KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG A site to discuss better education for all

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

KEEP UP/ CATCH UP WITH DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG 

A site to discuss better education for all

Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools

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Jan Resseger: The History and Context of the Chicago Teachers Strike 2019

by dianeravitch / 1h

Jan Resseger explains the history and context of the truly historic teachers’ strike in Chicago t hat recently ended. She explains it with clarity, as only Jan can do. This was not a strike for higher salaries. The mayor offered a 16% increase before the strike began, and that is what the Chicago Teachers Union accepted. This was a strike for students. This was a strike to reverse a quarter-centu

YESTERDAY

NPE’s Grassroots Network Is Growing!

21by dianeravitch / 21h

Marla Kilfoyle, who previously served as national executive director of the BadAss Teachers Association, is now in charge of building the Grassroots Network of the Network for Public Education. She has done a spectacular job in bringing together parents, grandparents, educators, students, and other public-spirited citizens who support our public schools. Here is the latest report. Nearly 150 grou

Mike Deshotels on John White’s Record as Louisiana’s State Superintendent and Education Reformer

by dianeravitch / 22h

Mike Deshotels is a retired educator in Louisiana who blogs as “Louisiana Educator.” In this post, he appraises State Superintendent John White’s record as state superintendent. He characterizes that record as “pitiful.” John White, you may recall, is a “reformer,” that is, a specialist in Disruption. He is formerly TFA, a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Academy, and before coming to Louisiana

Morgan Ames: Why Techies Are Not Experts About Everything

by dianeravitch / 1d

Morgan Ames is a techie. She majored in computer science at Berkeley and now works at the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society. She wants to convince you that techies know computer science, but we should not look to them for advice about child-rearing, education, or other social issues. Their range of expertise is narrow. It may make them very rich. But it does not make them wise

Carol Burris: Wealthy Charter Organizations Lash Out at Elizabeth Warren for Proposing to Cut Off Their Federal Funding

49by dianeravitch / 1d

Carol Burris, a veteran educator and now executive director of the Network for Public Education, has conducted extensive research into the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP), which resulted in a report called Asleep at the Wheel . That report documented the waste of about $1 billion in federal funds spent on charters that either never opened or that opened and then closed in short order. At th

OCT 31

Chicago Teachers Strike Ends! Weingarten Explains What Happened

300+by dianeravitch / 1d

For Immediate Release October 31, 2019 Contact: Ori Korin okorin@aft.org American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten Congratulates Chicago Teachers Union WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in response to the news that the Chicago Teachers Union, AFT Local 1, reached a return-to-work agreement with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and will return to

Chicago: Principals’ Association Says Teachers Are Not Demanding Enough

83by dianeravitch / 1d

Troy Laraviere, president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, writes in Crains Chicago Business that the Chicago Teachers Union is not demanding enough for the public schools. He maintains that the Chicago schools are woefully understaffed as compared to other districts in Illinois. He writes: Chicago Public Schools is the most understaffed school district in Illinois. It is

Nancy Bailey: The Haunted Third Grade Classroom That Traps Children

100+by dianeravitch / 1d

Nancy Bailey writes here about a zombie polic y launched by Jeb Bush called third grade retention. Students who can’t pass a third grade reading test are flunked and held back. Nineteen states have adopted this practice despite a large body of research showing that it hurts kids and leads to future failure, even dropping out. Children who are held back feel humiliated. There is one big benefit to

Pennsylvania: Speaker of the House Who Hates Public Schools and Teachers Will Have Electoral Challenge

23by dianeravitch / 1d

Remember Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Mike Turzai, who denounced public schools as a “monopoly, and expressed his contempt for public school teachers as a “special interest group”? He will have a Democratic challenger in the next election. Emily Skopov is the daughter of a public school teacher and an activist. Read her biography and learn about her project called “No Crayon Left Behind.” Em

Chicago: CTU Explains Terms of Tentative Agreement

22by dianeravitch / 1d

Tentative Agreement Tonight’s Vote to Conditionally Suspend the Strike CTU’s House of Delegates met tonight to consider a new tentative agreement. The terms of the tentative agreement can be downloaded from the MemberLink Portal . Delegates voted 364 to 242, with four abstentions, to accept the revised tentative agreement on the condition that Mayor Lightfoot agree to make up the days lost in the

Africa: World Bank Ombudsman Expresses Concern about For-Profit Bridge International Academies

20by dianeravitch / 2d

In recent years, I have posted several times about the issues raised by the efforts of for-profit Bridge International Academies to supply low-cost schools in Africa. These schools are staffed by teachers equipped with iPads reading a script written in Boston or someplace similar. Most African families can’t afford the cost. BIA aims to disrupt and replace African nations’ underfunded, ill-equipp

Alexandria Millet: The Charter School-to-Prison Pipeline

32by dianeravitch / 2d

Alexandria Millet writes in The Progressive about the consequences of the harsh discipline at “no excuses” charter schools. She begins by telling the recent story of two six-year-old girls who were arrested in school for having a temper tantrum. They were taken to the police station, where their mug shots were taken. Eventually, in response to public outrage, the charges were dropped, and the sch

OCT 30

Chicago Teachers Union Reaches Tentative Agreement, But Strike Not Over Yet!

52by dianeravitch / 2d

The CTU reached a tentative agreement with Chicago Public Schools. The CTU House of Delegates voted 364-242 to suspend the strike pending resolution of final issues. The settlement, which meets most of the CTU demands, will be voted on by the full membership within 10 days. But the strike is not yet over. The sides are very close but the union wants an assurance that there will be no loss of inst

Peter Greene on DeVosian Nonsense

65by dianeravitch / 2d

Peter Greene skewers Betsy DeVos’ unsubstantiated claims about the meaning of the disappointing NAEP scores. Don’t believe her when she says that 2/3 of students are “below grade level” in reading. NAEP proficiency is not “grade level.” NAEP even posts that statement on its graphs. This is what NAEP says as a note attached to its graphs: “The NAEP Proficient achievement level does not represent g

The NAEP Results: A Powerful Statement by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro

93by dianeravitch / 2d

Rosa DeLauro is one of the most significant members of Congress. She oversees Congressional appropriations for education. She is a strong supporter of public education and a critic of privatization of public funding. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 30, 2019 CONTACT: Will Serio: 202-225-3661 DeLauro Statement on 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress Results WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congres

Matt Barnum at Chalkbeat: Betsy DeVos Uses Disappointing NAEP Scores to Call for More Charters and Vouchers

by dianeravitch / 2d

In a thoughtful article, Matt Barnum writes in Chalkbeat that Betsy DeVos used the disappointing results of the NAEP 2019 national tests to call for her “Education Freedom” plan, which would further disinvest in public schools and divert funding from the federal government, states, and local school districts to charters and vouchers. Barnum writes: But the call for more school choice — which, alo

Weingarten on NAEP Results

24by dianeravitch / 2d

This is a strong statement by Randi Weingarten. Please note that 10% of New York City’s public school students are homeless; students in many other districts suffer trauma, including homelessness, lack of access to medical care and basic nutrition, and inadequate housing. These figures should be appended to NAEP reports in the future. AFT President Randi Weingarten’s Statement on NAEP Report Card

Nation’s Largest Coal Company Declares Bankruptcy, Will Shed Workers’ Pensions

100+by dianeravitch / 2d

Remember that Trump likes to boast of his love for “clean, beautiful” coal. Now Murray Energy is filing for bankruptcy and will shed $8 billion in pension and health-care liabilities owed to miners. NPR reports that Murray was one of Trump’s biggest funders : The Trump administration has spent three years trying to help the coal industry by rolling back environmental regulations and pushing for s

Teresa Hanafin on Today’s Depositions

by dianeravitch / 2d

Teresa Hanafin writes Fast Forward for the Boston Globe: Today’s witnesses giving depositions to the three House committees conducting the impeachment inquiry are two State Department diplomats who are experts on Ukraine: Catherine Croft and Christopher Anderson. They both worked as deputies to Kurt Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine. Both were considered stars in the department, deeply

Truth for America: A Podcast about Teach for America

by dianeravitch / 2d

Julian Vasquez Heilig, recently appointed Dean of the School of Education at the University of Kentucky, has been creating a series of podcasts about education “reform,” with particular attention to Teach for America. Please listen to this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7UCgkWzYqI&t=1115s Truth For America is a podcast about Teach For America (TFA) that provides voice to educators, parents

Founder of Brooklyn Charter Schools Fired for Essay on Anti-Intellectualism, Denounced for “White Supremacy”

33by dianeravitch / 2d

Steven Wilson, founder and CEO of the Brooklyn-based Ascend Charter Schools, was fired by the board of directors after a petition on Change.org, apparently started by students at one of the charter schools, complained that an essay he had written was racist and exemplifed “white supremacy.” Two charter-school advocates, one employed by the Walton Family Foundation, the other from the IDEA charter

NAEP 2019 Released: No Progress in Math, Reading

2Kby dianeravitch / 2d

After a generation of disruptive reforms—No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, VAM and Common Core—after a decade or more of disinvestment in education, after years of bashing and demoralizing teachers, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for 2019 shows the results: Over the past decade, there has been no progress in either mathematics or reading performance, and the lowest

Carol Burris: Center for American Progress Scrambles to Save Charter Schools

65by dianeravitch / 3d

Carol Burris notes that charter-friendly Democrats have been put in a jam since Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have announced their intention to eliminate federal funding for charter schools, which is currently $440 million a year and used by Betsy DeVos primarily to expand big corporate chains. She writes: Since Elizabeth Warren joined Bernie Sanders in calling for an end to the U.S. Depart

OCT 29

Chicago: A Message from Karen Lewis

38by dianeravitch / 3d

The Chicago Teachers Union posted the following message from its legendary leader and president emerita, Karen Lewis: Diane- When Lori ran for mayor, she gave us hope that she would represent real change in City Hall. She ran on our education platform and made a commitment to reverse years of failed policy and horrible planning by her predecessors. She inherited a system built on revolving door l

Grassroots Arkansas: ACTION ALERT, 10:30 AM Tomorrow!

21by dianeravitch / 3d

Supporters of Students, Join our students as they stay home for a “sick-out” in solidarity with our educators tomorrow, Wednesday, October 30th . If you are a caregiver of a student, you can call their absence in, and no matter who you are, you can join them at 12:45pm outside the Governor’s Office in the State Capitol, wearing red, holding supportive signs, and supporting them in their demands t

Teresa Hanafin: Trump Shills Attack New Whistleblower

by dianeravitch / 3d

Teresa Hanafin, who writes the daily Fast Forward for the Boston Globe, describes a new whistleblower and the GOP-FOX effort to smear him. There’s a major development in the House’s impeachment inquiry today: The first deposition from someone who listened in on that infamous July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — the one in which Trump pushed Zelensky to inv

Robin Lithgow: The Power of Arts Education in Settlement Houses

by dianeravitch / 3d

Robin Lithgow, retired director of arts education in the Los Angeles, blogs about the history of arts education. In this post, she reflects on the questions she wished she had asked her parents when they were alive, and her reflections lead her to learning and telling the history of arts education in settlement houses, the social service centers in densely crowded urban neighborhoods. Wouldn’t it

KIPP, IDEA Corporate Charter Chains Criticize Elizabeth Warren’s Plan to Cut Their Federal Funding

300+by dianeravitch / 3d

In her education plan, Elizabeth Warren proposed eliminating the federal Charter Schools Program. This program was started in 1994 to help jumpstart new charter schools at a time when there were fewer than 100 charter schools in the nation. Now there are 7,000. Today, the CSP has a budget of $440 million a year (which BETSY DeVos proposes to increase to $500 million a year). DeVos uses CSP as her

The Walton Family: Ungrateful Graduates of Public Schools

100+by dianeravitch / 3d

No philanthropy has spent more money to undermine and privatize public schools than the Waltons. The Waltons are the richest family in the U.S., possibly in the world, with a net worth in excess of $200 billion. The Walton Family Foundation claims credit for launching at least one of every four charter schools in the nation. The foundation aims to eliminate public education, crush teachers’ union

Rhode Island: A Frightening Tour of an Achievement First Charter School

27by dianeravitch / 4d

State Senator Sam Bell has been concerned about the punitive discipline in the no-excuses Achievement First charter schools, which is primed for a major expansion in Providence. He toured an Achievement First charter school, and his worst fears were confirmed. Please read the entire post, which I condensed. Senator Bell writes: On Friday, October 18, I toured Achievement First . It was a chilling

OCT 28

Law Professor: Impeachment Does Not Require a Crime

by dianeravitch / 4d

Trump’s defenders say that he committed no actual crime. Professor Frank O. Bowman III it the University of Missouri Law School says that the Founding Fathers debated the issue of impeachment and purposely chose language that does not require an ordinary crime (like shooting someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue, the sort of crime that Trump’s lawyers now say he can’t be prosecuted for). Bowm

Meet Jitu Brown, a Hero of the Resistances

21by dianeravitch / 4d

Jitu Brown is a son of Chicago. He is National director of the Journey for Justice Alliance, which has affiliates in 30 cities, where they work for social justice. Jitu was the driving force behind the community effort to save Dyett High school in Chicago, the last open admission high school in Bronzeville. Mayor Rahm Emanuel had decided to close Dyett, and Jitu organized a campaign to save Dyett

Beware! Charter-Friendly Group Launch Campaign to Sabotage School Board Elections

300+by dianeravitch / 4d

Suppose you are trying to decide who to vote for in your local school board election. You get a flyer in the mail from a group called “Public School Allies.” It lists three candidates. You vote for them. Surprise! You were hoaxed! “Public School Allies” is a billionaire-funded front that intervenes in local elections to support charter schools! Matt Barnum reports in Chalkbeat: The political arm

Arkansas: Cathy Frye Offers a Who’s Who of the Walton Privatization Movement

36by dianeravitch / 5d

Cathy Frye is a veteran journalist who joined the staff of the Arkansas Public Schools Resource Center as communications director for three years. She learned that APSRC was a shell organization funded by the billionaire Waltons to trick rural schools into joining the Walton crusade to eliminate public schools. In this post, Frye names names . She begins: Tonight, I am sharing a Who’s Who in the

OCT 27

Chicago: Update on Teachers’ Strike

55by dianeravitch / 5d

NEWS ADVISORY: For Immediate Release| ctulocal1.org CONTACT: Chris Geovanis, 312-329-6250 , 312-446-4939 (m) , ChrisGeovanis@ctulocal1.org Half of 1% of CPS budget stands between CTU, CPS and tentative agreement CHICAGO, Oct. 27, 2019 —CTU President Jesse Sharkey issued the following statement this evening, as CPS CEO Janice Jackson made her first appearance at the bargaining table. Right now at

Dedham Teachers Settle After 3-Day Strike

by dianeravitch / 5d

The Dedham, Massachusetts, teachers strike ended after three days. Classes resume Monday.

Darrell M. West Explains the History of the Electoral College and Why It Should Be Abolished

by dianeravitch / 5d

Darrell M. West of the Brookings Institution explains the history of the electoral college and why this antique process for choosing the president should be abolished. He begins: The framers of the Constitution set up the Electoral College for a number of different reasons. According to Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper Number 68, the body was a compromise at the Constitutional Convention in

What If States Competed Like Schools?

by dianeravitch / 5d

I read the following commentary by Bill Phillis of Ohio Coalition for Adequacy and Equity, and it gave me an idea: The HB 70-triggered chaos continues in Lorain City School District While state officials fiddle with the potential of repeal of HB 70, Lorain City School District continues to burn. The HB 70 CEO claimed and then retracted that school employees would not be paid; the Board of Educati

Valerie Strauss Interviews Historian Jack Schneider: Are Schools Unchanged for a Century?

36by dianeravitch / 5d

Journalist Valerie Strauss interviewed historian Jack Schneider. Is Betsy DeVos right to say that American public schools have not changed for a century, she asks. He answers: Not true. Betsy DeVos doesn’t know what she is talking about. Schneider says: If we could transport ourselves to a typical school of the early 20th century, the basic structural elements — desks, chalkboards, textbooks, etc

Audrey Watters: Surveillance Is Not Good for Children and Other Living Things

by dianeravitch / 6d

The surveillance state is bearing down on us, our children, our grandchildren, all of us. Audrey Watters is watching. There is money in this business.

OCT 26

Providence: State Takeover Moves at Turtle’s Pace

by dianeravitch / 6d

The Providence Journal reports on the state’s slow motion takeover of the Providence schools. No superintendent has been appointed. Meanwhile the state has placed Frances Gallo in charge of Providence as Interim Superintendent. Previously Gallo was superintendent of the state’s lowest performing district, Central Falls. Some candidates have already turned down the job.

SomeDAM Poet: First They Came for the Billionaires….

21by dianeravitch / 6d

One of our readers asserted that it was unfair to raise taxes on billionaires and alluded to the famous saying by Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller. Only he put it this way: First they came for the billionaires. Then they came for the millionaires. Then they came for those with $100,000 a year. Then they came for you. And private property was no longer permitted. That’s what socialists want. No pr

Chicago: Teachers at Charter School Win Their Strike Demands

by dianeravitch / 6d

The teachers at Passages Charter School, who belong to the Chicago Teachers Union, won their demands. Victory at Passages Charter School Educators at Passages Charter School won a tentative agreement today that enshrines in the contract key provisions that are still not settled in bargaining for educators at district-run schools. Among those are big wins on paraprofessional pay and rights as well

Anthony Cody: How to Improve Struggling Urban Schools

20by dianeravitch / 6d

Anthony Cody read the post about the collaboration between the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Center for American Progress, which are sponsoring a low-budget “moon shot for kids.” Not many (or any) of those who work at TBF or CAP have been career teachers. Anthony Cody offers his advice: I worked in the public schools of Oakland, CA, for 24 years, 18 of them as a middle school teacher of sci

Mercedes Schneider Loves Elizabeth Warren’s K-12 Education Plan

32by dianeravitch / 6d

Mercedes Schneider loves Elizabeth Warren’s plans for K-12 education. Note that in Warren’s plan, the term, “public school” means traditional public school– the neighborhood school, sufficiently supported and defended against much of the corporate ed reform attack against it. Warren’s education plan is refreshing to read, and extensive. I encourage readers to view Warren’s entire ed plan firsthan

Arizona Charter Founder Paid His Companies $46.8 Million in Taxpayer Money in One Year

200+by dianeravitch / 6d

Arizona is a swamp of charter corruption. Earlier this year, the Arizona Republic won the distinguished George Polk Award for its coverage of charter school corruption. Now star reporter Craig Harris has another blockbuster story. He reports that the founder of a charter chain paid companies he owns or co-owns nearly $47 million in the past year. American Leadership Academy, an East Valley charte

Mississippi: Pastor Speaks Out for Public Schools!

20by dianeravitch / 7d

Reverend Dawn Douglas Flowers of Madison, Mississippi, speaks out on behalf of public schools and the newly formed Pastors for MS Children. Writing in the Mississippi Business Journal, Rev. Flowers makes the moral case for funding public schools and supporting their teachers. She writes that it is time to invest in our children, our families, and our teachers. She writes: I am the product of the

Dedham, Mass.: Teachers Strike!

by dianeravitch / 7d

The teachers of Dedham, Massachusetts, voted overwhelmingly to go out on strike. DEDHAM — Hundreds of striking teachers took to the streets Friday in this suburban town, holding placards, marching with students and parents, and 

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

The common mistake Betsy DeVos made about new NAEP scores — and other problems with her ‘sky is falling’ narrative - The Washington Post

The common mistake Betsy DeVos made about new NAEP scores — and other problems with her ‘sky is falling’ narrative - The Washington Post

The common mistake Betsy DeVos made about new NAEP scores — and other problems with her ‘sky is falling’ narrative

It never fails.

Results from a standardized test deemed important to the future of education are released — and new cries ring out that “the sky is falling” in U.S. education. We heard some of that with the Wednesday release of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, which showed only two jurisdictions — the District and Mississippi — experienced big boosts in student scores.

There went Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who said in a speech (see full text below), “The numbers are reason for deep concern. This country has a student achievement crisis.”

And there went Jeanne Allen, founder and chief executive of the nonprofit Center for Education Reform, who also viewed the results as definitive proof of failure. She said in a statement: “The NAEP proficiency scores announced today should be shocking to every family, employer, and policymaker. They demonstrate that the vast majority of our nation’s education systems are simply failing to meet the very basic educational needs of American students, threatening their dreams for the future.”

NAEP, administered by an agency of the Education Department, is a set of exams sometimes referred to as “the nation’s report card” or the “gold standard” in student assessment. It is seen as the most consistent nationally representative measure of student achievement since the 1990s and is said to be able to assess what students “know and can do.”

U.S. students in the fourth and eighth grades — said to be randomly chosen at selected schools — take NAEP every two years, and high school students do so less frequently. Math and reading tests are given every other year, while assessments in science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, technology and engineering literacy, and U.S. history are administered less frequently.

NAEP results are highly anticipated in the education world and are often seen as a benchmark for progress in school systems — even though the results are often misinterpreted, as DeVos did in a speech Wednesday about the scores.

She said: “Our nation’s report card shows that two-thirds of American students can’t read at grade level. Two out of three!”

If she were being graded in score interpretation, she would flunk. NAEP doesn’t assess grade-level reading. It has its own markers of progress: NAEP Basic, NAEP Proficient and NAEP Advanced. The new results show that two-thirds of students who took the 2019 reading test did not read at the CONTINUE READING: The common mistake Betsy DeVos made about new NAEP scores — and other problems with her ‘sky is falling’ narrative - The Washington Post

Big Education Ape: NAEP Test Scores Show How Stupid We Are… To Pay Attention to NAEP Test Scores | gadflyonthewallblog - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/11/naep-test-scores-show-how-stupid-we-are.html

Big Education Ape: CURMUDGUCATION: DeVosian NAEP Nonsense - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/10/curmudgucation-devosian-naep-nonsense.html

Big Education Ape: The Big Lie about the “Science of Reading”: NAEP 2019 Edition | radical eyes for equity - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-big-lie-about-science-of-reading.html

Big Education Ape: Betsy DeVos’s formula for success: Trash public schools and push privatization – Raw Story - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/11/betsy-devoss-formula-for-success-trash.html

Big Education Ape: 2019 NAEP Scores: Achievement Gap or ...? | BustED Pencils - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/11/2019-naep-scores-achievement-gap-or.html

NAEP Test Scores Show How Stupid We Are… To Pay Attention to NAEP Test Scores | gadflyonthewallblog

NAEP Test Scores Show How Stupid We Are… To Pay Attention to NAEP Test Scores | gadflyonthewallblog

NAEP Test Scores Show How Stupid We Are… To Pay Attention to NAEP Test Scores 

Brace yourselves!

America’s NAEP test scores in 2019 stayed pretty much the same as they were in 2018!

And the media typically set its collective hair on fire trying to interpret the data.

Sometimes called the Nations Report Card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test is given to a random sampling of elementary, middle and high school students in member countries to compare the education systems of nations.

And this year there was one particular area where US kids did worse than usual!

Our scores went down in 8th grade reading!

To be honest, scores usually go up or down by about one or two points every year averaging out to about the same range.

But this year! Gulp! They went down four points!

FOUR POINTS!

What does that mean?

Absolutely nothing.

They’re standardized test scores. They’re terrible assessments of student learning.

You might as well compare the relative body temperatures of randomly selected CONTINUE READING: NAEP Test Scores Show How Stupid We Are… To Pay Attention to NAEP Test Scores | gadflyonthewallblog

2019 NAEP Scores: Achievement Gap or ...? | BustED Pencils

2019 NAEP Scores: Achievement Gap or ...? | BustED Pencils

2019 NAEP Scores: Achievement Gap or …?

Here you go:

A ‘Disturbing’ Assessment: Sagging Reading Scores, Particularly for Eighth-Graders, Headline 2019’s Disappointing NAEP Results

NAEP 2019: Reading scores drop for US students, with mixed math results

What To Make of the 2019 Results from the ”Nation’s Report Card”

DeVos Bemoans ‘Devastating’ NAEP Scores, Pushes for ‘Education Freedom’

I used GOOGLE and typed in “NAEP 2019 results.” It returned 406,000 hits. After reading a “sample” of the returns it’s obvious that:

1. Teachers are horrible people?
2. Public Schools are horrible places?
3. American children are horrible creatures?
4. Test result “porn” is a new form of clickbait?

If you picked number 4, Congratulations! Because check out the graphs below. CONTINUE READING: 2019 NAEP Scores: Achievement Gap or ...? | BustED Pencils

SFUSD Makes Plans to De-Colonize Indigenous History - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

SFUSD Makes Plans to De-Colonize Indigenous History - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

SFUSD Makes Plans to De-Colonize Indigenous History

I am so excited about the work going on in SFUSD’s Curriculum and Instruction Department! Last week, staff made a presentation to the Curriculum Committee to address curriculum and celebrations of Indigenous history in our district.

Systemic problems need systemic answers.

Over the past several years, many educators have worked to de-colonize social-studies instruction in SFUSD. That said this work has never been done at a systemic, district-wide level.

This year we have seen a lot of positive changes in district leadership: including our district’s new Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, Enikia Ford-Morthel, to our new Chief Academic Officer, Nicole Priestly, to the composition of the Board of Education itself. My colleagues and I are among a new cadre of Commissioners committed to cultural visibility for all communities. As a parent, I feel our district is finally moving “beyond the talk” to take on the work of removing harmful narratives about Native American and Indigenous people from textbooks, classroom walls, and school celebrations.

For far too long, our district has talked “equity” yet failed to take action to address systemic aspects of white supremacy culture in our curriculum. This is finally changing.

When I first I began teaching over twenty years ago, there were other AMAZING educators leading the way. Teachers 4 Social Justice is an organization that has been “doing the work” for decades. Over the past several years, #EthnicStudies educators have also been supporting this work with interested CONTINUE READING: SFUSD Makes Plans to De-Colonize Indigenous History - SF PUBLIC SCHOOL MOM

Betsy DeVos’s formula for success: Trash public schools and push privatization – Raw Story

Betsy DeVos’s formula for success: Trash public schools and push privatization – Raw Story

Betsy DeVos’s formula for success: Trash public schools and push privatization

When U.S Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos discussed the results from the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, she described them as “devastating” and part of a worsening crisis in education.

The results showed a slight decline in reading scores and a flattening in math scores.

She noted that two out of three of the nation’s children aren’t proficient in reading. She also decried as ineffective the US$1 trillion in federal spending on education over the past 40 years, saying it has done nothing to stop the widening gap between the highest and lowest performing students.

“We cannot abide these poor results any longer,” DeVos stated. “We can neither excuse them away nor simply throw more money at the problem.”

As an education scholar, here are several issues that I see with DeVos’ take on the state of American education.

1. DeVos continues to trash public education

DeVos’s comments are part of a long-running critique of American primary and secondary school education.

“This country is in a student achievement crisis, and over the past decade it has continued to worsen, especially for our most vulnerable students,” DeVos stated.

In this, the education secretary follows a long line of critics – from former secretaries of education William J. Bennett and Margaret Spellings to author George H. Smith – who see American schooling as a shambles, dating back to the famous 1983 “A Nation at Risk” report, which criticized mediocre academic performance as being akin to an “act of war.”

2. DeVos uses test scores to push her privatization agenda

DeVos uses the “student achievement crisis” turned up by the latest national test scores to urge support for alternatives to public K-12 education. For instance, when she spoke about “expanding education freedom,” she is alluding to greater support for voucher systems and CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos’s formula for success: Trash public schools and push privatization – Raw Story

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Honored By Prominent Dominionist Group

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Honored By Prominent Dominionist Group

DeVos Honored By Prominent Dominionist Group

Dominionism argues that the US should be a literal Christian nation, its government run by Christians. It comes in varying degrees of severity, with varying amounts of nationalism mixed in. One of the major proponents of American (i.e. US) dominionism was D. James Kennedy, a minister and broadcaster in Florida. Sample quote: To be a true Christian citizen means to "take dominion over all things as vice-regents of God." Or there's this one:

Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors—in short, over every aspect and institution of human society.

Kennedy has done some whacky things, like teaming up with Roy Moore to turn the Ten Commandments into a cause celebre. He also created the D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship, located in DC and dedicated to helping the Right Kind of Believers take their place in government. They offer leadership training with three weeks of intensive training that covers both the theology and the ins-and-outs of federal government.

As God’s special revelation to humanity, the Bible is the authoritative source on how we ought to live personally and in society. In a rapidly-changing world of moral ambiguity, a worldview based on CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos Honored By Prominent Dominionist Group

Delegates Assembly of Chicago Teachers Union Ends Strike, Agrees to New Contract | janresseger

Delegates Assembly of Chicago Teachers Union Ends Strike, Agrees to New Contract | janresseger

Delegates Assembly of Chicago Teachers Union Ends Strike, Agrees to New Contract

The beloved former president of the Chicago Teachers Union who has been sidelined by a brain tumor, Karen Lewis released a statement on Tuesday night to urge Chicago’s new mayor, Lori Lightfoot, to find a way to resolve the then nine-day teachers’ strike. Lewis concluded her statement with the words of Frederick Douglass: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will.”

The primary issues underneath the recent Chicago teachers’ strike, tentatively ended around midnight on Wednesday, were shockingly inadequate services for children and two decades of the disempowerment of school teachers in Chicago. To fully ratify the agreement, all 25,000 members of of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) must vote within ten days.

Just as teachers’ strikes in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona, Los Angeles and Oakland publicly exposed deplorable conditions in underfunded public schools and in school districts where sizeable portions of the budgets have been diverted to charter schools, Chicago’s strike focused on the conditions in which Chicago’s teachers are forced to teach and their students are expected to learn.

The Chicago strike was never really about teachers’ pay.  Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot initially offered teachers a 16 percent raise over five years, and the teachers eventually accepted that offer. Some people criticized teachers, because Lightfoot’s original offer seemed generous. So why did they strike?

You have only to look at what teachers—in the final contract—accepted as an improvement in school staffing to grasp the deficient conditions Chicago’s leaders have ignored during years of austerity and disruptive corporate school reform.  From the Chicago Sun-Times: “The union received a guarantee that there will be a full-time dedicated nurse and social worker in every school by July 2023 with staffing ramping up from now till then. On class size, a new joint CONTINUE READING: Delegates Assembly of Chicago Teachers Union Ends Strike, Agrees to New Contract | janresseger

Charter Apologists Make Trumpian Claim Regarding “Hidden” Data Not Part Of CA’s School Dashboard – redqueeninla

Charter Apologists Make Trumpian Claim Regarding “Hidden” Data Not Part Of CA’s School Dashboard – redqueeninla

Charter Apologists Make Trumpian Claim Regarding “Hidden” Data Not Part Of CA’s School Dashboard

The astroturf groups ParentRevolution and SpeakUp are flooding social media of late with their PR-honed contention that opposing LAUSD charter-advocacy-backed members Nick Melvoin’s and Kelly Gonez’ School Performance Framework (“SPF”), is “hiding” data from parents.

What sort of double-speak nonsense is it to claim that full access to direct data unencumbered by crazy data manipulation, is “hiding” data? Just publishing the data, as directed by boardmember Jackie Goldberg’s alternate resolution, is the complete opposite of “hiding” it. “Hiding data” is in fact precisely what the market-based Education-reform, charter-school ideologues are advancing when they claim manipulated data is more true than the data itself.

This highly-vaunted “growth data” they crusade for is a variant of the data manipulation enlisted by the same legions of “quants” arguing how best to maximize their personal stock portfolio. It is math (technically, algebra) weaponized for maximizing personal earnings. Not yours, not mine, and not students’ educational assets either. This is a neoliberal game for those who are investing in education as a privatized asset:  financiers and charter school advocates.

What actually is “growth data”? 

It is a tool of social science, comparing “apples to oranges” by employing a statistical technique to adjust for what is integrally different about the fruits, leaving a debatably residual “direct” comparison. 

The claim is made, for example, that if an apple tree were shaded and an orange tree grown in full sunlight, a better comparison of their “true” relative growth CONTINUE READING: Charter Apologists Make Trumpian Claim Regarding “Hidden” Data Not Part Of CA’s School Dashboard – redqueeninla

Big Education Ape: See how closely Ohio school report card grades trend with district income - cleveland.com - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2019/09/see-how-closely-ohio-school-report-card.html

“Breaking the Rules,” Can School Districts and Teacher Unions Collaborate to Encourage Innovative Educational Practices at the School Level? | Ed In The Apple

“Breaking the Rules,” Can School Districts and Teacher Unions Collaborate to Encourage Innovative Educational Practices at the School Level? | Ed In The Apple

“Breaking the Rules,” Can School Districts and Teacher Unions Collaborate to Encourage Innovative Educational Practices at the School Level?

Education is rules-driven: state laws and regulations, school district policies and school level compliance monitoring; “faux-innovation” is implementing an innovation mandated from the aeries of leadership, lockstep “innovation” is the goal of school systems.

Over the decades schools “innovated,” quietly, in the teacher rooms of schools. I worked in a large urban high school, over 200 teachers. The Social Studies Assistant Principal left and we asked the principal to allow us to “elect” a teacher to lead the department. He smiled, “We’ll try it,” we wrote bylaws, we elected a steering committee; we set up an alternative to formal supervisory observations (Teacher A observed B who observed C who observed A within a week). Teachers observed each other, met, asked pre-agreed upon questions; the notes of the meeting were in lieu of a formal observation. A couple of years later the supervisory union (CSA) complained, the principal left, our innovation disappeared.

The New York City teacher union (UFT) negotiated a school-based option clause in the 90’s,

A School-Based Option (SBO) allows staff at a school the ability to collaboratively modify contractual articles or to create positions not automatically allowed under the contract.

The UFT and the Board of Education agreed upon a new teacher transfer plan to replace the seniority plan, applicants were interviewed at the school level by a CONTINUE READING: “Breaking the Rules,” Can School Districts and Teacher Unions Collaborate to Encourage Innovative Educational Practices at the School Level? | Ed In The Apple

Seattle Schools Community Forum: A Conversation about HCC (Let's Listen In)

Seattle Schools Community Forum: A Conversation about HCC (Let's Listen In)

A Conversation about HCC (Let's Listen In)

Now to the conversation last weekend at the Central Area Residents Against Violence Facebook page about HCC.  I am teasing out parts of the conversation but you can go to the page and read everything.

As I mentioned, it involved ALTF member, Kari O'Driscoll who seems to be quite confident in her ability to speak for the Task Force and use the current smackdown method to tamp discussion.  Meaning, if she doesn't agree with your points, she'll just use put-down language to try to either make the speaker feel bad about themselves and/or show other readers what will happen to them if they have a differing viewpoint.  This came to me via a reader:

In a CA-RAV FB page weekend discussion of the ST (Seattle Times) What's Next?/Gifted Programs article, ALTF member Kari O'Driscoll smacks down as racist and privileged what I thought was a thoughtful and considerate post by a Seattle dad on his family's frustrations with SPS that led them to seek private. He pointed out that his family was Asian who have also suffered discrimination and she dismisses his perspective outright:

"Black folks are treated as a monoculture in this country. Asian folks are not. Period."

A lot to unpack there but I frankly don't have much to say except that in this district, it is currently the opposite of that.  I mean the new racial designation form has one place for "Asian" but for Blacks, it has multiple identities.

There was also this comment:

It should also be noted that most discussions of HCC tend to ignore CONTINUE READING: Seattle Schools Community Forum: A Conversation about HCC (Let's Listen In)

Thurmond & Newsom Visit School Impacted by Outage - Year 2019 (CA Dept of Education)

Thurmond & Newsom Visit School Impacted by Outage - Year 2019 (CA Dept of Education)

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond Joins Governor Gavin Newsom in Visit with Educators and Students Impacted by PG&E's Public Safety Power Shutoffs

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond joined California Governor Gavin Newsom this morning at Blue Oak Elementary School in Shingle Springs to meet with administrators, teachers, and students impacted by PG&E’s Public Safety Power Shutoff. The school took incredible measures to stay open during the outage, such as using lanterns and manual student tracking and communications and having dedicated fire watch staff due to disabled fire alarms.

Thurmond commended the school’s resilience. “In the face of these unexpected power outages, your school staff stayed committed to keeping the doors open to your students,” Thurmond said. “I do not accept that the new normal is 10 years of power shut-offs that jeopardize the education and safety of our students and communities. What I do accept is that climate change exists. We must double down on alternative energy sources and alternative building materials for our schools and harness the brainpower of the world’s fifth largest economy to combat extreme weather conditions. We understand health and safety is at the heart of deciding to keep a school open, and I applaud the remarkable efforts by some schools to keep children in class.”

Future proposals may include rethinking the traditional school calendar and building in makeup days to deal with not only natural disasters but unplanned power outages. In addition, Governor Newsom has proposed a $15 billion bond to fund back-up generators and solar panels to keep schools open during an unforeseen power outage.

“School closures affect families differently. Some families may not be able to make arrangements to stay home with their children or have healthy meals available at home. These students may be the same students that need school the most,” Thurmond said. “We are working closely with Governor Newsom and other partners to ensure we provide these critical services to the families of California.”

Impacted schools or expanded and early learning care programs can contact the CDE Emergency Services Team at EmergencyServices@cde.ca.gov for further assistance.

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Last Reviewed: Thursday, October 31, 2019

Thurmond & Newsom Visit School Impacted by Outage - Year 2019 (CA Dept of Education)

Chicago Teachers Strike Ends! Weingarten Explains What Happened | Diane Ravitch's blog

Chicago Teachers Strike Ends! Weingarten Explains What Happened | Diane Ravitch's blog

Chicago Teachers Strike Ends! Weingarten Explains What Happened

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten Congratulates Chicago Teachers Union

WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in response to the news that the Chicago Teachers Union, AFT Local 1, reached a return-to-work agreement with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and will return to classes tomorrow:

“More than 20 years ago, in 1995, educators in Chicago were stripped of their right to bargain, and with that, they lost their voice to influence their students’ learning conditions and their own teaching conditions. As a result, Chicago’s students—particularly students of color and students with special needs—lost out on so many things they needed in schools, including losing many of the neighborhood public schools themselves. This contract is the culmination of a generational struggle to make up those losses. The members and leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union have taken on these inequities and fought for the conditions our kids need and the respect our educators deserve. With this agreement, if ratified, they’re one giant step closer

.

“This historic fight for what students deserve—nurses and counselors in every school, librarians, class-size caps, and additional investments in special education—represents a paradigm shift: It wasn’t simply a fight to mitigate the damage of austerity, it was a fight to create the conditions that both students and educators need. This strike, like so many other fights to fund our future, is about building the political will to strengthen our public schools so all kids have their shot at success.

“We thank the Chicago community for standing with us and are glad Mayor Lightfoot heard us. We congratulate CTU’s leadership, its bargaining team and every member it represents for the work they did and continue to do. I saw their commitment to this fight and their students at every picket line and rally I joined. I want to thank CTU President Jesse Sharkey and Vice President Stacy Davis-Gates for their incredible leadership.

“Together with SEIU Local 73 and every parent, student and ally who stood with CTU Local 1—including our state affiliate, the Illinois Federation of Teachers—we know this: We have helped make Chicago’s public schools safe, welcoming sanctuaries of learning, and we have shown an entire nation that when we fight together, we win.”    CONTINUE WINNING: Chicago Teachers Strike Ends! Weingarten Explains What Happened | Diane Ravitch's blog

2019 Medley #21 | Live Long and Prosper

2019 Medley #21 | Live Long and Prosper

2019 Medley #21

RETENTION HURTS CHILDREN

The Haunted Third Grade Classrooms Children Fear: Enter and… Stay Forever!

It’s time again for another article dealing with retention…complete with references.

In-grade retention doesn’t work. More often than not it harms students psychologically and emotionally, increases the chances of students dropping out, and doesn’t improve achievement. Yet we continue to do it in order to appease the gods of “test and punish.”

I’ve also collected dozens of articles, research articles, blog posts, and position papers on retention-in-grade, the vast majority of which document the damage done by this outdated and abusive practice.

Students who have academic struggles, but who move on, do better in the long run. Students who are retained might seem to do better at first, but they drop back to having difficulties later. Many students who are retained go on to drop out of school.

THE MYTH OF AMERICA’S FAILING SCHOOLS – LOW TEST SCORES

While I Wasn’t Paying Attention……

In a long, rambling blog post, John Merrow touches on a variety of topics. I disagree with one area he discussed in which he talks about how American CONTINUE READING: 2019 Medley #21 | Live Long and Prosper