Archives for the year of: 2014
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Shreveport Teacher of the Year Explains Why She Does Not Support Common Core

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2014 //
8

After the local newspaper printed an article indicating that Louisiana’s teachers support the Common Core, teacher Glynis Johnson wrote a letter saying that the reporter was wrong.

 

What I found interesting about her letter was the cogency of her critique:

 

1. Very few teachers were involved in the writing of the standards.

2. Bill Gates, who did not graduate college, put his millions into the development of the standards.

3. She writes: The Common Core State Standards are a federal intrusion and the “data-mining” involved is a violation of student privacy. Many of the standards are developmentally inappropriate, particularly in the lower grades. This leads to undue stress in our students and parents. We need high standards, but do not need to be part of a 10-year federal experiment on our children.

 

Many people have explained why they do not support the Common Core standards. This is as good a short description as I have seen.

 

 

 

 

Categories Common Core, Louisiana

Alan Singer: What Does the P in P-Tech Stand For?

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2014 //
16

Alan Singer suspects that the reason so many school “reformers” keep promoting dramatic stories about miracle schools is that it relieves society of any responsibility to attack fundamental issues like poverty, segregation, and unemployment.

 

He writes:

 

Pathways in Technology Early College High School or P-Tech is a small high school with 330 students in Brooklyn, New York. Its student population is 85% African American and 11% Hispanic. Three-quarters of the students are eligible for free lunch and one-in-six is considered special education. Because of a partnership with IBM and the City University of New York to prepare students for 21st century careers in technology, it has been presented as the academic wave of the future, including in the 2013 State of the Union Address by President Barack Obama, who also visited the school in October 2013.

 

For proponents of P-Tech, the message is clear. The United States does not need to put more money into public education. We don’t need to rebuild inner city minority communities. We don’t need a full employment jobs programs. We don’t need to tax companies that are masking profits by shifting income overseas. All we need for a bright and rosy future in the United States are private-public partnerships to jumpstart more P-Techs for Black and Latino students.

 

P-Tech Brooklyn is so highly regarded that New York State Governor Andrew Como has pledged $28 million in state aid over the next seven years to open sixteen new P-Tech programs and another ten programs are planned down the line. There are new P-Techs in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens and Cuomo has promised P-Techs for Geneva, Poughkeepsie, and Yonkers. Meanwhile, IBM is taking the P-Tech model nationwide and hopes to help create 100 new P-Techs by 2016. Five P-techs are already in operation in Chicago and P-Tech’s Brooklyn principal Rashid Davis has become a national spokesperson for the program, traveling to Idaho in 2013 where five P-Techs were being developed.

 

To their credit, New York State Commissioner John King and Board of Regents’ Chairperson Merryl Tisch have been wary of the hype around P-Tech. Singer reviews test score data and can’t figure out why all the hoopla.

 

He writes:

 

Overall, P-Tech ranked 951st out of 1079 high schools in New York State on student math and reading scores. This placed it in the lowest 12% of state schools. My intent is not to denigrate the students of P-Tech or their teachers. It is to challenge the idea that the P-Tech model being promoted by politicians and business leaders is a magical solution to problems plaguing the American economy and inner-city minority schools.

 

What do all the numbers mean? If you neighborhood P-Tech successfully attracts students who are already performing above the academic norm, they will continue to score above the norm and your P-Tech will be declared a miracle school. But if your local P-Tech becomes home to students who are struggling academically, they will continue to struggle academically and your P-Tech will perform below expectations.

 

On a deeper level the performance of students at the Brooklyn P-Tech means State Education Departments, corporations, foundations, and the federal government have no idea how to improve the educational performance of inner-city minority students and that they are selling the public a fairy tale.

 

The “P” in P-Tech certainly does not stand for “performance.” It may well stand for “phony.”

 

I don’t think anyone should put down the hard-working educators in schools like P-Tech. It is not their fault that politicians are overhyping their success. There is a moral to the story, however. Schools alone can’t compensate for the social and economic problems of our society. We need a government that will stop pretending that school reform will end poverty and close income gaps. It won’t. We must work for the day when politicians take responsibility for problems that only social policy can address and stop spinning tales of miracle schools.

Categories Education Reform, Poverty, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration

Patrick Hayes: Who Cheated Teachers in Charleston, S.C., of the Salaries They Were Promised?

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2014 //
4

Patrick Hayes, who teaches in Charleston, S.C., did extensive research on the salaries that were promised and the actual salaries that teachers receive.

 

Although teachers were promised a raise, most will receive less money.

 

How can any school district expect to recruit great teachers when they don’t pay professional wages?

 

Patrick Hayes, by the way, started an organization called EdFirstSC, to advocate on behalf of students, teachers, and public schools.

Categories South Carolina, Teachers and Teaching

Curt Guyette: How the Education Achievement Authority Exploited Detroit’s Neediest Students

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2014 //
13

Curt Guyette, an investigative reporter for the ACLU of Michigan, here recounts the series of disasters associated with Governor Rick Snyder’s Education Achievement Authority.

 

The EAA enrolled children from the state’s lowest performing schools, all located in Detroit. It experimented with an unproven software program called BUZZ that was rife with glitches. Inexperienced teachers came and went. The governor boasted of the EAA’s successes, but enrollment dropped from 10,000 to about 7,000.

 

Why were these children used in an experiment?

Categories Detroit

Detroit’s Education Achievement Authority Gets New Leadership

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2014 //
8

Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder persuaded the Legislature to create the so-called Education Achievement Authority, a cluster of very low-performing schools in Detroit. The first superintendent of the EAA, some 15 schools, was John Covington, who resigned his job as superintendent in Kansas City (which soon afterwards lost its accreditation) to take over the EAA. Covington’s time in office was blighted by controversy over conditions in the schools, the over-use and misuse of technology, as well as issues concerning the use of EAA credit card for travel and other expenses. Snyder has wanted to make the EAA statewide, but thus far it has not been successful and has lost enrollment.

 

The board of the EAA hired Veronica Conforme, who has been the interim, leader, as superintendent at a salary of $325,000, the same as Covington’s. She pledged to give $25,000 of her salary to local charities. Most recently, Conforme was working at the College Board where she was involved in the “Access to Rigor” campaign; before that, she was chief operating officer for the New York City Department of Education during the Bloomberg administration. She began work in the headquarters of the NYC Department of Education in 2003, after serving as director of human resources at Columbia University’s Medical Center. She has degrees from Syracuse and Columbia. She has a strong administrative background, but apparently no experience as a teacher or principal.

Categories Detroit

Connecticut Pays Boston Consulting Group for Plan to Reform Higher Education

By dianeravitch
December 6, 2014 //
21

Connecticut wants to transform its state university and community colleges for the 21st century. Who gets the nearly $2 million contract to redesign the system? Why, the Boston Consulting Group, of course. They are management consultants who specialize in outsourcing, privatizing, and downsizing. Jonathan Pelto reduces that the high-priced prescription will destroy the community colleges.

 

As Jonathan Pelto reports, BCG helps public authorities devolve their responsibilities to private entities. The lead consultant from BCG points to Néw Orleans and Dallas [?] as examples of successful transformation.

 

Any one of us could have written an equally compelling report for $500 or $1,000, not $1.8 million. But then Connecticut wouldn’t have the BCG logo on the cover of the report.

Categories Boston Consulting Group, Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Technology, Computers

David Greene: The Grand Jury and George Orwell

By dianeravitch
December 5, 2014 //
14

David Greene sees eerie similarities between George Orwell’s 1936 essay “Shooting an Elephant” and the events of today. What were the police officers thinking when they took a fatal shot? What was the police officer thinking when he subdued Eric Garner with a lethal chokehold?

 

Greene’s post was prompted by a column written by Jim Dwyer in the New York Times. Dwyer had a printout of Orwell’s essay. He fell into a chance conversation about Eric Garner’s death with a man sitting next to him on the subway, who was familiar with the essay:

 

Mr. Harris’s recollection of the essay was sound: It was written by a former British police officer in lower Burma who was overseeing a town where a bull elephant broke free and wreaked havoc. The townspeople want the officer to do something about it. He shoots the elephant.

 

“Who was the writer?” Mr. Harris said, peering down. “George Orwell, of course. It’s a good analogy.”

 

Born in Harlem, Mr. Harris, 57, “an American of African descent,” said he had repeatedly watched the video of Mr. Garner, face pressed into the sidewalk, calling out that he could not breathe.

 

“Every time I look at it, see him on the ground, I —” Mr. Harris put a hand on his own chest — “I have a hard time breathing myself. I try to read his lips.”

 

No other officers intervened. The ambulance team that responded provided virtually no care to Mr. Garner as he appeared to be slipping out of consciousness.

 

“He’s a human being,” Mr. Harris said. “No one’s doing anything for him. It’s clear-cut. I don’t think the cop set out to murder him. But it’s not manslaughter? It’s not negligence?….”

 

Putting the entire discussion on the heads of police officers made little sense to him. Besides his job as a caretaker for a house, Mr. Harris said he works as a “freelance painter” and anything else he can pick up. “How are you going to feel as a man if you can’t pay the rent?” he said. “If Eric Garner had a real job, he wouldn’t have been on the street selling cigarettes. Poverty makes us angry. Racism and poverty together, it’s explosive.”

 

 

Categories Education Reform

Fairtest Reports on Latest Test Resistance

By dianeravitch
December 5, 2014 //
1

Bob Schaeffer reports weekly on the growing anti-standardized testing movement.

Here is the latest news:

On this “Giving Tuesday,” our gift to you is another set of stories and resources about the rapidly growing national assessment reform movement.

In return, we ask that you help FairTest’s critical work supporting grassroots activists, policy-making allies, and journalists by making your most generous possible contribution today either by clicking here http://www.fairtest.org/donate or mailing your check to P.O. Box 300204, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130. Your donation will be fully tax deductible.

Thanks for all you do !

Why the Testing Resistance Movement is Expecting a “Full-On Revolt” This Spring
http://www.alternet.org/print/education/opt-out-everywhere-why-standardized-testing-movement-expecting-full-revolt

Testing Market Surges with Common Core
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/marketplacek12/2014/11/testing_market_surges_with_common_core_growth_in_formative_assessment.html

Alaska Students Prepare to Stress-Test New Computerized Exams
http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/alaska-schools-prepare-to-test-new-tests/article_c74e8a5a-79fa-11e4-9791-a722fc1a7cb7.html

Overhauling California’s Accountability System
https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/publications/pubs/1279

California Impact Academy Demonstrates Deeper, More Meaningful Student Assessments
http://www.ewa.org/blog-educated-reporter/impact-academy-rethinking-student-assessment

Five Reasons to Stop Colorado’s Testing Madness
http://pagosadailypost.com/2014/11/28/editorial-five-reasons-to-stop-the-madness-part-two/

Colorado District Votes to Remove Most Students From Common Core Testing
http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2014/12/01/colorado-springs-district-removes-most-students-common-core-testing

Groups Florida Families Opt Out of Florida’s Standardized Assessments

Anti-Testing Groups Help Students Opt Out Of Florida Standardized Assessments

Damning Account of Illinois’ Common Core Testing Initiative
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/11/25/a-damning-account-of-one-states-common-core-testing-initiative/

Kansas Tries to Avoid Repeat of Computerized Exam Problems
http://m.cjonline.com/news/2014-11-27/kansas-continues-efforts-prevent-school-testing-problems

More New Mexico Families Opt Out of Tests
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/education/more-parents-choosing-to-opt-out-of-public-school-testing/article_a86a49ee-2ea2-58a5-8233-fbbcadca3961.html

Failure: The New York State Common Core Eighth Grade Math Test
https://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/failure-the-8th-grade-nys-common-core-math-test/

Tulsa, Oklahoma Superintendent Sets Up Task Force to Examine Teachers Assessment Concerns
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/education/superintendent-announces-task-forces-to-address-testing-assessment-concerns/article_37c36c53-a7da-5d81-99ae-29262074fc4d.html

Evaluating Rhode Island’s System of Evaluating Teachers
http://warwickonline.com/stories/Evaluating-the-system-of-evaluating-teachers,98157

Utah’s Summative Tests Should Not Be Used to Grade Schools or Teachers
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/1873418-155/op-ed-tests-shouldnt-be-used-to

Commission Recommends Changes to Virginia’s Standards of Learning Assessments
http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com/article.cfm?ID=44448

Frequent Changes to Washington State Exams Only Help Test-Makers
http://union-bulletin.com/news/2014/nov/25/education-reform-remains-elusive-state/

Congressional Republicans Make “No Child” Overhaul Top Education Priority
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/republicans-push-update-education-law-27272164

Arne Duncan’s Ed School Evaluation Plan Misses the Point
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/12/02/the-concept-education-secretary-duncan-has-entirely-missed/

“The Adventures of Sampleman”
http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=7377

Standardized Testing on the School Playground
http://www.bostonglobe.com/2012/09/14/cartoons-dan-wasserman/q4tHBNzLD1GbbfyJFQHaRM/story.html?pic=5

Jesse Hagopian: Assessment Reform is Part of New Civil Rights Movement
http://realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/9653

Secondary School Principals Adopting Position Against Value-Added Measurement
http://www.nassp.org/tabid/3788/default.aspx?topic=Value_Added_Measures_in_Teacher_Evaluation

Myths, Lies, and the Endless Cycle of Education “Reform”
http://www.theind.com/LaLaLand/no-virginia-this-ain-t-no-silver-bullett-4467/

Common Core Testing Ignores Needs of Youngest Children
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/abetteriowa/2014/11/26/common-core-early-childhood-education-testing/70113320/

Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director
FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing
office- (239) 395-6773 fax- (239) 395-6779
mobile- (239) 699-0468
web- http://www.fairtest.org

Categories Education Reform

A Puzzle: Younger Americans Are More Educated But Poorer

By dianeravitch
December 5, 2014 //
39

Valerie Strauss has a column describing a puzzle: younger Americans, ages 18-34, are more educated than their parents’ generation, but making less money.

 

Your guess is as good as mine, but here is my guess. Inequality is growing; the middle class is less secure. The “reformers” want everyone to go to college, but they do nothing to address the shrinkage of jobs, especially jobs that pay what college graduates are led to expect. All their “reform” blather is a convenient way of diverting attention from growing wage inequality and growing wealth inequality.

 

Strauss writes:

 

Young adults in the United States today — those Americans from 18 to 34 years old — are on average earning less than their counterparts 35 years ago, but more have a college degree, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

This piece on the bureau’s blog says that earnings among young adults range from state to state across the country, with some states seeing an increase. In Massachusetts, for example, young adults earn on average $6,500 more annually, adjusted for inflation; in Virginia, they earn $4,100 more. But states where there have been big declines are “Michigan, Wyoming and Alaska where young adults earn at least $9,000 less than they did 30 years ago,” the blog post says.

What does this all say about America today and the earning prospects for young people? The post says:

Young adults’ experiences may reflect a rise in inequality. Since the 1980s, income inequality for households and families has gone up at the same time as the country as a whole has become more educated. The picture that emerges from these statistics reveals a generation of young adults who may be, at once, both better and worse off than their parents.

Categories Education Reform, Jobs

North Carolina Plans to Adopt Koch-Funded Social Studies Curriculum

By dianeravitch
December 5, 2014 //
28

North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction plans to adopt a high school course to teach the founding principles of American government, which was developed by an institute funded by the notorious Koch Brothers.

 

State high school social studies teachers would be encouraged to use curriculum materials prepared by an institute funded by the conservative Koch family, under a proposal the Department of Public Instruction presented Wednesday.

The Bill of Rights Institute, based in Virginia, had a $100,000, sole-source contract with the state to help develop materials for teachers to use in a course on founding principles that the state requires students to take. The institute was founded in 1999 and receives grants from David H. Koch, the Charles Koch Foundation, and the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation, according to a website on Koch family philanthropies.

The state Department of Public Instruction decision to “highly recommend” that school districts use the Bill of Rights Institute material comes as the state is embroiled in a controversy over teaching history – whether schools have students study the founding principles as the law requires, whether AP U.S. History meets those requirements and whether the college-level course developed by the College Board has a liberal bias.

The 390-page founding principles curriculum includes readings, activities, questions students should discuss and references to online resources for the 10 principles described in a 2011 law inspired by proposed legislation promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group backed by major corporations….

 

June Atkinson, state school superintendent and a Democrat, said the state looked for groups that could help write the founding principles curriculum but found only the Bill of Rights Institute. The institute did not return phone calls.

 

The institute collaborated with state educators, Atkinson said, and they requested feedback from teachers, who reviewed the work and suggested changes.

 

“It wasn’t a carte blanche, we’ll take what you have,” she said. “We wanted a balanced approach.”

 

But history teachers said in interviews Wednesday that they already have a wealth of resources available for teaching the founding principles. Some said it was not appropriate for a Koch-connected group to write public school course materials, and none knew that the state had hired the institute to develop a curriculum.

 

Charles and David Koch are active in conservative politics and finance an expansive political network.

 

People whose “principal concern is profit-making” should not develop curriculum, said Bryan Proffitt, a history teacher at Hillside High School in Durham. Curriculum should be developed “in a democratic fashion” by people closest to the classroom, he said.

 

 

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/12/03/4374397_state-education-department-used.html?sp=/99/100/&rh=1#storylink=cp.

Categories Curriculum, North Carolina
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