Education Research Report: Quality Counts 2014:

Quality Counts 2014

Education Week's 18th annual edition, Quality Counts 2014, once again includes a detailed Education Week Research Center examination of state-level education outcomes. This year's installment reflects reconsideration of the framework that has guided the research center's work in previous years.

Recognizing that states, to a great degree, have moved ahead with elements of "standards-based reform" that earlier reports set out to track, this year's Quality Counts does not survey states in the policy category of standards, assessments, and accountability, and in the teaching profession.

In addition, because of U.S. Census Bureau data delays resulting from last fall's federal government shutdown, the print edition of Quality Counts 2014 does not include the annual Chance for Success Index, which is based to a large degree on Census data.

This year's online report does, however, continue the tradition of offering state scores and letter grades for three mainstay elements of Quality Counts: the Chance for Success Index, the K-12 Achievement Index, and school finance.

Grading Highlights

The K-12 Achievement Index scores states on a 100-point scale, against a wide range of 18 indicators or criteria. They include National Assessment of Educational Progress results, high school graduation rates, and Advanced Placement test scores.

The nation this year earns a score of 70.2 and a grade of C-minus, up slightly from 69.7 the last time the analysis was done, in Quality Counts 2012.

Massachusetts took first place with 83.7 points and a grade of B—it has taken the top spot ever since the index was introduced in 2008. Maryland and New Jersey were second and third, earning a B and a B-minus, respectively. By contrast, the District of Columbia and Mississippi both received F grades on this year's index.

In the school finance arena, states were assessed on eight indicators, half of which look at school spending patterns, the other half at the distribution of funding across a state's districts.

When it comes to finance, the United States as a whole earns a C, based on 2011 data, virtually unchanged from last year's report. Wyoming ranked first for the sixth year in 

Study Shows ‘Readability’ Scores Are Largely Inaccurate

Teachers, parents and textbook companies use technical “readability” formulas to determine how difficult reading materials are and to set reading levels by age group. But new research from North Carolina State University shows that the readability formulas are usually inaccurate and offer little insight into which age groups will be able to read and understand a text.“Teachers often use readabilit

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 17h hide  //  save

65 percent of schools in NCLB improvement were eased from those interventions under waivers

After years of arguing against No Child Left Behind (NCLB), over forty states are now taking a different approach to improving their low-performing schools. Armed with waivers from the federal law, these states are using school accountability systems based on relative, rather than absolute, measures of performance. As a result, school accountability today is dramatically different than it was a fe

1 by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 22h 

Operational Authority, Support, and Monitoring of School Turnaround

Federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) support turnaround efforts in the nation’s lowest-performing schools. SIG emphasizes giving school leaders autonomy on matters such as staffing, calendars, and budgets, while also supporting and monitoring their progress. This evaluation brief, “Operational Authority, Support, and Monitoring of School Turnaround,” documents the implementation of policies and

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 23h 

JAN 07

Effects of grade skipping on adult STEM accomplishments among mathematically precocious youth

Using data from a 40-year longitudinal study, the authors of this study examined 3 related hypotheses about the effects of grade skipping on future educational and occupational outcomes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). From a combined sample of 3,467 mathematically precocious students (top 1%), a combination of exact and propensity score matching was used to create bala

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 1d 

Gifted Children Are Getting Lost in the Shuffle

Gifted children are likely to be the next generation's innovators and leaders -- and yet, the exceptionally smart are often invisible in the classroom, lacking the curricula, teacher input and external motivation to reach full potential.This conclusion comes as the result of the largest scientific study of the profoundly gifted to date, a 30-year study conducted by researchers at Vanderbilt Univer

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 1d 

Report Examines Teach For America

Teach For America (TFA) is almost a quarter-century old. Since its launch, the program has experienced phenomenal growth, both in the numbers of participants and in the financial support it has received, and it has enjoyed extensive favorable publicity. Teach For America: A Return to the Evidence, a report authored by professors Julian Vasquez Heilig of the University of Texas and Su Jin Jez of Ca

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 1d 

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School districts throughout the United States are increasingly providing greater autonomy to local public (non-charter) school principals. In 2005–06, Chicago Public Schools initiated the Autonomous Management and Performance Schools program, granting academic, programmatic, and operational freedoms to select principals. This paper provides evidence on how school leaders used their new autonomy an

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 1d 

KIPP Schools Boost Student Achievement

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is an influential and rapidly growing nationwide network of charter schools serving primarily disadvantaged minority students. Prominent elements of KIPP's educational model include high expectations for student achievement and behavior, and a substantial increase in time in school. KIPP is being watched closely by policy makers and educators as a possible mod

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 1d 

 

This Week's Education Research Report 1-4-14 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Education Research ReportTHIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORTStudy shows inflated praise can harm kids with low self-esteemParents and other adults heap the highest praise on children who are most likely to be hurt by the compliments, a new study finds.Researchers found that adults seem to naturally give more inflated praise to children with low self-esteem. But while children with high self-este

by mike simpson / 10h

Pre-K: Why do we not use our existing systems to ask more of... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

Pre-K: Why do we not use our existing systems to ask more of parents? 

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Brant Sanderlin, bsanderlin@ajc.com

Previous Posts

• No Child turns 12. Are all students proficient yet? 
  January 8, 2014
• Board of Regents: Becoming a teacher in Georgia will be harder
  January 8, 2014
• Before we invest more in pre-K, do we need to know more about whether it works? 
  January 8, 2014

By Maureen Downey

Many of you cite Gainesville City Schools as an example of the benefits of smaller school districts. But what distinguishes Gainesville has been its visionary leadership over the years, including current Superintendent Merrianne Dyer.

Here is a note she sent me in response to my post this week on the mixed research on the value of pre-K.

By Superintendent Merrianne Dyer:

The efforts to improve education by expanding pre-K programs attempts to address the root cause of student underperformance in later years.  However, the focus is placed on the wrong group. It is the parents of children from birth to age 4 that could impact the cycle of underperformance. 

Brain research and basic common sense tells us that prenatal development and experience from birth to age 3 shapes the potential of their intellectual as well as physical development. Children entering pre-K at age four already have a blueprint that will design their school achievement.

Why do we not use our existing systems to ask more of parents?  A parent must provide an immunization record, with proof of dental, vision, hearing, and body mass index, in order to enroll 

The Shriver Report – Get the Latest Published Shriver Report, FREE!

The Shriver Report – Get the Latest Published Shriver Report, FREE!:

Get the Latest Published Shriver Report, FREE!

01.09.2014

A Woman’s Nation is releasing its third in a series of Shriver Reports, A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink, in partnership with the Center for American Progress. And it can be downloaded for FREEfrom January 12th to January 15th.  To receive an email reminder when the report is available, sign up for our newsletter.

The report is a groundbreaking investigation into the millions of women who are doing it all and barely scraping by, struggling to provide and parent in a nation that hasn’t kept pace with the modern realities of their lives. It combines research, analysis and ideas from the nation’s top academic institutions and think tanks, essays by leading thinkers, stories of real women struggling with our modern economy, and a comprehensive poll.

The report is exclusively available on Amazon’s Kindle and Kindle App (see below for more details) and will be available free of charge until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, January 15th.

Here’s a sneak peak at the 400-page, comprehensive report, which includes essays from Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Beyoncé, Eva Longoria, LeBron James, Jada Pinkett Smith, Anne-Marie Slaughter and Sheryl Sandberg.

The Shriver Report:
A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink

A New America that Cares

Throughout its history, America has continued to reinvent itself, each time producing a better society for more of us than the one that preceded it. Reconstruction improved on the pre-Civil War republic. The New Deal created a “new America” that was a great improvement on the Gilded-Age America. The civil rights movement generated legislation guaranteeing the equality promised in the Constitution

by Cara Lemieux / 1h 

A 21st Century Moonshot: Health as a Human Right

© marcel – Fotolia.com   As a Washingtonian, I hear lots about solving problems—although we do not always seem to find solutions that work. Our problems seem so intractable, from climate change to feeding billions of people. The solutions are not going to come from approaches that involve repeating some formula that has always worked in the past. Instead, like a beloved math professor who advised

by Kathleen Fordyce / 5h 

Get the Latest Published Shriver Report, FREE!

A Woman’s Nation is releasing its third in a series of Shriver Reports, A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink, in partnership with the Center for American Progress. And it can be downloaded for FREE from January 12th to January 15th.  To receive an email reminder when the report is available, sign up for our newsletter. The report is a groundbreaking investigation into the millions of wome

by Kathleen Fordyce / 5h 

YESTERDAY

Maria Shriver on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” Discussing The Shriver Report

Maria Shriver appears on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight, Wednesday, January 8th, to discuss the upcoming launch of The Shriver Report, A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink in partnership with Center for American Progress and #WhatWomenNeed. Be sure to check it out at 11:35/10:35C Also, sign up for our newsletter to receive a reminder when the report is available for free download f

13 by Cara Lemieux / 11h 

The Shrivers’ Reports to the Heart of the Nation

Photo by Paul Conklin Maria Shriver dedicated her third Shriver Report to her parents, Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. As she summed it up, “Their name is on it too.” Needless to say, this truth runs deeper. Like father like daughter.  And like Maria, Sarge knew that “the source of any political process is the minds and hearts of people.” And like his daughter, he too provided a series of time

3 by Kathleen Fordyce / 21h 

A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink: Powerful and Powerless

Let me state the obvious: I have never lived on the brink. I’ve never been in foreclosure, never applied for food stamps, never had to choose between feeding my children or paying the rent, and never feared I’d lose my paycheck when I had to take time off to care for a sick child or parent. I’m not thrown into crisis mode if I have to pay a parking ticket, or if the rent goes up. If my car breaks

5 by Cara Lemieux / 1d 

empathyeducates – Standards Won’t Change Inequity: A Reader

empathyeducates – Standards Won’t Change Inequity: A Reader:

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Standards Won’t Change Inequity: A Reader

By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D. | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. January 8, 2014

The new Common Core and related tests are likely to continue a three-decade pattern of traditional schooling either integrating the new standards and tests into the existing structure of schools or using the new standards and tests to justify existing practices. And thus, I offer a reader below, highlighting a demonstrable set of interrelated problems with U.S. public schools and higher education—inequitable discipline, retention, and other school-based dynamics disproportionately impacting African American males negatively and college graduation inequity for AA male athletes:

• Revealing New Truths About Our Nation’s Schools (Office of Civil Rights, USDOE)
• Black athletes must pick up the ball on graduation rates
• Black Male Student-Athletes and Racial Inequities in NCAA Division I College Sports
• College athlete reading study: Some play like adults, but have literacy of 5th-graders
• Federal guidelines address discipline in nation’s schools
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• U.S. Criticizes Zero-Tolerance Policies in Schools, from which I highlight:
  

  “We often talk about solving this problem as if it’s an easy problem to solve,” said James 

   What’s the Matter With Kansas’ Schools?
  
  Illustration By David Biskup. New York Times Once upon a time every state in the Union, unequivocally guaranteed a free public education in its Constitution, but that soon may end. Within the month we will know more. The Kansas Supreme Court is expected to decide what Governors […]
  by empathy / 5h