Archives for the month of: February, 2013
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Is This What Bill Gates Means by Good Education?

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2013 //
67

Last week, Bill Gates wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal in which he explained how to solve the world’s biggest problems.

The article was titled, modestly, “My Plan to Fix the World’s Biggest Problems.”

The answer is simple: Measurement.

To prove his point in education, he pointed to the Eagle Valley High School, near Vail, Colorado. He said that the school adopted his recommendations about measuring teacher quality, and test scores went up.

He wrote:

Drawing input from 3,000 classroom teachers, the project highlighted several measures that schools should use to assess teacher performance, including test data, student surveys and assessments by trained evaluators. Over the course of a school year, each of Eagle County’s 470 teachers is evaluated three times and is observed in class at least nine times by master teachers, their principal and peers called mentor teachers.

The Eagle County evaluations are used to give a teacher not only a score but also specific feedback on areas to improve and ways to build on their strengths. In addition to one-on-one coaching, mentors and masters lead weekly group meetings in which teachers collaborate to spread their skills. Teachers are eligible for annual salary increases and bonuses based on the classroom observations and student achievement.

What he didn’t mention was another interesting and sad fact about the school.

Last May, it laid off its three foreign language teachers and replaced them with a computer program.

The school has money to pay bonuses, but apparently cannot afford to retain foreign language teachers.

One teacher had been in the school for 21 years and was four years away from retirement.

The community turned out to support her, but the board voted to dismiss her in the middle of Teacher Appreciation Week.

The board bought a foreign language teaching program. The students will have to pay $150 per semester to take the computer course.

Is this good education? Would they do that at Lakeside Academy in Seattle, where Bill Gates went to school?

Or would they boast of their foreign language department?

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Good News: Maine Democrats Slow Down GOP Push for Cyber Charter

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2013 //
4

Maine Democrats insist on a more careful review of the evidence about the track record of cyber charters before allowing K12 to open one in their state.

Governor Paul LePage is furious! He wants a K12 cyber charter to draw students and funding away from public schools and he sees no point in reviewing the evidence.

Meanwhile, Maine legislators are aware that K12 has gotten dismal results in other states. And they probably remember the exposé of Jeb Bush’s role in pushing for digital schooling in Maine. They may even have in mind the campaign contributions and lobbying that got the issue on the governor’s agenda.

When legislators start asking for evidence instead of blindly swallowing promises and campaign contributions, the days are numbered for the hucksters.

Keep your eye on this reporter, Colin Woodard, he is one sharp fellow. He may singlehandedly save the state of Maine hundreds of millions of dollars.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, On-Line Education

How Dumb and Destructive Are NCLB’s Metrics?

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2013 //
5

Did you think that NCLB identifies only “failing schools” as failing schools?

Guess again.

Matt Di Carlo demonstrates that a school can get excellent gains year after year and yet still be a “failing school.”

When will Congress wake up?

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Privatization

The inconvenient truth of education ‘reform’

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2013 //
6

The Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss picked up an important piece by Jeff Bryant.

Jeff’s piece first appeared on the Campaign for America’s Future website.

By Jeff Bryant

Events this week revealed how market-driven education policies, deceivingly labeled as “reform,” are revealing their truly destructive effects on the streets and in the corridors of government.

From the streets, we heard from civil rights and social justice activists from urban communities that school turnaround policies mandated by the Obama administration’s education agenda are having disastrous results in the communities they were originally intended to serve.

From the corridors of government, we were presented with irrefutable evidence that leaders driving the reform agenda are influencing public officials to write education laws in a way that benefits corporate interests rather than the interests of students, parents, and schools.

These events, in tandem, reveal an inconvenient truth of education reform that should make anyone who promotes these policies question, “Whose interests are being served here?”

Read Jeff’s full commentary here:  The inconvenient truth of education ‘reform.’

 

Categories Education Reform

Everything You Wanted to Know about VAM But Were Afraid to Ask

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2013 //
3

The Education Policy Analysis Archives is releasing a series of articles about VAM that you should read.

Here are links to the first three. Forgive the formatting. I am copying the email I received. There are more on the way, including a dissection of the much over-hyped Raj Chetty, et al, analysis that made the front-page of the New York Times and was cited by President Obama in his State of the Union address last year.

Education Policy Analysis Archives has just published the introduction and two articles of EPAA/AAPE¹s Special Issue on Value-Added:What America’s Policymakers Need to Know and Understand, Guest Edited by Dr. Audrey Amrein-Beardsley and Assistant Editors Dr. Clarin Collins, Dr. Sarah Polasky, and Ed Sloat 

>>http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1311
>>
>>Baker, B.D., Oluwole, J., Green, P.C. III (2013) The legal consequences
>>of
>>mandating high stakes decisions based on low quality information: Teacher
>>evaluation in the race-to-the-top era. Education Policy Analysis
>>Archives,
>>21(5). Retrieved [date], from http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1298
>>
>>Pullin, D. (2013). Legal issues in the use of student test scores and
>>value-added models (VAM) to determine educational quality. Education
>>Policy
>>Analysis Archives, 21(6). Retrieved [date], from
>>http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1160.

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Great News: NC Rallies Against Privatization

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2013 //
2

New North Carolina Champions Investment in Public Education

Raleigh, NC—February 4, 2013—Public Schools First NC, a new statewide, non-partisan, grassroots advocacy group committed to high-quality public schools for North Carolina, has formed out of deep concern about the growing threat to privatize and weaken North Carolina’s public schools.  Despite the fact that most North Carolinians regard public education as the foundation of North Carolina’s economic future and our best investment, public school funding has declined year after year and our children are bearing the brunt.

“We believe that North Carolina’s families deserve a public education system that is inclusive, innovative, responsive, and flexible—a system that operates within a framework of fairness, sound planning and local public accountability for tax dollars,” said Nick Rhodes, Public Schools First NC Board of Directors. “Adequate and equitable funding for all schools, effective teacher and principal recruitment, retention and support, and rich educational experiences will allow North Carolina to keep its rightful place as a state that leads the nation in excellent schools.”

Public Schools First NC supports:

  • Adequate, equitable funding reflecting at least the national average for each of North Carolina’s 115 school districts.
  • Increased funding for pre-school, because research demonstrates that high quality, early childhood education is a wise investment for communities and has lifelong, positive results for children.
  •  Excellent educational environments that are partnerships between schools, families, teachers and the community.
  •  Programs that encourage the retention of professional experienced teachers.
  •  A limited number of truly innovative charter schools designed to work with local school districts, managed with careful local and state oversight.
  •  A broad education—including literature, mathematics, the arts, history, civics, science, foreign languages, physical education, vocational education and new technological innovations—that allows students to thrive in a challenging, changing, and competitive global economy.

Public Schools First NC opposes:

  • Vouchers, tax credits, education savings accounts or other similar plans that take resources from our public schools—with little public oversight and even less evidence of success for students.
  •  Overuse and misuse of high stakes testing. Time and resources should be spent on hands on learning, creative problem solving, and a holistic curriculum. Test scores should not be used to punitively grade schools or evaluate teachers but as one of many tools that inform instruction.
  •  Educational “strategies” that ignore the impact of poverty on student success and blame teachers and schools.  We will hold our elected officials accountable f or addressing the growing rates of childhood poverty in North Carolina.

As our history shows, North Carolinians understand that education is the “great equalizer” for our citizens, and each child’s right to an excellent public education is guaranteed in our state constitution.

Public Schools First NC will be a voice to remind us all that our public schools are our first and best investment for North Carolina’s future.

###

About Public Schools First NC:

Public Schools First NC (PSFNC) is a group of citizens, parents, teachers, businesses and organizations joining together to advocate for a first-rate public education system for all North Carolinians. To learn more or to join our organization, please visit: www.publicschoolsfirstnc.org

 

Categories North Carolina, Parent Groups, Support for public schools

Mercedes Schneider Continues Series on NCTQ: Part 6

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2013 //
0

Mercedes Schneider, Louisiana teacher and Ph.D. in statistics and research methods, has been analyzing the board of the National Council on Teacher Quality. This is the sixth in the series.

Categories Corporate Reformers, National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ)

From a Market Economy to a Market Society?

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2013 //
4

I received the following fascinating email from Ed Johnson, who advocates for quality education in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

 

“We have drifted [the past three decades] from having a market economy to being a market society.”

 –Michal Sandel, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University

In his talk at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival, Michael Sandel offers insight useful for seeing how  market-driven “Choice,” vouchers, charter schools and organizations such as Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst contribute to our country drifting from having a market economy to being a market society and the consequences likely to continue disrupting and undermining democratic ideals in service to the common or public good.

Sandel speaks for about 30 minutes then does a Q&A for the remaining 18 minutes or so.  The statement above is from his talk; keep it in mind as you watch and listen and reflect.

You will, watch, listen, and reflect, won’t you?

http://www.aspenideas.org/session/markets-and-morals-what-money-cant-buy-0
–or–
http://bcove.me/c7psbs6b
(An aside: In the light of the insight Michael Sandel offers, it is deeply baffling and disturbing that this month there came a proclaimed Civil Rights Movement legend to stand before the Atlanta Board of Education to plead the case for keeping open a market-based APS charter school seemingly just because the school enrolls mostly “African American” children yet the school has dramatically failed to fulfill its five-year charter .)
Ed Johnson
Advocate for Quality in Public Education
(404) 505-8176 | edwjohnson@aol.com
Categories Education Reform

What Happens When the Bills Come Due?

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2013 //
5

We have had at least ten years–in the case of Milwaukee, 22 years– of listening to boasting about how choice and competition will change everything. Charters and vouchers will close the achievement gap. They will prepare students who are college-ready. The bottom five percent of schools will be in the top twenty percent of schools. The graduation rate will rise to 90 percent in X years. On and on.

All too often, gullible policymakers choose hope over experience.

At some point, the bills come due.

EduShyster asks a simple question: how are the graduates of “no excuses” schools doing in college? Did those years of filling in the blanks and obeying without question prepare them well?

This is an amazing article. EduShyster has great sources and gets surprising information. Consider this nugget:

“In each of the four school years for which SAT and AP data are available on the [state’s] website (school years 2006-2007 through 2009-2010, City on a Hill’s SAT scores were lower in every single subject than those of both Boston Public Schools and New Bedford Public Schools…When one looks at City on a Hill’s AP scores, its ability to prepare students for the rigors of college appears even more dubious.”

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

Is Detroit Shrinking by Plan or by Happenstance?

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2013 //
8

The following comment was written in response to an earlier post about the decision by Roy Roberts, the emergency manager of Detroit’s schools, to close many more more schools.

I would like to hear what readers think of this issue.

My own take is that Governor Rick Snyder is antagonistic towards public schools, that he gets his policy ideas from rightwing think tanks that are antagonistic towards the public sector in general, and that he would–if he could–privatize public education in every jurisdiction. I think one need look only at Muskegon Heights and Highland Park to see districts where the governor sent in a viceroy to oversee the privatization of the public schools. No effort was made to develop a fiscal recovery plan, no help was forthcoming from the state.

Is Detroit shrinking or is there a purposeful plan to open privately managed charters to accelerate the collapse and privatization of the public school system?

This reader disagrees with my analysis.

While a lot of what is happening in Michigan is disturbing right now, one important factor to keep in mind is that the open enrollment movement (either formally implemented by districts opening up to open enrollment or informally by an ongoing number of Detroit kids who use a relative’s address to attend schools outside of Detroit) is shifting public school kids from Detroit to other public schools outside of Detroit, too, not just sending them to charters within the city limits. Additionally, part of what is happening in Detroit — and throughout the recession-pummeled state — is that the population numbers are down significantly and, as a result, the infrastructure is not right-sized for the number of enrolled students. Even suburban districts not competing with charters have closed schools in the past 15 years. Michigan is losing population (and seats in Congress), so we have fewer kids in schools and quite possibly don’t need as many school buildings, something we might need to learn more about before we blame Snyder.

The Free Press article you reference identifies the sharp decline in enrollment — note that reality vs. the projection for this year was off by about 12,000 kids.

As an example, compare these DPS enrollment numbers:

2007: 104,000

Spring 2011: 74,000

Fall 2011: 65,971 (Crain’s estimated an additional 3K in pre-K programs and 4K in district charters)

Fall 2012: 50,000

Any district that has lost half its students in five years necessarily needs fewer facilities with which to serve them. Any district that is taking that kind of loss and NOT reducing its operating costs would be spreading its resources too thin instead of concentrating them on the remaining children.

The city is dropping population, too — from around 900,000 in 2000 to about 715,000 in 2011 (per Huffington Post). A population drop that drastic is going to be felt in public school enrollment.

The Detroit deficit puts kids at a disadvantage. Reducing expenditures is one way we could actually strengthen the public schools instead of leaving them vulnerable to takeover. I would argue that before we hurry to demonize administrators for this, we consider how these closures might actually reduce waste and overhead, historic DPS problems.

A key question we should consider before we rail on Snyder (and believe me, there are things to rail about!), “What is the current capacity in each DPS school versus its enrollment? Is the balance between staff and kids just right? How might school closures help DPS do a better job of concentrating resources and supporting kids so they are more satisfied with their public schools and less vulnerable to — or interested in — charters and privatization?”

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20111020/FREE/111029996/detroit-public-schools-beats-student-enrollment-goal

http://www.freep.com/article/20130124/NEWS01/130124047/Detroit-Public-Schools-deficit-elimination-enrollment-decline-Roy-Roberts

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/22/detroits-population-drops_n_839225.html

Categories Closing schools, Detroit, Michigan
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