Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 3/23/15

Special Nite Cap - Catch Up on Today's Post 3/23/15

Special Nite Cap 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

After-school, summer program funding threatened | EdSource

After-school, summer program funding threatened | EdSource:After-school, summer program funding threatened Advocates for after-school programs will be holding a national summit in Los Angeles on Tuesday to build opposition to a plan to eliminate $1.15 billion in federal funding for after-school and summer programs.U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, has proposed ending 21st Century Community L

by mike simpson / 36min 

The cult-like religion of corporate education reform

The cult-like religion of corporate education reform: The cult-like religion of corporate education reform Recently I've seen some interesting, puzzling news items about education wherein the principal players seem to cast logic to the wind and fall back on irrational opinions like medieval peasants.Like those parents in New York who are angry about the fact that their school just ended homework f

by mike simpson / 1h 

Have You Any Decency? What Every American Needs to Know About High Stakes Testing and the Latest Threat to Civil Liberties | Yohuru Williams

Have You Any Decency? What Every American Needs to Know About High Stakes Testing and the Latest Threat to Civil Liberties | Yohuru Williams: Have You Any Decency? What Every American Needs to Know About High Stakes Testing and the Latest Threat to Civil Liberties Education bloggers revealed that the company retained by testing giant Pearson, to ensure the integrity of its assessments, has been mo

by mike simpson / 1h 

CAASPP Communications Toolkit Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment - (CA Dept of Education)

CAASPP Communications Toolkit - California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System (CA Dept of Education): CAASPP Communications ToolkitThe CAASPP Communications Toolkit is a link to Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment resources, including communications and key informational documents to inform schools, families, and community representatives about online summative testin

1 by mike simpson / 2h 

Testing thought experiment | Deborah Meier on Education

Testing thought experiment | Deborah Meier on Education: Testing thought experimentPosted on March 23, 2015 by debmeierDear Readers,Let’s do a “what if” experiment. Supposing that all the poor and Black and Hispanic children surprised us all and got scores more or less equal to (or even better!) than their richer and whiter peers on the spring tests.If you imagine there would be celebrations galor

1 by mike simpson / 2h 

Elementary school teachers: How PARCC testing is affecting our classrooms - The Washington Post

Elementary school teachers: How PARCC testing is affecting our classrooms - The Washington Post: Elementary school teachers: How PARCC testing is affecting our classroomsWith the spring standardized testing season under way, we are hearing from a growing number of teachers, principals and even superintendents who are speaking out about the negative effects of high-stakes testing on teaching and le

1 by mike simpson / 2h 

This Is Not A Test, New York Edition [Thanks, NYCoRE] | The Jose Vilson

This Is Not A Test, New York Edition [Thanks, NYCoRE] | The Jose Vilson:This Is Not A Test, New York Edition [Thanks, NYCoRE] JOSE VILSON MARCH 23, 2015 JOSE LEAVE A COMMENTFirst, let me thank the New York Coalition of Radical Educators for putting me on. When they originally asked me to come on, they wanted me to do “This Is Not A Test,” the poem, but the urgency of now called. Without further de

1 by mike simpson / 2h 

Rahm Emanuel 'traded political favours with Rod Blagojevich' - ‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

Rahm Emanuel 'traded political favours with Rod Blagojevich' - Telegraph: Rahm Emanuel 'traded political favours with Rod Blagojevich'Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama's chief of staff, traded political favours with Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor, in 2006 while he was a congressman, according to leaked emails. By Michele Walk in Washington11:38PM BST 22 Jun 2010Mr Emanuel publish

1 by mike simpson / 2h 

People Are Pissed at Pearson | Alan Singer

People Are Pissed at Pearson | Alan Singer: People Are Pissed at Pearson Sir Michael Barber, Pearson's chief educational officer, actually became a British knight in 2005 for his role in leading marketplace "educational reform" in Great Britain. I suspect if he were good in math they would have made him a count. Barber apparently can't decide whether Pearson is leading a global Renaissan

1 by mike simpson / 2h 

De-Professionalizing Teachers in the Age of Accountability | educarenow

De-Professionalizing Teachers in the Age of Accountability | educarenow: De-Professionalizing Teachers in the Age of Accountability Teacher/student/activist Cory Steeves has done an important analysis of the discourse of “21st Century” education reform in (De/Re)-Constructing Teachers and Their Work: A Discourse Analysis of British Columbia’s 21st-century Policy Agenda. His work covers a lot of gr

1 by mike simpson / 4h 

Messer/Polis Student Privacy Bill Protects Commercial Interests of Vendors not Kids | Student Privacy Matters

Messer/Polis Student Privacy Bill Protects Commercial Interests of Vendors not Kids | Student Privacy Matters: MESSER/POLIS STUDENT PRIVACY BILL PROTECTS COMMERCIAL INTERESTS OF VENDORS NOT KIDSContact: Rachael Stickland, 303-204-1272, info@studentprivacymatters.orgLeonie Haimson, 917-435-9329, leoniehaimson@gmail.comwww.studentprivacymatters.orgdMesser/Polis Student Privacy Bill ProtectsCommercia

1 by mike simpson / 4h 

Reporting About Reporting….. | Taking Note

Reporting About Reporting….. | Taking Note: Reporting About Reporting I had planned to devote time to Alexander Russo’s critique of my reporting for the PBS NewsHour about students “opting out” of the Common Core States Standards tests. However, we have too much going on [1] for me to spend excessive time looking back.So, quickly, here’s the backstory: Alexander emailed education reporters to say

3 by mike simpson / 5h 

Most Important Election of 2015: Chuy Garcia's People's Campaign Versus Rahm Emanuel's Big Money ‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

Most Important Election of 2015: Chuy Garcia's People's Campaign Versus Rahm Emanuel's Big Money | Mike Lux: Most Important Election of 2015: Chuy Garcia's People's Campaign Versus Rahm Emanuel's Big Money Every so often, a local election comes along that has enormous implications in terms of the national political narrative. Back in the 1980s, Harold Washington's stunning upset of the Daley machi

1 by mike simpson / 5h 

Why Are We Facing So Many "Under-the-Radar" Corporate Attacks on Oklahoma Public Schools? | John Thompson

Why Are We Facing So Many "Under-the-Radar" Corporate Attacks on Oklahoma Public Schools? | John Thompson: Why Are We Facing So Many "Under-the-Radar" Corporate Attacks on Oklahoma Public Schools?The previous blockbuster discovery for Oklahoma City and Tulsa schools was SB 68, the "under-the-radar" bill to authorize cities to compete with school systems in sponsoring

1 by mike simpson / 6h 

New student data privacy bill in Congress does little to protect privacy — analysis - The Washington Post

New student data privacy bill in Congress does little to protect privacy — analysis - The Washington Post: New student data privacy bill in Congress does little to protect privacy — analysis Two U.S. legislators just introduced a bill in the House that they say is aimed at limiting the way education technology companies can use data that they collect about students from kindergarten through the 12

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Pearson Priority 1 Alert: Maryland students accused of using Twitter to cheat on test - Yahoo News

Maryland students accused of using Twitter to cheat on test - Yahoo News:Maryland students accused of using Twitter to cheat on test(Reuters) - Two Maryland high school students have been accused of using Twitter to cheat on Common Core state standardized tests, officials said on Monday.A security firm hired by the test company to search social media including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook found

3 by mike simpson / 8h 

Are we really at a ‘new low in the teacher wars’? - The Washington Post

Are we really at a ‘new low in the teacher wars’? - The Washington Post:Are we really at a ‘new low in the teacher wars’?Robert Pianta, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, recently wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post blasting critics of a multimillion-dollar initiative by the Obama administration to rate colleges of education. Serving as a cheerleader for the Edu

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Common Core and White Privilege: The Claim With a Long Internet Life - State EdWatch - Education Week

Common Core and White Privilege: The Claim With a Long Internet Life - State EdWatch - Education Week: Common Core and White Privilege: The Claim With a Long Internet LifeBy Andrew Ujifusa on March 23, 2015 7:57 AMAs recent polling about misperceptions surrounding the Common Core State Standards has revealed, there's a lot of heated rhetoric on offer in the discussion about the standards, as there

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Cameras in the Classroom: Is Big Brother Evaluating You? - NEA Today

Cameras in the Classroom: Is Big Brother Evaluating You? - NEA Today: Cameras in the Classroom: Is Big Brother Evaluating You?Video technology can improve safety and classroom practice, but using it to spy and find 'bad teachers' should be a non-starter.— JANUARY 23, 2015 • BY TIM WALKER —In January 2014, sixteen video cameras were delivered to the Washington County School District in Tennessee, o

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

History and logic to the rescue in reauthorizing No Child Left Behind | TheHill

History and logic to the rescue in reauthorizing No Child Left Behind | TheHill: History and logic to the rescue in reauthorizing No Child Left Behind More than a dozen years after it was reauthorized as the No Child Left Behind Act, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is under hot debate.  Why the heat?  Although the act has boosted student achievement (a major goal), not all students demo

1 by mike simpson / 11h 

Defending public education. — “The Chicago Public Education Blues”

Defending public education. — “The Chicago Public Education Blues”:  “The Chicago Public Education Blues” <7 links="">Steve Horn, “Chicago School Closings and the Joyce Foundation: The Obama Connection”, Mint Press News, July 9, 2013http://www.mintpressnews.com/a-closer-look-at-the-joyce-foundation-shows-obamas-ties-to-chicago-school-privatizations/164972/Carol Caref, et.al., “The Black & Whit

1 by mike simpson / 12h 

PARCC exams: Following the money behind N.J.'s costliest test | NJ.com

PARCC exams: Following the money behind N.J.'s costliest test | NJ.com: PARCC exams: Following the money behind N.J.'s costliest test Question: How much will New Jersey taxpayers spend to implement the new PARCC standardized tests in the state's public schools?(A) $25 per student(B) $22 million(C) $108 million(D) No one knowsThe answer, according to state officials, is all of the above. New Jersey

1 by mike simpson / 23h hide  //  save

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 3/22/15

Special Nite Cap Catch Up on Today's Post 3/22/15Special Nite Cap CORPORATE ED REFORMPeg with Pen: Littleton Public Schools, Colorado: Will You Stand on the Right Side of History?Peg with Pen: Littleton Public Schools, Colorado: Will You Stand on the Right Side of History?: Littleton Public Schools, Colorado: Will You Stand on the Right Side of History?Last Thursday night I addressed the Littleton

2 by mike simpson / 23h 

2015 National Conference – Chicago

The Countdown to Chicago Has Begun!

The Network For Public Education | 2015 National Conference – Chicago 

http://bit.ly/1FQFcQM

After-school, summer program funding threatened | EdSource

After-school, summer program funding threatened | EdSource:

After-school, summer program funding threatened

 Advocates for after-school programs will be holding a national summit in Los Angeles on Tuesday to build opposition to a plan to eliminate $1.15 billion in federal funding for after-school and summer programs.

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, has proposed ending 21st Century Community Learning Centers grants to states. He is the chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions. The committee is revising the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), often referred to as No Child Left Behind, which includes the community learning center funding.

The committee’s revision is expected to be presented to the Senate on April 13, said Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., which is taking part in the summit.

A similar proposal to eliminate the funding by the House of Representatives was pulled at the end of last month, Grant said.

Unlike most states, California also has a well-funded state program, the After School Education and Safety Program, which provides $550 million each year. But that funding is limited to K-8 students in after-school programs. It cannot be used for older students or for summer programs.

California schools still rely on the federal dollars – more than $127 million in 2014-15 – to provide before- and after-school and summer programs.

Across the country, about 1.6 million students participate in programs funded by the community center grants each year, according to the Afterschool Alliance. In a recent report, the alliance found that 19.4 million children nationwide would participate in these programs if funding were available. The estimate is based on a survey of parents across the country in spring 2014.

California’s statewide after-school program survived budget cuts during the recession because a voter initiative created the program and allocated $550 million in a separate funding stream from K-12 education. It is just as important that federal after-school funding remain After-school, summer program funding threatened | EdSource:

Proposition 30 closes spending gap between state and nation

SOURCE: CALIFORINA BUDGET AND POLICY CENTER

This chart shows the per pupil spending gap between California's K-12 schools and the national average over the past 14 years in inflation-adjusted dollars. It has narrowed substantially in the past two years, through revenue from Proposition 30, but is still nearly $1,000 per student below average – about what it was in 2007-08, before the recession.

Revenue from temporary taxes from Proposition 30 has closed the K-12 spending gap between California and the national average by more than 60 percent, according to data released Monday by the California Budget and Policy Center, a nonprofit research organization.

The center is using data released last week by the National Education Association, and includes estimates for 2014-15, based on twice yearly surveys of the states. In 2014-15, California is expected to spend $11,190 per student, including federal, state and local revenue sources, according to the NEA, ranking the state 29th among the 50 states and Washington, D.C. California was 42nd in spending in 2012-13, with spending of $9,013 per student.

The reason for the increase is Proposition 30, a seven-year tax increase that California voters passed in 2012. It is expected to bring in an additional $7.9 billion this year in school funding through increases in the personal income taxes of the top wage earners and a higher sales tax rate.

In 2012-13, per-student spending in California was $2,675 less than the average of the 49 other states and Washington, D.C. This year, California will spend $975 less per student, according to the center.

While subject to revision, “this is the best snapshot we have,” said Jonathan Kaplan, senior policy analyst for the center.

Earlier this year, Education Week’s annual ranking placed California 46th in per-student spending, compared with 50th the previous year.  But Ed Week’s rankings are three years old, based on data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics, and also were adjusted, using 

http://edsource.org/2015/proposition-30-closes-spending-gap-between-state-and-nation/76953#.VRDKzvnF9Mk

The cult-like religion of corporate education reform

The cult-like religion of corporate education reform:

The cult-like religion of corporate education reform

 Recently I've seen some interesting, puzzling news items about education wherein the principal players seem to cast logic to the wind and fall back on irrational opinions like medieval peasants.

Like those parents in New York who are angry about the fact that their school just ended homework for young students. A committee was created at the school to examine the efficacy of homework, whether it made any difference in grades or learning outcomes, and they found that there is no evidence that homework makes any difference. They looked at a lot of research and, based on the factual, empirical evidence, sent home a letter to families that said: we see now, based on all these studies of children and learning, that all this homework does nothing for our children's intellectual development. In fact there are indications that it might be bad for their intellectual development. So we want your kids to come home from school, play, read, spend time with their families.

And now parents are angry and not only giving their children homework at home, but are planning to withdraw their children from the school. Why? Because children need homework to be smarter!

You sense, perhaps, my puzzlement.

But it all became clear to me this morning, when I was in the middle of doing a hundred other things. Sometimes epiphanies are like that.

Most parents with school-aged kids have by now been sort of brainwashed. We've been told so many times that our schools are failing and our children are failures and the only way to fix it is to give them more, and harder, work, continuously. And now we literally can't see it any other way. We are so convinced in our conviction, that all the research in the history of the world, all the empirical evidence based on all the experiments, could not move us from this belief.

This belief.

That was my epiphany.

We parents have been listening to folks who are richer and more powerful, and seem smarter than we are, for 20 years now. They've been telling us lots of things contrary to reason but we've stopped arguing and started believing them. We do this because those reformers have us in the tight grip of a very particular type of persuasion.

Corporate education reform is a belief system that operates like a religion, or even a religious cult.

I have long known that corporate ed reform proponents like Rahm Emanuel operate on our schools not out of knowledge but out of ideology. His The cult-like religion of corporate education reform:

Have You Any Decency? What Every American Needs to Know About High Stakes Testing and the Latest Threat to Civil Liberties | Yohuru Williams

Have You Any Decency? What Every American Needs to Know About High Stakes Testing and the Latest Threat to Civil Liberties | Yohuru Williams:

Have You Any Decency? What Every American Needs to Know About High Stakes Testing and the Latest Threat to Civil Liberties

 Education bloggers revealed that the company retained by testing giant Pearson, to ensure the integrity of its assessments, has been monitoring student's social media accounts in conjunction with policing the controversial Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests. These are only the latest in a series of scandals dogging corporate education reform. Such revelations should give parents even greater reason to feel secure in their decisions to refuse high stakes testing for their children.

Curiously, the same cabal that tends to spring to the defense of testing and corporate education reform remained silent with regard to the latest issue. It seems obvious that the talking points memo issued with hefty campaign contributions and other payoffs by the corporate giants making a fortune on testing schemes did not cover the violation of basic civil liberties that went along with their testing packages.

In fact, those talking points consist only of ways to brand parents, teachers and teacher's unions as the real problem. The tired rhetoric would be laughable if it were not fundamentally undemocratic. That is really what makes it so scary -- for it is clear they are less concerned with safeguarding democracy than generating profits. Yet, they use extreme labels and metaphors that paint as extremists those most concerned with the protection of youth.

Last month, for instance, Wisconsin Governor and presidential hopeful Scott Walkerignited a firestorm at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference after he compared combating teachers unions to fighting terrorists. "If I can take on 100,000 protesters," he stridently informed those in attendance, "I can do the same across the world."

This is really the same stale script of trying to use fear and the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement to advance the corporate education reform agenda. To show how unimaginative Walker was, more than a decade ago George Bush's Education Secretary, Dr. Rod Paige, definitely branded the country's leading teachers union, the National Education Association as "a terrorist organization" in February of 2004. When the comments Paige shared in a closed session with the nation's Governors became public, he apologized, but more than ten years later, the label remains.

Paige, an African-American, also infamously drew comparisons to the Civil Rights Movement; he often referred to opponents of the Bush administration education polices as tantamount to the Southerner segregationist, trying to prevent the integration of schools. It makes for great copy, but as former football coach Dr. Paige knows, it is merely one page in the corporate education reform playbook.

At best, the careless declarations of Paige and Walker were merely examples of poor Have You Any Decency? What Every American Needs to Know About High Stakes Testing and the Latest Threat to Civil Liberties | Yohuru Williams:

CAASPP Communications Toolkit Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment - (CA Dept of Education)

CAASPP Communications Toolkit - California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) System (CA Dept of Education):

CAASPP Communications Toolkit

The CAASPP Communications Toolkit is a link to Smarter Balanced Summative Assessment resources, including communications and key informational documents to inform schools, families, and community representatives about online summative testing.

Communications About Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments

• CAASPP Communication-Related Common Questions about Smarter Balanced Assessments – A document that addresses common questions that are asked about the Smarter Balanced Assessments. 
  
• CAASPP Communication about Smarter Balanced – Addresses the Smarter Balanced Comprehensive Plan and the collaborative role of teachers to facilitate the changes being implemented to improve teaching and learning. 
  
• Creating a Computer Adaptive Test (English)  (PDF) | Creating a Computer Adaptive Test (Spanish)  (PDF) 
  This document describes the two criteria for creating an online, adaptive test and how the adaptive software works for the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments.
  
• Accessibility and Accommodations: Meeting the Needs of all Students (English)  (PDF) | Accessibility and Accommodations: Meeting the Needs of all Students (Spanish)  (PDF)
  This document highlights the timeline for research and development that was key to the work behind creating online assessments that support learning for all students.
  
• Smarter Balanced and Teachers: Preparing Students for Success (English)  (PDF) | Smarter Balanced and Teachers: Preparing Students for Success (Spanish)  (PDF)
  This document from Smarter Balanced describes the benefits of an online assessment, along with key features and additional resources that help support teaching and learning in every classroom.
  
• Smarter Balanced Parents Factsheet (English)  (PDF) | Smarter Balanced Parents Factsheet -Spanish (PDF)
  This document describes how new tests based on the Common Core State Standards can help prepare students to graduate high school ready for college and the workplace.
  
• California PTA  – This Web site provides resources and information about the new Smarter Balanced assessments built to help students, parents, teachers, and school leaders know where students are on the path to success.
  
• Videos – Brief student videos gives key information about the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments and how to get additional information about testing in the State of California.
• An Academic Checkup  (Video; 2:44), a video about the Smarter Balanced assessments produced by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
• High School Students  (Video; 3:37) | Spanish (Coming soon)
• Elementary and Middle School Students  (Video; 3:18) | Spanish (Coming soon)

Communications About Smarter Balanced Assessments and Higher Education

• College and Career-Ready Assessments  (PDF) – This document describes the benefits of the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for students, parents, teachers, and policy makers.
  
• Higher Education FAQs   (PDF) – This newly updated document answers key questions about the Smarter Balanced Assessments and how they support higher education.

Smarter Balanced Web Site links

• Smarter Balanced Parents and Student Page  – A Smarter Balanced Web page that provides access to fact sheets, questions and answers, and resources in English and Spanish.
  
• Support for Under-Represented Students  – A Smarter Balanced Web page that provides information and resources for under-represented students.
  
• Spanish Resources   – A Smarter Balanced Web page that provides resources and information in Spanish.

Questions:   California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress Office | caaspp@cde.ca.gov | 916-445-8765

Testing thought experiment | Deborah Meier on Education

Testing thought experiment | Deborah Meier on Education:

Testing thought experiment

Posted on March 23, 2015 by debmeier

Dear Readers,

Let’s do a “what if” experiment. Supposing that all the poor and Black and Hispanic children surprised us all and got scores more or less equal to (or even better!) than their richer and whiter peers on the spring tests.

If you imagine there would be celebrations galore, think again about why this could not happen. Not just why poverty is a handicap, but why no test could ever prove it is not.

Because every test-maker in the world would know there was something wrong with that test’s pool of items long before scores were reported—during its field testing period—and do whatever’s necessary to make the test “harder”—or, more “accurate.” It doesn’t require even changing the items, but just a few tweaks in the choices of answers will usually do. This is not a guess on my part, it is what some folks who’ve explored the ETS pool of SAT questions have long ago discovered. If an item is “favored” by Black students (or other group that does not normally do well on the test) it is removed as an unreliable.

We are simply more sophisticated at doing what the original IQ designers did a century ago when they tested how “rigorous” an item was by seeing who got it right and wrong based on their occupational status.

I hate to tell you—but us Jews didn’t do too well at first. We weren’t doctors, lawyers and business makers in the early 1900s. And, I suspect, they may never have later selected items on the basis of whether or not the testee was Jewish (as Jewish was probably not one of the boxes to check)—or we would still be scoring in the bottom half.

We are getting crasser at this—with less cover-up. I note that the latest improved model does not promise a normal curve or any particular pre-designed percentiles. It just waits until the results are in and then figures out how to score it so that it sends the right message. Literally.

We even did this with the National Board’s professional teaching test. It seemed Testing thought experiment | Deborah Meier on Education:

Elementary school teachers: How PARCC testing is affecting our classrooms - The Washington Post

Elementary school teachers: How PARCC testing is affecting our classrooms - The Washington Post:

Elementary school teachers: How PARCC testing is affecting our classrooms

With the spring standardized testing season under way, we are hearing from a growing number of teachers, principals and even superintendents who are speaking out about the negative effects of high-stakes testing on teaching and learning.  For example, Steve Kramer,  superintendent of Madeira City Schools in Ohio, recently wrote an open letter about why he is “profoundly concerned” about new Common Core testing. The following post is an open letter signed by 20 teachers at Barbieri Elementary School in Framingham, Massachusetts, who detail how Common Core testing is affecting their classrooms.

Here’s the open letter:

We are teachers at Barbieri Elementary School who want to make clear what is happening in your children’s classrooms as a result of decisions made in offices far away.

This year, 3rd-8th graders in Framingham Public Schools will be taking the test known as PARCC, which will be replacing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS).

PARCC was created by the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, one of two multi-state consortia given $360 million in federal funds to design new standardized tests to hold students, schools and teachers “accountable.”

As teachers we cannot stay silent as PARCC makes its way into our classrooms.

In the words of Soujourner Truth at the 1851 Women’s Convention, “Where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter.” Nationally, we’re hearing a racket about the problem of standardized tests driving instruction, knocking the process of education clearly out of kilter. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Test Prep takes time away from REAL Reading, Writing and Math Instruction.

For example, leading up to the PARCC exam, regular instruction is suspended in reading and writing classes in order to prepare our students for the kind of passages and questions they will encounter. On average we will cancel six weeks of reading and writing instruction to prepare for the tests. The time for independent reading, read-alouds and word study is replaced with repeated practice answering multiple choice questions and writing multi-paragraph essays in less time than they will ever be asked to do in high school or college. This does not even account for the instruction time lost to actually taking the PARCC tests. This year students will lose seven additional learning days in Grade Three, eight days in Grade Four and 

Elementary school teachers: How PARCC testing is affecting our classrooms - The Washington Post:

This Is Not A Test, New York Edition [Thanks, NYCoRE] | The Jose Vilson

This Is Not A Test, New York Edition [Thanks, NYCoRE] | The Jose Vilson:

This Is Not A Test, New York Edition [Thanks, NYCoRE]

 JOSE VILSON MARCH 23, 2015 JOSE LEAVE A COMMENT

First, let me thank the New York Coalition of Radical Educators for putting me on. When they originally asked me to come on, they wanted me to do “This Is Not A Test,” the poem, but the urgency of now called. Without further delay, here’s the video from this past weekend. (Special shout-out toNorm Scott for the video.)

Welcome, New York, to the latest installment of a people’s march
For the next four minutes, I will ask you to defy protocol
Disband the status quo
Bust open these deformed gates
Unlock the teachers’ lounge
Unlock the teachers’ lounge
Unlock the teachers’ lounge
I beg your pardon, but I am not your proctor
I march with the protestors, and our hands are raised,
A pledge for a new narrative
This is not a test!

This is not a test, Mr. Duncan.
This is an assessment written against the idea that the dates and places of our history
Can be shrunk to the choice between B and C
And that is our purpose for this assembly
An extended response to a failing corporatist agenda
A reflection on the state of our most public of options
Measured through the rubric of human rights
But this is not a test!

This is not a test, Ms. Tisch
Take note: this is not us asking
This is not us begging
This is not us pleading
This is us fighting for all things equal
This is us uniting as a more perfect union
This is us reminding New York of a promissory note unpaid
This is us writing our own documentation when politicians refuse our kids the
opportunity
We are all DREAMers, and this is not a test!

This is the generation of children from the classrooms
where teachers boldly stood and thought kids could learn
Educators, stand firm, whether in cafeterias, mess halls, or prison halls,
School is in session
And we submit our entire lives for millions of students This Is Not A Test, New York Edition [Thanks, NYCoRE] | The Jose Vilson:

Rahm Emanuel 'traded political favours with Rod Blagojevich' - ‪#‎Chuy2015‬ ‪#‎imwithchuy‬

Rahm Emanuel 'traded political favours with Rod Blagojevich' - Telegraph:

Rahm Emanuel 'traded political favours with Rod Blagojevich'

Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama's chief of staff, traded political favours with Rod Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor, in 2006 while he was a congressman, according to leaked emails.

 By Michele Walk in Washington

11:38PM BST 22 Jun 2010

Mr Emanuel published an endorsement of Mr Blagojevich in the Chicago Tribune in exchange for $2 million (£1.3 million) in school funding to his district, according to the emails, which were released on Monday. The newspaper had recently claimed in an editorial that Mr Blagojevich used public funds to support his re-election campaign.

Mr Blagojevich, who was re-elected in 2006 but resigned in 2009, is currently on trial in Illinois on corruption charges. He is alleged to have attempted to sell Mr Obama's former Senate seat.

The emails detailing the deal, revealed by the Associated Press, apparently were exchanged between Mr Emanuel, his staff and Mr Blagojevich's chief aide, Bradley Tusk.

Senior Democrats have told the Telegraph that Mr Emanuel is preparing to stand down after the mid-term congressional elections in November.

Funds allegedly did not arrive promptly after the letter was published, prompting Mr Emanuel to repeatedly email and telephone Mr Tusk, who then asked Mr Blagojevich why the funds had not been released.

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Mr Blagojevich reportedly told Mr Tusk that he wanted Mr Emanuel's brother, a Hollywood agent, to hold a campaign fundraiser for him before he would release the grant.

"I understood it to mean that the grant would not be released unless the fund-raiser was held", Mr Tusk said on Monday during testimony. Mr Tusk said he believed doing so would be "illegal and unethical".

The fundraiser was never held, and the school grant - a small sum by state standards, according to testimony given by former Blagojevich chief of staff John Harris - was eventually awarded in small installments.

Mr Emanuel represented Illinois' 5th district in the House of Representatives from 2002 to 2008. After being re-elected in 2008, he left Congress to became President Obama's chief of staff.Rahm Emanuel 'traded political favours with Rod Blagojevich' - Telegraph:

People Are Pissed at Pearson | Alan Singer

People Are Pissed at Pearson | Alan Singer:

People Are Pissed at Pearson

 Sir Michael Barber, Pearson's chief educational officer, actually became a British knight in 2005 for his role in leading marketplace "educational reform" in Great Britain. I suspect if he were good in math they would have made him a count. Barber apparently can't decide whether Pearson is leading a global Renaissance (rebirth) in education, a global revolution, or both. But in either case he believes that globalisation (he spells it like a Brit) and technology will direct the changes and we mere peasants have no choice but to go along. Sir Mike constantly writes and speaks about efficacy, the ability to produce a desired or intended result. But as you look at what is happening with Pearson and education, you see very little efficacy. Pearson's only intended result is to make more and more money. That is why so many people are pissed at Pearson and fighting back against Common Core and Pearson PARCC exams.

In Massachusetts, teachers are pissed at Pearson. Pearson wanted teachers proctoring PARCC exams to sign a "security agreement" that threatened their jobs if they failed to comply. The agreement included the warning, in the test manual and on PARCC letterhead, "Failure to abide by the terms of the agreement may result in an investigation that leads to sanctions including employment and licensure consequences, according to your state policies." The state's teachers' union demanded that the Commissioner of Education rescind the signing directive. In response, Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester issued a memorandum that teachers did not have to sign the PARCC Security Agreement in order to proctor the test.

In New York State, university professors are pissed at Pearson. The State Education Department (NYSED) sent out a survey to University Schools of Education "to obtain feedback from New York State educators regarding the importance of the assessment competencies to the job of an educator in the above field in New York State public schools." But the survey was not being conducted by the New York State Education Department; it was being done by Pearson. Participants were instructed, "If you have any questions, please e-mail us at es-cvsurvey@pearson.com or call our toll-free number: 1-800-877-4584." The questions on the survey were also ridiculous. Pearson wanted to know whether reviewers think teacher command of content knowledge and analytical tools in an academic field is of "no importance," "Little importance," "Moderate importance," "Great importance," or "Very great importance." Similar messages were sent to school principals. Basically, this was a pretend survey so that NYSED and Pearson could claim experts in the field were consulted in the preparation of teacher certification material.

In New Jersey, parents and students are pissed at Pearson. Pearson has contracted out the "test-security services" to a company based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Caveon Web Patrol provides Pearson with "continual, consistent monitoring (of) the internet for illicit sharing of valuable intellectual property."

Pearson's agents monitored social media and Twitter after students took a Pearson PARCC exam. They notified state education officials of a possible "security breach." The state education officials then demanded that schools discipline the students. On its website, Pearson claims "when test questions or elements of a test are posted publicly to the Internet, including social media, we are obligated to alert PARCC People Are Pissed at Pearson | Alan Singer:

De-Professionalizing Teachers in the Age of Accountability | educarenow

De-Professionalizing Teachers in the Age of Accountability | educarenow:

De-Professionalizing Teachers in the Age of Accountability

 Teacher/student/activist Cory Steeves has done an important analysis of the discourse of “21st Century” education reform in (De/Re)-Constructing Teachers and Their Work: A Discourse Analysis of British Columbia’s 21st-century Policy Agenda. His work covers a lot of ground and touches on many important areas of education reform. He specifically looks at what is going in his home of British Columbia, but his analysis can be applied to any place touched by neo-liberal educational policy.

A striking example of Steeve’s thesis is his analysis of the de-professionalization of teaching via the attack on public education. He shows that corporate leaders have disproportional weight in policy development- teachers are rarely asked to be involved while corporate leaders are over- represented. Policy makers lean on the influence of corporate business leaders rather than those who actually do the work of teaching. Steeves writes, “My belief that teachers must have meaningful influence over the policies which shape their work is grounded in the awareness that it is teachers not policy makers- who are solely entrusted with the responsibility of ‘enabl{ling} all learners to become literate, to develop their individual potential and to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to contribute to a healthy, democratic and pluralist society and a prosperous and sustainable economy.’ (B.C. Ministry of Education, 1996, p.. C-13)” If teachers are not involved in the creation of the policy, and yet are held accountable for its results, then clearly this is something that is being done to teachers rather than with them, and thus represents on attack on public education. As Steeves puts it, “I believe that if teachers are not meaningfully influencing policy-level discussions about what constitutes teachers’ work, then public schooling might be seen as under attack, or ‘terrorized’.”

In a recent interview that Steeves held with Dr. E. Wayne Ross, Ross described the language of accountability this way: “Accountability is an economic interaction within hierarchical, bureaucratic systems between those who have power and those who don’t. (It is) a means of dispersing power to lower levels of hierarchical systems. Those who receive power are obligated to ‘render an account’ of accomplishing outcomes desired by those in power. Accountability depends on surveillance and self-regulation. Its power is spectacle that results from accounting. Accountability schemes obfuscate identity of higher authority; De-Professionalizing Teachers in the Age of Accountability | educarenow: