Hump Day on Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Hump Day on Diane Ravitch's blog

John Oliver Explains Trumpcare

4by dianeravitch / 1h

John Oliver breaks all my blog rules about cussing, but I forgive him because he explains things so clearly. In this episode, he explains the Republican effort to replace Obamacare with Trumpcare. It is a complicated subject, but he makes it comprehensible while being very funny.

Kentucky: Charter Bill Passed by Senate Education Committee, Heading for Full Senate Vote

5by dianeravitch / 1h

HB520, the bill that will authorize privately managed charter schools in Kentucky, was approved by the Senate Education Committee and now will go to the full Senate for a vote. The Senate is in Republican hands. The Governor is a Republican. The politicians in Kentucky seem poised to invite out-of-state corporations to come into Kentucky and take charge of public money and taxpayer dollars. The g

Trump Selects Another Goldman Sachs Banker for His Economic Team

4by dianeravitch / 2h

Donald Trump demonized Goldman Sachs during the Presidential campaign and blasted Hillary Clinton for having the nerve to speak to them for high fees. But now he is stocking his economic team with men (yes, men) from…where else?…Goldman Sachs! There should be a lot of room for advancement at that firm, what with all the top people leaving to join the Trump administration. Their appointment reassu

How Fringe Media Has Become Mainstream, Thanks to Trump

7by dianeravitch / 2h

This is an alarming 3-minute video about the extremist fringes that are polluting the media with lies and conspiracy theories. It is part of a series produced by The Atlantic. There have always been fringe talk show hosts and publications. The problem is that the president of the United States cites “facts” taken from 

Charter School Leaders Meet with Betsy DeVos to Celebrate Her Agenda for America

2by dianeravitch / 48min

Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform posted a photograph in which leaders of charter schools met with their new champion: Secretary Betsy DeVos. She was joined by charter leaders from D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and California. The Ohio charter leader didn’t make it because of the snow. There were also leaders from the for-profit sector, including the virtual charter sector. Betsy De

Fox News: Trump Voters Will Have Huge Cost Increase Under Trumpcare

by dianeravitch / 48min

Fox News reports that Trump voters will face large increases in the cost of medical coverage under the plan proposed by Trump and the GOP. Raising a political problem as much as a financial one, newly released budget estimates show elderly Americans could be hit hard by premium hikes under Republicans’ ObamaCare repeal bill — affecting a key constituency for President Trump. The Congressional Bud

Paul Hill: Why DeVos Is Unlikely to Succeed in Promoting Vouchers with Federal Funds

2by dianeravitch / 1h

Paul Hill is founder of the Center for Reinventing Public Education and a professor at the University of Washington. When I was on the other side of education debates, I served with Paul on the Koret Task Force at the Hoover Institution. He is one of the nicest people I know but we now disagree about the value of choice as a means of “reinventing” public schools. Paul is the creator of the idea o

Nevada: Why is This Failing Virtual Charter School Never Closed?

4by dianeravitch / 1h

Angie Sullivan teaches first- and second-grade students in a Title 1 school in Carson County, Nevada. She sends her email reports to legislators and journalists. She is the conscience of Nevada. She writes: Attached is a report I 

An Interview with Kenneth Zeichner on the Pop-Up Graduate School of Education Called Relay

by dianeravitch / 24min

The blog “Seattle Education” interviews Professor Kenneth Zeichner about the “Relay Graduate School of Education ,” which exists solely to dispense credentials of dubious value to charter school personnel. The message “#rejectrelay.” “Ken Zeichner is the Boeing Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Washington. He is a member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow at the N

Scholars Ask: Are Charter Schools the New Enron?

6by dianeravitch / 1h

Scholars Preston C. Green III, Bruce D. Baker, and Joseph Oluwole investigate whether the charter industry is repeating the errors of Enron. Their peer-reviewed article appears in the Indiana Law Journal. Here is the abstract: “In 2001, Enron rocked the financial world by declaring bankruptcy due to the effects of an accounting scandal. Special purpose entities (SPEs) were instrumental to Enron’s

Mercedes Schneider: A Closer Look at the Unimpressive Academic Record of Florida Voucher Schools

2by dianeravitch / 2h

Recently Trump and DeVos gushed over the Florida tax credit voucher program and featured a graduate of one student who graduated from a voucher school. This inspired Mercedes Schneider to look at the academic record of Florida’s voucher schools. It is not impressive. Voucher schools are supposed to save students from failing schools. But most of the state’s voucher students do not come from F-rat

Mercedes Schneider Reviews the Tax Filings of Florida’s “Step Up for Students” Voucher Program

4by dianeravitch / 3h

Mercedes Schneider is a careful analyst of tax filings. Although Trump doesn’t have to make his tax returns public, thus revealing any potential conflicts of interest, the law requires charitable organizations to release their financial filings (called their 990 form) with the Internal Revenue Service. In this post, Schneider reviews the finances of Step Up for Students, which receives donations

YESTERDAY

The Great Blizzard of 2017 That Wasn’t

4by dianeravitch / 13h

Last night, I waited in great anticipation for the start of the great blizzard of 2017. I enjoy big weather events, especially if I am physically safe. I like to watch thunderstorms. I was excited to wait for the howling winds and rapidly falling snow we were promised. I read this article , which made me laugh out loud (for the first page or so). It is about losing things, misplacing your keys, y

Chinese Investors Buy Kushner Building for $4 Billion, with $400 Million for Kushner Family

13by dianeravitch / 19h

The business interests of the Trump family pose many possibilities for conflicts of interest. Jared Kushner is married to Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter. Jared Kushner is a trusted advisor to the president. A politically connected Chinese firm just bought a New York City property from Jared Kushner’s family on favorable terms. “A company owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Don

Hawaii: Michelle Rhee and Kevin Johnson Arrive to Give Advice about Education

16by dianeravitch / 21h

I have been bombarded by Hawaiians who are concerned that Michelle Rhee and her husband, the former Mayor of Sacramento Kevin Johnson, have arrived to advise state officials about education reform. Several sent this article. I recall that Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were invited five years ago to lecture at the University of Hawaii on the subject of ethics in education. I am hoping to visit Hawaii for t

Two Trump Allies Set Up Lobbying Firm to Protect Clients Against Tweet Attacks

7by dianeravitch / 23h

The New York Times reports that two former Trump advisors have set up a lobbying firm to protect their clients against nasty tweets that can send their stock price into decline. Attention: corporate America. For a fee, Corey Lewandowski, President Trump’s pugilistic former campaign manager, and Barry Bennett, a former Trump senior adviser, will protect you from “tweet risk” — what happens to the

Peter Greene: Why Your Child Should Opt Out of Testing

47by dianeravitch / 1d

It is that time of year again: Time to take the meaningless standardized tests. Peter Green e here gives eight reasons why students should opt out of tests. Here are six of his eight reasons. Read the piece to learn about the other two. They may be the most important: 1) No Benefits for Children or Parents Your child is not allowed to discuss specifics of the test with anyone, so there will be no

Rolling Stone: Betsy DeVos, the Christian Right, and the Plan to Evangelize America’s Public Schools

32by dianeravitch / 1d

Janet Reitman, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and author of “Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion,” investigated the like-minded evangelical world of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in this article. The appointment of DeVos is a big win, she says, in the religious right’s crusade to capture control of American culture. “Her appointment as education secretary

Wendy Lecker: Betsy DeVos Pushing Charter Schools as the “Gateway Drug” to Privatization

22by dianeravitch / 1d

Wendy Lecker is a civil rights attorney who writes often for Connecticut newspapers. I did not see this column when it first appeared, but think it is worth reading now. Locker was first to use the term “gateway drug” to describe charters, meaning that they are the seemingly benign but insidious first step towards privatization of public schools. She writes: Betsy DeVos’ nomination brings to the

Kentucky: Stand Up for Your Public Schools!

12by dianeravitch / 1d

The lower house of the Kentucky legislature passed a bill authorizing charters. The bill has moved to the Senate. It is moving quickly. Kentucky is one of the few states that does not yet have privately managed charter schools. Parents of children in public schools have started a group called “SaveOurSchoolsKy.” To support their cause, I wrote this opinion piece, which was published in the Louisv

Mike Klonsky: Earth to New York Times: Rahm Did NOT Fix the Chicago Public Schools

22by dianeravitch / 1d

Mike Klonsky, veteran activist in Chicago, was surprised to read in the New York Times that the public schools of Chicago were the fastest improving urban schools in the nation and that their improvement was due to Mayor Rahm 

 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

How is your school doing? Online dashboard gives parents new tool - SFGate

How is your school doing? Online dashboard gives parents new tool - SFGate:

How is your school doing? Online dashboard gives parents new tool

California parents who want to know more about the progress of their children’s schools will be given access Wednesday to a system that uses color-coded charts and graphics to offer a comprehensive assessment of classrooms that goes well beyond standardized test scores.

The new online portal, called the California School Dashboard, measures school and district performance using a variety of criteria, including graduation and suspension rates, progress of English learners and success at preparing students for college, as well as math and English test scores.

In the future, the dashboard will also include parent participation and feedback from students and parents on school safety and available support, among other things.

The approach is a big departure from the old accountability system, the Academic Performance Index, which ranked schools using one number on a 1,000-point scale based on test scores. Known as the API, it was suspended three years ago as the state phased in Common Core testing.

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Photo: California Department Of Education

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An example of a five-by-five color-coded chart that will be used to display school performance data in an online portal called the California School Dashboard.

ALSOHow is your school doing? Online dashboard gives parents new tool - SFGate:

Charter schools’ ‘thorny’ problem: Few students go on to earn college degrees

Charter schools’ ‘thorny’ problem: Few students go on to earn college degrees:

Charter schools’ ‘thorny’ problem: Few students go on to earn college degrees

Like many charter school networks, the Los Angeles-based Alliance College-Ready Public Schools boast eye-popping statistics: 95% of their low-income students graduate from high school and go on to college. Virtually all qualify to attend California state universities.

Its name notwithstanding, the network’s own statistics suggest that few Alliance alumni are actually ready for the realities — academic, social and financial — of college. The vast majority drop out. In all, more than three-fourths of Alliance alumni don’t earn a four-year college degree in the six years after they finish high school.

Publicly funded, but in most cases privately operated, charter schools like Alliance are poised to become a much bigger part of the USA’s K-12 public education system. Yet even as their popularity rises, charters face a harsh reality: Most of the schools boast promising, often jaw-dropping high school graduation rates, but much like Alliance, their college success rates, on average, leave three of four students without a degree.

Statistics for charter schools as a whole are hard to come by, but the best estimate puts charters’ college persistence rates at around 23%. To be fair, the rate overall for low-income students – the kind of students typically served by charters – is even worse: just 9%. For low-income, high-minority urban public schools, most comparable to charters, the rate is 15%.

Charter schools must 'pivot' from original mission

So while many charter schools offer students a more viable path to high school graduation, the low college success rate in many cases is forcing the schools themselves to rethink their offerings.

“It’s time for us to pivot,” admitted Dan Katzir, Alliance’s CEO. Asked to rate the importance of raising the network’s college graduation rate, he said: “This is our work for the next 10 years.”

In many ways, charter schools were designed a quarter-century ago to help close the Charter schools’ ‘thorny’ problem: Few students go on to earn college degrees:

Feds: CPS consultant made millions through 'corrupt process from beginning to end' - Chicago Tribune

Feds: CPS consultant made millions through 'corrupt process from beginning to end' - Chicago Tribune:

Feds: CPS consultant made millions through 'corrupt process from beginning to end'

The executive at the center of a federal bribery scandal at Chicago Public Schools helped steer Barbara Byrd-Bennett into the district's top job and manipulated district procedures to secure a no-bid contract for his companies, federal prosecutors said in a filing this week.

In their response to a sentencing memo filed earlier this month by attorneys for Gary Solomon, prosecutors rejected pleas for leniency and said Solomon made millions of dollars in a case that "involved a corrupt process from beginning to end."

Solomon "may have comforted himself with the thought that he was not a governor or alderman or public official, but he profited far more handsomely than most convicted of public corruption offenses," prosecutors said. "The government agrees with Solomon that this is not a typical honest services bribery case. It is significantly worse."

Solomon, the co-owner of the SUPES Academy and Synesi Associates education consulting companies, pleaded guilty last year to a single count of wire fraud and admitted his role in a scheme to bribe Byrd-Bennett with a percentage of the value of contracts she helped secure for his firms. Prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence Solomon next week to nine years in prison.Feds: CPS consultant made millions through 'corrupt process from beginning to end' - Chicago Tribune:

Battleground in the Fight over Voucher Expansion Opens in Texas - Education Law Prof Blog

Education Law Prof Blog:

Battleground in the Fight over Voucher Expansion Opens in Texas

While Betsy DeVos has almost no current power as Secretary of Education to push vouchers, her public stance in favor of them may be emboldening state legislatures to take action on their own.  Texas has moved quickly and the battle lines are being drawn.  Even Senator Cruz is getting involved.

"I usually stay out of fights in Austin. We've got plenty of fights in Washington," Cruz said Saturday night at the Dallas County Republican Party Reagan Day Dinner. "This is the best opportunity we've had in the history of the state of Texas to pass meaningful school choice legislation in the Texas Legislature."

As Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick listened, Cruz told Texas legislators in the room to take a "bold and courageous stand."

"School choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century," Cruz said. "Do the right thing for the kids, and the history of Texas will vindicate your courage and principles."

Teachers and religious leaders are coming out just as strong in opposition.  The Dallas Morning News reports:

Teachers and pastors on Monday rallied against the Senate's school vouchers proposal, even as its author announced the bill will be heard Thursday.

"It is a sin before God," Charles Foster Johnson led hundreds in chanting, "to make commodities out of our children and to make markets out of our classrooms."

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and GOP Senate leaders would harm public schools and impermissibly lend government support to religion if their self-styled "school choice" bill becomes law, Johnson warned at a Capitol rally organized by the state affiliate of the American Federal of Teachers union.

"Generally, the House of Representatives is holding firm," he said to teachers and school district employees Education Law Prof Blog:

In violation of state lobbying laws, corporate education reform group behind Malloy’s disastrous special education funding proposal - Wait What?

In violation of state lobbying laws, corporate education reform group behind Malloy’s disastrous special education funding proposal - Wait What?:

In violation of state lobbying laws, corporate education reform group behind Malloy’s disastrous special education funding proposal

Among the many bad budget recommendations included in Governor Dannel Malloy state spending plan is a proposal that would leave Connecticut’s cities and towns without the resources they need to properly fund mandated programs for students who require special education services.

Now, according to documents acquired through a Freedom of Information request, Malloy’s absurd proposal which undermines Connecticut’s special education program was actually developed by a corporate education reform group, despite the fact that the group reported that it did not engage in any administrative lobbying activities.

The entity in question is an off-shoot of the Connecticut Council on Education Reform (CCER), a corporate funded lobbying group that has been trying to divert scarce public resources to Connecticut’s charter schools, while lobbying on behalf of Malloy’s massive Common Core SBAC standardized testing debacle and his other corporate education reforms.

Last year, staff from CCER formed The Connecticut School Finance Project.

Following Governor Malloy’s recent proposal to create a Connecticut Special Education Cost Cooperative, a new bureaucratic structure designed to inappropriately control special education funding and services, The Connecticut School Finance Project prepared an “independent analysis examining these proposed changes and how they align with six key principles and practices all special education finance systems should follow.”

However, neither the Governor nor the lobby group revealed that the proposal was actually developed by the Connecticut School Finance Project after months of close communication with the Malloy administration and their “independent analysis” was of a plan they actually wrote.

Worse, in an outright lie and in apparent violation of state law, the Connecticut School Finance Project reported to the State Ethics In violation of state lobbying laws, corporate education reform group behind Malloy’s disastrous special education funding proposal - Wait What?:

HR 610 Vouchers Unlikely; DC Voucher Renewal Advances Without Protecting Vulnerable Students | janresseger

HR 610 Vouchers Unlikely; DC Voucher Renewal Advances Without Protecting Vulnerable Students | janresseger:

HR 610 Vouchers Unlikely; DC Voucher Renewal Advances Without Protecting Vulnerable Students

There is a lot of fear about House Resolution 610, Iowa Rep. Steve King’s proposal for national school vouchers that has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. But don’t be too fearful; this particular bill is unlikely to go anywhere.

Andrew Ujifusa, one of Education Week‘s primary reporters on federal education legislation, explains what this bill is: “The Choices in Education Act of 2017… would repeal the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the main K-12 law, of which the Every Student Succeeds Act is the latest version. It would create vouchers funded by Washington for parents to use at private schools if they chose to do so, or to use for home schooling their child. Under King’s legislation, the federal government would fund those vouchers through creating block grants for states… In addition, King’s bill would overturn nutritional standards published in 2012 for the national school lunch and school breakfast programs.”

The purpose of Ujifusa’s recent column is to calm widespread worries about the bill, concerns tied to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ declared commitment to launching a federal voucher program of some kind. Ujifusa reminds readers that DeVos cannot institute a voucher program without Congressional approval; he adds that rural members of Congress, “have expressed concern about a federal voucher program, in part because they don’t feel private school choice will help many of the children back home.” Ujifusa explains that the bill’s sponsor, Rep. King, does not sit on the House committee that oversees education, and the bill is legislatively complicated because another committee on agriculture would have to oversee the provisions of the bill to change the school lunch program. Ujifusa adds: “In fact, in 2015, the Senate rejected (Sen. Lamar) Alexander’s proposed amendment to ESSA that would have instituted a voucher program. And the Senate now has more Democratic lawmakers than it did then. It’s unlikely any Democrat will vote to create nationwide, federal vouchers.”

Congress will likely need a different vehicle from HR. 610 if it acts on Trump’s and DeVos’s promise of a federal voucher program. But Congress is moving forward with another voucher bill, one that has historically been opposed by Democrats, but a bill that has passed before and HR 610 Vouchers Unlikely; DC Voucher Renewal Advances Without Protecting Vulnerable Students | janresseger:

Why even the world’s highest-scoring schools need to change - The Washington Post

Why even the world’s highest-scoring schools need to change - The Washington Post:

Why even the world’s highest-scoring schools need to change

Marion Brady is a veteran educator who has long argued that public schools in the United States need a paradigm shift. The core curriculum, he says, does not meet the needs of today’s students, and schools fail to do the most important thing they should be doing. He explains in the following post.

Brady has written history and world culture textbooks (Prentice-Hall),  professional books, numerous  nationally distributed columns (many are available here), and courses of study. His 2011 book, “What’s Worth Learning,” asks and answers this question: What knowledge is absolutely essential for every learner? His course of study for secondary-level students, called “Connections: Investigating Reality,” is free for downloading here. Brady’s website is www.marionbrady.com.

By Marion Brady

Betsy DeVos, the new U.S. secretary of education, has a theory. She agrees with  former Florida governor Jeb Bush and other education “reformers” now shaping American education that what’s wrong with America’s schools has an easy fix: competition in the form of market forces  — vouchers, merit pay, charter schools, etc.

 DeVos is wrong. Dozens of variables — most of them beyond educator control — affect kids’ ability to learn. Believing that market forces can erase the effects of those variables is magical thinking.

Albert Einstein, Buckminster Fuller, David Bohm, Alfred North Whitehead, Ernest Boyer, Harlan Cleveland, Arthur Koestler, Thomas Merton, Peter Senge, and many other internationally known and respected thinkers have a different theory about poor learner and school performance. If they’re right, even the world’s highest-scoring schools aren’t serving learners well.

Here’s why:

1. For efficient, productive thought, information must be mentally organized. The “core” curriculum now in near-universal use worldwide is a poor organizer of information. The thinkers mentioned above all believed that the core curriculum in use in schools since 1893 is fragmented, incoherent, artificial and disconnected from the reality it’s supposed to explain to learners and help them explore.

2. Businesses, industries, the military, and other information-dependent entities don’t use academic disciplines or school subjects to organize information. To cope with reality’s inherent complexity, to more accurately model reality’s systemically integrated nature, and Why even the world’s highest-scoring schools need to change - The Washington Post:

Teachers and Researchers: Searching for the Truth of Classroom Change | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teachers and Researchers: Searching for the Truth of Classroom Change | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Teachers and Researchers: Searching for the Truth of Classroom Change

I am preparing to write a section in my forthcoming book on technology integration about  the different perspectives that teachers and researchers have on changes in classroom lessons. To do that, I have looked back at the handful of posts I have written since 2009 on this point so I can figure out what to say in this forthcoming book.

Here is one from November 2009 along with a reader’s thoughtful comment (and criticism) of the position I take in the post.

Over the years, I have interviewed many teachers across the country who have described their district’s buying computers, deploying them in classrooms while providing professional development. These teachers have told me that using computers, interactive white boards, and other high-tech devices with accompanying software have altered their teaching significantly. They listed changes they have made such as their Powerpoint presentations and students doing Internet searches in class. They told me about using email with students.Teachers using interactive white boards said they can check immediately if students understand a math or science problem through their voting on the correct answer.

I then watched many of these teachers teach. Most teachers used the high-tech devices as they described in their interviews. Yet I was puzzled by their claim that using these devices had substantially altered how they taught. Policymaker decisions to buy and deploy high-tech devices was supposed to shift dominant ways of traditional teaching to student-centered, or progressive approaches. All of this in years when No Child Left Behind, extensive testing, and coercive accountability reigned. What I encountered in classrooms, however, departed from teachers’ certainty that they have changed how they teach.

I am not the first researcher to have met teachers who claimed substantial changes in their teaching in response to district or state policies. Consider “A Revolution in One Classroom; The Case of Mrs. Oublier.”

In the mid-1980s, California policymakers adopted a new elementary math curriculum intended to have students acquire a deep understanding of math Teachers and Researchers: Searching for the Truth of Classroom Change | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Betsy DeVos Uses a Willing Public School Superintendent as a Privatization Prop | deutsch29

Betsy DeVos Uses a Willing Public School Superintendent as a Privatization Prop | deutsch29:

Betsy DeVos Uses a Willing Public School Superintendent as a Privatization Prop

 On March 13, 2017, US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos tried to sell her interest in public schools. However, even as she spoke to the Council of Great City Schools (CGCS), a coalition comprised of 69 urban public school districts, DeVos could not help trying to sell school choice.

Most of her 12-minute speech focused on her established, school choice bent couched in that seemingly-benign,  parent-empowerment, for-the-children language that leaves her audience with the unsettling feeling that even though DeVos tried at moments to sound supportive of public schools, her support is suspiciously qualified:

And one of those quality options should be a great public school. I’ve said this before, and it bears repeating: I support great public schools, and I support great public school teachers—because I support students—all students.

DeVos supports *great public schools,* and we know it’s true because she says so today.

But DeVos also has a public school superintendent as a fan, and she was willing to throw that name out there to her audience of urban public school superintendents:

For years, I mentored at-risk girls who were attending an urban public school in Grand Rapids. I’ve witnessed the impact one person can have on a child’s life, and I’ve seen the changes in a community when it chooses—often through local initiatives that include public and private partnerships—to come together and invest in the rising generation.

This is what motivated me to develop a friendship and relationship with Teresa Weatherall Neal, the superintendent of Grand Rapids Public Schools.

I have supported and continue to support her work to transform Grand Rapids Public Schools to better serve the students of Grand Rapids.

DeVos referenced her mentoring at a “public school” during her January 17, 2017, confirmation hearing. Neither then nor in her CGCS speech has she divulged the name of that school. She has also not disclosed just how much time, exactly, she spent “mentoring,” or what, exactly she means by the term.

Before her CGCS audience, she brushes past such details and proceeds to name-Betsy DeVos Uses a Willing Public School Superintendent as a Privatization Prop | deutsch29:

Are school vouchers good for education? That debate is playing out in Indiana - YouTube

Are school vouchers good for education? That debate is playing out in Indiana - YouTube:

Are school vouchers good for education? That debate is playing out in Indiana

Hoosier School Heist TV is Doug Martin's channel featuring videos of his book tour across Indiana speaking on the corporate takeover of public education. Order Hoosier School Heist at http://hoosierschoolheist.com/.

Follow Hoosier School Heist on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoosierSchoolHeist

Tweet with Doug Martin at: https://twitter.com/DougMartinED

What about school funding? Will we lose our Blue Ribbon Status?: A report from the front lines of the NY Opt Out Movement - Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

What about school funding?  Will we lose our Blue Ribbon Status?:  A report from the front lines of the NY Opt Out Movement

NYS has a robust opt out movement.  Last year over 260,000 students refused the NYS tests in Grades 3-8.  Each year some NY Boards of Education, Superintendents, and Principals try to use scare tactics to get parents to opt back into testing. Two scare tactics are that the school will lose funding (NO school in NYS has ever lost funding due to opt out) or the school will not be eligible for the Blue Ribbon Award (aka   a NY  Reward School).  Here is a bit of information for NY parents and educators.  Don't believe the scare tactics and don't sell your child out for a blue ribbon that steals their education and childhood!

NYC Opt Out member Tracy Peel -

But what about school funding?

It’s a favorite line of people who want your kid to take the test, but so far, no NYS school has ever lost any of its funding due to the number of kids who opted out of testing. The next time someone tells you this, ask them which school lost any of its funding. For each of the past two years, more than 200,000 kids in NY State have opted out of the state tests and their schools did not lose funding because of opt-out.

So, where does the rumor come from?

The NYS Department of Education names “Reward Schools” each year based on test scores. For most schools, the only “reward” is being named to the “Reward School” list. Gee, thanks!

For the past several years, the NYSDOE has announced a grant application for Reward Schools that are also Title I schools (schools with lots of poor kids.) These schools must have at least 95 percent testing to apply for the small grant. So, if a Reward School has less than 95 percent test participation, it can’t apply for the grant.

But wouldn’t it be great to get more money?

The application for “Reward School” Title I grants takes a lot of staff time, with no guarantee the school will get money, many strings attached, and little to no benefit to the applying school.  The NYS DOE has never publicized its grant winners, just the grant application, and it is possible no eligible school has ever applied for this money!

NYC DOE, desperate to keep down opt-out, has pitched that not getting to apply for these small potatoes, strings-attached grants is a “penalty.” They have been forwarding around an article from last year. The article is deceptive (not because of the reporter) but because of the DOE's misleading statements to the reporter.

In past years the use of the grant money was restricted so the money had to be used for the school that got the grant to share its techniques for achieving high test scores with other Title I schools.  The old grant application is not available (links are broken or send you to the current grant program), but the grant was only to a district with a Reward School, and was only “up to” $75,000 per successful applicant school, some of which could have gone to the school, to, Badass Teachers Association: