Blogger Yinzercation reports that Pennsylvania finally got its waivers from No Child Left Behind’s irrational goals of 100% success, only to face the equally punitive regime crafted by the Obama administration.
ATP (Adequate Yearly Progress) will be replaced by SPP (Student Performance Profile). Three of the four new measures are based on standardized tests. No surprise there. Love those tests
“This new SPP system will label schools without providing any real help for struggling students. If a school receives federal Title I money (based on its proportion of poor students), it will be labeled “priority,” “focus,” or “reward.” All other schools will get a profile score. It’s not clear if that score will be a number or letter grade (A – F), which is very trendy right now among corporate-style-reformers who support vouchers, charter-expansion, school closure, and other privatization efforts. Either way, the bottom line is these rating systems do not appear to work and are definitely subject to cheating.”
She points to research by Matthew Di Carlo showing that such grading systems typically identify schools serving minority communities as low-performing, setting them up for closure or privatization.
Governor Corbett boasted that the new measures would bring help to struggling schools.
Yinzercation asks, “Hello, what? Where is the money to hire back our teachers, school counselors, nurses, and librarians? How about some funding for our after-school tutoring programs we had to cut? And early childhood education? Maybe SPP should stand for Stupid Public Policy.”
And she adds: “I worry that SPP will just replace AYP: with more high-stakes-testing, more labeling-and-punishing schools, more blaming teachers, and still no results for our kids.”
So once a school is labeled, are they at the complete discretion of the state? And if so, does priority necessarily mandate that the state take over a school? That is, can a state make the decision, or are they beholden to whatever action a label dictates.
What a mess.
I happen to know that my school is a school of focus simply because of the gap between our gifted students and the next highest scorers. Our school is a wonderful school. This is why I lose sleep at night and when my husband (an attorney with no connection to schools other than that his mother was a teacher) tells me I would never need to worry about a school like ours (truly it is awesome) facing problems, I explain to him this very scenario. Once beholden to RttT it’s like the ball is really out of our court no matter all the stellar things we have going on. Is this right? And if so, what will it take to change the course? (getting rid of RttT)? I hope someone will answer my questions.
Do I have it right? Is that a possibility? Or is he right? Gosh, I hope he is.
Ah, but the beauty of Arnie’s waiver system is that it’s a stack ranking system with rigid quotas, so not all schools will fail (as they would under NCLB), only the most high needs will fail. Obviously, this is better.
Stack ranking? I thought it was stinking skanking ranking.
More mess…Gov Corbett just dismissed newly appointed PA Sec. of Ed, William Harner before he was even sworn in. William Harner is a Broad Grad (2005) with a contentious past……Is Gov Corbett (GOP and with his 40 ALEC legislators) sending a political message to Dr Hite, another Broad Grad? Broad is a staunch Dem…Keep an eye on who takes Harner’s place.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20130827_Pa__education_secretary_ousted_over__quot_unflattering_quot__behavior.html#qhKtWSH7MUUOrLfS.01
Harner’s acting replacement will be Dr. Carolyn C. Dumaresq – a long time veteran of Pa. education policy who ever worked as Executive Director of the Pa. State Education Association teachers’ union.
She is not a Broad Grad…I checked the list of present and past grads
Did not see her name on any current or past ALEC lists….
Here is her Bio….http://www.politicspa.com/corbett-forces-out-acting-education-secretary/50436/
The state of Michgan has released school rankings using a color coded system. It is so dumb you wouldn’t believe it. It’s funny how they starve out schools then want to provide a hammer to slam them with. When will the school districts finally rebel?
When they get done making the guillotines, I hope.
I think that one thing which is under appreciated on this blog is the effect of financial mismanagement or malfeasance by local officials on the financial state of school boards.
“Unfortunately, when it comes to gambling taxpayer money in swaps, Pennsylvania school districts and municipalities are No. 1 in the nation, according to Moody’s Investors Service. On a statewide basis, according to the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), 108 of 500 school districts – a shocking 21 percent – and 105 local governments in the Commonwealth had $17.25 billion in public debt tied to (interest rate)swaps between October 2003 and September 2012.”
http://blogs.reuters.com/muniland/2013/09/10/pennsylvanias-worthy-debate-over-swaps/