Archives for the month of: May, 2013
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Why High-Stakes Testing Is Useless For This Student

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2013 //
21

A teacher explains how useless high-stakes testing is for some students, and for this one student in particular:

He writes:

In response to a state standardized test question about analyzing the author’s use of hyperbole, a student of mine recently responded with one brief sentence: “I don’t know what analyze means.” This student (who receives special education services) sat with his head down for most of the testing session. I was struck by the fact that he felt compelled to finally lift his pencil and scribble this when he could have easily just turned in a blank test booklet. It tells me that, even at a school that does not emphasize the importance of these tests (like ours), they are stressful and demoralizing to students. Students’ self-esteem is damaged and they feel the need to explain why they can’t produce a satisfactory answer. Mainly, it reminds me that these tests are a huge waste of time and resources that could go toward engaging students in actual learning.

But what does it tell them?

A test scorer looking at this student’s response would conclude that the student’s response is “totally incorrect or irrelevant or contains insufficient information to demonstrate comprehension (0 points).” Same for most of this student’s other answers. So, he’s got a “below basic” achievement level in “literature,” according to the test. Most people could tell you that by listening to the kid read aloud for one minute. So what else can we gather from his poor performance? He’s probably not learning anything in school? Doesn’t keep up with the assigned readings? Doesn’t finish any of his writing assignments? His teachers must not be addressing his unique learning needs by teaching him all the state instructional standards… I bet he attends one of those “corrective action” schools that have failed to meet AYP measures over and over… (Hey, we should close all those schools!) …if he even attends at all.

The reality is that he attends an alternative high school that doesn’t believe in testing their students in the traditional way. Instead, this student demonstrates his learning through the completion of a multidisciplinary project each semester. His project is based on real world learning that he engages in at his internship at a reputable local motorcycle shop. Last semester, with the guidance and support of his internship mentor, he built a “go-ped” motor scooter from scratch using technical schematics that most of us would be hopeless at deciphering. He collected data on the cost of all the materials as well as retail pricing and crunched the numbers to determine how much he could reasonably charge for his product. He researched and wrote an essay on the inadequacy of driver education programs, presenting evidence from several studies that showed that teen drivers are largely unprepared for emergencies on the road. He developed a hypothesis and and analyzed the results of a science experiment that involved taking samples of and growing bacteria in a petri dish (How “dirty” are those go-ped handlebars anyway?). Instead of a final exam, he created and delivered an exhibition where presented evidence of all of this learning to a group of his teachers, mentors, and peers. Pretty amazing accomplishments for a student who is “below basic,” I’d say.

I keep this student’s response to the “analyze” question in mind as a good example of why these tests pretty much useless.

Categories Special Education, Testing

High-Stakes Testing: The Albatross of American Education

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2013 //
9

Teacher Aaron Pribble wrote a critique of high-stakes testing for “Edutopia.”

He explains how high-stakes testing warps teaching and distorts the educational process.

When teachers get rewards and punishments tied to test scores it ruins education.

He has a simple idea: Raise the standard for entry into teaching. Then give teachers the freedom to teach. Treat them as the experts they are.

Categories Campbell's Law, Merit pay, Testing

Monica Ratliff: A Challenge to the Status Quo

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2013 //
14

Imagine this: a candidate for the school board who was constantly thinking of students, not hoping for a political stepping stone.

Imagine this: a candidate who thinks of students–not in the abstract–but as real children with names and faces, children she knows.

Imagine this: a candidate who doesn’t make absurd campaign promises because she understands the problems and needs of children, teachers, and schools.

That’s Monica Ratliff. She hated asking people for money. She taught her class every day instead of campaigning. She didn’t wring her hands and long for someone who had the power to make changes that helped students and teachers and schools..

She took responsibility and ran for the Los Angeles school board. She was the longest of long shots. She didn’t have powerful backers. She was outspent nearly 50-1. And she won. She is the real deal.

She is a challenge to the status quo.

She is the embodiment of the famous statement by Margaret Mead:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Students, Support for public schools, Teachers and Teaching

Who Are the Public School Haters?

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2013 //
22

It is clear by now that there is a very small number of very wealthy people who just don’t like public education. They don’t like teachers who work in public schools and want to strip them of any and every right, privilege, and status. They want to treat them like fast-food workers or salesmen who work on commission.

Given the chance, they would take the public’s money and give it to voucher schools, religious schools, entrepreneurs, to anyone who wants to start a school or an online business, regardless of their experience or qualifications. No one can take seriously their claim that they want to improve education or that they are “doing it for the kids” or they “put kids first” or they want to make kids “globally competitive.”

None of this is true.

Here Mike Deshotels explains who the haters are. They need do do some rethinking about the damage they are doing to our students, our teachers, and our nation.

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Closing schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Stand for Children, Vouchers

The Risks of Data-Driven Decision-Making

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2013 //
22

Our policymakers claim that their decisions are based on data.

What our policymakers seldom admit is that numbers by themselves are not reality. They are representations of reality. To draw conclusions from numbers, you must be awfully sure that you are measuring what matters and that your measurements are accurate.

In this post, the Red Queen in Los Angeles warns us that some of our leaders are guilty of making a “common, insidious mistake of believing that just because some concept is quantified it holds inherent meaning.”

Not so.

“Without knowing what a number represents – what it measures, how and why – without that backward tie to reality, any mathematical modeling has no practical interpretation, no meaning.”

Categories Accountability, Testing

Showdown in Chicago

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2013 //
5

The Chicago Public School board has made its decision, but the struggle is not over.

Parents are suing the school district.

The media sees the injustice of the massive shutdown of public schools and the shifting rationales for the draconian decision.

Articles in the Chicago press lambaste the Mayor’s indifference to the well-being of children.

Here is a video that summarizes the showdown. Parents and teachers will have their day in court, and eventually, at the ballot box.

Categories Chicago, Closing schools, Education Reform

Jason Stanford: The Cheating Will Continue Until….

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2013 //
41

Jason Stanford says that so long as there are high stakes attached to testing, there will be cheating.

Arne Duncan says districts need more test security.

A new report by the federal GAO documents instances of cheating in 33 states.

When Duncan was asked about a moratorium on high stakes, he couldn’t give a straight answer.

Stanford says:

“Removing the high stakes from standardized tests would take away the incentives to cheat and return testing to its original, intended purposes—to diagnose where schools and students need improvement. Sec. Duncan can do better than holding a meeting, issuing a report, and calling it a day, but until he addresses the root causes—to paraphrase the Japanese submarine commander’s famous phrase—the cheating will continue until morale improves.”

Categories Duncan, Arne, Race to the Top, Testing

Minneapolis: A Profile in Courage

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2013 //
14

I received this email from a teacher who decided the only way to save public education was to run for mayor. He deserves our support.

“I am a Minneapolis teacher running for Mayor of Minneapolis. I am bright but politically inexperienced. I wouldn’t have dared enter the race except that Minneapolis has Ranked Choice Voting and 7 (at least) other candidates vying for the office, and none are incumbent. Still, I entered the race reluctantly, and only because at that time no one else who was running was much interested in what’s happening with public education.

Before I entered the race I attended a school board meeting where the board decided to sell a vacant Minneapolis school building to a charter school. Our class sizes in public schools in that part of the city are in the mid to upper thirties. I know that many families are either moving to the suburbs or switching to private schools because of class size.

After that vote I decided to enter the race. With the surge in charter schools, high class sizes, high stakes testing, over-evaluation of teachers, the deprofessionalization of teaching through TFA, and union-busting efforts nationwide, I am terribly concerned about the future of public education.

The Minneapolis teachers’ union (MFT 59) is not endorsing anyone, but is discussing a forum or a candidate survey including questions to see where candidates stand on TFA, class size, high stakes testing, teacher evaluations, and site based management of schools, etc.

I would like to win this mayoral race to ensure that public education has a strong advocate and voice in the mayor’s office. An equally strong goal of my campaign is to build a coalition of like-minded people who will work to get information out to voters regarding the positions on education taken by school board members, city council members, and candidates for those and other public offices.

I am writing to ask for your help. We have an immediate need for cash. You could help us by writing about what is happening in Minneapolis and if you feel the spirit move, endorse me and ask those who follow you to go to my website and donate. Your help could make this a competitive race.

I would appreciate the opportunity to talk with you about my candidacy. If you want to know a little more about me, you can check me out on FB: Jim Thomas for Mayor of Minneapolis, or visit my web page: http://www.jimthomasformayor.com. I’d be happy to give you the names and contact information of several teachers who support me, as well.

Thanks for your time, Diane.

Sincerely,

Jim Thomas
Minneapolis Public School Teacher”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Class size, Minnesota, Teach for America TFA

Tampio: Bill Gates Should Not Control Our Schools

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2013 //
41

Nicholas Tampio, who teaches at Fordham University, doesn’t understand why Bill Gates has been allowed to use his billions to gain control of American public education.

Tampio says that innovation comes not from standardization but from diversity, from differing ideas and perspectives.

He recalls when Gates used the power of his technology to replace WordPerfect with Microsoft’s Word. I remember that well, because I thought WordPerfect was far superior to Word and was disappointed when the better software was stamped out by Gates’ passion to standardize.

Tampio thinks that Common Core may stamp out competing ideas. He writes:

“The Common Core may raise standards in some school districts, but one ought to read the literature with a critical eye. The Common Core has not been field-tested anywhere. The Common Core does not address many root causes of underperforming schools, such as hungry students or dangerous neighborhoods. And the Common Core has an opportunity cost, namely, that it forces thriving school districts to adopt programs that may be a worse fit for the student body.

“We can learn a lesson from the recent history of the computing industry. Apple and Microsoft have pressed each other to make better applications, phones, notepads, and cameras. Though Gates may have wanted to vanquish Apple, Steve Jobs prompted him to improve his products, which in turn benefited every computer user. Competition brings out the best in people and institutions. The Common Core standardizes curricula and thereby hinders competition among educational philosophies.”

He argues:

“America needs many kinds of excellent programs and schools: International Baccalaureate programs, science and technology schools, Montessori schools, religious schools, vocational schools, bilingual schools, outdoor schools, and good public schools. Even within programs and schools, teachers should be encouraged to teach their passions and areas of expertise. Teachers inspire life-long learning by bringing a class to a nature center, replicating an experiment from Popular Science, taking a field trip to the state or national capital, or assigning a favorite novel. A human being is not a computer, and a good education is not formatted in a linear code.”

Categories Common Core, Education Industry, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates

North Carolina Passes Voucher Bill

By dianeravitch
May 28, 2013 //
37

On a vote of 27-21, the North Carolina House Education Committee passed a voucher bill (called, euphemistically, “opportunity scholarships”).

As the article linked above notes, private school vouchers will siphon a minimum of $100 million from the public schools over the next three years.

In her summary, Lindsay Wagner of NC Policy Watch reports that one supporter of the bill likened school choice to buying a carton of milk.

Readers may recall that Jeb Bush used the same metaphor when he spoke at last year’s Republican national convention.

Wagner wrote:

Rep. Bert Jones (R-Caswell, Rockingham) compared offering parents their “God-given right” to school choice to selecting which kind of milk they prefer.

“Just because you support HB 944 would not mean, as the opponents would make it seem, that you are against public education,” said Jones. “That basically means that … just because you purchase 2% milk means that something is wrong with whole milk, or 1%, or chocolate milk, or fat free milk, or all the milks out there now that aren’t even milk.”

The school voucher bill should now move on to the House Appropriations committee; however, the possibility remains that it could be inserted into the budget, without further debate.

 

Categories North Carolina, Vouchers
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