Time to end standardized testing mania by Joseph A. Ricciotti - Wait What?

Time to end standardized testing mania by Joseph A. Ricciotti - Wait What?:

Time to end standardized testing mania by Joseph A. Ricciotti

Joseph A. Ricciotti is a retired education and fellow public education advocate and commentator.  His latest article, Time to end standardized testing mania first appeared in the CT Post.

Joseph Ricciotti writes;

It took the power of parents in the nation as part of the “opt out” of standardized testing movement to realize that the use of standardized tests in public education is a dismal failure.

Needless to say, to hear the President of the United States shift his views on standardized testing should now prompt other politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, to give up the notion that testing can be used to assess students, teachers and schools.

Moreover, the change in the stifling use of standardized tests as a weapon against public school teachers will deal a deadly blow to the corporate education reformers in the country who relied on these tests for denigrating teachers as well as for closing public schools and for the expansion of charter schools.

Hopefully, President Obama’s change of heart concerning testing might also be the catalyst to elevate this issue for the current presidential campaign.

For example, in light of the early endorsement given to Hillary Clinton by 

Time to end standardized testing mania by Joseph A. Ricciotti - Wait What?:

The Investment (A Message To New Jersey Teachers) | The Jose Vilson

The Investment (A Message To New Jersey Teachers) | The Jose Vilson:

The Investment (A Message To New Jersey Teachers)

Last week, I got to address the New Jersey Education Association about a number of different issues, but I need to leave this one note here for posterity. Here’s a remixed, written-out version of the remarks I made at the NJEA Convention. The intent of the message, and many of its controversial pieces, remain intact unapologetically. There’ll be video soon, and I’ll share it a.s.a.p.

I’d like to talk about the idea of investment, and what it means to pay into the work we do as a union. The Supreme Court handed Governor Chris Christie a victory recently in asserting that the current pension structure is unenforceable, paving the way for him to restructure the pension system as he pleases. We have every right to protest unfair pension regulations, along with overemphasis on standardized testing and lack of resources. It should make anyone who pays into their pensions, The Investment (A Message To New Jersey Teachers) | The Jose Vilson:

NYC Public School Parents: Fred Smith on the Common Core: Show me the evidence!

NYC Public School Parents: Fred Smith on the Common Core: Show me the evidence!:

 Fred Smith on the Common Core: Show me the evidence!

Fred Smith is an expert on testing and a critical voice on the flaws in the Common Core standards and the state exams.  His testimony to the Governor's Common Core task force is below. The presentation given by Lisa Rudley to the Common Core task force, co-founder of NYSAPE, that Fred refers to is well worth watching and is posted here.

Statement to the Common Core Task Force–LaGuardia Community College

Fred Smith – Nov. 6, 2015

Good afternoon. My name is Fred Smith. I served as a testing specialist and analyst for the New York City public school system and retired after 33 years. I’m a member of Change the Stakes, a parent awareness group that has spearheaded the steadily growing opt-out movement in New York City. 

Thank you for giving me time to present concerns about the quality of the tests aligned with the Common Core and the State Education Department’s unwillingness to provide information about the tests to parents and independent researchers.

But first I want to acknowledge the significance of Assemblywoman Nolan in these proceedings and in shaping whatever positive outcomes the Task Force may produce, if it hopes to restore rationality to education. As a respected legislator and Chair of the Assembly Education Committee, she is its preeminent member and must be the voice of the task force.

I attended its first public meeting last week in New Rochelle and was taken by Lisa Rudley’s presentation about the imposition of the Common Core Standards over the last few years and all the testing and anxiety it has brought down on students and teachers. Lisa is a parent advocate and a founder of New York State Allies for Public Education, a galvanizing force in last April’s statewide boycott of the testing program.

She set a tone that said We, the People, are tired of yet another task force. She asked what research had been done to show the efficacy of NYC Public School Parents: Fred Smith on the Common Core: Show me the evidence!:

Nancy Cauthen on the Common Core: stop experimenting on my children and other people's kids!

Here is the testimony of Nancy Cauthen to the Governor's Common Core Task Force on Friday.  Nancy is a public school parent, a member of Change the Stakes and NY State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE), and a sociologist.

My name is Nancy Cauthen and I’ve been a NYC public school parent since 2002, the year No Child Left Behind went into effect. Both of my sons, who are now in high school, attended a traditional K-8 school in Washington Heights in Manhattan.

Having had the opportunity to watch No Child Left Behind and then Race to the Top unfold, my first point to the task force is this:  I urge you to consider your charge in the context of the long process that got us here. This grand experiment with high-stakes testing and now Common Core has been going on for a long time.

Yet, instead of research or evidence, this experiment has been based on: (1) a hyped narrative about the “failure of public education”;  (2) the personal beliefs about “what works” on the part of rich and powerful people, like Bill Gates and David Coleman, who lack the qualifications to make education policy; (3) simple attributions of causality, such as “bad teachers create bad academic outcomes”; and (4) a blatant disregard for the expertise of educators and of decades of research on early childhood and how to ameliorate the effects of poverty on school performance.

I say this in part as a political sociologist who studies public policy and researches strategies to reduce child and family poverty and increase opportunity. But as a public school parent, I am sick and tired of federal, state, and local politicians and officials experimenting on my children http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2015/11/nancy-cauthen-on-common-core-stop.html

Micah Ali, President of the Compton Unified School, Compton students, teachers file suit for 'complex trauma' - Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC

Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC:

Compton students, teachers file suit for 'complex trauma'

Compton students, teachers file suit for 'complex trauma'

A provocative lawsuit playing out in Compton could have nationwide implications on if complex trauma could be classified as a disability under federal law. Kathryn Eidmann, Staff Attorney at Public Counsel, Pedro Noguera from UCLA and Dr. Robert Ross...

Duration: 9:35

Lawsuit takes aim at Compton school district

A lawsuit filed by a group of five students and three teachers against a school district in Compton, California would force the district to provide staff training and broaden mental health services. Micah Ali, President of the Compton Unified School...

Duration: 6:25

Micah Ali, President of the Compton Unified School

Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC:

5 Famous Billionaires Dismantling Black Public Schools

5 Famous Billionaires Dismantling Black Public Schools:

How These 5 Famous Billionaires Are Dismantling Black Public Schools

The biggest racists in the US aren’t running around with white hoods and burning crosses. They’re running Fortune 500 companies and burning public school systems across the country in favor of privately-run, publicly-funded charter schools.

While none of the famous billionaires on this list are dues-paying members of racist groups, they’re engaging in actions that prey on the linchpins of the black community — public K-12 schools. Education reform by itself isn’t overtly racist, but when looking at the actions of these billionaires with a wider lens, it becomes apparent that the effort to privatize public education is primarily taking place in minority communities.

The charter school movement is particularly insidious, as it’s essentially a form of institutionalized racism veiled in altruism. In reference to the charter takeover of the New Orleans, Louisiana school district, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch put it this way:

“These heavy-handed tactics require a suspension of democracy that would not be tolerated in a white suburb, but can be done to powerless urban districts where the children are black and Hispanic,” Ravitch told In These Times. “That model requires firing all the teachers, no matter their performance, allowing them to reapply for a job, and replacing many of them with inexperienced TFA recruits. That model requires wiping out public schools and replacing them with privately managed schools that set their own standards for admission, discipline, expulsion, and are financially opaque.”

While charter schools have lately been able to brag on themselves as reports tout their higher test scores in math and reading compared to public schools, these studies leave out the fact that many charters refuse to help struggling children and instead dump them into public schools, in order to boost their own statistics. According to NY Chalkbeat, charter schools in New York City suspended 11 percent of students during the 2011-2012 school year, while public schools suspended just 4.2 percent. In fact, 11 NYC charter schools suspended as many as 30 percent of students that year. The charter suspension rate is likely higher, as charters don’t have to report in-school suspension rates.

The push for more charter schools isn’t based on a desire to better educate kids, but for the more mundane purpose of higher corporate profit. As the Washington Post pointed out, charter schools, on average, don’t do any better or worse when compared side-by-side with their public counterparts. In fact, if one were to replace the erroneous invisible “composite” public school student that Stanford University used in their report comparing charter and public school test scores with actual public school students, the results would likely be in favor of public schools.

So why the push for privately-run, publicly-funded charter schools?

The model of education reform is threefold — first, corporate education “reformers” push for “Common Core” standards by 5 Famous Billionaires Dismantling Black Public Schools:

Peg with Pen: Competency = Sheeple: My comment on EdSurge

Peg with Pen: Competency = Sheeple: My comment on EdSurge:

Competency = Sheeple: My comment on EdSurge

Learn anything anywhere, you say? 

Not so much. The learning you describe is clearly confined to the "efficiency" that comes with the pared-down learning found via online modules that must gather data ever so efficiently in order to meet the demands of the market - NOT the demands of learners. In essence, what you are describing is a dumbed-down education system that is void of real, authentic messy learning that comes with democratic thinking among children and teachers - a democratic curriculum that is derived by watching and observing children and determining how to best support them using their strengths and their passions. 

This sort of learning (via modules) ultimately creates sheeple - learning is directed by the modules Peg with Pen: Competency = Sheeple: My comment on EdSurge:

NYC Public School Parents: Class Size Matters Testimony on the need to fundamentally revamp the Common Core and aligned exams

NYC Public School Parents: Class Size Matters Testimony on the need to fundamentally revamp the Common Core and aligned exams:

Class Size Matters Testimony on the need to fundamentally revamp the Common Core and aligned exams

Below is the testimony that my assistant, Miho, gave  on behalf of Class Size Matters at the Cuomo Common Core Task Force listening tour in Queens on Friday.  I will be posting the testimony of others at the event as well.  For an account of this event as well as her testimony, see Katie Lapham's blog, Critical Classrooms.   See also the Daily News and Perdido St. blog, which also features descriptions of Friday's hearings in the rest of the state. It appears that outside NYC, the testimony on the Common Core has been overwhelmingly negative, as the poll numbers indicate as well, with voters saying the standards have worsened education in the state two to one.  In NYC, the pro-Common Core contingent has mainly featured hired guns from the astroturf organizations that are funded by the Gates and Walton Foundations, including Educators for Excellence, Students First and High Achievement NY. 

Testimony of Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters

On the need to revamp the Common Core  

November 6, 2015

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.  My name is Miho Watabe; and I am giving this testimony on behalf of Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters, a citywide advocacy group devoted to providing information on the benefits of smaller classes to parents and others nationwide.

As you will surely hear from many people today, the Common Core exams and cut scores are inherently faulty, unreliable and designed to show that the vast majority of students across the state are failing, when they are not.  The NYS Education Department has not been able to design a consistent, reliable state exam in at least a decade.  The Pineapple question, which we were the first to expose on the 2012 state exam, is only the most obvious of the ridiculous, ambiguous and often overly abstruse questions selected for these exams. [1] First we had years of purposeful test score inflation, and now we have had years of purposeful test score deflation.  The cut scores were devised to align with a combined score of 1630 on the SAT, instead of the 1550 mark which the College Board itself has stated indicates college readiness.[2]

Why was the Common Core designed to show the vast majority of US students and schools as failing? As the conservative commentator, Rick Hess, has explained, it was designed to facilitate the imposition of the corporate reform agenda of charter schools, and test-based teacher evaluation; to which I would add, online learning and the outsourcing of education more generally into private hands: 

“First, politicians will actually embrace the Common Core assessments and then will use them to set cut scores that suggest huge numbers of suburban schools are failing. Then, parents and community members who previously liked their schools are going to believe the assessment results rather than their own lying eyes. (In the case of NCLB, these same folks believed their eyes rather than the state tests, and questioned the validity of the latter--but the presumption is that things will be different this time.) Finally, newly convinced that their schools stink, parents and voters will embrace "reform." However, most of today's proffered remedies--including test-based teacher evaluation, efforts to move "effective" teachers to low-income schools, charter schooling, and school turnarounds--don't have a lot of fans in the suburbs or speak to the things that suburban parents are most concerned about. [3]

The Common Core standards themselves were developed in a secretive process by representatives drawn mostly from the big testing corporations, with only one classroom teacher on the math committee, and not a single teacher on ELA committee. [4] And this lack of teaching experience shows. 

Three aspects of the ELA Common Core are especially defective.  As I’m sure you have heard, they are developmentally inappropriate for children in the early grades.  In addition, the quotas for assigning informational text -- 50% in grades K-3 and 70% thereafter --are absurd, with absolutely no backing in research and potentially very harmful, requiring teachers to strip novels and plays from the curriculum.  There are many studies to show that reading literature is critical for children’s cognitive development, theory of mind and empathic abilities. [5]

Finally, I don’t know of any English teacher who believes in the “close reading” strategies that the Common Core insists on, in which the teacher cannot provide any context or background knowledge for the material that is assigned, and the student is not allowed to relate the readings to his or her own experience.  It is a technique that is designed to drain all life, relevance and interest from the experience of reading into something dry, purposeless and purely academic. [6]  If one tried hard to devise a method to destroy the love of reading in students, one could not do better than quotas for informational text and the “close reading” dogma.

We urge the Commission to take a good hard look at the Common Core’s unnatural and unsupported informational text quotas and “close reading” strategies, and delete them.

---

[1] http://www.wnyc.org/story/301545-the-lessons-of-pineapplegate/

[2]  Carol Burris was the first to expose this; see https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/29/the-scary-way-common-core-test-cut-scores-are-selected/ ; see also  https://research.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/publications/2012/7/researchreport-2011-5-sat-college-readiness-benchmark-secondary-performance.pdf

[3] http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/2012/11/the_common_core_kool-aid.html

[4] http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/11/common_core_standards_ten_colo.html

[5] See for example, http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/i-know-how-youre-feeling-i-read-chekhov/?ref=global-home&_r=0

[6] For some trenchant critiques, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/18/does-common-cores-focus-on-close-reading-make-sense/  and http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2014/01/close-reading-20.html  andhttp://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2013/09/close_reading_is_close_to_a_con.html

NYC Public School Parents: Class Size Matters Testimony on the need to fundamentally revamp the Common Core and aligned exams:

Wait, what?! Here’s just a few issues that COULD be solved with Superintendent Nyland’s $13,000 Raise. | Seattle Education

Wait, what?! Here’s just a few issues that COULD be solved with Superintendent Nyland’s $13,000 Raise. | Seattle Education:

Wait, what?! Here’s just a few issues that COULD be solved with Superintendent Nyland’s $13,000 Raise.

“My raise is not going to solve any of the issues we have on the table. I’ve done better than anyone else and I will take the smallest raise in the district as far as I know,” said Nyland.

It’s hard to believe, but Superintendent Nyland has been the head of Seattle Public Schools for a little over a year. One things for sure, it’s certainly been memorable.

Here’s some of the highlights:

Superintendent Nyland, without the consent of the school board, signed a contract with The Gates Foundation.

Another highlight was Nyland’s threat to pull the license of any teacher at Nathan Hale who refused to administer the SBAC. That nasty bit didn’t make it into Nyland’s State of the District Address. He also forgot to mention the 76.1% of SPS 11th graders who opted out of the English Language Arts test (ELA) and 80.5% juniors who refused the math portion of the SBAC. Nyland was enthusiastic about Seattle’s overall SBAC scores, even though the state board had voted over the summer to lower the cut score from 3.0 to a 2.5.

There’s also the district’s botched contract negotiations with SEA, leading to the first teacher strike in 30 years. This was followed one month later by the district Wait, what?! Here’s just a few issues that COULD be solved with Superintendent Nyland’s $13,000 Raise. | Seattle Education:

CURMUDGUCATION: TN: A Broadie Amateur Takes Over ASD

CURMUDGUCATION: TN: A Broadie Amateur Takes Over ASD:

TN: A Broadie Amateur Takes Over ASD

Imagine a hospital where the very toughest cases, the most inoperable cancers, the most stubborn infections, the most complicated reconstructive surgeries, and the most challenging diagnoses-- those are all handed over to someone who works in the personnel office and who has no medical training at all.

Now imagine that you're the state of Tennessee. You've come up with a system for identifying your most challenging and troubled schools, the schools that require the ablest educational leadership, the deepest understanding of how to make student learning happen under the most challenging of circumstances. The last person you put in charge set audacious goals for himself-- and he failed. Then he quit. On his way out the door, he said, "Hey, this turns out to be a lot harder than we thought."

And so the state of Tennessee called upon-- Malika Anderson.

Anderson has Tennessee roots, and a family background in civil rights work, from grandfather Kelly Smith (a Tennessee civil rights heavyweight with a bridge named after him in Nashville) and an aunt who was one of the first black students to integrate Nashville public schools. So when she writes, "Creating great neighborhood schools here is personal for me," we should take her seriously.

But does Malika Anderson have the qualifications to lead Tennessee's Achievement School District?

Her LinkedIn account seems to have been abandoned six years ago. But after graduating from CURMUDGUCATION: TN: A Broadie Amateur Takes Over ASD:



ICYMI: This Week's Sunday Reading

Here's some reading for your Sunday afternoon.

Jazzman-Melhorn Dialogue 



If you have not been following this discussion, here's your chance to catch up before the final round wraps up. Dmitri Melhorn made the offer to take some, um, spirited conversations off of twitter and into a greater-than-140 medium. One result has been this rigorous and data-packed discussion with Jersey Jazzman about charters. It's ballsy (in a good way) of Melhorn to guest-write for a blog that is not his home turf, and the whole exchange is a great example of how folks in the ed debates can argue humanely but without giving up an inch. Read them all:

Part I: Melhorn opens up

Part II: JJ looks at the alleged positive effects of charters. With data! And in English!

Part III: Do charters have positive effect, and who should carry the burden of proof?

Part IV: The burden of proof, and how to read the data.

Part V is up and features some pointed questions. Read up and be ready for the finale.


The Frightening Implications of School Choice

Julie Vassilatos gets to one of the most troubling parts of the charter school movement. 

The Brave New World of Teacher Evaluation

An icky new piece of tech just came out of Utah. Right now it's being sold as a training tech for teachers, but how long before it's part of evaluation.  

Charter Schools Shrink Bostonm's Vision for Public Education

Over at the Progressive, Jennifer (Edushyster) Berkshire looks at how the rise of charters leads to a failure of the Pledge of Allegiance test for schools. 

Paul Thomas on Writing

One of my favorite bloggers is Paul Thomas, and my favorite subject of his is writing (okay, second favorite, right behind comics). Reading Thomas always makes me feel as if I've gotten just a little smarter just by looking at his words, and his ideas about writing instruction really resonate with me. Here are some of my favorites:

Who Can, Who Should Teach Writing?

Oh, yeah. Hard to talk about this in some buildings, but the answer to both questions is, "Not just anybody."

Technology Fails Plagiarism, Citation Tests

The pitfalls of technological tools in writing

O, Genre, What Art Thou?

Oh, come on. You know you want to read it just for the title alone.

Writing, Unteachable or Mistaught?

I'll leave you with this one, which I think needs to be taken out and passed around every few months or so.  





ICYMI: This Week's Sunday Reading

In Deep South, students are still paddled | SunHerald

In Deep South, students are still paddled | SunHerald:

In Deep South, students are still paddled

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY RALPH LAUER/FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM Although a majority of states have banned the spanking or paddling of students over the past few decades, public schools in some Southern states still depend on the practice - creating one more stress point for students already more likely to confront ill-qualified teachers, crumbling infrastructure and chaotic classrooms. RALPH LAUER KRT

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/education/article40485549.html#storylink=cpy

In Greenwood, Miss., this year's student/parent handbook shows a globe being hoisted by several young students. "Maximizing student potential," the Greenwood Public School District declares on its cover. On Page 3, the handbook tells students to be honest, respect authority and "avoid violence," because "there are other ways to resolve conflicts."

Then, on page 19, it lays out the circumstances under which school administrators can hit students.

"Corporal punishment for use in this district," it says, "is defined as punishing or correcting a student by striking the student on the buttocks with a paddle."

Such punishment, it says, must be carried out by the principal or assistant principal and "shall not exceed five swats with a paddle." The punishment does not constitute "assault, simple assault, aggravated assault, battery, negligence or child abuse."

Greenwood's policy is not uncommon -- at least not in the Deep South. Although a majority of states have banned the spanking or paddling of students over the past few decades, public schools in some Southern states still depend on the practice -- creating one more stress point for students already more likely to confront ill-qualified teachers, crumbling infrastructure and chaotic classrooms.

"Some people would cry," said Laquerius Leflore, 18, who graduated last year from Ruleville Central High School in Ruleville, Miss., and says he was paddled at school five times as a teen. "It would be like somebody really got tortured sometimes. They tried to make it hurt. That was the whole point of it."

Administrators at the Sunflower County and Greenwood school districts did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.

There are 19 states that permit corporal punishment: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. But according to U.S. Department of Education data, nearly 60 percent of the students paddled nationwide come from just four neighboring states - Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Texas.

The first three of those states also have among the largest African American populations. Blacks constitute about 16 percent of public school students in the United States and 35In Deep South, students are still paddled | SunHerald:

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/education/article40485549.html#storylink=cpy

CURMUDGUCATION: Social Impact Bonds for Dummies

CURMUDGUCATION: Social Impact Bonds for Dummies:

Social Impact Bonds for Dummies

We've been hearing about Social Impact Bonds, or "Pay for Success" programs for a few years now, but only recently have they entered the world of public education. Chicago, for example, launched one $17 million program last year for Pre-K, and last month Utah's United Way was happy to announce that Goldman-Sachs' Pay for Success program in Utah had yielded dividends.

The spread of Social Impact Bonds to the education sector raises all sorts of questions like "How are the fiduciary interests of a private investment firm balanced against social demands of education" or "What overseeing groups can best evaluate programs with a balanced view toward all involved interests."

Or, "What the hell is a social impact bond?"

On the ground, it looks kind of ridiculous, like a program that pays a Wall Street firm a bonus every time a kid is taken off of special ed rolls.

But how does that even work? How does the Wall Street firm get paid? With what money? How do you make money on an investment in something that creates no profit?

An Oversimplified Example 

Here's the basic structure of a Social Impact Bond. Note: I am not an economist, banker, or CURMUDGUCATION: Social Impact Bonds for Dummies:

NEA's Lily Eskelsen García on What Teachers Do

Lord knows I can be as critical of some of Lily Eskelsen Garcia's choices as NEA president as anyone around, but the woman can speak. Here's a quick three minutes on what teachers need and what teachers do. It's worth a view.

http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/11/neas-lily-eskelsen-garcia-on-what.html