Archives for the month of: July, 2012
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More on the Study of Indiana State Tests

By dianeravitch
July 20, 2012 //
1

I’m hoping to get a link to the full study by Adam Maltese of Indiana University and Craig Hochbein of the University of Louisville, but in the meantime, here is the abstract. It provides interesting additional details:

Abstract

For more than half a century concerns about the ability of American students to compete in a global workplace focused policymakers’ attention on improving school performance generally, and student achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) specifically. In its most recent form—No Child Left Behind—there is evidence this focus led to a repurposing of instructional time to dedicate more attention to tested subjects. While this meant a narrowing of the curriculum to focus on English and mathematics at the elementary level, the effects on high school curricula have been less clear and generally absent from the research literature. In this study, we sought to explore the relationship between school improvement efforts and student achievement in science and thus explore the intersection of school reform and STEM policies. We used school-level data on state standardized test scores in English and math to identify schools as either improving or declining over three consecutive years. We then compared the science achievement of students from these schools as measured by the ACT Science exams. Our findings from three consecutive cohorts, including thousands of high school students who attended 12th grade in 2008, 2009, and 2010 indicate that students attending improving schools identified by state administered standardized tests generally performed no better on a widely administered college entrance exam with tests in science, math and English. In 2010, students from schools identified as improving in English scored nearly one-half of a point lower than their peers from declining schools on both the ACT Science and Math exams. We discuss various interpretations and implications of these results and suggest areas for future research. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 804–830, 2012

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Indiana, Testing

The Great Muskegon Heights Puzzle

By dianeravitch
July 20, 2012 //
10

The state of Michigan despatched an emergency manager to take over the public schools of Muskegon Heights, Michigan, because the little district with three schools and 1,400 students had run up a deficit of $12 million.

Rather than help the district figure out how to pay off its deficit, the emergency manager decided that it was best to close down the public schools and hand over the students to a for-profit charter company. He selected Mosaica Education of Atlanta.

Now Mosaica has released its budget. Over the next five years, it projects,Mosaica will extract a profit from its charters in Muskegon Heights of at least $8.75 million and possibly up to $11 million, depending on enrollment.

I am puzzled. If Mosaica can make a profit that approximates the size of the deficit, why couldn’t that same amount of money be allocated to pay off the deficit?

Why was it necessary to extinguish the public schools and bring in a for-profit corporation?

Categories Education Reform

Why a School Is Not Like a Business

By dianeravitch
July 20, 2012 //
7

A reader responds to an earlier post. This reader says that schools are like churches; some say they are like families. As the previous post said, they are built on relationships. When a school closes, a community dies. Those in big corporate cultures don’t understand this. They are used to closing down low-performing units, firing people who aren’t at the top of the stack ranking. This is everyday stuff for them. They don’t understand community. They understand data. They overlook the daily expose of corporate misuse of data (see Enron, WorldComm, LIBOR, or your local business page). If anyone steps forward to defend the community, they will be called “defenders of the status quo.” In the past, they would have been called patriots.

This is so true. Schools operate like churches where individuals work together for the common good. Sharing highs and lows of putting on a school wide musical, laughing and crying together when children earn a scholarship or when children die, brainstorming strategies to help the family of a student who is suddenly homeless. These events create bonds that last a lifetime. Our janitor lost his father, our cafeteria lady lost her husband, our principal’s wife had a baby, our staff and parents showed up at the funeral home and made food for the families. The school needs a new playground. A group of parents donate money and time to build it on weekends. These are people who anticipate a long term (meaning YEARS) relationship with their children’s school. To this day, I receive a birthday card every year from the family of one a student whom I taught 25 years ago. Birthdays are extremely special in her family so I always made time in class for her family to share her birthday with her classmates. If this happened today, we wouldn’t have time, we’d be prepping for tests.
The business community doesn’t want to round out the ramifications of their reforms. Whenever I read of a school shutting down in spite of strong community protests, I feel real pain in my stomach. Education attracts people who have a strong service ethic and who prefer the company of children, not corporate careerists who thrive on competition and risk. Teachers are extremely dedicated to their own professional growth because they view their growth as helping children experience success, not failure. Wouldn’t we want people like this teaching our children? Aren’t these relationships similar to those formed by the elite edu-reformers in their children’s schools? Corporate reforers seem oblivious to their own lived experiences.Teachers are the types of individuals who avoid conflict and work within relationships to build consensus. Corporate reformers live in a milieu of conflict. Their behaviors are classic bullying behaviors- the strong vanquishing the weak, the man subduing the woman- the market rewarding winners and bankrupting losers. Teacher’s good intentions are being exploited. That’s why I take their rhetoric and dumb ideas so personally. That’s why educators should confront them at every turn and on every level and never give up.
Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Teachers and Teaching

Are the Rich Opposed to Public Education?

By dianeravitch
July 20, 2012 //
23

There was a time when almost everyone lauded the American idea of common schooling.

The ideal of equal educational opportunity was far from realized yet widely shared.

It was a goal, an ideal, a vision by which we measured our efforts.

It was a standard we strived to meet.

Urban districts had a small number of selective admission schools, but some urban districts had none at all.

I know. I went to the Houston public schools, and there were no magnets, no selective schools.

There were neighborhood public schools.

Now, after a generation or more of reforms, magnets and selective admission schools are commonplace, not common school education.

And the urban elites are pushing the stratification of education as hard as they know how.

This story from Philadelphia is almost routine: a group of wealthy business leaders are putting millions into specialized schools, one of which is the school that was featured in the documentary about West Philadelphia High School on PBS.

As this reform movement reaches its goals, the degree of separation of students by class will be extreme.

Charter schools represent the latest phase of this movement, facilitating its growth and the addition of new revenues to class segregation.

Has our society given up on common school education?

Categories Education Reform

Reality Matters

By dianeravitch
July 20, 2012 //
9

A smart comment by Dave Reid, a math teacher in California, about meeting the diverse needs of students in an overcrowded, under-resourced classroom:

Hi JJ. This is a reply to your July 20, 2012 at 12:41 am comment where you stated: “…any good teacher or administrator knows that placing these [sped] kids in inclusion or mainstream setting is meaningless unless you do provide them meaningful instruction. Accommodate. Differentiate, engage them. It’s not as easy as just placing them into the class, but many still don’t realize that.”

I believe we are fooling ourselves to think that most / many teachers can effectively differentiate for the diversity of needs in secondary classrooms today. “Meaningful instruction” is nigh impossible unless a student is ready and willing to engage at some level, taking into account any limitations of his/her disability. If an aide, or two, is available to assist and support the teacher, and adequate space and resources are available, the likelihood for meaningful instruction increases considerably.

Realistically, teachers with 150 students a day are faced with a near impossible mission to intuit changing student-specific interests that map appropriately to the myriad of standards per subject. I get the intent. It is honorable and a laudable goal. I wish it happened daily in classrooms throughout America. But it does not since it is a “bridge too far” expectation.

In my opinion, the education field causes more harm than good when it gives the impression that student-specific differentiation is achievable by any except the most talented of experienced teachers, and even in those cases I believe they need to be in a school culture that nurtures students and supports teachers in manners that enable their mutual success. In other words, it is in rare instances that the many factors that impact student learning align sufficiently for an individual teacher with 30-40 students per period, with five different periods per day, to accommodate ELD, RSP, GATE, or other special needs such as 504 plans.

Unless, and until, a realistic deployment of resources commensurate with the task besetting a teacher are readily available, we are fooling ourselves that meaningful instruction is possible, much less within reach. I wish it were otherwise. Regardless, I will continue to do everything in my power to make it so. Its just that with a quarter of a century experience facing difficult challenges with resources, I have a pretty good sense for what is realistic, and what is wishful thinking.
Categories Budget Cuts, Special Education

Florida Congresswoman Blasts FCAT

By dianeravitch
July 20, 2012 //
3

Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson penned an article in the Miami Herald blasting the state’s testing regime.

She blames it for destroying the lives of countless young people, who didn’t pass, were labeled failures, and did not get the education they needed to make their way in society.

She is a former school principal, and she describes the current obsession with tests and school grading as “madness.”

After years of complaining and pointing out missteps, and at times borderline criminal activity, I have reached the conclusion that the FCAT continues because it is a cash cow for adults who care absolutely nothing about our children.
I love children so much that to stand by any longer would betray who I am at my core.
Enough is enough, says the Congresswoman.
It’s time for parents, teachers and those of us who care to stand up and speak out against the injustices of the FCAT as if the lives of our children depend upon it — because they do. I tried to order an audit of the FCAT in Congress, but it is out of my federal jurisdiction. I call on Gov. Rick Scott and state legislators to demand that Florida’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability begin a forensic study of the FCAT now. There is too much at stake.
Every time a young black male commits murder in Miami, or even at times a lesser crime, I check their school records to see if they have a diploma. Most of them are casualties of the FCAT. I call them the FCAT kids. Whatever happened to career and vocational education?
Not everyone is going to college, period. But everyone needs a key to the next level of education. For goodness sakes, let’s stop this FCAT madness and allow these children to enjoy the music, arts, and sports that we enjoyed in school.
Teach them a trade; teach them life skills. Teach them how to write a check, save money, balance a check book, and manage a budget. If we are ever going to dismantle the cradle to prison pipeline and close the achievement gap in Florida, it is time that we as a state take back our children’s education from the hands of the FCAT. It is time to teach, teach, teach — not test, test, test.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Florida, Testing

The Trouble with Online Education

By dianeravitch
July 20, 2012 //
31

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The New York Times has a terrific piece today with the title of this post, written by a professor at the University of Virginia.

Sure, there are times when it is useful to take a course online.

But there is a downside.

The best learning is what happens when minds rub together, exchanging ideas; when a teacher can gauge what her students understand and can respond to their reactions. The best learning happens when there is a community of learners, thinking together.

I know, I know, this is really old-fashioned. And I’ll plead guilty to having old-fashioned values.

But there is something having the eye-to-eye contact, the face-to-face contact that is really better for purposes of teaching and learning than sitting alone in front of a computer.

I am not saying this to put down technology. I understand how wonderful it is to see visualizations, dramatizations, to see famous people giving famous speeches instead of reading them, to see events rather than reading about them. All of that can be incorporated into lessons.

My gripe is with the very concept that you can learn just as much sitting alone as  you can in a group with a live teacher. It may work with adults (although the author of this article doesn’t think so). But it strikes me as developmentally inappropriate for children.

Categories On-Line Education, Teachers and Teaching

What is a Highly Qualified Teacher?

By dianeravitch
July 19, 2012 //
15

A reader gives her view of what it means to be a “highly qualified teacher,” if not by the elastic definition in NCLB, then by her own knowledge of teaching:

As many have pointed out, no new teachers are “highly qualified.” While some new teachers may be more prepared than others, many years of teaching experience is necessary to become a truly effective (and therefore highly qualified) teacher. So not only are TFA teachers certainly not highly qualified, they are not even very well prepared. While some of them may have strong academic backgrounds and lots of motivation, why is that enough? Shouldn’t we demand that the people who teach our own children not only have strong academic backgrounds, but also strong backgrounds in education? I graduated with a bachelor’s in science from one of the top universities in the country, taught college students there for a year, got my master’s degree in education there (one of the top teacher prep programs), have the benefits and support of three teaching fellowships that constantly push me to be a better teacher, and I still know that, going in to my 3rd year of teaching, while I am doing a good job, I have a long ways to go to be a truly transformational teacher for all of my students. And I want my own children to have nothing less than that. Why is it okay to concentrate inexperienced teachers in high poverty districts when that would not be acceptable elsewhere?
Categories NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Teach for America TFA, Teachers and Teaching

Mother Crusader Rides Again

By dianeravitch
July 19, 2012 //
6

As I mentioned in an earlier post, a New Jersey reformer came to the defense of Acting Commissioner Chris Cerf and insisted that if Al Shanker were alive today, he too would be an advocate for charters and choice just like Chris Cerf and Governor Christie.

No one knows how she came to this conclusion, since Al Shanker did not look kindly on non-union schools (90% of more of charters are non-union) and he came out in opposition to charters in 1993.

Now Mother Crusader, the parent activist in New Jersey, has introduced a new voice into this discussion: Edith Shanker, the widow of Al Shanker.

Mother Crusader–known to family and friends as Darcie Cimarusti–did some research and found a statement in which Edie Shanker (as she is known to her friends) called a foul on the reformers who were trying to use Al’s name to support charters.

As I have said again and again, each of us has the power to change the national conversation. Together we are unstoppable.

Darcie Cimarusti and Jersey Jazzman and other parent and teachers bloggers are doing that in New Jersey. They are our Paul Reveres. They are shining a light on the back room deals and exposing the hype and spin. Thanks to them for their persistence and courage.

Categories Cerf, Chris, Charter Schools, Education Reform, New Jersey

“Who Are These People?” Asks Mississippi Legislator

By dianeravitch
July 19, 2012 //
3

A Republican legislator, Forrest Hamilton of Olive Branch, Mississippi,  explained to the local Chamber of Commerce why he opposed charter school legislation in the session just ended.

He said, “The most important vote I made in the past nine years was my vote in the Education Committee against the charter schools bill,” Hamilton told the gathering. “I said, ‘who are these people who want to put charter schools in the Delta?’ We couldn’t find out who it was.”

Another Republican representative said it was fine to put charter schools in low-performing districts but the proposed bill would have put them everywhere, without specifying who would run them. And the successful districts did not want to lose money to charters.

 

 

Categories Charter Schools
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