9 Promises Common Core Has Already Broken

9 Promises Common Core Has Already Broken:

9 Promises Common Core Has Already Broken

The establishment wants you to think Common Core is a shiny legacy for departing Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Nothing close.

 Education may be the area of government policy most rife with fantasy. Reality beats it back periodically, and we’re entering another such stretch currently, as Common Core supporters’ fantastical promises disintegrate five years after the bigs pushed this impossibly utopian project on our country.

Maybe that’s why Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently announced his resignation, a curious seven years into his tenure with Obama. There’s no political advantage to “needing to spend more time with his family” at this very moment—unless his Common Core chickens are coming home to roost. And they are.

So, while Politico recently proclaimed “Common Core has won,” the truth is that its victory is a gossamer bubble in slow-motion burst. With it bursts most of Duncan’s work over his DC tenure. Leave while the going is good, right?

Five years ago, while announcing $330 million in direct-from-(probably future)-taxpayers startup funds for the second half of the Common Core project—its tests, which operated on exclusive federal funds for four years—Duncan made a pile of promises about these tests, which are Common Core’s built-in enforcement mechanism. Unfortunately for Duncan, and even more unfortunately for the millions of American kids and teachers he shoehorned into this evidence-less Rube Goldberg flight of fancy, his promises are proving false. Here are just 9 promises Common Core has already broken. Don’t worry. More will come.

1. End ‘Lying to Children and Parents’

The big news on the Common Core front lately is that, despite oodles of pledges to the contrary, states using the barely operative national Common Core tests Arne funded have done exactly what he said they would not. Namely, Ohio and Arkansas have decided to use lower benchmarks for student proficiency than their compatriots using these tests. So in the first year of Common Core results states are already bending to the political pressure we were promised Common Core would block. (Facing an uproar, Arkansas backed down—for now.)

What they really want to do is substitute central planners’ judgment for teachers’ and parents’ judgment, then hide that they’re doing this under the veneer of ‘science’ and ‘data.’

It’s not just those two. Illinois, Massachusetts, California, Florida, and North Carolina (at least) have done the same,The New York Times reported. Louisiana struggled to maintain the line this year, which “does not bode well for the future,” an in-state editorial board opined. “This was exactly the problem that a lot of policy makers and educators were trying to solve,” the director of a Bill Gates-funded Common Core PR shop told the NYT. When states did this before Common Core, Duncan blasted it as “lying to children and parents.” So what is it now?

Let me explain how this sleight of hand works. It’s a common education bureaucrat trick. First, test children. Then, think about how many you cannot politically afford to label “failing.” And set the passing bar on the test for that number. Think I’m joking? Indiana is doing this very thing on its own new Common Core tests right now. That states did this pre-Common Core is extremely well-documented, and it was a major justification Duncan and many others used to push Common Core. Well, it’s back. And we could have known that would happen beforehand.

There’s basically no other way to set a passing bar on a test, because what a, say, fifth grader should know is relatively subjective. It’s a total judgment call. It’s not an exact science, no matter how much test-mongers try to insist or imply otherwise. What they really want to do is substitute central planners’ judgment for teachers’ and parents’ judgment, then hide that they’re doing this under the veneer of “science” and “data.” Even the Common Core test controllers themselves used the same process when setting their “proficiency” levels.

Doing the same thing over and over again and promising different results? I think that’s how you define “bureaucrat.”

2. Test Scores Comparable Across States

That failure creates another closely related one. Duncan promised us that national Common Core tests means, “For the first time, it will be possible for parents and schools leaders to assess and compare in detail how students in their state are doing compared to students in other states.”

This was actually a lie at the time Duncan said it.

Even though Common Core has subsequently failed to live up to this promise (see item No. 1 above), this was actually a lie at the time Duncan said it. I say “lie,” as in “deliberate falsehood,” because at the same moment he was saying this he was in charge of a set of national tests that “detailed how students in one state compare to those in all the others,” called the National Assessment of Educational Progress. NAEP has been providing nationwide data on student performance in core subjects since 1969, with state-by-state results available since 2001.

Since Common Core has moved into place, we’ve also seen that researchers can do statistical jujitsu to compare different state tests to each other using the same scale—to adapt a familiar analogy, they can compare apples to apples after having convertedoranges to apples. Here is just one recent study doing that very thing. Florida has done that every year for some time, in order to release comparable test results from schools in its statewide voucher programs without compelling them to use the same test.

3. ‘Actionable’ Test Scores Released Quickly

One of the major complaints teachers have about federally mandated annual tests in reading and math is that the results are “an autopsy, not a diagnosis.” Meaning kids take the tests in April, a good two or three months before exiting school, but the results typically didn’t arrive until late summer or fall, when those same kids were off into the next grade. So teachers couldn’t use the results to, as the lingo goes, “inform instruction,” meaning to actually help children improve.

Does ‘immediate’ mean ‘six months later’?

Duncan and the rest of the Common Core cabal promised us Common Core tests would be different. In announcing the federal grant to these tests, Duncan touted tests “that are instructionally useful and document student growth—rather than just relying on after-the-fact, year-end tests used for accountability purposes.” He also promised these tests would provide students “immediate feedback.”

Now, I know bureaucracy is slow, but reality has stretched that “immediate” beyond recognition. Does “immediate” mean “six months later”? If it doesn’t, Duncan’s promises have proved false once again. Most of the Common Core exams were administered in April of this year, with some in March and May. It’s October, and states are finally just releasing the results. The long wait frustrated the Illinois state superintendent: “Ideally individual student results would be available at the start of the school year so that teachers, parents, and students could use them to inform instruction. This year, we expect individual student results later in the fall. In subsequent years we expect to have them much sooner.”

He’s not the only one. Mississippi educators are upset they’ll have to wait until December or January to see this spring’s Common Core test scores. ““We were under the initial impression that we would get the data back in a timely manner,” a local superintendent told an in-state paper. Yes, you were under that impression because the U.S. education secretary and his lackeys have been saying this for five years. Too bad they can’t be trusted.

4. ‘Transparent’ Results

Common Core was also supposed to let teachers and parents know exactly where children in each grade were in their dull trudge up the education-industrial treadmill towards the workforce hamster wheel. “For the first time, millions of schoolchildren, parents, and teachers will know if students are on-track for colleges and careers—and if they are ready to enter college without the need for remedial 9 Promises Common Core Has Already Broken:

Why Iowa's graduation rate is so much higher than California's - LA Times

Why Iowa's graduation rate is so much higher than California's - LA Times:

Why Iowa's graduation rate is so much higher than California's

California’s high school graduation rate has improved in the last five years, moving from 74.7% in 2010 to 81% in 2013-14. According to data released Monday, California is one of 36 states that improved their graduation rates between 2012-13 and 2013-14.

But California high schools still have a long way to go before they match Iowa, which led the country with a 90.5% graduation rate in 2013-14.

There are a few differences that explain the gap.

One reason is simple: money.

The top 10-15 states on the list, he said, spend the most on education — so it would make sense that more of their students graduate. “They tend to be states with low levels of poverty and lower levels of English learners,” said John Rogers, education professor and director of UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access.

But that doesn’t explain everything, because California also lags behind Texas, a state with a high number of English learners which achieved an 88.3% graduation rate. And the difference in spending per pupil between Iowa and California was just over $1,100 in fiscal year 2013, according to census data.

Some states have been able to better integrate immigrant students — particularly those who move to the U.S. later in their lives — into K-12 classrooms and help them reach college, Rogers said. California schools face several barriers to helping those students as effectively as other states.

For example, California has consistently had one of the highest ratios of students to teachers, particularly at the high school level. And with crowded classrooms, students get less individualized instruction. “With smaller classrooms, there’s more opportunities to interact and use their language,” he said. “You would want to have Why Iowa's graduation rate is so much higher than California's - LA Times:

Why Iowa's graduation rate is so much higher than California's - LA Times:

Trial of failed charter-schools chief begins | The Columbus Dispatch

Trial of failed charter-schools chief begins | The Columbus Dispatch:

Trial of failed charter-schools chief begins

The head of two failed Columbus charter schools who is accused of stealing $7,500 in state education aid intends to call Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Richard Ross to testify at his trial, which got under way yesterday.

An attorney for Andre Tucker, who founded the two Talented Tenth Leadership Academies that opened in fall 2013 and closed weeks later, told Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Mark Serrott on Monday morning that she intends to call Ross and other officials to the stand, but didn’t elaborate.

But a spokeswoman for the state Education Department said that Ross had not been subpoenaed to testify in the criminal case, but rather in a civil case involving Tucker that has been postponed.

Tucker is charged with two counts of theft and one unrelated count of burglary.

Because of an unusual governance setup, it’s not clear who actually was running the two Talented Tenth Leadership Academies that closed in October 2013. Tucker was the founder and is listed in state incorporation papers as creating the charters, but he also was a $71,000-a-year employee of the school’s sponsor, the North Central Ohio Educational Service Center, The Dispatch reported last year.

After he was hired, Tucker was assigned by the center to work at Talented Tenth under the terms of a contract he signed with his sponsor — the supposed watchdog over the charter school. Tucker previously was an accountant for Honda and had presided over another failed Columbus charter school and had tried to start one in Pennsylvania but was refused under that state’s tougher oversight laws.

Serrott indicated that he might dismiss the burglary charge against Tucker because of problems prosecutors are having producing the witnesses in the case.

A woman told police she found Tucker inside her Near East Side apartment in January rummaging through her belongings. Her TV had been moved, and she found stacked on her laptop computer a silver necklace, a computer-game controller, a cellphone and a purse, Simone Helms told The Dispatch in February.

When she asked him what he was doing, Tucker started to talk with Trial of failed charter-schools chief begins | The Columbus Dispatch:

Barbara Madeloni’s Battle Against Charter Schools | Radio Boston

Barbara Madeloni’s Battle Against Charter Schools | Radio Boston:

Barbara Madeloni’s Battle Against Charter Schools

Last week, Gov. Baker introduced his bill to expand charter schools in the state. While the charter school debate is nothing new in Massachusetts, longtime charter school advocates like John Connolly, co-founder of the education startup 1647, say it’s different this year. In fact, he attributes it to one person.

“Barbara Madeloni. She’s really made it clear she’s going to draw a line in the sand and the MTA is going to put their full effort into this,” he told Radio Boston. Barbara Madeloni has been president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association for just one year, after she won in an upset election last May.

We’ve held conversations with charter school advocates over the past two weeks, so we now turn to the other side of the debate.

Guest

Barbara Madeloni, president of the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association. She tweets @BMadeloni.

More

Radio Boston: Governor’s Bill Proposes More Charter Schools, Outside Cap

• “Standing at Brooke Mattapan Charter School, Gov. Baker announced his ‘Act To Improve And Expand Educational Opportunity’ Thursday.”

Radio Boston: Week In Review: DraftKings, Charter Schools, Wynn Casino Fight And Hands-Free Driving

• “John Carroll and Tom Keane go behind the headlines in our week in review.”

The Boston Globe: Baker Seeks Expanded Charter Schools

• “The bill would also allow charter schools — publicly funded schools that often operate independently of local districts — to give preference in their lotteries to applicants who come from low-income families, live in specific areas, have special needs, or are learning English. Critics have contended that charter schools do not do enough to serve special education students and non-native-English speakers.”

The Boston Globe: Governor, Mayor Differ On Charter School Plans

• “In testimony before the committee Tuesday, Walsh laid out a plan that would expand charter schools at a slower pace than in Baker’s proposal. The Walsh proposal would allow the creation of charter school seats in the lowest-performing districts at a rate of half of 1 percent of the local school district budget each year for a decade.”

---

Other stories from this show:

• Biotech World Abuzz Over Questions About Theranos Technology
• Are Museums Keeping Artwork Alive?

Barbara Madeloni’s Battle Against Charter Schools | Radio Boston:

Jason France’s Leadership in the Common Core Fight in Louisiana and Why He is the Best Candidate in District 6 | Crazy Crawfish's Blog

Jason France’s Leadership in the Common Core Fight in Louisiana and Why He is the Best Candidate in District 6 | Crazy Crawfish's Blog:

Jason France’s Leadership in the Common Core Fight in Louisiana and Why He is the Best Candidate in District 6

Big Education Ape: NPE Endorses Jason France, AKA Crazy Crawfish, for BESE – The Network For Public Educationhttp://bit.ly/1TXoLG8

One of the re-occurring questions I get on the campaign trail is my position on Common Core.  So let me say this in no uncertain terms – Common Core is a disaster for Louisiana.

I was one of the first people in the state to raise the alarm bells about Common Core, starting about 3 years ago.  Before being against Common Core became cool, I was one of the lone voices against this federal overreach, and one of the earliest leaders in the movement and I received a lot of ridicule in those days. 

Before Governor candidate John Bel Edwards had formed an opinion on the subject Lee Barrios (running in BESE district 1) met John Bel to educate him on the topic in a CC’s coffee house a few years ago.  Edwards had not made up his mind at that point, but we did our best to set him on a path to asking more questions. 

I was a speaker at the two largest rallies against Common Core in Baton Rouge (one held on the steps of the Claiborne building, September 28th 2013 sponsored in part by the Greater New Orleans Tea Party, and another on the steps of the capital on June 14, 2014, sponsored by the Libertarian Party of Louisiana.

Me at the First anti-Common Core rally on steps of Claiborne building (I was a speaker and tied this banner to the staircase – September 28, 2013. 

Before the national consciousness was awakened, I was fighting and writing about Common Core on my blog.  I wrote a piece as a parent that received national attention and was used an example in national articles alongside comedian Louis C.K.  My signature piece also won the notice of Motoko Rich, from the New York Times, (who came down to Louisiana to meet with me and parents I recommended) Aljazeera America, NPR, among others. 

I am not just a statewide recognized opponent of Common Core, I am a nationally recognized one.

Here is a piece by New York Times education writer Motoko Rich where I am quoted and referenced:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/19/us/fight-on-common-core-is-dividing-louisiana.html?_r=0

Others who oppose the Common Core in Louisiana said the governor’s actions were more political theater than anything else. “If his intent was to stop it, it was very ineffective,” said Jason France, an education bloggerwho plans to run for the state education board next year. “All it’s done is lead to chaos.”

As noted in the preceding article, Common Core is one of the reasons I decided to run for the state school board.  I announced my intentions in April of 2014 and identified Common Core as one of the issues I wanted to address.

Here is one of my more popular pieces on Common Core that gained nationwide and even international attention with many tens of thousands of views and republications.

https://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/my-attempt-at-completing-my-first-graders-common-core-math-homework-and-a-little-historical-ccss-context/

That piece starts with an intro of the situation in Louisiana most people were unaware of.  Louisiana’s BESE board adopted Common Core in 2010 before the standards were even completed and without following the Administrative Procedures Act or providing a chance for the public to provide input.  In fact, the public could not easily have provided input Jason France’s Leadership in the Common Core Fight in Louisiana and Why He is the Best Candidate in District 6 | Crazy Crawfish's Blog:

Kevin Johnson Wants Certain People To Not Talk About Kevin Johnson

Kevin Johnson Wants Certain People To Not Talk About Kevin Johnson:

Kevin Johnson Wants Certain People To Not Talk About Kevin Johnson

It’s no secret that Kevin Johnson wants certain girls and women to keepwhat they have to say about him to themselves. Some of what the former NBA superstar and current scandal-magnet mayor of Sacramento, Calif. is willing to do to convince them is well-known; some less so. The more that comes to light, though, the more outrageous it seems.

Recently, one of Johnson’s attorneys tried to convince one of his many legal adversaries to stop talking to Deadspin—even going so far as to insert a “No Deadspin!” clause into a settlement offer.

This revelation comes as Johnson is in the worst spot of his three-decade run in the public eye. ESPN canceled the debut of Down in the Valley, a documentary that deified Johnson for having finagled $255 million in public money to keep the local NBA franchise in his hometown but totally ignored his well-documented dark side. The seamiest portions of Johnson’s back story involve the many allegations of sexual abuse and harassment that have come his way his way since the mid-1990s. Johnson has never been charged with a sex crime, but ESPN’s shelving the movie comes amid growing suspicions that a key reason none of the abuse claims made against him derailed his rise to power is that he made legal settlements that forced alleged victims to hush up.

His longtime political adviser, Steve Maviglio, did nothing to stem the cratering of the mayor’s approval rating with recent comments that seem to acknowledge Johnson’s penchant for settling.

“People try to settle things because they don’t want things drawn out over long periods of time. They don’t want all this hashed out in public,” Maviglio told the Sacramento CBS affiliate last week, when asked why the mayor didn’t fight the allegations instead. “They want to settle things and move on with their lives.”

Easier said than done.

“All she would have to do is retract them and agree not to talk to Deadspin again.”

The tactic of convincing accusers to stay mum appears to have served Kevin Johnson Wants Certain People To Not Talk About Kevin Johnson:

A bad day for Ras Baraka–and public education in Newark | Bob Braun's Ledger

A bad day for Ras Baraka–and public education in Newark | Bob Braun's Ledger:

A bad day for Ras Baraka–and public education in Newark

Was the mayor set up?

The Newark Central Planning Board, with the apparent approval of Mayor Ras Baraka, voted 8-1 to allow the charter school chain, Uncommon Schools, to build a new charter school literally within sight of City Hall.  One member of the board told this site that the panel was told before the meeting that Baraka, who had been viewed as a champion of traditional public schools, “let the board members know he was fine with the approval.”

Within hours of the vote, social media began circulating a photograph of Baraka posing with children who were apparently students of KIPP Schools, another privately-operated charter school chain, in front of a sign that reads: “Newarkers for MORE KIPP schools NOW!”

KIPP Schools runs Newark’s TEAM Academy charter schools that are seeking to open five more schools in the coming years. The dual expansion of Uncommon Schools–which runs the NorthStar charter schools–and KIPP would mean a A bad day for Ras Baraka–and public education in Newark | Bob Braun's Ledger:

What the Washington State Supreme Court Decision on Charter Schools Achieved | The Progressive

What the Washington State Supreme Court Decision on Charter Schools Achieved | The Progressive:

What the Washington State Supreme Court Decision on Charter Schools Achieved

• Dora Taylor

"Washington Capitol Temple Of Justice" by Cacophony 

The Washington State Supreme Court ruled on September 4, 2015 that charter schools are not "common schools" and therefore cannot be funded by common school funds. The judges based their decision on the issue of public funding for schools that are not publicly governed, not subject to local accountability, and not under the authority of elected school boards. Proponents of charter schools and parents who enrolled their students expressed shock and disappointment in response to the Supreme Court decision. 

The ruling, however, is not surprising, as Catherine Ahl, Education Chair for the League of Women Voters of Washington, points out. The King County Superior Court ruled in December, 2013 that charter schools are not "common schools" and therefore cannot be funded by tax dollars. The case then made its way to the Washington State Supreme Court. Before the Supreme Court had a chance to issue its ruling, the Charter School Commission, went ahead and approved the opening of 9 new charter schools in the state, and the schools began enrolling students.

Why did the commission approve these schools if the case had not been settled? Were parents told when they enrolled their students in the charter schools that the schools might close at any time pending a Supreme Court decision?

The charter school advocates should have been more cautious. The court ruling blocking the spread of charter schools is not surprising given the history of charter schools in Washington State. Charter schools had been voted down by Washington voters three times. Two times,

- See more at: http://progressive.org/news/2015/10/188371/what-washington-state-supreme-court-decision-charter-schools-achieved#sthash.xfHuFf3V.dpuf

Mitchell Chester Wants to Create a PARCC-MCAS Hybrid | deutsch29

Mitchell Chester Wants to Create a PARCC-MCAS Hybrid | deutsch29:

Mitchell Chester Wants to Create a PARCC-MCAS Hybrid

From Massachusetts, where the commissioner of education, Mitchell Chester, chairs the PARCC consortium and the state is supposed to choose between the state test, MCAS, and PARCC on November 17, 2015:

Chester suggests… an MCAS-PARCC hybrid???

Birthed from the self-serving womb of political motivation. Note the late-to-the-party talk of “control of our standards and assessments”:

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

ED COMMISSIONER FLOATS “DOOR NUMBER THREE” AS COMPROMISE ON STANDARIZED TESTING

By Katie Lannan
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
MALDEN, OCT. 19. 2015…..

As the state prepares to decide whether to adopt a new standardized test known as PARCC or stick with the existing MCAS exams, Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell Chester on Monday put forward a third option — a hybrid of the two tests.

“I am considering this new model, this door number three, that takes advantage of our access to PARCC development…but uses that development for the construction of a MCAS 2.0, and gives us the running room to ensure 

Mitchell Chester Wants to Create a PARCC-MCAS Hybrid | deutsch29:

Big money to BESE elections: $3.5 million to PACs and counting | NOLA.com

Big money to BESE elections: $3.5 million to PACs and counting | NOLA.com:

Big money to BESE elections: $3.5 million to PACs and counting

Eli Broad, right, arrives with his wife Edythe at the September opening of their museum in Los Angeles. Broad also takes a major interest in public education, and Louisiana's campaign coffers show it: he's given $250,000 to Baton Rouge businessman Lane Grigsby's political action committee, part of more than $3 million that has come to Louisiana's pro-charter groups so far for the Oct. 24 Board of Elementary and Secondary Education election. (Chris Pizzello, Invision/AP)

Major education activist groups are again spending big on Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Educationraces. More than $3.5 million has already come in to political action committees that support theCommon Core standards and innovations such as charter schools and publicly funded vouchers.

It's an astounding amount of money for a relatively obscure board. And the sum has already exceeded the 2011 BESE race -- itself unprecedentedly expensive -- even though it doesn't count contributions made directly to candidates, nor most October spending.

All 11 BESE seats are up for grabs: eight are on the Oct. 24 ballot and the rest are appointees who will depend on the results of the governor's race.

The battle is between groups that take a free-market approach, favoring the use of test score ratings and competition among schools to keep students; and those, including teachers unions, who believe the changes have harmed public schools. All eight races have drawn candidates on both sides of the debate.

The national advocates are trying to avert a turnover of power on BESE that would reverse their wins of the last four years and put Louisiana Education Superintendent Big money to BESE elections: $3.5 million to PACs and counting | NOLA.com:

Click Here to Follow Flip BESE on Facebook 

LEE P.BARRIOS FOR BESE 1 Web Site

JASON FRANCE FOR BESE 6 Web Site

MIKE KREAMER FOR BESE 7 Web Site

Philanthrocapitalism: A Self-Love Story | The Nation

Philanthrocapitalism: A Self-Love Story | The Nation:

Philanthrocapitalism: A Self-Love Story

Why do super-rich activists mock their critics instead of listening to them?

n 1961, two and a half years after taking power, Fidel Castro gave a celebrated speech to the Cuban artistic and cultural elite that came to be known as “Words to the Intellectuals.” “What are the rights of revolutionary or nonrevolutionary writers and artists?” he demanded. Then, answering his own question with a particular focus on nonrevolutionary writers, he declared: “Intellectuals who are not genuinely revolutionary [must be allowed to] find a place to work and to create within the Revolution.” But even this freedom had its limits. “Within the Revolution,” Castro thundered, “everything goes; against the Revolution, nothing…no rights at all.”

Bill Gates couldn’t be more different, temperamentally or politically, from Fidel Castro. He once characterized anyone who challenged the current intellectual-property laws—specifically those guaranteeing software patents—as a “new modern-day sort of communist.” But when it comes to those who criticize the philosophy underlying the work of the foundation he runs with his wife, Melinda, Gates has shown the same steely moralistic dualism as Castro, the same insistence that those who don’t agree with him don’t deserve to be listened to.

Consider his attack on Dambisa Moyo, the Zambian economist whose Dead Aid, published in 2009, is a prosecutor’s brief for the argument that development aid to Africa has done more harm than good. Asked about the book on the Australian television show Q&A in May 2013, Gates replied that Moyo “didn’t know much about aid and what aid was doing” in Africa. This was a harsh statement, though one that Gates had every right to express. But he didn’t stop there. “She is an aid critic,” he said. “There’s not many [of them], because it’s moralistically a tough position to take, given what aid has been able to do. But if you look objectively at what aid has been able to do, you would never accuse it of creating dependency. Having children not die is not creating a dependency. Having children not be so sick they can’t go to school, not having enough nutrition so their brains don’t develop—that is not a dependency. That’s an evil thing. And books like that are promoting evil”—a judgment that, in its own context, is every bit as totalitarian as Castro’s.

As they say in the military: In war, the enemy gets a vote. And the reality is that Philanthrocapitalism: A Self-Love Story | The Nation:

Derechos civiles, y discriminación: cómo los exámenes estandarizados (parte I ) Cómo los exámenes estandarizados afectan a los estudiantes de minorías - Puntos de Vista

Derechos civiles, y discriminación: cómo los exámenes estandarizados (parte I ) Cómo los exámenes estandarizados afectan a los estudiantes de minorías - Puntos de Vista:

Derechos civiles, y discriminación: cómo los exámenes estandarizados (parte I ) Cómo los exámenes estandarizados afectan a los estudiantes de minorías

Por Julie Woestehoff/HispanEduca-PUNTOS DE VISTA

La organización FairTest publicó recientemente, un informe acerca de la creciente resistencia, en todos los Estados Unidos, contra los exámenes estandarizados. Dicho informe sugiere que el movimiento está compuesto principalmente de personas de raza blanca y de clase privilegiada, y que las comunidades “de color”, o sea, afroamericanos, latinos, hispanos, y otras minorías, no están tan preocupados por los exámenes estandarizados, e incluso no consideran que es importante pedirle cuentas a las escuelas.

Las organizaciones de derechos civiles como MALDEF (Fondo México-Americano para la Defensa Legal y Educación) y la NAACP (Asociación Nacional para Adelantar la causa de las Personas de Color), continúan apoyando la política pública que obliga a administrar exámenes estandarizados, anualmente, a todos los estudiantes del sistema de educación pública de los Estados Unidos. Estos exámenes, llamados high stake por las altas consecuencias que tienen para los estudiantes, han proporcionado datos privados sobre los estudiantes que han sido utilizados en algunos casos legales.
A pesar de que los grupos que abogan en contra de los exámenes estandarizados de altas consecuencias entienden que los instrumentos para medir el aprovechamiento académico de los estudiantes, así como los informes individuales de rendimiento académico son necesarios, también creen que se haría un major trabajo mediante el uso de múltiples tipos de evaluación que diagnostican con mayor precisión las necesidades de aprendizaje, sin que se promueva un ambiente de exámenes estandarizados de altas consecuencias. De acuerdo a estos grupos, dicho ambiente ha sido muy perjudicial para los estudiantes de bajos recursos, estudiantes hispanos/latinos/puertorriqueños, estudiantes cuyo primer idioma no es inglés (ELL) por sus siglas en inglés), y para los estudiantes de educación especial.
El informe de FairTest apuntó además que los padres y los grupos que representan a los estudiantes de color se han dado cuenta de la relación directa que tienen los exámenes estandarizados de altas consecuencias con el cierre de las escuelas, el despido masivo de maestros, y la retención (en lugar de promoverlos de grado) de los estudiantes.
Para que el movimiento de resistencia contra estos exámenes crezca como una coalición multirracial y multicultural, y para que el movimiento adquiera más aliados en la comunidad defensora de los derechos civiles, es necesario que se comunique clara y de forma efectiva los hechos que confirman el impacto negativo desproporcional que tienen los exámenes estandarizados en los estudiantes hispanos/latinos/puertorriqueños.
Este documento es un esfuerzo para levantar una bandera con respecto a la naturaleza de los exámenes estandarizados como Derechos civiles, y discriminación: cómo los exámenes estandarizados (parte I ) Cómo los exámenes estandarizados afectan a los estudiantes de minorías - Puntos de Vista:

NYC Public School Parents: Are 5,485 classes this fall that violate the union contractual class sizes a cause to celebrate?

NYC Public School Parents: Are 5,485 classes this fall that violate the union contractual class sizes a cause to celebrate?:

Are 5,485 classes this fall that violate the union contractual class sizes a cause to celebrate?

Update:  I'm quoted in the Daily News, Chalkbeat, and Schoolbook.

Today, Michael Mulgrew, the President of the UFT,  organized a press conference on the steps of Tweed about class size.  He thanked the assorted legislators for bringing home more education funds for NYC schools in last year's state budget, and the Mayor and the Chancellor for seeing that much of it went to schools.  He applauded the fact that there were fewer class size violations during the second week of school than last year, 5,485 compared to 6,447 the year before.  Then he added that we needed to  push to ensure that the full $2 billion extra that we are owed by the state as a result of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity decision in 2003 -- 12 years ago-- is finally provided to schools.

According to UFT data, more than 3,400 high school classes exceeded the 34 students permitted in the teachers contract, and in elementary and middle schools, more than 2,000 classes exceeded these cap with class size limits range from 25 in Kindergarten to 32-33 students.  Which means that as many as 150,000 students or more than 10% of all students could have been disadvantaged by huge class sizes of more than 32.  

Guillermo Linares, Donovan Richards, Nick Perry, Bill Perkins and me.

Also speaking with passion and conviction about the need to reduce class size and the importance of
NYC schools getting their fair share of funding were Assemblymembers Jeff Aubrey, Keith Wright, Guillermo Linares and Nick Perry; and Senators Velmanette Montgomery and Bill Perkins. 

City Council Education chair Danny Dromm, and Council Members Alan Maisel, Julissa Ferreras, Mark Levine, Corey Johnson, and Donovan Richards also spoke about how NYC Public School Parents: Are 5,485 classes this fall that violate the union contractual class sizes a cause to celebrate?:

Paradigms are Made for Shifting | Creative by Nature

Paradigms are Made for Shifting | Creative by Nature:

Paradigms are Made for Shifting

“A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels…” ~Albert Einstein, N.Y. Times, 1946

Life is a creative self-organizing process. Every “thing” that exists is actually a dynamic system that’s constantly moving and changing, less a static “thing” than a process in action. Galaxies spinning, continents moving, societies transforming, friendships forming, children growing…

As Albert Einstein (and many others) have tried to communicate to us, all of these beautiful structures in our lives (and the greater Universe) are interconnected and related to one another… 

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ~Albert Einstein

Our body’s growth is guided by the DNA of our ancestors, nurtured by the bodies of our mothers, our cellular systems running on energy passed along by glucose molecules that were created in the leaves of plants that captured photons from our nearest star, the sun.

In a sense, we are solar beings– our minds and bodies animated by solar energy. Most people don’t usually think this way, we are not aware of all these interconnections and synergistic processes that make up our lives.

This is especially true in “civilized” cultures with languages designed to help us exert control over the world. Our words and concepts have Paradigms are Made for Shifting | Creative by Nature:

Who's Who in the Education Wars? - Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

Who's Who in the Education Wars?

by Mitchell Robinson, Member of the BAT Leadership Team

originally published on his blog: http://www.mitchellrobinson.net/2015/10/17/who-s-who-in-the-education-wars/

A recent blog post from Sam Chaltain suggested that what he terms "the battle of the edu-tribes" is finally nearing an end, and both sides of the reform debate (Mr. Chaltain calls them the "practitioners and the policy makers") have aligned around a particular vision of the future of schooling. Others, like my friend and fellow blogger, Nancy Flanagan, are not quite so sure that the conflict has been resolved, and question the perhaps "sanitized" version of events described by Mr. Chaltain. 

Whether the war is actually coming to an end or not, it's useful for those on the front lines to know who they are actually fighting, and who is standing beside them in their daily struggles. It's become clear to me through many recent engagements with those on "the other side" of these debates that the "combatants" on each side share certain important characteristics that inform their beliefs, ideologies and loyalties.

The Deformers and the Guardians

Mr. Chaltain's descriptors for the two sides in the war on education are revealing, in that he sees a clear distinction between those who actually teach (the "practitioners"), and those who establish and enforce the rules and policies that govern that practice (the "policy makers"). Perhaps unintentionally, his labels also highlight a major flaw in our current education enterprise: public education policy is being written and administrated largely by persons who have not themselves attended public schools, have no degrees or certification in education, have never taught, and have spent little time in public schools. Whatever meager educational background that the members of what I term the Deformer "edu-tribe" may have is often accrued through alternative routes to the classroom (i.e., Teach for America, The New Teacher Project, the Michigan Teacher Corps), and their educational credentials are often received via online programs that require little or no actual teaching experience, residencies or interactions with other teachers or professors with actual teaching experience. 


Many of the "foot soldiers" in the Deformer army wind up in high-level positions in state departments of education, policy think-tanks, on school boards and as leaders of high-profile charter school networks. They reach these positions of power and authority with shockingly little experience in classrooms, or working with children, but exert out-sized influence on the shape and nature of public education. These members of the Deformer "advance force" parrot a regressive agenda of union-busting, tenure-smashing, and teacher-demonizing, paired with an obsessive devotion to standardized testing, "data driven decision making", charter school expansion, and privatization as the "answers" to the "crisis in public education"--while remaining seemingly oblivious to the fact that it was their policies that manufactured the crisis they claim to be addressing, and which are paying off so handsomely for the investors who fund their charter schools and pay their generous salaries. 

Supporting the efforts of the Deformer army are legions of well-educated, poorly-paid "deputy directors," "social media managers," and "communications interns," all of whom have been tasked with patrolling the blogosphere for anything even remotely critical of the Deformer agenda. None of these staff support personnel ever taught or hold education degrees--their sole purpose is to vigorously refute any posts or articles that are deemed "negative" or contrary to the Deformers' mission--which is to destabilize schools, demonize teachers, and privatize public education.

Many of these support staff work for outfits like the Education Post, a billionaire-funded anti-education website created purely for Badass Teachers Association: