Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part III | deutsch29

Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part III | deutsch29:

Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part III

  Ann Marie Corgill

On October 30, 2015, the 2014-15 Alabama Teacher of the Year, Ann Marie Corgill, abruptly resigned from teaching at Birmingham City Schools after a taxing ordeal in the first two months of the 2015-16 school year.

I had the privilege of interviewing Corgill in person for several hours on November 20, 2015. Based on that interview, I have already written two posts, one focused on how Corgill’s resignation became public, and another detailing the fiasco that resulted in her October 2015 resignation.

In this third post of the series, I offer the detailed and candid interview excerpt on Corgill’s becoming 2014-15 Alabama Teacher of the Year– and a 2014-15 National Teacher of the Year finalist.

During the course of our extensive conversation, the issue of teacher bullying emerged as a theme. Even though this issue was interwoven into our discussion of Corgill’s experience as Teacher of the Year, I have chosen to omit such discussion in this post and instead save it for a later post. Thus, Part III details the specifics of Corgill’s becoming Teacher of the Year.

As was true of Part II, in this post, Corgill’s words are indented, and my comments Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part III | deutsch29:

Schools Matter: The Racist Origins of Standardized Testing

Schools Matter: The Racist Origins of Standardized Testing:

The Racist Origins of Standardized Testing

Excerpt from Part 1 of The Mismeasure of Education:

Zealots for the Elimination of Waste

The educational significance of the results to be obtained from careful measurements of the intelligence of children can hardly be overestimated. Questions relating to the choice of studies, vocational guidance, schoolroom procedure, the grading of pupils, promotional schemes, the study of the retardation of children in the schools, juvenile delinquency, and the proper handling of subnormals on the one hand and gifted children on the other—all alike acquire new meaning and significance when viewed in the light of the measurement of intelligence as outlined in this volume . . . . More than all other forms of data combined, such tests give the necessary information from which a pupil’s possibilities of future mental growth can be foretold, and upon which his further education can be most profitably directed. –Elwood P. Cubberley, from foreword for Terman’s The Measurement of Intelligence, 1916 (p. viii).

 

Following the importation of British statistical procedures by American psychologist Edward Thorndike in 1903, “standards of deviation and correlations of coefficients were in the air” (Rugg, 1975, p. 295) by 1910, so much so that the study of education, which was preoccupied with becoming the newest of the social sciences, henceforth, would be driven by the urge to quantify and tabulate all aspects of schooling, as noted here in Harold Rugg’s summary of developments in the early 20^th Century: 

        The steps by which the new educational measurers began to apply methods of research to the study of the curriculum were: first, the construction and use of tests in arithmetic, spelling, language, algebra, etc.: second, the inventory of the current curriculum by the tabular analysis of “courses” of study and textbooks: third, the determination of socially worth while skills and knowledge by the tabulation of actual human activities; fourth, . . . the careful determination of trends in social development, the chief institutions and problems of contemporary life, standards of appreciation, etc. (p. 296).

         Accompanied, too, by hopes that scientific quantification could make social problems efficiently manageable, something new called intelligence testing was seen as a godsend toward achieving the task, despite the fact that inventors of intelligence tests had something else in mind.  When Alfred Binet, for Schools Matter: The Racist Origins of Standardized Testing:

CURMUDGUCATION: Common Core and Liver Pizza

CURMUDGUCATION: Common Core and Liver Pizza:

Common Core and Liver Pizza

It must be time to talk about the Core again, because I've received a couple of "What's the big deal? The core doesn't bother me at all!" notes lately. And I continue to believe that the situation regarding Common Core has changed, and I think we are all perfectly positioned to deal with the Core (or whatever the craven politicians in your state have changed the name to).

To illustrate my point, let me share my recipe for delicious liver pizza.

First, gather ingredients. Get liver, pepperoni, sausage, onions, garlic, more garlic, blends of cheese that suit you, a good pre-made crust (because I don't want to wait all night for this), and a good spicy pizza sauce.

Now we're ready to begin.

STEP ONE: Throw liver in the garbage.

STEP TWO: Make a delicious pizza.

Look, if you want to tell me that your school has had great success with Common Core lessons and you have totally aligned everything to the standards with brilliant teacher-made lessons, that's fine. Understand, I don't believe you. In all these years, no teacher has yet been able to tell me what Common Core made them able to do that they couldn't do before, nor have they explained what they would have to stop doing tomorrow if Common Core vanished. It doesn't matter. Tell me what you like about your love for the Core. What I believe is that you made a delicious liver pizza. Or you made a terrible crappy liver pizza because you didn't throw the liver out. Or your administration CURMUDGUCATION: Common Core and Liver Pizza:

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Sunday Evening Edu-reads

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: Sunday Evening Edu-reads:

ICYMI: Sunday Evening Edu-reads

Let's all gather our energy before the week gets started, because by next Sunday, we could have a new body of education law. 

Go Ahead: Pass Every Student Succeeds Act, But Don 't Celebrate It 

Jeff Bryant had my favorite ESSA piece of the week. You probably read it, but you know, just ICYMI.

SFER- 

Johnathan Pelto took a great look at Baby DFER, the astroturfed student wing of hedge fund powered reform support. Complete with many links and a bibliography (linkiography?) for lots of nauseau-inducing reading

Fund Us. Support Us. Or STFU.


Claudia Swisher blogs at Fourth-Generation teacher, and I should point out that she softened the title of this blog. But I wanted to get your attention. She's writing about Oklahoma, but the story of legislators who want to offer everything except actual concrete support or help is one that many teachers across the US can appreciate.

Guinea Pigs in an Urban Laboratory

Just talkin' crazy here, but what if somebody talked to actual students about how they feel about all this reformy nonsense? Jennifer Berkshire talks to an author who talked to actual students.

Zuckerberg Responds to Critics

Well, look at that! Mainstream media actually picked up the story of all the folks who noted that Zuckerberg's charity wasn't actually charity. And then Z responded.

FLASHBACK!!  The Loneliness of the Long Distance Test Scorer

Hard to believe that it has been five years since this classic was first published, shattering illusions about how standardized tests are actually scored-- and by whom. Can't tell you how many times I've gone back to this (and the city papers follow up). Still essential reading.

CURMUDGUCATION: Why wait?

CURMUDGUCATION: Why wait?:

Why wait?

It's probably the best question I've seen someone ask in weeks, and it will be my little energizer for the months ahead.

Why wait?

Bill Ferriter may not realize it, but he pointed me at this post by Chase Mielke and this sentence within it:

If an end goal of education is to create skilled, altruistic citizens, why wait until after a student's post-secondary training?

Mielke blogs at Affective Living; he's developed a pretty strong brand for himself, and he is a master of the kind of relentless positivity that would make him an easy target for mockery if it were not coupled with plenty of in-the-classroom practicality. And while his writing sometimes turns up in some places that I'm inclined not to read, he can turn a phrase, and I always respect a well-turned phrase.

This particular piece was dealing with real-world projects for groups of students, but you can see that this question has application far beyond that.

All too often we fall into the habit of thinking that we are preparing students for the future. "I touch the future," and so on. We get to thinking that we are loading up the students brains like little backpacks that they will eventually take on a big journey-- but for right now, they're sitting here in our classroom, their journey not yet begun.

One of my pet peeves is people who "only" student activities. "Don't worry about it," they'll say. "They're only kids. It's only a student production. It's only a high school concert." Why "only"? This is so often used as an excuse not to try, not to really back the students up, not to give them the kind of support we'd give a "real" project.


If we want them to become Life Long Learners, should we not now be teaching them to learn the CURMUDGUCATION: Why wait?:

On Personalized Learning, Mark Zuckerberg, and Makin’ it Rain | Save Maine Schools

On Personalized Learning, Mark Zuckerberg, and Makin’ it Rain | Save Maine Schools:

On Personalized Learning, Mark Zuckerberg, and Makin’ it Rain

ntly, I have written two letters to my former classmate, Mark Zuckerberg, to warn him of the dangers of his educational investment plans. Both letters were as polite and friendly as I could muster – especially given the circumstances – and I took care not to sound too accusatory in either of them.

But of course – despite the fact that Shakira and Melinda Gates got personal notes on his Facebook page a few days ago – I am still waiting on a response.

So, while I wait for an explanation as to why he believes investing in a purely experimental, corporate-invented and corporate-driven theory of learning that has no proven track record of success is a good idea, I thought I’d offer readers more information on why he is such a strong supporter of personalized learning.

To start, let me show you who else is promoting this model.

This guy:On Personalized Learning, Mark Zuckerberg, and Makin’ it Rain | Save Maine Schools:

CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA: What Is a Teacher

CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA: What Is a Teacher:

ESSA: What Is a Teacher

We knew that a theme of the week would be teasing out the ugliest parts of the ESEA rewrite. Farewell, "No Child Left Behind." Hello, "Every Student Should Succeed in Serving Corporate Interests."

One element that has become evident is the ways in which ESSA works to gut the entire process of creating teachers, and consequently the profession itself. Just as reformsters have sought to redefine what it means to be an educated person (a person who performs well on standardized testing tasks), they have also sought to redefine what it means to be a teacher.

The assault on teaching has been bizarrely two-pronged. On the one hand, reformsters have tried to make it harder to become a teacher. On the state level, StudentsFirst and similar reformy astroturfers have been pushing longer and longer waiting periods for tenure, from two or three years up to three or four or five years-- and those years should be spent proving you can raise "student achievement" aka "get test scores up." And before you can even get to that point, some states want aspiring teachers to go through costly bogus licensing processes like edTPA. 

On the other hand, we've also seen a big push to make it easier to become a teacher. Reformsters have pushed for regulations that accept five weeks of Teach for America Summer Camp as perfectly CURMUDGUCATION: ESSA: What Is a Teacher:

Art Helps Students Become Whole - Living in Dialogue

Art Helps Students Become Whole - Living in Dialogue:

Art Helps Students Become Whole

This is the fourth in a series of blog posts focused on the value of art in our lives, and the role art can play in resisting the test and punish model of education.  See the intro and links to other posts in the series here.

By Amanda Koonlaba.

I believe arts education is the antithesis of the corporate reform and privatization regime. I believe arts education is the best tool that schools have to reach all learners. I believe the arts belong in every school because they are important to our humanity. I believe all students deserve access to high-quality arts instruction. I also believe that the arts should be integrated with the traditional subjects of math, science, reading, etc.

You don’t have to take my word for it though. There is more than enough meritable research to back up my arts belief system. In fact, my school partners with the Whole Schools Initiative (WSI), which is a special project of the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC). The MAC has conducted more than one research studythat shows the significant role the arts play in closing achievement gaps and creating a school culture that is most conducive to meeting the needs of the whole child.

This partnership began three years ago. I was asked by my administrators to write a grant to the Mississippi Arts Commission to fund the start of this partnership and to serve as the coordinator of the program. I was thrilled to do this. I had previously taught at two Model Schools for arts integration (both public schools) as a third and first grade teacher. Now, as the visual art teacher at my current school, I was so proud to be able to bring such an amazing opportunity to my new students.

So, the teachers at my school began attending professional development workshops on the arts and how to integrate the arts into instruction. These weren’t the typical, mundane workshops that come to mind when you think about CCSS and data analysis. These were fun workshops where teachers were able to participate in artistic processes and learn how to use those to integrate their instruction. They were engaging and worthwhile. The same as what we want for the instruction of our students.

We put a very concentrated effort into using this new partnership to change the image of our school within our community. Over time, our school began getting positive press which had been lacking for many years. The staff led students and the community in painting murals, revamping outdoor spaces, and hosting events to get all stakeholders into our school. This speaks to the cultural change we are experiencing as a result of our efforts.

I certainly feel happier at my job than I ever have in eleven years of teaching. Yes, we still have to test and we Art Helps Students Become Whole - Living in Dialogue:

Schools Matter: Hoosier School Heist Author Doug Martin on Real Accountability (and Federal Prison)

Schools Matter: Hoosier School Heist Author Doug Martin on Real Accountability (and Federal Prison):

Hoosier School Heist Author Doug Martin on Real Accountability (and Federal Prison)

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

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

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

(Duration:  1 minute, 24 seconds)  Question and Answer session response concerning standardized testing, Colfax Auditorium, St. Joseph Public Library, Humanist Forum, South Bend, Indiana, December 3, 2015.

Doug Martin

A national expert on the corporate and theocratic assault against public education, Doug Martin is the author of Hoosier School Heist, the book which exposes the corruption, scandals, and campaign financing behind so-called school reform in Indiana and elsewhere. Order Hoosier School Heist and get the facts.Schools Matter: Hoosier School Heist Author Doug Martin on Real Accountability (and Federal Prison):

Video: Seattle teachers talk about the Seattle Education Association strike at the NWTSJ conference | Seattle Education

Video: Seattle teachers talk about the Seattle Education Association strike at the NWTSJ conference | Seattle Education:

Video: Seattle teachers talk about the Seattle Education Association strike at the NWTSJ conference

For the first time in 30 years, Seattle educators went on strike for the schools Seattle students deserve and for the working conditions and compensation the teachers deserve. After five days on the picket lines, supported by close to 100 percent of SEA members, parents, families and community, including Seattle City Council, King County Labor Council and the NAACP, the tentative agreement was reached.

This panel of education activists discusses the organizing strategy, the groundswell of support, the gains and compromises made and next steps for educational justice at the Northwest Teachers for Social Justice conference in October, 2015.

I personally know most of the teachers on this panel and have found them to be dedicated, talented and always going the extra mile for their students.

Panelists:

Doug Edelstein teaches history at Nathan Hale High in Seattle. He is a member of the Seattle Education Association (SEA) Board of Directors, an active member of Social Equality Educators (SEE), and served as picket captain for his zone during the SEA strike this fall.

Kayla Barr Graham teaches ELL at Hamilton Middle School in Seattle. She is a SEA representative and was picket captain for her school during the strike. Eliza Rankin is a parent of a 1st grader in the Seattle Public Schools. She is a co-founder and active Video: Seattle teachers talk about the Seattle Education Association strike at the NWTSJ conference | Seattle Education:

Tell our United States Senators to vote no on the Common Core Testing Mania - Wait What?

Tell our United States Senators to vote no on the Common Core Testing Mania - Wait What?:

Tell our United States Senators to vote no on the Common Core Testing Mania

United States Senators need to stand up and protect our students and teachers!

From Connecticut educator and fellow education blogger Poetic Justice comes the following post,

Please Sign This United Opt Out petition to stop the Senate from passing the very flawed ESEA

Here is what United Opt Out has written in their petition to the US Senate.

“Since 2002 when No Child Left Behind became law, students, parents, and teachers have been subjected to a national education policy written to benefit the education testing industry and politicians out to privatize public education in America. As a result, schools have been turned into testing factories and thousands of low-scoring public schools that serve the poorest students have been closed and replaced by corporate charter schools that, on average, perform no better than the underfunded schools they replace. Those charters with high test scores most often exclude low-scoring and problem students, while subjecting their students to punishing discipline systems that middle class parents would never allow for their own children.

Next week the U. S. Senate will vote on a rewrite of No Child Left Behind that greatly expands the “No Excuses” charter school system that has gone from a few hundred to almost 7,000 schools during the past decade. If the new legislation becomes law, annual high stakes standardized testing in grades 3-12 will continue unabated, and the expansion of publicly funded and intensely segregated reform charter schools will intensify without the benefit of public oversight.

By signing the petition, you can let the U. S. Senate know to say NO to an ESEA reauthorization plan that, if passed, will set education policy back by over 50 years.

We can do better, and Congress must take the time to hear from parents, students, and teachers, whose voices have been silenced by organizations pretending to represent their interests.

Here is the link to the VOTE NO ON ESSA PETITION.

Tell the Senate that we say NO to a vision of 21st Century teaching and learning that treats our children like test scores and our teachers as automatons

‪#‎DoNoHarm ‪#‎ESEA

Again, here is the PETITION.

Tell our United States Senators to vote no on the Common Core Testing Mania - Wait What?:

Poetic Justice web site

Diane E. Levin and Nancy Carlsson-Paige: Setting the record straight on early literacy instruction - The Washington Post

Setting the record straight on early literacy instruction - The Washington Post:

Setting the record straight on early literacy instruction

Earlier this year, the nonprofit organization Defending the Early Yearspublished a report saying that research does not support the Common Core requirement that all children must read with purpose and understanding by the end of kindergarten. The report was called “Reading Instruction in Kindergarten: Little to Gain and Much to Lose,” and it elicited tremendous interest — in the early childhood community and beyond.

Recently, Peter Gray, a research professor of psychology at Boston College, who regularly blogs at Psychology Today, posted to his Facebook page one of his columns, from 2013, on reading instruction. That post says in part:

Progressive educators have always believed that methods of classroom instruction should be based on children’s natural ways of learning, that is, on the ways that children learn in life outside of classrooms.  This has led to a variety of meaning-centered ways of teaching, which run counter to what we might call the process-centered ways of so-called traditional instruction.

Here is a response from Diane E. Levin and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, senior advisers to Defending the Early Years, which was first published on Susan Ochshorn’s ECE Policy Works blog.

Levin, a professor at Wheelock College, is the author of “Beyond Remote-Controlled Childhood,” and a founder of Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment.  Carlsson-Paige is a professor emerita at Lesley University, the recipient of numerous awards, and the author of “Taking Back Childhood.”

[Report: Requiring kindergartners to read — as Common Core does — may harm some]

By Diane E. Levin and Nancy Carlsson-Paige

There has been much well-deserved criticism of the increase in direct instruction in reading skills to young children, resulting from the demands of the Common Core State Standards. However, when we and others argue for abandoning the current one-size-fits-all approach to early literacy, we are not proposing “natural learning environments,” where children learn to read on their own with little teacher intervention.

Yet this is the only alternative to direct, skills-based instruction that Peter Gray describes in “The Reading Wars: Why Natural Learning Fails in Classrooms,”  a 2013 post at Psychology Today that he recently published on his Facebook page.

In his essay, Gray argues that learning to read in and out of classrooms is different, by its very nature. This is true. But we do not agree with his Setting the record straight on early literacy instruction - The Washington Post:

Breaking News: Santa Claus Supports Opt-Out!!! | Exceptional Delaware

Breaking News: Santa Claus Supports Opt-Out!!! | Exceptional Delaware:

Breaking News: Santa Claus Supports Opt-Out!!!

Santa Claus was getting pictures at the Dover Mall with young children.  He always asks the kids what they want for Christmas.  He acknowledged hearing very strange requests over the years.  But he reported to me recently about a very unusual request he got on Black Friday.  A little boy who was 8 years old told Santa he only wanted one thing for Christmas.  He wanted his mother to opt him out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment.

Santa had never heard of such an odd thing before, so he asked the boy what it was.  “I’m in 3rd grade Santa, and all they talk about is some test we have to take next Spring.  All my teachers talk about it.  And we have to take something called an intrum test after we come back from Christmas break.  Every day teachers say ‘this could be on the test.  Make sure you know it.’  I’m getting tired of it Santa.  Nobody cares about my actual grades, and I’m a smart kid Santa.”

Santa asked the boy what “opting out” means?  The boy said some parents actually told the school they didn’t want their kid taking the Smarter Balanced test.  The school gave them a rough time, but the parents fought back.  “If they can do it, can you make sure my mom does it too?”  Santa pondered this for a moment. “I think,” Santa said, “That would be up to your Mom.”  “Good, she is right over there,” the boy said and pointed to his mother.  “Mom, can you come over here?  Santa wants to ask you something!” the boy shouted.

The boy’s mother walked over and Santa said “Your son wants you to opt him out of the Smarter something test.  It’s all he wants for Christmas.”  The boy’s mother explained she had never heard of the test.  “That’s cause this is the first year we take it Mom.  I heard some teachers say it doesn’t actually mean anything and it only lets the state know how we are doing.  And I heard something about some evil Psycho Metric guy.”  The boy’s mother explained, “I will have to look into this.”  The boy shouted “But I want you to opt me out!”  The crowd heard the words “opt-out” and all of a sudden, parents were yelling “Opt him out! Opt him out!”  Santa explained how he had to Breaking News: Santa Claus Supports Opt-Out!!! | Exceptional Delaware:

Marie Corfield: Is the NJDOE protecting Gov. Christie's POTUS run?

Marie Corfield: Is the NJDOE protecting Gov. Christie's POTUS run?:

Is the NJDOE protecting Gov. Christie's POTUS run?

As those of us in NJ know, Gov. Christie will do anything and everything to side with the prevailing right-wing opinion-of-the-day. So, with his poll numbers in the toilet—not only for his job as governor, but for his POTUS run—is he pulling out all the stops to ensure he protects his image as an ed 'reformer' on the national stage?  

The front page of today's Star Ledger contains an article on NJs PARCC opt-out rates. The state has been less than forthcoming on releasing the numbers despite the fact that Colorado did so last month. And we still don't have that all-important data that's supposed to prep students for the March PARCC test "drive instruction" and magically make every single student "college and career ready" (whatever that means). 

The state DOE estimates that 15% of high school juniors, 7% of freshmen, and 4.6% of students in grades 3-8 refused to take the test. But based on anecdotal reporting and comparing '14-'15 enrollment numbers to the actual number of tests completed, NJEA and Save Our Schools NJ put those numbers at around 110,000—the second highest opt-out number in the nation in our first year of testing. New York was number one with 240,000.

But there is absolutely no reason for the delay. The state has the data. So, why have they not released it? Save Our Schools NJ speculates: 

Could they be protecting Governor Christie's presidential campaign from the embarrassment of NJ having the second highest opt out rates in the country?

Remember, Christie gave an $82.5 million tax break to Pearson to stay in NJ. What else Marie Corfield: Is the NJDOE protecting Gov. Christie's POTUS run?:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Whitenizing Chicago

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Whitenizing Chicago:

Whitenizing Chicago

The out-migration of African-Americans from the largest U.S. cities continues unabated, changing the face of urban politics, culture and education.

Greg Hinz at Crain's reports that the Chicago area is on track to become mostly people of color by 2020, a historic shift with major cultural, economic and political impact. But in Chicago proper, gentrification has created a different story --whitenization.

The shift is almost entirely concentrated in the suburbs, with, for instance, roughly one in three residents of Will, DuPage and Lake Counties now from minority groups, up from one (or fewer) in four in 2010. In suburban Cook County, the minority share of the total population has gone from 33 percent in 2010 to 45 percent.

But the story in the city is different.

In Chicago proper, where large numbers of high-income whites Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Whitenizing Chicago:

Doubling Down (Again) by Reverting, Not Changing: The Exponential Failures of Education Legislation | the becoming radical

Doubling Down (Again) by Reverting, Not Changing: The Exponential Failures of Education Legislation | the becoming radical:

Doubling Down (Again) by Reverting, Not Changing: The Exponential Failures of Education Legislation

Political grandstanding about education and proposed as well as adopted education legislation make me feel trapped in something between a George Orwell dystopian novel(“WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH) and a Firesign Theatre skit (“The Department of Redundancy Department”).

One of my most recent experiences with the political process exposed me to the horrors (real, not fictional or comical) of compromise while I witnessed people and organizations typically associated with being strong supporters of public education defer to what became the Read to Succeed act in South Carolina despite the addition of third-grade retention [1]; the justification was that the compromise brought more funding to reading in the state.

Political compromise for education legislation, I regret, results in more dystopian fiction:Ursula K. Le Guin’s allegory of privilege in which she illustrates how some prosper while knowingly sacrificing a child as the “other.”

Now after much sound and fury, public education is poised to be bludgeoned once again as the federal government has committed to doubling down (again) by reverting to state-based accountability and continuing its ominous tradition of Orwellian names for education legislation: the Every Student Succeeds Act [2].

A couple of decades of patchwork state-based accountability throughout the 1980s and 1990s convinced the feds that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was the answer, and now about a decade and a half of NCLB-style federal accountability has failed just a miserably (mostly causing more harm than good); thus, as Alyson Klein reports, “The ESSA is in many ways a U-turn from the current, much-maligned version of the ESEA law, the No Child Left Behind Act.”

And just as I experienced in SC with Read to Succeed, those we would hope are on the right side of children, families, and public education are scrambling (as many of them did toembrace Common Core) to praise ESSA—although this newest iteration is “really about the same.”

At best, ESSA is a very slight shuffling of the test-mania element of the accountability era; however, this reverting to state-based accountability will guarantee another round of new standards and new tests—all of which will drain state and federal funding for processes that have never and will never achieve what they claim to achieve (Mathis, 2012).

ESSA will be another boondoggle for education-related corporations, but once again, that profit will be on the backs of children and underserved communities.

Yet, ESSA is not all U-turn since it has remnants of the nastiest elements of the snowballing accountability era; while some of the unsavory teacher-bashing is waning, ESSA nudges forward the dismantling of teacher education (a sneaky way to keep bashing teachers, by the way).

ESSA is finding oneself in a hole and continuing to dig. For those who jumped in, it is time to climb out. For those standing at the edge, back away.

Although now tarnished by Obama’s promises of “hope and change” (the Obama Doubling Down (Again) by Reverting, Not Changing: The Exponential Failures of Education Legislation | the becoming radical:

Community-Based Reform and Accountability Measures for States and Communities | Cloaking Inequity

Community-Based Reform and Accountability Measures for States and Communities | Cloaking Inequity:

Community-Based Reform and Accountability Measures for States and Communities

The impending death of No Child Left Behind has the potential to create more space for community-based reform. As federal standardized tests have fallen out of favor, many states have explored alternative community-based measures to improve the success of schools, districts and students. For the past decade, the predominant NCLB-inspired educational policy discourse has focused on top-down policies. This webinar focused on introducing a set of community-based approaches for education reform.

During a recent Council of State Governments West eCademy webcast (available below), presenters reviewed alternative measures for school accountability, community schools, teacher quality assessment and student achievement assessment. A national cadre of experts discussed steps legislators and communities can take, from a policy standpoint, to encourage and support local assessment and accountability measures.

The facilitators of the discussion were:

Idaho Representative Wendy Horman, Chair, CSG West Education and Workforce Development Committee (welcome remarks and webinar background information)

New Mexico Senator William Soules, Vice Chair, CSG West Education and Workforce Development Committee (presentation of panelists)

Panelists:

Julian Vasquez Heilig, Ph.D., Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (School accountability)

Monty Neill, Ed.D., Executive Director, National Center for Fair & Open Testing (Fair Test) (Student assessments)

Cheryl Dultz, Teacher San Juan School District (Teacher evaluations – PAR)

Ken Zarifis, President, Education Austin (Community schools)

For more on community-based student assessment see EdWeek Series Beyond Rhetoric: If Not a Bunch of Tests… Then What Instead?

For more on Travis Heights and community-based charters see How to Create a Community-Based In-District Charter and Photo Essay: This Charter School is Lovely

For all posts on Community-Based (local) Accountability click here. Also read Accountability: Are you ready for a new idea? This was the first post where I publicly introduced the idea of bottom-up Local Accountability multiple-measure (dashboard) plans.

For more on evaluating teacher quality via Peer Assistance and Review check out Can we Evaluate #Teachers Without Using High-Stakes #Testing?

Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others.

Want to know about Cloaking Inequity’s freshly pressed conversations about educational policy? Click the “Follow blog by email” button on the home page.

Twitter: @ProfessorJVH

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Community-Based Reform and Accountability Measures for States and Communities | Cloaking Inequity: