Report: Gates reforms brought mixed success, slow improvement to Hillsborough schools | Tampa Bay Times

Report: Gates reforms brought mixed success, slow improvement to Hillsborough schools | Tampa Bay Times:
Report: Gates reforms brought mixed success, slow improvement to Hillsborough schools

TAMPA — Bill Gates wanted poor and minority students to have a fair shot at getting the best teachers public schools had to offer. That's a key reason his foundation plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into teaching reform efforts across the nation, including Hillsborough County.

Did it work? Yes and no.

Early results of a study by the Rand Corp. and the American Institutes for Research show top teachers are being steered to schools that serve low-income minority students. But once they arrive, those teachers are likely to teach whiter, wealthier students.

Results were similarly muddled when it came to improved student achievement, another of Gates' goals.

And, while principals saw value in a new way of evaluating teachers, the study indicates Hillsborough teachers had little confidence in the process.

While Hillsborough officials dispute that last point, they are eliminating a key component of the system — structured evaluations by a cadre of classroom observers from outside the school.

The researchers say their work — which is also funded by Gates — is ongoing. Regardless of the final results, they say school leaders can learn lessons about the challenges of placing good teachers where they are needed most.

"The findings so far confirm for us that changing systems to improve teaching quality is very complex work and requires persistence and patience," said Mary Beth Lambert, senior communications officer for the Gates group.

"We are hopeful that the recent uptick in student outcomes and other progress will continue and is an encouraging trend that we hope will be reflected in the final report due out next year."

• • •

Back in 2009, when Gates invited school districts to take part in his initiative, the Microsoft billionaire had ambitious goals that included getting more students into college and improving the United States' position in the global economy.

Hillsborough leaders were eager to join, knowing Florida was gearing up for its own reforms. The thinking among union leaders, administrators and School Board members was that the Gates money and expertise would give Hillsborough a leg up on other districts.

But, as in the other communities that signed on — Memphis, Pittsburgh and several charter school groups in California — change was difficult and costly.

The school districts were supposed to match the Gates grants with local philanthropic gifts. But, Report: Gates reforms brought mixed success, slow improvement to Hillsborough schools | Tampa Bay Times:

Coalition says L.A. Unified underfunds neediest students - LA Times

Coalition says L.A. Unified underfunds neediest students - LA Times:

Coalition says L.A. Unified underfunds neediest students

e Los Angeles school system is improperly diverting money from programs for the students who need it most, including those from low-income families, according to a coalition of local groups. The use of hundreds of millions of dollars is at stake.

The dispute centers on increased state funding that is supposed to benefit students who are among the most challenging to educate and who have persistently lagged academically: the low-income students, those who are learning English and students in the foster-care system. Providing extra resources for these students is a centerpiece of funding reforms pushed through by Gov. Jerry Brown.

These students are not getting the full benefit of the money that they are generating for L.A. Unified under the new state formulas, according to the coalition.

“We have seen slight progress” since last year, according to a “report card” from the participating organizations. Even so, “schools in South L.A., East L.A., Sylmar and Pico-Union are often severely underfunded, and gaps in [academic] achievement persist due to lack of sufficient investment.”

The critics include United Way of Greater Los Angeles and allied groups coming together as Communities for Los Angeles Student Success, or CLASS. These organizations include Community Coalition, Los Angeles Urban League and Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). 

They base their conclusions on an analysis from researchers headed by Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley professor of education and public policy.

All parties acknowledge that the nation’s second-largest school system faces long-term financial problems, but CLASS challenges the district’s spending priorities. 

According to Fuller, district officials have insisted that the priority is to rebuild staffing to the levels it had prior to the last major economic recession. Yet, he added, spending per student is already 30% higher than before the recession.

“Much of this increase is not going to the classroom but instead to cover pension and healthcare costs,” Fuller said. “Also, the superintendent's attorneys now argue that other students would be hurt if the district properly directed the $4 billion in new funding to the kids who generate the fresh revenue from the state…. But the district has elected to move Coalition says L.A. Unified underfunds neediest students - LA Times:

Déjà Vu All Over Again: NC, Politics, and Education | The Patiently Impatient Teacher

Déjà Vu All Over Again: NC, Politics, and Education | The Patiently Impatient Teacher:

Déjà Vu All Over Again: NC, Politics, and Education

Here is a lesson in public education and politics in North Carolina. Late last week, a news report from one part of the state started being noticed elsewhere. It would appear that buried in the 187 pages of the NC Senate’s version of the budget (a bill that was whisked through committee and floor votes in a matter of days) was a definition that would eliminate year-round schools that operate on a single track as opposed to a multiple tracks effective for the 2016-17 school year. For schools that start in mid-July, that provides families and schools less than a month’s notice to rearrange work and childcare arrangements, change bus routes, rearrange staffing, etc. There are dozens of single-track, year-round schools in the state. In my district at least, year-round is a choice option for families and they enter a lottery to be placed in those schools. Many families prefer the year round option and some research suggest that all students can benefit academically from the schedule; specifically economically disadvantaged students and some students with disabilities show the most benefit.

Strangely, the same GOP lawmakers who espouse school choice, less government, and more local control have snuck in language that will eliminate these school choice options for families and override the decisions of local elected school boards. Those of us in single-track, year-round schools in the state were left puzzled. Where did this language come from? What is going on?

The first clue was the use of the terms multi-track and single-track. Wake County is the primary district that uses a multi-track system to reduce overcrowding in their schools. The new story also included this quote: “According to Senator Michael Lee, the language in the budget was not intended to impact New Hanover County Schools, but address another issue in another part of the state.” Hmm…so the language in the bill was clearly intended to target only one school district. Well, a quick Google search provides us with this news report. I am no Sherlock Holmes, but those dots seem to connect.

Apparently Wake County Public Schools wanted to explore the option of moving some low performing elementary schools with large percentages of disadvantaged students Déjà Vu All Over Again: NC, Politics, and Education | The Patiently Impatient Teacher:

Newark’s school chief Cerf to consolidate power–local control is still far away |

Newark’s school chief Cerf to consolidate power–local control is still far away |:

Newark’s school chief Cerf to consolidate power–local control is still far away

Christopher Cerf, the state bureaucrat, private business entrepreneur, and charter school advocate who was supposed to bring local autonomy to the Newark public schools, isn’t acting like someone about to give up state control of New Jersey’s largest school district. In fact, he is about to announce a sweeping reorganization of the system that only entrenches his–and the state’s– power.

Gone or demoted will be all of the assistant superintendents, including Roger Leon, for a long time the anti-state activist community’s superintendent-in-waiting once state control was eliminated. While Leon will keep an administrative position under Cerf, he will not longer be an assistant superintendent, according to sources close to officials at school headquarters.

The only exception to the top-level purge will be Brad Haggerty who will become the second-in-command under Cerf. Haggerty was for years the enforcer for Cami Anderson, the former state-appointed superintendent and Cerf protégé.

“He’s the new bright star in the state administration,” said one source at school headquarters.

This is what I wrote about Haggerty in April, 2014–when he got a fat raise from his friend Anderson:

Then there is Brad Haggerty, who was a charter school leader in New York for “New Visions,” one of the endless number of private, non-governmental organizations that Cami surrounds herself with. His raise was $35,000, from $140,000 to $175,000. He has served as Cami’s hatchet man for negotiations.

Gone–apparently without much remorse from anyone–will be Peter Turnamian, a less than popular assistant superintendent who founded what he called the best charter school in Newark. The best charter school in Newark failed. Turnamian also was the less-than-genius behindefforts of the school district to take away special services from special needs children by developing a new “pathway” that meant intimidating teachers into talking parents out of the services their children needed. He helped to write a literal script for the money-saving assault on special education.

Also out of a job is assistant superintendent Mitchell Center, another long-time Newark’s school chief Cerf to consolidate power–local control is still far away |:

On Latinos in Education and America | The Jose Vilson

On Latinos in Education and America | The Jose Vilson:

On Latinos in Education and America

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of attending Soledad O’Brien’s I Am Latino in America event, a tour featuring some of the most prominent Latino leaders in entertainment, politics, and yes, education. None of O’Brien’s features, from the seminal Black in America to the series of other CNN programming aimed at specific groups, present anything new per se, but they do feature different facets of what it means to be [insert given identity]. So, as a Black Latino (Afro-Latino, if you must), I was struck by hearing the younger folks like poet Denice Frohman and comedian Vladimir Caamaño to the established figures like actor Rosie Perez and musician Willie Colon giving their honest visions for the work they’re doing.

Of course, NYC schools chancellor Carmen Fariña and National Education Association (NEA) president Lily Eskelsen Garcia were there, too, thus my interest in this event.

As Ms. O’Brien highlighted, education is the #1 issue among those who identify as Latino, not immigration, according to a recent poll. Yet, the only issue most major news networks have hung like a carrot on a stick for Latinos is immigration. Shorter version of this election with respect to Latinos:

Trump: “We’ll kick you out of here and build a wall behind you.”
The Democrats: “We’ll keep you and … we’re still trying to figure out the rest.”

The back and forth between Sanders supporter Rosario Dawson and Hillary Clinton endorserDolores Huerta stands to accentuate a generational divide. But, even though both exclude Donald trump from their framework for Latino empowerment, it also illustrates the majority of Latinos who have disparate views on every major political issue. If one listens to the talk out there, you don’t get the richness of the conversations happening online, at dinner tables, and, yes, in our schools.

We’ve seen the uproar when the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the NEA backed Clinton early, and we’ve seen conservative edu-think tanks groan about their pitiful selection on the On Latinos in Education and America | The Jose Vilson:

This Ed-reform Trend Is Supposed To Motivate Students; Instead, It Shames Them (Launa Hall) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

This Ed-reform Trend Is Supposed To Motivate Students; Instead, It Shames Them (Launa Hall) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

This Ed-reform Trend Is Supposed To Motivate Students; Instead, It Shames Them (Launa Hall)

Nearly all reform policies have consequences, intended and unintended, regardless of how well-meaning, empathic, and mindful policymakers may be. The following essay of a former elementary school teacher illustrates the unintended consequence of a familiar reform-driven policy. A former teacher, Launa Hall lives in Northern Virginia and is working on a book of essays about teaching. This essay appeared in the Washington Post, May 19, 2016 

My third-graders tumbled into the classroom, and one child I’d especially been watching for — I need to protect her privacy, so I’ll call her Janie — immediately noticed the two poster-size charts I’d hung low on the wall. Still wearing her jacket, she let her backpack drop to the floor and raised one finger to touch her name on the math achievement chart. Slowly, she traced the row of dots representing her scores for each state standard on the latest practice test. Red, red, yellow, red, green, red, red. Janie is a child capable of much drama, but that morning she just lowered her gaze to the floor and shuffled to her chair.

In our test-mired public schools, those charts are known as data walls, and before I caved in and made some for my Northern Virginia classroom last spring, they’d been proliferating in schools across the country — an outgrowth of “data-driven instruction” and the scramble for test scores at all costs. Making data public, say advocates such as Boston Plan for Excellence, instills a “healthy competitive culture.” But that’s not what I saw in my classroom.

The data walls concept originated with University of Chicago education researcher David Kerbow, who in the late 1990s promoted visual displays to chart students’ progress in reading. Kerbow called these displays “assessment walls,” and he meant them to be for faculty eyes only, as tools for discussion and planning. But when that fundamentally sound idea met constant anxiety over test scores in K-12 schools across the United States, data walls leaked out of staff-room doors and down the halls. Today, a quick search on Pinterest yields hundreds of versions of children’s test scores hung in public view.

“Diving Into Data,” a 2014 paper published jointly by the nonprofit Jobs for the Future and the U.S. Education Department, offers step-by-step instructions for data walls that “encourage student engagement” and “ensure students know the classroom or school improvement goals and provide a path for students to reach those goals.” The assumption is that students will want to take that path — that This Ed-reform Trend Is Supposed To Motivate Students; Instead, It Shames Them (Launa Hall) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

 

Charter School Industry “invests” more than $9 million in Connecticut lobbying - Wait What?

Charter School Industry “invests” more than $9 million in Connecticut lobbying - Wait What?:

Charter School Industry “invests” more than $9 million in Connecticut lobbying

Since taking office in January 2011, Governor Dannel Malloy has been able to count on the consistent and lucrative support of the charter school industry and their pro-charter school, pro-Common Core, pro-Common Core testing and anti-teacher corporate education reform allies.

In addition to being one of Malloy’s largest sources of campaign cash during his 2014 re-election campaign, the owners and operators of Connecticut’s charter schools, along with the corporate elite who support Malloy’s “education reform” initiatives have dumped more than $9 million into the lobbying effort to support Malloy’s agenda to undermine public education in Connecticut.

This lobbing frenzy makes the corporate education reform effort the most expensive lobbying campaign in Connecticut history.

Funneling money through a variety of different organizations and front groups, the charter school advocates have been able “transform” public education in Connecticut by promoting Malloy’s plans to divert hundreds of millions of dollars in scarce public funds to privately owned and operated charter schools.

While Malloy and the Democratic controlled General Assembly are instituting unprecedented cuts to public schools, thanks to the  “reformers” lobbying effort, more than $110 million in public dollars will be handed over to charter schools this year alone.

In addition, these groups have spent their millions pushing the Common Core and Common Core testing scheme, a program designed to label a vast number of Connecticut’s children, teachers and schools as failures.

The following chart highlights the Step Right Up, Buy Public Policy organizations that have lobbied on behalf of Malloy’s charter school and anti-public education agenda.

Organization	Lobbying Expenses
A Better Connecticut (ConnCAN front group)	$2.3 million
ConnCAN	$1.9 million
Families for Excellent Schools	$1.8 million
GNEPSA (StudentsFirst/Michelle Rhee)	$891,000
CT Council for Education Reform	$349,000
Students for Education Reform	$16,000
Achievement First	$422,000
NE Charter School Network/Charter School Network	$132,000
Bronx Charter School	$35,000
CT Business & Industry Assoc. (CBIA)	>$1.2 million
TOTAL	$9 Million+

This past legislative session, these charter school and education reform entities spent in excess of $500,000 successfully persuading legislators to cut their own district’s public Charter School Industry “invests” more than $9 million in Connecticut lobbying - Wait What?:

BATs and Save our Schools Coalition for Action Statement on Orlando and LGBTQ Community Support Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

BATs and Save our Schools Coalition for Action Statement on Orlando and LGBTQ Community Support

Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the victims, as well as all members of the LGBTQ community and their allies. The echo of these shots have been heard across the country and around the world. It is a sound that will not soon be forgotten.

The recent tragedy in Orlando, Florida has highlighted the deprivation of tolerance that still exists in our society. The intersectionality of education with our societal issues is one that can not be ignored as we call upon fellow educators to recognize and embrace our role in shaping future generations towards creating an inclusive space that will be safe and free of oppression.

To provide an inclusive, safe environment in which all students can learn, it is imperative that the rights of members of the LGBTQ community be recognized and protected at all levels, student, educator, or school staff professional. As bullying initiatives have highlighted in recent years, safety is the number one right of all within a school. However, in spite of these efforts, members of the LGBTQ community are still being intimidated and harassed.

To strive for an environment that is inclusive for all students, we urge all educators to:

• Include activities and lessons that teach and promote tolerance.
• Work to make school bullying policies include language that specifically protects gender nonconforming students.
• Create/build/support a GSA club at school.
• Offer students the support they need to make their preferred gender identity known. Use their preferred pronoun and name while also respecting their privacy rights and possible need for confidentiality.
• Advocate for diversity training for all members of the staff and administration.
• Work to make sure all after school activities and events are inclusive.
• Advocate for the designation of gender neutral restrooms.

To strive for an environment that is inclusive for all staff, we urge all educators to:Badass Teachers Association:

CURMUDGUCATION: TeachLivE: Robot School in the Uncanny Valley

CURMUDGUCATION: TeachLivE: Robot School in the Uncanny Valley:

TeachLivE: Robot School in the Uncanny Valley

A few days ago, I quoted Thomas Kane's bizarre observation about teacher training:

Surgeons start on cadavers, not on live patients.

I observed that it would be hard for teachers to start working with cadavers, but a couple of regular commenters reminded me that, in fact, there are teachers out there working on not-exactly-live students. Ladies and gentlemen, it's TeachLivE

This particular example comes from Pace University School of Education (a reasonably reputableschool), but TeachLivE is actually a product of the University of Central Florida. TeachLivE bills itself as " a mixed-reality teaching environment supporting teacher practice in classroom management, pedagogy and content" and I have to take my hat off to the word "mixed-reality" because it seems so useful when discussing education reform.

But UCF was creating this Classroom of the Living Dead all the way back in 2008. Today they boast a presence in 85 different programs.

How does it work, exactly? Well, EdSurge actually did a review of the program, and that yields a few interesting details (though the undated review is from 2013 when TeachLivE was in 37 CURMUDGUCATION: TeachLivE: Robot School in the Uncanny Valley:

New Insights on Teachers' Ed-Tech Ambitions, Abilities Revealed in Survey - Market Brief

New Insights on Teachers' Ed-Tech Ambitions, Abilities Revealed in Survey - Market Brief:

New Insights on Teachers’ Ed-Tech Ambitions, Abilities Revealed in Survey

Many companies trying to find a market in K-12 schools face a question that fills them with anxiety, if not outright dread: How much technology can teachers handle?

That question can prove critical to whether an ed-tech provider will succeed or fail.

If technology is seamless and easy for educators to manage, it can clear the path for a digital provider. If it overwhelms them, the odds for companies’ get much longer, right out of the gate.

A new survey conducted by the Education Week Research Center offers ed-tech providers insight on how educators think about technology and its uses in classrooms. The results will probably prove both encouraging and dismaying to companies.

First, the uplifting news: A majority of K-12 educators responding to the survey, published in this year’s special report Technology Counts, see themselves as willing to take chances on classroom technology. Twenty-four percent describe themselves as risk-takers, and 47 percent see themselves as early-adopters when it comes to using technology.

That’s a finding that contrasts with some of the stereotypes of educators–that they’re instinctively resistant to trying out new digital tools.

Many teachers also see themselves as important decisionmakers when it comes to  what technology ends up getting usedNew Insights on Teachers' Ed-Tech Ambitions, Abilities Revealed in Survey - Market Brief:

Langston League Aims To Form New Coalition Of Black Male Scholars From Creative Writing To Technology

Langston League Aims To Form New Coalition Of Black Male Scholars From Creative Writing To Technology:

Langston League Aims To Form New Coalition Of Black Male Scholars From Creative Writing To Technology

 On the steps of Langston Hughes’ abandoned Harlem-based home grew a new idea that will change the course of a young black man’s future. Erica Buddington, an educator and scholar from New York, sat on those steps of the famed poet’s home everyday for lunch, alone, with her thoughts on how to make kids love to learn again. One day while enjoying her afternoon meal, an unnamed caretaker of Hughes’ 127th and 5th Avenue property interrupted her routine. After noticing Buddington’s daily pattern for quite some time, he asked her if she’d like to see inside of the historic building, which hasn’t been opened for years. She swiftly obliged, not knowing that her curiosity would act as a catalyst in fufilling her dreams. As she marveled at the decoration and inner structure of Hughes’ abode, an image began to project in her mind with every step she took.

“I don’t know how or why this began to happen in my mind, but I just started seeing little boys running around with notebooks and doing creative writing with letterman jackets,” the Hampton University graduate said. “As I walked out, I called my friend and I told her about the experience. I said, ‘I can’t wait until I can start a school that’s like a league of little Langstons.’ And she said, ‘You should call it the Langston League.’”

With a central focus on educating black and brown boys in the fields of creative writing to technology over the course of six weeks (July 5-August 5), Langston League presents an updated curriculum that helps kids learn at their own pace and on subjects that actually interest them. With outlets that’ll analyze lyrics from hip-hop’s more pensive artists like J. Cole, to how the genre correlates to movements within the country like the Black Lives Matter organization, Langston League marries “cultural relevancy” to real-life topics without neglecting the National Common Core standards that aide in preparation for state testing.

Under the theme “Renaissance & Revolution,” young scholars will also sharpen their comprehension and analytical skills through historic passages from Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists/artists, receive a course on how to use and eventually master Photoshop, Illustrator and Final Cut Pro, and to critically dissect lyrics from today’s top rappers that’ll probably make Genius take their crowdsourcing talents to the classroom.

“It’s very rare that you walk into an organization that has a National Common Core background, an educative background and who understands the different learning styles in the classroom, and also is able to build a bridge with the cultural relevancy because they Langston League Aims To Form New Coalition Of Black Male Scholars From Creative Writing To Technology:

Charter battle pits Democrats against Baker, each other

Charter battle pits Democrats against Baker, each other:

Charter battle pits Democrats against Baker, each other

BOSTON — Gov. Charlie Baker's name was absent from the lips of nearly all but one speaker at the state Democratic Party’s convention two weeks ago, and that speaker was state AFL-CIO president Steve Tolman.

Tolman connected Baker to well-heeled financial interests that, he said, are behind efforts to increase the number of charter schools in the commonwealth. At face value, the tweak makes sense, as Baker has planted his flag in support of a measure to raise the cap on charter schools ahead of its appearance on November's ballot.

Story Continued Below

“The money behind this charter school campaign is from the same donors who finance the Republican Governors Association, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, and Charlie Baker,” Tolman told the 2,500 Democrats in Lowell.

Many hoisted yellow signs reading “Save Our Public Schools" during the speech.

“They are corporate Wall Street billionaires and conservative think tanks who also support right wing campaigns all over the country," he said. "They are here in Massachusetts and they want to convince people that they have Massachusetts students’ best interest in mind in their quest to lift the cap on charter schools.”

After the convention, the pro-charter Democrats for Education Reform fired back in a statement.

“Some speakers at today's State Democratic Party Convention defied the party platform, President Barack Obama, and the majority of Democratic voters who consistently voice support for expanding charter schools in areas where more school options are needed,” said state director Liam Kerr. “Muddling the Party's long history on school reform may be good for slogans on signs and stickers, but it's bad for kids.”

Tolman reemphasized his comments on Friday, telling POLITICO Massachusetts that organizations like Democrats for Education Reform have been "made up to look like we’ve been split apart as Democrats.”

That led Kerr to fire back: "Is Steve Tolman unable or just unwilling to read the Democratic Party platform?"

If Democrats are trying to find weak points in Baker’s armor, assailing his position on the charter school cap is a risky place to start. Because, as the backbiting after the state convention showed, the party is not exactly of one mind on charter schools.

Polling shows a divide between union-based opposition to charters and support for the schools from low-income and minority communities. In a poll commissioned by the pro-charter Massachusetts Charter Public Schools Association in April, about 75 percent of Boston-based respondents said they would support the November ballot question to lift the charter cap. Support was especially strong

Read more: http://www.politico.com/states/massachusetts/story/2016/06/effort-to-battle-baker-on-charters-pits-democrats-against-each-other-102750#ixzz4BZ8pEK4I 
Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook