As Long As You’re Filling Out School Forms – How About One For Opting Out? | Missouri Education Watchdog

As Long As You’re Filling Out School Forms – How About One For Opting Out? | Missouri Education Watchdog:

As Long As You’re Filling Out School Forms – How About One For Opting Out?

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HB1490 is a first step towards reclaiming local control of education. Unfortunately it did not do away with standardized testing so districts will be giving the SBAC tests next spring (2015). They will be referred to as pilot tests. These are tests that have no validity or reliability data to prove that they measure what they claim to measure. The developers are just now trying to figure out cut scores for proficiency by asking teachers to give their opinion on where it should be set. Sounds real scientific. If Missouri is developing its own standards and now, by law, must have a new test aligned to those standards, the SBAC tests will not be with us long which is even more reason why taking these pilot tests a waste of your child’s time. Maybe it’s time to fill out an Opt Out form and submit it to your child’s school along with all the other forms they want you to fill out.

The ACLU was looking into mounting a legal challenge to forced standardized testing in 2012. They were looking for parents whose children received a penalty/threats for opting out of testing. I couldn’t find an update on where they are, but if you want to participate in the complaint they asked you to send the following:

• your story
• permission to join in on the ACLU complaint
• your return address
• a signature on a hard copy

Submit to: Nina Bishop, 3065 Windward Way, Colorado Springs, CO 80917
Questions: 719-233-1508

Last year was the first year that parents tried in earnest to opt out of testing so it seems reasonable that there weren’t that many threats before 2013. However, thirty thousand parents did opt their kids out of the New York tests this spring and none of those kids were expelled or suspended.

That’s not to say the picture is all rosy. There are plenty of schools that are attempting to  As Long As You’re Filling Out School Forms – How About One For Opting Out? | Missouri Education Watchdog:

8/15/2014 – Character Change In The ‘Education Reform’ Soap Opera

8/15/2014 – Character Change In The ‘Education Reform’ Soap Opera:

8/15/2014 – Character Change In The ‘Education Reform’ Soap Opera

August 15, 2014 Subscribe

THIS WEEK: Teachers Not Prepared For Common Core … Test Resistance Grows … Ed-Tech Teaching Machines … Charter School Corruption … College Debt’s Long-Term Damages

TOP STORY

Character Change In The ‘Education Reform’ Soap Opera

By Jeff Bryant

“With the resignation of Michelle Rhee from the organization she founded, StudentsFirst, what we witnessed is an alteration of a script already written by very wealthy people who’ve created an elaborate fiction for how the nation should educate its children.”
Read more …

NEWS AND VIEWS

Despite Training, Half of Teachers Feel Inadequately Prepared for Common Core

Education Week

“Teachers are getting steadily more training in the common core, but they’re not feeling much more prepared to teach it, according to survey results … While far more teachers are attending common-core training, they are giving those sessions low marks for quality … As states edge closer to giving common-core-aligned assessments this spring, it’s notable that the survey found that few teachers were getting training about the tests. Only 23 percent reported that the assessments had been a topic of professional development … Nearly six in 10 said their main curricular materials were not aligned to the new standards.”
Read more …

National Resistance To High-Stakes Testing Grows Even Before School Year Begins

Substance News

“Resistance to the regime of high-stakes testing … never stopped organizing after last year’s testing cycle ended … With another group of secret tests being foisted on American public school children this school year … the Resistance continues to have several issues to confront. Following the debacle of the debate against Common Core … even more teachers are becoming aware of the issues … The Opt Out movement and the Resistance to high-stakes testing can presently be seen to be nationwide.”
Read more …

Google Classroom And The Teaching Machine

Hack Education

Ed-tech blogger Audrey Waters writes on her personal blog, “Much of the history of education technology from the early 20th century onward is concerned with … long-running efforts to automate assignments and assessment … These are frequently framed as ‘labor-saving’ advancements for teachers, who as psychologist Sidney Pressey wrote in 1926, are ‘woefully burdened by such routine of drill and information-fixing’ … The irony seems to be lost on Pressey, no doubt, that the drudgery of repeated grading and testing was a result of the very practices that he and his fellow psychologists had promoted. The irony is still lost on many folks today … Pressey first demonstrated his teaching machine … to the American Psychological Association in 1924 … We can see in Pressey’s machine one of the early attempts to automate the practice of standardized testing … Looking too at the Google Classroom launch with a grading scale based on 100 points (a grading scale that is not ‘natural,’ that has a history) – that technology does not simply work in the service of supporting educational practices. Technology shapes, limits, steers those practices.”
Read more …

How Will Charter Schools Deal With Their Corruption Scandals?

The Washington Post

“Charter schools were originally conceived as centers of experimentation and innovation where educators could try new approaches quickly on a small scale with a minimum of paperwork … That same openness that allows new ideas to flourish may also have left the sector vulnerable to a dangerous level of corruption … Now recent investigations from the Detroit Free Press, South Florida’s Sun-Sentinel, and the Florida League of Women Voters have painted a troubling picture of two out-of-control charter school systems … The charter school systems of Florida and Michigan were set up under the explicit assumptions that choice and market forces could allow a massive government funded set of private companies to run with only minimal oversight and regulation … It is time to start questioning the effectiveness of these policies and their cost to both taxpayers and, more importantly, to students.”
Read more …

Student Debt May Damage Grads’ Lives More Than We Realize, Gallup Finds

The Huffington Post

“College undergrads who take on a lot of student loan debt are less likely to thrive in several key areas after graduation … Major student debt tends to burden the graduates’ lives well beyond their wallets … Graduates who had taken on debt of more than $50,000 were more likely than their less-burdened counterparts to be struggling or suffering in four areas: purpose, financial, community, and physical … Even after controlling for socioeconomic status (using the common proxy of the mother’s highest level of education), the most indebted graduates still had lower ratings in well-being … Graduates’ well-being may suffer in part, Gallup suggested, because student debt often leads people to defer major life events, like getting married and buying a home.’”
Read more …

Full House at West Philly Town Meeting on Local Control of Schools | WeArePCAPS

Full House at West Philly Town Meeting on Local Control of Schools | WeArePCAPS:

Full House at West Philly Town Meeting on Local Control of Schools

Posted on August 15, 2014by wearepcaps

Panel discusses why returning control of our schools to the people of Philadelphia is needed

Over a hundred people gathered last night at Monumental Baptist Church to press for ending the 13 year old failed experiment with the School Reform Commission and return our schools to local control. For PCAPS this demand is part of a broader campaign to elect a Governor and legislators who are committed to quality education for all children.

A panel of parent Kia Hinton from ACTION United, Maureen O’Driscoll, Kindergarten teacher at JB Kelly and two student members of BPSOS, Kenneth and Cassandra from Central and Girls High talked about what state control of schools has mean’t for them. All three speakers hit on the impact of the failure of the state to fund our schools. The other theme was the SRC denys all of us a democratic voice in determining what happens in our schools. Rev. Dr. Matsen, the pastor of Monumental Baptist also spoke, focusing on the historic and continuing inequality between inner city schools and the affluent suburbs. State Representative James Roebuck opened the meeting with a strong pledge of support for the local control campaign.

Besides hearing from the speakers, town hall participants, phoned, tweeted, wrote postcards and emails to City Council and the Mayor calling for allowing the ballot question on returning our schools to local control to go forward. Working Families Organization Director Kati Sipp told the audience that in spite of 40,000 signatures on petitions to Full House at West Philly Town Meeting on Local Control of Schools | WeArePCAPS:

PCAPS Statement on School Redesign Initiative

For years many of us have called for teacher led, community based approaches to improving schools as opposed to school “turnaround” policies that arbitrarily replace school staff and turn schools over to charters or outside managers. In that spirit we welcome the School Redesign Initiative as a District effort to respond positively to these concerns. The SRI does open a window for educators, pare

by wearepcaps / 1h 

A call for national online teacher credential :: SI&A Cabinet Report

A call for national online teacher credential :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

AUGUST 15, 2014

A call for national online teacher credential

by Tom Chorneau

(Colo.) The principal of one of the nation’s largest and oldest online learning academies recently visited a Pennsylvania district that needed advanced placement instruction for about 100 students. The online program seemed a perfect fit, having full accreditation and NCAA-approved courses with highly qualified teachers ready to go.

The only problem was that instructors from the Florida Virtual School couldn’t meet specifics of the Pennsylvania certification requirements.

The patchwork of teacher licensing requirements nationwide has never been much of a problem given that so few educators need to be certified in multiple states simultaneously. But now, argues a new report from the Evergreen Education Group, the varied landscape of state-centered teacher licensing requirements is slowing the advance of online learning.

“Streamlining the teaching licensing process to allow teachers to more easily work across multiple states would increase high-quality online educational opportunities for students, and extend the reach of high-quality teachers,” argue researchers John Watson, Amy Murin and Larry Page.

“States should create an online teaching specialization that would allow a teacher licensed in any state to teach online students in any state without having to go through a separate licensure process in each state,” the Evergreen team suggested.

Currently no state has a separate licensing option for online teaching and very few have a defined professional development pathway to support digital instruction, according to the EvergreenA call for national online teacher credential :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet: 

And now for something completely different | InterACT

And now for something completely different | InterACT:

And now for something completely different

AUGUST 15, 2014

by David B. Cohen

Back to school time (photo by the author)

I went to the annual opening-of-school event for my district again this year – my 13th time. It’s a small enough district that we can bring together all 1,600 staff members to celebrate the start of a new year, hear from some of our district’s leaders, and acknowledge our new staff and those returning for their 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, 30th, or 35th year. There are some people who skip it every year and consider it a waste of time, and if we measure the quality of time strictly in terms ofgetting stuff done then I suppose that’s true.

Not for me though – I look forward to this event each year as an opportunity to connect with colleagues across the district, and to take in some of the best of our district’s organizational culture. There’s food, music, humor, and genuine appreciation for the work of every staff member. Veteran teachers will tell you that the people who really keep our schools running, by the way, are the custodial and clerical staff. They know everyone and everything and they’re the ones we turn to for getting stuff done. I also heard today that our district staff, overall, includes roughly 50% teachers, 44% classified staff, and 6% administration.

I must really like this event, because this year, I’m on a leave of absence from teaching – and I went anyways. (More about that to follow. Something completely different. Please read on!)

I like clapping for my colleagues as their names are announced in honor of their years of service. I marvel at the longevity and commitment, and appreciate the depth of their experience. I chat with people sitting near me and as familiar names go by, we share what we know about these friends, neighbors, peers, the teachers of our own children in some cases. I enjoy even more And now for something completely different | InterACT:

Shanker Blog » The Semantics of Test Scores

Shanker Blog » The Semantics of Test Scores:

The Semantics Of Test Scores

Posted by Jennifer Borgioli on August 15, 2014

Our guest author today is Jennifer Borgioli, a Senior Consultant with Learner-Centered Initiatives, Ltd., where she supports schools with designing performance based assessments, data analysis, and curriculum design.

The chart below was taken from the 2014 report on student performance on the Grades 3-8 tests administered by the New York State Department of Education.

Based on this chart, which of the following statements is the most accurate?

A. “64 percent of 8th grade students failed the ELA test”

B. “36 percent of 8th graders are at grade level in reading and writing”

C. “36 percent of students meet or exceed the proficiency standard (Level 3 or 4) on the Grade 8 CCLS-aligned math test”

Seems like a trick question, doesn’t it? It’s almost as if all three choices are basically saying the same thing. Both Aand B are common refrains in different education circles, and C sounds a bit like bureaucratic word-smithing.  So, like any good test taker, let’s make sure we understand the difference between the choices before picking our answer.

Statement A is perhaps the most common format for these types of descriptions. It is often used as a talking point of sorts, one that usually consists of two elements – a shockingly large number and some variation of fail,failure or the inverse, “passing.” Before we pick A as the most “accurate” choice, however, we have to tap some of our background knowledge and consider what it means to pass or fail a test.

Generally speaking, when we talk about a test where the resulting score is described as passing or failing, it’s in relation to the consequences for the test taker. Fail your driver’s test? You can’t drive. Pass your boards? Welcome to the profession, Doctor. Both of these examples are clear pass/fail tests. In contrast, after taking the Armed Shanker Blog » The Semantics of Test Scores:

NYC Educator: The Day 127 Tests Up and Walked Away

NYC Educator: The Day 127 Tests Up and Walked Away:

The Day 127 Tests Up and Walked Away

Last June, my eyes popped wide and I snapped this picture outside my Regents' grading site.  Students' regents exams were sitting exposed to all in an open vehicle.  It struck me as odd and unsafe at the time.  I didn't think and I still don't think that anyone would steal exams.  It would have to be one desperate criminal.  First, there's no money to be made in it; two, the boxes are very heavy and, three, it surely, in some ways, constitutes a crime against humanity.  I suppose some unschooled crook might have supposed the box to be filled by unmarked bills, but I think it is far more likely that the boxes were lost through carelessness, rather than crime.  My vague sense of foreboding about the situation, unfortunately, turned out to be correct.

The New York Post recently published a piece entitled, "127 students must retake Regents after city loses their exams."  One could not help but feel for the kids at Thomas Edison Career and Technical Education HS, Community Leadership, Hillside Arts and Letters Academy and Jamaica Gateway, all in Jamaica, Queens.  I suppose some people view these students as statistics, but each has his or her own story of hardship.  And, I feel like anyone of them could be my student or my child someday.

Tests have been lost before, but only recently has the situation worsened.   In 2012, seventeen exams from FDR HS in Brooklyn were lost.  Last NYC Educator: The Day 127 Tests Up and Walked Away:

solidaridad: AALA: George McKenna, AALA-Supported Board Candidate, Wins Election!

solidaridad: AALA: George McKenna, AALA-Supported Board Candidate, Wins Election!:

AALA: George McKenna, AALA-Supported Board Candidate, Wins Election!

Reprinted from AALA Update on August 18, 2014

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AALA extends congratulations to Dr. George McKenna on his election to become the Board of Education Member representing District 1. Dr. McKenna is filling the seat that has been vacant since the death of Marguerite LaMotte in December 2013. This marks the fifth AALA-endorsed candidate to win a seat on the LAUSD Board. Dr. McKenna joins fellow AALA- supported colleagues Bennett Kayser, Mónica Ratliff, Dr. Richard Vladovic and Steve Zimmer.

In an election that pitted a veteran educator against an inexperienced politician, with only eight percent of those eligible voting, it is noteworthy that the deep pockets/outside interests were again unsuccessful in their bid to control the outcome. This is, fortunately, becoming a trend in the LAUSD Board of Education races. So-called education reformers and charter school advocates from around the country have poured millions of dollars into these local campaigns in an effort to privatize the second largest school district in the country. It is a testament to the influence of local administrators, teachers, other employees and community groups that voters were not swayed by all of the glossy, negative campaign material distributed by Dr. McKenna’s opponent.

It is unfortunate that young, inexperienced political aspirants are being used to further the interests of corporate reformers. We have seen this in the last three Board elections, most notably, with the election of AALA-supported Mónica Ratliff and Steve Zimmer, who were both opposed by candidates who had little experience or knowledge, but lots of money from Independent Expenditure Campaigns. In this current election, George McKenna spent about one-fourth of the amount that his opponent expended, yet he was able to maintain nearly the same solid showing that was garnered in the primary. Let this be a lesson that the voters of Los Angeles will not succumb to the smear campaigning that is fueled by donations from those who do not live in the community, have no children in the schools and no vested interest in improving the lives of the students of LAUSD.

Dr. McKenna will immediately assume his position on the Board of solidaridad: AALA: George McKenna, AALA-Supported Board Candidate, Wins Election!:

Adults, Please Get Out The Way [How Students Do It] - The Jose Vilson

Adults, Please Get Out The Way [How Students Do It] - The Jose Vilson:



Adults, Please Get Out The Way [How Students Do It]

This morning, I imagined Marvin Gaye would have a few things to say about what’s going on today:

Today was supposed to be Michael Brown’s fourth day in college, getting acclimated with the ins and outs of college life, surely different than the humdrum K-12 bells. Sadly, he never got his chance at college and career readiness as the Ferguson police’s hands still smell of blood and tear gas. We never got the chance to see Michael Brown past the few pictures that the media has offered and the sharp image of him mother mourning. The names of young women and men who also had their potential stolen from them read like one of my student rosters at school.

Then it hit me. The activism around Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Renisha McBride, and, more recently, Michael Brown, ripe with young folk doing amazing speaking and organizing, should serve as a reminder to adults a) how much we as adults often look down upon younger generations and b) how much potential the next generations have to move people forward.

In spite of the tragedy and strife of concluding that these public institutions aren’t made for youth of color in mind, our nation’s Adults, Please Get Out The Way [How Students Do It] - The Jose Vilson:

California state auditor probing LA's Magnolia charter schools | 89.3 KPCC

California state auditor probing LA's Magnolia charter schools | 89.3 KPCC:



California state auditor probing LA's Magnolia charter schools

 The California State Auditor is investigating Magnolia Public Schools, a Southern California-based charter network that has been accused by L.A. Unified of misusing funds.

"Magnolia Science academies, like all other charter schools in the state, are public schools; as such they receive tax payer dollars for their operations," Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian of Sherman Oaks said in his request for the audit.

The state's audit will cost $320,000 and scrutinize a minimum of four of the network's 11 schools, sifting through vendor and payroll records, truancy and test score data and fundraising practices.

Magnolia Public School officials said they welcome the evaluation.

"Our school leadership has always embraced a policy of transparency and accountability when it comes to the fiscal solvency of Magnolia Public Schools and our commitment to superior student achievement," said Mike MeCey, a spokesman for Magnolia.

Nazarian asked for the probe at Thursday's meeting of the California Joint Committee on Legislative Audit, on which he is seated, in response to findings by L.A. Unified's Office of Inspector General. California state auditor probing LA's Magnolia charter schools | 89.3 KPCC:

Dan Chang’s dark money SuperPAC now switches to funding Marshall Tuck:

Dan Chang’s dark money SuperPAC now switches to funding Marshall Tuck

AUGUST 15, 2014 BY ROBERT D. SKEELS * RDSATHENE LEAVE A COMMENT

“We have our cake, and are eating it too.” — Eli Broad

Dan Chang’s SuperPAC, formed to support erstwhile LAUSD candidate Alex “ALEC” Johnson, is now funding a new astroturf group to get his fellow Broad Urban Residency alum, Marshall Tuck, elected to the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction seat. Using the wonderful astroturf name “Parents for Marshall Tuck”, we can be sure that no authentic parents are running the Independent Expenditure (IE) funded by Chang’s Great Public Schools Los Angeles PAC. The new astroturf group’s twitter ishttps://twitter.com/parentsfortuck, you can access their website from there.

• For background on Dan Chang
• For background on Marshall Tuck

Broad Urban Residency graduates Dan Chang and Marshall Tuck combined have zero hours experience teaching in a public school classroom.

Dan Chang’s dark money SuperPAC now switches to funding Marshall Tuck:

A vivid symbol of all that is wrong with state government: Hint – It’s not about the teachers | Reclaim Reform

A vivid symbol of all that is wrong with state government: Hint – It’s not about the teachers | Reclaim Reform:

A vivid symbol of all that is wrong with state government: Hint – It’s not about the teachers

Posted on August 14, 2014by Ken Previti

The following is a letter from a dear friend who chooses to remain anonymous. She tells about the State of Illinois Building as a symbol of its government today.
(Yes, many states are suffering under the same situation.)

The two name calling gubernatorial candidates refuse to address the actual workings of the government. Gov. Pat “Quinnochio” Quinn (D) and “Bruce the Billionaire” Rauner (R), who keeps his money in the Cayman Islands rather than pay his own taxes, are not about to make any positive moves to repair the state or the State of Illinois Building.

They are both devoted to cutting public services and the pensions of greedy teachers and other public employees which will have little if any positive economic impact on the state’s massive debt problem. At the same time, they both promise to cut taxes for corporations and the mega-wealthy.

The James R. Thompson Center (JRTC) in Chicago, where I worked for 21+ years, has always been a disgrace, in that it was built without regard to how it was to be used by various state agencies (hearings and other work were routinely interrupted by noon time loud entertainment in the lower level), without regard to easy maintenance or security (elevator parts came from a German company, which A vivid symbol of all that is wrong with state government: Hint – It’s not about the teachers | Reclaim Reform:

Survival Guide to Teaching Alternative School, Part I — The First Days | Life at the Intersections

Survival Guide to Teaching Alternative School, Part I — The First Days | Life at the Intersections:

SURVIVAL GUIDE TO TEACHING ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL, PART I — THE FIRST DAYS

AUGUST 14, 2014 BRETT DICKERSON

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Out of the 16 years that I spent teaching in public schools, 6 were spent teaching in alternative schools. I know some stuff that might help.

This is my good news for you about teaching in alternative school:

You will become a far better teacher than you ever would have if you spent the same amount of time in a traditional school with seemingly compliant students.

But first, to survive those first few days, prepare to…

Understand the Institutional Realities

You will have to navigate through some realities of alternative school life that are there even before the first student walks in:

• Some alternative schools were formed decades ago, but suffer from a lack of institutional memory due to heavy staff turnover.
• Some have been started in a panic this summer and will be writing the opera as they sing it during this, and maybe even next, year. Not only have you just been hired in August, but your principal was hired in July.
• Some are choice schools and so students must apply, which means that some families will do that the day before school starts. This means the principal doesn’t know how many to staff for in the coming year. Choice alternative schools start with 10 to 100 and might end the year with 200+. Your mileage may vary accordingly.
• Some are mandatory, disciplinary, alternative schools, which are always on the verge of becoming toxic environments due to the students’ being coerced to be there for negative reasons.
• While some are housed in nice, purpose-built buildings, most are not. My first year of teaching was in an alternative school that met in a National Guard Armory still being used by the National Guard. Some are in an isolated portable. Some are in storefronts and old office locations.

The upshot of all of this variety is that flexibility about facilities, faculty, staff, furnishings, and student numbers is a MUST. 

I’m not trying to be funny. It really is.

Understand the Students

The hardest part of any teaching is understanding the students. And in alternative school, developing an understanding of your students will be even more critical to your success with them.

The most important thing to remember, especially in the first few Survival Guide to Teaching Alternative School, Part I — The First Days | Life at the Intersections:

Bill Gates’ Market-Driven Experiments Are Not Ready for Prime-Time Public Ed | Teachers' Letters to Bill Gates

Bill Gates’ Market-Driven Experiments Are Not Ready for Prime-Time Public Ed | Teachers' Letters to Bill Gates:

Bill Gates’ Market-Driven Experiments Are Not Ready for Prime-Time Public Ed

Posted on August 14, 2014by Teachers'LettersToBillGates

Dear Mr. Gates,

Your Foundation contributions always seem to make for interesting prime time news. The real story about what is actually happening on the ground where your market-driven policies are now the “norm” is relegated to other venues such as academic research, progressive blogs and media outlets.

While it is honorable for anyone with your wealth to do whatever possible to give back to the community, the community that helped you make your wealth, your history of failed experiments with so-called market-driven, data-based education is well documented.

The test and punish, high stakes testing mandates and the calls for teacher accountability as a means towards improving education have clearly failed an entire generation. Despite this failed policy, however, we are facing the same failed policies on steroids with Race to the Top and the new Common Core Standards.

As communities that have witnessed the impact of these policies, we have shown enormous patience, allowing you to explore untested educational practices with our children, even practices that are disproved by respected education experts at our finest institutions of higher learning (CREDO study from Stanford University).

Expert educators, including teachers, as well as students and families, understand that these undemocratic, and unproven practices are extremely harmful to the students that you say you want to help. Sadly, this seems to have little or no influence on you to stop and consider that perhaps it is time that you respect the educators and listen to the experts.

Perhaps your wealth and influence could be put to better use and have greater results in real solutions to our public schools, if your programs were designed to function like the Bill Gates’ Market-Driven Experiments Are Not Ready for Prime-Time Public Ed | Teachers' Letters to Bill Gates: