True Education Reform is Possible | The Crucial Voice of the People

True Education Reform is Possible | The Crucial Voice of the People:

True Education Reform is Possible

The truth: Some places do a better job educating children than others.

So what do we really need to do to improve the quality of education for those in need of improving? Must we go the way of lawsuits? Can’t we settle this matter, finish this fight over education reform, like civilized human beings?…..We haven’t seen that so far.

[The following is a modified excerpt from The Crucial Voice of the People, Past and Present ©2012]

As the result of a lawsuit against the state of Massachusetts, a ruling was made that “all children must get an adequate education” and their 1993 Education Reform Actwas created.

The goals were two-fold:

(1) to equalize funding among districts, and

(2) to improve all student performance.

The state chose to use these instruments for change:

(1) increase state spending on education,

(2) create curriculum frameworks that set high expectations for student learning, and

(3) create student performance assessments aligned with the curriculum frameworks.

But there was something else very important to Massachusetts success, the True Education Reform is Possible | The Crucial Voice of the People:

Controversy over Federal NCLB Waivers Creates Opening for Pressure Against Test-and-Punish | janresseger

Controversy over Federal NCLB Waivers Creates Opening for Pressure Against Test-and-Punish | janresseger:

Controversy over Federal NCLB Waivers Creates Opening for Pressure Against Test-and-Punish

Posted on September 9, 2014 by janresseger

The shifting of public opinion sometimes happens while we aren’t paying attention, and then it becomes clear that something has changed.  Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, recently bowed to growing pressure against his policies when he told states they can delay for another year the requirement that they evaluate teachers based on students’ test results.

A couple of weeks ago Motoko Rich in the NY Times presented the history of the use of students’ scores for evaluating teachers:  “Over the past four years, close to 40 states have adopted laws that tie teacher evaluations in part to the performance of their students on standardized tests… These laws were adopted in response to conditions set by the Education Department in the waivers it granted from the No Child Left Behind law, which governs what states must do to receive federal education dollars.  The test-based teacher evaluations were also included as conditions of Race to the Top grants that have been given to states by the Obama administration.”

But recently controversy in several states about whether the U.S. Department of Education will renew or revoke the waivers from ill-conceived mechanisms of No Child Left Behind (NCLB)  have drawn media attention to NCLB’s misguided policies, along with problems in what the waivers required states to do, and  inconsistencies in the way Arne Duncan’s Department of Education is managing the waiver renewal process.

First came the extraordinary early August letter sent to all parents in Vermont by the state’s Secretary of Education, Rebecca Holcombe.  Vermont is one of a handful of states that never applied for a waiver.  That means NCLB is still operating in Vermont, and Holcombe sent the letter required by the law to all parents whose children attend schools considered “failing” by NCLB’s Adequate Yearly Progress mechanism.  The problem is that, because NCLB required Controversy over Federal NCLB Waivers Creates Opening for Pressure Against Test-and-Punish | janresseger:

NYC Educator: Stay Out of the Teacher Lounge, New Teachers

NYC Educator: Stay Out of the Teacher Lounge, New Teachers:

Stay Out of the Teacher Lounge, New Teachers

by special guest blogger Michael Fiorillo 

Last month I gave a short presentation about unionism and the UFT to a group of teachers, many of whom were incoming Teaching Fellows. At one point during the question and answer portion of the event, the topic of divisions (real, imagined and provoked) between veteran and new teachers came up. There was wry acknowledgement of the false stereotypes and caricatures that are used to divide us: veteran teachers are jaded, lazy burn-outs who don’t believe in kids and are responsible for their failure, while newer/younger teachers are arrogant, know-it-all drinkers of ed reform Kool Aid, and crypto strikebreakers (as if  a teacher strike is on anyone’s radar for the next political eon).

In other words, it was the usual nonsense people say, and something that we could shake our heads over and laugh about.

But it was upsetting to hear them say that, in a speech to them and other incoming Fellows (and, according to the  “At the Chalkface” blog, in other venues, as well) at a June welcoming event, the Chancellor told them to stay away from their senior colleagues and “Stay out of the teacher’s lounge.”

For years now, teachers, especially experienced and senior teachers, have been blamed for the “failed status quo” responsible for the frequent dysfunction of the NYC Educator: Stay Out of the Teacher Lounge, New Teachers:

Teachers Wearing Hate on Their Sleeves BY YOHURU WILLIAMS

Teachers Support NYPD:

Teachers Wearing Hate on Their Sleeves

BY YOHURU WILLIAMS

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Why we should all be concerned about the teachers who sported those NYPD shirts.

In the introduction to his 1962 publication The Other America, Michael Harrington notably observed that what the U.S. poor needed most was “an American Dickens”—somebody who, through their writing, could make the poor visible, or better yet real, to the those blinded by their own privilege and comfort.

Unfortunately, the same may be true with regard to the issue of common sense and cultural sensitivity for a group of New York teachers who elected to wear NYPD t-shirts on the first day of school as a sign of solidarity with the New York City police, whose questionable practices regarding minority suspects came under scrutiny again this summer with the chokehold death of an unarmed black man named Eric Garner.

Despite being advised by the United Federation of Teachers not to wear the shirts as a matter of maintaining objectivity and out of concern that community members, parents, and students might rightfully misconstrue their support, the group elected to wear the shirts anyway.

The backlash has been swift and understandable. It is not only the incredible insensitivity of the act but the brazen disregard for the notion of both police and teachers as public servants that is irksome. In an age when so much abuse is heaped on both teachers and police, ostensibly for being out of touch with those they serve, the gesture was more than inappropriate it was damaging.

It was unfortunate for another reason. In the aftermath of rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, following the killing of another unarmed Black person, teenager Michael Brown, teachers from around the country responded in a variety of ways, from fund raising, to social media, to reach out to a community in need. In New York, the United Federation of Teachers even backed a march led by Al Sharpton in support of justice for both Garner and Brown that was intended to be a step toward reconciliation. The UFT’s decision to support the march, however, upset some members critical of Sharpton and what they saw as a rush to judgment against police. It was ostensibly this concern Teachers Support NYPD:

The Conspiracy at PS 154 in the Bronx .southbronxschool

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

The Conspiracy at PS 154 in the Bronx

I never got around to saying thank you for all the support that was shown to me for my blog post of August 7, 2014 in which I shared how my principal, DR Alison Coviello, Ed.D of PS 154 in the Bronx conspired with Michael Agona to ensure that I would be found incompetent.

As a reminder, let us delve into the past and see what DR Alison Coviello, Ed.D wrote to BFF AP Jessica Cruz on August 24, 2012;

“Hey, I revised Zucker’s job description (per the advice of Mike Agona) so that it is focused more on literacy. This way, Agona explained, we’ll have a surer chance of winning a case when our observations detail incompetence.”

Now, hold on just a sec. Bear with me. OK?

It seems that with as with a good cliffhanger, I left some people hanging, and for that I apologize. 

When I was in Chicago last month at a White Sox game, during batting practice SBSB fan and honorary member of The Crack Team Paul Konerko asked me; 

 "Hey, what's up with that blog post of August 7 and the email from DR Alison Coviello, Ed.D? Did not her BFF AP Jessica Cruz respond to it? 

Yes Paul, there was a reply; 
 
--> Hey Alison,     

In Montreal for my mini vacation :-)  Got to say though, Canada is a little "tight or rather uptight"... hopefully things will lighten up today.       

Anyway, here are my suggestions for Zucker's job description.  I think this way (you'll see) lays out the expectation clearly and will support us more in the write-ups. Basically I'm recommending we take out the word should since it implies "it is suggested that"....             

Jess

Notice anything amiss? I mean besides calling Canada "tight or rather uptight"? Seriously, how can http://www.southbronxschool.com:

NYC Public School Parents: Egregious distortions in NYT article on Success Charters, say parents, teachers & journalist

NYC Public School Parents: Egregious distortions in NYT article on Success Charters, say parents, teachers & journalist:

Egregious distortions in NYT article on Success Charters, say parents, teachers & journalist

This Sunday’s NY Times featured an outrageously one-sided article on Success charters.  It is not the first.  One remembers the Steve Brill article from 2010 on Harlem Success Academy which was so similar in tone that I had to keep checking to see that this was not the exact same piece.

The Brill article was replete with many factual errors – claiming that the high-performing students at Success charters were exactly like those as the public schools with which it shared space, even though that was a clear falsehood that any reporter or editor could have checked if they had bothered to look at the data.  This time, the reporter Daniel Bergner admitted that the type of students enrolled may be different, writing in an offhand manner:

On the topic of scores, the U.F.T. and Ravitch insist that Moskowitz’s numbers don’t hold up under scrutiny. Success Academy (like all charters), they say, possesses a demographic advantage over regular public schools, by serving somewhat fewer students with special needs, by teaching fewer students from the city’s most severely dysfunctional families and by using suspensions to push out underperforming students (an accusation that Success Academy vehemently denies). …. But even taking these differences into account probably doesn’t come close to explaining away Success Academy’s results.

Though he mentions that critics cite demographic differences, he doesn’t bother to report the data himself and discounts their impact.  He completely brushes off the higher suspension rates, by saying that Success denies it, but these are well-documented and a Legal Aid attorney argues their practice is illegal. Even the SUNY charter institute, a creature of  the charter lobby, has criticized Success Academy suspensions in documents available online – none of which the reporter mentions, because it is only “critics” who claim their reality.

Bergner only quotes two critics: UFT head Michael Mulgrew (who he depicts as self-interested) and Diane Ravitch, though he left out most of what she said.   At the Huffington Post, Diane Ravitch points out that she told him the following – all left out of his article:

“The only Success Academy school that has fully grown to grades 3-8 tested 116 3rd graders but only 32 8th graders. Three other Success Academy schools have grown to 6th grade. One tested 121 3rd graders but only 55 6th graders, another 106 3rd graders but only 68 6th graders, and the last 83 3rd graders but only 54 6th graders. Why the shrinking student body? When students left the school, they were not replaced by other incoming students. When the eighth grade students who scored well on the state test took the admissions test for the specialized high schools like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science, not one of them passed the test.

I also told Bergner that Success Academy charters have among the highest rates of teacher turnover every year, which would not happen if teachers enjoyed the work. Helen Zelon wrote in "City Limits": "In Harlem Success Academies 1-4, the only schools for which the state posted turnover data, more than half of all NYC Public School Parents: Egregious distortions in NYT article on Success Charters, say parents, teachers & journalist:

What the Market Basket Grocery Strike Can Teach Educators | Life at the Intersections

What the Market Basket Grocery Strike Can Teach Educators | Life at the Intersections:

WHAT THE MARKET BASKET GROCERY STRIKE CAN TEACH EDUCATORS

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014 BRETT DICKERSON

Market Basket strikers – Credit BBC

In just three weeks, employees of Market Basket,  a regional chain of grocery stores based in Massachusetts, pulled off an upset in the world of labor relations: They successfully drove that company’s board of directors to re-hire their loved CEO who had been fired by other distant family members in a boardroom squabble over control of the company.

This successful strike organized by managers, supervisors and workers has much to teach educators about how the power of numbers can offset the power of the rich.

Managers to part-time workers all strike

In these three reports from NPR, The Boston Globe, and the BBC, what we learn about this extraordinary story of labor success has one very large red thread that runs through it.

The newest workers all the way up to the most seasoned supervisors and managers all took part in the action.

The unity and solidarity of the engaged management and the workers created a force that no board of wealthy people could deal with for long. Not only that, the customers were so much in support of the strike, they temporarily stopped shopping there. It didn’t really matter, the shelves were mostly bare anyway.

The fact of the managers and supervisors being involved meant that the company could not do what they usually do which is make the managers work overtime and supervise temps as to what to do. In this case, when the company tried to hire supervisors, no one from top to bottom knew what they were doing.

Educators Learn About Solidarity, Too

This last year my home state of Oklahoma saw an amazing transformation in the politics of education that has similarities to the Market Basket strike.

The so-called “reform” agenda of corporate investor-owned charters is an agenda developed to accuse and discredit public school educators with harsh but inaccurate scrutiny while insisting What the Market Basket Grocery Strike Can Teach Educators | Life at the Intersections:

State sides with fired Teachers Union President | WWLP.com

State sides with fired Teachers Union President | WWLP.com:

State sides with fired Teachers Union President

Gus Morales was fired back in June 

By Yoojin Cho

Related Coverage

• Teachers union president issued “no trespassing” order

• Holyoke teacher feels he was fired for speaking out

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – The Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations has sided with Gus Morales, the Holyoke Teachers Union President who has said he was wrongfully fired in June.

The state ruled that there is reason to believe, the Holyoke School Committee fired Morales because he spoke out against the district policies. Dozens of people gathered in front of Dean Technical High School in Holyoke to show support for Morales.

When 22News talked to Superintendent Dr. Sergio Paez earlier Monday afternoon, he said he wishes Morales would let the district release his personal file, so the community can get the complete picture, why the district did not renew his contract.

Morales told 22News he has nothing to hide, and he’s committed to getting his job back. “It could be another move just like the trespass notice. In case people forgot, the trespass notice was issued and within 24 hours it was taken back, that speaks for itself. I don’t have to say anything about it. He didn’t give a reason and there’s a reason why.”

There will be a hearing on this issue soon.

Common Core: It Seemed Like a Good Idea Until It Existed | deutsch29

Common Core: It Seemed Like a Good Idea Until It Existed | deutsch29:

Common Core: It Seemed Like a Good Idea Until It Existed

September 8, 2014

In 2008, Education Next asked 3,200 respondents (700 of whom were public school teachers) about their thoughts on having “the same set of educational standards” in order to “hold schools accountable.” Respondents were divided into sub-samples and asked one of the two following questions. Included are the percentages of respondents who chose among three response options: 

Question Version One

For holding schools accountable, should the federal government establish the same set of educational standards for the whole country and given the same tests in math, science, and reading? Or do you think that there should be different standards and tests in different states?

One test and standard for all students:                   69% (public)   54% (teachers)

Different standards and tests in different states:  19% (public)   21% (teachers)

No national or state tests should be given:             13% (public)   25% (teachers)

Question Version Two

For holding schools accountable, should all state governments adopt the same set of educational standards and give the same tests in math, science, and reading? Or do you think that there should be different standards and tests in different states?

One test and standard for all students:                   69% (public)   56% (teachers)

Different standards and tests in different states:  19% (public)   24% (teachers)

No national or state tests should be given:             11% (public)   20% (teachers)

Now, this was in 2008– the year that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was supposed to be reauthorized following its original 2007 delay and its facing a “problematic” fate due to its “mov[ing] into the presidential election year.” In the 2008 EdNext survey, the public was almost equally divided among NCLB renewal as is; renewal with major Common Core: It Seemed Like a Good Idea Until It Existed | deutsch29:

9-8-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

About the radio show

Join Drs. Shaun Johnson and Tim Slekar 

LIVE Sundays at 6PM EST and Wednesdays at 7PM EST 

on Blog Talk Radio for progressive, pro-public education talk radio. 

Call in to speak live with Tim and Shaun during the show, (805) 727-7111. 

You can also listen to our Monday "Sunday-Replay" at 7PM EST, and re-broadcasts of the archives every Tuesday and Thursday at 7PM EST.

Visit the @ the Chalk Face radio main page for more information on the show and syndication.

Common Core: It Seemed Like a Good Idea Until It Existed

In 2008, Education Next asked 3,200 respondents (700 of whom were public school teachers) about their thoughts on having “the same set of educational standards” in order to “hold schools accountable.” Respondents were divided into sub-samples and asked one of the two following questions. Included are the percentages of respondents who chose among three response options: Question […]

1 by deutsch29 / 8min 

EngageNY : Robotic Teachers Wanted.

Came across this gem when trying to decipher my son’s 4th Grade math homework (which included the inane task of making 50 dots to represent multiplying by tens).  EngageNY contains scripted curriculum modules at a price of $12.9 million for the K-8 lessons. I find it insulting that a teacher should be told to add emotion and energy […]

16 by Chris Cerrone / 1h hide  //  save

EngageNY modules: Stunning incompetence.

Another questionable lesson from the curriculum modules found at NYSED’s propaganda website EngageNY.org   Once again, why did NYSED spend $12.9 million of taxpayer money on scripted lessons for K-8 when New York’s teachers can produce superior (and appropriate) curriculum.   Thoughts on this Kindergarten homework assignment?                   […]

21 by Chris Cerrone / 2h 

9-7-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: About the radio showJoin Drs. Shaun Johnson and Tim Slekar LIVE Sundays at 6PM EST and Wednesdays at 7PM EST on Blog Talk Radio for progressive, pro-public education talk radio. Call in to speak live with Tim and Shaun during the show, (805) 727-7111. You can also listen to our Monday "Sunday-Replay" at 7PM EST, and re-broadcasts of the archives every Tuesday and Thursd

by mike simpson / 9h 

Schools must report sports equity data :: SI&A Cabinet Report

Schools must report sports equity data :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

SEPTEMBER 08, 2014

Schools must report sports equity data

by Kimberly Beltran

(Calif.) There should be no question about whether girls and boys have equal sports opportunities now that Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill requiring school districts to track and publicize corroborating data.

Beginning with the 2015-16 school year, all elementary and secondary public schools – including charter schools – must report annually the number of students at the school who participate in competitive athletics, as well as the number of school-sponsored sports teams, broken down by gender.

“For the schools that are complying with Title IX, this bill will provide an opportunity to proudly showcase the equal opportunities being provided to both genders,” Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, who authored the legislation, said in a statement. “For those schools that don’t comply, we hope this reporting requirement will ‘sunshine’ that inequity, give parents and schools important information, and become a wake-up call to the school and its community that change is needed.”

Title IX was passed by Congress in 1972 to prohibit sex discrimination in all publically-funded educational institutions. Under the landmark law, no person, on the basis of gender, can  be denied participation in any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

California state law mirrors Title IX, which requires that schools meet one of three tests to prove compliance:

1. Athletic participation of women and girls is proportionate to enrollment.
2. The school has a history and continuing practice of program expansion for women or girls.
3. The school is fully meeting female athletes’ interests and abilities in its present athletic program. (Title IX under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.)

Enforcement of compliance with the law is initiated upon the filing of a complaint alleging a violation.

Despite great gains having been made in terms of more opportunities for female sports participation, “the level of opportunity for girls still has not reached the level of opportunity for boys that existed when Title IX…was enacted,” the Santa Barbara Democrat wrote in her bill.

According to data reported by Jackson, the number of girls competing in high school sports jumped from under 295,000 when Title X was passed to nearly 3.2 million last year.

There are more women playing collegiate sports – about 200,000 – than ever before, and the number of female athletes at National Collegiate Athletic Association  schools has increased from less than 30,000 to over 193,000 since 1972, but women still have more than 60,000 fewer participation Schools must report sports equity data :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

What do we do to our superb retired teachers? Lies, insults and slow starvation seem politically popular today. | Reclaim Reform

What do we do to our superb retired teachers? Lies, insults and slow starvation seem politically popular today. | Reclaim Reform:

What do we do to our superb retired teachers? Lies, insults and slow starvation seem politically popular today.

Posted on September 8, 2014

by Ken Previti

As we mature, we realize how many people helped us and influenced our lives – people we often took for granted. Teachers are among them. How often have we asked ourselves, “I wonder whatever happened to Mrs. ——?”

Well, she knew she would never grow wealthy by teaching us, but she paid for her pension with every paycheck and followed all the demands required for her earned compensation. Deferred compensation guaranteed by the government itself.

She should be fine by now during her golden years. Or…

Unless some billionaire multinational investors in sleazy hedge funds pay some politicians to plunder the pensions while claiming to save teacher pension funds and the state from doom. Doom, death and destruction – unless we sacrifice the elderly who served us well.

Read Fred Klonsky HERE about: “And with our public employee pensions and Social Security under attack across the country, including here in Illinois, there will be less older foodies and more older-foodless.”

But what if we prove that the horrendous cuts are not necessary and the “balanced books” are just as pack of lies?

Read the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability facts via Glen Brown HERE about one What do we do to our superb retired teachers? Lies, insults and slow starvation seem politically popular today. | Reclaim Reform: