Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 9/13/15 #FightForDyett

SPECIAL NITE CAP 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

APS proposes ‘kit’ to opt out of testing | Albuquerque Journal News

APS proposes ‘kit’ to opt out of testing | Albuquerque Journal News: APS proposes ‘kit’ to opt out of testingAlbuquerque Public Schools is working to create a uniform process for parents who want to remove their children from standardized testing – an effort aimed at combating widespread confusion about “opting out.”During the APS Board of Education’s policy and instruction committee meeting Wedne

by mike simpson / 2h 

Caucus of Working Educators plans to challenge PFT leadership | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Caucus of Working Educators plans to challenge PFT leadership | Philadelphia Public School Notebook: Caucus of Working Educators plans to challenge PFT leadershipThe caucus, which has been organizing since 2013, plans a "listening campaign" in advance of next year's vote.Photo: Caucus of Working EducatorsFrom Left: Amy Roat, Yaasiyn Muhammad, Ismael Jimenez, Kelley CollingsThe Caucus of

by mike simpson / 3h 

Flawed FSA shouldn’t be used for grading anyone | The Edvocate Blog

Flawed FSA shouldn’t be used for grading anyone | The Edvocate Blog: Flawed FSA shouldn’t be used for grading anyoneIllustration: Robert RendoNo one is surprised that the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) was deemedvalid by the EdCount/Alpine study. What’s odd is that the equally important factor of reliability was not considered. Finding the FSA psychometrically valid does not address the terrib

by mike simpson / 3h 

A School I Believe In, a Movement I Don’t | EduShyster

A School I Believe In, a Movement I Don’t | EduShyster: A School I Believe In, a Movement I Don’tHow my charter network’s advocacy hurts more kids than it helps…Last year I made the agonizing decision to leave my urban public school and take a job at a charter school that is part of a highly-regarded network. I loved my students and the community at my former school, but after a tumultuous year sp

by mike simpson / 3h 

Peg with Pen: Understanding Teach Like a Champion

Peg with Pen: Understanding Teach Like a Champion: Understanding Teach Like a ChampionI'm currently in the process of reading Teach Like a Champion 2.0.  I'm reading it because it is one of the "go to" books shared via Relay Graduate School NYC, and unfortunately, their work is being spread far and wide here in Colorado in many of our districts, including mine.  We are at a very precario

by mike simpson / 5h 

MAJOR FACTORS FOR CONTINUED MINORITY FAILURE ON COMMON CORE TEST IGNORED- WHY IS THAT? - Perdaily.com

MAJOR FACTORS FOR CONTINUED MINORITY FAILURE ON COMMON CORE TEST IGNORED- WHY IS THAT? - Perdaily.com: MAJOR FACTORS FOR CONTINUED MINORITY FAILURE ON COMMON CORE TEST IGNORED- WHY IS THAT?(Mensaje se repite en Español)In analyzing the recent abysmal showing and further decline of Black and Latino students on recent state tests designed to measure their mastery of Common Core standards, major fact

by mike simpson / 5h 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Things That Make You Go, Hmm...

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Things That Make You Go, Hmm...: Things That Make You Go, Hmm...(Strike update: nothing from SEA as of 10:15 am today, Sunday the 13th; SPS has a press conference today at 3 pm.  Maybe they are hoping there will be something to say then.)1) In some of the biggest news for public education in Washington State - namely, that the Governor is assembling a "work gr

by mike simpson / 5h 

Creating A Culture Of Respect | Oklahoma Observer

Creating A Culture Of Respect | Oklahoma Observer: Creating A Culture Of RespectThe Washington Post’s Jay Mathews describes John Thompson’s A Teacher’s Tale: Learning, Loving and Listening to Our Kids as “riveting,” “deep,” and “revealing.”Mathews has watched the DC schools for more than a generation and has “seen what Thompson describes many times.” The veteran reporter writes, “Thompson witnesse

by mike simpson / 6h 

A Much Muted Return | @ THE CHALKFACE

A Much Muted Return | @ THE CHALKFACE: A Much Muted ReturnBY SHAUN JOHNSON ON SEPTEMBER 13, 2015I’m back. If you’re new to this, check the About page.There’s a history to @ the ChalkFace. It goes back to the beginning of 2010. Things became complicated, and with those complications much frustration. There was a break for over a year. It was very nice. I shed a lot of Internet weight.I have ideas.

by mike simpson / 8h 

Aristotle in Kindergarten—What Do Children Miss?

Aristotle in Kindergarten—What Do Children Miss?: Aristotle in Kindergarten—What Do Children Miss?When I read in The New York Times about Matthew Levey, a Columbia alum and former McKinsey consultant, who is setting up the International Charter School of New York, I was stunned! The school is starting out with 70 kindergartners and first graders and will eventually go up to fifth grade.Mr. Levey s

by mike simpson / 8h 

Washington Supreme Court Finds Charter School Law Unconstitutional - Education Justice

Education Justice | September 11, 2015 - Washington Supreme Court Finds Charter School Law Unconstitutional: September 11, 2015HELP SUPPORT ELC ELC relies on the generous contributions of individuals, corporations and foundations to support our work.WASHINGTON SUPREME COURT FINDS CHARTER SCHOOL LAW UNCONSTITUTIONALOlympia, WA --- On September 4, 2015, in League of Women Voters of Washington v. Sta

by mike simpson / 8h 

CURMUDGUCATION: David Coleman's Master Plan

CURMUDGUCATION: David Coleman's Master Plan: David Coleman's Master PlanDavid Coleman, the architect of the Common Core and current head of the College Board, has spoken many times about what the long view of education reform would be. One frequently quoted speech was his keynote address at the Institute for Leadership Senior Leadership Meeting in December of 2011.The seventy-minute presentation i

by mike simpson / 8h 

How Much Reform Can $100 Million Buy Without Addressing Poverty? - NEA Today

How Much Reform Can $100 Million Buy Without Addressing Poverty? - NEA Today: How Much Reform Can $100 Million Buy Without Addressing Poverty?(l-r) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker on NBC’s Education Nation.In September 2010, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, flanked by then-Newark mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a

by mike simpson / 10h 

Why Were So Many Education Reformers Bad Students? | gadflyonthewallblog

Why Were So Many Education Reformers Bad Students? | gadflyonthewallblog: Why Were So Many Education Reformers Bad Students?
Bad students often hate school.Not exactly shocking, I know.But perhaps more surprising is the pattern of low, sloppy or inconsistent academic achievement by so many of those adults who consider themselves education reformers, particularly corporate school reformers.Our idea

by mike simpson / 10h 

Russ on Reading: New Teachers are Educated, Not Trained

Russ on Reading: New Teachers are Educated, Not Trained: New Teachers are Educated, Not TrainedIt was gratifying the other morning to pick up the New York Times and see this headline on the Opinion Page: "Teachers Aren't Dumb." Gee thanks. The author of the piece, Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of psychology at The University of Virginia, says that Arne Duncan is wrong about prospecti

by mike simpson / 10h 

Teaching In America: 'Only The Strong Will Survive' : NPR

Teaching In America: 'Only The Strong Will Survive' : NPR: Teaching In America: 'Only The Strong Will Survive'Last week was supposed to be the first week of school for students in Seattle, Washington. Instead it was the beginning of a teachers' strike. Negotiators are at a standoff over wages and performance evaluations.In 2012, Chicago's public school teachers went on strike, leaving the city's 3

by mike simpson / 10h 

Florida's Charter Schools: Unsupervised Map — SunSentinel.com

Florida's Charter Schools: Unsupervised Map — SunSentinel.com:FLORIDA'S CHARTER SCHOOLSUNSUPERVISEDTaxpayers, students lose when school operators exploit weak lawsSCHOOL'S OUT FOREVERIn the past five years, 56 South Florida charter schools have closed, expelling thousands of students. Five charter schools in Broward and Palm Beach counties didn't survive three months. Read the investigation.Source

by mike simpson / 11h 

Educator pay lag likely aggravating teacher shortage : Politics

Educator pay lag likely aggravating teacher shortage : Politics: Educator pay lag likely aggravating teacher shortageINDIANAPOLIS | The teacher shortage affecting hiring at Indiana schools — and districts across the country — has been attributed to everything from increased student testing and partisan politics, to higher standards required for new teachers and excessive retirements.But region tea

by mike simpson / 11h 

LA Times: Charter Propaganda From Eli Broad: A charter school expansion could be great for L.A.

A charter school expansion could be great for L.A. - LA Times: A charter school expansion could be great for L.A.Slightly more than a fifth of all students in the Los Angeles Unified School District are currently enrolled in charter schools. That number would rise to nearly half of the district's students if the early ambitions of a group of charter organizations and their benefactors come to frui

by mike simpson / 11h 

YESTERDAY

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 9/12/15 #FightForDyett

SPECIAL NITE CAP CORPORATE ED REFORMSchool choice complicates Promise Neighborhood’s efforts to help kids - The Washington PostSchool choice complicates Promise Neighborhood’s efforts to help kids - The Washington Post: School choice complicates Promise Neighborhood’s efforts to help kidsAn impoverished pocket of Northeast Washington has been receiving $25 million in federal grants to fund tutors,

1 by mike simpson / 23h hide  //  save

APS proposes ‘kit’ to opt out of testing | Albuquerque Journal News

APS proposes ‘kit’ to opt out of testing | Albuquerque Journal News:

APS proposes ‘kit’ to opt out of testing

Albuquerque Public Schools is working to create a uniform process for parents who want to remove their children from standardized testing – an effort aimed at combating widespread confusion about “opting out.”

During the APS Board of Education’s policy and instruction committee meeting Wednesday afternoon, administrators outlined a proposal to provide a “tool kit” for schools and parents, which would include an opt-out form, frequently asked questions sheet and calendar of tests by grade level.

The kit would be available on the APS website and in the schools, according to Rose-Ann McKernan, executive director of the APS office of accountability and reporting.

In a presentation on the proposed process – which was only up for discussion Wednesday – she explained that parents who want their kids to skip one or more standardized tests would complete the form and return it to the APS central office or their child’s school.

The central office would keep track of the forms and create a report for each school, listing students who have opted out. Principals would come up with ideas for alternative assignments for nontesting students and submit them to APS administrators.

The goal is to provide parents with “some very straightforward direction,” McKernan said.

She added that she hopes to avoid the uncertainty that arose during the 2014-2015 school year, when the controversial Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers test was administered for the first time. Critics have said that PARCC reduces children to statistics, and is too long and difficult.

Last year, parents requested testing opt-outs for about 4,000 students by communicating with principalsAPS proposes ‘kit’ to opt out of testing | Albuquerque Journal News:

 

unitedoptout.com

Caucus of Working Educators plans to challenge PFT leadership | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Caucus of Working Educators plans to challenge PFT leadership | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Caucus of Working Educators plans to challenge PFT leadership

The caucus, which has been organizing since 2013, plans a "listening campaign" in advance of next year's vote.

Photo: Caucus of Working Educators

From Left: Amy Roat, Yaasiyn Muhammad, Ismael Jimenez, Kelley Collings

The Caucus of Working Educators (WE), a group of mostly younger teachers committed to social justice unionism, announced plans Thursday to put up a slate in next year's election against Jerry Jordan and the current leadership of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

The challenge is the most robust and coordinated effort since the 1980s to unseat the dominant Collective Bargaining Team that has run the PFT for more than 30 years.

WE's mission -- to put stark focus on educational inequality and the damage it does to teachers, students, and society -- is in the spirit of internal dissent that has ousted long-term union leadership in cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Milwaukee. Its action has the potential to shake up the historically dysfunctional PFT-District relationship, although whether it would become more or less adversarial under WE is still not clear. 

"We are a diverse group of rank and file members who felt disconnected from the PFT leadership," said Larissa Pahomov, an English teacher at Science Leadership Academy and co-chair of the caucus. "We don't believe essentially that a one-party union is good for the teachers of Philadelphia."

The group, which formed 18 months ago and claims about 200 members, has been emphasizing issues not usually on the front burner in union elections, such as the school-to-prison pipeline, racial injustice, and, most visibly, students' right to opt out of standardized tests. 

Active in opt-out

Two of the four teachers who will be vying for the top union posts as caucus candidates, Amy Roat and Kelley Collings, have been frontline activists in the "opt-out" movement, Caucus of Working Educators plans to challenge PFT leadership | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Flawed FSA shouldn’t be used for grading anyone | The Edvocate Blog

Flawed FSA shouldn’t be used for grading anyone | The Edvocate Blog:

Flawed FSA shouldn’t be used for grading anyone

Illustration: Robert Rendo

No one is surprised that the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) was deemedvalid by the EdCount/Alpine study. What’s odd is that the equally important factor of reliability was not considered. Finding the FSA psychometrically valid does not address the terrible conditions under which the test was administered, nor does it resolve significant concerns about psychometric reliability. Ignoring this, Education Commissioner Pam Stewart assumed that “all Floridians will share my confidence in the assessment.”

There isn’t a Florida student, parent, teacher, superintendent, board member or administrator who doesn’t see through this charade. Superintendents fromLeon to Miami-Dade have expressed their deep concerns. The study’s own numbers point out that just 65 percent of the test items match the Florida Standards. It concludes that it would be wrong to retain students or deny diplomas based on the 2015 FSA, yet Commissioner Stewart plans to use these same flawed test results to set pass/fail cut scores, grade schools and evaluate teachers. It’s fundamentally unfair to punish teachers and grade schools based on scores where 35 percent of the test items were never taught to Florida students.

Put another way, if a student answered every question based on the Florida Flawed FSA shouldn’t be used for grading anyone | The Edvocate Blog:

A School I Believe In, a Movement I Don’t | EduShyster

A School I Believe In, a Movement I Don’t | EduShyster:

A School I Believe In, a Movement I Don’t

How my charter network’s advocacy hurts more kids than it helps…

Last year I made the agonizing decision to leave my urban public school and take a job at a charter school that is part of a highly-regarded network. I loved my students and the community at my former school, but after a tumultuous year spent battling a hostile administration, I knew I had to leave. About two months into work, and now at the beginning of the school year, I’m convinced that I’ll become a much stronger teacher as a result of the feedback, support and coaching I’m getting at my new school. What I’m far less comfortable with, though, is the role that my charter network plays in the larger charter-school movement. 

A deeply troubling movement
My network’s contributions to a deeply troubling charter-school movement, both nationally and at the state level, have been substantial. Speaking concretely, the charter movement has produced multiple low-performing schools for each high-performing school it’s produced. Many of these struggling schools stay open for several years, and more get their charters renewed than they should. The charter authorization process is hardly democratic, which is deliberate. Some non-profit-run charters have become cash cows for education corporations and consulting groups, even as the schools mis-educate and underserve kids.

Meanwhile, many of the high-performing schools are so driven to be defined as *high-performing* by the narrow metrics the movement and, increasingly, we as a country endorse, that they achieve their success through astonishingly high attritionand an obsession with compliance. There is also the uncomfortable reality that a movement that advocates for charter schools for students of color, is overwhelmingly white-led and often profoundly paternalistic.

Still, I’m inclined to be forgiving of my network. On the whole, they are doing a relatively good job by students, their families, and the communities the schools serve. My school specifically is doing great things for our kids, sticking by even the most A School I Believe In, a Movement I Don’t | EduShyster:

Peg with Pen: Understanding Teach Like a Champion

Peg with Pen: Understanding Teach Like a Champion:

Understanding Teach Like a Champion

I'm currently in the process of reading Teach Like a Champion 2.0.  I'm reading it because it is one of the "go to" books shared via Relay Graduate School NYC, and unfortunately, their work is being spread far and wide here in Colorado in many of our districts, including mine.  We are at a very precarious time in public education - our work as educators is being stripped from our schools and replaced by non-educator think tanks who pride themselves on high test scores.  Teach Like a Champion 2.0 is written by Doug Lemov. I'll let you read more about him here. Ultimately he is not an educator, but has great experience within the world of charter schools. He has two degrees in English and one in business. He is a corporate education reformer. Period.

To be honest, after reading over 100 pages of the book (there will be a follow-up blog when I finish reading the entire book), I have to say it's incredibly shallow and simplistic - yet the scary part is the dictatorial demand to keep everything shallow, uniform and simplistic.  And as mentioned above, Lemov's beliefs about "teaching like a champion" are beginning to co-opt what true educators really understand about teaching, child development, and engaging learners.  This book is a great primer for reducing learning to uniform and robotic student behavior which is easy to "track" (Lemov's word - not mine) and manage, in order to get the results that you want. And the results that they want are high test scores.Lemov is clear in stating that this work is gauged via state test scores.

True learning is incredibly messy, but with an inherent structure in place to support the Peg with Pen: Understanding Teach Like a Champion:

MAJOR FACTORS FOR CONTINUED MINORITY FAILURE ON COMMON CORE TEST IGNORED- WHY IS THAT? - Perdaily.com

MAJOR FACTORS FOR CONTINUED MINORITY FAILURE ON COMMON CORE TEST IGNORED- WHY IS THAT? - Perdaily.com:

MAJOR FACTORS FOR CONTINUED MINORITY FAILURE ON COMMON CORE TEST IGNORED- WHY IS THAT?

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

In analyzing the recent abysmal showing and further decline of Black and Latino students on recent state tests designed to measure their mastery of Common Core standards, major factors seem to have been purposefully ignored in looking at these scores in order to continue a failed public education policy that is clearly responsible. Why is that? Could it have anything to do with the corporate agenda that seeks to justify the further privatization of the now close to $2 trillion a year public education "business" with privately owned or controlled charter schools designed to tap into these funds by corporations?

The greatest factor in explaining this continued poor performance of Black and Latino students on these tests is not even addressed as a factor in explaining why these students continue to fail in school and on these tests. In the continued segregation of our public schools 61 years after Brown vs. Board of Education said, "Separate but equal...is inherently unequal" and against the law, not only has segregation gotten worse, it has gotten so bad that older African Americans now often remark that the segregated all Black schools they went to were better than a de facto segregated Dorsey, Crenshaw, or Audubon LAUSD school, where failure is almost ensured and success is the miraculous exception rather than the grade-level mastery, which should be the rule.

When somebody like Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers says, "We are asking more out of our kids and I think that's a good thing" as reported by Howard Blum in the Los Angeles Times, both Blum and Minnich are clearly lying and they know it.

In school districts like LAUSD, that remain close to 90% Latino and Black, the vast majority of students, parents, teachers, and most importantly administrators have noMAJOR FACTORS FOR CONTINUED MINORITY FAILURE ON COMMON CORE TEST IGNORED- WHY IS THAT? - Perdaily.com: