Cyber Schools Are Failing, So Why Are They Expanding? - NEA Today

Cyber Schools Are Failing, So Why Are They Expanding? - NEA Today:



Cyber Schools Are Failing, So Why Are They Expanding?

 One of the most frustrating characteristics of the education reform political climate is the correlation between a specific policy’s popularity and the absence of any reliable evidence supporting its effectiveness. Whether its overtesting, budget cuts, merit pay, or vouchers, it seems the weaker the case, the greater likelihood that idea proliferates.

Add cyber schools to the list. They’ve been around for a couple of decades, but it wasn’t until the past few years that more lawmakers increasingly looked to virtual schools as an attractive option to bricks-and-mortar public schools. Supporters argue that they provide students with a more flexible, individualized curriculum, are far less expensive than traditional schools, and can produce greater student achievement. The problem is that these are more assumptions than facts grounded in reliable data.

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New study finds virtual schools continue to lag behind traditional public schools on grad rates, AYP, etc.

As a new study by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) concludes, full-time virtual schools – many of them organized as charters – continue to lag behind traditional public schools on graduation rates, Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), and state performance rankings.

“Despite the considerable enthusiasm for virtual education, there is little credible research to support virtual schools’ practices or to justify ongoing calls for ever greater expansion,” the report states.

The authors concede that the available data is limited, which may make their findings less than definitive – but “there is not a single positive sign from the empirical evidence presented here.”

Although they still represent a relatively small percentage of school choice options, cyber schools have grown steadily over the past decade. There are currently 400 full-time virtual schools operating in thirty states with a total student enrollment at around 260,000. Connections Academy and K12 Inc, two for-profit companies, account for 57 percent of these enrollments.

Estimated Enrollment Trends in Full-Time Virtual Schools. (National Education Policy Center)

This impressive growth, however, should not mask the fact that, whether its the lack of accountability structures, the difficulty in recruiting and training high quality teachers, concerns over curriculum, or the underrepresentation of minority students, cyber schools are facing major challenges.

Here’s what the available data tell us:

• In 2013-14, of the 285 virtual schools that were rated by state performance measures, only 41 percent were deemed “academically acceptable.”
• In 2011-12, virtual charter schools scored 22 percentage points lower on AYP than bricks-and-mortar public schools.
• The on-time graduation rate for virtual school students in 2013-14 was barely half the national average.
• The average student-to-teacher ratio is twice that of the nation’s public schools.
•  Little progress has been made toward the development of requirements for the preparation, certification, and licensure of online teachers.
• Virtual schools serve significantly fewer minority students, fewer lower income students, and fewer students with disabilities than traditional public schools.

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Cyber schools growing steadily, but “not a single positive sign from the empirical evidence” in new study

According to the NEPC report, state laws governing the funding and accountability of cyber schools tend to be vaguely-worded, incomplete and are often not enforced when data is available that suggests a problem exists. The report points to examples in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Tennessee where aggressive lobbying by for-profit Cyber Schools Are Failing, So Why Are They Expanding? - NEA Today:

Big Education Ape: Corruption at Pennsylvania’s largest cyber-charter school as founder charged with funneling $8 m... http://bit.ly/1cdVK5d

Big Education Ape: Virtual Schools Remain Unproven | National Education Policy Center http://bit.ly/1BMvlss

Big Education Ape: Soon-to-open Flex Academy, with ties to for-profit K12, excites some, raises eyebrows in others ... http://bit.ly/1FJWWNH

Big Education Ape: Doubling Down On Risky Experiments | Oklahoma Observer http://bit.ly/1BMIeTs

Big Education Ape: Full-time cyber schools expanding despite no evidence of their effectiveness, new report finds #... http://bit.ly/1FJX8we

The teaching crisis that unions and school districts won't address - LA Times

The teaching crisis that unions and school districts won't address - LA Times:
The teaching crisis that unions and school districts won't address

High-stakes testing hasn't helped matters. Polling shows that 3 out of 4 teachers agree that continuous test-based monitoring of students takes too much classroom time away from actual teaching. Nearly 9 in 10 respondents feel that linking teacher evaluations to students' test scores is “unfair.”

 Los Angeles teachers and school district administrators are doing battle once again. Contract talks broke down last month after 18 rounds of negotiations on raises, healthcare costs, class size, employee evaluation and charter schools. Mediation begins next week. Strike language and recriminations grow louder.

Given the potential long-term impact of any settlement, it is a shame that a major stakeholder can't be at the negotiating table. Namely, college graduates considering whether to pursue a teaching career.

Rocio Garcia, 24, is one such person. She struggled in a Southeast Los Angeles high school known for its dropout rate and overcrowding, but surrounded herself with educators who recognized her academic potential. Guided by caring mentors, Garcia graduated with high honors, was named a finalist for the prestigious Gates Millennium scholarship, and was accepted to a top liberal arts college in Connecticut.

Shaped by these experiences, Garcia felt called to teaching. She made plans to return to Los Angeles after graduation and work in the city's most difficult schools. But after several classroom internship experiences, she is troubled.

“I feel a tug-of-war,” she said recently. “My background and education prepared me to be the kind of teacher who listens to students, hears their ideas and helps them become critical thinkers. But I keep meeting teachers who feel overwhelmed, have to follow a script and do so much testing. I don't even know if they are really teaching.”

Recent data suggest that detached teachers may be shortchanging our students. Lamenting “America's systemic shortage of inspiring teachers,” a 2015 Gallup poll shows that only 31% of K-12 public school teachers are engaged in their work.

Survey responses point toward a contradiction that may be keeping our best college students from considering the teaching profession. Historically, teachers are happier than other professionals. Teaching ranks high on measures that gauge an employee's sense of purpose and social impact. Like Garcia, many respondents view teaching as their calling. But this powerful incentive to join a field dedicated to public service is increasingly offset by other concerns.

Asked, for example, whether their “opinions seem to count” in the workplace, teachers ranked dead last among surveyed professions. Asked whether supervisors create a workplace that is “open and trusting,” teachers gave their field similarly low marks.

High-stakes testing hasn't helped matters. Polling shows that 3 out of 4 teachers agree that continuous test-based monitoring of students takes too much classroom time away from actual teaching. Nearly 9 in 10 respondents feel that linking teacher evaluations to students' test scores is “unfair.”

Career-minded college students are not oblivious to these developments. Since 2008, enrollment in teacher education programs in California is down 53%, and other bellwether states report a similar trend. Nationally, U.S. Department of Education statistics that include both traditional and alternative preparatory programs show that there were nearly 90,000 fewer teachers in training in 2012 than in 2008. Teach for America, which once celebrated 15 consecutive years of expansion, peaked in 2013. It is witnessing as much as a 25% drop in applications this year. Meanwhile, critics continually point toward a profession that draws disproportionately from the bottom third of all college graduates and fails to attract enough minorities.

To reverse these trends we need competitive salaries, benefits and better working conditions for teachers. But the profession is facing an identity crisis that goes much deeper. Neither union officials nor district administrators appear to be addressing this problem.

Our most promising educators crave work that honors their creativity and intellect. They are suspicious of easy answers. They need to hear more than the cliche that a great teacher can make a difference in a student's life. They want to know whether this profession will The teaching crisis that unions and school districts won't address - LA Times:

What this spring’s Common Core tests promised, and what they will actually deliver - The Hechinger Report

What this spring’s Common Core tests promised, and what they will actually deliver - The Hechinger Report:

What this spring’s Common Core tests promised, and what they will actually deliver

Four years and over $360 million later, new Common Core tests are here. What’s new and what isn’t

Muslim Alkurdi, 18, of Albuquerque High School, joins hundreds of classmates in Albuquerque, N.M, Monday, March 2, 2015, as students staged a walkout to protest a new standardized test they say isn’t an accurate measurement of their education. Students frustrated over the new exam walked out of schools across the state Monday in protest as the new exam was being given. The backlash came as millions of U.S. students start taking more rigorous exams aligned with Common Core standards. AP Photo/Russell Contreras

New Common Core tests are debuting on time this spring, but after years of bruising attacks from both left and right, the groups tapped by the federal government to build them are struggling to meet all the hype.

Back in 2010, the plans for the new exams were introduced with much fanfare and many promises: The exams would end the era of dumbed-down multiple-choice tests and the weeks of mindless prepping that precede them. They would force teachers to introduce more critical thinking and in-depth study. They would bring coherency to a mishmash of state tests and for the first time allow states to compare local students to their peers elsewhere in the U.S. And with their online format, the new tests would make testing more efficient, more accurate and more relevant to the digital age.

But a lot has changed since U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, heralding the arrival of “Assessments 2.0,” promised teachers the tests that many of them had “longed for.”

“One-shot, year-end bubble tests administered on a single day, too often lead to a dummying down of curriculum,” Duncan said of the old state tests. The new exams would test “critical thinking skills and complex student learning.”

The federal government invested $360 million on a grant competition to spur development of the new tests. Two coalitions of states — calling themselves the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium — won grants after agreeing to create tests aligned to the Common Core, a set of grade-level expectations in math and English adopted by over 40 states. States hurried to sign up after the U.S. Department of Education made college- and career-ready exams a condition for some federal funding.

Since then political battles over the Common Core have dampened enthusiasm for the tests. Some have cried foul over how the federal government incentivized the program, calling it federal overreach. Others have complained about how long these tests will take — Smarter Balanced will take eight and a half hours, while some PARCC tests will take over ten hours. Yet more critics have panned the tests because they will be used in some states to evaluate teachers.

This spring, of the original 26 states that signed up for PARCC, just 11 plus Washington, D.C. are giving the test. Of the original 31 signed up for Smarter Balanced, only 18 are still on board. (In the early years, some states were members of both coalitions.) Several of the states What this spring’s Common Core tests promised, and what they will actually deliver - The Hechinger Report:

Pearson Is Watching: What Test Security Means For Student Privacy - Forbes

Pearson Is Watching: What Test Security Means For Student Privacy - Forbes:

Pearson Is Watching: What Test Security Means For Student Privacy

Pssst…I know the answer to the first question on the third-grade PARCC math test. My inside source couldn’t wait to spill those beans as soon as he jumped into his mother’s mini-van in the pick-up line outside his New Jersey elementary school earlier this month.

Juicy inside information like that is churning the social-media waters and leading to a hearing before a New Jersey legislative committee as Pearson PLC, the designer and administrator of the new standardized tests, is fighting off charges that it’s “spying” on students who may be sharing test information online.  The London-based company acknowledges that it monitors Twitter and Facebook feeds in an attempt to discover security breaches by students taking the exams created for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers consortium. In fact, Pearson says it is contractually required by the 12 member states and the District of Columbia to monitor social media to prevent anyone from compromising test questions.

The monitors may have noticed this tweet from Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers union. “OMG–Breaking: Pearson, spying on social media of NJ students taking PARCC tests.” And using the hashtag #pearsoniswatching, talk show host Montel Williams tweeted that it was the “creepiest story I’ve read in a month.”

Steve Addicott, vice president of Caveon Test Security, which has the contract to monitor the assessments, scoffs at the suggestion that the company is spying on teenagers. “By definition they want it public…it’s Twitter!” he tells FORBES.

Even a third-grader’s brag to Mom about getting a question right is a breach in test security, according to Pearson, which created the math and English tests for third through eleventh graders across the country to measure the results of the new Common Core curriculum standards.

“A breach includes any time someone shares information about a test outside of the classroom–from casual conversations to posts on social media,” Pearson says in a statement.

The New Jersey Department of Education backs up that sentiment. “These are public postings,” Michael Yaple, the director of public information, says in a statement. “When students circulate test questions online, it is akin to a handing out test questions on the steps of the school–except in this case it can be seen globally.”

When hasn’t there been a time when students have been warned to keep quiet about test questions for fear of forewarning the next class? But the evolution of online, high-stakes testing throughout school districts has moved the issue onto a higher level. New Jersey alone will pay Pearson $108 million over four years for testing services.

Says Yaple: “Students may not realize that each test item involves a substantial commitment of taxpayer expense and a great deal of time and effort of dozens of educators in New Jersey and across the consortium who review and design each test question–which is proprietary, copyrighted material.”Pearson Is Watching: What Test Security Means For Student Privacy - Forbes:

#HedgePapers No.6: Daniel Loeb — Hedge Clippers

#HedgePapers No.6: Daniel Loeb — Hedge Clippers:

#HEDGEPAPERS NO.6: DANIEL LOEB

19 MAR 2015•HEDGEPAPERS

DANIEL LOEB: BAD BEHAVIOR, BAD POLITICS, BAD KARMA

A yoga devotee is calm, spiritual and concerned about the welfare of others—unless the yoga devotee in question is Dan Loeb, who is known for publicly excoriating executives and relentlessly pursuing the accumulation of more wealth than most people could spend in a hundred lifetimes.

Is there some a quest for cosmic karma behind Loeb’s penchant for yoga? Does he need spiritual cover to offset an excess of materialism? Does the search for inner peace stem from an incident in Cuba in which he was detained for striking a child with a car?[1]

Or does Loeb, whose wife is a former yoga instructor, approach yoga the way his hedge funds approach corporate operations? You take some elements of yoga and dump the inconvenient ones, you split apart a company and jettison some jobs. » read more 

BAD KARMA: A LAVISH LIFE OF LUXURY (OFF THE NOBLE PATH)

A rising member of the Forbes list of “The World’s Billionaires,” Loeb’s net worth is now estimated at $2.5 billion.[2]

If it seems hard to reconcile this unbelievable fortune with Loeb’s enlightened persona, take this quote from Loeb himself:[3]

“Going around India with a begging bowl is the easy way out… It’s an excuse for not doing anything with your life, and that’s not my style. … Companies are short, management’s trying to defraud us, and I’m like Rambo in the office, headset on, three computers in front of me, mowing them all down… Yoga is all about focus and perfect aim.”

To reconcile his yoga interest and his cutthroat approach to business, Loeb must invoke logical contortions that require far more flexibility than any yoga position.

However, it’s hard to square Loeb’s actions and words with the teachings of his former yogi,[4] Pattabhi Jois, who said, “Yoga is universal…but don’t approach yoga with a business mind looking for worldly gain.”[5]#HedgePapers No.6: Daniel Loeb — Hedge Clippers:

WHO ARE THE HEDGE CLIPPERS?

The Hedge Clippers are working to expose the mechanisms hedge funds and billionaires use to influence government and politics in order to expand their wealth, influence and power.  We’re exposing the collateral damage billionaire-driven politics inflicts on our communities, our climate, our economy and our democracy.  We’re calling out the politicians that do the dirty work billionaires demand, and we’re calling on all Americans to stand up for a government and an economy that works for all of us, not just the wealthy and well-connected.

The project is supported by the Strong Economy for All Coalition, a coalition of labor unions and community groups working to fight income inequality and build shared prosperity and economic & social justice in New York and around the country.

http://hedgeclippers.org/

Commonwealth Court grants injunction to Pennsylvania teachers union | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Commonwealth Court grants injunction to Pennsylvania teachers union | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Commonwealth Court grants injunction to Pennsylvania teachers union

 By Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The home addresses of public school employees are private, at least until a state Supreme Court decision.

Commonwealth Court this week issued an order in the case which began in 2009 when the Pennsylvania State Education Association filed a court petition after the state Right to Know Law was passed. The PSEA has been seeking a declaration that the addresses of school employees are exempt from disclosure under the state Constitution and state law.

The most recent order provides an injunction preventing the release of addresses until the state Supreme Court decides whether to issue its own injunction. So it remains to be seen whether the injunction will last until the top court resolves the case itself.

Tom Scott, an attorney representing the PSEA, said, “I believe that the case is important because the public’s right to know the affairs of government has to stop at the front door of the homes of public employees. There is no need for anyone to know where a teacher lives or a principal lives or where, frankly, anybody else lives.”

While address information can be found by name in voter or real estate records, he said there is no single place where all of the information, along with place of employment, is linked in a list of the employees of a school district.

“If you know where I live and you know what time I go to work and come home from work, you’re Commonwealth Court grants injunction to Pennsylvania teachers union | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Testing backlash: Students and parents chaffing at explosion of standardized tests | Deseret News National

Testing backlash: Students and parents chaffing at explosion of standardized tests | Deseret News National:



Testing backlash: Students and parents chaffing at explosion of standardized tests

Parents Can Opt Out - United Opt Out National

Click Here to go to United Opt Out National: 

Click Here to go to the Website- United Opt Out Team

Click Here to go to the Website FairTest

When Ethan Rediske was on his deathbed in January of 2014, the state of Florida wanted him to take a standardized exam. A severely disabled 11-year-old, Ethan was blind and mostly deaf. He had never talked or walked and was fed through a tube.

In his final weeks, his special-needs teacher, who had become attached to him and he to her, came to his home to work with him, read to him, and lift his spirits.

But then, in mid-January, the school district said that Ethan needed to take the annual educational progress exam or get a waiver. A simple note from the doctor would not do. The only way Ethan was getting out of the test was if his parents could provide full medical records and evidence of the boy's current physical problems.

And so in Ethan’s final weeks, the family scrambled to file paperwork so he wouldn't have to take the test. The final letter from the hospice to the school was dated Jan. 28. Ethan died on Feb. 7 from complications of cerebral palsy.

“The school had a choice to make,” Ethan’s mother, Andrea Rediske, said. “They could say, ‘We love Ethan. We are so sorry, and don’t worry about this anymore and let his family spend their last days with him in peace.' Or they could insist on the paperwork. They chose the paperwork.”

Ethan’s case is an extreme example of one of the central tensions playing out in America's schools today: how the push for accountability and a noble desire to improve schools in the most underprivileged neighborhoods has resulted in a byzantine system of standardized testing that strikes many as counterproductive.

Florida is ground zero for America’s standardized testing movement, a distinction that reaches back beyond George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind to the state-level reforms of his brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

It was Jeb who pushed through the hard-nosed policy changes that inspired the Obama administration’s $4 billion Race to the Top program, which was announced in 2009 and offers cash incentives for states which adopt test-based school and teacher performance standards. Jeb’s reforms included grading schools based on test scores, requiring passing scores to move to the next grades and performance pay for teachers.

With the 2002 passage of NCLB, the federal government got behind the accountability movement, using the carrot and stick of federal education funds to control state and local education policy to an unprecedented degree. The Obama administration followed the direction set by the Bush White House, imposing stiff requirements for curriculum, testing and teacher accountability.

As states floundered under NCLB's ambitious demands, the Obama administration offered waivers to schools that used standardized tests to measure teacher performance

Read more at http://national.deseretnews.com/article/3818/Testing-backlash-Students-and-parents-chaffing-at-explosion-of-standardized-tests.html#JxqbPDDzv58RDTyD.99

Chicago Mayor's Race Reveals Deep Divide In Democratic Party ‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

Chicago Mayor's Race Reveals Deep Divide In Democratic Party : It's All Politics : NPR:

Chicago Mayor's Race Reveals Deep Divide In Democratic Party

One of the nation's savviest politicians is in an unexpected fight.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's former White House chief of staff, is in an unprecedented runoff election next month.

Chicago Race Exposes Progressive, Wall Street Wings Of Democratic Party

The challenger, Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, contends that Emanuel favors the rich and powerful over working-class Chicagoans. But Emanuel is firing back, attacking Garcia for having no plan to deal with the city's deep financial problems.

Emanuel is the first incumbent Chicago mayor to be forced into a primary runoff — and it's a race that's signaling a deeper, growing divide between liberal and more moderate Democrats.

Several national progressive groups, including Democracy for America, MoveOn.org and the American Federation of Teachers, have banded together to take the fight to Emanuel in what they see as a fight between the "Elizabeth Warren Wing" and the "Wall Street Wing" of the Democratic Party.

Taking It To The Streets

Garcia walked through the Englewood neighborhood on the city's South Side with a natural ease that comes from three decades in Chicago politics, shaking hands with residents, talking with them about their jobs, families, and schools. And, of course, asking for their support.

For many residents of this mostly African-American community, the attention is welcome.

"I'm a neighborhood guy," he told residents.

That is the key distinction Garcia is trying to make in his campaign to unseat Emanuel, the first-term mayor: that he is of the neighborhoods and for the neighborhoods, while Emanuel's policies benefit the wealthy downtown.

"Chicago neighborhoods are hurting," he said. "They haven't seen much recovery since the recession, and that will be the paradigm shift under my administration."

Garcia walked door to door on this block during recent campaigning, in particular because it's home of one of the 50 schools Emanuel's administration closed two years ago.

Carrissa Johnson, 38, who works in the Social Security Administration, says her son now has to walk a longer, more dangerous route to school. And she's also upset about the lack of investment in Englewood and neighborhoods like it under Emanuel.

"I don't think that he really cares about the inner community," she said. "I think everything goes more so up north than comes here."

Johnson admitted she "really doesn't know too much about" Garcia, but she added, "I don't think that it can get any worse, because Emanuel is not really doing his job, so I think that a change is very much needed."

Money Talks

Progressives have highlighted the millions of dollars Emanuel has spent to underscore the perception that he favors the well-heeled and well-connected.

Campaign finance reports show Emanuel has raked in about eight times as much as Garcia has. Emanuel has raised close to $20 million, including a recent $1.4 million haul from just eight wealthy donors, as of Wednesday.

Garcia, meanwhile, has raised $2.6 million, much of it from the Chicago Teachers Union, other unions, and progressive groups such as Democracy for America.

Looking to boost those figures, Garcia has a trip scheduled Thursday to Los Angeles to Chicago Mayor's Race Reveals Deep Divide In Democratic Party : It's All Politics : NPR:

Toward Fiscal Sustainability: A New Approach in Prudent Fiscal Management of Chicago

Click here to go to Jesus "Chuy" Garcia for Mayor of Chicago Website

‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

Bill de Blasio: We're fixing our schools at the root - NY Daily News

Bill de Blasio: We're fixing our schools at the root - NY Daily News:

Mayor de Blasio: We need Albany to extend mayoral control so we can fix our schools at the root

CHRISTIE M FARRIELLA/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

De Blasio says that Mayoral Control makes it clear: The buck stops with him.

For too long, our schools have been divided into “good” and “bad.”

Every public school parent, myself included, knew what a bad school looked like: few resources, the best teachers didn't want to work there, and parents were shut out.

That’s why we’re reforming our schools, so all children get the education they need to succeed.

I recently met Marlon Glynn, the scholarship winner heading to college from long-struggling Boys and Girls High, who was profiled in The News’ series Sunday.

He told me what it meant to see his school re-energized, with a new principal who cares about his future. Friends who thought they wouldn't make it to graduation are catching up — and moving ahead.

SPECIAL REPORT - FIGHT FOR THEIR FUTURE: THE DAILY NEWS INVESTIGATES NYC SCHOOLS IN CRISIS

These are the kinds of successes we’re driving with our $150 million Renewal Schools plan, at Marlon's school and 93 others.

We're expanding kids’ learning time at the end of the day and on weekends. We’re bringing in master teachers and learning coaches to improve instruction, and expanding professional development so teachers can better help struggling students. And we’re holding schools and teachers accountable for success by bringing in new leaders, moving out teachers who fail our kids, and tracking progress in real time.

To keep driving change, cities like ours must get their fair share of education funding from Albany 

But that’s just one piece. This fall, every 4-year-old in New York City will have access to free, full-day, high-quality pre-K. We’ve doubled after-school programs for middle schoolers. And we’re launching more than 120 “community schools” that bring in social services, mental health, and medical staff to remove barriers to learning.

None of this could have happened without the accountability of Mayoral Control.

Mayoral Control makes it clear: The buck stops with me. We need Albany to extend it, and make it a permanent part of our education system.

FIGHT FOR THEIR FUTURE: NYC STUDENTS CAUGHT IN CUOMO, DE BLASIO BATTLE ON EDUCATION

To keep driving change, cities like ours must get their fair share of education funding from Albany so 

 Bill de Blasio: We're fixing our schools at the root - NY Daily News: