Archives for the year of: 2014
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Robert Balfanz: How to Cut Dropout Rates

By dianeravitch
June 14, 2014 //
43

Robert Balfanz of Johns Hopkins University, in an article in the New York Times, offers some sensible and proven ideas about how to cut dropouts among the most vulnerable students.

 

The likely dropouts can be identified as early as sixth grade, he writes, by attendance, behavior, and course performance.

 

Half of all African-American male dropouts are concentrated in 660 high schools. “These 660 schools are typically big high schools that teach only poor kids of color. They are concentrated in 15 states. Many are in major cities, but others are in smaller, decaying industrial cities or in the South, especially in Georgia, Florida and North Carolina.”

 

Once identified, they should get the extra attention, support, and help they need so that they will stay in school and keep up with their peers and eventually graduate.

 

“In 2008, my colleagues and I decided to focus on those struggling sixth and ninth graders. What if we reorganized entire schools with teams of teachers who shared a common group of students? What if we added more time for English and math and offered coaching for teachers and principals? What if we welcomed students to school, called them if they didn’t show up and helped with homework? What if we used an early warning system that identified struggling students based on their poor attendance, behavior and course performance and then worked to get each student back on track?”

 

Balfanz offers a list of recommended proposals, all but one of which makes sense. That one is “starting new schools,” as I know of no evidence that “starting new schools” solves any of the students’ problems but diverts money and energy into the process of starting new schools (in New York City, many of the new schools avoided the very students that Balfanz wants to help, in their pursuit of test scores). Everything else he proposes can be done in existing schools to make them work better for the students with the highest needs.

 

 

 

Categories Education Reform

Superintendents: Slow Down CCSS Implementation

By dianeravitch
June 14, 2014 //
41

American Association of School Administrators say the Common Core must be slowed down.

“Dear Colleagues:

As we move forward in advocating on behalf of school superintendents, one of the hottest topics right now is the Common Core State Standards. I am pleased to share with you that AASA, The School Superintendents Association, released today a report on the implementation of Common Core and other new state standards.

This report follows a survey of superintendents nationwide which received more than 500 responses from 48 states. The report’s findings echoed the position AASA has taken on Common Core: we need to slow down to get it right. Given enough time and resources, districts and teachers will have the opportunity to implement the standards and aligned assessments in a way that bolsters student learning. AASA opposes the overreliance on standardized testing and the use of one test to assess both student learning and teacher effectiveness, especially so early in the implementation of the new standards.

The survey’s key findings included:

Superintendents overwhelmingly (92.5 percent) see the new standards as more rigorous than previous standards.
More than three quarters (78.3 percent) agree that the education community supports the standards, but that support drops to 51.4 percent among the general public.

Nearly three quarters of the respondents (73.3 percent) agree that the political debate has gotten in the way of the implementation of the new standards.

Nearly half (47 percent) say their input was never requested in the decision to adopt or develop new standards or in planning the implementation.

More than half (60.3 percent) of the respondents who had begun testing say they are facing problems with the tests.

Just under half (41.9 percent) say schools in their states are not ready to implement the online assessment, while 35.9 percent say they lack the infrastructure to support online assessments.

A superintendent from Connecticut said, “don’t fly the ship while you are building it. Students shouldn’t be stressed about testing on something they have never been taught. Teachers shouldn’t be evaluated on the success of student on the tests when they have not been teaching the breadth of the (Common Core State Standards).”

The results from the survey demonstrate that districts are working with limited resources to implement the new, more rigorous standards, despite technology deficits, a dearth of quality professional development materials for school personnel and a challenging national debate. These results reinforce the AASA position that the standards will be a positive change, if districts are given the necessary time and funding to properly implement the new standards and assessments.

To access a copy of the report, visit http://aasa.org/uploadedFiles/Publications/AASA_CCSS_Report.pdf. Thank you to all who participated.

Sincerely,

Dan Domenech

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Common Core

Heilig: BASIS Horror Stories, As Told by Parents

By dianeravitch
June 14, 2014 //
29

Wealthy Texans have raised millions of dollars to attract charter schools and enroll a large segment of San Antonio’s children in charter schools. One of the corporate chains that opened in San Antonio is called BASIS, started in Arizona as a school with high demands and a rigorous curriculum.

Julian Vasquez Heilig has been following the progress of this chain. He here posts horror stories of abusive behavior by the charter administrators, as told by parents.

Categories Charter Schools, Texas

Public School Spending Fell in 2012, for First Time Since 1977

By dianeravitch
June 14, 2014 //
19

Teachers and administrators continue to feel the pain of budget cuts, long after the end of the recession of 2008. While politicians complain about the cost of schooling, those who work in schools are aware of an era of austerity and disinvestment in education.

This article explains what happened. Federal stimulus dollars helped the schools weather the worst of the recession, but when federal stimulus money ran out, the schools were hit hard.

“Federal per-student spending fell more than 20 percent from 2010 to 2012, and it has continued to fall. State and local funding per student were essentially flat in 2012, the most recent year for which data is available. The result: Total school funding fell in 2012 for the first time since 1977, the Census Bureau reported last month. Adjusting for inflation and growth in student enrollment, spending fell every year from 2010 to 2012, even as costs for health care, pension plans and special education programs continued to rise faster than inflation.1 Urban districts have been particularly hard-hit by the cuts in federal education spending: Nearly 90 percent of big-city school districts spent less per student in 2012 than when the recession ended in 2009.2

“The cuts are increasingly hitting classrooms directly. In the recession and the early stages of the recovery, superintendents were largely able to protect instructional expenses such as teacher salaries by cutting from other areas, such as administration and maintenance. But that has become more difficult over time. In the 2011-12 school year, classroom spending fell faster than overall spending.”

The budget cuts, which occur at the same time as widespread attacks on teachers’ due process rights, creates a harsh atmosphere in the schools, one that sends a negative signal to teachers and administrators, showing the nation’s lack of concern for education and educators.

Categories Budget Cuts, Support for public schools, Teacher Tenure

Kipp Dawson: Don’t Be Fooled By Pittsburgh Teacher Evaluations

By dianeravitch
June 13, 2014 //
30

I earlier reported that the latest data show that 97% of teachers in Pittsburgh received ratings of either “distinguished” or “advanced.” Similar findings have emerged elsewhere, which makes me wonder why it was necessary to spend billions of dollars to create these new evaluation systems, which are often incomprehensible. But Kipp Dawson, a Pittsburgh teacher wrote a comment warning that the evaluation system is flawed and riddled with unreliable elements, like VAM. Don’t be fooled, Dawson says. The Pittsburgh evaluation system was created with the lure of Gates money. It attempts to quantify the unmeasurable.

Dawson writes:

I am a Pittsburgh teacher and an activist in the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers (AFT). Let’s not let ourselves get pulled into the trap of applauding the results of a wholly flawed system. OK, so this round the numbers look better than the “reformers” thought they would. BUT the “multiple measures” on which they are based are bogus. And it was a trap, not a step forward, that our union let ourselves get pulled in (via Gates money) to becoming apologists for an “evaluation” system made up of elements which this column has helped to expose as NOT ok for “evaluating” teachers, and deciding which of us is an “effective” teacher, and which of us should have jobs and who should be terminated.

A reminder. VAM. A major one of these “multiple measures.” Now widely rejected as an “evaluating” tool by professionals in the field, and by the AFT. A major part of this “evaluation” system.

Danielson rubrics, another major one of these multiple measures: after many permutations and reincarnations in Pittsburgh, turned into the opposite of what they were in the beginning of this process — presented to us as a tool to help teachers get a window on our practice, but now a set of numbers to which our practice boils down, and which is used to judge and label us. And “objective?” In today’s world, where administrators have to justify their “findings” in a system which relies so heavily on test scores? What do you think . . .

Then there’s (in Pittsburgh) Tripod, the third big measure, where students from the ages of 5 (yes, really) through high school “rate” their teachers — which could be useful to us for insight but, really, a way to decide who is and who is not an “effective” teacher?

To say nothing of the fact that many teachers teach subjects and/or students which can’t be boiled down in these ways, so they are “evaluated” on the basis of other people’s “scores” over which they have even less control.

Really, now.

So, yes, these numbers look better than they did last year, in a “practice run.” But is this whole thing ok? Should we be celebrating that we found the answer to figuring out who is and who is not an “effective” teacher?

This is a trap. Let’s not fall into it.

Categories Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Pennsylvania, Teacher Evaluations

97% of Pittsburgh Teachers Get High Ratings

By dianeravitch
June 13, 2014 //
33

Billions of dollars have been spent to create new teacher evaluation systems. Here is one result: in Pittsburgh, 97% of teachers were rated either distinguished or advanced. Meanwhile budget cuts are harming children in Pennsylvania.

For Immediate Release
June 13, 2014

Contact:
Marcus Mrowka
202/531-0689
mmrowka@aft.org
http://www.aft.org

Pittsburgh Teacher Evaluation Results Demonstrate Importance of Due Process and Improvement-Focused Evaluation Systems

WASHINGTON— Statement of AFT President Randi Weingarten following news that nearly 97 percent of teachers were rated distinguished or advanced.

“On one side of the country, a judge in California wrongly ruled that the only way to ensure that kids—particularly kids who attend high-poverty schools—have good teachers is to take away teachers’ due process rights. On the other side of the country, the most recent teacher evaluation results in Pittsburgh proved this is absolutely not true. Due process not only goes hand in hand with this new evaluation system, having those rights helped to strengthen it.

“Nearly 97 percent of Pittsburgh’s teachers were rated distinguished or advanced under this new evaluation system. We’re not surprised at all by the dedication and talent of Pittsburgh’s teaching staff who go into the classroom each and every day to help our children grow and achieve their dreams—but there’s a bigger story here that rejects the assertion made in California that due process rights hurt educational quality.

“These results show what is possible when teachers, unions and the district—in a state with due process—work together on an evaluation system focused on helping teachers improve. While we may have some qualms about the construction of the evaluation system, the fact remains that far from impeding achievement due process and tenure, combined with an improvement-focused evaluation system, empower teachers and keep good teachers in the classroom, offer support to those who are struggling, and streamline the process for removing teachers who can’t improve.”

###

–

Categories Pennsylvania, Teacher Evaluations

Stephanie Simon: Are Teacher Unions Doomed?

By dianeravitch
June 13, 2014 //
44

In an article at politico.com, Stephanie Simon presents a gloomy portrait of the future of teacher unions.

At the outset, she acknowledges that the unions have been the target of “a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign portraying them as greedy and selfish.”

This campaign is funded by billionaires, millionaires, ALEC, powerful corporations (Koch brothers?), rightwing think tanks, and wealthy foundations, all of whom we must assume are noble and selfless, not “greedy and selfish” like those no-good, lazy, worthless teachers. And then there are the academics who receive lavish funding from the noble and selfless billionaires and millionaires to produce studies and reports about the greedy and selfish teachers and unions.

But, as Simon reports, the campaign seems to be effective, as union membership falls and revenues decline. As evidence, she offers poll numbers reported by Paul Peterson’s group at Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance and “Education Next,” both of which support vouchers and charters and oppose teachers unions and are funded by the afore-named groups of billionaires and millionaires. The numbers may or may not be correct, but the source is not reliable since both PEPG and “Education Next” are part of the campaign to rid the nation of teachers unions. But Simon does not mention that PEPG is an integral part of the anti-union campaign.

Simon ends the article by concluding that unions only make matters worse if they fight back against the wealthy coalition that now seeks to destroy workers’ rights:

“And some analysts, even those sympathetic to organized labor, say the teachers unions risk alienating the public with their constant complaints about the conspiracy of wealthy forces arrayed against them and their defense of job protections like those found unconstitutional this week in California.

“It’s entirely possible,” Kerchner said, “that unions can turn public education into a bad brand.”

In other words, resistance is futile.

But many teachers would not agree at all. They don’t believe that the 1%–and those who are on their payroll–are fighting for civil rights and social justice. they believe that it is imperative to stand up for hard-working teachers and the children they teach every day. Teachers are not greedy and selfish. their unions are not wrong to stand up for the rights of teachers, which are under attack in many states. Accepting the claims and the rhetoric of the privatization movement is a recipe for losing public education and the teaching profession, not just losing the unions.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/teachers-union-california-court-decision-107816_Page2.html#ixzz34YN4x9BV

Categories ALEC, Corporate Reformers, Teachers, Unions, US Education

John Merrow on Vergara: The California Laws Are Indefensible

By dianeravitch
June 13, 2014 //
95

John Merrow says that the laws struck down by the Vergara decision are indefensible.

 

Teachers get tenure after 18 months, but in most states it takes three or four years.

 

Seniority, he says, discourages young teachers, who are first fired.

 

The process of removing an ineffective teacher is far too complex, requiring some 70 steps.

 

My view: The legislature should promptly remedy these defects in the fairest way possible to assure that it is not easy to fire teachers, but that teachers who face charges get a fair and timely hearing. I agree with Merrow that it should take 3-4 years to get tenure, not 18 months. As to seniority, I defer to the wisdom of David B. Cohen, who explained why seniority matters and how it can be improved.

 

All that said, the decision did not prove that these laws, whatever their defects, discriminate against minority children.

 

In a footnote, Merrow notes that California spends less on public education than almost every other state, at least 30% less than the national average. Let us see if Students Matter fights for adequate funding of the state’s public schools. I doubt it.

 

If we seek to remedy the needs of minority children, abolishing tenure outright is not a logical starting point.

 

Categories Budget Cuts, California, Education Reform, Teacher Tenure, Teachers and Teaching

Professional Staff Congress at CUNY Opposes edTPA

By dianeravitch
June 13, 2014 //
50

This morning I posted a statement by a group of professors at City University of New York in support of the edPTA, which assesses the performance of those who seek certification to enter teaching.

 

Let me make clear that I am not supporting or endorsing either side of this debate but am watching carefully, as I tend to be suspicious of all high-stakes testing.

 

Soon after the post appeared this morning, I received an email from a CUNY professor pointing out that the professors’ union–the Professional Staff Congress– at CUNY opposes edTPA and that those who signed the earlier statement are a minority of the faculty.

 

Due to the opposition of PSC, UUP (United University Professors of State University of New York), and NYSUT (the New York State Union of Teachers), implementation of edTPA has been delayed until June 2015.

 

PSC said this on its website:

 

The Teachers Performance Assessment (edTPA), is a high-stakes assessment for student teachers that includes filmed classroom observations. It has been opposed by PSC, UUP and NYSUT. (NYSUT edTPA resolution.) The State Education Department rushed to implement the controversial teacher certification exam, which was set to be a requirement for teacher certification after May 1, 2015. But education faculty, teachers and their unions pushed back and the implementation of the assessment has been pushed back until June 2015.

Categories Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Bridgeport: Where Is the Money for Néw Charters?

By dianeravitch
June 13, 2014 //
7

Bridgeport officials are worried. The state board of education approved the expansion of two charters and the addition of a new one. Local officials want to know where the money will come from and how the budget for the other 90% of the city’s children will be affected.

Categories Charter Schools, Connecticut
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