Archives for the month of: January, 2013
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Ballard High School Teachers Say NO in Solidarity with Garfield Teachers

By dianeravitch
January 12, 2013 //
13

The revolt against the inappropriate use of standardized testing is spreading in Seattle.

Teachers at Ballard High School in Seattle voted not to administer the MAP test and to support their colleagues at Garfield High School.

“Whereas

The MAP test is a resource expensive and cash expensive program in a district with very finite financial resources,

The MAP test is not used in practice to inform student instruction,

The MAP test is not connected to our curricula,

The MAP test has been re-purposed by district administration to form part of a teacher’s evaluation, which is contrary to the purposes it was designed for, as stated by its purveyor, making it part of junk science,

The MAP test has also been re-purposed for student placement in courses and programs, for which it was not designed,

The MAP test was purchased under corrupt crony-ist circumstances (Our former superintendent, while employed by Seattle Public Schools (SPS) sat on the corporation board of NWEA, the purveyor of the MAP test. This was undisclosed to her employer. The initial MAP test was purchased in a no-bid, non-competitive process.)

The MAP test was and remains unwanted and unneeded and unsolicited by SPS professional classroom educators, those who work directly with students,

The MAP test is not taken seriously by students, (They don’t need the results for graduation, for applications, for course credit, or any other purpose, so they routinely blow it off.)

The MAP test’s reported testing errors are greater than students’ expected growth,

The technology administration of the MAP test has serious flaws district wide which waste students’ time,

Therefore

We, the undersigned educators from Ballard High School do hereby support statements and actions of our colleagues at Garfield High School surrounding the MAP test. Specifically, the MAP test program throughout Seattle Public Schools ought to be shut down immediately. It has been and continues to be an embarrassing mistake. Continuing it even another day, let alone another month or year or decade, will not turn this sow’s ear into a silk purse.

Ballard High School teachers

Categories Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Washington State

A Letter About Gun Appreciation Day

By dianeravitch
January 11, 2013 //
75

Tonight, I watched a lovely tribute to Joan Baez on PBS. Joan is a pacifist, a wonderful human being, and a great singer. She is also very courageous. She put herself in mortal danger as a fighter for human right.

Minutes after turning off the television, I received this email. It upset me. I thought I would share it with you. My reply is at the end of he letter.

On Jan 11, 2013, at 10:03 PM, “Dick Brauer, Colonel, USAF (Ret.)” wrote:

We’re calling for Gun Appreciation Day
on the eve of Obama’s Inauguration

Go to GunAppreciationDay.com and sign the petition
to defend gun rights

Go to our Facebook page and like us

Join the Facebook “event” page January 19 – Gun Appreciation Day

Then invite your friends to join!

President Barack Obama and his sycophants aren’t pulling any punches while they attack our Second Amendment rights.

It’s about time we started fighting back and playing for keeps.

Liberals have cowed down too many of our supposedly conservative leaders. Instead of standing strong for our right to bear arms, they’re giving into the emotional whirlwind of the leftist PR storm for gun control.

It’s abundantly clear by now that it’s up to We the People to stand up and make our elected officials do their duty, and protect the Constitution.

That’s why we’ve brought together a broad coalition of grassroots conservative groups who are ready and willing to take on the Obama Machine, go toe-to-toe with establishment “moderates,” and repudiate the lies and misinformation spread by the liberal media.

FOUR EASY STEPS TO DEFEND GUN RIGHTS:

1- Go to GunAppreciationDay.com and sign the petition
to defend gun rights

2- Go to our Facebook page and like us

3- Join the Facebook “event” page January 19 – Gun Appreciation Day

4- Then invite your friends to join!

We at Political Media, along with coalition members the Second Amendment Foundation, Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Special Operations Speaks, Revolution SuperPAC, Citizens and Country, Social Security Institute, Committee to Draft Judge Andrew Napolitano, Conservative Action Alerts, Women Warriors PAC, and Conservative Action Fund are joining together to make a clear statement against the gun grabbing schemes of the left.

We’ve declared January 19th – two days before Obama’s Inauguration – to be Gun Appreciation Day. And we’re urging Americans nationwide to show their support for gun ownership.

We need every patriotic American to turn out en masse at gun stores, gun ranges, and gun shows from coast to coast.

The Obama Administration has shown that it is more than willing to trample the Constitution to impose its dictates upon the American people. If the American people don’t fight back now, Obama will gut our Second Amendment rights – just as he deviously gutted the First with Obamacare.

Make sure that the crooks in this Administration know that we won’t take this laying down. If you are at all able, block off some time on the 19th and take part in Gun Appreciation Day. Invite your family, friends, and neighbors, too – anyone who believes in our Founders’ views on the Second Amendment needs to be there. I hope you’ll join the movement as people form lines “around the block” at gun stores, gun counters, gun shows, and gun ranges to protest the Obama administration’s assault on gun rights.

FOUR EASY STEPS TO DEFEND GUN RIGHTS:

1- Go to GunAppreciationDay.com and sign the petition
to defend gun rights

2- Go to our Facebook page and like us

3- Join the Facebook “event” page January 19 – Gun Appreciation Day

4- Then invite your friends to join!

We have never had a president who so callously disregards the Constitution, Congress, the courts, and the will of the American people.

And that’s why this outpouring of public support is so important for our constitutional safeguards to keep and bear arms. If, as this president claims, the American people are at risk from murderous rampagers, the logical solution is to extend our rights to protect ourselves with guns, not present a docile target.

Will you commit to standing up for the founding principles of our nation?

Are you willing to take action for the sake of our God-given rights enshrined in the Constitution?

Now more than ever, America needs dedicated patriots like you. For the sake of our Republic, please don’t leave the call unanswered.

Sincerely,

Dick Brauer, Colonel, USAF (Ret.)
Co-founder, Special Operations Speaks

HERE WAS MY REPLY:

What about the murdered babies of Newtown?

Don’t you feel bad about what happened?

Diane Ravitch

Categories Education Reform

A Lovely Memory on Who I Was

By dianeravitch
January 11, 2013 //
9

Someone I do not know sent me a surprising gift: a memory of what I said, who I was.

Memory plays tricks on us, and sometimes I learn things about myself from people I met or knew many years ago. And I wonder, “did I do that? Did I say that?”

Here is my gift from Nathaniel Smith:

“A bit of history about Diane: In a post “Diane Ravitch on and since 1/11/88″ at http://politicswestchesterview.wordpress.com/, I wrote up my notes on a talk she gave 25 years ago to the day at Franklin and Marshall College on 1/11/88. I tended to agree with her then, and i agree with her even more now!”

Categories Ravitch, Diane

Adell Cothorne Contacted Me

By dianeravitch
January 11, 2013 //
6

I received an email from Adell Cothorne, who was a central figure in bringing the DC cheating scandal to light. She is now running a cupcake shop in Ellicot City, Maryland. She told me she misses education and wants to get back into the schools. I asked her to write for the blog and hope that she will, though I understand that her lawyer may limit what she can say.

Adell took a huge risk when she worked in DC. She saw cheating and she reported it. She recognized that the children were being cheated so that administrators could falsely claim astonishing gains. She blew the whistle, and she paid the price.

For her integrity and courage, I am happy to name Adell Cothorne a hero of public education. She joins our honor roll.

She put students first.

She sacrificed her career to put students first.

She took a risk to put students first.

Adell left a good job in high-performing Montgomery County to work in DC. She took over Noyes school, which had seen a meteoric score increase. Her predecessor, Wayne Ryan, won $20,000 in bonuses and was promoted by Michelle Rhee to supervise other principals.

Adell quickly realized that the students at Noyes had not made miraculous gains. She began to suspect systematic cheating. She walked in on a group of teachers changing student answers on the DC tests. She reported her concerns to higher-up administrators but nothing was done.

She appeared on John Merrow’s Frontline program, repeating what happened. She had o leave the district and she now has sued the district as a whistleblower. Kaya Henderson, the chancellor, insists there was no cheating and that Cothorne is trying to benefit financially.

This is character assassination. It reflects badly on Henderson.

Cothorne took a stand. She saw cheating and she reported it. Why would she invent a story hat cost her her job?

One need only look at the astonishing rise and equally astonishing fall of Noyes’ test scores to know that there was chicanery. Where is Wayne Ryan, Rhee’s star principal? Why did he quietly resign and disappear? Why doesn’t he step up and explain why the scores went up so fast and tumbled down so fast?

Categories Honor Roll, Rhee, Michelle

This Superintendent Is Doing It Right

By dianeravitch
January 11, 2013 //
18

Last week, Wendy Lecker wrote an article in the Stamford Advocate saying that she was in search of one superintendent in the state of Connecticut who was doing the right thing for kids, teachers, and the community. Wendy had read here about the courage of Joshua Starr of Montgomery County, Maryland, and Heath Morrison of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, two superintendents who bravely have spoken the truth about the corrosive effects of the misuse of testing.

Was there one such stand-up superintendent in Connecticut?

I posted her plea and that very same day, I was able to identify Tom Scarice, superintendent of Madison, Connecticut, as the one. He brought together his community, parents, and teachers, examined research, and reached agreement on the best path forward for Madison.

I named Superintendent Scarice to the honor roll as a champion of public education.

Wendy Lecker investigated, and she agreed: Tom is the real deal!

She writes here about his leadership, which involved collaboration, not dictatorship or coercion:

“The district sought volunteer educators and administrators to develop a teacher evaluation plan that adhered to the core principles of the recent state legislation. But one component of the state’s proposed teacher evaluation plan is Value Added Measurement (VAM), a highly controversial system that uses student test scores in part to rate teachers’ effectiveness. The 45-member advisory council studied three areas: the efficacy of VAM, the impact of VAM on teachers and students and the impact of VAM on the quality of education. The overarching guiding principle was the goal of preparing Madison’s students to succeed in our complex world.

“After reviewing extensive research, the council concluded that VAM is unstable, unreliable and of questionable validity. To the council, “[s]tudent learning is too central to our beliefs to rely on unreliable data when making decisions.” This conclusion is consistent with the vast body of research on VAM. Just last month, the American Institute of Research joined the growing chorus of educational experts in advising against using VAM in any high-stakes situation precisely because of its many flaws.

“The council found that VAM has a destructive effect on both students and teachers. The narrow focus on standardized test scores heightens anxiety and leads to children who are less creative, expressive and excited to learn. VAM also negatively impacts two essential components of effective instruction: teacher collaboration, and the ability to meet individual students’ needs. Furthermore, the council determined from the research that VAM’s focus on test scores is detrimental to a quality education because it narrows the curriculum and marginalizes the development of the skills Madison decided were vital to successful life outcomes, such as critical thinking, problem solving and ethical decision-making.”

Read more: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Wendy-Lecker-A-town-doing-it-the-right-way-4187399.php#ixzz2HiaxSJz7

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Connecticut, Honor Roll, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

Maine Rejects Gulen Charter School

By dianeravitch
January 11, 2013 //
25

I wrote earlier that the governor of Maine was angry about the rejection of four of five charter applications by the state authorizing committee. He said he wished they would just “go away.” Two of those rejected charters were for-profit online corporations that have hired well-connected lobbyists, their usual method of operation. A third was a Gulen charter, here described by Sharon Higgins, who runs a website called “Charter School Scandals” and follows the expansion of the Gulen network.

Sharon writes:

“One of the rejected schools, Queen City Academy Charter School, was a Gulen charter school. It did not take long after Maine established its charter school law for Gulenists to try to open one of their charter schools.

Click to access QueenCityAcademyCharterSchool.pdf

The Gulen movement advanced their US activities into Maine last year. They hosted their first state capitol event for politicians last spring and have already taken at least one group of Maine lawmakers (plus spouses) to Turkey for their standard dog and pony show — a complementary trip that delivers a sustained dose of biased information delivery, concentrated lobbying, and constant ingratiation mixed with sightseeing and periodic visits to Gulenist institutions.
http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/index.php?topic=Portal+News&id=368790&v=article2011
http://tinyurl.com/anw59r9

The lead applicant for the QCA charter school was also the outreach coordinator for the organization that sponsored the capitol event and who met with Governor LePage last spring. Other QCA founders have been involved with a Gulen charter school in Massachusetts for the past six years. There are lots and lots of the usual Gulen movement “web of organization” connections.

Very, very heavy marketing on behalf of Turkey and Turkish culture has been taking place all across the US for the past 13 years or so (including at the Gulen charter schools). It is definitely not by happenstance and is not being done by just any group, nor by any random assortment of Turkish people. It is the coordinated work of individuals who are Fethullah Gulen “inspired.”
http://turkishinvitations.weebly.com/gulenist-non-profits.html

Members of the Gulen movement are heavily involved with trying to help advance Fethullah Gulen’s vision of Turkey becoming a powerful global figure once again. One of Lesley Stahl’s interview subjects in her 60 Minutes report — and the only Gulen movement observer/critic in Turkey who wasn’t too afraid to be interviewed — assessed this group as a personality cult.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57433131/u.s-charter-schools-tied-to-powerful-turkish-imam/?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

Whichever way the Gulen movement should be most accurately classified, at the very least it is a group which is widely acknowledged to be secretive as well as extremely controversial in Turkey. Oh yeah, and it is operating the largest network of charter schools in the United States with taxpayers’ money (over $400M/year at this point). If efforts in Maine and Virginia are eventually successful, two more states will be added to the 26 where Gulen charter schools are operating. Hizmet (how members refer to themselves) constantly talks about the importance of “dialogue” but it will NOT engage in a frank one with the American public. A broader exposure, full recognition, and a solid grasp of this situation, along with a heightened level of discussion and analysis, is needed asap!”

Categories Charter Schools, For-Profit, International, On-Line Education

Vouchers Do Not Reduce Educational Inequity

By dianeravitch
January 11, 2013 //
43

Vouchers were once thought to be a dead issue in US education. Voters have turned them down again and again. The public dislikes them so much that even Republicans are afraid to use the V word. Instead, voucher programs–always enacted by legislation, not by voter referendum–are always called, euphemistically, “opportunity scholarships.”

When GOP governors like Mitch Daniels in Indiana and Bobby Jindal in Louisiana promote vouchers (er, excuse me, “opportunity scholarships”), they claim they are doing it to “save poor minority students from failing schools.” Who knew the GOP had become the party devoted to poor minority kids while slashing the budget for education and social programs?

It turns out that vouchers are antithetical to equity. They do not save poor minority kids. They increase segregation. Schools choose and skim. Vouches exacerbate inequality.

So sayeth Julian Vasquez Heilig.

Categories Vouchers

What’s Great About Our Public Schools

By dianeravitch
January 11, 2013 //
6

Jersey Jazzman reports a true story about students in New Jersey.

It is about character, not test scores.

He writes: “I’ll say it until the day I die: I am proud to be an American public school teacher. I am proud of the great kids of this country. I am proud to be a part of a system that produces such fine young men and women.”

Categories New Jersey, Students

Test Scores at DC School at Epicenter of Cheating Scandal

By dianeravitch
January 11, 2013 //
13

The D.C. Inspector General is satisfied that there was no systemwide cheating. The office investigated Noyes campus and found that maybe there was a teacher or two who might have cheated.

The U.S. Department of Education seconded the nearly clean bill of health offered up by the DC IG.

But here are the actual scores of the Noyes school, compiled by retired DC teacher Erich Martel and posted on G.F. Brandenburg’s blog. Those retired DC teachers are plenty smart.

Look at those scores: First they soar up, then they plummet down.

Nothing suspicious there, right?

And apparently that is not the only school in D.C. where scores rose and fall in ways that suggest systematic tampering.

This is a scandal that will not die. There is too much evidence left on the table.

 

Categories Michelle Rhee

A Youth Activist in New Orleans Speaks Out for Public Schools

By dianeravitch
January 11, 2013 //
6

Not everyone in New Orleans is pleased with the loss of public education. Youth groups are speaking out and organizing.

In this article, Jacob Cohen shows how the state board, operating with “God-like” power, closes and opens schools as if they were chain stores, not community institutions in which people’s lives are invested.

The Times-Picayune must have taken some powerful flak for publishing Jacob’s article, because a few days later the paper published an editorial strongly defending the charter schools of New Orleans. How amazing that a young man like Jacob Cohen could so alarm the charter citadel and cause them to wheel out their big guns.

Here is a sample of what Jacob wrote:

“The instability and chaos being wrought on eastern New Orleans doesn’t embarrass the state’s most ideological reformers. A high-ranking RSD official once explained to me that schools are like sandwich shops — the ones that do not serve good sandwiches must be shut down so that others can expand their market share. The state is the invisible hand, facilitating capitalism’s natural process of creative destruction by closing the schools that don’t serve up high-quality sandwiches.

“In eastern New Orleans, we need less ideological fervor from the state and more compassion. Less free market fundamentalism and more pragmatism. Less “benign neglect” and more technical support, particularly when it comes to serving students at struggling schools. Letting these schools hit rock bottom so that they can one day be taken over by fashionable charter organizations has led to the sacrifice of thousands of children’s educations — in hopes that the new programs may be stronger.”

Jacob Cohen is the assistant director of the Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association (VAYLA) of New Orleans and the director and co-founder of the Raise Your Hand Campaign, a youth organizing initiative that focuses on education equity within New Orleans public high schools.
A graduate of Pomona College, he is the inaugural recipient of the Napier Initiative Creative Leadership Award, as well as the Davis Projects for Peace Award and the Donald Strauss Award. His senior thesis Privatization, Antidemocratic Governance and the “New Orleans Miracle,” received the Edward Sait prize in American Politics, and examines post-Katrina education reform and youth participatory action research.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, New Orleans, Supporting public schools
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