Archives for the year of: 2014
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Chris Rekydal of Washington State: A Hero of American Education

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2014 //
50

Washington State thoughtfully rejected Arne Duncan’s threat to cancel its waiver from the absurd demands of No Child Left Behind. The decision to say no to federal demands and intimidation was bipartisan.

The Legislature refused to bend to Duncan’s insistence that the state adopt test-based evaluation, which has consistently failed across the nation and has been declared inaccurate by the nation’s leading scholarly organizations.

The Washington State legislature understands federalism. Secretary Duncan does not. He thinks he is charge of the nation’s schools–every one f them. As someone who spent eight years running the Chicago public school system, one of the nation’s lowest-performing, he should have earned humility. Unfortunately, he enjoys a sense of certainty that is astonishing, almost as astonishing as his indifference to research and evidence.

The sense of the Washington State legislature was succinctly expressed by Chris Rekydal, a Democrat.

Unlike Duncan, Rekydal understands that the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution leaves education policy to states and localities.

He said in a statement:

“As a legislator who voted for our state’s robust home-grown teacher-principal evaluation system and one of the authors of our state’s new rigorous 24-credit graduation framework, I am disappointed in the federal government’s decision to repeal our waiver.

“This is a tremendous moment in our nation’s history where a state that strongly supported the President in 2008 and again in 2012 soundly rejected the federal government’s demands to structure our teacher-principal evaluation system to the specific criteria established by the U.S. Dept. of Education.

“My message to President Obama and Secretary Duncan is that Washington State is committed to education reform that is collaborative, bipartisan, and focused on student success and teacher growth. Our legislative decision to reject the federal government’s demands was done with substantial deliberation and a deep respect for state and local control.

“The bipartisan rejection of this federal government demand during the 2014 legislative session is a strong and unifying message that our state fully embraces our constitutional 10th Amendment guarantee to develop, fund, and administer our state’s education system as the citizens of the state of Washington and their elected representatives determine, not as federal officials deem it appropriate.

“Washington State has one of the leading K-12 systems in the United States. With 89% of our adult population having earned a high school diploma or greater, we are a national leader in student success, employment growth, and earnings.

“I strongly encourage federal officials to use this moment in history to model Washington State’s success instead of using us as an example of federal government power and leverage. I challenge the federal government to turn a corner on education reform, fix the deeply-flawed and failed No Child Left Behind Act, and get back to empowering the states instead of coercing them.

“No Child Left Behind is a failed policy of the Bush administration that focuses on student failure and school punishment. This is no way to run a public education system. Enacting bad policy at the state level as a result of bad policy at the federal level will not help schools – and certainly won’t help students – be successful.”

Categories Duncan, Arne, Federal Waiver, Teacher Evaluations, U.S. education, Washington State

Gary Rubinstein: Did Arne Duncan Find a Miracle School in Denver?

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2014 //
10

Gary Rubinstein is quite the sleuth when anyone makes a claim about educational results that seem too good to be true.

 

A few years ago, he helped me pin down some whoppers when Secretary Arne Duncan, President Obama, and then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg claimed they discovered miracle schools that had a 100% graduation rate, or miraculous score gains, or some other incredible statistic. His research helped me write an article for the New York Times about miracle schools, debunking the notion that anyone can overcome poverty if they do something simple, like firing the entire staff or, better yet, raise their expectations.

 

Gary created a website to report and analyze sitings of miracle schools, whose magic melted on closer inspection. The purpose was not to say that schools could not get better, but that improving schools is hard work. not subject to the magic of press releases and political manipulation.

 

After the appearance of that article, the miracle claims briefly subsided, but Gary found that Duncan recently tweeted about a high school in Colorado with a 100% graduation rate.

 

He checked it out, and discovered yet again that this was not a miracle school. It was true that 100% of the seniors graduated, but only 62% of the ninth grade cohort made it to graduation.

 

As Arne loves to say, we should stop lying to our children.

Categories Colorado

A Hero Superintendent in Oklahoma Defies the State, Exempts Two Students from Tests

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2014 //
19

Donna Dudley, superintendent of Moyers public schools in Oklahoma, made a conscious decision to defy the state.

 

It should not have been an extraordinary decision because it was what a decent human being would do.

 

Two of her students suffered a terrible loss the weekend before the state tests. Their parents were killed in a car crash.

 

Superintendent Dudley asked the state for permission to exempt them from the state tests.

 

The bureaucrats at the State Education Department said no.

 

Superintendent Dudley exempted them anyway.

 

I honor her here as a hero of public education.

 

The story broke after Superintendent Dudley wrote about it on Facebook and said she was willing for her school to get an F, if that was the consequence of doing what was right for the students.

 

Once the situation was publicized, the State Superintendent of Instruction, Janet Barresi, quickly apologized.

 

Mistakes were made.

 

When the state is wrong, individuals must do what is right regardless of the consequences.

 

Question is, when will the state–not only Oklahoma–but the federal government, President Obama, Secretary Duncan, and the U.S. Congress–admit that the emphasis on testing is out of control?

 

Why test dying children? Why test children who have no brain stem? Why test grieving children?

 

What has happened to our humanity?

 

Why must the demand for Big Data trump decency and kindness and basic values?

 

When will we stand together and say NO?

 

I reiterate the demand of the Network for Public Education for Congressional hearings on the misuse, overuse, and costs of testing in our schools today.

 

 

Categories Honor Roll, Oklahoma, Testing

Bob Sikes: The Voucher Hypocrisy of Republicans in Florida

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2014 //
4

Republicans have been pushing vouchers in Florida, despite the fact that voters turned them down in 2012 by a decisive margin.

Republicans have been calling for STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) at the same time that they want children to go to school where creationism is taught as science.

Republicans claim they want more accountability but schools receiving vouchers will not be held to any accountability standards.

Republicans say they want a “great” teacher in every classroom but teachers in voucher schools need not be certified.

Bob Sikes points out the contradictions in this post.

Voters still oppose vouchers by a 55-42 margin, according to recent polls.

Sikes writes that as more privatization zealots assume high rank in the legislature, “The drip, drip, drip of revelations which continue to discredit Florida’s voucher program may be the only thing standing in the way of the republican agenda to crush the state’s public school system.”

That and Florida’s alert parents, who do not want their children or their taxes to underwrite religious schools or charter corporations.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Florida, Parents, Vouchers

Alexandra Miletta: edTPA: Good Thing or Bad Thing? Part 1

By dianeravitch
April 25, 2014 //
25

A few years ago, the Powers-That-Be decided that the biggest problem in American education was the teachers. McKinsey said that other nations attracted the top performing graduates of the most prestigious universities into teaching, while our own sorry teachers came from the bottom of the barrel. In the hunt for perpetrators of what was wrongly assumed to be a national education disaster (after all, test scores and graduation rates were at an all-time high), the nation’s teacher-preparation institutions were a natural scapegoat. They were also an easy target, since people have complained about them for generations, and they have no high-profile defenders. Even Arthur Levine, former president of Teachers College, Columbia University, joined the ranks of the critics.

The answer: more tests for would-be teachers. Of course. And who would own the tests? Pearson. Of course.

Any policy talk about the proliferation of online masters’s degrees sold by for-profit diploma mills? No.

In part 1 of this two-part series, teacher educator Alexandra Miletta reviews the origins and workings of Pearson’s edTPA.

Categories Teachers and Teaching

Breaking News: Tennessee Legislature Rolls Back Test-Based Teacher Evaluation Law

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2014 //
63

In a stunning reversal,the Tennessee Legislature overwhelmingly repealed a law to evaluate teachers by test scores, and the law was swiftly signed by Governor Haslam. On a day when Arne Duncan withdrew Washington State’s failure to enact test-based teacher valuation system, this is a remarkable turn of events.

Joey Garrison of The Tennessean reports:

“Gov. Bill Haslam has signed into law a bill that will prevent student growth on tests from being used to revoke or not renew a teacher’s license — undoing a controversial education policy his administration had advanced just last summer.

“The governor’s signature, which came Tuesday, follows the Tennessee General Assembly’s overwhelming approval this month of House Bill 1375 / Senate Bill 2240, sponsored by Republicans Rep. John Forgety and Sen. Jim Tracy, which cleared the House by a unanimous 88-0 vote and the Senate by a 26-6 vote.

“That marked a major repudiation of a policy the Tennessee Board of Education in August adopted — at Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman’s recommendation — that would have linked license renewal and advancement to a teacher’s composite evaluation score as well as data collected from the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, which measures the learning gains of students.

“The bill to reject the policy had been pushed chiefly by the Tennessee Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ organization, which engineered a petition drive to encourage Haslam to sign the legislation despite it passing with large bipartisan support.

“Huge, huge win for teachers,” the TEA wrote on its Twitter page, thanking both bill sponsors as well as Haslam for “treating teachers as professionals.”

“Eyeing a 2015 implementation, the state board in January had agreed to back down from using student learning gains as the sole and overriding reason to revoke a license. Composite evaluation scores, in which 35 percent is influenced by value-added data, were to centerpiece.”

********************
Two interesting points here: one, Duncan has been hailing Tennessee as a demonstration of the “success” of Race to the Top, in which test-based evaluation of teachers is key. What happens now?

Second, state Commissioner Kevin Huffman is so unpopular that anything he supports is likely to be rejected. His enemies hope he doesn’t leave Tennessee because whatever he recommends generates opposition, even among his allies.

Categories Teacher Evaluations, Tennessee

BREAKING NEWS: Duncan Withdraws NCLB Waiver from Washington State

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2014 //
91

 

Subject: POLITICO Breaking News

The Education Department is pulling Washington state’s No Child Left Behind waiver because the state has not met the department’s timeline for tying teacher evaluations to student performance metrics.

Washington is the first state to lose its waiver. The loss will give local districts less flexibility in using federal funds. For instance, they may now be required to spend millions on private tutoring services for at-risk students. The waiver revocation could also result in nearly every school across the state being labeled as failing under NCLB.

Washington had pledged in its waiver application to make student growth a significant factor in teacher and principal evaluations by the 2014-15 school year. But the state Legislature refused to pass a bill mandating that student performance on statewide assessments be included in teacher evaluations. The department placed the state on “high-risk” status in August. Arizona, Kansas and Oregon are also at risk of losing their waivers.

For more information… http://www.politico.com

 

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan handed out numerous waivers to states to avoid the 2014 deadline in the No Child Left Behind law.

Under the law, every state must assure that every single child in grades 3-8 is proficient on state tests of reading and mathematics.

No state met the deadline. If the law remains in effect (it was supposed to be reauthorized in 2007, but gets extended year after year), every state would be declared a failed state, and virtually every public school in the United States would be closed or privatized or suffer some other sanction for failing to meet an impossible goal. It bears pointing out that no nation in the world can claim that 100% of its students are proficient in reading and math.

But Duncan didn’t hand out waivers wholesale. Instead, he made the waiver conditional on the state agreeing to accept his conditions, which were similar to the conditions in Race to the Top. In effect, states are now following Race to the Top requirements but without the prize money.

One of the central conditions of the waiver, like Race to the Top, was that states must agree to evaluate their teachers and principals based to a significant degree on the test scores of their students.

Washington State has failed to create such a system. Today Arne Duncan withdrew Washington State’s NCLB waiver to punish it for failing to do as he demanded.

Perhaps legislators in Washington State noticed that this method of evaluating teachers and principals has failed wherever it was tried.

Perhaps they read the joint report of the National Academy of Education and the American Educational Research Association, which cautioned that “value-added measurement” was inaccurate and unstable, and that it measures who is in the classroom rather than teacher quality. The legislators probably did not have a chance to read the recent report of the American Statistical Association, which also cautioned on the use of VAM, because of its imprecision and its unintended effects. But they may have read Stanford Professor Edward Haertel’s advice that states should not set numerical percentages for the use of test scores to evaluate teachers. All of these reports reach the same conclusion: that Duncan’s favorite solution to raising teacher quality does not have evidence to support it.

Let’s hope that Washington State says no to the illegitimate demands of the Secretary of Education. Duncan is overreaching. He is not the nation’s superintendent of schools. He should learn about federalism and about the limited role of the federal government in the area of education.

Meanwhile, I hope that the state of Washington sues the Secretary of Education and helps him learn about federalism and about the importance of evidence in policymaking.

Here is Duncan’s official letter to Washington State, notifying them that they are being punished for defying his orders.

Here is Peter Greene’s deconstruction of Arne Duncan’s letter to Washington State: read here.

Categories Education Reform, Federal Waiver, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, U.S. Department of Education, Washington State

A Former Charter Teacher Defends the Noble Network in Chicago

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2014 //
73

The Noble Network of charters in Chicago has come under criticism on this blog and elsewhere for various reasons. The network collected $400,000 in fines from low-income families, who are required to pay a $5 fine for disciplinary infractions. Noble network charters are named for the super-rich people who endow them, like billionaire heiress Penny Pritzker, now U.S. Secretary of Commerce, and billionaire hedge fund manager (and Republican gubernatorial candidate) Bruce Rauner. Some get high scores, others do not.

 

This letter comes from a former teacher at a Noble charter who is now teaching in a Chicago public school. She does not explain the reason she changed jobs. What do you think of her description of the two systems? What could CPS do to address the problems she describes?

 

I am a former Noble teacher and a current CPS teacher. Diane, I really have to say, you are wrong on this one. There are some things Noble needs to grow in, sure. But I could actually teach my children at Noble. I can’t at my current school. So much misbehaving, cursing, on phones during class, acting out, disrespect for everyone (teachers, staff and their peers). It is horrible. I am at my school because I believe all kids deserve a great education, but this is ridiculous. I have a teacher in the room next to me that cusses at her kids, and I mean the F word! I walked into a class and saw a kid watching porn on his phone. I almost threw up. This was a normal class period. Parents don’t understand how bad it is. They have an idealized memory of school and not a real understanding of what is being robbed from their kids simply because of a lack of empowerment of teachers to DO anything. Decide what to teach in your class (nope). Discipline your students (nope). Put in extra hours (nope).
Noble may have been picky, but parents were involved and addresses their kids behavior to avoid that $5 fine. AND students have to earn four demerits within two weeks to get a fine. A simple mistake here and there is no problem.
CPS better wake up. Charters are not the answer, but if CPS is too afraid to see what they are doing right and get on board it will be their undoing.
Not to mention Noble has a feeling of family that I don’t see at my current CPS school. As soon as the bell rings teachers are GONE. At Noble teachers would stay until 6pm almost everyday meeting with kids to make sure they knew the material. At my current school they actually TELL me to leave when the bell rings.
Maybe if you teach in a selective-enrollment school or in a privileged neighborhood, but you can’t go to Humboldt Park, Englewood or Back of The Yards and tell me Noble isn’t a better way to go. Just go visit Gary Comer High School (Noble school in Englewood) and THEN let’s talk.

 

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Education Reform

Reader Jim Explains Why Due Process Matters

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2014 //
66

Legislatures in various states are trying (and in many cases, recently Kansas, succeeding) to eliminate “tenure” for teachers, which means the elimination of due process.

 

If a student makes a baseless claim against a teacher (“he touched me”) or a parent complains that the teacher discussed evolution or global warming or taught an “offensive” book, the teacher may be fired on the spot, without a hearing in the absence of due process.

 

Tenure doesn’t mean a lifetime job. It means that the teacher has a right to a hearing before an impartial administrator and must be fired only for cause, not capriciously.

 

Teachers don’t get due process until they have taught for two, three, or four years, depending on state law. They don’t give themselves due process; it is a decision made by their principal.

 

 

Reader Jim explains in a comment on the blog why teacher differ from other public employees:

 

I don’t care about other public employees. They are not in the same boat I am. I have spent around 75K on MANY education degrees enabling me to be certified to be a teacher. Other public employees spent “$0″ dollars to be enabled to do their job.

I have a significant investment in the property of my teaching license, and I deserve the right to defend myself against arbitrary and capricious discipline and/or termination processes.

Teaching is not like other professions where once you are fired, and a license pulled, you can go get another job. Without the property of a teaching license, I am nothing in the education field (in terms of being a teacher).

Categories Teacher Tenure

Save Our Schools NJ Complains That Public Schools Are Recruiting for Charters

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2014 //
9

Camden, New Jersey, is one of the state’s impoverished small cities that is under state control. It may be the poorest district in the state. It is rhe lowest performing. The Chris Christie administration appointed a 32-year-old inexperienced young man (Teach for America alum) with some time working in the New York Department of Education and Newark as Camden’s superintendent, and naturally, his goal is to turn public school students over to charter operators. Save Our Schools NJ sent the following letter to the state commissioner of education:

“FOR IMMEDIATE USE

April 21, 2014

Save Our Schools NJ requests that Commissioner Hespe stop additional legally-questionable activities by the Camden School District

Save Our Schools NJ Contacts

Susan Cauldwell susancauldwell@saveourschoolsnj.org 908-507-1020

Julia Sass Rubin jlsrubin@verizon.net 609-683-0046

Today, Save Our Schools NJ, a non-partisan, grassroots organization with more than 15,000 members across New Jersey, sent a second letter to the state’s Acting Education Commissioner David Hespe, alerting him to actions by the State Operated Camden School District that raise serious legal concerns.

Highlighting the fact that the Camden School District had mailed home to district families a recruitment flyer for the Mastery charter school network, Save Our Schools NJ requested that the Acting Commissioner “investigate the extent to which Camden’s public school resources were used in mailing” the recruitment flyers to parents as this “would constitute inappropriate use of school funds to promote — and give preferential treatment to — a specific private organization.”

Save Our Schools NJ further informed the Acting Commissioner that Mastery recruiters had been going to the homes of Camden public school students, to encourage them to enroll in the school. Save Our Schools NJ asked the Acting Commissioner to “investigate how Mastery, a private entity, obtained the addresses of Camden students for purposes of conducting unannounced visits to students’ homes” and to “examine whether Camden provided Mastery with students’ home addresses — or any other individual student information — without the consent of parents and guardians.”

Referencing the legislative record of the Urban Hope Act, Save Our Schools NJ also raised once more the concern identified in a prior letter that Camden was violating the Act’s ban on temporary facilities for Renaissance charter schools:

“In passing the Urban Hope Act, the legislature was very clear that Renaissance Schools cannot operate as temporary schools in temporary facilities, but rather must be in a “newly-constructed” school. The legislative statement to the Urban Hope bill, issued by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on January 5, 2012, states on page 3 that “[t]he committee amended the bill to: … clarify that renaissance school projects are newly-constructed schools…Yet, Camden is planning to locate both Mastery and Uncommon Schools Renaissance schools in existing public school buildings, for the 2014-15 academic year.”

Save Our Schools NJ requested that the Commissioner “immediately investigate whether Camden has authorized Mastery and Uncommon to operate schools under the Urban Hope Act in 2014-15 on a temporary basis in existing Camden school facilities and, if so, take prompt action to direct Camden to terminate this arrangement.”

April 21, 2014

Commissioner David C. Hespe
New Jersey Department of Education
100 River View Plaza
P.O. Box 500
Trenton, NJ 08625

Dear Commissioner Hespe,

As a follow-up to our April 14, 2014 letter, we wish to bring to your attention additional actions by the State Operated Camden School District (Camden) that raise serious concerns about Camden’s compliance with the Urban Hope Act and regulations, and with other laws.

1) Temporary facilities are not allowed under the Urban Hope Act

We remain very concerned that, although their application to build such schools has yet to be approved by your office, Camden is moving forward to facilitate the enrollment of Camden public school students in September, 2014 in “temporary” schools, to be operated by the Mastery and Uncommon organizations and located in existing Camden public schools, ostensibly as Renaissance Schools under the Urban Hope Act.

In passing the Urban Hope Act, the legislature was very clear that Renaissance Schools cannot operate as temporary schools in temporary facilities, but rather must be in a “newly-constructed” school. The legislative statement to the Urban Hope bill, issued by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on January 5, 2012, states on page 3 that “[t]he committee amended the bill to: … clarify that renaissance school projects are newly-constructed schools.”

Yet, Camden is planning to locate both Mastery and Uncommon Schools Renaissance schools in existing public school buildings, for the 2014-15 academic year.

The attached letter, which was mailed by Camden to public school parents, states:

“Mastery School of Camden will open this fall in two temporary locations for approximately 600 kindergarten through 5th grade students:

-At PynePoynt Family School, Mastery Academy will serve up to 380 new K-5 Students.

-At the old Washington School, Mastery Academy will serve approximately 220 K-2 students.”

These types of schools — to be operated by a charter management organization and located temporarily in existing public school facilities — are clearly not authorized under the Urban Hope Act. Accordingly, we request that you immediately investigate whether Camden has authorized Mastery and Uncommon to operate schools under the Urban Hope Act in 2014-15 on a temporary basis in existing Camden school facilities and, if so, take prompt action to direct Camden to terminate this arrangement.

2) Public school districts should not advocate for specific private entities

The letter quoted above, which Camden sent to public school parents, included the attached solicitation flyers for the Mastery charter school chain.

The use of Camden personnel and resources to encourage public school students to attend the privately managed Mastery school would constitute inappropriate use of school funds to promote — and give preferential treatment to — a specific private organization.

We request that you investigate the extent to which Camden’s public school resources were used in mailing Mastery recruitment flyers to parents.

The investigation also should ascertain why it appears that Mastery was the only charter organization in Camden to be given direct assistance by the Camden School District for 2014-15 enrollment recruitment activities.

3) Camden cannot share confidential student data with individual private entities

Camden parents who live in the area from which Mastery plans to draw for its unapproved Renaissance school also indicated that Mastery representatives came to their homes to encourage them to enroll their children in the Renaissance school.

This raises serious concerns about whether Camden disclosed individual student records and information to a third party entity without the consent of the students and their parents and guardians.

We request that your Office launch an immediate investigation into how Mastery, a private entity, obtained the addresses of Camden students for purposes of conducting unannounced visits to students’ homes. This investigation should examine whether Camden provided Mastery with students’ home addresses — or any other individual student information — without the consent of parents and guardians.

We would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to discuss this further.

Sincerely,

Susan Cauldwell, volunteer organizer, Save Our Schools NJ
Executive Director, Save Our Schools NJ Community Organizing
susancauldwell@saveourschoolsnj.org

Julia Sass Rubin, volunteer organizer, Save Our Schools NJ
Chair, Board of Directors, Save Our Schools NJ Community Organizing
jlsrubin@verizon.net

cc: Paymon Rouhanifard, Superintendent, Camden City Public Schools

David Sciarra, Executive Director, Education Law Center

Categories Charter Schools, New Jersey, Privatization, Resistance
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