CURMUDGUCATION: Dancing Straw Men Reformster Video Festival

CURMUDGUCATION: Dancing Straw Men Reformster Video Festival:

Dancing Straw Men Reformster Video Festival

Now and then, amidst the noise and mess of the education debates, you will see a moment where people from several sides are able to find a means of engaging in dialogue based on nuanced looks into the issues and an honest attempt to understand the ideas and positions that motiva-- OH MY DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN!What the hell is that!!??

What the hell that is, is a new music video from Bob Bowden and his crew at Choice Media. It's called "We Don't Want School Choice," and it just totally skewers the living daylights out of a whole bunch of anti-choice positions that nobody on planet earth actually supports. But it has singing and dancing and a monster, so you know this is serious business. I'll embed this special slice of video hell further down the page so you can check my work, but I have watched so you don't have to, and really, that might be best.

It opens with a little text down in the lower left corner, just like a real video on MTV back in 1987. We pan through empty school halls and rooms while the mocking echos of the parent voices at which we're about to shake our satirical scepter. And then the beat kicks in and this jam is off and running.

Cut to five hip hoppy dancers busting moves in front of a plain white background, while the beat drops and the chorus of "We don't want school choice, no, we don't want school choice" pops in.

And now, cut to five pissed off parents. This is a well-selected group, with one Black mom, one Hispanic mom, one Ethnic dad, and a white mom and dad. And we will proceed to meet each of them pretending to present the arguments that the writers will pretend pro public education supporters present. Yes, it's all very meta and satirical.

Black mom is wearing a sweater in a well-appointed kitchen and says, "Though our public schools are losin' we still got no business choosin'" and Hispanic mom, on a comfy high-backed sofa says, "Scholarship to private school? Don't let me pick. I'm just a fool." So right off the bat, the writers CURMUDGUCATION: Dancing Straw Men Reformster Video Festival:

John King's Problem

The Washington Post put Lindsey Layton and Emma Brown together to create a profile of John King, former NY Ed Chieftain and future US Ed Department Temporary Faux Secretary. It's worth reading as a compendium of what many sources have already said about King.

There is apparently some sort of federal regulation saying that if one writes about King, one must treat his personal story as The Central Thing To Know about John King, and Brown, Layton, and the headine writer have observed that law assiduously. They also repeat some of the success claims for King's Uncommon School charters uncritically, but the profile is worth reading. I just want to focus on two quotes from it because they capture perfectly what I find so weirdly disconnected about King.

First, King's oft-mentioned reference to teachers saving his life as a boy:

One of them was Alan Osterweil at P.S. 276 in Brooklyn, who encouraged King to read the New York Times and Shakespeare in elementary school. “He was sort of a crazy guy — an ex-hippie who wore two-inch platform shoes,” King wrote in the Huffington Post in 2009. “But he was an amazing teacher.”

King was in Mr. Osterweil’s fourth-grade class when his mother, a Puerto Rico native and public school teacher, died of a heart attack. “The next morning, the only thing I insisted I wanted to do was go to school, your classroom,” King told Osterweil in an interview for the oral history project StoryCorps. “It felt like the most comfortable place to be.”

And now, looking at his implementation of standards and tests in New York:

Teachers said they didn’t have the training or materials to teach what children needed to know. They also felt pressure to raise scores to protect their jobs, and parents said that their children were John King's Problem


Politico: Wrong about Common Core

Politico scored a coup yesterday by declaring that the war is over, and Common Core won it. One can only assume that Kim Hefling's piece "How Common Core Quietly Won the War" bumped equally hard-hitting pieces such as "The Earth-- Actually Flat After All" or "The Presidential Wisdom of Harold Stassen."

Hefling's main point is that Common Core is now everywhere, so it won. But this would be tantamount to saying that Kleenex has cornered 100% of the facial tissue market because all citizens wipe their noses on something that they call "Kleenex."

Sure, there's something called Common Core almost everywhere in education. But which Common Core Ish thing would we like to talk about?

State standards? Many states have changed the name and little else, but many states have further fiddled with the everyone-forgets-their-copyrighted standards, so that none particularly match any more.

Testing standards? A variety of Common Core based Big Standardized Tests are out there, and -- for now-- every state has to have one. But what those tests cover does not in any case correspond fully with the Common Core standards as originally written (for extreme instance, speaking and listening standards are not and likely never will be tested). And in many, if not most, school districts, curriculum and instruction are driven by the test, not the standards.

Curriculum standards? Most districts have "aligned" their curricula to the Common Core-- but that process looks a lot like taking what you already do anyway and assigning various standards to it until your paperwork looks good.

Textbook standards? One of the biggest effects of Common Core was the huge windfall for textbook Politico: Wrong about Common Core

Black women teachers need better working conditions to improve education in the cities - The Hechinger Report

Black women teachers need better working conditions to improve education in the cities - The Hechinger Report:

Black women teachers need better working conditions to improve education in the cities

Reductions in the number of black women who teach can never lead to the academic success of black children.

The ability to hold on to black women in the teaching profession is an essential indicator of quality. The Albert Shanker Institute’s recent report on The State of Teacher Diversity in American Education essentially asserts that more must be done to improve working conditions and help retain teachers of color. But the Shanker report can go further.

Improving teachers’ work conditions for the benefit of students really means improving conditions for black women in urban schools.

Related: Communities come together to increase college-going from the ground up 

Recruitment is not the primary reason for a lack of diversity, the report found. The overall share of minority teachers increased from 1987 to 2012, but the attrition rate for teachers of color negated those gains.

In addition, the share of black, brown and Asian students outpaced the recruitment of teachers from those populations.

The Shanker report names all the reasons why this problem must be fixed. Black and brown teachers are more motivated to work with disadvantaged youth, have higher expectations, and these teachers rebut stereotypes. Diversity in the workforce is the ultimate standard of educational success.

Related: Bill Gates doubles down on his drive to improve teaching

Using the conventional black-white achievement gap is a deceptive and harmful way to measure quality. Whenever we use white people as a referent, we are essentially saying they are the model or standard of quality. Actually, a healthy public educational system produces diverse teachers.

Contrary to equity standards is the “race of the teacher doesn’t Black women teachers need better working conditions to improve education in the cities - The Hechinger Report:

Educator: We Must Protect Our Students from School Violence - NEA Today

Educator: We Must Protect Our Students from School Violence - NEA Today:

Educator: We Must Protect Our Students from School Violence

Imagine 27 ten-year-olds huddled together in a corner on the floor of
their classroom in almost complete darkness. Everyone’s ears are
working overtime straining to hear any hint of an intruder presence on
the other side of the door. Movement is restricted to darting eyes
attempting to discern from formless darkness any sudden motion, a
pathway of potential violence, the echo of a possible retreat.
This is what students experience during lockdown drills in my sixth
grade classroom. The first lockdown drill of each year is announced in
advance, we talk about what actions to take for safety. Students crowd
into the corner of the classroom least likely to put them in the direct
line of gunfire, assuming we manage to get the door locked in time, and
the door actually holds. Getting 27 ten-year-olds to sit in such close
of proximity to each other and be totally silent requires being
explicit about behavior expectations, and equally clear that not
meeting expectations could cost lives. Learners quickly understand
that the best defense that they have against someone who wishes to do
them harm is to be as invisible as possible.

Unlike fire or earthquake drills where the absence of fire, smoke, and
quaking makes it obvious they are practicing a drill, lockdown drills
leave participants uncertain. A perpetrator could be holding hostages
and threatening violence so there would not be gunfire yet. Perhaps the
attacker is walking through the building choosing the classroom they
wish to commence shooting upon, again, no gunfire yet. These
possibilities churn student and staff thoughts as we rally our
energies in unison to achieve virtual invisibility. Lights go out,
blinds come down, and stillness surrenders to wait in silent darkness.
Administrator release is a new rule; just in case a perpetrator is
holding the office staff hostage and compels someone announce an all
clear signal under duress. It takes an administrator a long time to
reach every classroom. One might think that waiting for an extendedEducator: We Must Protect Our Students from School Violence - NEA Today:

Ex-head of Chicago public schools to plead guilty in bribery case

Ex-head of Chicago public schools to plead guilty in bribery case:

Ex-head of Chicago public schools to plead guilty in bribery case

The former chief of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to charges of bribery. Prosecutors said Barbara Byrd-Bennett steered more than $23 million in no-bid contracts to education firms for $2.3 million in bribes and perks.

Byrd-Bennett’s arraignment is scheduled before the U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang. This will be her first court appearance since her Oct. 8 indictment. She was not arrested in the case and her attorney said she will plead guilty in a plea deal, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Prosecutors are reportedly expected to disclose their recommended sentence to the judge, who will then sentence Byrd-Bennett.

The 66-year-old faces 20 mail and wire fraud counts and each count has a maximum 20-year jail term.

The federal indictment accused Byrd-Bennett of a massive scheme with the co-owners of SUPES Academy, her employer before CPS. The charges against Byrd-Bennett come three years after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed her to lead the country’s third-largest school district in 2012. He said at the time that Byrd-Bennett was "the best and the brightest."

SUPES owners Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas were also charged in the indictment, along with SUPES and another education consulting firm the two ran. Solomon and Vranas’ arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, according to Chicago Tribune.

Ex-head of Chicago public schools to plead guilty in bribery case:

In Final PBS Broadcast, John Merrow Interviews New York City’s Controversial Eva Moskowitz | janresseger

In Final PBS Broadcast, John Merrow Interviews New York City’s Controversial Eva Moskowitz | janresseger:

In Final PBS Broadcast, John Merrow Interviews New York City’s Controversial Eva Moskowitz

Last evening, the PBS NewsHour (October 12) aired John Merrow’s final broadcast before retiring from the NewsHour, a fascinating interview with New York City’s Eva Moskowitz, the politically polarizing CEO of New York’s Success Academy Charters.

Interviewing the principals of two New York City elementary schools co-located into one school building—Primary School 138 and a Success Academy elementary school, Merrow asks about the practice of out-of-school suspension as a discipline policy.  The Success Academy serves 203 Kindergarten and first graders and is reported to have used out-of-school suspension for the very young children in these two grades 44 times during the school year.  The public school principal has not suspended any children in the early grades and explains that she believes such harsh discipline is inappropriate for Kindergarten and first grade.  She reports that to suspend an elementary school child, she would be required to secure school district approval in advance.

Success Academy Charters operate, according to what Eva Moskowitz tells John Merrow, with a strict six page discipline code that lists 65 possible infractions—some as minor as school uniform violations or failure to pay attention, and some far more serious such as sexually explicit language, an infraction that always warrants an out-of-school suspension.

Merrow interviews parents and one child, a former Success Academy student who tells Merrow he was sent home for not paying attention.  Moskowitz denies that her schools explicitly suspend students for the purpose of encouraging students whose scores are likely to be low to drop out (and thereby raise Success Academy charters’ overall test scores). Merrow reports that some students seem to be suspended repeatedly and that for every 100 students who enroll, ten eventually do drop out.  One mother reports that while her child does sometimes act out at the public school he attends now that he has left Success Academy, the staff at his new school find ways for him to calm down and then return to class: “He’s in school and he’s getting an education.”

Merrow reports that while 93 percent of students at Success Academy charters pass the state math test, only 35 percent of students at New York City’s public schools achieve passing scores.  Attrition at Success Academies, however, is twice that at New York City’s KIPP charters, another charter chain also known for strict discipline.In Final PBS Broadcast, John Merrow Interviews New York City’s Controversial Eva Moskowitz | janresseger:

Education takes center stage in Philadelphia mayoral debate | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Education takes center stage in Philadelphia mayoral debate | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Education takes center stage in Philadelphia mayoral debate

Democrat Jim Kenney and Republican Melissa Murray Bailey face off for the second mayoral debate of the general election.

More than 200 people packed a Center City auditorium Monday night for a tame, wide-ranging mayoral debate between Democrat Jim Kenney and Republican Melissa Murray Bailey.

As it has throughout this election season, education dominated the hourlong event at WHYY.

Over and over, Kenney stressed the need to improve access to pre-kindergarten education. For him, better access means better educated children and, in turn, a greater chance of them making a good life for themselves.

"That will start to change the narrative of poverty in this city," said Kenney, a city councilman for 23 years before running for mayor.

He said 18,000 city children currently lack access to pre-K.

Bailey, the daughter of two teachers, pushed for the city to spend more on making sure all of its students can read by the time they reach third grade. At some schools, she said, only eight percent of students are meeting that mark.

"We're going to get them to 100 percent by the end of my first term," said Bailey, a first-time candidate.

The debate, moderated by WHYY reporters Kevin McCorry and Katie Colaneri, also touched on crime and, specifically, police-community relations.

Read the rest of this story at NewsWorks

Education takes center stage in Philadelphia mayoral debate | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Glamour: How One Woman Went From Lunch Lady to President of the Largest Teachers' Organization - Lily's Blackboard

Glamour: How One Woman Went From Lunch Lady to President of the Largest Teachers' Organization - Lily's Blackboard:

Glamour: How One Woman Went From Lunch Lady to President of the Largest Teachers’ Organization

An editorial in Glamour:

Lily Eskelsen García, 60, never imagined she’d go to college. After all, her parents’ biggest goal for her and her five siblings was that they make it through high school. So when the Texas native succeeded at that, she sought to work with kids, eventually landing a job as a preschool lunch lady. “And when I say ‘lunch lady,’ I’m padding my résumé,” says the half-Panamanian with a laugh. “I was a salad girl and worked my way up to hot food.”

Eskelsen García eventually became a popular kindergarten aide, and a teacher at that school suggested she consider college—even teaching. It was a move that paid off handsomely. In 1989 she was voted Utah’s Teacher of the Year.

Glamour: How One Woman Went From Lunch Lady to President of the Largest Teachers' Organization - Lily's Blackboard:

Bill Gates, with a net worth of about $78 billion, according to Forbes, Can Buy ANYTHING

Here's the difference between averages and medians - Yahoo Finance:

Here's the difference between averages and medians

There are a couple different ways to mathematically think about the average or typical member of a group, and they have advantages and disadvantages in different situations.

As you likely recall from math class, the mean or average of a set of numbers is calculated by adding up all the numbers in the set, and then dividing by the count of how many numbers are in the set. So, to find the average of 1,2,3, and 4, we add those up: 1+2+3+4 = 10, and then divide by 4: 10/4 = 2.5.

Averages are great! They are frequently a good way to get an idea of what the middle or typical member of a set looks like. They are used in all kinds of statistical analysis. They are a key part of thinking about what happens in probabilistic situations in the long term.

Looking at something like the average household income in a large metropolitan area also has a handy interpretation: If we were to take the total income produced in that metro area and evenly distribute it out in equal amounts to every household, that amount would be equal to the average.

But, if we're trying to get a sense of what's going on with a typical member of a group, averages can sometimes be misleading.

Problems emerge when looking at highly skewed populations, in which a large part of the group is fairly close to each other, but there are some distant outliers. Consider a room with nine fairly normal people with $10,000 in net worth each, and Bill Gates, with a net worth of about $78 billion, according to Forbes.

The average net worth of the ten people in our room is $7,800,009,000 — just over $7.8 billion. The contribution of nine of our room's ten denizens amounts to a rounding error. Further, saying that the average net worth of everyone in this room is in the ten figures tells us very little about the majority of our group, and certainly doesn't seem like a "typical" net worth in the room.

Enter the median. The median tries to get the middle value of the group: the value so that the same number of elements of our set are bigger than the median as are smaller. One way to calculate the median is to begin by lining values up from smallest to largest. Then, if you have an odd number of elements, the median will be the number in the middle of your ordered set. If you have an even number of values, take the average of the two middlemost.

For our nine average Joes plus Bill Gates, we have a median of $10,000, a much better description of a "typical" person in the room.

The tendency for averages to be distorted by outliers shows up in lots of places, though usually in a less extreme way than in our regular people vs. Bill Gates example. For example, according to the Census Bureau's recently released 2014 American Community Survey estimates, the median household income in the United States was $53,657 while the average was $75,591.

That difference largely comes from the fact that a relatively small number of very high income households are pulling up the average income in a similar way Bill Gates pulled average wealth up in our example. When considering the experiences of a typical American household, or making comparisons between different groups or geographic areas, then, it's usually ideal to look at medians for these kinds of variables rather than averages.

NOW WATCH: These animated maps that will change the way you see the worldHere's the difference between averages and medians - Yahoo Finance:

Supreme Court justices at work, bashing unions | TheHill

Supreme Court justices at work, bashing unions | TheHill:

Supreme Court justices at work, bashing unions

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is pursuing a vendetta against organized labor. As the point man for all things anti-union in the court's jurisprudence, Alito next will target teachers' unions in California. If he can persuade Justice Antonin Scalia to join the cabal along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas, he can play the constitutional trump card against compulsory union dues in the public sector.

Alito galloped down this road in Knox v. Service Employees International Union, Local 1000 andHarris v. Quinn. His strategy in those cases was to charge headlong off the reservation, throwing precedent to the wind, then recovering briefly to reach a narrow holding acceptable to his cronies. This time, Alito may take the posse along with him for the ride.

The plaintiffs in the teachers' case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, argue that public-sector unions are by nature politicized entities, and that compulsory payment of any dues in states that allow union security is a violation of the objectors' constitutional rights. The controlling legal rule dates back to the Abood v. Detroit Board of Education decision in 1977 that upheld the right of a union to collect an agency fee from non-members for collective bargaining activities if the contract provided for union security.

The political dimension of public unions is hardly a new idea. In 1969, two prominent academics published a study in the Yale Law Journal pointing out that the social costs of public sector bargaining "are on the whole political." Despite that, public-sector unionization escalated rapidly in the 1970s and was widely accepted by government entities, including the payment of mandatory dues in many instances.

Abood remains the law despite Alito's efforts to undermine it in the two earlier cases. In Knox, Alito got enough analytical bite to take a chunk out of unions' capacity for collecting dues by holding that agency fee payers did not have to opt out of paying full dues; instead, unions could only collect the total amount of dues if employees opted in.

How will Friedrichs turn out? Some commentators argue that Scalia will be the deciding vote, and because he upheld compulsory dues payments in the 1991 decision in Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Association, he will do so again. What Scalia actually said in his concurring opinion in Lehnert is Supreme Court justices at work, bashing unions | TheHill:

Kevin Johnson sexual assault allegations: Sacramento mayor faces questions.

Kevin Johnson sexual assault allegations: Sacramento mayor faces questions.:

ESPN Delays Doc Involving Obama Ally Kevin Johnson Over 1995 Sexual Assault Allegation

Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson and President Obama at the United States Conference of Mayors on May 19 in Sacramento.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

ESPN will delay the broadcast of a documentary about the Sacramento Kingsbecause of renewed reporting on a sexual assault allegation against one of the film's subjects, former NBA star and Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, Sports Illustratedreports.

A woman who says she was sexually abused as a minor by Johnson came forward publicly last month; on Oct. 8, Deadspin published a 1996 video that shows her describing Johnson's alleged criminal behavior to Phoenix police. (Police chose not to prosecute Johnson.) On Oct. 6, after a tweet by Johnson about the TPP trade agreement was retweeted by more than one official White House account, a reporter asked White House press secretary Josh Earnest about the assault allegation against Johnson, an Obama administration ally who has made multiple appearances with the president. (Earnest did not specifically comment on Johnson's case in his response but said that "the President’s views on sexual assault and his commitment to stopping sexual assault ... I think [are] quite well known.")

Deadspin's Dave McKenna has been reporting on Johnson's past (and present) for months, covering a variety of allegations against the former Phoenix Suns guard, who is married to former head of Washington D.C. schools and education activist Michelle Rhee. Johnson, mayor of the capital city of California, has been accused of:

Sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl in Phoenix in 1995. The alleged victim identified herself publicly in a Sept. 25 Deadspin piece; her name is Mandi Koba and she says that by speaking she is violating a non-disclosure agreement that she signed as part of a $230,600 settlement with Johnson in 1997. In a 1996 police video, Koba describes Johnson fondling her breasts and buttocks and touching her leg and and hand with his penis. (Johnson was not charged for any crimes relating to his relationship with Koba and has said the allegation against him is untrue.)

Misusing federal AmeriCorps funds at his St. Hope Academy charter school organization in Sacramento. The allegations, made in a report by a federal inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service (the federal agency that oversees AmeriCorps), resulted in the organization paying some money back toKevin Johnson sexual assault allegations: Sacramento mayor faces questions.:

Let’s take it to Michelle Rhee and Bill Gates: Here’s how Democrats should talk about education tonight - Salon.com

Let’s take it to Michelle Rhee and Bill Gates: Here’s how Democrats should talk about education tonight - Salon.com:

Let’s take it to Michelle Rhee and Bill Gates: Here’s how Democrats should talk about education tonight

Charter schools, Race to the Top, public education -- none of it came up in the '12 debates. Let's change that now

During the 2012 presidential campaign, the subject of K-12 education was largely ignored.  Mitt Romney issued a white paper supporting privatization, including charter schools and vouchers. President Obama stood behind his Race to the Top program, which promotes high-stakes testing and charter schools, but not vouchers. The topic never came up in the three presidential debates. Neither candidate questioned the direction in which the nation is headed for our nation’s children, our educators, and our public schools.

The media and citizens at public forums must not let that happen again. Education is central to our future as a nation; it is also the single largest item in every state’s budget. Yet the candidates for the 2016 race in both parties are talking only about pre-kindergarten and higher education, skipping right over the important issues that face millions of children and educators in public schools today.

The Network for Public Education, a national organization of educators and parents, has written a K-12 education agenda for 2016. We encourage members of the media to question candidates for the presidency on these issues. American public education is currently under an attack by a well-organized, well-funded privatization movement. Standardized testing and privatization are the weapons used to undermine public schools and to deter efforts to improve our schools.

Here are our questions and the rationale behind them:

TESTING

Will you end the federal mandate for annual high-stakes testing?

We oppose annual standardized testing. No high performing nation in the world tests every child every year. The hundreds of millions (or billions) of dollars and the weeks of instructional time now devoted to preparing to take these tests and to administering them is a misuse of money and time.

We oppose high-stakes testing, in which test results are used to evaluate teachers, grade schools, award bonuses, fire staff, or close schools. Putting so much emphasis on bubble tests of questionable educational value and quality encourages teaching to the test, narrowing the curriculum only to what is tested, gaming the system, cheating, and distorts the purpose of education.

We believe that tests should be made by teachers, not by corporate conglomerates.  Teachers know what they taught and what their students need to learn. We oppose the use of standardized testing in the early grades, and we oppose their misuse and overuse in grades 3-12. These tests should be used only for their diagnostic value in helping teachers understand what children need. The current Common Core tests provide very little useful information. Those who wish to compare the test scores of states can refer to the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which has been gathering this information since 1992.

We support assessments that measure what was taught, through projects, portfolios, teacher-designed tests and activities in which students can demonstrate what they have learned, rather than check off one of four boxes.

We support the evaluation of teachers by professionals, not by unreliable test scores.

SCHOOL CLOSURES

Will you put an end to school closures based on test scores?

We oppose the closing of public schools based on test scores because standardized test scores are primarily a measure of family income, rather than the quality of schools. We must address the issues of poverty at the same time we are improving our schools. We support helping schools that are struggling by providing additional resources, not by closing or privatizing them. School closures have primarily targeted neighborhood schools in African American and Latino communities, damaging the fabric of those communities.

PRIVATIZATION

Will you put an end to the privatization of public education?

We support public education because it is a pillar of our democratic society. Public schools should not be outsourced, privatized, or given away to for profit Let’s take it to Michelle Rhee and Bill Gates: Here’s how Democrats should talk about education tonight - Salon.com:

Is kindergarten too young to suspend a student?

Is kindergarten too young to suspend a student?

At the largest charter school network in New York City, strict academic and behavior standards set the stage for learning. That doesn't exclude children as young as 5 or 6 years old, who can be given out-of-school suspensions if they don't follow the rules. Special correspondent for education John Merrow explores what that policy means for both the child and the school.

Louisiana Educator: Conversion Tables Reveals White Lowering the Bar. . . . Again!

Louisiana Educator: Conversion Tables Reveals White Lowering the Bar. . . . Again!:

Conversion Tables Reveals White Lowering the Bar. . . . Again!

Release of Secret Conversion Tables for PARCC Forced by Public Records Request. 

Louisiana citizens will be the first ones in the PARCC testing group to see the critical conversion tables, that are used for producing the scale scores.  It only happened because of a formal public records request and the threat of a lawsuit against White for withholding public records.

The 33 member citizens public records request filed on October 1, included a request for a copy of the conversion tables for converting raw PARCC scores to the new PARCC scale scores. Those conversion tables were finally released by White today along with a calculation of the percentage of students scoring Basic, Mastery and Advanced. The newspapers will give you the percentages of students deemed performing satisfactory by the setting of the cut scores but the subject of this post is the lowering of the academic bar once again by Superintendent White.

Those conversion tables reveal absurdly low cut scores for ratings of Basic and Mastery. The percentage of students getting a rating or Basic or above depend upon BESE adopting the lowest passing scores in the history of Accountability testing in Louisiana! (by far)

Would you believe that White's cut scores for Basic performance on the 3rd grade English-Language Arts test would require students to only get 30% of the available raw points on the test correct to get a rating of Basic?

A student can receive a rating of Basic on 7th grade math by Louisiana Educator: Conversion Tables Reveals White Lowering the Bar. . . . Again!:

Don Neilson, the Discovery Institute and Intelligent Design | Seattle Education

Don Neilson, the Discovery Institute and Intelligent Design | Seattle Education:

Don Neilson, the Discovery Institute and Intelligent Design

Don Nielson

Don Nielson recently had yet another op ed published by the Seattle Times, a newspaper which has provided many wealthy (white) men with a platform and microphone to share their opinions with the rest of us on public education. This time Mr. Nielson wanted to state that a lack of adequate funding for public schools is not the problem, it’s having an elected school board among other things.

What came to my attention, thanks to my co-editor’s sleuthing, was the fact that the same Don Nielson is also a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute and “chair of the Institute’s program on public education reform.”

That wouldn’t be too shocking except for two items. First, Don Nielson has had a great influence over Seattle Public Schools in the past and continues to try and influence the public conversation now, and also because the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture is “dedicated to the reinvigoration of traditional Western principles and institutions and the worldview from which they issued” and is “the institutional hub for scientists, educators, and inquiring minds who think that nature supplies compelling evidence of intelligent design. We support research, sponsor educational programs, defend free speech, and produce articles, books, and multimedia content.” And here’s another good one: “Discovery Institute has a special concern for the role that science and technology play in our culture and how they can advance free markets, illuminate public policy and support the theistic foundations of the West.”

With all this in mind, let me take you back a bit.

In 2010 I wrote the first in a series of posts titled “The Battle for Seattle” which provides a history of the Broad Foundation in Seattle and the attempt at a corporate takeover of Don Neilson, the Discovery Institute and Intelligent Design | Seattle Education:

Reading prepares students for living and learning outside the text | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn

Reading prepares students for living and learning outside the text | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn:

Reading prepares students for living and learning outside the text

Common Core's emphasis on deep analysis of text and discrete literacy skills is misguided and will not improve the college and career readiness of students.

These standards do not properly prepare our students for the real world literacy challenges of lifelong learning and employment.

As I previously commented here, the standards demand students think critically as they stay connected and dive into text, while most employers desire workers who think creatively while connecting with people as they dive into their work.

Proficient close readers will spend days determining "how the text works" while productive employees will achieve much more in just a few hours of putting their imagination to work.

I also previously commented that when it comes to success in college and careers, the ability to independently master complex informational text is far less important than students having learned how to maximize their talents and master themselves.

Our students and our nation would be better served by standards that cultivate Reading prepares students for living and learning outside the text | Johnathan Chase | LinkedIn:

School Reformers Who Blame Public Schools for Eliminating Special Education

School Reformers Who Blame Public Schools for Eliminating Special Education:

School Reformers Who Blame Public Schools for Eliminating Special Education

I see Washington Post Columnist Jay Matthews as someone who usually cheerleads for privatization of public schools. I take issue with his Sunday Washington Postarticle “How can a special education student fail finals yet pass? Sadly, it’s easy.”

Oh help! Is this not a case of the right hand not being able to find the left hand of reform?

Matthews laments over a father’s issues with not being able to get realistic services for his daughter, who has learning disabilities at the well-respected Walt Whitman High School in Montgomery County, Virginia.

Oliver Hirschfeld’s daughter is a senior, and while she got the special education services she needed in ninth and 10th grade, she didn’t get self-contained classes in 11th and 12th grade.

I have a tough time learning the material, she said in reference to the large regular class sizes.

Now she is being passed through classes without getting the skills that would help her get into community college, and Mr. Hirchfeld and Matthews are critical of the school pushing the student through and not giving her a smaller self-contained class placement.

Well join the club! Many students are now disengaged from meaningful IEPs. It is more School Reformers Who Blame Public Schools for Eliminating Special Education: