Harvard Law and Policy Review » Exploring the Root Causes of Atlanta Public Schools’ Cheating Scandal

Harvard Law and Policy Review » Exploring the Root Causes of Atlanta Public Schools’ Cheating Scandal

Exploring the Root Causes of Atlanta Public Schools’ Cheating Scandal

Submitted by Billy Corriher on August 1, 2011 – 8:30 am2 Comments

The Atlanta Public Schools (APS) system has been rocked by a cheating scandal involving 178 teachers and administrators. A report from the state of Georgia found cheating on standardized tests at 44 schools. Teachers held weekend “erasure” parties, during which they changed students’ answers. The state concluded that the system kept the cheating under wraps through “a culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation.”

The report says the primary cause was “the pressure to meet targets in the data-driven environment.” The state found that cheating began in 2002, when the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) were imposed. Some commenters also blamed our increasing reliance on standardized tests to

Rep. Charles Rangel: Investing in Our Youths

Rep. Charles Rangel: Investing in Our Youths

Rep. Charles Rangel: Investing in Our Youths

by Rep. Charles Rangel

Now that we have managed to avert a catastrophic financial disaster and the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling has been raised, we have to concentrate on the untold crisis of youth unemployment. While the nation gained over 117,000 jobs in the past month, teenage unemployment rate is at a historic high of 25%. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has recently taken the lead to make sure that we do not lose our talented youth to the hopelessness of unemployment. It's time to devote the same amount of energy we spent on raising the debt ceiling into investing in our youths to help America get back to work and become more competitive.

America can't succeed in the future when our children, especially minority youths, aren't given the tools and the chances necessary to thrive in today's global economy. Young people have been hit hardest in the current financial downturn and

DFER endorses three in DPS races | EdNewsColorado

DFER endorses three in DPS races | EdNewsColorado

DFER endorses three in DPS races

by Charlie Brennan

Democrats for Education Reform-Colorado Friday endorsed three candidates in the Denver Public Schools board election that is being seen by some as a referendum on district reform policies.

The group endorsed Happy Haynes in the crowded contest for the open at-large seat, Anne Rowe in southeast Denver’s District 1 and Jennifer Draper Carson in District 5 in the district’s northwest corner.

Rowe is expected to face Emily Sirota, and Carson is seeking to unseat incumbent Arturo Jimenez. (All candidates have to turn in sufficient petition signatures to get on the November ballot.)

DFER is a well-financed New York-based political action committee with branches in 10 states, including

Daily Kos: I wonder if they're scared?

Daily Kos: I wonder if they're scared?

I wonder if they're scared?

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

Let me explain. A number of us have been trying to draw attention to the New Apostolic Reformation, the somewhat shadowy group that is very much behind the prayer event tomorrow at which Governor Rick Perry of Texas is expected to announce his candidacy for the Presidency. This group is more than a little scary, which makes Perry's involvement with them potentially equally scary.

As part of our efforts, some of us have been tweeting about. Today I tweeted. Within 5 minute of that tweet going live, I got the following in my email, a notification from Twitter:

School Tech Connect: Watching A Train Wreck

School Tech Connect: Watching A Train Wreck

Watching A Train Wreck

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim)

This isn't the clip I meant to render tonight--- I'm really working on the clip where Jim Crown details the contribution program that I find to be worthy of an investigation by the Justice Department.

Anyway, I couldn't resist. There's something about his voice that just hypnotizes me. When America finally has no Social Security or Medicare, and when we've come down to just pushing poor people off the continent in leaky rafts, someone just like Jonah will dispassionately explain how he achieved it, and how he

Chris Rock at President Obama’s Bday « Continuing Change

Chris Rock at President Obama’s Bday but missed the Save our Schools March in DC? Come on, Chris, that ain’t right… next time, hang with Matt Damon at the SOS March.. « Continuing Change

« No Schools Left Behind ??? Really ?? Check the data… things that make you say hmmmm… Florida charter schools ?

Chris Rock at President Obama’s Bday but missed the Save our Schools March in DC? Come on, Chris, that ain’t right… next time, hang with Matt Damon at the SOS March..

August 5, 2011 by gatorbonbc

Rate This

Chris Rock, really? Come on Chris… you should have been at the Save our Schools March on Sat instead…

CA Superintendent's Supplemental Materials Review - Curriculum Frameworks & Instructional Materials (CA Dept of Education)

Superintendent's Supplemental Materials Review - Curriculum Frameworks & Instructional Materials (CA Dept of Education)

CTA 2011 Summer Institute Presentations on the Common Core State Standards delivered as part of the California Teachers Association (CTA) 2011 Summer Institute held at the University of California at Los Angeles on August 2, 2011.

Superintendent's Supplemental Materials Review The Superintendent has invited publishers of state-adopted programs in mathematics and language arts to submit supplemental instructional materials that bridge the gap between their exisiting programs and the CCSS.

Grade Level Curriculum *A Look at Kindergarten through Grade Six in California Public Schools* is a compilation of subject -matter curriculum, including information about the Common Core State Standards, organized by individual grade levels.

Rejuvination « Outside the Cave

Rejuvination « Outside the Cave

Rejuvination

by Stephen Lazar

I must admit, I left the SOS March tired: of division, fighting, the fight, politics, and of people whose only interest in education is abstract, political, or both. I was ready to start sitting out the current education wars while I hone my craft, believing full well that the current popular interest in deforming education will wane, and that at some point in my career, be it 5, 10 or 20 years down the line, there would be an opportunity for real change that actually benefits students.

It was probably a good thing, then, that I didn’t come home after the march. Instead, I took a pit stop at Swarthmore College, where for the past week, along with sixteen other brilliant and passionate educators, I participated in an institute on teacher leadership in all its many forms led by professors of education from around the northeast. Leaving that experience and finally making it home, I cannot remember the last time I felt such

Ask LAUSD and UTLA IF THE REAL DAVID LYELL WILL PLEASE STAND UP - Perdaily.com

Ask LAUSD and UTLA IF THE REAL DAVID LYELL WILL PLEASE STAND UP (Pregunte LAUSD y UTLA si el verdadero Lyell DAVID SE favor ponerse de pie) - Perdaily.com

Ask LAUSD and UTLA IF THE REAL DAVID LYELL WILL PLEASE STAND UP (Pregunte LAUSD y UTLA si el verdadero Lyell DAVID SE favor ponerse de pie)

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)

David Lyell's political aspiration are his exclusive motivation. The well-being of his fellow teachers has nothing to do with anything he says or does. Before David ran for UTLA Secretary, he blogged for me at perdaily to advance his candidacy, while doing the same at NYC teachers, and anywhere else he could to promote himself, his career, and his candidacy for UTLA Secretary - his first step toward the political career he so covets - think LAUSD Board member Jose Huizar for a comparable plan. Predictably, after being pursued for access to perdaily and other sites where I blog, II haven't heard much from David since his election. I

Big business of school reform

The Charlotte Post - Big business of school reform

Big business of school reform

Critics blast foundations in setting standards

Published Thursday, August 4, 2011 10:34 am

by Sommer Brokaw>

Critics of public school “reform” say that it looks too much like a business model with education foundations that have big wallets taking control away from local communities.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, along with his wife, Melinda Gates, founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which had an endowment of $33.5 billion as of 2009. The foundation is “driven by the passions and the interests of the Gates family,” with an education goal to expand educational opportunities and access to information

States to feds: Get us out of 'No Child Left Behind'

States to feds: Get us out of 'No Child Left Behind'

|More Print

11:57 AM, August 5, 2011 ι Abby W. Schachter

Since the reauthorization of the current education law -- No Child Left Behind -- is being delayed in Congress, more and more states are begging the Obama education department to grant them waivers from what are increasingly difficult standards to achieve . Over time, NCLB standards get more and more rigorous. Every year more and more schools are failing those standards. And rather than admit that public schools around the country are failing to teach reading and math, the state education authorities are asking Education Secretary Arne Duncan to let them out of the law. "States have complained that escalating benchmarks for pupil performance in the current version of the law — described by Duncan as a “slow-motion train wreck” — would force them to classify hundreds of additional schools

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/capitol/states_behind_feds_get_us_out_of_pbwVeecWqF5wYvJypWmA5L#ixzz1UBOpL26j

Can most USA families afford to pay for their children's school lunches?

Can most USA families afford to pay for their children's school lunches?

Sacramento : CA : USA | Aug 04, 2011

BY AnneHart

10

VIEWS: 260

1 of 1

US President Barack Obama speaks as First Lady Michelle Obama looks on before signing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act

Many families can't afford to pay for school lunches & don't take time to pack healthy food for kids. Back-to-school means that the average parent may not be able to afford to pay for school lunches for children, particularly if they have several children. In Sacramento's San Juan school district, if you have a child in elementary school, a child in middle school, and a child in high school, that means each day you pay for each child's lunch $3.25 for your middle school child and $3.25 for your high-school age child. School lunch prices rising but you won't see kids taken on field trips from farm to factory to see how school lunches are processed

Then you have to pay $2.75 for your elementary school child. So, an average family with three kids needs to have a school lunch plan. Either the school has a system where many children in one family can eat cheaper or you pay for each child daily, which the

Education Research Report: Critical Contributions: Philanthropic Investment in Teachers and Teaching

Education Research Report: Critical Contributions: Philanthropic Investment in Teachers and Teaching

Critical Contributions: Philanthropic Investment in Teachers and Teaching

Teacher effectiveness is widely regarded as “what matters most” in fostering improved learning and better student outcomes. Organized philanthropy recognizes this and has made strengthening instruction a priority for years. A prominent effort currently underway is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) initiative. In total, six school districts are participating in the MET initiative, and the Foundation has invested over $335 million in it. Other foundations have also made significant commitments to improving teacher effectiveness recently including the Ford, Joyce, Stuart Foundations, Carnegie Corporation and scores of other funders of all sizes and types across the nation.

Critical Contributions: Philanthropic Investment in Teachers and Teaching, prepared by a team of researchers from Kronley & Associates and the University of Georgia, examines recent foundation activity to improve instruction and offers an in-depth review of grantmaking in the 2000s. A key finding of the report was the magnitude of philanthropic investment in strengthening teacher quality—between 2000 and 2008, $684 million was directed toward teachers and teaching. Half of this funding came from a group of ten foundations. Similarly much of it—60 percent—was directed to just twenty organizations. With $213 million in identified grants, Teach for America captured more than any other organization working on matters related to teachers and teaching.

Testing, cheating, learning and failing

Testing, cheating, learning and failing

• HOME
• ERASUREGATE
• WHO IS RHEE?
• WHERE IS RHEE?
• TAKE ACTION!
• RSS

Written by Fannie Flono for the Charlotte Observer. Read the entire article here.
“Recent reports that a whopping 178 Atlanta Public School teachers and principals – 82 of whom have confessed – took part in cheating has grabbed the headlines. Now Philadelphia has taken the spotlight. An investigation is under way after a state study showed 89 schools across the state, including 28 in the city, had been flagged for questionable gains on test scores.

But these high-profile cases are only the tip of the iceberg. For more than a decade, charges of test cheating have dogged cities and states nationwide. Among them? Washington, D.C., Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Texas as well as Pennsylvania and Georgia. …

More recently, the tenure of highly-touted reformer Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of Washington, D.C., schools, has been tainted by charges of test fraud. Reports earlier this year said more than half of D.C. elementary schools showed evidence of adult tampering with