Archives for the month of: January, 2014
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Providence Student Union: The Guinea Pigs Protest!

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2014 //
10

The creative Providence Student Union is staging another brilliant protest against high-stakes testing. It’s their lives!

PRESS RELEASE

CONTACT: Aaron Regunberg | Aaron@ProvidenceStudentUnion.org | (847) 809-6039

“GUINEA PIGS” PROTEST EXPERIMENTATION AT STATE HOUSE –

STUDENTS, DRESSED AS LAB ANIMALS, DEMONSTRATE AGAINST HIGH-STAKES TESTING

Providence, Rhode Island – January 29, 2014 – High school students, joined by parents, community members and legislators, held a demonstration today at the Rhode Island State House to protest what participants called “the ill-conceived experiment” of Rhode Island’s new high-stakes testing graduation requirement. To illustrate this message, students showed up dressed as guinea pigs and lab rats, complete with whiskers, animal ears and more.

“The reason we are dressed like guinea pigs and lab rats is simple – that is how we are being treated,” said Jose Serrano, a member of the Providence Student Union (PSU), the youth organization holding the event. “The Department of Education hypothesized that high-stakes testing alone, without the extra resources our schools need, would solve our education problems. But this was an unproven gamble, which is becoming clearer with every exemption and waiver and backtrack that RIDE releases. This crazy experiment is playing with our futures, and we are here to say this needs to stop!”

The event, titled “Operation: Guinea Pig” by students, was held just two days before the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) is set to publicly release the results of the NECAP exam seniors retook in fall 2013, revealing how many students remain in danger of being denied a diploma because of the state’s new testing graduation requirement.

As State House officials looked on, students performed a skit dramatizing RIDE’s policy, with “scientists” from RIDE injecting students with “NECAP formula” from an over-sized syringe. “What’s the worst that can happen?” one scientist character asked at the beginning of the skit. “We can always try to clean up the experiment with waivers if our hypothesis fails. And besides, they’re not our kids.” The scientists then began giving injections left and right, producing handcuffs and McDonald’s hats for students to symbolize their possible futures without a high school diploma.

Participants were joined by numerous state legislators who joined them in calling for a change to the high-stakes testing policy. Representative Gregg Amore (D-East Providence) said, “We have tried the test-based reform movement for over a decade now and there is absolutely no evidence that it improves student learning or outcomes. We need to start to look at what works and begin to attack the root causes of the achievement gap that exists between well-off students and students struggling with poverty. There are far more effective tools to improve learning than high-stakes tests that punitively label students and schools.”

Representative Teresa Tanzi (D-Narragansett) also spoke, asking her colleagues to take action. “I have spent time in five different schools in my community, engaging with PTOs, meeting extensively with teachers, and speaking with my Superintendent,” she said. “The themes that appeared through all of these hours of conversations have been stark. Learning has taken a back seat to test preparation, the culture of the classroom has changed dramatically, and the quality of education suffers. This is an experiment that has no winners: the stakes are too high, the payoff uncertain, and the risk too big for our students to bear. It is more clear to me now than ever, that we cannot count on the Commissioner, or the Board of Education, to address the serious concerns surrounding the High Stakes Testing graduation requirements, and that we, as legislators, must exert our authority to ensure that the future of our students is not devastated by these inconsistent and arbitrary policies.”

Students also called for alternatives to high-stakes testing to strengthen their schools. “We need proven, evidence-based reforms to improve our education,” said Sam Foer, another student member of PSU. “Instead of these experiments, we should be focusing on what our schools really need – student-centered learning, more arts and elective classes, more engaging and hands-on curricula, smaller class sizes, infrastructure repairs so our buildings aren’t falling down while we try to study, better transportation so students can actually get to school when it’s freezing out, more real-world learning, more guidance counselors so students can actually get the support they need to apply to college, and on and on. Why have we wasted so much money, time, energy and resources on this flawed high-stakes testing experiment when we could have used it so much more effectively?”

The many legislators in attendance received a strong plea for help from the whiskered assembly. Sam Foer said, “The experiment results come out tomorrow when the NECAP scores are released. In the end, it’s the legislators here in this building that have the power to shut down this risky experiment. You have the final say: do you support treating students like nothing more than guinea pigs in an experiment, or do you want to put an end to this gamble with our lives? We leave it up to you.”

###

Categories Resistance, Students, Testing

Indiana: Legislative Committee Wants to Ban Testing for Voucher Schools

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2014 //
9

Phyllis Bush of the Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education sent word that it is -16 degrees in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

But the legislature never rests, she says:

“At 1:30 the Senate Education Committee will be discussing taking away the Statewide testing requirements for voucher schools. Anything for keeping the playing field level….just in case you are a glutton for punishment, here is the live stream link: http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2014/committees/education_and_career_development_3400”

Ever busy, the legislature also expects to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, which is already illegal.

Categories Indiana, Testing, Vouchers

Does Tenure Violate the Civil Rights of Students?

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2014 //
58

What a ridiculous claim!

In a court case in California, a bevy or flock or pride of teacher-bashing organizations argue that teacher tenure violates the civil rights of students. The bevy says that bad teachers hurt students and tenure protects bad teachers.

Maybe next they will sue to eliminate tenure in higher education so everyone is an adjunct.

In higher education, tenure is a guarantee of a lifetime job.

In K-12 education, tenure is a promise of a hearing before they fire you. If a student falsely claims you touched him or her, you are fired without a hearing. If the principal doesn’t like your race, your religion, your face, he or she can fire you without having to say why.

Here is Ted Olsen explaining to the Jeb Bush foundation of rightwing extremists how this case will be a civil rights landmark.

No, it will be one more nail in the coffin of the teaching profession, one more chance to reduce the status of teachers and to increase churn.

Here is what the teachers of the Bay Area say.

“Just when you think that some of the big moneyed, right wing reformers might back off from their unsound, unproven and unrealistic schemes, along comes another one!

“Did you know that because of five sections of the California Education Code YOU have just become the enemy and you are accused of depriving our neediest students of their education?

“Forget about the damage done by unnecessary high stakes testing and fly by night charter schools. Disregard poverty, racism, homelessness, neglect and malnutrition. So what if the schools in California are ranked at the bottom in per pupil funding, class sizes, number of librarians, counselors and nurses in our schools. Not to mention that we have lowered the number of educators by over 30,000, in the California in the last few years.

“Don’t even think about the hard work that you and your colleagues do every day to teach the children of San Francisco under difficult and challenging conditions.

“David F. Welch, CEO of INFINERA, a fiber optics communication company, is the founder of NewSchools Venture Fund. Previously, the fund has invested in charter schools in Boston and worked in “school reform” in New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and Oakland. Now he has created “Students Matter,” and hired the law firm of Theodore B. Olsen, Theodore J. Boutrous and Marcellus Antonio Mc Rae, partners in the powerful law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, to sue the state of California.

“In their own words, “The lawsuit seeks to strike down five provisions of the education code that, separately and together, push some of out best teachers out of the classroom and entrench grossly ineffective teachers in our schools….”

“They allege that “California’s schools hire and retain grossly ineffective teachers at alarming rates.”

“In the lawsuit they attack the due process rights that are referred to when you achieve “tenure.” They attack procedures called for when you are accused of misbehavior by a student, a parent or an administrator. They attack seniority when there is a need for lay-offs. And they want “objective evidence of student growth” to be part of evaluations.

“No one in the profession wants educators who are not competent and not doing the job they have been hired to do. No one in the profession wants to see students harmed in any way.

“But, all that tenure really means is that a person must be made aware of the reason they may be in jeopardy of losing their job. Educators should not be “at will” employees who can be fired at the whim of the administration. We do not want the careers of people ruined because they have been falsely accused of misbehavior. The unions seek to protect the rights of employees to know the charges made against them, and the right to defend oneself. That is what is meant by due process.

“The reformers have filed this lawsuit because they have failed to achieve their ends using the democratic political process. The Education Code of California was created by our elected representatives. If the public wants to make changes, there is a democratic process to do that. The people behind this effort have been unsuccessful in doing that and so they have resorted to going to court to push their anti-teacher, anti-union perspective.”

Categories Bush, Jeb, California, Teacher Tenure

Breaking News: The Hero Parents of Newark

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2014 //
13

Last night, the parents of Newark spoke out in unison against the bullying tactics of the Christie administration.

As veteran journalist Bob Braun reported, state-appointed superintendent Cami Anderson stormed out of the meeting after a parent accused her of not caring as much about Newark’s children as she does about her own.

The parents of Newark are fighting together against not only state control of their district, which has disempowered them, but against Anderson’s plan to close many public schools and turn them over to charter operators.

The school board president has been heroic in standing up to the high-handed tactics of the Christie administration, which assumed it could ignore the parents of Newark.

Board president Antoinette Baskerville Richardson, sitting inches away next to the superintendent, then described Anderson’s plan as “monumentally destabilizing” and “destructive” and criticized her for suppressing “freedom of speech.”

Braun wrote:

“In a clear reference to the mounting revelations of scandals related to political retribution surrounding Christie, Baskerville-Richardson said, “It is clear the attitudes and actions of Cami Anderson reflect the attitudes and actions of Gov. Christie.”

No way. No how. The parents of Newark are mobilized and united.

I am proud to add them to the honor roll for courage against overwhelming odds.

Stand with Newark.

Categories Honor Roll, New Jersey, Parents, Resistance

New Jersey: Law Aims to Curb School Closings

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2014 //
4

David Sciarra of the Education Law Center in Néw Jersey wrote this description of a legislative proposal that would slow or stop school closings in state-controlled districts such as Newark. The key change is that schools may not be closed without the approval of the local board.

Sciarra writes:

NJ Parents Push New Bill to Regulate School Closings

The wave of school closings continues to sweep across the nation, primarily in low income communities. In New Jersey, the State-operated Newark district closed schools last year and has proposed another round for 2014. Camden, another State-operated district, is likely to follow suit. In Newark, one shuttered school was sold to the KIPP charter group, and the State wants to let charters operate other Newark public schools after they’re shut down.

With support from parents and advocates, a bill to regulate school closings was recently introduced in the NJ Legislature, sponsored by Senator Ron Rice (D-Newark) and Assemblywomen Bonnie Watson-Coleman (D-Trenton).

The bill codifies and strengthens existing NJ Education Department rules requiring the State Commissioner of Education sign off before a district can close a school. To obtain State approval under the bill, a district has to demonstrate:

1) The closing is consistent with the district’s State-mandated facilities plan and will not result in overcrowding or the use of temporary space in the remaining schools

2) If the school is being closed to make way for constructing a new school, the benefits of new construction outweigh rehabilitating the school slated for closure

3) The reassignment of students to other schools will not “produce, sustain, or contribute to the unlawful segregation of student populations on the basis of race, socio-economic status, disability or English-language proficiency” and does not impose unreasonable transportation burdens on students and families.

4) The district’s school board approves the closing, including the school boards in State-operated districts

Board approval in State-run districts is crucial, since school closings and charter school expansion have emerged as a key strategy in Newark, Camden and Paterson under Governor Chris Christie and Commissioner Chris Cerf. Under existing law, the school boards of these districts, while elected, are advisory, with no binding voting power. This bill creates an exception, authorizing boards in these communities to decide whether to close neighborhood public schools.

The bill is pending in the NJ Legislature. Parents and public school advocates are pressing to have the legislation move forward.

Closing a neighborhood school is a dramatic step, one that has serious short and long term impacts on students, families and neighborhoods. School closings can shred the very fabric of the public education system in disadvantaged communities. This legislation provides critical safeguards to ensure these decisions are based on sound reasons, with community support, and only as a last resort.

David G. Sciarra, Executive Director
Education Law Center
60 Park Place, Suite 300
Newark, NJ 07102
973-624-1815, ext. 16
973-624-7339 (fax)
http://www.edlawcenter.org

Categories Closing schools, New Jersey

NH Teachers Take CC Test, Find Serious Flaws

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2014 //
45

Here is a question: Answer in five sentences or less. Who decided all the students of the U.S. should be tested online? Another question: Who benefits? What can we do about it? Opt out.

Teachers in Nashua, Néw Hampshire, took an early version of the online Common Core test, Smarter Balanced Assessment, and encountered multiple problems.

“NASHUA – If there was any question about how well the state’s transition from the New England Common Assessment Program to the Smarter Balanced assessment for 2015 is progressing, a recent letter by Fairgrounds Middle School Principal John Nelson to Nashua Superintendent Mark Conrad paints a rather disturbing picture.

“Teachers at Fairgrounds Middle School staff took an early version of the assessment in December and say the new computerized test required as part of the Common Core standards is confusing, doesn’t work well and leads to frustration.

“Teachers shared frustrations they had when they were taking the test and disappointment in test format and the difficulties they had trying to use their computer to take this test,” Nelson said in his letter shared with members of the Nashua Board of Education.

“Based on the experience at Fairground, Nelson said teachers agreed the test should not be used on Nashua students.

“The FMS staff collectively believe that the Smarter Balance Test is inappropriate for our students at this time and that the results from this test will not measure the academic achievement of our students; but will be a test of computer skills and students’ abilities to endure through a cumbersome task,” Nelson wrote.”

Conrad’s answer was not encouraging: he said, more or less, follow orders.

Where have we heard that kind of obedience to authority line before?

Here is his response:

“Conrad, though, called any discussion to avert the Smarter Balanced assessment as counterproductive.

“The reality is there is going to be a new assessment,” Conrad said.

“The superintendent said his focus would be to meet with principals in February “to look at ways to better prepare our students to take the test.”

Categories Common Core, Testing

21st Century Child Abuse

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2014 //
52

Recently I was listening to a classical music station and heard a beautiful piece of music. The announcer said when it ended that Mozart composed it at the age of 9. I couldn’t help thinking, “but what were his test scores?” When I watched the chorus of the Celia Cruz High School sing the National Anthem at Mayor de Blasio’s inauguration, I had the same thought. It is becoming a habit. When I see a child or youth do something joyfully, I can’t help but think that question, knowing that the scores reflect the ability to answer test questions and don’t address the inner core of the human being.

Yet our current obsession with data has led us to crush the spirits of our children, to make sure that budding Mozarts and Einsteins and those who dream instead of conforming are pressed into the same narrow mold.

Here is a good article that appeared in the Albany Times-Union that raises these issues. I hope Governor Cuomo reads it.

Kristen Cristman writes:

“How many can relate? My experience is just one facet of the truth that conveys this message: There is something very cruel and demeaning about treating the child’s brain like an inanimate machine that must ingest what it’s given and spit out what it’s told. The brain has been colonized; it’s become property of the school, of the state.

“It is horrible for many to wake up exhausted, leave bed, home, pets, and hobbies, travel on an unfriendly bus, and proceed to sit for six hours in an overheated, stuffy building within a cold, confusing, and crowded culture where you have to think certain thoughts at certain times, speak when told to, and remain quiet otherwise. On top of that, when you get home, it’s hours of homework broken only by dinnertime until late at night. When you finally crawl into bed, all you have to look forward to is another numbing day. My parents did not push this behavior; it was simple obedience to school instructions.

“It’s also what you’re no longer able to do that is so depressing. For some, it is balance in life itself that is desecrated and destroyed when high levels of homework are given, formerly in fifth grade, but nowadays earlier. My sister used to play the role of teacher, Miss Mouse, and she’d stand at a chalkboard in the basement and teach me — even give me little homework sheets if I asked. I would love it. The things we could do on our own. But no more time for that come fifth grade. Eager days of playing at liberty outside, climbing trees, constructing snow tunnels, lingering with cheerful breezes, sunshine, and beckoning paths in the woods are over. Zestful days of happily reading books of one’s own choosing, energetically drawing, writing animal reports, identifying rocks and feathers, pursuing the passion of learning on one’s own, and concocting spooky skits in the basement are over.

“How could anyone consider such a life for children, a life without freedom and passion, to be an indicator of a society that is highly developed and free?”

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K

Breaking News! Colorado Teachers Will Sue to Stop Failed Law

By dianeravitch
January 29, 2014 //
22

The Colorado Education Association, which represents the overwhelming majority of teachers in the state, will sue to block further implementation of SB 10-191.

That law, written by ex-TFA State Senator Michael Johnston in 2010, wiped out due process for teachers and tied evaluations of teachers and principals to student test scores. This method, called VAM, has failed wherever it was tried. Most researchers agree it is inaccurate and deeply flawed.

This is the CEA statement:

“The Colorado Education Association (CEA) has announced plans for legal and legislative action to correct what the organization calls proven flaws in the mutual consent provision of Senate Bill 10-191 that allows school districts to remove qualified teachers from the classroom. SB191 gutted Colorado’s tenure protections for teachers, and replaced them with an unproven scheme that could fire teachers for their students scores on standardized tests.

“The CEA is Colorado’s largest teachers union. Denver teachers have earlier sought an arbitrator’s opinion with Denver Public Schools, an opinion which found SB191 unconstitutional.

“SB191 contains provisions that strip teachers of their teaching licenses, and in effect, the ability to earn a wage, without due process of law.”

Categories Colorado, Teach for America TFA

5 Newark Principals Sue for Freedom of Speech

By dianeravitch
January 28, 2014 //
24

The five Newark principals who were suspended for daring to question Superintendent Cami Anderson’s plan to close their schools have sued her for violating their First Amendment rights. They were joined by a Parent-TeCher organization whose president was barred from his child’s school.

Anderson was appointed by Governor Chris Christie’s administration.

Newark has an elected school board but has been under state control since 1995.

Categories Charter Schools, Closing schools, New Jersey, Parents, Principals

Houston Learned from Los Angeles What NOT to Do with Technology

By dianeravitch
January 28, 2014 //
16

The Los Angeles iPad program has become a national lesson in what NOT to do.

Other districts, watching the slow-motion disaster in L.A., are taking heed and planning their purchases and implementation of technology with greater care than was exercised in the nation’s second largest district.

L.A. committed to spend $1 billion on iPads, pre-loaded with Pearson content.

The controversies about cost, use, lack of training, theft, loss, misuse of construction bond funds, etc. became an object lesson for other districts, as this post by Education Week reporter Benjamin Herold shows.

Houston is the exemplar district in Herold’s article.

It is starting with 18,000 laptops–not iPads–for its high school students. Eventually all high school teachers and principals will receive training, as will students.

The Houston initiative, known as PowerUp, aims to distribute roughly 65,000 laptops—enough for every high school student and high school teacher in the district—by the 2015-16 school year. Eventually, the initiative is expected to cost about $18 million annually; this year, the Houston ISD is dishing out $6 million, all of it existing funds that were reallocated from other sources. The 2013-14 school year is being devoted to a step-by-step pilot program, and Schad—who previously oversaw implementation of a successful “bring your own device” initiative in Texas’ 66,000-student Katy Independent School District—said the district is entering the 1-to-1 computing fray with eyes wide open.

“We’re really focused on changing instruction,” Schad said, “but it’s important to appreciate how much of a cultural shift this really is.”

Last fall, the 641,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District became the symbol for 1-to-1 initiatives gone awry; almost from its inception, the effort was plagued by security issues, confusion about who is responsible for the tens of thousands of iPads being distributed, criticisms around cost and how the initiative is being financed, and concerns about the readiness and quality of the pre-loaded curriculum meant to become the primary instructional materials for the nation’s second-largest district. Following a series of skirmishes with the district’s board and teachers’ union, Superintendent John Deasy has been forced to slow his ambitious rollout plans.

Houston chose laptops because that is the technology students are most likely to use in college.

Both students and staff will have advance training:

Students at most of the 11 high schools involved in this year’s Houston ISD pilot are just receiving their laptops this month, but Schad said the principals and teachers at those schools received their computers in August and have been receiving consistent professional development ever since. As a baby step to test the district’s deployment plans, laptops were distributed to students at three schools in October, and all students have been required to take a digital citizenship class before receiving a computer. And in November, a group of Houston principals and district administrators took an extended field trip to Mooresville, N.C., to observe first hand one of the most acclaimed 1-to-1 initiatives in the country.

This nifty interactive timeline from Houston ISD details the district’s cautious step-by-step approach. It stands in sharp contrast to L.A., where a contract with Apple was signed in July, teachers received three days of training in August, and distribution of an initial batch of 37,000 iPads to students began later that month.

Another difference from L.A. is that Houston is not buying pre-loaded (and unfinished) Pearson content:

Whereas L.A. Unified elected to purchase a soup-to-nuts digital curriculum from education publishing giant Pearson—one that is still being developed even as it’s rolled out, comes at undetermined cost, and to which access will expire at the end of three years—Schad said Houston ISD is focused on providing students and teachers with a suite of “Web 2.0” tools that can foster content creation, collaboration among students, and project-based learning.

“We want to create that space inside a classroom where kids are answering questions inside the same document, posting their own opinions, and creating videos,” Schad said. “It’s about changing the culture.”

And also unlike L.A., Houston will not take money from bond funds, but is looking for savings in other areas.

It is refreshing to see that districts can learn from the mistakes of other districts. Maybe Houston will get it right and show how technology can “change the culture.”

Categories Houston, Los Angeles, Technology, Computers
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