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When Will Bill Gates Admit He Was Wrong–Again?

By dianeravitch
June 3, 2014 //
54

Bill Gates has loomed large in education for the past decade. The reason is obvious: his foundation is the largest in the world, and districts are more than willing to accept his conditions in return for his money.

When anyone asks Gates whether it is right that one man and one foundation should have so much influence, he says that the money he gives is minuscule compared to the hundreds of billions spent annually by American schools. But he is being disingenuous, and he knows it. Almost all of those billions are fixed costs, whereas his money is discretionary. A district with a huge budget–often facing budget cuts—will dance to Bill Gates’ tune. All he need do is dangle $50-100 million dollars, and district leaders will do as he asks.

But what happens when he is wrong? In the first decade of this century, he said that small high schools were THE answer, and districts lined up to get money and break up large high schools. It wasn’t a bad idea, but he decided that it wasn’t THE idea, and in 2008, he decided it wasn’t producing the miraculous results he wanted (ROI–return on investment), and he dropped it.

Since he can’t tolerate being without answers, he next placed his bets on raising teacher quality. A good idea poorly executed. Instead of changing working conditions or coming up with other ways to make teaching a rewarding profession, Gates chose to go the punitive route. He decided that all of American education was broken, and that teacher evaluation was the most broken part of it. For whatever reason, administrators were not weeding out the incompetents, and he decided to make that his mission. He never stopped to ask why 40% or so of new teachers left teaching within five years of starting.

How to evaluate millions of teachers? Gates had the answer. Use the test scores of their students to a significant degree to find out who was best and worst.

Given Gates’ unusual power, the U.S. Department of Education decided that he must be right, even though the research was thin and speculative. No need to conduct experiments to see if Bill was right. He is so rich, he must be right. So, Race to the Top required states to include Bill’s idea– judging teachers by their students’ test scores to a significant degree–if they wanted to be eligible for any part of the $4.35 billion prize, or later, if they wanted a waiver from NCLB’s punishments for failing to make 100% of their students proficient by 2014.

Some districts have now experimented with “value-added assessment” for four years, and no miracle is in sight. Most researchers say the methodology is flawed that it will never work. The most recent study, conducted by Andy Porter, dean at the University of Pennsylvania, and Morgan Polikoff of the University of Southern California, found little or no correlation between teacher quality and VAM ratings. This study was funded, ironically, by the Gates Foundation.

The question now is, will Bill Gates have the courage to admit he was wrong, as he did in 2008?

Categories Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teacher Evaluations

Edushyster: Graduation Rate at Boston Charters No Better Than Public Schools

By dianeravitch
June 3, 2014 //
20

Massachusetts is preparing to lift the cap on charter schools, the assumption being that they have cracked the code to educating the neediest children. The Boston Globe has been cheerleading for the charter sector, along with the usual hedge funders and philanthropists.

Only problem, says Edushyster, is facts.

EduShyster writes:

“At the heart of our great debate about how much greater charter schools are than the long-suffering public schools that they are outperforming by every conceivable measure lies a great assumption: that charters represent the best way to propel urban students through the pipeline of college readiness. Except that the pipeline turns out to be of an exceptionally narrow gauge. Take Match Charter Public School, from which six boys graduated last year. You read that correctly, reader. That number was six. Which is the same number of boys who graduated from Codman Academy Charter Public School in 2013. But that’s still a bigger number than four, the number of boys who graduated from City on a Hill Charter Public School last year.”

And she adds:

“The point, reader, is that we know, down to our vestigial organs, that charter schools are doing a much better job of preparing the city’s students for college because we are secretly in love with Boston Globe columnist Scot Lehigh and hence hangeth upon his every word. Except that a recent study called Charter Schools and the Road to College Readiness, commissioned by the Boston Foundation and paid for by the New Schools Venture Fund, found that male and female students who attend Boston’s six charter high schools are no more likely to graduate than their public school peers. (See p. 24). Which is not what the researchers were expecting to find, and certainly not what Scot Lehigh was expecting to write about. Which is no doubt why he didn’t.”

Sadly, the legislature is set to increase funding for the charters even as the much-maligned Boston public schools are experiencing remarkable success. “The irony is, of course, that the beleaguered Boston Public Schools are sending more students to college than at any time in the city’s history. Or they were. As the city grapples with the deep budget cuts that operating two separate school systems will entail, the *extra* programs that help lots of kids in places like Boston get to college and stay there are likely to be the first to go.”

Categories Charter Schools, Massachusetts

Stephen Krashen: Pearson Poll Finds Support for Common Core!

By dianeravitch
June 3, 2014 //
32

Stephen Krashen shows himself to quite the satirist in this report.

HUMOR ALERT: I post this notice because it is hard to tell the difference between satire and reality in American education these days.

Krashen writes:

“There is now no doubt: Americans overwhelmingly support the common core. In a poll organized by the Pearson Publishing Company, 96% strongly agreed with the statement, “Schools should teach important things.” By a wide margin, those surveyed also agreed that “teachers should help students learn stuff.”

But that’s only the beginning: as you might expect, Arne Duncan says of the Pearson poll, “This is a game changer”

Categories Common Core, Duncan, Arne, Pearson

North Carolina Republicans Offer Nearly $500 Million to Abolish Tenure–This Teacher Says “No”

By dianeravitch
June 3, 2014 //
61

North Carolina’s Republican-dominated State Senate hates teacher tenure. They hate it so much that they are willing to offer nearly $500 million in higher salaries if teachers are willing to abandon their tenure.

Bear in mind that tenure in K-12 education is not a guarantee of lifetime employment; it is a guarantee of due process rights. Also note that until recently, North Carolina was thought to have one of the best school systems in the South. The state has–or had, at last count–more National Board Certified Teachers than any other state in the nation.

Why Republicans hate tenure so passionately is a mystery. There is no reason to believe that principals are itching to fire teachers. North Carolina has had such a large exodus of teachers from the profession and the state that wise policymakers should be worried about holding on to teachers, many of whom are demoralized by years of legislative attacks on them.

Stuart Egan, a National Board Certified Teacher in North Carolina, wrote the following letter in response to this latest move by the State Senate:

“North Carolina’s GOP legislators certainly appear to have paid attention in English class: The motif of “making a deal with the devil” is a common theme in many works of fiction and in anything they write concerning teachers.

“Sen. Phil Berger is championing a bill that would create substantial pay raises for teachers who relinquish “career status” and longevity pay for “professional status.” The salaries of teachers who do not surrender career status would remain frozen in a stagnated schedule. Career status is often referred to as “tenure,” but that is a nebulous term. Career status does not mean teachers are untouchable. The General Assembly has spun this word to make it appear that teachers have the same “tenure” as college professors. Not true. We can still be dismissed for not performing our duties or upholding standards.

“The past 10 years in NC educational policy is enough to tell us where this is going. Under the ABC plan from years ago, teachers in schools that achieved certain growth expectations would get bonuses. That system ran out of money several years before it ended, but the requirements for teachers did not change. The monetary “incentive” simply was taken away.

“When the state budget began experiencing shortfalls, teacher salaries were frozen. Many of us are making the same salary we did years ago, but now we have more students and more classes as well as increases in the cost of living. Consequently, North Carolina has lost many of its best, brightest and potential career educators. Between a lack of financial security and the near-constant disdain in which legislators hold us, there is little reason to stay.

“When the General Assembly tried a few weeks ago to lure teachers into giving up their career status early in exchange for a monetary incentive, the courts struck it down as unconstitutional. But what many in the general public may not know is that the state did not have the funds to finance that incentive past the first year. It would have had to remove the monetary incentive three years early.

“This is exactly what will happen in the proposed legislation introduced this past week. The General Assembly already faces a shortfall for next year, and the salary increase for those who give up their right to due process will be removed because the money does not exist.

“To look at this latest deal another way, it would cause North Carolinians to lose advocates for the public school system. In a time when the state budget siphons off money for a voucher program to promote privatized education and decreases the average amount of money spent per pupil, you need to have teachers speak up for students and schools. Removing the right to due process leads to those same teachers being afraid to do so for fear of reprisal.

“Whether you call it career status or tenure, the concept helps keep public education in the hands of the public. It is so valuable to public schools that Sen. Berger and others are willing to pay more than $400 million to take it away. North Carolinians should take note and wonder why our legislators want teachers hamstrung by either low pay or worry about keeping a job more than they want our students to receive the best education possible to prepare them – and North Carolina – for a modern and innovative job market.

“This teacher will not sell his soul, no matter how attractive the devil tries to make the package. There is too much at stake – for teachers, for students and for North Carolina’s future.”

Stuart Egan, NBCT
West Forsyth High School
English Teacher, Career Status

After Stuart sent the letter above, he added this sad postscript:

Concerning the high teacher salary raises in NC tied to tenure forfeiture, I saw this in my local paper (Winston-Salem Journal) after I sent my previous letter. It seems that to fund these raises, Senator Berger pushed through a budget that “would cut financing for teacher assistants, classrooms teachers, administration and transportation to pay for teacher raises.” Therefore, the county school system would have to request from the county that loss of money to cover the positions lost. But the county commissioners cut the local school budget already. The result would be “the loss of more than 250 early grade teacher assistants and 28 classroom teachers, according to preliminary estimates from the district’s finance department.” That is devastating to the K-3, elementary level.

I have a child with special needs in kindergarten who happens to have Downs Syndrome. If his teacher does not have an assistant, then positive results will not be seen as quickly and effectively in his education. Interestingly enough, if I as a high school teacher (or his regular teacher in elementary school) take the salary increase and make a “deal with the devil,” I may have a direct impact on my own son’s education.

Public education should never be this cruelly ironic.

If this is happening in a place like Winston-Salem, imagine the effect on rural counties in North Carolina.

http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/emory-says-teachers-job-loss-inevitable-under-n-c-senate/article_ac04391e-2aae-58df-8370-8a6c67f1869b.html

Categories North Carolina, Teacher Tenure, Teachers

Pasi Sahlberg: How Are Finnish National Standards Different from CCSS?

By dianeravitch
June 3, 2014 //
90

I invited Pasi Sahlberg, the eminent scholar of Finnish education, to write a brief description of how the Finnish national standards function. The key differences, as you will see, between the Finnish national standards and the Common Core standards is first, the role of teachers in writing and revising them, and second, that Finland has no external national testing of the standards

Sahlberg, who is currently a visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, wrote the following:

“Are there common core standards in Finland?

“One thing that is common to successful education systems is that teaching and learning are guided or steered by system-level expectations that all schools must follow. But there are significant differences in how these expectations are technically employed. Many Canadian provinces, for example, set specific learning targets for most of the school subjects that all teachers and schools must respect. East Asian countries also set common standards that are often integrated into learning materials and teaching methods. Many other education systems have recently developed new standards for schools that aim at raising the expectations for all schools. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in the U.S. is an example of that development.

“American educators make sometimes references to Finnish school system in expressing their support to and doubts of CCSS. Those in favor claim that Finland has national standards similar to CCSS. Those with more critical views maintain that the Finnish system of steering teaching and learning is fundamentally different relying more on schools’ role in setting the actual learning goals. I will highlight how Finland’s curriculum system is similar or different to that of the U.S. through three points.

“First, formally each district (or municipality) in Finland is responsible to craft its own curriculum that guarantees that national laws and educational directives are adequately employed. In practice, however, districts have allocated this responsibility to schools after making sure that some critical aspects of curriculum are locally in harmony. This includes foreign language teaching, special education, pupil welfare issues and in many places the organization of schooling for immigrant children. It is therefore fair to say that Finnish schools have the right and the responsibility to design their own curriculum within the national frameworks and local requirements.

“Second, national curriculum frameworks serve as coordination of these school curricula. There are four binding national documents that provide guidelines for pre-school, basic school (nine years), and upper secondary schools (separate documents for general and vocational schools). These documents describe general objectives and core content that are the basis for school curricula. The bylaw on education stipulates subjects and general time allocation that direct municipalities to provide education in equal ways to all pupils in different parts of the country. For example national curriculum framework specifies general objectives and core content in mathematics separately for grades 1-2, 3-5 and 6-9 in Finnish basic school. What the schools do then is to decide detailed learning outcomes (or standards), syllabi and teaching methods for each grade level in every subject. Since there are no census-based standardized tests in Finland, the national curriculum framework documents includes common assessment criteria for a grade B (or grade 8 in Finland). Schools are relatively free to decide the form and style of their own curriculum. Time allocation and national framework curriculum for Finland’s basic school are available here: http://www.oph.fi/english/curricula_and_qualifications/basic_education.

“Third, teachers have a central role in designing the national framework curricula. Finnish government is at the moment revising the national framework curriculum for basic school. Working groups that prepare the renewed national frameworks for different subjects consist of mostly experienced teachers from all around the country. These new curricula elements are also often field tested and evaluated by teachers in order to guarantee that they are sensible and implementable in all schools. Teachers have also key role in writing textbooks that private publishers make available to all teachers. Finally, absence of national standardized tests allows teachers to teach what they think is important for pupils, and it also requires that student assessment practices must be described in detail in each school’s curriculum.

“The question remains: Does Finland have anything like the Common Core State Standards in the U.S.? On one hand, there are common national level regulations and guidelines that all districts and schools must comply. Law and its bylaws also set a common educational frame in terms of subjects and time allocation that must be respected nationwide. But these national directives serve as loose standards and strategic guidelines rather than prescribed targets that every teacher must try to accomplish.

“On the other hand, Finnish national curriculum framework doesn’t specify learning standards but only broad objectives and core content that help teachers in pedagogical architecture in their own schools. Perhaps the main difference between the CCSS and Finnish curriculum system is the central role that Finnish teachers and school principals have in both preparing the national curriculum frameworks and design actual curricula at the level of schools. Finnish authorities and parents trust the professionalism of principals and teachers than their peers do in the U.S. In other words, schools in Finland therefore much more autonomy in setting learning standards and crafting optimal learning environment for their children than schools elsewhere.

“Perhaps the main difference in the Finnish way of national steering of teaching and learning is that national curriculum frameworks don’t come with external student testing and assessment conditions. Curriculum planning at the school level is purely a question of what is best for pupils rather than how to get the most out of the attached standardized tests. When Finnish teachers don’t need to worry about external test scores and their possible affects on their work, curriculum planning can also serve as a powerful means to collegial professional development in school.

Pasi Sahlberg
June 1, 2014

Categories Common Core, International, Teachers and Teaching

Cuomo Won the WFP Endorsement by Promising to Act Like a Democrat

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2014 //
31

Peter Goodman here tells the sorry story of how Governor Cuomo won the endorsement of the Working Families Party by promising to act like a Democrat. For example, he promised to help Democrats gain control of the State Senate and to let localities raise the minimum wage, which are not big concessions from a Democratic governor.

On education, where Cuomo has governed as a conservative Republican, he promised nothing of substance. Districts are still stuck with a 2% tax cap, which requires a 60% supermajority to overturn; New York City still has the most charter-friendly legislation in the nation; the state will still have highly inequitable funding.

In his first appearance after the WFP victory, at a parade in Manhattan, Cuomo began hedging on the commitments he had made to the WFP.

He said, “Cuomo, who indicated he’d back the party’s goals of helping Democrats take back the State Senate and allowing localities to raise the minimum wage, downplayed the boos and heckling he received in absentia this weekend at the convention of the Working Families Party, whose union and progressive members have long grumbled about Cuomo’s fiscally conservative policies and working relationship with Republicans.

“It’s very simple at these political conventions: you either win or you lose. Uh, and I won, and I’m very happy to have their support,” he said.

In other words, the promises were strategic. He won. That’s all that matters.

To many progressives, Cuomo is Governor 1%. As Peter Goodman suggests, they have a choice: Howie Hawkins and Brian Jones of the Green Party.

Categories Cuomo, Andrew, New York

Growing Backlash Among Teachers Against Common Core

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2014 //
144

As we have seen in mainstream media coverage of the Common Core, there is a common–but fake–narrative about the Common Core. Secretary Duncan has repeatedly said that opposition to the Common Core comes from the far right, especially the Tea Party. We are also told that teachers like the Common Core. The underlying goal is to stigmatize critics and to belittle those who do speak up.

A good place to start with the Common Core is to look honestly at the source of the criticism and see whether there are legitimate concerns. Unfortunately, this is not happening, and states have been told that they can add content, but they can change nothing. This is bizarre, as no standards are ever perfect; all must have a process to redress grievances if they be just.

It is true that the two national teachers’ unions support the Common Core, and it is also true that both unions have accepted millions of dollars from the Gates Foundation to advocate on behalf of CCSS.

But teachers are increasingly resistant to the standardization that the CCSS requires, as well as to the tight linkage among the standards, the online federal tests, and the inevitable value-added-metrics that will be used to evaluate teachers. A very neat trap has been set that will use CCSS as the linchpin for test-based accountability. Unfortunately, the national media reports this reaction as teachers who are fearful of accountability,

Thus, don’t believe the oft-repeated tale that only the far right opposes CCSS. Anthony Cody reminded me that the Chicago Teachers Union was not alone in voting against CCSS. That vote, to my knowledge, has not been reported in the New York Times or other mainstream media. The Chicago Teachers Union, after long deliberation, voted unanimously in opposition to the CCSS.

On May 3, the delegate assembly of the Connecticut Education Association opposed high-stakes testing, VAM, and data mining of children and voted for reconsideration and review of CCSS.

On May 9-10, members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association elected Barbara Madeloni–an outspoken opponent of high-stakes testing–as their new president and passed resolutions opposing Corporate control of schools, including school takeovers and turnarounds. It passed a resolution seeking a moratorium on implementation of CCSS and PARCC.

So, yes, there is growing opposition and controversy swirling around Common Core. No, it is not a cause limited to the far right. In fact, some of the strongest supporters of CCSS are on the right, like Jeb Bush, Michelle Rhee, former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

CCSS is one of the most divisive issues in American politics today. Many myths swirl around it, coming from all directions. A nation as big and diverse as ours does not lightly adopt national standards and federally funded online tests without careful deliberation. It is time for the fear-mongering to end and for the careful deliberation to begin.

Categories Common Core

Is College Worth The Cost? A Puzzling Question or Not?

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2014 //
103

David Leonhardt says the latest data demonstrate that a four-year college degree is worth the investment. In fact, it pays so well that it actually rewards those who get the degree. College graduates with a four-year degree definitely make more money than those who didn’t finish college or those with only a high school diploma.

He concludes that everyone should get a four-year degree.

“Not so many decades ago, high school was considered the frontier of education. Some people even argued that it was a waste to encourage Americans from humble backgrounds to spend four years of life attending high school. Today, obviously, the notion that everyone should attend 13 years of school is indisputable.

“But there is nothing magical about 13 years of education. As the economy becomes more technologically complex, the amount of education that people need will rise. At some point, 15 years or 17 years of education will make more sense as a universal goal.

“That point, in fact, has already arrived.”

Now, it is hard to argue against college for all. I personally believe that anyone who wants to go to college should do so. I also believe that every state should have free public universities so students can enroll and leave with no debt.

But what puzzles me is this: first, if everyone has a four-year degree, will there still be a big wage premium for everyone? Second, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that most of the new jobs in the next decade won’t require a college degree. These will be jobs like “personal care aides,” home health aides, construction workers, retail salespersons. Will college graduates fill those jobs?

just wondering.

Categories Economy, Higher Education

Ohio’s Charter Dropout Factories

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2014 //
20

Ohio has some of the worst charter schools in the country, which avoid accountability because their owners contribute generously to elected officials.

Among the worst performing charters are those specifically designed for dropouts. Some of these schools teach students online. Can you imagine how ineffective it is to put a discouraged student in front of a computer instead of in a class with a live, empathetic teacher who knows how to engage the student in learning and how to get him to think anout improving his life chances?

This excellent story by Doug Livingston in the Akron Beacon Journal shows how poorly dropouts are served by certain charters. Yet state legislators give these low-performing schools even more money.

“Charter schools such as Life Skills, operated by Akron-based White Hat Management and targeting dropouts, are sending Ohio spinning off in the wrong direction. Dropout rates nationally are on the decline, but Ohio’s rate is on the rise.

“Granted, some dropout charter schools graduate nearly half of their students on time, a notable feat considering students enter these programs at least a year behind their peers in traditional high schools.

“But that’s not the norm.

“Many dropout charter schools, including White Hat’s chain of Life Skills centers, consistently report single-digit graduation rates. Over the course of last school year, more students dropped out of Life Skills than attended on the average day.

“Together, they are dragging down the state’s overall rate.

“After charter schools received the largest funding boosts per pupil in the most recent state budget, state legislators are toying with the idea of giving them more money to fix Ohio’s dropout problem at a time when charter schools are reporting record-high dropout rates.”

One of these schools had a 4.2% graduation rate.

“In the 2012-13 school year, more than 5,300 dropouts — a quarter of all Ohio dropouts that year — attended one of two online charter schools: the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow or Ohio Virtual Academy. Collectively, these two charter schools have a dropout rate 45 times higher than traditional public schools, and 10 times higher than the state’s eight largest city school districts.

“Another 6,829 students ­— about a third of all Ohio dropouts — attended charter schools designed specifically for dropouts, among them Invictus and Life Skills. Last year, these dropout charter schools enrolled one percent of Ohio’s public school students but accounted for roughly the same number of dropout events as did public district schools, which enrolled 91 percent of Ohio’s students.”

Categories Charter Schools, Ohio

John Merrow’s Poetic Critique of Bubble Testing, H/T Robert Frost

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2014 //
10

John Merrow demonstrates the incisiveness of poetry as a means of communicating complex ideas in his rewrite of Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall.” Merrow turns the poem into “Mending School,” a scathing critique of bubble testing. Used appropriately and sparingly, he suggests, the bubble tests may offer value. Used promiscuously, as they are today, they are a parasite that is consuming the host. They have become not a measure of education, but a substitute for education, an insidious force that strips education of meaning. Merrow’s annotations are important. In one, he writes, “Robert Frost’s poems, including ‘Mending Wall,’ may not be on many school reading lists in the future because the Common Core State Standards emphasize non-fiction” another annotation refers to the growth of the opt out movement. And one exposes the uselessness of the current regime: “School districts generally get back the test results about four months after they are given, long after students have moved on to new grades, new teachers, and perhaps new schools.” One wonders how useful the test results would be even if they were reported in a timely manner. One wonders about the long-term effect of judging students by the format of a multiple-choice test. How many decisions in life consist of four defined, discrete choices? How many are “none of the above” or “well,, two of the four might be right”?

Categories Accountability, Real Education, Standardized Testing
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