Mercedes Schneider here reviews the controversial NCTQ report.
Having reviewed the members of the board, she concludes that NCTQ is uniquely unqualified to pass judgement on the nation’s colleges of education.
NCTQ is not a research organization. It is not a think tank. It is not a professional organization. It is an advocacy group and few of its board members have ever taught or have any direct knowledge of teaching or teacher preparation.
This teacher in Pennsylvania wonders why President Obama is turning his back on the calamity facing students in Philadelphia.
Please send his comment to the White House. After years of budget cuts and layoffs, isn’t it time for action? The Obama girls attend a wonderful school with small classes, experienced teachers, arts, physical education, science labs, a library: shouldn’t everyone?
The teacher writes:
“I teach in suburban Philadelphia in a district which is managing to survive with cutbacks in programming and hiring under Governor Corbett, but my wife teaches in Philadelphia and is experiencing firsthand the devastating impact of the state and city leaders seriously shortchanging public education. In September she currently expects to return to a school with no assistant principal, no counsellor, no nurse, no aids, no librarian, and fewer teachers.
“While I expect the kind of indifference exhibited by our tea party Governor and legislature to public education, I am struck by the almost total dropping of the ball by our President and the Democrats on the issue of saving our schools, especially on behalf of the constituency which worked and voted for their reelection. Is this because the President and those around him making education policy have been bought off by the same education “reformers” who own Governor Corbett?
“I got my answer when I watched the “cutting edge classrooms” town hall for students which was sponsored by the Obama administration on June 6 after the President announced his plan to put more technology in our nations classrooms. Here is the link: whitehouse.gov/show-and-tell. This was billed as the National Show and Tell on connected classrooms. The host was a spokesperson for something called EdSurge and at approximately the 24 minute spot of the presentation she tells the assembled students that she wants them to believe she has a magic wand which could solve any problem in their schools and she invites responses. It is then that a student from Philadelphia explains that her district has a 300 million dollar deficit, that teachers and counselors are being laid off and that she wishes the magic wand would be used by the Obama administration to fix this crisis caused by, what the student refers to as the “Doomsday budget.”
“Incredibly the total response from the spokesperson is to say: okay, Philadelphia wants more funding for its doomsday “project”. That’s it. That’s all she wrote.
“As you said in your letter to the Education Secretary it is a national disgrace to allow the public schools to die, but as long as leaders are more beholden to the technology companies than the students, technology, not learning is what we will get.”
Katie Osgood spoke at a rally on July 4 outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home.
This is part of what she said:
“My name is Katie Osgood and I am a teacher. I teach at a psychiatric hospital here in the city, working with students from all over the Chicagoland area and of all ages including hundreds of CPS students. And in my hospital, I have seen directly the impact of Rahm Emanuel’s terrible school policies. We are seeing higher rates of depression, suicide attempts, school refusal, family conflict, anxiety, and aggressive behaviors all directly related to current school policies in this city.
“To put it bluntly, CPS’s policies are hurting children. When you viciously close schools, slash budgets-including taking money for social workers, smaller classes, arts, music, and gym, when you fire trusted teachers and staff, all these things hurt kids. And in the middle of all this, our mayor has the gall to cut mental health services and close mental health facilities. But you see, the chaos of our system is intentional. The people in charge call it “creative disruption,” a business term…..
“This is madness. Children need stability, they need connection, they need strong ties to their neighborhoods and communities. They need schools that are funded to work and be successful. They need fully certified, experienced teachers! ”
Read it all.
Tennessee state superintendent Kevin Huffman expects to get great teachers by cutting the salaries of those with advanced degrees and experience. Wonder where he learned that formula? And of course, he will evaluate teachers by test scores, aka junk science. This is supposed to improve education because the top graduates of the nation’s universities will rush to teach in a state where advanced degrees and experience don’t matter. They will, won’t they?
Here is a comment by a Tennessee teacher, who teaches Spanish:
“I’m another teacher in TN…. I love to teach, and I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life, but it’s getting harder and harder to pay the bills. Many of us, including me, have to work multiple jobs at this point, despite our degrees, training, and professional expertise.
“Among other ludicrous things, in my evaluations, I have been critiqued for my students speaking Spanish during class because “it wasn’t listed on the board as an objective” (yes, for a Spanish CLASS), and I’ve been told to “speak less Spanish when I teach” during evaluations, because my evaluators do not know Spanish. In other words, I’m supposed to teach less, so that people who do not know my content area can evaluate the quality of my teaching.
“It’s very difficult to hang in there right now.”
In The New Republic, Jeff Guo writes about Michelle Rhee’s brazen attempt to buy the Tennessee legislature. In the last election cycle, she supported hard-right Republicans except for one Democtatic legislator who supports vouchers. This renegade also supported the notorious “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which sought to prevent teachers from discussing homosexuality. (Rhee’s StudentsFirst named the author of the “Don’t Say Gay” as its “Reformer of the Year.)
Guo tries hard to understand how a “reformer” parrots the same education agenda as the far right, ALEC, and others who despise public education and unions. He doesn’t get the connection among Rhee and other corporatist organizations like TFA and Stand on Children.
The grand deception: Using progressive rhetoric, even appropriating the language of the civil rights movement, to advance reactionary goals and privatize public education.
Graduation rates change every year, and the definition is not always exactly the same.
In the most recent federal survey of state graduation rates, published in October 2011, the data are correct as of 2009.
At that time, the average for all reporting states was 75.5% and the states with the highest graduation rates were:
Wisconsin (where 90.7% of students graduated in four years’ time);
Vermont, 89.6%
North Dakota, 87.4%
Iowa, 85.7%
New Jersey, 85.3%
New Hampshire, 84.3%
Missouri, 83.1%
Nebraska, 82.9%
Montana, 82.0%
South Dakota, 81.7%
Idaho, 80.6%
Pennsylvania, 80.5%
Kansas, 80.2%
Maryland, 80.1%
The states with the lowest rates were Nevada (56.3%), Mississippi (62%), and the District of Columbia (62.5%).
Now bear in mind that these are four-year graduation rates. Students who graduate in August are not counted; students who graduate in five years or more are not counted. Students who get a GED are not counted. If these groups were added in, the graduation rate goes way up.
A.central feature of the corporate reform narrative is the oft-repeated claim that our public schools are failing. They elite think that if they say it often enough, the media will repeat their narrative. And the media fall for the narrative of failure.
But it is not true.
Read this commentary from Indiana, where the privatization movement has slandered the public schools repeatedly, as a prelude to their takeover. The privatized schools get worse results, but no one cares about that. The important goal for the reformers is to disrupt, destroy, and take control of public schools and their funding.
The reality is that Indiana’s public schools are excellent. Where there is low performance, the root causes are segregation and poverty, about which the “reformers” have nothing to say.
Here is Vic reporting from Indiana, where “reformers” have done their best to destroy public education:
Vic’s Statehouse Notes #146 – June 28, 2013
Dear Friends,
A review of 23 consecutive years of data for Indiana’s public schools show that they are currently performing at or near their historic high on eight of ten key indicators. While there remains plenty of room for further improvement, claims that Indiana’s public schools have declined or failed are clearly not based on facts, as a review of the attached data will show. The legislative push to dismantle public education and use state tax dollars for vouchers to send students to private schools is clearly based on beliefs and ideology and not on performance data.
A 23 Year Review: Improvement in Indiana’s Public Schools
To rebut charges that Indiana’s public schools were failing, I issued the first data report data for the decade of the 1990’s in May of 2000, showing year by year ups and downs on ten common measures. After adding additional data each year, the ten tables have now grown to 23 years.
Once again, I updated this report for presentation at the annual IUPUI/ IUSA Summer Conference on Urban Education, held this year on June 12, 2013. The full 16-page report is attached.
Here are a few findings from data for the most recent year, showing changes from the 2012 report to the 2013 report:
1) Indiana’s graduation rate shows that 88.4% graduated in four years or less in the Class of 2012, up from 85.7% in the Class of 2011 and up from 76.1% in the Class of 2006 when the new 4-years-or-less cohort definition was initiated.
2) Hoosier public schools successfully raised the daily attendance rate to in 2011-12 to 96.1%, tied with the highest level ever recorded in 2008-09.
3) Performance on the SAT, both quantitative and verbal measures, taken by 69% of Indiana’s students, lagged behind the past performance of Indiana’s students and comprise the two key indicators out of ten in which Indiana students are not at their historic high.
4) Performance on the ACT, taken by 32% of Indiana’s students, continues to exceed the national average and to stand at the high point in Indiana’s longitudinal record with a composite score of 22.3, well above the national average of 21.1.
5) No additional National Assessment scores were released during the past year. Indiana has outperformed the national average on the basic standard on all 41 NAEP assessments since 1990.
6) Hoosier public school students improved their passing percentages on ISTEP+ English/Language Arts in Grades 3, 5 and 6 compared to the previous year. Grades 4 and 8 remained the same, and Grade 7 went down.
7) On ISTEP+ Math, Hoosier public school students improved their passing percentages in Grades 3, 6, 7 and 8 compared to the previous year. Grades 4 and 5 remained the same. No grade went down.
8) Academic Honors Diplomas reached a record high of 32.3% of all diplomas in the Class of 2012, and Core 40 diplomas tied the record set the previous year at 49.6% of all diplomas. Added together, a record total of 81.9% earned either the Academic Honors diploma or the Core 40 diploma.
Significance
This is not a failing record. While great improvement is still needed and tremendous needs still exist in many locations, the steady improvement seen in these statewide data undercut arguments made by some that public education needs to be dismantled and privatized through vouchers and for-profit ventures.
Check out the data for yourself on the ten tables in the attached report. The tables are designed for transparency, showing year-by-year data and whether each year went up, went down or stayed the same.
The last page summarizes 23 years in a glance. If you have limited tolerance for numbers, just look at this page, which is also reprinted below. It summarizes the 23-year range on each indicator, gives the current mark and then answers the question of whether Indiana is near the historic high.
The conclusion is that on eight of the ten measures, Indiana’s public school students are performing at or near the historic high for that indicator.
This improvement is unrelated to the two years that Indiana has given out vouchers, undercutting the argument that voucher proponents are fond of making that vouchers improve public schools. The longitudinal charts show that steady improvement has occurred throughout the 23 year span.
This record of improvement is the result of the hard work of thousands, even millions, of educators, students, parents and community members. Public schools need the broad support of the entire community to maintain this record of improvement.
Thanks for your continuing support of public education in Indiana!
Best wishes,
Vic Smith vic790@aol.com
SUMMARY OF TEN IMPROVEMENT INDICATORS
23-YEAR CURRENT AT OR NEAR
RANGE MARK HISTORIC HIGH?
1. ATTENDANCE RATE 94.7 – 96.1 96.1 YES
2. GRADUATION RATE 76.1 – 88.4 88.4 YES
(new method since 2006)
3. SAT VERBAL SCORES 485 – 504
(1988-89 – 2004-05)
SAT CRITICAL READING 493 – 498 493 NO
(revised test 2005-06 – 2010-11)
SAT WRITING 475 – 486 476 NO
(revised test 2005-06 – 2010-11)
4. SAT MATH SCORES 485- 508
(1988-89 – 2004-05)
SAT MATH –REVISED 501 – 509 501 NO
(revised test 2005-06 – 2010-11)
5. ACT COMPOSITE SCORES 20.9 – 22.3 22.3 YES
6. NATIONAL ASSESSMENT (NAEP) YES
(percent passing basic standard)
4TH GRADE MATH 60% – 89% 87% YES
8TH GRADE MATH 56% – 78% 77% YES
4TH GRADE READING 64% – 70% 68% YES
8TH GRADE READING 73% – 79% 78% YES
4TH GRADE SCIENCE 70% – 74% 70% NO
8TH GRADE SCIENCE 62% – 67% 67% YES
8TH GRADE WRITING 85% – 89% 89% YES
7. ISTEP ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS SCORES YES
(67 year-to-year comparisons) 33 (49%) went up Gr. 3, 5 & 6 went up
18 (27%) went down Gr. 7 went down
16 (24%) same Gr. 4 & 8 same
8. ISTEP MATH SCORES YES
(67 year-to-year comparisons) 42 (63%) went up Gr. 3, 6, 7 & 8 went up
11 (16%) went down No grade went down
14 (21%) same Gr. 4 & 5 same
9. ASPIRING TO COLLEGE 48.9% – 77.0% 77.0% YES
10. HONORS/CORE 40 DIPLOMAS 42.8% – 81.9% 81.9% YES
CONCLUSION: EIGHT OF THE TEN INDICATORS ARE AT OR NEAR THEIR HISTORIC HIGH.
ICPE is working to promote public education and oppose privatization of schools in the Statehouse. I keep hearing reports that some public school supporters read these “Notes” with great interest but don’t translate that interest into joining ICPE. We had an outstanding lobbyist Joel Hand working hard to support public education throughout the session. We need additional members and additional donations to pay off our expenses for the General Assembly session. We need your help! Please join us! Thanks to all who have joined or sent extra donations recently!
Go to http://www.icpe2011.com for membership and renewal information.
Some readers have asked about my background in Indiana public schools. Thanks for asking! Here is a brief bio:
I am a lifelong Hoosier and began teaching in 1969. I served as a social studies teacher, curriculum developer, state research and evaluation consultant, state social studies consultant, district social studies supervisor, assistant principal, principal, educational association staff member, and adjunct university professor. I worked for Garrett-Keyser-Butler Schools, the Indiana University Social Studies Development Center, the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Public Schools, IUPUI, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, from which I retired as Associate Director in 2009. I hold three degrees: B.A. in Ed., Ball State University, 1969; M.S. in Ed., Indiana University, 1972; and Ed.D., Indiana University, 1977, along with a Teacher’s Life License and a Superintendent’s License, 1998.
Hugh Bailey is tired of the oft-told tale of the miracle district and the “savior” who comes in on a white horse, turns around a low-performing district, then rides off into the sunset. He is writing in this case about Paul Vallas, but he is looking at the repeated stories of miracle districts (think Houston) and miracle-makers (think Rod Paige, Paul Vallas, and the list could go on.)
If only the people with access to the big media would acknowledge how hard it is to improve schools and districts. Anyone who says that it can be done easily, quickly, and on the cheap is not telling the truth. Change comes slowly or it isn’t real and doesn’t last.
Following John Merrow’s withering critique of Michelle Rhee’s tenure in D.C.,–in which he debunked all of her claimed gains– as well as his continuing effort to obtain documents about the cheating scandal, Rhee kept a low profile.
But Jersey Jazzman has tracked her down. She will appear at a statewide charter school conference in Fort Worth, Texas, next December.
The voucher program in Louisiana continues to amaze. It is a living demonstration of what happens when public officials abandon responsibility for the children and institutions in their care. Watch what happens when the state gives children a voucher for public funds and then says that whatever choice they make is okay. John White memorably said last year: “To me, it’s a moral outrage that the government would say, ‘We know what’s best for your child,’” White said. “Who are we to tell parents we know better?”
And that is why the Louisiana Department of Education sent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to the New Living Word Church school, making fools of taxpayers while abdicating any interest in the quality of education received by the children. An audit revealed that the school overcharged the state by nearly $400,000, so White has excluded the school from the voucher program and is suing to recover the money.
But the school was not excluded because of its poor education, only because of financial impropriety.
Robert Mann, a professor of communications at Louisiana State University, writes: “Would you pay $6,300 in tuition to send your child to a private school with uncertified teachers, insufficient computers and no proper classrooms, and at which the “teaching” occurred mostly by plopping students in front of televisions to watch lessons on DVDs? Of course you wouldn’t. But the Louisiana Department of Education would.”
Mann writes:
“In a moment of Orwellian inspiration, Jindal and the Legislature dubbed their voucher plan the “Student Scholarships of Education Excellence Program.”
“Despite embarrassing questions last year from legislators and the media about the school’s abysmal instruction, its lack of classroom space and the absence of qualified teachers, state Education Superintendent John White awarded the voucher slots.
“Actually, calling this Ruston fly-by-night operation a “school” is like calling beef jerky prime rib. Yet, with full knowledge that the institution was little more than a shell of a school, White and Jindal handed it more than $600,000 of your money.
“The damage to the state’s budget could have been worse. White’s department initially awarded New Living Word more voucher slots than any other school in the state. Only after the Monroe News-Star exposed the sordid mess was White forced to trim the number from 315 to 165. Last school year, the “school” enrolled only 93 voucher students.”
Why in the world would White offer more vouchers to this school than any other in the state? Maybe because the well-established religious and private schools would not accept more than a handful of students. And White needed the numbers.
And more:
“White, of course, feigned outraged – but not about the fact that he’d wasted hundreds of thousands of tax dollars subsidizing shoddy instruction. “It shows a basic lack of competence,” he said about the school, not himself. “It can’t be tolerated.”
“What White can tolerate is inferior instruction of your children via DVD. In his statement, he offered no explanation for his recklessness and incompetence.
“And of the audits (basically internal investigations conducted by two Baton Rouge accounting firms), White trumpeted them as proof that his voucher program – save for New Living Word – is an unqualified success. The headline on a Department of Education press release proudly declared, “99 Percent of Schools Show No Violation.”
“There’s just one problem with that statement: It’s patently false.”
What did the audits reveal?
“In fact, the audits revealed that the afore-mentioned standard “could not be completed for forty-nine of the fifty-one private schools reviewed.” One audit is littered with the following statement, concerning the records of dozens of voucher schools: “We were unable to perform the procedures because the school did not have a separate checking account or other procedures to account for scholarship expenditures separate from other expenditures.”
“Most of the schools were also unable to verify that their “expenditures do not constitute gross irresponsibility and are not individually enriching.” These are not insignificant findings except, apparently, to White. The state will spend about $45 million in the current fiscal year on vouchers for about 8,000 students.”
Louisiana’s problem is a lack of accountability. The state has no accountability at the top. When will John White be held accountable for the unaccountable voucher program? When will he be held accountable for the disastrous “course choice” program, that seeks to funnel millions of dollars to for-profit vendors? The highest court in the state declared unconstitutional the funding of both the voucher and course choice programs. Jindal and White will not be allowed to take money out of the public school fund to pay for their privatization plans.
What Louisiana shows for all to see is that the privatization movement is not about improving education. It is not “for the kids.” It is about money, power, and ego.
Diane Ravitch's blog 