Archives for the month of: September, 2013
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John Thompson: Why Did Race to the Top Ignore Social Science?

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2013 //
32

John Thompson has an excellent post on Anthony Cody’s blog, trying to figure out why the architects of Race to the Top ignored a wealth of social science evidence by demanding more test-based accountability than even No Child Left Behind.

He notes that both Elaine Weiss of the Bolder Broader Approach and the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) take a dim view of RTTT.

Elaine Weiss reviewed the evidence and found that RTTT was not likely to meet its lofty goals. States made promises they could not keep, and RTTT has been accompanied by punitive strategies, conflict, and deprofessionalization of teaching. “Districts heavily serving low-income and minority students, especially large urban districts, face some of the most severe challenges. Tight timelines and lack of resources compound RTTT’s failure to address poverty related impediments to learning. Heightened pressure on districts to produce impossible gains from an overly narrow policy agenda has made implementation difficult and often counterproductive.”

The GAO report found that implementation of teacher and principal evaluation systems were proceeding slowly and problematically. Some districts report that the cost of implementation exceed the value of the award. No one can say with assurance that education has been improved by the DOE’s demand to put even higher stakes on testing.

Of course, test-based evaluation of professionals is bound to be challenging because most teachers are not teaching tested subjects; many are “evaluated” by the scores of their school, or by the scores registered by students in subjects the teachers don’t teach. This is not only a challenge, it is nonsensical.

I have been searching, but I can’t find another nation in the world that is pursuing this means of evaluating teachers. If anyone who reads this knows of one, please let me know.

I am aware of several books that will be published over the next year explaining why teachers should not be evaluated by test scores. Of course, the U.S. Department of Education was warned not to do it. It was warned in a strong letter written by the National Academies of Sciences Board on Testing and Assessment. Here is a key paragraph, warning that value-added measures (VAM) were not ready to be used to evaluate teachers:

In sum, value-added methodologies should be used only after careful consideration of their appropriateness for the data that are available, and if used, should be subjected to rigorous evaluation. At present, the best use of VAM techniques is in closely studied pilot projects. Even in pilot projects, VAM estimates of teacher effectiveness should not be used as the sole or primary basis for making operational decisions because the extent to which the measures reflect the contribution of teachers themselves, rather than other factors, is not understood. Even in pilot projects, VAM estimates of teacher effectiveness should not be used to make operational decisions for teachers with students who have achievement levels that are too high or too low to be measured by the available tests because the estimates for such teachers will be essentially meaningless. Even in pilot projects, VAM estimates of teacher effectiveness that are based on data for a single class of students should not used to make operational decisions because such estimates are far too unstable to be considered fair or reliable. 

The U.S. Department of Education ignored the advice of testing experts, and now, three years after handing out $4.35 billion, there is no evidence that Race to the Top has accomplished anything other than to create massive demoralization among teachers and principals.

Categories Accountability, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

A Parent at Success Academy Says “No, We Won’t March”

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2013 //
52

As previously reported on this blog by an anonymous teacher at Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy charter chain, parents, teachers, students, and staff have been directed to participate in a march across the Brooklyn Bridge on October 8 to protest any slowdown in allocation of  public space to charter schools or any effort to charge the charters rent for public space. Some readers doubted the authenticity of this claim, but in fact it is true, as reported by website Gotham Schools.

Another reader of the blog sent this comment about why she will not march, nor will her children. She writes:

I am also a parent of a child at Success…this email is Real and participation is MANDATORY. As Eva said in her advocacy meeting the only excuse parents have for not attending protests or rallies is if someone (that someone being a woman because men are not excused) is within two hours of giving birth. She also noted that there would be at least 10 “events” a year and we are all required to attend. What is insane to me is that they argue the importance of classroom time so much so that they do not consider a Doctor’s appointment during school hours an excused absence but she sees it necessary to close schools down for several hours to protest. These children (most of them being kindergartners and 1st graders) should not be made to march any bridge they are children not pawns. Needless to say, we will not be participating.  I believe in standing up for my beliefs.

The point is a political show of force to impress the mayoral candidates, especially the Democratic candidate Bill de Blasio, who has publicly said that he will impose a moratorium on co-locations and would charge rent instead of giving away free space.

On this website, we have occasionally debated whether charter schools are public schools. This mandated march–the schools will be closed so that everyone will participate–would be illegal if the Success Academy charters were public schools.

By the way, Eva Moskowitz (a lawyer and former member of the City Council) is now paid $475,000 a year for managing schools enrolling fewer than 5,000 students, about double the salary of the schools’ chancellor who allegedly oversees the education of 1.1 million students.

This is the letter sent to parents. They are asked to support “choice,” but they are not allowed a “choice” about whether to march in support of the charter chain.

Dear Parents,

Your child’s education is threatened.  Our very existence is threatened.  Opponents want to take away our funding and our facilities.  These attacks are a real danger — we cannot stand idly by.

This is an outrage: There are hundreds of empty classrooms all across New York City, and more than 1,000 district schools share space without a complaint.  Yet our opponents want to penalize our success — and are proposing legislation to do so.

These issues are tremendously important.  If we lose ground – literally, if we lose access to public space – we cannot fulfill our commitment to you and your scholar.

Which is why you – you and your scholar, your friends and relatives –  must join us on Tuesday, October 8 to march with other charter parents across the Brooklyn Bridge.

What: Parent March across the Brooklyn Bridge in support of charter schools and parent choice!

When: Tuesday, October 8, 7:30am-11:00am.  Buses will pick you and your scholar up from school at morning arrival, and you will be dropped off at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn. We will delay the start of school until after the march.

Where: The march will start in Cadman Plaza, go across the Brooklyn Bridge, and end in City Hall Park (Downtown Manhattan).  All families will then take a subway back to school after the march to drop off scholars for the rest of the school day.

Don’t let opponents of ed reform steal your children’s future.  This is about your child, your choice.  Your voice must be heard.  We must show public officials that parents will fight for the right to choose excellent schools.

Warmly,
Eva
___
Eva Moskowitz
Founder and CEO
Success Academy Charter Schools

 

 

Subsequently, the

Categories Education Reform

Evidence: The Tide Is Turning!

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2013 //
19

Chiara sends this good news from Michigan, where more than 80% of charters operate for profit and entire districts have been given to for-profit chains.

We will awaken the public, we will organize, the politicians will follow, and we will win.

Chair a writes:

“Challenger in Michigan governor’s race calls for transparency and accountability in charter schools:

http://www.freep.com/article/20130905/OPINION05/309050100/mark-schauer-education-charter-schools-reform

He’s the first I’ve seen using this issue in a campaign. Michigan has a big for-profit K-12 industry at this point, they have whole districts that are completely privatized, so I’m not surprised it started there. It’s great to see that he’s talking about what they’re spending on advertising.

Should be interesting to see if this spreads to the neighboring big for-profit K-12 ed state, Ohio.”

Categories Education Industry, For-Profit, Michigan

Wendy Lecker: The Real STEM Crisis

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2013 //
7

Wendy Lecker is an attorney for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity project at the Education Law Center.

In this article, she argues that the STEM crisis is overblown because there are more STEM graduates than there are jobs for STEM graduates.

She does not argue against teaching math, science, and engineering. She worries that our undue emphasis on standardized testing is crushing the spirit of inquiry and the innovative thinking that our future scientists and engineers need.

She concludes:

Yet our policies in recent years are moving us away from that creative culture of learning toward a system that produces compliant, conventional thinkers seeking the one right answer. Our leaders are singularly focused on increasing test scores as a measure of student, teacher and school success. This obsession has forced schools across the country to eliminate arts, music and physical education and drastically reduce subjects like social studies. It has forced teachers to teach from a pacing guide or script and use rubrics. And it has ignored the importance of diversity, so that more and more children are attending highly segregated schools.

Experienced teachers see the change in our children. My son’s fifth-grade teacher once said that by the time they got to her, after several years of CMTs and an increasing barrage of district-wide assessments, students were following her around, asking if they had the right answer. She saw that as a habit of which she needed to gently break them. In her class, free-flowing ideas led to creative connections. One morning the class was studying equilateral triangles. In the afternoon, their social studies textbook showed a diagram of a triangle with the three branches of government on each side. All she had to do was ask the class what an equilateral triangle meant and the children embarked on a robust discussion of the balance of powers.

Epiphanies do not exist inside rubrics and scripts. It is in the spaces in between subjects that innovation occurs. Therefore, if our leaders are truly trying to create the next generation of creative thinkers who will restore vitality to our stagnant democracy and economy, they must allow the “messiness” of learning back into our schools.

 

Categories Curriculum, Economy

What Works Clearinghouse: Merit Pay in NYC Failed

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2013 //
3

Yesterday I mistakenly reported that the US Department of Education had closed down the “What Works Clearinghouse,” which reviews research and reports on the results. I corrected my error as soon as I learned about it. In fact, it was a different website that was closed down, the “Doing What Works” site, where educators might find practical advice.

The What Works Clearinghouse is still open, and that is a very good thing, because it just released three reviews of New York City’s “merit pay” plan. All three agreed that it failed. It failed to improve student achievement. It failed to increase teacher retention.

This latest evidence of the failure of paying teachers to raise test scores continues an unbroken stream of failures that have been documented for nearly 100 years.

Will the U.S. Department of Education immediately suspend the Teacher Incentive Fund? Will it use those hundreds of millions for a “Reducing Class Size in High Needs Fund.” Will Michelle Rhee stop saying that the way to save deficit-ridden districts like Philadelphia is to offer performance pay?

Let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Categories Merit pay, New York City

Ken Previti Reviews “Reign of Error”

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2013 //
3

Ken Previti, retired teacher, warns readers not to underline sentences in “Reign of Error.” He says it makes the book too messy and you will run out of highlighter anyway!

He says, agreeing with me, that the corporate reform project has used deceptive language to “brand” the junk food it is selling.

This is a quote he selects from the book:

“‘Reform’ is really a misnomer, because the advocates for this cause seek not to reform public education but to transform it into an entrepreneurial sector of the economy.“

This is his response:
The entire purpose of starting and naming my blog, Reclaim Reform, is based on this. The appropriation of the word “reform” was done intentionally by a well planned, well funded branch of the corporate education reform propaganda machine (think tanks). We must become aware of this, and we must reclaim reform.
We all know that the chemical poisons used as food preservatives and flavor enhancers are destructive to children but profitable to prepared food manufacturers, yet Americans are coerced into feeding their children this corporate education reform junk food if they expect to have their children take part in today’s American childhood pop-culture diet. High stakes testing has become the much advertised not-so-secret ingredient in the educational junk food that poisons our children.  Parents and children sense this is not good for them.
Who is it good for? The billionaire vulture philanthropists and tax free villainthropist foundations who give hundreds of millions of dollars to their self proclaimed crusade to change the education of our children – as they continue to profit by billions of dollars. No matter how it is worded or spun, they have monetized children and depersonalized education – for profit.

 

Categories Reign of Error

Julian Vasquez Heilig Decimates Latest TFA Study

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2013 //
27

Julian Vasquez Heilig of the University of Texas has the most brilliantly illustrated blog of any that I read. He creatively weaves in photographs, graphs, and other eye-catching stuff to make his text vivid.

And vivid it is.

In this post, he analyzes with his typical humor and dry wit the latest Mathematica study of Teach for America. The study made headlines across the nation.

It said that the students TFA’s young recruits got higher math scores than did the students of other novice teachers or of experienced teachers.

But Heilig demonstrates that the sample of TFA teachers was not typical of TFA, and that the differences between the TFA teachers and the other teachers were very small, almost to the point of being trivial.

He refers to the study as “irrational exuberance,” slyly referring to a remark made by Alan Greenspan when the stock market reached a feverish high in 1996. Greenspan implied that the market was a bubble, about to burst, and Heilig implies the same.

First, he points out that there are not many TFA secondary math teachers, and Mathematica had to “scour the country” to get an adequate sample size. Next, he notes that the sample was 80% white, which does not reflect the reality of urban districts or of TFA.

Most important, he shows how Mathematica chose to represent the differences; it used a scale showing the differences as “tenths of a standard deviation.” When the same difference is represented as 1, 2, or 3 standard deviations, it is very hard to see any difference between the novice TFA teachers and the experienced teachers. As he writes, “you need binoculars, maybe a telescope when the effects of secondary TFA math teachers are placed on a scale that is not in tenths of a standard deviation.” In other words, Mathematica presented the results in a scale that exaggerated what they found.

But his most remarkable observation is that the effect size of a TFA recruit is .07, while the effect size of class size reduction is .20. Thus, if you are a policymaker and you want to get the biggest improvement, you would reduce class size instead of hiring TFA, and you would get triple the effect!

Not to end with that huge finding, Heilig goes on to observe that the Mathematica study has findings that are “contrary to what we know from decades of research about teacher quality.”

According to Mathematica, nothing matters but “the magic of TFA.”

Prior ability in math doesn’t matter.

Taking math courses or have a math major in college doesn’t matter.

Working on your masters degree or certification has a negative effect.

Or, in the inimitable words of the irrepressible and brilliant Julian Vasquez Heilig:

In sum, you will be a better airline pilot (teacher) if:

  • You do not have ongoing pilot training, it will hurt your flying skills.
  • You do not study to become a pilot before piloting a plane. Just rev the engines. Wohoooooooo.
  • Using a flight simulator to test your ability to fly a plane before hand will have no relationship to your ability to fly a plane.

Please read the post and enjoy JVH’s irreverent and often hilarious graphics. Spot on.

Categories Education Reform, Teach for America TFA

Gary Rubinstein Deconstructs the Latest TFA Study

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2013 //
2

Wow! Just think, if you have a TFA teacher, you gain 2.6 extra months in a year of instruction in math! Or so concluded a recent study by Mathematica Policy Research.

But what does this mean?

Gary Rubinstein, himself an alumus of Teach for America, now a math teacher at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, took a closer look at the study and says it does not mean what it claims.

He writes:

The difference between a group scoring in the 27th percentile and the 30th percentile is very small, .07 standard deviations.  To give you an idea of how small this is, a 27th percentile on the SAT math section is a score of a 430 while a 30th percentile is a score of 440, which is a difference of one question out of about 60. 

So, on a test of 60 questions, the student of a TFA teacher answered one more question correctly than the teacher who was not TFA. How did that get converted to 2.6 months of gain? Read the post.

Categories Teach for America TFA

My Western Tour Begins Today

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2013 //
28

At the moment, I am looking out at the Brooklyn skyline, but tonight I will be speaking in Denver.

Tomorrow night I speak at the University of Washington in Seattle.

The next night I speak in Sacramento.

Then Berkeley.

Sunday is a day of rest in San Francisco.

September 30 I speak at Stanford University in Palo Alto.

October 1, I speak at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

October 2, I speak at Cal State Northridge.

West Coast, here I come!

Check the webpage of the Network for Public Education or my own webpage for times and places.

Categories Education Reform

Enrollments in Teacher Preparation Program Plummets

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2013 //
30

According to a new report by Edsource in California, enrollment in teacher preparation programs in that state continues to plummet.

Teacher layoffs and budget cuts combine to make teaching a bad bet as a career.

The attacks on teachers by prominent reformers no doubt add to the diminishing prestige of teaching as a profession.

The reformers’ insistence that a “great” teacher needs only five weeks of intensive training is no doubt another contributing factor.

So, while “reformers” insist that the teacher is the most important factor in closing the achievement gap and producing students prepared for college and careers, their ideas are destroying the teaching profession.

This is not the lesson to be learned from other nations that the reformers claim to admire, like Finland, where entry into the profession is highly selective and the course of preparation lasts five years.

What is happening is criminal.

Categories Accountability, Teachers and Teaching
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