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Providence Students Challenge Commissioner Gist to Debate Issues

By dianerav
May 20, 2013 //
4

That amazing, pro-active, brilliant Providence Student Union has challenged Rhode Island Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist to a debate about high-stakes testing with them.

Will Commissioner Gist agree to debate them?

The students thinks it is wrong to use NECAP–the state assessment–as a requirement for graduation. The corporation that created the test agrees with the students that the test was not designed as an exit exam. Gist is sticking to her guns and has the support of the lawyer who recently was appointed to chair the state board of education.

The students know that the failure rate will have a disparate impact on students with disabilities, English language learners, and those who are poor.

Isn’t it odd that high school students know so much more than their titular leaders? Isn’t it impressive that they have such a keen sense of justice, which is not shared by those in charge?

This came to me from the Providence Student Union:

Students will be at one of these podiums.

Will the Commissioner agree to stand at the other?

Dear Diane,

We wanted to make sure you had heard the news – the Providence Student Union (PSU) has challenged Rhode Island Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist to a debate about her Department’s testing policies.

“In the name of open discussion and the free exchange of ideas,” students wrote in a letter to the Commissioner, “we, the members of the Providence Student Union, respectfully request that you participate with us in a public debate regarding Rhode Island’s new high-stakes standardized testing graduation requirement.”

PSU members do not seem nervous about possibly engaging with an accomplished adult communicator like Commissioner Gist. “It’s about the issues,” explains Yvette Gonzalez, a freshman at Mount Pleasant High School. “We know how this policy is actually affecting us every day in the classroom, and we feel confident enough to describe and defend our positions in public. The Commissioner also seems confident about her position, so we are hopeful she will be willing to debate us.”

The public has not yet received an official response from the Commissioner, but we want to give her a little time. After all, what reason could there be to not join students in this important civic exercise?

Of course, organizing an event like this debate will require major time and resources from students and staff. But you can help by making a tax-deductible gift to the Providence Student Union today.

Will you support PSU with a $10 donation?

With your help, students will be able to continue creating the platforms they need to make their voices heard on this and other important issues. Thanks so much for everything.

Sincerely,

The PSU Debate Planning Committee (Tim, Jinnelle, Garren, Cauldierre and Yvette)

To learn more about the Providence Student Union, get in contact, or make a donation: http://www.providencestudentunion.org

At the Providence Student Union, we organize to build the collective power of high school students across Providence to ensure youth have a real voice in decisions affecting their education.

Categories Students, Testing

Rhode Island Board Chair Defends Status Quo

By dianerav
May 20, 2013 //
14

Eva-Marie Mancuso, chair of Rhode Island’s state education board, passionately defends the status quo.

Over the protests of parents, students, and teachers, Mancuso supports high-stakes testing. Despite overwhelming evidence from researchers that evaluating teachers by test scores is inaccurate, unstable, and demoralizing, Mancuso wants more. Despite the protests of student leaders across the state, Mancuso insists that standardized tests–the NECAP–should be a graduation requirement.

A recent poll of teachers found that 85% oppose a new contract for the state superintendent Debirah Gist. Mancuso doesn’t care. Gist is a member of Jeb Bush’s hard rightwing Chiefs for Change, which includes the most conservative, test-loving, privatizing superintendents in the nation.

Gist was the superintendent who wanted to fire every teacher and staff member at Central Falls High School in 2010 because test scores were low. No teacher or staff member had been evaluated.

Mancuso is prepared to stand and fight for the status quo.

Categories Privatization, Race to the Top, Students, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Deborah Meier: Am I Part of the Problem or the Solution?

By dianerav
May 18, 2013 //
18

Deborah Meier has been blogging recently with Michael Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

Deb is known as a progressive, Mike as a conservative. Deb was one of the founders of the small schools movement and a leader of opposition to standardized testing through her involvement in Fairtest. Mike strongly supports standardized testing, charter schools, and competition a drivers of change.

In his previous post, Mike asked Deb whether she was part of the problem (because of her opposition to standardized testing and her general skepticism towards what is called “reform” today, I.e., No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top).

This is a good exchange. I wonder if they can bridge their differences.

Deborah answered here. I won’t begin to summarize what she said. Let me just say that she is at her best and what she wrote about children, about the shrinking middle class, and about what schools can and cannot do. Please take the time to read what she wrote.

Categories Testing, Teachers and Teaching, Race to the Top, Poverty, Accountability, Parents, Students, No Child Left Behind

Is the School of the Future in the Cloud?

By dianerav
May 17, 2013 //
63

Having studied the history of education for some decades, I have a built-in resistance to claims about the school of the future, particularly when it involves the end of schooling. Over many years, I have seen predictions about that Great Day when all children are self-motivated, all learning comes naturally, and instruction by adults becomes superfluous. The archetype of this idea was A. S. Neill’s “Summerhill,” which was a huge bestseller in the 1960s. But it was preceded by many other visions of schools without books, without tests, without classes, without teachers, without stress, without walls, without without without.

Here is the latest: a school in the Cloud, with Grannies to answer questions as self-motivated children use the Web to learn at their own speed, as they wish. The man behind this proposal won a $1 million TED prize for this idea.

What do you think?

Categories Online learning, Students, Technology, Computers

Please Help the Providence Student Union

By dianerav
May 12, 2013 //
2

I am re-posting this appeal to help a great group of high school youth.

For their valiant, smart, witty efforts to save their schools and future generations from the blight of high-stakes testing, I name them to the honor roll as champions of public education. May they grow and flourish!

I am a huge fan of the Providence Student Union.

I just donated to them to help them continue their movement and to encourage students in other cities and states to organize against high-stakes testing.

Please consider going to their web page and supporting them. I love their energy, their idealism, their wit, and their creativity.

I share their belief that education should be engaging, exciting, and a source of inspiration and joy. They have energetically protested the soul-deadening emphasis on high-stakes testing in Rhode Island. And they have expressed their own vision for real education.

Best of all, they have mastered the art of political theater to publicize their work.

First, they held a zombie protest in front of the Rhode Island Department of Education building, protesting the state’s dead zombie policies.

Then, they persuaded accomplished professionals to take a test made up of released items from the NECAP test, which the state has inappropriately made a graduation requirement.

Just days ago, they delivered their First Annual State of the Student Address, describing their vision for real education. They timed it so that it was one hour before the State Commissioner Deborah Gist’s annual state of education address to the Legislature. Gist, you may recall, won national acclaim for threatening to fire every employee of Central Falls High School due to its low test scores.

Because of the PSU’s political theater, the Boston Globe came out against the use (mis-use) of NECAP as a graduation requirement.

The Providence Student Union represents the best of American youth. They are independent, creative, active, fearless. They are what we hope for our nation in the future. Help them thrive.

Categories Students, Honor Roll

Why Business Models Fail in Education

By dianerav
May 5, 2013 //
57

A comment on the post about “Zombie Education Policies”:

Having spent years in business, I cringe at blindly applying business models to education. 360 evaluation is a business fad that will join MBOs and matrix management. I tried student evaluations. Students are usually upset over not getting a certain grade on the most recent test, angry over a detention, or at the other extreme, like the teacher and don’t want to say anything negative. I eavesdropped on two of my high school students evaluating their teachers and a “good” teacher had more to do with being lenient, funny, and good looking. It took me years to later appreciate my good teachers – not at the time the most popular. Most parents mean well, but often have only glimpses of the classroom from their child’s perspective. Often the truth is difficult and not always well received. Peers are OK, but not all peers are objective or can separate politics. Administrators may not have spent enough years in a math or language arts classroom – perhaps moving up through phys ed – to understand content and delivery. Third party evaluations are too disconnected and have conflicts of interest.

So a better solution? First, and this principle is also overlooked in business, IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT. Not all schools are failing, and then, not all for the same reason. Blanket, scorched earth solutions never work and just replace one set of problems with another. Improving upon what exists takes skill and savvy. Second, if you want to know what makes a good teacher, ask a good teacher. We all know who they are. Mentoring is by far the best system with centuries of success. Make it work. Third, start listening to teachers, not politicians, billionaires, and opportunists. The latter have other interests. Teachers, in contrast to the constant demonizing, are in the classroom everyday and want their students to learn.

The best approach to education is there is no single approach to education. Students are individuals and human. Not data points in a multi-level statistical model. Teachers know this. Will anybody else listen?

Categories Corporate Reformers, Students, Teacher Evaluations, teaching

Teacher: I Hate What Is Happening to Our Schools

By dianerav
May 2, 2013 //
9

This comment from a teacher who read the post “For Shame, Commissioner King.” That post described how the state commissioner in New York requires special education students to take examinations they can’t read.

The teacher writes:

“I am often asked to proctor extended time testing on our all-too-frequent assessment days (quarterly interims, ACTs, PSAEs, practice for all of the above, etc.). I have been told it’s because I “get it” by our very talented, also very frustrated, special education team. By “get it,” they mean that, as a traditionally-certified teacher (in a charter network which favors TFAers) who attended an actual school of education, I have taken a few required classes on student learning differences and understand that not all kids can be lumped into a mediocre average and expected to achieve the same baseline level of understanding given “optimal input” and prison-like management. My husband works in mental health, so I am also inappropriately (illegally) consulted on student psychological issues far outside my job as a Latin teacher. It amazes me how clueless, or maybe worse, how careless, our schools have become with these students. Our school has an AMAZING special education team, yet they are ignored, forgotten about, and not consulted when it comes to the students they know best. Many have left or are leaving to take their talent elsewhere, and who could blame them?

“When I proctored my first extended time interim (a totally unnecessary in-network assessment incentivized by bonuses for both students and teachers whose scores compete with other schools in our network), I was shocked and appalled at what we do to our kids who already struggle to stay focused on one narrow task and sit still in their normal 45-minute class periods. We put them all in a room together, and make them sit still and silent for four hours. It was miserable for me, and I can only imagine how miserable it was for them. One student managed to pull a dollar bill out of his pocket, and studied it intently for a good 10 or 15 minutes during his math exam, no doubt running out of time when it came to actually completing the test. Knowing this student, I’m sure something in his exam inspired some spark of curiosity that he couldn’t ignore. This type of exploration might have been acknowledged positively, could have lent itself to a “teachable moment” to help students see some cross-curricular connections between printed money and history or culture (I’m going to pretend he was reading the Latin). But instead, I was expected to silently discipline the student after the test for not “focusing hard enough” on his pointless, soulless, disconnected interim exam.

“I hate where we are headed. I hate how little schools are allowed to appreciate real, connected learning, curiosity, and critical thinking. I hate to see brilliance stifled by enforced mediocrity. I feel so lucky to have attended schools before this wave of “reform,” but heartbroken for so many of my students who trust their futures to a system that is ultimately failing to help them reach their human potential, because being human is too messy, too hard to assign convenient numerical values to, and apparently undesirable to our policymakers and their corporate sponsors.”

Categories Special Education, Students, Teachers and Teaching

Help the Providence Student Union Organize Other Youth Activists

By dianerav
May 2, 2013 //
1

I am a huge fan of the Providence Student Union.

I just donated to them to help them continue their movement and to encourage students in other cities and states to organize against high-stakes testing. Please consider going to their web page and supporting them.

I love their energy, their idealism, their wit, and their creativity.

I share their belief that education should be engaging, exciting, and a source of inspiration and joy.

They have energetically protested the soul-deadening emphasis on high-stakes testing in Rhode Island. And they have expressed their own vision for real education.

Best of all, they have mastered the art of political theater to publicize their work.

First, they held a zombie protest in front of the Rhode Island Department of Education building, protesting the state’s dead zombie policies.

Then, they persuaded accomplished professionals to take a test made up of released items from the NECAP test, which the state has inappropriately made a graduation requirement.

Just days ago, they delivered their First Annual State of the Student Address, describing their vision for real education. They timed it so that it was one hour before the State Commissioner Deborah Gist’s annual state of education address to the Legislature. Gist, you may recall, won national acclaim for threatening to fire every employee of Central Falls High School due to its low test scores.

Because of the PSU’s political theater, the Boston Globe came out against the use (mis-use) of NECAP as a graduation requirement.

The Providence Student Union represents the best of American youth. They are independent, creative, active, fearless. They are what we hope for our nation in the future. Help them thrive.

Categories Students

Why Should Students Care About High Stakes Tests That Don’t Count?

By dianerav
May 1, 2013 //
46

Another one of those zany testing stories.

In California, the staff gets the kids all excited about doing well on the state tests. They ave pep rallies, pizza parties, motivational assemblies, prizes, and anything else that might encourage the students to do their best.

But here is the odd part. The tests have no stakes for the students. Their purpose is to evaluate teachers, principals, and schools. The kids have no skin in the game.

Al Shanker used to say about merit pay (I heard him say it): “Let me get this right. The kids will work harder so the teachers can get a bonus? How does that work?”

In California, the kids have it in their power to fire their teachers and close their school, should they choose to do so. Is this a crazy country or what?

Categories California, Students, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

Don’t You Love the Providence Student Union?

By dianerav
April 30, 2013 //
7

The Providence Student Union delivered the First Annual State of the Student Address today, right before State Commissioner Denorah Gist gave her annual State of Education Address.

**********************

Hello. Attached please find the materials from the Providence Student Union’s First Annual State of the Student Address, including a press release, a list of PSU’s policy recommendations, and a one-page document detailing PSU’s idea for assessment reform.

PRESS RELEASE

CONTACT: Hector Perea | Contact@ProvidenceStudentUnion.org | 401-545-1973

STUDENTS COUNTER ED. COMMISSIONER’S “STATE OF EDUCATION” SPEECH –

OFFER THEIR OWN VISION FOR RI EDUCATION IN “STATE OF THE STUDENT” ADDRESS

Providence, Rhode Island – April 30, 2013 – A crowd of students, parents and teachers gathered in front of the State House today before the Commissioner of Education’s yearly State of Education address for what members of the Providence Student Union (PSU) called their First Annual State of the Student Address.

“Commissioner Gist’s education addresses have been one-sided,” said PSU member and Hope High School junior Kelvis Hernandez. “They have not told the full story about Rhode Island education because they have never been given from the student’s perspective. Rhode Island students know what is actually happening in our schools, and we know what needs to change. Today we will offer an alternative vision for how our schools should be improved so that students can meet the high standards we all aspire to achieve.”

During the address, five students from five different high schools in Providence laid out a series of policy recommendations for the Commissioner to focus to improve education in Rhode Island. Leexammarie, a sophomore at Central High School, explained PSU’s suggestions on teaching and curriculum. “We’re told to sit and listen, to do our test prep so we can pass our NECAP and move on. But that’s not how we learn. That’s certainly not how I learn. We need an education that is as creative as we are. We need projects, hands-on learning, debates, and conversations. We need opportunities to do arts and technology and to work in groups. And we need small enough classes where teachers have the flexibility to teach us like individuals.”

Speaking about the need for more funding for school repairs and transportation, Danise Nichols of Mount Pleasant High School said, “If Providence schools get the funding they need to make our buildings safe, healthy, and comfortable for students, and to provide transportation to students, then we will be in a much better position to learn. We don’t think this is too much to ask. Do you?”

PSU members also described the need for a better assessment system than the current high-stakes testing regime. “We need an assessment system that challenges us to really learn – not to just fill in bubbles,” said Cauldierre McKay, a junior at Classical High School. “We should look for inspiration at successful systems like the New York Performance Standards Consortium. These schools require a student to complete four performance-based assessments that show oral and written skill, including an analytic literary essay, a social studies research paper with valid arguments and evidence, a science experiment that shows understanding of the scientific method and an applied math problem. These schools outperform New York schools using high-stakes testing – and we can see why.”

Members of the Providence Student Union said they hoped their event would help re-center the education conversation in Rhode Island back to its proper focus, the needs of students. After describing all their policy recommendations, Cauldierre McKay summed up PSU’s future plans, saying, “Now it’s up to all of us to work, together, to turn these ideas from words into real changes – to convince the Commissioner to give us an education instead of a test.”
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Categories Class size, Curriculum, Education Reform, Students, Testing
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