Archives for the month of: June, 2013
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The Story Behind the Common Core Is Different from Duncan’s Version

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
35

Arne Duncan has been vigorously defending the Common Core standards and vigorously insisting that they were created by the governors and the states. Of course, he must do this because it is illegal for the U.S. Department of Education to interfere in curriculum and instruction in the nation’s schools.

But his version of how the Common Core came to be adopted by nearly every state since 2009 is not accurate. It would be interesting to ask the nation’s governors what they know about the Common Core and even more interesting to ask them to take one of the two federally-funded tests of the Common Core. If that seems a stretch, how about having the nation’s chief state school officers–who are cheerleading for the Common Core–take the test?

As for the states “leading the way,” as Duncan often claims, that’s not quite right. Earlier this year, Robert Scott, who was Texas Commissioner of Education until Governor Perry canned him for his criticism of out-of-control testing, said bluntly that his state was asked to adopt the Common Core before they were finished. Texas said no. Most other states said yes, because they wanted a chance to win Race to the Top funding.

For the real story behind Common Core, read what Valerie Strauss wrote here.

Here is a key section:

“The Core initiative was started in 2007 by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, a bipartisan effort to come up with a common set of K-12 standards in English language arts and math across states that would better prepare students for colleges and careers than in the past.

“The standards were written by school reformer and entrepreneur David Coleman, who now heads the College Board, and Susan Pimental of Achieve Inc., an organization created to advance “standards-based” education. Starting in 2009, the Obama administration, in its main education initiative, required states that wanted to compete for Race to the Top reform dollars to adopt the standards. It also gave some $360 million to two consortia of states developing standardized tests aligned to the Core, exams whose results would be used to evaluate teachers, another controversial part of the Obama reform agenda.”

And more:

“There is some irony in the fact that Arne Duncan keeps saying that the Core is not the work of the federal government while he, the federal secretary of education, goes around attacking its critics. In fact, he just bowed to those critics, agreeing to give states an extra year to comply with federal mandates on using Core-aligned standardized tests to evaluate teachers.”

Another angle: the Gates Foundation plowed more than $100 million into every aspect of the Common Core: the development, the evaluation, the implementation, the advocacy, on and on.

It seems that most of the nation’s grassroots are growing in Seattle, then watered inside the Beltway.

Categories Common Core

Why Is Wisconsin Destroying Its Public Schools?

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
15

A comment from a reader:

 

Dear Readers,

I have been in public education for more than 30 years. I am a recognized leader and have received many awards for excellence and advocacy for children. Wisconsin right now is the “wild west” of educational practice.

I am deeply committed to excellence in practice. I will advocate for strong models for quality improvement and student learning. As a district Carnegie Foundation is completing a case study on our work with a focus on our quality improvement model. I am working with among the best educators I have had the great privilege to work. The early results are remarkable, and I am confident we will be a national model of excellence.

Our Governor and our legislators are walking away from the needs of our schools and our community. Each of our schools is exceeding state expectations. We are in the top 10% performing school districts in the state.

We have lost 41% of our state aid, our local property taxes have gone up by 19%, and our local legislators have each voted to expand private vouchers across the state of Wisconsin, and an income tax credit for parents sending their children to private schools. Our community will off set the costs of this for the entire state of Wisconsin because we are considered a property rich districts. Our community is middle income, but we are the 3rd largest manufacturing community in the state. Therefore, our property values hold at a greater rate than the values around us.

The politics nationally, and within are state, are losing site of community values, the best interest of local economies, and the future for our state.

As a state we indicate we are committed to quality performance, and preparing students for strong post-secondary transitions.

Locally, we will continue to cut 2 million dollars of programming each year under the revenue limits as our legislators advance a dual system for education.

They know and have acknowledged that they will not be able to sustain adequate funding for public schools.

We have among the strongest schools in the nation. We continue to advance policy that will unravel what our local communities value for their children.

The local legislators have stopped advancing policy to reflect local values. They are passing budgets at 2 in the morning with less than an hour of debate. There is no public input and no evidence to support the voucher expansion.

Wisconsin policy makers are walking away from the strength of their schools.

Sincerely,

Pat Greco
Superintendent
School District of Menomonee Falls

Categories Education Industry, Privatization, Wisconsin

NC Teaching Fellows Program Killed, TFA Thrives

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
19

A reader in North Carolina writes about the legislature’s decision to kill the NC Teaching Fellows program while spending millions more to hire TFA recruits with five weeks of training:

“My daughter is in the last cohort of the NC Teaching Fellows. I am really scared for her and her associates. I told her to teach her required 4 years in NC then leave the state. I am seriously considering doing the same. It is a sad state of affairs when ill-trained college graduates are recruited to teach in public schools.”

Categories North Carolina, Teach for America TFA

Teacher: Why Is New York Manipulating Passing Mark?

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
32

Chris Webster, a high school English teacher in New York, wrote an outraged letter to State Commissioner John King. Why is the state manipulating the passing mark? Are they making the scores lower to make public education look bad?

Here is Chris’ letter:

Dear Commissioner King:

You often tell the story of a teacher who had a positive influence on your life. We all remember a teacher who acknowledged who we are; one who valued our talents and dreams. That is why I became a teacher. I wanted to have an influence on the next generation; I wanted to help mold and guide young adults and show them their value. And, of course, I wanted to express and share my love of literature. Therefore, I have enjoyed spending the last 16 years as an English Language Arts teacher. And so it is with a heavy heart that I watch the New York State Education Department blatantly manipulate data for their own agenda, the true victims being the children they purport to represent.

I will not nor can I speak to politics and what goes on behind the scenes. I am, however, right there on the front line, not in educational theory but in the classroom. My students completed the New York State Comprehensive Exam in English (the “Regents Exam”) this past Tuesday, and I am shocked and appalled by what the State is doing. I am not a statistician but I can speak in real terms of what I’ve noticed.

On the English Regents Exam, a student can score a maximum of 25 points on the multiple choice questions, and a maximum of 10 points on the three written components. These “raw scores” are then converted into a score out of 100. When one looks at the score conversion chart, one looks at the multiple choice responses along the y-axis, and the essay score along the x-axis, finds the convergence point, and within that box there is a converted score on a 100 point scale. With 25 points along the y-axis and 10 points along the x-axis, there are a total of 250 “boxes” within the chart, each with a score out of 100.

The June 2013 scores introduced a disturbing change. In the last three administrations of this exam, June 2012, August 2012, and January 2013, a passing score of 65 or higher was available in 70 of the boxes. This represented 28% of the possible scores. In the most recent administration, June, 2013, this number was reduced. The 70 boxes with passing scores were reduced to 57 boxes. This represents 23% of the possible scores. Looking at it in this manner – the state is using the same chart with the same raw data, but reduced the passing score possibilities by 5%. Another way of looking at the same data is to look at the passing score numbers. The State went from 70 boxes of passing scores to 57. This is a reduction by almost 20%.

These same numbers work when one looks at Mastery (score 85 or higher) rates on the exam. Again, using the June 2012, August 2012, and January 2013, Mastery scores were available in 15 of the boxes, representing 6% of the scores. In the most recent administration, June 2013, this number was reduced. The 15 boxes with Mastery scores were reduced to 12. This represents approximately 5% of the possible scores. Again, the State reduced this by 1%. Nevertheless, look at the same data in another light. The State went from 15 boxes of Mastery scores to 12. This is a reduction of 20%.

There are yet other concerns. Across the board, with all scores, the scores in the corresponding boxes have been reduced. For example, in the June 2012 administration, a student who scored a 17 on the multiple choice and a 7 on the essays earned a grade of 66. In August 2012 the score was 67. In January 2013 the score was 67. In June 2013 the score was 63, a failing grade, despite the raw scores being exactly the same as the 3 previous administrations. A second example: using the last 3 administrations of the test once again, if a student’s raw score was 24 on the multiple choice and an 8 on the written responses, the grade earned was an 85 (considered Mastery level). However, in the June 2013 administration, these same raw scores converted to an 83, a drop of two points, and, more importantly, failure to achieve Mastery.

It is only a matter of time before we see the newspaper headlines saying “Regents Scores Drop Across the State.” The test has NOT become more difficult or easier; it is similar to recent exams. The State has simply made it more difficult to pass. In my opinion, this feels like one more attempt to prove that public education is not working.

In an effort to push your reform agenda, the students are the victims. New York State’s high school students deserve better. If an 11th grade student took the exam last year, statistically speaking, he or she had a 20% higher chance of meeting with success. The “high stakes” testing agenda is shameful.

Sincerely,

Christopher A. Webster

English Department

South Side High School

Rockville Centre, NY

Categories Accountability, New York, Students, Testing

North Carolina Cuts Public Schools, Invests Millions in TFA

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
12

North Carolina has been cutting the budget of public schools, but there is always plenty for Teach for America in states with a rightwing legislature and governor. The state is increasing class sizes and eliminating the NC Teaching Fellows program, among many other cuts.

A reader sends this comment:

“In North Carolina, the state has invested four million dollars in TFA despite getting rid of teacher assistants, cutting supplements for teachers for advanced degrees, eliminating class caps, and other misguided policies that will spell disaster for public schools. From Senate Bill 402

“Teach For America
$5,100,000

Current state support is $900,000. State support to increase by $5,100,000 to establish a TFA program in the Triad region, grow in the southeastern region, targeted subject specific recruitment and the assumption of management responsibilities for the NC Teacher Corps beginning 2014-15.”

Click to access summary-sb-402-2013.pdf

Categories Budget Cuts, North Carolina, Teach for America TFA

Arne Duncan Defends Common Core, Ridicules Critics

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
19

Arne Duncan spoke to the American Society of News Editors yesterday, where he strongly defendedthe Common Core and caricatured its critics as extremists and fringe groups from the far-right.

An article about his speech on the Huffington Post says:

Duncan will give a full-throated defense of the Core in his ASNE speech. The Obama administration has been sensitive about the Core because its perceived closeness to the initiative can be seen as dampening Republican support. But Duncan is expected to relate what he calls the “powerful” Core to America’s future prosperity.

“Today, for the first time in American history a child in Mississippi will face the same expectations as a child in Massachusetts,” Duncan’s speech says.

This is an odd defense. There is already a common measure for children in Mississippi and Massachusetts. It is called the National Assessment of Educational Progress. NAEP shows that children in Mississippi are far behind children in Massachusetts.

His insistence that the federal government had no role in the Common Core is less than honest. He didn’t mention that his Race to the Top told states that they had to adopt something that looked just like the Common Core if they wanted to be eligible to win a share of the $5 billion prize. But since it is illegal for the federal government to attempt to influence curriculum and instruction in the nation’s schools, Duncan must stick with his fiction about non-interference and having no role at all. The gentleman doth protest too much.

Other than treating critics of the Common Core as an assortment of rightwing nut-jobs, Duncan never explains how adoption of a common set of standards and tests will assure America’s future prosperity. How does he know? What is his evidence? Or is it only extremists who demand evidence before spending billions of dollars and leaping into new practices?

Categories Common Core

Why Education “Reform” Is Bad Business

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
7

In this guest post on EduShyster’s blog, Susan Altman asks whether education reform is based on antiquated, obsolete ideas about business.

Altman is pursuing a master’s degree in International and Comparative Education and Business Management at Oxford University.

Yes, indeed, she says, the reformers look on schooling as a product, not a service. As a product, they seek to standardize it.

She writes:

“Think manufacturing, think Henry Ford and Model Ts on a conveyor belt. Think Taylorism. Now substitute fourth graders and math class for steering wheels and fenders and you have a disturbingly accurate picture of the business principles that inform much of contemporary education reform. According to this factory vision, students are all identical widgets while teachers are nothing more than mindless factory workers.”

This is not a 21st century paradigm, she says. The Ed reformers are stuck in an early 20th century way of thinking.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry

Louisiana: Why Business Supports the Common Core

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
4

The business leaders of Louisiana are strong supporters of the Common Core.

They believe it will prepare students to be competitors in the global marketplace.

They expect it will strengthen their knowledge of STEM subjects.

They believe it will have a dramatic power to transform every part of the education system.

They see it as the key to future prosperity.

I am not sure they really know anything about the Common Core, but they feel very strongly that it will work, even though it has never been tried anywhere.

Categories Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Testing

David Greene: Repeal Race to the Top

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
17

David C. Greene says it is time
to restore common sense and sanity to education. Remember common sense and sanity?

He writes the following on his blog (http://t.co/WSUIlWARVk):

Support State Bills to repeal acceptance of Race to The Top in your state.

I am almost 64 years old. I have spent all but 4 of those in NYS public schools either as a student, teacher for 38 years, coach, or teacher mentor.

This was on the front page of my local newspaper…. I bet it is not unlike yours. STATE FAULTS GRAD PREP. According to the state, and what they have given the ridiculous name of The Aspirational Performance measure… to be college and career ready, a high school graduate must score at least a 75 on their English Regents and at least an 80 on an Algebra Regents.

I went to the Bronx High School of Science, one of the most prestigious high schools in the nation because I passed a test in the 9th grade. I received a BA (cum Laude) from Fordham University, an MA from CCNY, and have earned an additional 90 graduate credits….

However, according to the State’s APM, I was neither college nor career ready because I never got higher than an 80 on ANY math Regents…. even at the Bx HS of Science.

How many of you are HS graduates? How many, like me would not have been “C&C ready”?

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I met 16 year-old Tyree 2 years ago while mentoring his TFA semi trained teacher in the Bronx. He was still in the 8th grade. He was on the verge of being tossed out of his Bronx middle school even though everyone knew he was one of the brightest kids there.

He and I connected. When I asked him why he was failing, he said… “I can’t stand this. Why should I be doing the same “frckn” thing since I was in 3rd grade?

He is typical. They took his passion, his curiosity, and his humanity and replaced it with boredom.

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When did we lose our way? The founding fathers knew that in a democracy public schools were necessary to have an informed citizenry.

Public schools are not just to develop reading and math scores. Public schools are meant for the development of well-rounded adults able to contribute to their communities in whatever way they can, as college professors and auto mechanics, computer scientists and sanitation engineers.

Public schools are meant to teach not just academics, but citizenship, and humanity.

Public schools, next to family, are the most important institution in the socialization process of developing mature capable adults in our society.

When did they turn into factories creating test scores, not adults?

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Many of you see your boys and girls, little and big, hating and getting stressed in school precisely because of what schools are increasingly forced to do in this DOE controlled prescribed manner.

But why is there a prescribed manner?

I taught American History for years. One extremely important era was the post Civil War Gilded Age when US Congress was owned lock, stock, and barrel by the powerful Trusts of that era.

A very famous political cartoon of the time depicted a legislative chamber watched over by HUGE figures of trusts represented by the FAT INDUSTRIALISTS of the era, like Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Carnegie.

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Similarly, education bills all over the country today are being guided by our version of these Fat Cats: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, the Koch brothers, Eli Broad, and the Walton Family….

Today they are profiting from the education of our children by buying politicians from DC to Albany and indoctrinated them with their pseudo-science and their INADEQUATE $700 million BIG BUCKS!!!

George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Arne Duncan, Wendy Kopp, Michelle Rhee and countless other so-called educational reformers have hijacked our education system. They provide corporations like Pearson profit at the cost of our children!

They “embrace science whenever it supports their sacred values, but they’ll ditch it or distort it as soon as it threatens a sacred value.”

…Like the Common Core and Standardized testing.

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NYS, for better and worse, has had K-12 syllabi and curricula for decades that other states hoped to emulate. It wasn’t perfect, but it was not prescribed. It wasn’t forced down the throats of schools, teachers, and children. They replaced it with Race to The Top formulas and The Common Core.

We have to make our political leaders regret that decision to be bought off, bribed, and blackmailed by Arne Duncan’s and the Federal DOE.

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I went to elementary school in a poor working class integrated South Bronx neighborhood. I learned to love school in 2nd grade because I was encouraged to learn by Ms. Rita Stafford, a teacher who thoroughly engaged all of us… We learned astronomy by hanging a solar system from the ceiling. We learned how to help our parents in neighborhood stores by learning long division. We learned how to fight for civil rights and for what is right by writing letters to President Eisenhower during the Little Rock crisis. We were published in the NYT.

SHE is why I am here today.

I am the SEED she planted!

Because we love our children we must fight for their right to have a teacher like my Ms. Stafford, and perhaps many of yours who planted the seed of who you are today.

Because we love our children, we must fight for the education they and the future of this country deserve.

We must be sure we allow our children to flower as we have.

Fight to repeal RTTT in NYS.

Fight to get Assembly Bill A7994 passed.

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With apologies to Quentin Taratino, and the movie Inglourious Basterds..

“Ed deformers ain’t got no humanity. They’re the foot soldiers of a teacher hating, kid smothering maniac and they need to be dee-stroyed.

“…But I got a word of warning for all you would-be warriors. When we joined this command, we took on a debit. A debit we owe our children personally. “

Categories Privatization, Race to the Top, Students, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Philly Student Orchestra Plays Last Concert?

By dianeravitch
June 26, 2013 //
16

Watch this video of the Philadelphia All-City High School Orchestra.

Because of the budget cuts, this might be their last performance.

The governor, the legislature, the business leaders, the foundations of Pennsylvania should hang their heads in shame.

Will this be the year the music died in Philadelphia?

Categories Arts Education, Budget Cuts, Philadelphia
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