Archives for the year of: 2014
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Paul Karrer: Who Are Those Bad Teachers?

By dianeravitch
May 10, 2014 //
34

Paul Karrer, who teaches fifth-grade in Castroville, California, takes a look at our policymakers’ obsession with bad teachers. Who are they? How can they be found out and fired?

Here is one example of a bad teacher:

“The Low Score bad teacher — Education reformers want high-stakes testing to be a prime determinant in teacher evaluation. But if one looks under the tests, interesting facts pop up. Often, teachers who were Teacher of the Year find they are considered bad teachers in the following years. How can this be? Because class composition changes. Teaching assignments (grade-level) change. And unlike charter schools, which expel obstructive, destructive and obnoxious kiddos — those in the public realm must teach all the kids. Just one grade-A-whack-a-mole angry student can destroy a classroom. Many teachers have many more than one. Such a child’s presence is subtractive to the learning environment of others.”

There are more.

But who is behind this pursuit and does it make sense?

“My point in all this is to show that variables — normal life variables — impact classroom outcomes. When pregnant teachers, their compassionate spouses and ill teachers are labeled as bad teachers, something is very, very wrong.

“The profit-oriented talking heads of education reform want to monetize public education. Ed reformers would have us believe poverty, trauma, parental drug use, violence, incarceration and homelessness have no impact. Teachers are losing their profession. Kids are losing their teachers. And communities are losing the democratic concept of public schooling.

“In the end, it is the wealthy profiteers and captains of privatization who are pointing fingers at hard-pressed teachers who work in communities of failure. It is a much easier political fix to scream “fire” than it is to acknowledge the conditions of poverty. And it makes money for a few too.”

Categories Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

Anthony Cody: Why CTU Rejection of Common Core Matters

By dianeravitch
May 10, 2014 //
29

Anthony Cody hails the Chicago Teachers Union for its unanimous vote to reject Common Core.

This vote is important for many reasons. First, it undermines the repeated (and false) claim that almost all teachers favor CC.

Second, it recognizes that CTU is worried about the standardization and double-duty testing, as well as the loss of creativity that CC will bring.

Third, Cody believes that the CTU vote will encourage other locals to speak out and voice their concerns, not only about the problems of CC, but the diversion if billions of taxpayer dollars to corporations and vendors.

Cody believes that Randi Weingarten’s recent statements indicate that she is growing skeptical about the CC.

The issue is likely to be hotly debated when the AFT holds its national convention in Los Angeles this summer. California has not yet suffered the CCSS testing, but LA lost thousands if teachers while Superintendent Deasy committed $1 billion to buy iPads for Common Core testing.

Categories Chicago, Common Core, Unions

Is TFA Recruiting in the Bathrooms at the University of Michigan?

By dianeravitch
May 10, 2014 //
24

A blogger named Democracy Tree reports that TFA is putting up recruitment posters in the toilets at the University of Michigan.

Probably it is to recruit teachers for the financially strapped Educational Achievement Authority, where 27% of the teachers are TFA.

The blogger reports:

“Yep, that’s Teach For America (TFA) hustling young adults while they pee — Geez, talk about lowbrow recruiting tactics. Surely it’s every graduate’s dream to say “I discovered my life’s calling in the third stall on the left in North Kedzie Hall”.

“What makes this so interesting in Michigan is that 27 percent of the teachers hired by the state’s controversial Education Achievement Authority (EAA) are from TFA. The EAA is a special school district, established by fiat, which took-over 15 academically failing schools from Detroit Public Schools. The new district lacks democratically elected leaders and is instead run by a “Chancellor” — John Covington, who readily admits that fully 51 percent of his teaching staff has less than three years experience in the classroom. Covington came to the EAA from Kansas City Public Schools where, under his watch as superintendent, the district lost its accreditation. As chancellor, he currently enjoys compensation to the tune of over $353,538.

“How does the EAA pay for that salary? In part, by hiring college graduates on the cheap. They receive a whopping five weeks of TFA training before being thrown into a classroom full of academically struggling students. Last year, Detroit-area Senator Bert Johnson (D-2) reported numerous problems with the schools — mostly due to inexperienced teachers, including one school where a dozen TFA recruits walked-off the job out of frustration.

“TFA recruits are not required to have a degree in education. In fact, the only education-related training they typically receive is the TFA summertime crash course immediately prior to their fulfilling a two-year teaching contract. Fewer than a third of them go on to pursue a career in education. With the soaring cost of higher education, and lack of jobs, TFA becomes an attractive short-term alternative to grads much in the same way as the military.”

Categories Michigan, Teach for America

America’s Highest Paid Government Worker: Scandalous!

By dianeravitch
May 10, 2014 //
10

You have heard about the scandalous salaries and pensions paid to government workers.

Here is the top-paid government worker in the nation: Ron Packard, CEO of online virtual charter corporation K12, founded by junk bond king Michael Milken and his brother. Packard was paid $19 million between 2009-13. Packard recently stepped down as CEO to start his own business. He remains on the board of directors of K12.

The NCAA recently announced that it would no longer accept credits from 24 of K12’s schools, because of the poor quality of instruction.vv

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools

Anthony Cody: Why Computers Can’t Grade Student Essays

By dianeravitch
May 10, 2014 //
53

The new frontier of education consists of figuring out a way to cut costs. Or, failing that, figuring out a way to make money for investors while laying off teachers.

That brings us to the subject of computer-graded essays. Think of the savings if a computer can grade essays so teachers can do something else or be laid off!

Anthony Cody learned of a professor at MIT, Les Perelman, who has figured out why computers are really very bad substitutes for human beings.

“As our government agencies and various reform efforts seek to shift high stakes testing away from multiple choice questions, there is growing interest in computer programs that can read and score student essays. But questions persist, given the limitations of the algorithms these programs use.

“So Mr. Perelman has done an experiment. He created something he calls the Basic Automatic BS Essay Language Generator, BABEL for short. During his interview with Carol Off, Perelman fed his machine a topic she suggested, “Fair Elections Act.”

Here is what the BABEL machine provided in response:

Fun fair for adherents and presumably will never be altruistic in the extent to which we purloin the analysis. Fair is the most fundamental postulate of humankind. Whiner to act in the study of semiotics in addition to the search for reality. Act is intrepidly and clandestinely axiomatic by most of the scenarios. As I have learned in my semiotics class, act is the most fundamental exposition of humanity.

“Mr. Perelman then submits this essay for grading. The result, a score of 5.4 out of 6, placing this essay in the 90th percentile.

“Perelman explains his purpose:

“I did this as an experiment to show that what these computers are grading does not have anything to do with human communication. If you think about writing or any kind of human communication as the transfer of thoughts from one mind to another mind, then if the machine takes something that anyone would say is complete incoherent nonsense, and scores it highly, and we know that it’s not, then we know that it’s not grading human communication.”

Students will quickly learn how to game the system instead of learning how to write intelligibly. Use big words and long sentences. Impress the machine. Meaning doesn’t matter.

This is our Brave Néw World, a world of high-scoring gibberish.

Categories Technology, Computers

One Aspect of the Charter Industry

By dianeravitch
May 9, 2014 //
25

A reader says this about charter schools:

“Charter schools, which are investment tools for the wealthy are hijacking our public schools. One CEO of three charter schools in NYC makes $475,000.00 plus benefits. As an investment advisor I expect a return on my investment.. My property taxes and federal tax as well as state taxes are going to professional hijackers. We are all losing except the rich who are insuring their takeover. Ask Mike Milliken about it.”

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry

Write Your Senator to Stop Charter Favoritism Bill Passed by House

By dianeravitch
May 9, 2014 //
73

Led by conservative Republican leader Eric Cantor, the House of Representatives passed a bill that grants new funding and exemption from federal laws to charter schools. The bill passed 360-45.

Wrote the D.C. Paper, “The Hill,”

“Republicans have touted the issue of school choice and access to charter schools as a way of limiting the federal government’s role in education policy. Charter schools receive public funding, but operate independently and therefore are not subject to federal regulations.

“Expanding education opportunity for all students everywhere is the civil rights issue of our time,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said. “I say we help those students by expanding those slots so they can get off the waiting lists and into the classrooms.”

If schools need to be exempted from federal laws to be successful, why not roll back unnecessary and burdensome federal laws for public schools as well as privately-managed charter schools?

Relief from federal regulation is “the civil rights issue of our time”? What a mockery of the concept of the original civil rights movement, which fought for federal regulation of school desegregation, of housing, of jobs, and of voting rights. How did George Wallace’s ideas become “the civil rights issue of our time?

The purpose of the bill was not just to help charter schools but to exempt them from the basic tenets of transparency and accountability that are required of any publicly-funded institution.

Consider which proposals were rejected and are NOT in the bill:

“Teachers unions such as the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association raised concerns that the legislation would not subject charter schools to federal education requirements, such as reporting teacher attrition rates and student discipline codes.

But the unions, key Democratic party supporters, did say that the measure would include some improvements over current law such as creating weighted lotteries for charter school funding.

The House rejected, 190-205, an amendment offered by Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) that would require the secretary of Education to develop conflict of interest guidelines for all charter schools receiving federal funds, such as disclosing individuals with financial interest in a given charter school.

“There have been very serious cases all across the country over the past few years involving the conflict of interest in charter schools,” Castor said.

But Kline said the proposal would be unnecessary.

“This amendment is an overreach of federal authority,” Kline said.

Members also rejected, 179-220, an amendment offered by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) to require charter schools to publish data regarding student enrollment criteria, discipline policies and orientation materials on their websites.

“It is important to ensure that our parents have information. and certainly should have info regarding the kind of discipline atmosphere that is there. They should also know whether or not there are serious commitment to making sure that their child’s holistic future is in front of them,” Jackson Lee said.

Kline said that requiring charter schools to publish such information would impose an unnecessary workload not required of public schools.”

Make no mistake. This toxic bill is a victory for the forces of privatization.

The only place to stop it is in the Senate.

Call or email your Senators and ask them to defend public schools from the corporations and entrepreneurs now poised to open and expand their chain schools.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/205706-house-passes-bipartisan-charter-school-reform-bill#ixzz31FSVnH6n
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook

Categories Charter Schools

GF Brandenburg: How Flat Are the NAEP Scores?

By dianeravitch
May 9, 2014 //
14

A brilliant post by G.F. Brandenburg about NAEP scores.

Shows how little has been gained by the Bush-Obama demolition derby of testing, closing schools, firing teachers and principals, opening charters.

It is all a mighty failure that has not improved test scores or education

Hoax!

Categories NAEP, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Testing

North Carolina: McCrory Proposes to Raise Teachers’ Salaries

By dianeravitch
May 9, 2014 //
13

North Carolina, once seen as the most forward-looking state in the South, has become an educational backwater in recent years, despite winning Race to the Top funding. The governor and legislature have skimped on public schools, cut their budgets, while expanding deregulated charters and introducing vouchers. They even eliminated their own NC Teaching Fellows program to prepare career teachers while spending millions to bring in Teach for America temps. Teachers’ salaries have been flat since 2008, and NC teacher pay dropped from the national average to nearly last in the nation. The state has been experiencing a major brain drain of veteran teachers, under the withering assaults of the legislature and governor.

Last February, the governor announced a pay raise, but only for new teachers. This eases the path for the TFA recruits (the governor’s senior education adviser is a TFA alum).

This week, the governor announced a series of pay raises for all teachers, as well as small increases for textbooks and preschool. He did not explain how he will pay for his proposals. The legislature previously enacted major corporate tax cuts. Some of his proposals involve pay for performance, with increases tied to test scores, a widely discredited approach that has many believers.

Some of the increases fail to restore the previous deep cuts. For example:

“Acknowledging that the deep cuts that have been made to the textbook budget are not good for students, the Governor pledged to double the current textbook budget to $43 million. In 2009, however, the textbook budget was roughly $110 million – the next year it was slashed to just $2.6 million. Early childhood education will receive $3.6 million with the Governor’s proposal, enough for around 700 pre-K slots, which are reserved for low-income children to get a head start on their education. Past years’ cuts in funding have left the pre-K program with significant waiting lists that are in the tens of thousands.”

– See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2014/05/08/gov-mccrory-unveils-latest-teacher-pay-and-education-reform-plan/#sthash.oasfgXeJ.dpuf

Categories North Carolina

Parent: Why I Refused the Tests for My Children

By dianeravitch
May 9, 2014 //
10

This New York parent decided the state tests were useless and worthless. She went to hearings and rallies and realized that state officials made only minor changes but that her children would continue to sit for 500 minutes of state testing in grades 3-8. She thought it made no sense. So she opted her children out of state testing. Here is her letter to the editor of her local newspaper.

She writes:

“I recognize that students have always taken some form of standardized testing and that testing has a value in education. I am not saying that students should never take tests or that teachers should not be held accountable. What I am saying is that we as a state and as a country have lost our focus. What I am saying is the rules have changed and these tests are different. When No Child Left Behind was introduced in 2002, our children were federally required to take state tests in 4th grade and 8th grade. In 2006, the federal requirement changed to all grades 3-8th. In 2012, the tests changed again increasing the time, the complexity and consequences.

“The single largest change at the center of this all is that teachers are now rated on the results of these tests. Teachers are not saying they shouldn’t be evaluated – in fact – most feel that a good evaluation makes them a better teacher. There are so many things wrong with the APPR process that I would have to write another letter on this topic. Basically, our children and our teachers work hard all year. They should not be reduced to a single score.

“The reasons my children have not taken the state tests the past 2 years is simple: they do not help my children in any way. While the test is given in April, the scores are not received until July. There is NO data or explanation of where my child had weaknesses or strengths for that matter. The teacher will see 25% of the questions but will not have ANY information on how MY child did on those questions or on how they may help future students. These tests lack quality, as evidenced by the numerous errors and poorly worded questions. These tests are not used to determine student promotion or grades and are not included in a child’s permanent school record. The children receive a score on a scale of 1-4 which becomes a statistic used to rate teachers and schools- minimizing their educational experience to just a number. What could that number mean to me as a parent? Commissioner King and the Board of Regents are repeatedly quoted in the media saying, “Why wouldn’t a parent want to know how their child is doing?” My response is simple. If I need to know how my children are doing, I will ask their teacher!

“Our children are athletes, musicians, singers, dancers, artists, scientists, and community volunteers, among other things, none of which can be measured by a single assessment. I am not sure when or why test scores became so important. It used to be that parents looking for a place to live chose Garden City, perhaps based on the colleges that our students attend. Our children’s test scores have become a metric by which we assess our property values. The tests have somehow become “practice” in preparation for the NYS Regents Exams, the SAT’s, and ACT’s. Why have we become a society that cares more about the test scores than the quality of our child’s educational experience?”

Categories New York, Parents, Testing
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