Archives for the month of: March, 2013
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Astonishing Details of Atlanta Indictments for Cheating

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2013 //
48

The New York Times has an extended story on the indictments of educators for their alleged participation in cheating on tests.

Ex-superintendent Beverly Hall was one of 35 Atlanta educators indicted in the biggest cheating scandal in public school history.

A third-grade teacher agreed to wear a wire for the investigators:

She “admitted to Mr. Hyde [the investigator] that she was one of seven teachers — nicknamed “the chosen” — who sat in a locked windowless room every afternoon during the week of state testing, raising students’ scores by erasing wrong answers and making them right. She then agreed to wear a hidden electronic wire to school, and for weeks she secretly recorded the conversations of her fellow teachers for Mr. Hyde.”

The scandal reached all the way into the superintendent’s office:

“Dr. Hall, who retired in 2011, was charged with racketeering, theft, influencing witnesses, conspiracy and making false statements. Prosecutors recommended a $7.5 million bond for her; she could face up to 45 years in prison.”

Many lessons here. Cheating is wrong. It should be punished. It cheats children. Lying is wrong. It should be punished. A system that incentivizes cheating and rewards cheating is wrong and should be changed.

The odds are that the cheaters will be punished, as they should be, but the system that encouraged the cheating will remain unchanged.

Another lesson from Georgia: Cheating scandals should be thoroughly investigated by professional investigators.

Categories Accountability, Georgia

G.F. Brandenburg Asks: If Indictments in Atlanta, Why Not D.C.?

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2013 //
13

G.F. Brandenburg is a retired math teacher who has a habit of plain speaking and a math teacher’s ability to get right to the point. His ability to dissect false claims using data is almost unparalleled; I say “almost,” because another math teacher, Gary Rubinstein, is good at this too.

In this post, he asks whether today’s indictments in Atlanta might be followed by similar indictments in the District of Columbia.

This is the question that many readers have raised.

Categories Accountability, Testing

Breaking News: Former Atlanta Superintendent Indicted

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2013 //
64

A report in the New York Times says that Dr. Beverly L. Hall was indicted by a grand jury for her role in the Atlanta cheating scandal.

The story says, in part:

“Investigators laid blame for the biggest standardized-test cheating scandal in the country’s history on the superintendent, Dr. Hall, who led the 50,000-student school system from 1999 until her resignation in 2011. Dr. Hall, who was hailed as National Superintendent of the Year in 2009 for her role in making Atlanta’s once-failing urban school district a model of improvement, had “emphasized test results and public praise to the exclusion of integrity and ethics,” the report said.

“The report asserted that Dr. Hall, while not tied directly to cheating or the direct target of a subpoena, tried to contain damaging information and did not do enough to investigate allegations, especially after 2005 when “clear and significant” warnings were raised. As superintendent, she received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses tied to bogus improvements in test scores.”

 

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Georgia

Beware of Self-promotion When Your Stats Are Bad

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2013 //
13

Julian Vasquez Heilig is one of the bloggers I enjoy enormously because he has the statistical smarts and energy to vet dubious claims. Follow his blog. He always has smart insights, with the data to back them up. It is called cloakinginequity.com.

The other day I put up a post about an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal that asserted that Texas needs many, many, many standardized tests because students don’t know the classics. Presumably, the more Pearson bubble tests they take, the more they will know about Shakespeare, Milton, Melville, and the Founding Fathers. They went on to tout their own charter schools, which presumably were succeeding at all these tests while turning children into philosopher kings.

Gosh darn, Julian checked the data. He discovered that their charter chain was underperforming the regular public schools on those tests that the authors touted.

Categories Charter Schools, Testing, Texas

Is Michelle Rhee a “Public School Parent?”

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2013 //
83

The Los Angeles Times is trying to figure out why Michelle Rhee is so evasive about being “a public school parent.”

Rhee lives in Sacramento. Her daughters live in Nashville, where her ex-husband is State Commissioner of Education (having been communication director for TFA). He is a major proponent of charters and vouchers.

In Tennessee, she told the Nashville reporters that she is “a public school parent.”

For some reason, she prefers not to admit that one of her daughters attends an elite private school in Nashville that has small classes, lovely facilities, a rich curriculum, and experienced teachers; better yet, the students do not take standardized tests. (Rhee herself graduated from an elite private school in Toledo, Ohio, with similar policies and practices.)

Why should she hide that fact?

Is it because she advocates that Other People’s children should have large classes, inexperienced teachers, merit pay, evaluations based on test scores, and nonstop testing?

Michelle Rhee should read some Dewey, at least one line:

“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.” 

Categories Education Reform

My Non-Debate with Marc Tucker: My Response

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2013 //
23

Marc Tucker has published what he says will be the final round in his debate with me.

He noticed that I never actually responded to his first two posts. I printed the views of others.

I have not debated him because I don’t see how it is possible to debate a hypothetical.

OK, we can debate whether the moon is made of green cheese, but I am too busy to debate that.

Or we could debate whether test scores will go up or fall if we give every student access to medical care.

But we won’t know until we try.

He thinks the Common Core standards are fabulous; I don’t know whether they are good or not because they have never been field-tested. He doesn’t see the necessity of field-testing, but I disagree. You don’t impose new standards, new tests, and new everything without some advance knowledge about their consequences.

Do we know if they will improve students’ knowledge and understanding of math and reading and other subjects? No.

Do we know if they will widen the achievement gaps between students of different races and students from high- and low-income families? No, we do not.

Do we know if they are developmentally appropriate for children in K-3? No, we do not.

Wouldn’t it be useful to know these things before we change everything? I think so, Marc does not.

I don’t understand how we can debate a topic in which we know so little.

Here is what I do know.

The most reliable predictor of test scores is family income.

The Common Core will have no impact whatever in changing the scandalous proportion of children who live in poverty in this nation. Nearly a quarter of our children are living in poverty, as compared to far smaller proportions in other societies. If we were to make a dent on that number, bring it down to, say, 15%, that would have a bigger impact on test scores than Common Core. But that is just my guess.

The common wisdom, repeatedly predicted by state superintendents, is that test scores will drop by 30% or so when the Common Core standards are assessed because the tests are “harder.” This will feed the corporate reform narrative that “our schools are failing.” They will use the new stats to attack public education and demand more vouchers and more charters and more privatization. The entrepreneurs are eagerly awaiting the moment when the bad scores are announced, as it will give them new opportunities to sell their edu-schlock.

The fact that David Coleman, the architect of the Common Core standards, was an original member of the board of Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst–the corporate reformers’ attack machine against public education–is no comfort. The other members of her original board were Jason Zimba, who wrote the Common Core math standards, and a third person, who worked for Coleman’s Student Achievement Partners. In other words, Rhee’s board was the same as the Common Core leadership.

There, Marc, I debated you.

Categories Common Core, Poverty

Naison: Why I Won’t Let TFA Recruit My Students

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2013 //
9

Mark NAISON is a professor of African-American Studies at Fordham University.

In this article, he explains why he will not permit TFA to recruit in his classes.

First, he became angry when he discovered that the organization gave preference to Ivy League graduates over his own students, who had grown up in many of the communities where TFA was placing its recruits.

But this is what his rejection came down to:

“Until Teach For America becomes committed to training lifetime educators and raises the length of service to five years rather than two, I will not allow TFA to recruit in my classes. The idea of sending talented students into schools in impoverished areas, and then after two years encouraging them to pursue careers in finance, law, and business in the hope that they will then advocate for educational equity really rubs me the wrong way.”

Categories Teach for America TFA

Vouchers Don’t Work: Evidence from Milwaukee

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2013 //
6

Now that 17 states have authorized vouchers to “save kids from failing schools,” it is time to review the evidence from Milwaukee, which has had vouchers for 22 years.

The “independent evaluator” of the Milwaukee and D.C. voucher programs is Patrick J. Wolf of the University of Arkansas. As we learned during school choice week earlier this year, Wolf is a strong supporter of school choice and he even wrote an editorial saying that his home state of Minnesota needs more school choice because it was in danger of falling behind Arkansas in doing so. How much more independent can an evaluator be? It is perhaps also noteworthy that the University of Arkansas is generously funded by Arkansas’s biggest philanthropy, the Walton Foundation, which pours millions every year into charters and vouchers and anything that has the possibility of undermining public schools.

Not even Wolf’s evaluations have shown any test score advantage for students who get vouchers, whether in DC or Milwaukee. This is the DC final-year evaluation. The main finding of the final-year evaluation: “There is no conclusive evidence that the OSP [Opportunity Scholarship Program] affected student achievement.” Remember that boosters for vouchers seldom use the V word; they prefer the euphemism “opportunity scholarship.” The family gets an “opportunity” to take their child from a public school, where he or she has low test scores, to a private or religious school, where he or she will also have low test scores.

The Wolf evaluations claim an advantage for voucher students in graduation rates. But consider this. In Milwaukee, according to this analysis (see the summary here) of Wolf’s evaluation, 75% of the students who started in a voucher school left before graduation. So of the 25% who persisted, the graduation rate was higher than the Milwaukee public schools. But what about the 75% who dropped out and/or returned to MPS? No one knows.

The Milwaukee voucher schools have never outperformed the public schools on state tests: See here and here. The only dispute about test scores is whether voucher students are doing the same or worse than their peers in public schools.

Accountability? Read here about some very low-performing schools in Milwaukee that have never been held accountable. One of them opened in 2001. Over the past 11 years, it has collected $46.8 million but its students perform worse than those in the public schools. Some choice.

And anyone who looks at the NAEP reports on urban districts will see that after 22 years of vouchers, charters, and competition, Milwaukee is a poster child for the failure of vouchers, charters, and competition. The students in those schools all perform about the same level. No sector is better. The Milwaukee schools are ranked among the lowest performing of the urban districts tested by NAEP, ranking just above sad Detroit.

If choice was the answer, Milwaukee should be at the top of the nation’s urban districts. But it is near the bottom. Why? Because choice is not the answer. Addressing the causes of low test scores is the answer, and choice does not address the causes of low test scores: poverty and segregation.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Privatization, Vouchers

Why I Admire Rod Rock

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2013 //
26

Last year, I placed Rod Rock of the Clarkston school district in Michigan on the honor roll. A member of his staff sent me his latest letter to his colleagues, and I realized I not only respect Rod Rock, I admire him. He represents the highest values of American education.

He reminds us how adults are supposed to care for young people. He is not subservient to fads or gurus or politicians. He is not intimidated by Arne Duncan or Rick Snyder.

He is an educator. Don’t you wish there were more like him?

Here is the letter he sent to his staff:

From: Rod Rock
Date: Sun, Feb 24, 2013 at 10:26 PM
Subject: Thoughts
To: All CCS Staff

Colleagues:

I know that I write often to you and I hope that you will tolerate one more rambling (at least until the next one). Also, I may have said this already to you, so I apologize if this is a repeat.

When my daughter, Haley, who is now a freshman at MSU, was in third grade, she stood one evening in our tiny, outdated kitchen, leaning against the wall next to the refrigerator and cried. When we asked her what was the matter, she said that she was certain she wouldn’t do very well on the MEAP test the next day and that she didn’t want to let anyone down.

At that moment, I said to her that no test will ever define her. I said that she is Haley Rock and that she is talented in many ways. No matter how she performs on any test at any point in her life, I stated, she will always be Haley Rock and possess many talents. No test, person, or relationship, I reiterated, will ever define who she is or what she is capable of becoming.

On Friday as I drove in to school through the snow and slush (with more winter predicted for Tuesday), I listened to a story on the radio wherein three academics from Stanford (or thereabouts) discussed America’s place in the world specific to academic achievement. One of the academics stated that achievement in America has flat-lined for 40 years. Another said that there is tremendous disparity in funding in schools, using two neighboring California districts as an example, one of which is funded at twice the level of the other. She (Linda Darling Hammond) stated that the highest achieving countries pay their teachers at the same levels as engineers. Another of the panel members said that even if we dramatically improved the levels of achievement of our African American and Hispanic students (who generally perform at the lowest levels), our students would only be in the middle of the international comparisons. The three agreed that we can do much to close opportunity gaps for America’s children.

Last week, I watched Beauty and the Beast. Last Thursday I watched our girls’ basketball team. On Monday, our boys ski team will compete for a second consecutive state championship. This week, I will enjoy watching our boys basketball team play (and they also played on Friday). Next weekend, our district will host an a cappella competition. The poetry slam is forthcoming. Talent shows are happening across the district. Kids are volunteering and making differences for others. Over 1,000 of our students sat in the high school auditorium last week and listened respectfully as a mother–who had lost her teenage daughter to a traffic accident, while the daughter talked on her phone–spoke to them about the choices they make. Many other performances of understanding will occur, under your guidance, today, tomorrow, and beyond. We currently have students who are attending colleges all over the world, competing with students from many other countries. When our students graduate from college, they go on to get jobs as engineers, doctors, teachers, plumbers, electricians, custodians, musical directors, and writers. They posses skills beyond test taking and they make contributions to their communities and the world (many of them come back to Clarkston and many of them are you).

If our students weren’t achieving in engineering school or college in general, our community would be very upset. The reason that our kids do well (one of whom is currently earning a PhD in physics at Cornell, having been inspired by one of our teachers–Mr. Ned Burdick, and the reason that Haley will be okay (and I wish she could have attended Clarkston–and so does she after watching Beauty and the Beast with me) is that she and most of our graduates posses skills beyond test taking. They posses agency which means that they believe in themselves and their abilities to overcome obstacles that stand in the way of their dreams.

You know our kids by name. You know who they are and how they are smart.

If we want to compare our students to those in other countries, why do we not use the same test as they use? Why do we assess every child every year? Why do evaluate every teacher every year? Why does a portion of our society not value teachers and other school employees at the same level as other professionals? Why is our government trying to expand instead of close the opportunity gap? If college or training beyond high school is essential for every child, why don’t we make it affordable for every child? These are not the practices of the world’s highest performing countries.

I was recently invited to a meeting to give comments on proposed administrator evaluation systems. I am not going. Robert Marzano, who is a leader in teacher evaluation, is coming to a meeting in Detroit in some weeks. I am not going. Every time I receive an e-mail that states a silver-bullet on how to improve achievement, I delete it before reading it. I am going to focus on research and not politics. We have to do what is right for our kids. We will do what is right for our kids.

Please do not allow any test score, number, grade, or moment define our children. Please see them as works in progress. Please look at their strengths and not their weaknesses. Please help them become owners of their own futures and steadfast believers in their abilities to overcome any obstacles that stand between them and their dreams.

If America didn’t posses the best educational system in the world, why would parents from other parts of the world fall over themselves to send their kids to American schools?

What messages are we sending to our kids today about learning? How coherent is our system? What do we need to change in order to ensure that our values of learning are clearly communicated and advanced? How do we respond to criticism or judgments? How do we demonstrate for our students the capacity to look at evidence and contradict it with other, more substantial evidence?

Perhaps we are not solely in the business of shaping minds. Perhaps our business is also about changing minds–including our own.

If the MEAP parent report says that a student is a 4 and needs immediate attention, provide also those parents contradicting evidence that resolutely shows that their child is much more than a 4-and-in-need-of-immediate-attention. Perhaps, you can show them, it is the test that needs immediate attention. What we say and how we say it matters.

Last words: Stress affects kids physiologically. Learning is a mind and brain endeavor. We cannot separate one from the other. I want to thank each one of you for any efforts that you make to support our kids as whole people. I want to thank you for any moments that you spend helping a child feel certain. I want to thank you for any moments that you spend convincing a child that he/she is able (or not what another child or adult said of him/her). I want to thank you for any moments that you spend giving kids something that helps them overcome an obstacle, whether this something is a pair of shoes, a pat on the back, a word of encouragement, or a sticky note. When they know truly that we care deeply, they care deeply about what we know (this is paraphrased from John C. Maxwell and perhaps others who believe in people).

Last, last words: Please don’t let anyone or any moment define a child. Please help our children discover, create, and continuously recreate their own, unique definitions of themselves. If they don’t know themselves, they’ll struggle to contribute and become.

Enjoy the week (I am going to see Haley on Tuesday, which is her 19th birthday),

Rod

—

Rod Rock, Ed.D.

Superintendent

Clarkston Community Schools: Think Beyond Possible

Follow me on Twitter: @RodRock1

Check out my Blog: http://rodrockon.blogspot.com/

Find the Clarkston Community Schools on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Clarkston-Community-Schools/164498640303901?bookmark_t=page

Cultivating thinkers, learners, and positive contributors to a global society.

Categories Honor Roll, Michigan

Deshotels: Oprah Inadvertently Reveals Charter Secrets

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2013 //
9

Mike Deshotels is one of Louisiana’s tireless bloggers who demand old-fashioned things like honesty and integrity.

In this post, Mike says that the Oprah show on Steve Barr’s takeover of a New Orleans high school inadvertently reveals charter secrets of success.

Barr no longer runs Green Dot. He had some financial issues a few years back. Needless to say, Barr is not an educator. He is part of that new breed called edu-entrepreneur.

If one believes that test scores and graduation rates–no matter how they are obtained–are all that matters, then Barr has some strategies that work, but not so much for the students.

Categories Charter Schools, Louisiana, New Orleans
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