Archives for the month of: November, 2013
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What I Told Educators on Long Island About Common Core

By dianeravitch
November 21, 2013 //
24

On Monday, my first outing since I was  hospitalized, I went to a meeting of superintendents and school board members on Long Island to discuss the Common Core.

I explained why I was uneasy about the hasty implementation of the Common Core in New York, especially the inappropriate rush to test the Common Core standards before teachers had a chance to learn about them, before resources were available to teach them, and before students had had a chance to learn them.

I warned that the Common Core testing was designed to fail 70% of the students. New York Commissioner of Education John King predicted with uncanny accuracy before the tests were given that only 30% or so would pass. He knew this because he wrongly chose the NAEP “proficient” level as a pass-fail mark. On NAEP, 30% of New York students are at the “proficient” level, he figured, so that is what the state tests should show. But NAEP proficient was not designed to be a pass-fail mark; it represents “solid academic performance.” I was a board member of the National Assessment Governing Board for seven years. I know the achievement levels and the kind of student work they represent. On NAEP, “advanced” is extraordinary achievement (sort of like an A+). The next level, NAEP “proficient” is equivalent to an A or at least a strong B+ (the NAEP guidelines don’t say so), but it is certainly an indication of high academic achievement, not a pass-fail mark. There is only one state in the nation–Massachusetts–where 50% of the students have reached proficient.

The “cut score” (or passing mark) was set so high that only 31% of New York students passed (including only 3% of English learners, only 5% of students with disabilities, only 15-18% of black and Hispanic students). Consequently, the New York State Education Department ignited a firestorm of outrage from parents. Arne Duncan said this indicated the disappointment of “white suburban moms,” but the New York Regents have yet to hold a hearing in New York City or any other urban district. I expect the Regents will get an earful from moms and dads of all races, not because they consider their child to be “brilliant,” but because they don’t consider them to be failures.

I asked the leaders on Long Island: What will happen if 50-60-or 70% of students can’t pass the Common Core tests and can’t get a diploma? Has anyone thought about them? Will they be able to get any kind of job without a high school diploma? What exactly is the point of making the tests so hard that 70% will fail?

Newsday reported that I said “Boycott the Common Core.”

This was not entirely correct.

What I said to the leaders was: Boycott the tests, and let your teachers revise the Common Core standards. The K-2 standards are developmentally inappropriate. K-2 teachers should revise them so that children of that tender age have plenty of time to learn through play, imaginative activities, and social interaction. The standards for 3-12 should be reviewed and revised by teachers to make sure that they are cognitively appropriate.

I said that if one district boycotted the tests, it might be subject to sanctions. But if many districts boycotted the tests, the State Education Department would back down. This is a democracy. A state agency cannot impose its will on the public, without regard to the consequences.

Teachers should write their own tests so they get instant feedback and give each students the help he or she needs.

The goal of the Common Core standards is to teach students to think critically, to act deliberately, and to reason through their decisions.

Our leaders should model those behaviors. The implementation of Common Core in New York has been a disaster. Parents know it, but our state leaders have thus far refused to concede that they were hasty and reckless in their rush to test. It is time for the Board of Regents and Commissioner King to step back, demonstrate critical thinking, and reassess their plans for the rollout.

It appears that legislators are hearing the parents, even if the Regents are not. If the Regents and Commissioner King continue to be intransigent, they may find their powers curtailed by the Legislature. This is still a democracy, and the legislators understand that government requires the consent of the governed.

Categories Common Core, New York

NC Voucher School Bars Gay Students and Children from Gay Families

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2013 //
39

NC Policy Watch reports that Myrtle Grove Christian School will not admit students who are gay or who come from gay families. The school is now eligible to receive public funding under North Carolina’s new voucher program.

Categories North Carolina, Vouchers

The Obama-Duncan Plan to Redesign High Schools

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2013 //
72

The Wall Street Journal had an article today about a new plan from the U.S. Department of Education to bring Race to the Top (such a glorious success!) to the redesign of the American high school.

Unfortunately the article is behind a paywall, but I will summarize.
President Obama will announce a competition to find new way to prepare high-school students for the global economy. It will offer $100 million, for 25 to 40 grants for high schools to collaborate with higher education institutions and employers to give students “industry-relevant education and job skills.” The grants would be from $2 million to $7 million, and those who receive them would have to come up with matching funds for about 25% of the total.
The administration is using as a model the P-Tech High School in New York City, where students earn a diploma and an associate’s degree in six years. The school is a collaboration between the city Department of Education, IBM, and the City University of New York. It has yet to produce a graduate, but it is nonetheless considered very successful by the administration.
Unfortunately, there is a fly in the ointment: “Joe DiMartino, president of the Center for Secondary School Redesign Inc., supports the president’s efforts but worries a national overhaul could be slower than hoped. “The biggest impediment would be successful suburban communities that feel like they don’t need to change,” discouraging others from making efforts, said Mr. DiMartino, whose company is hired by states and districts to create programs that target students’ individualized needs.”
Yup, there they are again: those suburban moms and dads who like their high schools and resist Arne Duncan’s latest idea.

 

Categories Race to the Top

Carol Burris: Who are the “Enemies” of Common Core?

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2013 //
147

Carol Burris has written an article for Valerie Strauss’ The Answer Sheet in the Washington Post in which she reviews the effort by Arne Duncan and New York’s John King to identify the “enemies” of Common Core.

First, Duncan and King agreed it was the Tea Party. Then, as protests grew in New York, King said the enemies were “special interest groups,” but didn’t name them.

Now Duncan says the enemy is “white suburban moms” who are disappointed that their child is not as brilliant as they thought.

Meanwhile, they cast the advocates of Common Core (the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? the Business Roundtable? Jeb Bush? Themselves?) as bold champions of the civil rights issue of our time.

What is that issue? Higher and higher standards that produce astronomical failure rates. In New York, only 31% of children in grades 3-8 “passed” the Common Core tests in reading and math.

In reading, only 3% of ELLs passed; only 5% of children with disabilities; only 16% of black students; only 18% of Hispanic students.

The scores in urban and poor districts were lowest. The scores in low-need districts were highest.

Can anyone explain in what sense the drive to impose high-stakes testing that most kids will fail is a civil rights issue?

Sure, the kids who are headed for the top universities will do well.

But doesn’t our society need people who can be plumbers, mechanics, nurses, nurses’ aides, retail clerks, and fill the many other occupations that do not require an Ivy League degree?

If we design an education system that denies a diploma to all those who do not pass the Common Core tests, what will become of them?

Categories Common Core

Rhee Cancels Debate at Lehigh University

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2013 //
153

I earlier posted that Michelle Rhee and I would debate at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania on February 6.

As you may recall, Rhee first demanded that we have two people on each team, then three people on each team.

I readily assented and selected a wonderful second and third for the debate.

Early on, Rhee said her second would be Rod Paige.

My choices were the Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg (a visiting scholar at Harvard this year) and Philadelphia parent activist Helen Gym.

Rhee and I–through our agents– mutually agreed on the date.

However, the debate is off because Rhee says she cannot find a third partner.

This is the information I received from Lehigh.

I don’t know anything more, except that this debate will not happen.

I am very disappointed.

I was looking forward to it.

I think it would have been informative for all involved.

Categories Ravitch, Diane, Rhee, Michelle

What Happened When LA Gave iPads to Anti-Technology Waldorf School?

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2013 //
29

Waldorf schools do not use technology until sixth grade. They want their students to experience nature,

“A strict, private Waldorf school might not have even accepted the devices. For more than 100 years, Waldorf schools have emphasized child development over skill development.

“Instead of plastic dolls with detailed faces, for example, young children in a Waldorf environment play with toys made of natural materials, such as wood, silk, wool and cotton — that are unformed enough to stimulate the imagination. Schools encourage creative play and artistic expression; students often stay with the same teacher three years or more.

“Some parents who subscribe to Waldorf methods don’t let their children use technology at all; others limit screen time.”

Yet, the Ocean Charter School, a Waldorf school, was gifted by the Los Angeles Unified School District, with an iPad for every student, whether they want it or not. After al, they will need the iPads for Common Core testing. Curiously, the devices cost $768 each, more that the retail price.

The iPad giveaway is a pilot run on the district’s $1 billion planned purchase.

The part that puzzles me most is the cost. If the cost for Los Angeles alone is $1 billion, what will be the cost for the nation? $50 billion? $100 billion? No wonder the big tech corporations are thrilled with the Common Core.. And since the devices and the content will be obsolete in three years, how many more billions will leave America’s classrooms to pay for new technology?

Categories Common Core, Los Angeles, Technology, Computers, Testing

Justice Departments Abandons Effort to Block Vouchers in Louisiana

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2013 //
5

The U.S. Department of Justice abandoned its effort to block the Louisiana voucher program in districts where it undermined federal desegregation orders.

Republicans were jubilant.

Millions of state funds will now be spent to send children to fundamentalist religious schools that teach creationism and have no curriculum or certified teachers. This is called “reform.”

Categories Separation of church and state, Vouchers

Outstanding Teacher in North Carolina Reluctantly Quits

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2013 //
12

Chris Gable is a beloved teacher of language arts and social studies in Asheville, North Carolina. People consider him not just a good teacher, but a great one. And he is leaving North Carolina.

Teachers’ salaries have sunk so low that Gable can’t afford to stay in North Carolina.

Yet Gable, whose low salary qualifies his family for Medicaid and food assistance, finds himself on a path toward financial ruin, in spite of his education and hard work.

“I feel guilty,” said Gable, who is quitting his job on November 26 and leaving his beloved Asheville for a more promising financial future teaching in Columbus, Ohio. There, he figures he’ll make close to $30,000 more than his current salary, which is $38,000 for ten years’ experience and a master’s degree.

“I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from parents and peers about the fact that I am leaving. I want to continue to serve this community, but the state legislature has made it impossible,” Gable said.”

North Carolina doesn’t want great teachers. The legislature would be happy to have constant turnover, which keeps down costs.

“From the start of his teaching career, Gable says he was totally overwhelmed with the amount of work he was asked to do. For the first couple of years he regularly put in 12- to 14-hour days, leaving him emotionally and even physically burnt out. One night he landed in the emergency room with a bronchial infection that wouldn’t go away.

Gable’s teaching friends in Pennsylvania and Ohio are shocked to learn the things he and his colleagues are asked to do. Each week, Gable serves as a bookkeeper, counselor, gym teacher, lunchroom supervisor, and in other roles in addition to his primary duties that involve teaching and grading papers.

“We’re asked to do a lot of things wouldn’t have to do, I think, if we had union representation,” said Gable.

This is a sad story. It gives you the distinct impression that North Carolina policymakers want to drive away their best teachers.

– See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/11/14/outstanding-teacher-reluctantly-leaving-north-carolina/#sthash.f0Akq18W.dpuf

Categories North Carolina, Teachers and Teaching

As Students Are Buried in Debt, US DOE Pulls in $42.5 Billion in Profits

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2013 //
39

This is an astonishing article. The US Department of Education is making profits from student loans while the kids go deeper into debt.

This is 21st century entrepreneuralism at its worst.

Shahien Nasiripour of the Huffington Post writes:

The U.S. Department of Education says it has been working to help borrowers who are struggling under the weight of crushing student loan debt. But as Washington focuses on reducing annual federal budget deficits, the huge profits off those same borrowers may prove too alluring for Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

In the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, his department reaped more than $42.5 billion in profit from federal student loans, according to federal budget documents. That total was roughly a third higher than in 2012 and the agency’s second-highest ever profit haul after a $47.9 billion gain in 2011, according to a Huffington Post analysis. The Education Department confirmed the 2013 profit figure.

Had Congress and President Barack Obama not agreed over the summer to temporarily lower student loan interest rates, the Education Department’s 2013 profits would have been about $8 billion higher, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and they would have set a new record.

In a sign of just how important student loan profits have become for the Education Department’s bottom line, its reported gains off lending to students and their families over the last year comprised nearly half of the agency’s total outlays, the biggest share since at least 1997.

This is alarming because the best way to boost student enrollment and retention rates is to lower the cost of college. But now we find that the US Department of Education is making a huge profit instead of lowering costs!

No wonder its idea to lower costs is to collect data.

 

Categories Higher Education

North Little Rock Turns Down Charter As Unnecessary

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2013 //
4

Arkansas is the home of the Walton Family Foundation, which gives heavy support to charters and Small change to local public schools. But even in Arkansas, there is local pushback.

The North Little Rock School District turned down a charter application from the Capitol City Lighthouse Charter School, in North Little Rock.

“North Little Rock officials said the school wouldn’t meet a need not already being met in North Little Rock. They noted the school proposed to locate in a neighborhood already served by achieving schools. They said North Little Rock schools were outperforming schools operated by the same organization in Pine Bluff and Jacksonville.

“There’s no education need for this charter school in North Little Rock,” said Beth Stewart, the assistant superintendent in North Little Rock. The panel voted 5-1 to deny the application.

“North Little Rock said Lighthouse’s application was virtually identical to applications made elsewhere, hardly a sign of “innovation.” The petition for the school also included the signature of a North Little Rock school official who said she had not signed the petition. Stewart raised questions about service for disabled students and poor students who can’t provide transportation to the school. Dennis Glasgow of the Little Rock Schiool District said the Little Rock Board also opposed the application…..”

“Also today, the Springdale School District will oppose an application for another open enrollment charter school, the Ozark College and Career Academy.”

Categories Charter Schools
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