Archives for the month of: March, 2014
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Robert Shepherd: Economists at Brookings Institution Call for Common Core Censorship Office

By dianeravitch
March 19, 2014 //
79

Robert Shepherd, a frequent commenter on this blog, has spent his lifetime as a designer and author of textbooks and curriculum. He has frequently criticized the Common Core standards on grounds that they promote an unhealthy uniformity. Here he expresses his concern that the organizations that wrote and copyrighted the Common Core might actually enforce that copyright to stifle competition of ideas:

The Brookings Institution just called for the two organizations that copyrighted the Common Core State Standards to become a censorship office for curricula nationwide. I am not making this up. Here are the details:

Two economists at the Brookings Institution, Joshua Bleiberg and Darrell M. West, made three policy proposals in a piece published March 6, 2014, on the Brookings website. One was this:

“The Common Core [sic; they meant the NGA and the CCSSO] should vigorously enforce their licensing agreement. In the past textbook writers and others have inappropriately claimed that they aligned course content. Supporters of standards based reform should recognize that low quality content could sink the standards and enforce their copyright accordingly.”

Let’s be clear about what they are calling for here:

They are saying that the CCSSO and NGA should be censorship organizations that review curricula and gives it a “nihil obstat.” In effect, such a policy would create a national curriculum censorship organization, for if a state has adopted the Common Core, a publisher will not be able to sell product in that state without it being Common Core aligned, and in order to say that the product is Common Core aligned, the publisher would have to get CCSSO/NGA approval.

When I first read that the Common Core had been copyrighted, a disturbing thought occurred to me: “Were they planning, in the long term, to set up a national office to preapprove curricula?”

Now, that’s exactly what Brookings is calling for.

The Thought Police.

If you don’t find this REALLY CHILLING, you aren’t thinking AT ALL.

This is what totalitarianism looks like, folks.

Just when you think it can’t get worse, this.

Categories Common Core, Education Reform

Michigan Students Make a Video about Governor Snyder’s War on Public Schools

By dianeravitch
March 19, 2014 //
15

High school students in Ann Arbor, Michigan, made this video to express their views of Governor Rick Snyder’s assault on their public schools.

It is only 3 minutes. Please watch and tweet.

Categories Education Reform

KrazyTA Explains What Bill Gates Wants for His Own Children

By dianeravitch
March 19, 2014 //
79

The most famous line ever written by John Dewey was this:

“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.”

Our frequent commenter KrazyTA has been exploring what our leading reformers–who see themselves as our best and wisest educational visionaries–want for their own children. After Bill Gates spoke to the teachers at the annual conference of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to explain why the Common Core was absolutely necessary and was the key to teachers’ creativity, KrazyTA inquired into the practices at the elite Lakeside School in Seattle, where Bill was a student and where his own children are enrolled.

This is what he found:

“Strangely, when I went to the Lakeside School website—you know, where Bill Gates and his children went/go to school—I found not a single mention of Common Core, standardization and electric plugs. Not to mention that they weren’t coupled with terms like “innovation” and “teaching.”

“Worse yet, not a single mention of how “college and career readiness” has been lacking there up until now either. Am I missing something? Anyway, let’s see what sort of institution crippled Mr. Bill Gates.

“Let’s start with “About Lakeside.”

First, their mission statement:

[start quote]

“The mission of Lakeside School is to develop in intellectually capable young people the creative minds, healthy bodies, and ethical spirits needed to contribute wisdom, compassion, and leadership to a global society. We provide a rigorous and dynamic academic program through which effective educators lead students to take responsibility for learning.

“We are committed to sustaining a school in which individuals representing diverse cultures and experiences instruct one another in the meaning and value of community and in the joy and importance of lifelong learning.

[end quote]

Second, “Mission Focus”:

[start quote]

“Lakeside School fosters the development of citizens capable of and committed to interacting compassionately, ethically, and successfully with diverse peoples and cultures to create a more humane, sustainable global society. This focus transforms our learning and our work together.

[end quote]

Link: http://www.lakesideschool.org/podium/default.aspx?t=120812

“Academics Overview” with the subtitle “A Commitment to Excellence”:

[start quote]

“Lakeside’s 5th- to 12th-grade student-centered academic program focuses on the relationships between talented students and capable and caring teachers. We develop and nurture students’ passions and abilities and ensure every student feels known.

“The cultural and economic diversity of our community, the teaching styles, and the approaches to learning are all essential to Lakeside academics. We believe that in today’s global world, our students need to know more than one culture, one history, and one language.

“Each student’s curiosities and capabilities lead them to unique academic challenges that are sustained through a culture of support and encouragement. All students will find opportunities to discover and develop a passion; to hone the skills of writing, thinking, and speaking; and to interact with the world both on and off campus. Lakeside trusts that each student has effective ideas about how to maximize his or her own education, and that they will positively contribute to our vibrant learning community.

[end quote]

Link: http://www.lakesideschool.org/podium/default.aspx?t=120814

“Let’s switch gears—or at least websites. Even more strangely, I found that stuff like class size matters:

[start quote]

“Finally, I had great relationships with my teachers here at Lakeside. Classes were small. You got to know the teachers. They got to know you. And the relationships that come from that really make a difference…

[end quote]

“More of this nonsense [?] can be found in the link below, like the fact that Lakeside School has a student/teacher ration of 9:1 and average class size of 16.

Link: http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/bill-gates-tells-us-why-his-high-school-was-a-great-learning-environment/

“Well, I could on and on but I fear we need to rescue the little tykes in the Gates family from such horrors as, well, feast your eyes on this bit of barbarity regarding the Study Year Abroad:

[start quote]

“Since 1964, School Year Abroad has sent high school juniors and seniors to study abroad in distinctive cities and towns throughout Europe and Asia where their safety and security is a priority. Widely considered the ‘gold standard’ of high school study abroad programs, SYA’s rigorous academic curriculum, paired with complementary educational travel and varied extracurricular activities, ensure students are in an optimal position to return to their home schools or proceed to college.

[end quote]

Link: http://www.sya.org/s/833/index.aspx?sid=833&gid=1&pgid=1001

“Nuff said. Will you be joining Eva M and the pro-charterite/privatizer commenters on this blog for the upcoming “Save the Children of the Poor Millionaires & Billionaires Rally: A New Civil Rights Movement For The Truly Downtrodden” — catered, don’t you worry, by Wolfgang Puck.

I hope the above will put you at ease.”

😎

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Class size, Common Core, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates

The Mess That Race to the Top Inflicted on Connecticut’s Schools

By dianeravitch
March 19, 2014 //
4

What a mess in Connecticut!

Robert A. Frahm writes in the Connecticut Mirror about how teachers and principals are struggling with the state’s test-based evaluation system. Teachers waste time setting paperwork goals that are low enough to make statistical “gains.” If they don’t, they may be rated ineffective.

Every principal spends hours observing teachers—one hour each time—taking copious notes, then spending hours writing up the observations.

Connecticut, one of the two or three top scoring states in the nation on NAEP (the others are Massachusetts and New Jersey), is drowning its schools and educators in mandates and paperwork.

Why? Race to the Top says it is absolutely necessary. Connecticut didn’t win Race to the Top funding, but the state is doing what Arne Duncan believes in. Stefan Pryor, the state commissioner, loves evaluating by test scores, but that’s no surprise because he was never a teacher; he is a law school graduate and co-founder of a “no excuses” charter school chain in Connecticut that is devoted to test scores at all times. The charter chain he founded is known for its high suspension rate, its high scores, and its limited enrollment of English learners.

Researchers have shown again and again that test-based accountability is flawed, inaccurate, unstable. It doesn’t work in theory, and it has not worked in five years of experience.

The article quotes the conservative advocacy group, National Council for Teacher Quality, which applauds this discredited methodology. NCTQ is neither an accrediting body nor a research organization.

Our nation’s leading scholars and scholarly organizations have criticized test-based accountability.

In 2010, some of the nation’s most highly accomplished scholars in testing, including Robert Linn, Eva Baker, Richard Shavelson, and Lorrie Shepard, spoke out against the misuse of test scores to judge teacher quality.

The American Educational Research Association and the National Academy of Education issued a joint statement warning about VAM.

Many noted scholars, like Edward Haertel, Linda Darling Hammond, and David Berliner, have warned about the lack of “science” behind VAM.

The highly esteemed National Research Council issued a report warning that test-based accountability had not succeeded and was unlikely to succeed. Marc Tucker recently described the failure of test-based accountability.

But the carefully researched views of our nation’s leading scholars were tossed aside by Arne Duncan, the Gates Foundation, and the phalanx of rightwing groups that support their agenda of demoralizing teachers, clearing out those who are veterans, and turning teaching into a short-time temp job.

The article cites New Haven as an example:

“Four years ago, New Haven schools won national attention when the district and the teachers’ union developed an evaluation system that uses test results as a factor in rating teachers. Since then, dozens of teachers have resigned or been dismissed as a result of the evaluations. Last year, 20 teachers, about 1 percent of the workforce, left the district after receiving poor evaluations.”

Four years later, can anyone say that New Haven is now the best district in Connecticut? Has the achievement gap closed? Time for another investigative report.

Categories Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), Standardized Testing, Teacher Evaluations

Jeff Bryant: Why Democrats Erred by Embracing the GOP Agenda

By dianeravitch
March 19, 2014 //
54

Jeff Bryant of the Education Opportunity Network writes in Salon that voters are increasingly disenchanted with the bipartisan Bush-Obama education policies of high-stakes testing, Common Core, and privatization.

He points out that the attacks on public education are not playing well at all in the political arena. The overwhelming majority of parents are very happy with their local public schools and respect their teachers. The public is beginning to see through the lies they have been told about their schools. So much of the rhetoric of the “reformers” sounds appealing and benign, if not downright inspirational, but it ends up as nonstop testing, the closing of local public schools, merit pay, union-busting, the enrichment of multinational corporations, and standardization.

Bryant predicts that Democrats will suffer at the polls for their slavish espousal of hard-right GOP doctrine.

He writes:

“The only overriding constants? People generally like their local schools, trust their children’s teachers and think public school and teachers should get more money. Wonder when a politician will back that!

“Many observers, including journalists at The Wall Street Journal, have accurately surmised that the American public is currently deeply divided on education policy. But that analysis barely scratches the surface.

“Go much deeper and you find that the “new liberal consensus” that Adam Serwer wrote about in Mother Jones, which propelled Obama into a second term, believes in funding the nation’s public schools but has little to no allegiance to Obama’s education reform policies.

“Outside of the elite circles of the Beltway and the very rich, who continue to be the main proponents of these education policies, it is getting harder and harder to discern who exactly is the constituency being served by the reform agenda.

“Most Americans do not see any evidence that punitive measures aimed at their local schools are in any way beneficial to their children and grandchildren. In fact, there’s some reasonable doubt whether the president himself understands it.

So is Arne Duncan making education policy on his own? Or is the policy agenda of the Obama administration indistinguishable from that of rightwing Republicans like Bobby Jindal, Rick Scott, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Mike Pence, and Tom Corbett?

Categories Democrats, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Privatization, Race to the Top, Testing, Unions, Vouchers

An Opt Out Letter for Parents in New York

By dianeravitch
March 19, 2014 //
11

A reader submits a model opt out letter for parents in New York:

“If anyone is interested in refusing the state assessments or know someone who is:

REFUSAL LETTER:

Dear Board of Education, Superintendent, Principals, and Teachers of ________________ school district,

We are writing today to formally inform the __________ school district of our decision to refuse to allow our child _____________ to participate in any local assessments tied to APPR for the 2013-2014 school year. My child will be scored as a “refusal”, with a final score of “999” and a standard achieved code of 96, on all State testing including ELA, Math and Science as described in the NYS Student Information Repository System (SIRS) Manual on page 63.

Our refusal should in no way reflect on the teachers, administration, or school board. This was not an easy decision for us, but we feel that we have no other choice. We simply see these tests as harmful, expensive, unfair, and a waste of time and valuable resources.

This year we will show effort to eliminate unnecessary and harmful assessments in our public schools. Our child will not participate in any assessments other than those solely for the use of the individual classroom teacher.

We refuse to allow any data to be used for purposes other than the individual teacher’s own formative or cumulative assessment. Any assessment whose data is used to determine school ranking, teacher effectiveness, state or federal longitudinal studies or any other purpose other than for the individual classroom teacher’s own use to improve his or her instruction will not be presented to our child.

To be clear, our children will not participate in the following:

➢ Any so-called “benchmark” exams whether they are teacher-designed or not, since these exams are imposed by entities other than the individual teacher.
➢ Pre–assessments connected to “Student Learning Objectives”.
➢ Any progress-monitoring or RTI assessments such as AIMSweb, MAP, or STAR
➢ Any exam used to formulate an evaluation or score for our children’s teachers or their school.

We believe in and trust our highly qualified and dedicated teachers and administrators. We believe in the high quality of teaching and learning that occurs at _____________ School. We hope our efforts will be understood in the context in which they are intended: to support the quality of instruction promoted by the school, and to advocate for what is best for all children. Our school will not suffer when these tests are finally gone, they will flourish as they have in the years previous. ________ school should have a unified policy in place to address children who are refusing these assessments.

We do apologize in advance for the inconvenience this decision may cause the administration, the school, and staff.

Sincerely,”

Categories New York, Parents, Testing

Jessie Ramey: 13 Ways Standardized Testing Hurts Kids, Ruins Education

By dianeravitch
March 19, 2014 //
20

Jessie Ramey, who writes the terrific blog Yinzercation, writes a cogent list of the 13 ways that high-stakes, standardized testing hurts children and ruins their education.

Here are six of the 13. Open the link to see the other seven:

So what are the “high-stakes” for students in high-stakes testing? Examples we’ve been hearing from parents and educators across Pennsylvania include:

Lost learning time: There’s less time for learning with testing and test prep (for example, Pittsburgh students now take 20-25, or more, high-stakes tests a year, with new tests this year in art and music).

Reduced content knowledge: Students are learning how to take high-stakes-tests, but cannot demonstrate subject mastery when tested in a different format. [Koretz, 2008]

Narrowed curriculum: With a focus on reading and math scores, students lose history, world languages, the arts, and other programs.

Shut out of programs: Stakes exclude students when test results count as extra weight in magnet lotteries or for entrance to gifted programs or advanced courses.

Diverted resources: Schools that perform poorly on high-stakes-tests are labeled “failures” and sometimes have resources taken away from them. The hundreds of millions of dollars spent on testing in Pennsylvania are not available for classroom education.

School closures: Schools labeled as “failing” on the basis of test scores can be threatened with closure. These schools are usually in communities of color.

Categories Standardized Testing

Breaking News: Another School Committee in Massachusetts Allows Parents to Opt Kids Out of PARCC Tests

By dianeravitch
March 18, 2014 //
9

The school committee  of Tantasqua, Massachusetts, voted to permit parents to opt their children out of the PARCC tests.

In doing so, Tantasqua joins the school committees of Worcester and Norfolk, which reached the same decision.

The state department of education has opposed opting out, but the school committees are not following orders.

The Tantasqua vote was close, 8-7, and the deciding vote was cast by the chair of the committee, Michael J. Valanzola.

He said:

“It reaches the point of exhaustion, relative to the mandates from the state. Every time you turn around, there are new requirements on our school district but no money to back them up,” Mr. Valanzola said after the meeting. “And, for me, this sends a message that we are tired of the mandates and, ultimately, we are a School Choice district that believes in choice. Choice should rest with the parents and their right to be engaged in the process.” 

On Feb. 11, the Norfolk School Committee sent the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education a letter saying it would let parents decide for their children whether they will participate in the PARCC test. On March 6, the Worcester School Committee agreed to send a letter to the state similar to Norfolk’s. 

 

Categories Massachusetts, Testing

Eagle Academies: Not Miracle Schools

By dianeravitch
March 18, 2014 //
32

We live in a very strange age, where pundits and policymakers are in search of miracle schools, not willing to accept how incremental progress is and how difficult it is to measure progress..

Last Sunday, the “New York Times” held up the Eagle Academy schools in New York City as very successful hybrid schools that provide the equivalent of a private school education.. After all, 82% are bound for college and one even applied to an Ivy League college.

Super-detective Gary Rubinstein checked the stats. This s what he found:

“Eagle Academy For Young Men II in Brooklyn only has 6th through 10th graders so it is tough to call it any kind of success yet. Their Regents grades are very low for the students who have taken them so far.

“I looked at Eagle Academy in the Bronx report card for 2011-2012. Test scores, even on the old non-Common Core tests were 30% passing. Regents scores were terrible. Average grade on math regents were Alg I: 64, Geometry: 61, Alg II: 51. They got a lower pass rate than ‘expected’ by the NYC growth metric. SAT scores were in the high 300s per section, 399 Math, 391 Verbal. This puts them in around the 18% percentile.

“82% of graduates may be accepted to college, but it is tough to say that they will succeed there. Also note that they boast they have their first student as an applicant to an Ivy League school, but not that he got in. Anyone can apply to an Ivy League school, of course.

“111 juniors in 2010-2011 became just 91 seniors in 2011-2012, which is a loss of 18% of those students.”

No, they are not miracle schools, nor are they a model for the school system.

Categories New York City

Breaking News! Dare County, NC, Votes NO to North Carolina Anti-Teacher Law

By dianeravitch
March 18, 2014 //
13

The Board of Education in Dare County, North Carolina, voted unanimously to oppose the law recently passed by the extremist legislature that would end career status for teachers, require the board to give a $500 bonus to the top 25% of teachers in exchange for their giving up their career status.

 

“The Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution calling for the state to roll back the new policy, which calls for school systems to pick the top-performing 25 percent of teachers for a four-year contract with $500 in annual bonuses if they give up career status.

 

Career status will be eliminated in 2018, but the bonus money has not yet been included in the state budget, according to the North Carolina Association of Educators.

 

Career status provides a process and the right to a hearing before an experienced teacher can be dismissed or demoted.

 

Dare County joins with Wake County and Guilford County in opposing this law, which has angered and demoralized teachers.

 

North Carolina is losing large numbers of veteran teachers who can’t afford to live on their low salaries. Teachers in North Carolina rank 46th in the nation in salary, a steady slippage in recent years. When Jim Hunt was governor, he brought teachers’ salaries to the national average. But there have been no salary increases since 2008. A teacher in the state must teach 15 years to reach a salary of $40,000.

 

Dare County cares about its teachers.  Unlike the legislature, it doesn’t want to destroy its public schools.

Categories North Carolina, Teacher Tenure
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