If you don’t like the Common Core standards, you will enjoy reading Susan Ohanian’s blast at them.
Ohanian thinks that the CC is a massive error at best, a sordid conspiracy by the elites at worst.
What do you think?
Archives for the year of: 2013
My guest blogger today is Mike Deshotels of Louisiana.
Deshotels taught Chemistry and Physics at Zachary High School near Baton Rouge starting in 1966. He served as Research Director for the Louisiana Association of Educators and moved to the position of Executive Director for the LAE/NEA before retiring. He now writes a blog called The Louisiana Educator. The site is louisianaeducator.blogspot.com.
Here he explains how Governor Bobby Jindal is reforming the teaching profession in Louisiana.
The Truth About Teacher Reforms in Louisiana
Diane Ravitch asked me to write a guest post on education reform in Louisiana and suggested that I attempt to tell the untold story. Upon considering this, I realized that there was a major untold story about the destructive attacks on the teaching profession in Louisiana. I chose to tell this story because I fear similar efforts may soon be attempted in many other states. If you believe in teaching as a profession, be forewarned. The profession could be dismantled in your state just as we are witnessing in Louisiana.
Outsourcing of teaching jobs: I posted a story on my blog at http://louisianaeducator.blogspot.com/2012_09_16_archive.html about teaching jobs in Louisiana verses chicken processing jobs. Our governor Bobby Jindal talks a lot about attracting highly-skilled or college-trained jobs to Louisiana. He has a Department of Economic Development that uses a special taxpayer supported fund to attract high tech business to Louisiana. But contrary to his rhetoric, a couple of years ago some of his legislative allies in North Louisiana became alarmed about a chicken processing plant that may close down and ship operations and jobs to another state. The Governor’s economic development department stepped in and subsidized this company with millions of our dollars to bribe them to keep their chicken butchering operations in Louisiana. Later on, I was informed that about half of these unskilled workers are actually coming over the border from Arkansas. Soon after this Governor Jindal pushed a new law in Louisiana that will allow for outsourcing of teaching jobs to out-of-state virtual providers. (Course Choice Programs may soon be coming to your state!) So now K12 and Connections Academy and others will be allowed to recruit students from Louisiana along with their education taxes to pay for computer based virtual courses taught by persons from out of state. The new law also allows our state DOE to waive some of the certification requirements of these far away teachers. Who knows, soon our kids may be taught by teachers in India. This outsourcing was approved even though statistics show that our much maligned public schools perform much better on average than any of the virtual schools.
Teacher certification standards reduced: Now because of education reform in Louisiana, public charter schools are allowed to hire non-certified teachers. All one needs to teach any subject or grade in a charter school in Louisiana is a bachelor’s degree in any field. Just last week, the Jindal controlled state board repealed a requirement that all public schools go through periodic accreditation by an independent accrediting agency. This means that there will be no independent checking of teacher certification. In the same meeting the state board repealed requirements for staffing schools with guidance counselors and librarians and also reduced PE classes. I assume these actions are supposed to minimize distractions to test teaching and test prepping.
Teacher Evaluation Based 100% on VAM: A law was passed in 2010 requiring that all teachers in Louisiana be evaluated starting this year with a new evaluation instrument based 50% on student performance. The other 50% is supposed to be based on observations of the teacher’s classroom techniques by his/her supervisor. But contrary to the law, our state superintendent has adopted rules requiring in certain cases that value added student performance (VAM) may count for 100%. Our new state superintendent, John White, who has zero experience in teacher supervision or evaluation has mandated that when a teacher’s value added score falls in the unacceptable range, the teacher will be rated as unsatisfactory no matter how good the rating on the principal’s observation portion. In addition, DOE overseers will monitor the performance of local evaluators to see if their observation results are in line with the VAM portion. It is expected that corrective action may be considered against any evaluators who do not rate teachers similar to their VAM score. Even worse, since all the teacher observation data is entered on a state computer system, the computer can be programed to point out discrepancies between the VAM and the observer evaluations. That’s why many conclude that the teacher evaluations will be based 100% on VAM data.
Unreliable VAM data used for teacher evaluation and termination: Since VAM will be so important in a teacher’s evaluation, one would assume that the VAM is an extremely reliable system. It is not! We now have enough data from trial runs of the VAM in Louisiana that we can do analysis of the reliability or the stability of VAM data. Stability of VAM refers to the amount of variability of a teacher’s VAM score from one year to the next if the teacher teaches exactly the same way both years. Analysis by Wayne Free of the Louisiana Association of Education’s Instruction division was verified by another study conducted by independent researcher, Dr Mercedes Schneider. Dr Schneider found for example, that if a teacher is rated as highly effective one year, the chance that the same teacher will be rated as highly effective the next year is only 46% (that is without changing any teaching practices). A similar result was found with teachers scoring in other rankings of VAM. Thousands of teachers can easily drop from a satisfactory rating to an unsatisfactory rating from one year to the next even though their teaching remains exactly the same. State officials say that’s OK because a teacher is not required to be terminated based on only one year’s VAM. But only one year of an ineffective rating on VAM will automatically cancel a teacher’s tenure, which means the teacher can be fired immediately without a hearing of any kind.
Teacher evaluation program administered by a two year teacher: If teachers were a bit nervous that the new evaluation system may abruptly end their careers, they were pushed to outrage when they learned that the statewide evaluation system will be administered by a TFA corps member with only two years of teaching, no valid teaching certificate, and no experience in supervision. (http://louisianaeducator.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-10-05T06:52:00-05:00&max-results=2&reverse-paginate=true) Many teachers consider this appointment by the state superintendent to be an insult to the entire teaching profession in our state.
The rigged tenure process: One of the reform laws passed in the last legislative session changes the tenure process for teachers recommended for dismissal. Now the tenure hearing panel will be composed of three hearing officers. One is to be appointed by the local superintendent, one appointed by the teacher’s principal and the third appointed by the teacher. So if the principal and the superintendent agree that the teacher should be dismissed, the hearing process begins with two out of three votes against the teacher. Unlike the previous procedure, there is no judicial appeal. Teachers may wonder why bother with such a kangaroo court?
Teacher seniority banned: The Jindal reforms have replaced seniority rights with the teacher’s most recent evaluation rank. For example, a teacher with 20 years of superior evaluations, but one year of unsatisfactory evaluation possibly because of VAM, would place the teacher at the top of the list to be laid off when the school system orders a RIF.
State Superintendent sets quota for teacher dismissals: As part of the new teacher accountability system included in the Louisiana ESEA No Child Left Behind Waiver approval, the guidelines have set a minimum of 10% of teachers to be found ineffective and placed on a track for dismissal by the new evaluation system each year. (This 10% rule only applies to teachers receiving a VAM score) I asked the state superintendent if the 10% would be applied each year or if it would be limited in some way. He responded that such a quota was to be applied each year until the State Board determined that it was no longer necessary. This idea looked so good to a local school board committee advised by a couple of TFA staffers, that the school system’s new strategic plan will require that the bottom 25% of teachers in the system based on the VAM evaluation would be fired each year!
Remove teacher union payroll deductions: For the coming legislative session, Governor Jindal and his business allies are proposing to eliminate payroll deductions for teacher union dues. But they want to specifically exempt a particular teacher organization that has gone along with all the reform efforts. Many believe the purpose of this proposal is to punish the teacher unions who along with the School Board’s Association have been successful in getting the courts to declare the method for funding the Governor’s vouchers to private schools unconstitutional.
So how are the Louisiana teacher reforms working so far? Here is a link to a recent article in the Baton Rouge Advocate (http://theadvocate.com/news/4902526-123/rate-of-teachers-retiringspikes) that describes a 27% increase in teacher retirements last year with an even greater increase expected this year. Some superintendents are reporting that these early retirements often are some of the most respected teachers in their systems who may be impossible to replace with equal talent. That’s how the teacher reforms in Louisiana are working so far.
Marcie Lippsett writes about the bipartisan failure to save Detroit. The public schools of Detroit, like those of Muskegon Heights and Highland Park, have been put under the unilateral rule of an Emergency Manager appointed by the governor. In the latter two districts, the public schools were abolished, and the children were given to a for-profit charter chain. In Detroit, public education is being privatized and snuffed out with all deliberate speed. All of these districts are majority black, which perhaps made it easier to eliminate self-rule. Among those in power, no one cared, and no one heard those who did care.
Marcie writes:
“Detroit Public Schools like all of Detroit, died in the Riots of 1967. I am 53 years old and have watched (not in silence) this Apocalypse and loss of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Detroit is a complete bipartisan failure of leadership at the local, state and federal level. And while former Governor Engler and current Governor Rick Snyder have willfully moved the devastation along, former Governors Blanchard and Granholm did not have the passion, or courage to make the rebuilding of Detroit and surrounding cities a priority. Detroit is the worst of the largest (dwindling) school districts across the U.S. but it is far from the worst in MI.
“Children in Muskegon Heights, Inkster, Flat Rock,Pontiac, Highland Park, River Rouge, Hamtramck, Lincoln Park, Southfield, Oak Park, Ferndale, Lapeer, Brandon, Avondale and Taylor have little reason to go to school. Then there are the students with IEPs and the students that we turn into the disabled and they really have no reason to attend school.”
Bill Gates wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal last week about how to solve all the world’s biggest problems.
The answer he said was: Measurement.
This writer, Cathy O’Neill, disagrees. It is not that measurement is unimportant but that measurement is not neutral.
What matters most is who decides what to measure.
Most researchers in education recognize that value-added measurement has serious flaws and unintended consequences.
The teachers whose students produce the highest gains may be teachers who spend every class period doing drills for the test.
The teachers whose students see the smallest gains may have students who don’t speak English or who are gifted and at the top.
If you understand the limitations of the measure–the standardized tests–then you will be reluctant to let them determine which children are considered smart, which teachers get a bonus, which teachers are fired, and which schools will close.
A group of scholars in Oklahoma have reviewed the state’s simplistic A-F report cards for schools and proposed a better way to look at school effectiveness. The Tulsa World provided a link so perhaps many people in the state will see it.
Jeb Bush pioneered this grading system on Florida. It puts far too much emphasis on test scores.
Three worthy parts of the review:
1. The fact that these scholars did this report matters
2. Good bibliography
3. Conclusion:
“The work of schools and school leaders might be compared to gardening, that is, tending to the growth of a great variety of life. Gardeners are not preoccupied only with the harvest alone. They bring to bear all kinds of knowledge, skill, and information, adjusting what they do constantly to enrich the environment of the garden, providing nurture and protection from everything that might harm it. Gardeners know that the harvest at hand is important, but that care for soil conditions, monitoring surrounding vegetation, and assuring availability of supplementary water and fertilizer are just as important; future harvests will benefit from the enhanced general conditions of the garden. The metaphor suggests that accountability in schools cannot be defined in the same way quality assurance is attained in manufacturing. Schooling more resembles what Thomson (1967) calls an intensive technology, in which the processing of nonstandard raw material relies on constant response to new information. The metaphor and the theory both point to accountability for process elements and capacity building as well as outcomes; a focus on outcomes alone would not adequately serve the complexities of schooling or the long-term goals of our society. The collaboration among Oklahoma’s education stakeholders could benefit by a metaphor that reminds us of the importance a long- term perspective has for effective school improvement.”
Mercedes Scneider continues her dissection of the nonpartisan National Council on Teacher Quality. This post examines the qualifications of Wendy Kopp.
You may have heard that former Governor Jeb Bush regularly parades the “Florida miracle,” perhaps preparing for a 2016 run at the presidency. The formula, we hear, is testing and accountability, grading schools, charters and vouchers, and of course, online courses and schools.
This Florida teacher wrote a comment and gives a different view from the trenches:
I will go out on a limb here and argue that there IS no “Florida miracle.” I taught in a Miami-Dade high school for 6 years and I watched our school grade go from a C to a D back to a C, stay a C, and then up to a B…I think it was also an F at some point in there. During that time, did I see any change in the “quality” of student? Nope. Did I see any change in the quality of the teachers? Nope. Did I see any change in the quality of the coursework? YES. It went DOWN year after year, as more and more emphasis was placed on testing, and less and less on everything else. As end-of-course exams were introduced, the quality went down still further, as classes were disrupted even more for testing and test prep. And while the class size amendment was the one and ONLY good thing left in FL education, that too has pretty much gone out the window, at least in high school, as “core classes” were redefined to mean “FCAT classes.” My last year teaching (last year) I had up to 38 students in my French classes. The quality of my classes definitely went down, though not because I was lazy or incompetent or any of the other things teachers are called all the time…but simply because to keep a class of 38 from dissolving into chaos, you have to have a pretty teacher-centered class going on all the time. That is not ideal for a language class, but then again, neither is having a class of almost 40 kids all doing their own thing (which, as any teacher knows, means each one playing with a phone or worse).
There is no Florida miracle. Education has only gotten worse over the past few years, no matter how schools, districts and the state itself game the system. And, contrary to what the media will tell you, it is NOT teachers’ fault, unions’ fault, and I won’t even blame it on the kids or their parents this time. It is the fault of education “reform” led by Jeb Bush et al.
Want to know who is pulling the stings of he corporate reform movement?
Keep your eye on ALEC, short for the American Legislative Exchange Council.
This is a secretive group of about 2,000 state legislators, major corporations and far-right think tanks.
The goal of ALEC is privatization and advancing the interests of corporations.
ALEC drafts model laws and its members introduce them in their state, sometimes verbatim.
ALEC has model was for charter schools, vouchers, online charter schools, for-profit schools, and laws to weaken or eliminate collective bargaining, teacher tenure, and certification. It wants a free market.
Recently, ALEC debated Common Core and came close to passing a resolution opposing the standards as a federal takeover. But Jeb Bush intervened and persuaded his friends to remain neutral.
Some of the corporate sponsors dropped out last year because of ALEC’s sponsorship of the “Stand Your Ground” legislation in Florida, invoked by the man who killed an unarmed black teen.
Here is a list of ALEC’s education task force members.
You may see some of your state legislators on the list.
To learn more about ALEC, read this informative article by Julie Underwood, dean of the school of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
ALEC Exposed is the best website to learn about ALEC’s ambitious plans to privatize and deregulate many spheres of American society while benefitting big corporations.
When I blogged at Education Week, I wrote a post about ALEC. Its policy director wrote to say that President Obama shares many of ALEC’s goals. It is a strange time we live in.
EduShyster has generously written a guest post for readers of this blog.
She has timed this post with the release of Michelle Rhee’s memoir, which makes its debut today. (No one knows who wrote Rhee’s book, but some Washingtonians think they know.)
In honor of the day, EduShyster has collected a recipe from Adell Cothorne, the brave principal who filed a whistleblower lawsuit about the cheating that she saw in the D.C. public schools. Cothorne is now baking cupcakes for a living, having temporarily stepped away from a toxic climate in education.
Here is EduShyster (click on her link to get her usual great graphics):
In case you’ve somehow managed to miss it, today marks the release of Michelle Rhee’s new advertorial, Radical: Fighting to Put Students First. So to mark this special occasion I’d like to propose a toast, although not to Rhee, whose ghastly edu-celebrity may at last be waning (see book sales, declining number of). Let’s raise our collective wine boxes in honor of the woman who has emerged as perhaps the sharpest thorn in Rhee’s side: former Washington DC principal and whistle blower extraordinaire Adell Cothorne.
If you are a regular reader of Diane’s blog, you are likely familiar with Adell’s story; it’s one we certainly haven’t heard the last of. Adell has spoken out, boldly and bravely, about Erasergate, the epidemic of answer changing on standardized tests that took place while Michelle Rhee was in charge of the DC public schools. Her story stings in part because it was Adell’s admiration of Rhee that drew her to Washington in the first place. But when she witnessed what she was convinced was test tampering by teachers at her school she spoke up, and when officials failed to act she filed a whistleblowing suit, alleging that the DC Public Schools were defrauding the government.
The details of Adell’s case are widely available; as she likes to say, for the first time in her life she can now be Googled. I’m interested in what it means.This story of cheating and what appears to have been an official cover up (which is why Michelle Rhee is now lawyering-up) has major implications, and not just for Rhee’s own ever more tarnished legacy. The corporate reform project that seeks to distill teaching, not to mention students, down to a single test score, also hangs in the balance. The teachers in Adell’s school were under immense pressure to raise test scores, so raise test scores they did. Here’s how Adell describes her own cause: “I sincerely hope that my telling the truth brings about a TRUE discussion about the impact that tying teacher evaluations to assessment has on public education.” I hope so too.
Taking on Rhee, Inc. hasn’t come without personal costs. Adell gave up her job as principal and abandoned, at least for now, the doctorate she was close to finishing, a study of the use of culturally competent instruction to eliminate the achievement gap for elementary school-age African American males. She says that she felt she had no choice but to walk away from her job and her studies because of a fight that felt more important than either. “I needed to do what was right for not only those kids in DC but all students. Testing is killing our education system.”
In the coming days we’ll be treated to endless news stories and puff pieces about Michelle Rhee. Thanks to the bravery of Adell Cothorne, much of this coverage will now include words like “investigation,” “tampering,” “suspicion” and “cheating.” So let’s toast to Adell and hope for better days ahead. And since a little something sweet is just the thing to accompany that toast, why not sample a fresh baked cupcake? Adell thoughtfully provided the following recipe, one of dozens of varieties that she bakes at her new shop, Cooks n’ Cakes. She named this one in honor of Michelle Rhee and Rhee’s successor, Kaya Henderson. It’s called “Let Them Eat Cake.”
Let Them Eat Cake Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 325
Place the following ingredients in your favorite mixing bowl:
2 sticks of butter
1 ¾ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl combine the following ingredients:
2 ½ cups of cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ tsp. salt
Add to mixing bowl and mix on low for 2 minutes
Add 2 cups of milk and mix on low for 2 minutes
Add 2 oz. oil to the mixing bowl. Mix on low for 1 minute
Pour batter into prepared pans
Bake for 20 minutes
Announce “Let them eat cake” before eating.
Wednesday, Feb. 6th, 2013 is the National Day of Action to support Garfield High School and the other MAP test boycotters who are facing possible 10 Day Suspensions without pay for refusing to force students to take an unfair, counterproductive and bad standardized test.
Information about the Day of Action can be found here: http://scrapthemap.wordpress. com/2013/02/02/national-day- of-action-to-support-seattle- map-test-boycott/
Share the Facebook Day of Action page here by going here: https://www.facebook.com/ events/366568146775772/
Sign the Support the Seattle Teachers Petition here:
Call, email, and write to Seattle Public Schools Superintendent José L. Banda to let him know that you support the boycott:
Superintendent José L. Banda superintendent@seattleschools.org
Office of the Superintendent (206) 252-0180
MS: 32-150
P.O. Box 34165
Seattle, WA 98124-1165
Read more about this historic boycott in Garfield teacher Jesse Hagopian’s op-ed in the Seattle Times here: http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2020158085_jessehagopianopedxml.html
And various resolutions and letters of support can be found here: http://scrapthemap.wordpress.com/solidarity-statements-2/ and http://brianpjones.tumblr.com/post/41098555088/educatorssupportghs and http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/29/seattles_teacher_uprising_high_school_faculty
