Eliminate the Need for Surveillance: Lessons from a Middle School in Oakland - Living in Dialogue

Eliminate the Need for Surveillance: Lessons from a Middle School in Oakland - Living in Dialogue:



Eliminate the Need for Surveillance: Lessons from a Middle School in Oakland

 By Anthony Cody.

We have been seeing the fallout from heavy handed monitoring and enforcement that is coming to us with the new Common Core tests. As I pointed out Sunday, this sort of security is made necessary when you have created a system where heavy consequences are attached to success on these tests. Everyone involved – from top administrator down to kindergartener, is affected by these consequences, so the high stakes systems must be designed to include the capacity to monitor everyone involved. And since the corporations that publish the tests are distant, they seek to deputize administrators and teachers in their surveillance and enforcement system.

But there are ways to design an educational system that is resistant to cheating. It will require some major shifts in our thinking, but we can do that. All it takes is a bit of imagination, and some investment of trust in our teachers and students.

Just as high stakes testing makes surveillance and enforcement necessary, its replacement with a different approach to accountability will allow us to escape such onerous systems.

As a sort of model, I would like to describe one of the most effective classroom interventions I have ever seen. It was carried out by two teachers, Gabe Jenkins and Fay Pisciotta, who taught science at Edna Brewer Middle School in Oakland, California, about eight years ago.

Jenkins and Pisciotta were struggling with a problem at their school. They had some students who were very well prepared and motivated, and others who were not as prepared academically. Their instruction tended to target the middle, with the result being that the more capable students were not challenged, and the less prepared students were not really inspired either. The two of them happened to attend a workshop led by Dr. Kathie Nunley, focused on a teaching strategy called Layered Curriculum (see here for more information.)

The basic idea of Layered Curriculum is that you give all students a set of “bronze level” assignments to choose from. There might be five or six options, and the students must choose to do three of them. These might include taking notes from the chapter in the text, or from a lecture. They might choose to create a poster, or write a little play acting out the important concepts. As a result of completing these three Eliminate the Need for Surveillance: Lessons from a Middle School in Oakland - Living in Dialogue:

Obama: school funding 'worth fighting for' if GOP opposes increase (+video) - CSMonitor.com

Obama: school funding 'worth fighting for' if GOP opposes increase (+video) - CSMonitor.com:

Obama: school funding 'worth fighting for' if GOP opposes increase (+video)

With lawmakers at work on a bipartisan effort to update the No Child Left Behind Act, Obama told a group of urban school leaders that he would fight the GOP, if needed, to boost funding to schools, especially those that are low-performing.

By Nedra Pickler, Associated Press MARCH 16, 2015

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Obama says he'll fight GOP over education

AP

Pointing to increased high school graduation rates, President Barack Obama said Monday he's prepared to fight with Republicans for school funding and his education priorities rather than risk going backward.

WASHINGTON — Pointing to increased high school graduation rates,President Barack Obama said Monday he's prepared to fight with Republicans for school funding and his education priorities rather than risk going backward.

The president said he hopes that Republican lawmakers focus on educating every child and not shifting money away from needy districts. He's also calling for a focus on low-performing schools, annual assessments and investments in special education and English-language learners.

Obama said if the Republican budget doesn't reflect those priorities, they will have "a major debate."

Recommended: Could you pass a US citizenship test?

"We are making too much progress now in terms of graduation rates, improved reading scores, improved math scores, increasing standards, increasing access to the resources the kids need, for us to be going backwards now. And this is something worth fighting for," Obama said at aObama: school funding 'worth fighting for' if GOP opposes increase (+video) - CSMonitor.com:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Politics as spectator sport

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Politics as spectator sport:

Politics as spectator sport

“There isn’t any gravy to be given out when I’m elected mayor,” García said. “I’m going to be collaborative and engaging.”

I'm not sure who won last night's debate. It was probably the guy you were rooting for. To me, Rahm came off as stiff, scripted ("My strengths are my weaknesses" again?) and on the defensive. He squirmed on elected school board. He lied on the record number of neighborhood shootings. He fudged on property taxes.

I thought Chuy held his own and scored some points but nothing decisive. Next time he's really got to get after it on those points and others.

This AP headline cracked me up: Chicago mayor faults election opponent as lacking gravitas. Gravitas? Really? For those who don't speak Latin, that means seriousness. Funny, I thought Chuy came off as dead serious. Maybe a little too serious. A little pointed humor wouldn't hurt.

They say, politics isn't a spectator sport. Yet, I can't help but descend into the pit of basketball jargon on this one: I hope that in the next quarter Chuy will be more aggressive (physical). Don't let Rahm control the court and tempo of the game. He gets rattled and blows it when you get in his face (as our main scorer Karen Lewis showed us many times). And if we're trailing by a few points with the clock running down, I always tell my kids, you can't afford to trade baskets. Even risk fouling. Play with confidence, even when behind. Take it right to the opponent.

Sorry, I've run out of b-ball cliches. It's early.

What I do know is this. When you cut through all the debate tricks and horse crap,Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Politics as spectator sport:

 

Big Education Ape: Mayoral Candidates Rahm Emanuel and Jesus "Chuy" Garcia said during Monday night's forum ‪#‎Chuy... http://bit.ly/1wSz7lc

Parents and Educators to Lawmakers: Testing is Not Learning! - NEA Today

Parents and Educators to Lawmakers: Testing is Not Learning! - NEA Today:

Parents and Educators to Lawmakers: Testing is Not Learning!

 Let teachers teach!

Across the country, NEA members and parents are sending the same message to legislators and policy makers: Too much classroom time is caught up in testing, testing, testing, testing, and more testing!

Not enough is spent on learning.

In Osceola County, Fla., fired-up teachers and education support professionals convinced school board members to work with them to stop the madness in Tallahassee. In New Jersey, a parent recently read aloud to school board members the “NEA Time to Learn, Time to Teach” resolution, and in Washington State, New Hampshire, Missouri, and elsewhere, coalitions of NEA members, parents, students and community members also are rallying for more time for learning.

“Parents don’t want their children to be treated with a one-size-fits-all education approach. And educators know that students are more than a test score, so let educators teach,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García to federal lawmakers, who are rewriting the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) this year.

Since 2001, when the sixth reauthorization of ESEA, more commonly known as “No Child Left Behind,” kicked off the nation’s desperate embrace of high-stakes standardized testing, the number of federally mandated standardized tests for K-12 students has more than doubled from six to 17. Add in state and locally required tests, and the numbers soar to levels that can cripple learning.

In Pittsburgh, fourth-graders will sit down for a whopping 33 state or district-required standardized tests this year, or just shy of one per week, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In Chicago, even kindergartners must take no fewer than 14. “How do tests breed more tests?” asks FairTest’s Monty Neill. Meanwhile, all of these tests require preparation, pre- and post-testing, data entry, training, and more. When Tennessee teacher Melinda Reese marked instructional days on her school calendar, only ten days were dedicated to actually teaching.

TAKE ACTION: TELL CONGRESS TO GET ESEA RIGHT!

Right now, the U.S. Senate is working on a reauthorization bill for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Ask your senators to reduce the number of mandated tests and provide more opportunities for students to learn.

“My teachers are frustrated—I’m losing 20 to 30 at every board meeting from retirements or resignations—because all they do is test, test, test,” says Apryle Jackson, president of the Osceola Education Association.

Over-testing is as ubiquitous as cold germs in American classrooms—but the consequences are even more sickening. In a recent NEA survey, three out of four teachers reported moderate to extreme pressure to improve scores. Forty-two percent said the emphasis had a negative impact on their classroom—and 45 percent said they have considered leaving the profession.

According to the Brookings Institution, the U.S. spent more than $1.7 billion on testing in 2012. Seems the testing mega-industry is the only beneficiary of high-stakes testing insanity.

Misuse of test scores is also rampant. In Florida, for example, at least 40 percent of teachers’ evaluations (and thus their pay) must be based on a bizarre value-added model that incorporates test scores from students they’ve never taught or subjects they don’t teach. Farther north, the Tennessee Education Association has filed two lawsuits against the state, challenging its use of a similar value-added system: The lead plaintiff, an 8th-grade science teacher, was denied a pay raise after his value-added score was based on the test scores of only 22 of his 142 students.

Worst of all, testing infiltrates instruction, making it harder than ever for teachers to teach a love of learning or indulge students’ curiosity. If it’s not tested, it’s not taught — and that often includes art, music, and physical education. Creativity is shot—along with teachers’ professionalism. In Osceola, says Jackson, “all teachers are expected to teach the same thing on the same day, and whether students have Parents and Educators to Lawmakers: Testing is Not Learning! - NEA Today:

AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Lily Eskelsen García will discuss the impact of the reauthorization of ESEA on teachers, parents and students. - Virtual Conference

Ideas and Innovations 2015 - Virtual Conference - Lesson Plans - Share My Lesson:

Join Us for the 2015 Ideas & Innovations Virtual Conference - March 23-25

Description

Ideas & Innovations is a professional learning virtual conference, March 23-25, brought to you by Share My Lesson in partnership with content leaders, authors and experienced educators. With 29 sessions to choose from, there's something for every new or experienced educator, PreK-12, spanning all subject areas from arts education, science and math to integrating technology and games into the classroom.

Make sure you register now!

WHAT WILL I LEARN FROM THIS CONFERENCE?

• How to implement techniques based on the Common Core State Standards
• What changes are ahead in the education industry and how they affect you
• New, fresh, innovative content that you can bring to the classroom tomorrow

HOW DO I REGISTER?

• Simply scroll through the many sessions listed below and register for the ones that interest you. If you are looking for something specific, use the search box or click on the sort feature to find the topics you need.
• Click on the session you would like to attend. Each session starts on the hour and will last about 45 minutes.
• You will be prompted to register and once registered, you can click on any webcast without having to resubmit your information.

KEYNOTE: ESEA and the Impact on Teachers—A conversation with Randi Weingarten and Lily Eskelsen García

6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is currently pending reauthorization in Congress, with discussion on how it may change or adapt the current law, No Child Left Behind (NCLB). With this in mind, AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Lily Eskelsen García will discuss the impact of the reauthorization of ESEA on teachers, parents and students. They will break down the legislation into easy-to-understand language so that everyone involved can understand the potential impact of ESEA.

All Virtual Conference Sessions Ideas and Innovations 2015 - Virtual Conference - Lesson 

The great invention gap between rich and poor kids — and why it matters - Vox

The great invention gap between rich and poor kids — and why it matters - Vox:

The great invention gap between rich and poor kids — and why it matters

The inability of poor kids to get ahead in the US is a growing topic of concern, both because of the unfairness of having one's life outcome determined at birth, and because denying children opportunities on the basis of income risks making society as a whole worse off. "Poor kids, through no fault of their own, are less prepared by their families, their schools, and their communities to develop their God-given talents as fully as rich kids," Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam writes in his new book, Our Kids. "For economic productivity and growth, our country needs as much talent as we can find, and we certainly can't afford to waste it."

New research from a group of economists at Harvard, the Treasury Department, and the London School of Economics provides a particularly vivid illustration of how disadvantage can harm the economy at large. The researchers — Harvard's Alex Bell, Raj Chetty, and Xavier Jaravel, Treasury's Neviana Petkova, and LSE's John Van Reenan — match up data on patents in the United States with tax returns of the people getting the patents — and the returns of their parents. That lets them see not just how much inventors earn as adults, but how much their families made when they were children. That means they can compare how often children born into poor or middle-class families get patents relative to children of privilege.

Kids from rich families are much likelier to get patents later in life. That's not surprising, but the sheer magnitude of the gap is. Patent rates grow exponentially with childhood income:

(Bell et al., 2015)

It's not just that the poor are at a disadvantage; the rich-but-not-super-rich are, too. Patent rates of the 90th percentile are roughly half that of the 99th percentile.

Worse, Bell and his coauthors also get the public-school test scores for the New York City residents included in their study. Children from poor families were less likely to get patents even when they got extremely high test scores:

(Bell et al., 2015)

So the issue isn't just that rich kids are inherently more talented. The difference seems to be education. The researchers suggest that about 90 percent of the relationship between childhood income and patent rates is explainable by children of privilege being more likely to attend high-quality colleges; they note that 23 percent of patents (weighted by the number of times they're cited, so higher-quality patents count more) come from students from just 10 colleges. Those colleges account for only 2.7 percent of US college enrollment.

The research isn't bulletproof. Patents aren't a perfect measure of innovation; plenty of important inventions go unpatented, like the World Wide Web or friction matches, and plenty The great invention gap between rich and poor kids — and why it matters - Vox:

12 Things Teachers Think But Can't Always Say to Parents | Matthew Dicks

12 Things Teachers Think But Can't Always Say to Parents | Matthew Dicks:

12 Things Teachers Think But Can't Always Say to Parents

 1. I love your child just a notch below my own children.

Truly. And oddly, that love kicks in almost immediately, just like it did with my own kids.

2. I will miss your child for the rest of my life, even if your child was incredibly difficult and made my days long and exhausting.

3. When it comes to my job performance, you and your child are my primary concern.

If you're happy with my job performance, then my administrators will be satisfied as well. If they are not, something is seriously wrong with my administrators.

4. You are so very wrong if you view our relationship as adversarial in any way.

I only want to be your partner and friend.

5. When I ask you to call me by my first name, it's because I want to have the kind of relationship with you that requires first names.

There is no need for artificial barriers. We are both adults who love your child. Why would we not be on a first name basis?

6. Some of my closest friends (and the godparents of both of my children) are the parents of former students.

These relationships developed because we treated each other as equal partners in their child's education. If you and I are doing our jobs well, we should be friendly, if not actual friends, by the end of the school year.

7. There is nothing wrong with questioning my decisions.

I only ask that you don't question my intent or effort. Know that I am always trying to do my best on behalf of your child, and that despite my best intentions, I will undoubtedly make mistakes.

8. If I have done something that disappoints or upsets you, I hope that you will always come to me first.

You can't imagine how it much hurts to hear about your dissatisfaction secondhand, either from an administrator or (even worse) via the parent, teacher, or student rumor mill.

9. The single greatest lesson that I have learned in my 17 years of teaching is the importance of always following through with what I say every single time without exception.

Never make a threat or a promise that you cannot keep. I have applied this rule to the parenting of my children, too, and in both school and home, it has served me well. This is the one bit of parenting advice I pass onto you.

10. Please know that both legally and ethically, there are times when I want to say something or agree with you but cannot for a multitude of reasons, usually pertaining to the privacy of another student.

It can be frustrating for me, as I'm sure it is for you, but it's also my professional responsibility.

11. A lower-than-desired grade on a report card is only my honest assessment of your child's performance and not an indictment of your 12 Things Teachers Think But Can't Always Say to Parents | Matthew Dicks:

Obama says he's prepared to fight GOP over education - Yahoo News

Obama says he's prepared to fight GOP over education - Yahoo News:

Obama says he's prepared to fight GOP over education

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pointing to increased high school graduation rates, President Barack Obama said Monday he's prepared to fight with Republicans for school funding and his education priorities rather than risk going backward.

The president said he hopes that Republican lawmakers focus on educating every child and not shifting money away from needy districts. He's also calling for a focus on low-performing schools, annual assessments and investments in special education and English-language learners.

Obama said if the Republican budget doesn't reflect those priorities, they will have "a major debate."

"We are making too much progress now in terms of graduation rates, improved reading scores, improved math scores, increasing standards, increasing access to the resources the kids need, for us to be going backwards now. And this is something worth fighting for," Obama said at a White House meeting with urban school leaders.

The Education Department said Monday that high school graduation rates for all racial groups have increased, according to data from the 2012-2013 school year. But black, Hispanic, and American Indian students still significantly lag behind their white and Asian/Pacific Islander counterparts.

Previously, the department said the graduation rate had reached a high of 81.4 percent. That means 1 in 5 students overall leaves high school without a diploma.

View gallery

President Barack Obama, flanked by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, left, and Cecilia Muñoz, Directo …

Among black students, the rate reported was 70.7 percent — up from 69 percent a year earlier.

Hispanic students had a rate of 75.2 percent, which was up from 73 percent a year earlier.

American Indian students had a rate of 69.7 percent — up from 67 percent.

Asian/Pacific Islander students had a rate of 88.7 percent, which was up from 88 percent.

White students had a rate of 86.6 percent, which was up from 86 percent.

View gallery

President Barack Obama speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Monday March 1 …

The No Child Left Behind law, signed in 2002, has been credited with shining a light on the performance of poor, minority, disabled and non-English speaking students, but also has led to complaints from both Republicans and Democrats that the requirements were unworkable.

Lawmakers are working on a bipartisan effort to update the No Child Left Behind Act. Congress for years has been stymied on the best way to renew the much maligned law, and last month House Republican leaders abruptly canceled a vote on a GOP reform bill after conservative opposition made passage uncertain.

Lawmakers have grappled with such issues as whether federal law should continue to require annual reading and math testing in grades three to eight and again in high school. Much of the conflict focuses on how much of a federal role there should be in identifying and fixing failing schools.

___

AP Education Writer Kimberly Hefling contributed to this report.

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

Obama says he's prepared to fight GOP over education - Yahoo News:

'Sit and stare'? Parent protests District 97 standardized test policy - Oak Leaves

'Sit and stare'? Parent protests District 97 standardized test policy - Oak Leaves:

'Sit and stare'? Parent protests District 97 standardized test policy

Last year, when Karen Yarbrough lived in Chicago, she wrote a letter to her son's school principal saying he would not participate in standardized testing.

When the testing period arrived, her son and other students whose parents opted them out of testing were taken to another room where they could engage in educational activities, such as reading.

In early February, Yarbrough (no relation to the Cook County Recorder of Deeds of the same name) sent a similar letter to the principal at Oak Park's Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Elementary School. She didn't want her son to participate in the new federally required Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Career test the weeks of March 9 and 16.

After consulting with Oak Park Elementary School District 97 administrators, the principal said Yarbrough's son would need to sit in the testing room until the first child finishes their test. Then, he would be allowed to engage in non-disruptive activities, such as reading and drawing.

 That approach doesn't satisfy Yarbrough, who said children shouldn't be forced to "sit and stare" until someone else has completed the test.

"Put them in the library. I'm not asking for that much, you know," she said.

Of the 3,729 District 97 students expected to take the test, her son was one of about 70 whose parents elected to not take the PARCC test, which is supposed to align with the Common Core standards. District 97 students are among one million statewide taking the PARCC test.

District 97 officials report students test for 60 to 80 minutes a day and average about 30 minutes per test.

"As a result, the students who are not testing have had an average of 30 to 50 minutes of time to engage in non-disruptive activities," said Chris Jasculca, District 97's senior 'Sit and stare'? Parent protests District 97 standardized test policy - Oak Leaves: