Archives for the month of: August, 2013
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Why We Love Monica Ratliff

By dianeravitch
August 13, 2013 //
5

What is not to love about Monica?

She beat the Billionaires Boys Club, which had assembled a massive campaign fund to defeat her.

She was trained as a lawyer, worked in civil rights law, then became a teacher.

She has taught for 12 years in a high-poverty school.

She won election to the LAUSD school board as a long-shot underdog.

Here she gently explains to a host on the Fox Morning Show that all the claims he has heard about the public schools of Los Angeles and about teachers are not true. She patiently explains how excited teachers are to return to their classes, how they pay for supplies out of their own pockets, and how dedicated they are to the success of their students.

Go, Monica, go!

Categories Education Reform, Los Angeles, Students, Teachers and Teaching

Teacher: What I Learned as a Student in Chile

By dianeravitch
August 13, 2013 //
5

As corporate reformers demand a free-market system, where charters and vouchers are easily available, and schools compete for students, it is wise to take note of Chile. Chile is the one nation that implemented Chicago economist Milton Friedman’s ideas into its education system, at the behest of military dictator Pinochet.

This is a comment by a teacher who studied in Chile:

“I was studying abroad in Chile in 2011 during the second round of student protests. I was surprised by the low academic level of the somewhat prestigious university I was attending. At one point, I offered to collaborate with a group of students in my physics class. About half the class was repeating the course, and we were all struggling. I had been watching free MIT lectures online, which had helped me understand some of the content of the class. On the other hand, I was still struggling with the format of the class and was barely passing. I offered to explain some of the concepts in Spanish using the MIT videos, if they would help me to do better in class. No one took me up on my offer. In fact, they seemed confused by the proposal. One girl responded, “But we don’t have to understand physics, we just have to get the right answers on the test!”

“My semester was cut short by the country-wide “strike” of college students, and with nothing else to do and no way to know when classes might resume, I spent a lot of time marching and talking with students. I was teargassed by faceless policemen in swat outfits during a peaceful protest. I watched students defend themselves in the only way possible–by throwing rocks at the police force’s armored trucks. I ran from burning rubble in the streets, and crossed a picket line to take final exams so that I could leave the country with credits to take back to the US.

“But what frightened me most about the protests (and what frightens me now, now that I am going into my first year as a public school teacher) was the realization that the Chilean students did not even know how to fight for their educational rights. Many students’ education was so poor and so undemocratic that they could not form an effective civil rights movement. Over and over, I watched them make basic mistakes that caused them to be ignored or ridiculed by the government, media, and middle and upper class citizens. The protests eventually ended with no tangible improvements for the students. If the US eventually gets to the point that Chile is currently at, there may be no way to reverse it.”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Global Education Reform Movement (GERM), International

Fort Wayne School Board Votes to Disregard Bennett A-F Grades

By dianeravitch
August 13, 2013 //
4

The Fort Wayne Community School Board passed a resolution by a vote of 6-1 to discontinue using the A-F grading system created by disgraced former State Superintendent Tony Bennett. The South Bend, Indiana, school board is considering the same resolution:

    

    

RESOLUTION OF THE
FORT WAYNE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS BOARD OF SCHOOL TRUSTEES TO CEASE RECOGNITION OF ITS SCHOOLS BASED UPON THE BENNETT A-F SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTABILITY

WHEREAS, the State of Indiana under former State Superintendent Tony Bennett created an accountability system that assigns a letter grade to schools ranging from A to F (“Bennett A-F System”) purportedly to provide parents a basis for choosing a school for their children; and,

WHEREAS, the letter grade system is based upon student scores on the ISTEP examination without regard to numerous factors that affect those scores, including but not limited to the number of students living in poverty, the number of students learning the English language, the number of students with special needs, and the extent of parental involvement; and,

WHEREAS, the Bennett A-F System ignores factors that the FWCS Board believes are of critical importance to parents selecting a school for their children, including but not limited to the school’s performance in narrowing the performance gap between various groups of students, the overall growth demonstrated by the students in the school, the skill and experience of the school’s building leaders, the attendance rates of its students and staff, awards won by the school’s staff, the extracurricular activities available to students, awards won by the students in the school, the disciplinary data collected for the school; and,

WHEREAS, prior to the adoption of the Bennett A-F System, FWCS adopted the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) system of encouraging continuous improvement for its schools and other departments which includes objective measurements that demonstrate improvement consistent with the FWCS Board’s Goals; and,

WHEREAS, the FWCS Board regrets not recognizing the accomplishments of the students and staffs of schools that demonstrated significant growth left unaccounted for under the Bennett A-F System.

1. 2.

3.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

The FWCS Board of School Trustees resolves that it will no longer give public recognition to its schools based solely upon the letter grade assigned to a school under the Bennett A-F System.

The FWCS Board recommends to its Superintendent that FWCS utilize its Balanced Scorecard, district assessment suite and other available measures to develop the criteria for recognizing a school’s continuous improvement and the quality of its instruction.

FWCS Board respectfully urges other school districts in the State of Indiana to adopt this Resolution and, in addition, to develop their own systems of school recognition consistent with this Resolution in order to send a message to Indiana legislators and Indiana’s educational leaders that the strength and quality of school instruction should never be judged on the basis of a single test but rather on the totality of factors described in this Resolution. 

Categories Education Reform

Anthony Cody: Lessons from the NY Test Debacle

By dianeravitch
August 13, 2013 //
15

Anthony Cody has written another brilliant column, this one explaining the lessons of New York’s disastrous Common Core testing, in which 70 percent of the state’s children allegedly “failed.” I say allegedly because this was failure that was designed and manufactured by State Commissioner John King. King predicted what the scores would be before the students took the tests. How did he know? He decided what the passing mark would be.

In his column, Cody draws certain lessons from the New York debacle:

The biggest mind blower is that this whole project has been sold with the idea that its proponents are pushing “college for all.” Orwell taught us that in the future, those in power will use “doublespeak” to disguise their intentions. This feels like a classic case of double speak. We have been told a string of falsehoods, leading to a huge lie.

Falsehood number one: Our future economy needs many more college graduates. There is very little evidence to support this and lots to the contrary.

Falsehood number two: Common Core Standards were developed by educators. Demonstrably false. See this post of mine from 2009 describing the process then under way to write the standards.

Falsehood number three: The Common Core tests somehow predict who will succeed in college. See Carol Burris’ analysis of how these tests were written.

Falsehood number four: This high stakes testing machine will somehow decrease inequity and create more opportunities for poor and minority students. In fact the achievement gap on these tests is proving to be even wider, reflecting the powerful influence underlying social conditions have on student performance.

As wealth has become ever more concentrated, and social mobility has declined, it is ever more important to create a social rationale for that inequality. People who are disenfranchised and deprived of meaningful opportunities must somehow be convinced that their second-class status is THEIR FAULT. It is because they have not applied themselves in school, not learned to be “critical thinkers,” that they are stuck in minimum wage jobs. Inequities must be rationalized. The sorting will occur. It must be explained so that it is accepted and not rebelled against.

Read the whole column. Cody nails it.

 

Categories Common Core, Privatization, Testing

NY Test Score Collapse: What Now?

By dianeravitch
August 13, 2013 //
55

What should happen next in New York after the Common Core testing debacle?

I won’t share my thoughts here, which are strong, but instead share the views of an experienced educator. Jere Hochman is superintendent of the Bedford Central school district in Westchester County. This is what he concludes:

“Schools have always used standards, designed curriculum, taught kids, and assessed learning and acknowledged there is a lot of room for improvement. Still, SAT, ACT, and AP participation and scores are up as is college attendance and hundreds of thousands, millions of student success stories.

“But after the “Nation At Risk Report” in the ‘80s and other critiques going back to the late ‘90s, politicians and CEOs saw an Achilles heel that would advance their interests on the backs of kids and teachers while ignoring administrators and local school boards. Well intended efforts to “level the playing field” and “a new civil rights movement” were about as sincere as billionaires using the momentum of sincere Tea Party activists and the same billionaires converting the original Peace Corps mission of Teach for America into a business model to bust unions and segregate and oppress kids.

“Since 1999, since 2009, and since last spring, many of us have written about the attack on public education in the form of No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and the most recent New York reform measures. While trying to make them work and being supportive, protecting local norms and curriculum, and making the best of bad laws, this week the politicos and CEOs chicken little mantras came home to roost.

“So What?
“After numerous position papers, calls for cost-benefit analyses, pleas to slow down, and cries for communication; the convoluted efforts of Race to the Top became the proverbial and overused perfect storm: unproven college and career ready standards, excessive standardized testing, and a rushed teacher and principal evaluation plan. And, the storm hit this week when kids became collateral damage of tests that said, “You used to be smart – not so much now.”

“Yes, “We told you so.” We told you so when NCLB was railroaded under the shadow of 9/11. We told you so when we pointed out that RTTT was just the carrot version of the NCLB’s stick approach. We told you so when we illustrated APPR was not “building the plane while flying it” but rather a train wreck about to happen. We asked for information, explanations, test samples, and definitions. We asked for seats at the table, time, communication, and input.

“So, here we are. We hold our students to high standards and we have the data and work products to prove it. We hold ourselves to high professional standards. Maybe we needed to be hit over the head with a two-by-four to get our attention to high academic standards and meaningful professional evaluation. So, yes, you got our attention but then kept hammering away. And, all the while, you diverted funds from our schools and championed segregated, regimented, uniformed, information regurgitated charter schools.

“Now What? In order to be part of the solution that raises standards and expectations constructively, uses professional evaluation, and fair and meaningful testing, demand that the Board of Regents and Governor

“Re: CCSS and State Testing

1. Declare a one-year moratorium on State testing
2. Implement State testing only in transition grades 3, 5, 8, and 10 beginning in 2014-2015
3. Utilize transition year testing as benchmarks for student and cohort progress in multi-year clusters and review of curriculum implementation and alignment
4. Analyze 2013 tests and result for validity, reliability, and grade level match
5. Provide opportunities for teachers and principals to analyze all test questions, results, and standards for alignment and gaps
6. Utilize 2013-2014 to field test common core standards aligned state tests
7. Provide an extensive comment period reviewing PARCC assessments and other testing options

Re: APPR

1. Declare a one-year moratorium on the 40% tested subject and local assessments component of APPR
2. Utilize 2013-2014 to concentrate on rubric application confidence and inter-rater reliability
3. Utilize 2013-2014 for school districts and BOCES regions to field test local assessments
4. Provide irrefutable evidence for the use of Value-added measures or declare the application ceased

Re: RTTT, CCSS, State Testing, APPR, and State Reform Efforts

1. Report a complete expenditure review of RTTT funds
2. Provide a cost-benefit analysis of all components of CCSS, APPR, and state testing
3. Provide irrefutable evidence of privacy assurances on all aspects of data collection
4. Develop a revised timeline leading to 2014-2015 implementation with bi-weekly communications to the field
=

Categories Common Core, New York, Testing

Reader: What We Learned from the New York Test Score Debacle

By dianeravitch
August 13, 2013 //
20

The first Common Core test produced a massive decline in test scores across the state. Charter schools fared even worse than public schools, with many dropping by 50 percentage points in their proficiency rates.

This reader read the handwriting on the wall:

 

“These test scores emphatically highlight the failure of vision that the corporate reformers bring to the table.

What scares me is the tremendous profit motive that drives and informs so much of what is happening in education. It’s as if capitalism, as a system, has its own needs and agendas that operate outside any kind of moral frame- work. Those who stand to gain, like hedge-fund managers, Rupert Murdoch styled billionaires, the industrial complex built up around curriculum and assessment, and the many charter chain operators are all aligned to push data driven, high stakes testing, and privatizing education with very little awareness or concern for the real implications that the free market has on public education.

I don’t think I’m overstating it when I say that they are dismantling a free public education system that is premised on equity, and established along with the founding of our democracy. They are replacing it with, well-connected, chain charters that don’t even address the needs of students and communities whose needs are highest. (These get counseled out, or lack the self efficacy to opt in in the first place.)

These “reformers” under-write politicians, thus gaining undemocratic access and influence. They own media outlets and know how to shape the national conversation. They tell us teachers suck, not poverty. They tell us teacher tenure undermines student achievement, not chronic underfunding of low-income school districts. They tell us that the labor movement and unions are a threat to our economy and to our way of life. When, in-fact, unions helped to establish and stabilize our middle class with the five day work week, the eight hour work day, a living wage, and more. They tell us public schools are failing when, in fact, every assessment, and decades of studies demonstrate that poverty is hurting children, not public schools. They tell us they know how to fix education, though they have been “fixing” it with charters and vouchers for over a decade, while sucking the life out of, low income, public schools with little to show for all their bluster.

They are still waiting for superman.”

Categories Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Testing

Why Is Pennsylvania Unable to Pay for Public Schools?

By dianeravitch
August 13, 2013 //
15

Pennsylvania has more cyber charters than any other state (16 at last count). It also has a large charter sector that performs no better than public schools. The Governor took $1 billion out of the public schools’ budget, and he is allowing the public schools of Philadelphia to die.

Here is a good explanation:

“We cannot afford four separate school systems

“Pennsylvanians must decide if we want to continue to support public education or if we will allow those who want to privatize education to prevail. Pennsylvania taxpayers are now supporting four separate school systems – our traditional community-based public schools, bricks and mortar charter schools, cyber-charter schools and private schools. We simply cannot afford it. The funding being diverted from our community-based public schools to charters and private schools is killing public education.

“Pennsylvania taxpayers are spending $946 million on bricks and mortar charter schools, 71 percent of which did not meet the federal Adequate Yearly Progress standard (AYP), $366 million on cyber-charters, none of which met AYP. The Education Improvement Tax Credit program is diverting another $200 million from public schools to support private schools.

“The Philadelphia public school crisis shows us the future for many public schools around the Commonwealth if we do not recommit to adequate funding for our school districts.”

http://www.hangerforgovernor.com/we_cannot_afford_four_separate_school_systems”

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, On-Line Education, Pennsylvania

A Hero Principal Speaks Out Against Absurd State Tests

By dianeravitch
August 13, 2013 //
19

Anna Allanbrook, principal of PS 146 in Brooklyn, is not afraid. She is one of the remaining veteran principals in a city that has ruthlessly pushed out veterans and replaced them with teachers who have only a few years experience. Allanbrook is 58. She remembers what it was like to be an educator before the state and city leaders became obsessed with test scores.

Her school is highly popular. Last year, 1,538 students applied for 175 openings. Teachers love the school and seldom leave. In contrast to many of the charters, where staff turnover is 40-50% every year, only 4% of PS 146 teachers leave annually.

In a New York Times article by the experienced education writer Michael Winerip, Allanbrook recognizes the absurdity of the state testing regime.

Allanbrook is here added to our honor roll for her courage in telling the truth about a state testing system that is not only unreliable and erratic, but is reckless with the lives of children and teachers.

“As a senior principal I feel a duty to speak honestly about what’s going on,” she said in an interview. “By my age, my position is relatively safe; I feel like I’ve learned a lot and should express what younger principals and teachers are too scared to say.”

“At 58, she is part of a generation that remembers when standardized testing did not dominate. She says from the time she started teaching in the 1980s, there has always been a place for testing to help assess student performance. But she worries that over the last decade, tests have superseded a teacher’s judgment.

“The P.S. 146 fourth-grade classes where 94.9 percent were proficient in math last year? This year, as fifth graders, only 25.6 percent of those same students passed. How did such gifted fourth graders become such challenged fifth graders? The problem isn’t the fifth-grade teachers, she says. Last year, with the same teachers, 83 per cent of fifth graders passed.

“Neither the 94 percent or the 25 percent reflects reality,” Ms. Allanbrook says. In the 1990s, when students took the tests, she says, results weren’t distorted by test prep. “You got a clearer sense of a child’s strengths and weaknesses,” she says. “What could parents possibly learn about their child’s abilities from such crazy results?”

“Here’s one way to think about it: Suppose your worth was measured by how much money you earned for a company, but the fellow who kept track of everyone’s earnings periodically forgot how to count.

“During the last decade, she has watched as state officials have repeatedly thrown out test results or rejiggered them.”

The state education department cannot be trusted. The test scores do not show what students know and can do. The scores do not show–as Arne Duncan claims–that the adults have been “lying” to the children. The results show that the adults in charge are incompetent.

As an aside: Welcome back to Michael Winerip, the nation’s most knowledgeable education beat reporter, who was inexplicably switched by the New York Times from covering education to writing about The Boomer generation. Every once in a while, he manages to write a column about education that reminds us how much we miss him.

Categories Common Core, Honor Roll, New York, Testing

The Bammy Awards: A Celebration of Educational Leadership

By dianeravitch
August 13, 2013 //
1

This is an event you should try to attend if you are in the DC area on September 23.

It is the Bammy awards, and it celebrates the contributions of educators, not corporate reformers.

Last year, Linda Darling-Hammond, John Merrow, and I received Bammies for “lifetime achievement.”

None of us is finished. We continue to fight for better days in American education.

Congratulations to Errol St. Clair Smith for initiating and hosting the Bammies.

Contact him for more information about them and about how to attend.

Errol St. Clair Smith, 818-539-5971

http://www.bammyawards.org

Categories Support for public schools, US Education

Chile: The Most Pro-Market School System in the World, Part 2

By dianeravitch
August 13, 2013 //
32

This is the second is a series of three articles written by Professor Mario Waissbluth of Chile for this blog. In this series, he describes the school system in Chile, which is based on testing and choice.

 

Chile´s Education (II): The results of the most neoliberal system in the world

Yesterday I described the Chilean economic and educational system. Now I shall explore its good and ugly results.

Unleashing market forces generated steady growth in per capita income since 1985 until now. As compared with Latin America, this index was the same in 1990, but today Chile’s is 50% higher. Similarly, the UNDP’s Human Development Index is far above that of the region, although well below the average OECD value.

Under Pinochet, the number of people below the line of poverty skyrocketed, beyond 40% of the population. However, since 1990 it has come down to 13%, thanks to more redistributive policies. So, why complain? Maybe Milton Friedman was right after all.

Nicanor Parra is our most prestigious living poet. He summed up Mr. Friedman´s error: “There are two loaves of bread. You eat two, I eat none. Average consumption: one loaf per capita”. Our income inequality Gini index is awful (0.52), and the tax structure does not help much in correcting it (0.50). The line dividing the poorest from the richest 50% of the population is a daily income of US$ 8 dollars a day… and from there down to US$ 2 dollars a day for the poorest 10%.

The children in the lower half are, on the average, getting out of high school without understanding what they read. They are admitted with no selection to for-profit low-quality universities or institutes, dropping out without a college degree in about 50% of the cases, and heavily indebted after this. This is the powder keg that exploded in 2011 and the firestorm has not stopped until today.

It should be said that, as in the economy, in education there have been some promising results. Attendance to basic school, high school and tertiary education is similar to the OECD average. PISA results have shown one of the best improvements in the world from 2000 to 2009, although, strangely, the internal testing system does not show any significant improvement in the average or in the inequality of results. Public spending in education is 4% of GDP, as compared with 6% in the OECD countries.

Things look ugly in the teacher´s staffroom. Their average salary is 40% that of engineering, law, business or medical careers. 40% of them drop out from schools before 5 years. Morale is generally low, confrontation with authorities is high, especially in the public sector which has been under attack for 30 years, by action and/or neglect. Teaching to the test, taken to the extreme, is making robots out of children and teachers. The best proof is that the very expensive Chilean private schools show international results well below the OECD average.

As a professor in one of the best and most selective public universities in the country, I can attest that 50% of my students are not capable of drafting an understandable two page essay on anything. They spent 12 years in school, training to answer multiple choice sheets, speedily forgotten to open brain space for next year´s new payload of material… which meant little to them.

The worst part, by far, is the social and academic segregation of Chilean schools, the worst in the world after Macao, according to PISA statistics. Thanks to market competition and generalized skimming practices, 21% of our children attend socio-culturally integrated schools, compared with 35% in Latin America, 46% in OECD countries, and above 50% in Finland or Canada. Educational apartheid.

In the low income academic ghettos it will be almost impossible to improve results, no matter how much money is poured into them. Even worse, Chilean education has enhanced segregationist and individualistic attitudes in all levels of society. This is steadily undermining social cohesion, to the point that it will be difficult to regain social peace, no matter which the next coalition in power is.

Mario Waissbluth (www.mariowaissbluth.com) has a PhD in engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1974). Currently he is a professor at Universidad de Chile and President of Fundación Educación 2020, an advocacy movement for equity and desegregation of the chilean school system (www.educacion2020.cl). His soon to be published book, with Random House (in spanish) is “Change of Course: A new way for Chilean education”.

Categories International, Testing, Vouchers
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