Washington State declined to ask Arne Duncan for a waiver from NCLB because the legislature thought that the price was too high. In exchange for gaining freedom from NCLB’s demand that 100% of students would be proficient by 2014, the state would have to agree to endorse Arne Duncan’s inane idea that teachers should be evaluated by the test scores of their students. Apparently some wise policy makers saw the research and the universal failure of Duncan’s idea and said “no thanks.”
Now virtually every school in the state of Washington is a “failing school.”
The superintendents are required to send a letter to parents informing them that their child attends a failing school. But 28 superintendents sent a cover letter explaining that the law required them to say something untrue.
““Some of our state’s and districts’ most successful and highly recognized schools are now being labeled ‘failing’ by an antiquated law that most educators and elected officials — as well as the U.S. Department of Education — acknowledge isn’t working,” the cover letter states. The letter is signed by John Welch, superintendent of the Puget Sound Educational Service District, which represents the 28 districts.
“The signees include many of the larger school districts in King and Pierce counties, such as Bellevue, Federal Way, Issaquah, Kent, Lake Washington, Northshore, Renton and Tacoma.
They announced the protest letter at an event Wednesday.
“Seattle Public Schools did not sign it, but supports the letter’s sentiments, a spokeswoman said.”
NCLB is a pathetic hoax that was intended to label almost every school in the nation a failing school. Kudos to the superintendents of Washington State for standing up to abusive federal power—not only NCLB but the coercive waiver too.
28 superintendents in Washington state join the honor roll for courage in support of public education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We do have some wiser lawmakers who saw this for what it was – federal overreach and bad policy. Not our Governor or our state superintendent, unfortunately, both of whom tried to push the legislators into sacrificing teacher’s careers through the junk science of student test scores = teacher quality. Luckily those legislators held firm, though both Randy Dorn (state Supe) and our Governor (Jay Inslee) have promised to push it again.
Indirect, fundamentally unethical if not illegal, coercion. From Cuomo to Duncan. What is it about our times?
Is this the new thinking out of the box, being proactive and pushing the envelope — breaking the law, in spirit if not letter?
Well, and if it were even consistent. But it’s not. They’re happy to use the giant federal funding hammer against states that won’t adopt this testing theory, but in other areas?
Labor rights, enforcement of non-union worker protections, finance and lending regulation? Not so much.
They’re very coercive when going after front-line public employees. Very laissez-faire in all other areas where the federal clout might do some good.
It’s weirdly selective, this bravery and principled stand. It seems to apply only to the least powerful, individual actors.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Not to mention that NCLB is the one law in that group which could presumably not stand up to a constitutional test. Not so weirdly selective.
Those on the very far right of the political spectrum have had a long term plan starting in the 70s (as a reaction, no KTA not a Rheaction or is that a Rejohnson? to the 60s-feminism, black power and other anti-establishment, i.e., anti religious thinking) with Ralph Reed, Swaggert, and others (whom I’m too lazy to look up now after playing 18 holes and a few brewskis) and it has come to fruition in this century. It was a brilliant plan and worked, except that the peons decided that they weren’t going to accept it. The pendulum is finally, after all these years just beginning to start swinging the other way and we still have a long way to go.
Props to those beginning to “see through the numbers.”
But here’s a number that the self-styled “education reformers” loathe and fear, a hard data point that won’t go away:
This blog is about to hit 14 million views.
Most krazy props to the owner of this blog. A twofer from Jim Hightower:
A), “If you don’t speak out now when it matters, when would it matter for you to speak out?”
B), “The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.”
Ok, I’ll make it a trio.
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” [Mark Twain]
😎
Washington has already had its waiver from NCLB withdrawn, so they won’t get federal $$ because they refuse to VAM teachers. Why should they still send these letters? It’s costly and the information is false. What can the feds do if the state just says, “No”?
Read Vermont’s letters to parents and caregivers. Share this everywhere. States need to rise up and take back control of their schools. Go Vermont:
Click to access EDU-Letter_to_parents_and_caregivers_AOE_8_8_14.pdf
That’s what we hoped they would do. It cost the state something like $3-4 million to send out the stupid letters. But we don’t have a state supe with much of a backbone.
Yep, like Nancy counseled, “Just say no”.
So many powerful people are so completely invested in VAM that they will never, ever admit it may be flawed.
It baffles me why they do this all the time. There’s no reason to invest so much in a theory. It doesn’t make any sense to go all-in like this. There’s no point in trying things or experimenting if they’re all going to immediately jump on board and become total, rabid converts. That’s not “innovation” and it’s not an “experiment”. I don’t know what it is. Some kind of crazy herd or bandwagon thing.
Would it kill them to just once say “we’re trying this but we’re not at all married to it and it’s just one theory out of many”? It’s like we have to go thru this again and again, where there has to be this huge fight to get them to admit there is a POSSIBILITY they might be wrong because they over-commit.
We think it’s bad now. Wait until they file more teacher-trial lawsuits. With each decision, there will be more and more ego and more and more law tied up in this theory.
All I can say is that economist who came up with this better be right! All of ed reform is teetering in the balance! Ridiculous.
“. . . are so completely invested in VAM that they will never, ever admit it may be flawed.”
Noel Wilson has proven those “flaws” or what he calls, rightly so, “errors” in his never refuted nor rebutted “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine. (updated 6/24/13 per Wilson email)
1. A description of a quality can only be partially quantified. Quantity is almost always a very small aspect of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category only by a part of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as unidimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing the descriptive information about said interactions is inadequate, insufficient and inferior to the point of invalidity and unacceptability.
2. A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
3. Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
4. Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
In other word all the logical errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
5. The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. And a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
6. Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms crap in-crap out.
7. And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word: “So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
In other words it attempts to measure “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
Chiara: IMHO, I don’t think you are musing about a trivial question.
The leading charterites/privatizers and their principal enablers and enforcers radiate a shameless sense of unbounded entitlement. Rather than taking constructive criticism in stride, the very idea that members of what they see as the ‘rabble’ lay bare their tried-and-proven failures cuts them to the quick, rattles their nerves, seems to them to be nothing more than personal attacks engendered by the jealousy and envy of lesser beings who can’t stand their innovative brilliance.
In other words, all that “rigor” and “grit” is a facade. They’re weak and easily offended.
Which is why they react so very strongly to even the hint that they, and their vanity projects, are less than perfect.
So keep at it. And remember that when the “choice but no voice” crowd goes after you, it’s because you are landing telling blows.
To paraphrase Joe Louis, they can run but they can’t hide.
Oh, how they wish there were no Diane Ravitch and no Chiara and no so many others!
Keep floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee!
😎
Absolutely correct in pointing out that NCLB was politically designed to lead to labeling evermore and eventually nearly all public schools as “failing.” The objective is to generate headlines that make charter schools and vouchers for private schools appear to voters as the better path than public schools. The other objective of NCLB is to make public school teachers and their unions appear to be the cause of the “failure”. Read the book, “The Manufactured Crisis.”
If 99% is failing, what is a 30% approval rating, Mariana Trench failing?
Where is the data based accontability on Duncan or Dorn? Are they at 100%? Where are the letters explaining how they are doing? They’re in charge.
Cool. Who’d a thunk it would be so noble to state the truth, eh?
“NCLB is a pathetic hoax that was intended to label almost every school in the nation a failing school.”
I want to revise that quote: NCLB, Race to the Top and Obama’s Common Core agenda are a HUGE pathetic hoax supported by Bill Gates and his wealth with a goal to label almost every school in the nation as a failure for not achieving the impossible with 100 percent of 17/18 year olds—something no other country on the planet has achieved at any time in history or ever will achieve.
The people behind the fake education reform movement are either fools or crooks. There is no middle ground.
“. . . are either fools or crooks.”
I’ll take option B!
Mr Lofthouse & other caring readers,
Bubble tests have more than 2 choices, so I’ll suggest 3)Narcissists and 4)Tone-deaf TFA alumni. Hi guys, I’m from NJ. Hope you’ve read Bob Braun’s Ledger blog & Jersey Jazzman recently; if not, they’re articulate gentlemen to read. FYI if you google Cami Anderson and narcissist, you find interesting array of results.
Don’t bubble tests usually have five choices. We’re missing one.
Bubble tests can have as many answers as a scantron sheet allows.
And Scantrons are expensive. Another company reaping profits from Common Core testing.
The reformers are invested because the Waltons, Broads and Kochs of the world want less taxes and smaller government for themselves. If they break all the unions, no one can police them. If they buy the politicians and have favorable laws in place, they not only become the ones with all the money, they become kings among men. Greed. Period.
“Greed. Period.”
NO! It’s not greed, it’s avariciousness which is greed taken to the Nth degree.
Please share this Washington State Supreme Court Case to stop Charters. Brought by parents, teachers and community members.
It’s an interesting case. I’m surprised the charter supporters aren’t making more of a small-d democratic argument.
They’re arguing “choice”. I think it’s a mistake to not even attempt to address the fact that local people will be funding the schools but will have no voice in how the funds are spent:
“In addition, local school districts can become charter school authorizers, with permission from the state board of education, and voters who are unhappy with the education provided at charter schools can send their children to traditional public schools, Finne said.”
Wow.
“It’s democratic because they still have public schools!”
It’s this crazy idea that the only people who have an interest in public schools are the CURRENT parents of public school children. There’s just no recognition that the entire community will be funding the schools so have an interest. Of course they do. Every single person in that community has an interest in the public schools. They’re ALL funding them. It’s the same wacky thinking behind the parent trigger laws.
It’s nuts.
State Representative Chris Reykdal speaks out:
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024322006_westneat17xml.html#.U-_epSLwG2c.facebook
I see the writing on the wall, Portland Oregon next.
Where on earth in the national media!!!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx You go, Wash State!! Thank god, there’s a state to keep our eye on.
Washinton state public schools are not a failure.
Arne Duncan is a failure, as is much of this reform movement.
And speaking of dire failures, the young unarmed man shot to death in Missouri and our national child poverty rate of 24% are blatant, blaring, picture perfect examples of our governmental, societal, and institutional failures.
This is a dark period. . . but not without worse struggles coming down the pike and at the same time never without real hope and growth.
We are in a process . . . .
“. . . the young unarmed man shot to death in Missouri. . .
If I may correct your statement, Robert, “. . . the young unarmed man [with his hands raised] shot to death [in the back by a police officer] in Missouri.
That’s the truth of the matter.
I’m from the Show Me State and grew up in the St. Louis area, albeit White, oops I mean South County, the opposite end of the St. Louis area and know many officers of the law who are all good folk but our society has allowed the police to become militarized with a military attitude which is completely the wrong way to act/view things.
It’s a tragedy for all involved but the only justice for the victim will be to have the officer tried and then let the chips fall where they may.
Duane,
Nothing can bring that yong man back, and his family and friends are suffering horribly.
Shame on Obama for not speaking up in any real way.
I hope the officer who did this will have his badge AND pension stripped and not allowed to ever be in law enforcement again. He should go to jail for this.
We have created a society where many more minorities and so called people of colored have entered the middle, upper middle, and upper classes, and stayed there successfully. But we are unacceptably far from enfranchising all such people to make them the rule in this success instead of the exception.
Racism has not at all gone away, but has been recycled into those who have made it and those, the masses, who are left behind to face situations like those Mr. Ferguson did.
Horrible.
Cx:
. . . . . situations like Mr. Brown in Ferguson did.
Now 2 states have come out in the open and declared that the NCLB/RttT/VAM/CCSS emperor has no clothes on and how soon will the other 48 join the chorus of derisive laughter?
Now that Florida has to fairly (hah!) draw its legislative districts we may be able to put a few roadblocks in the way of the JEB! Bush juggernaut and stymie some of ALEC’s dream legislation for another legislative season.
The people are beginning to understand and the sleeping giant is awakening.
I love how Arne Duncan didn’t have to get his education agenda thru Congress at all, and no one in Congress seems to care because it’s sufficiently punishing and draconian to public schools.
Why do they bother coming to work? They can simply hire a CEO and relinquish the whole deal. They never have to rewrite NCLB. This never had to be debated or discussed and they can never be held accountable for it. He’ll simply put His Vision in by administrative action and Congress can grumble a lot.
It’s a mistake to think this is executive overreach. It’s an agreement. The whole “process” thing gets in the way of progress!
He’s out getting photo ops at charter schools.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I’m not sure I buy that Duncan’s agenda is an ‘agreement’ w/congress. I think congress will remain asleep at the wheel as long as their constituents remain oblivious to the agenda.
I’d just like to add that I’m glad Congress is broken and they never got around to drafting legislation to replace NCLB. As it stands, Duncan’s vision ends when Duncan’s term ends.
These are the same people who managed to pass federal legislation with tens of millions to build new charter schools when 32 states were cutting funding for existing public schools.
It’s probably best they were completely uninterested in passing anything regarding public schools. We dodged that disaster. It’d be Rahm Emanuel’s school closure and replacement plan, but national.
The House did pass a law to re-authorize ESEA. It is H 5. It is a terrible law that changes Title I funding and IDEA.
Only the senate is holding onto to another awful ESEA law that they composed by not bringing it to the floor. Thank God.
Finally, some people with principles. At last.
God bless America,
TJD
Diane, I just thought I would update you on what is happening in Idaho with our “Career Ladder/tiered licensure. The governor’s education task force just handed the State Department of Education the following recommendations: https://idahospromise.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/tiered-licensure-proposal-for-state-rules.pdf. The Idaho Education Association is on record saying it is a bad idea but has been for the most part silent. Most teachers and parents don’t know anything about it or how stunningly unsuccessful plans like this have been in other states.
We have one young special education teacher who is blogging about it and his post today is how it would affect special education teachers. http://idahospromise.org/
Thank you for your continued efforts in trying to bring common sense back to education.
Thank you Washington for showing the rest of the nation – we do not need to be run over by bad legislation – we can stand up and be heard.
Good for the sups! Too often I feel at odds with the people who lead our districts, but today I’m on the same side.