Archives for the month of: April, 2014
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Williams and Kilfoyle: Reformers, We Will Not Let You Steal Our Children, Our Schools, Our Democracy

By dianeravitch
April 8, 2014 //
5

Dr.Yohuru Williams and Maria Kilfoyle, NBCT, have a message for the corporate reformers: We will never surrender.

They write:

“Public education… is the cornerstone of democracy. It helps students acquire civic knowledge so that they can become participants in their democracy. It also requires students and communities to reflect on a continuous basis, through school board meetings, referendums and countless other exercises of local politics, on the nature of the democratic process. Public education further requires parents, teachers, and communities to work in partnership to solve problems on behalf of the public good. If we were to sit passively by and allow unscrupulous politicians and corporations to auction public education off to the highest bidder, we would also be complicit in its demise, but we, and scores of others do not intend to allow that to happen. For the future of our kids and these democratic ideals, we will fight.”

The corporate reformers claim the sky is falling, play on public fears, and advance “solutions” that have not a shred of evidence behind them.

They write:

“Even though democracy has been frustrated and many communities have fallen under the sway of the harmful machinery of Corporate Education Reform, we will not tire or retreat. We will stand and fight the deformers in the town hall meetings, in the governors’ offices and on the floors of state legislatures, on the local school boards, on the campuses of the nation’s colleges and universities, we will even fight at the gates of the White House and on the steps of Capitol Hill; we will never surrender.

“We will never surrender because the real issue that hinders education for children, poverty, needs to be addressed not ignored. The sound bites of education disaster that deformers thrust upon the public never mention child poverty. In fact, they go out of their way to marginalize it and ignore it. We will force the public and governments, at both the federal and state level, to address this.

“We will never surrender because the very social inequalities that deformers like Gates, Duncan, Rhee, and Broad are using to claim their agenda for public education are full of lies, a lack of research, and an alternate agenda that isn’t about equality or justice; it is about the dollar and continued oppression of the poor. Nothing they have presented as an agenda for education will cure child poverty or social injustice. We will never surrender until this lie is exposed and destroyed. Finally, yet importantly, we will never surrender because principle, morality, democracy, and justice are on our side. Our hearts are not bought by The Gates Foundation or The Broad Foundation – Our hearts belong to the children we teach, and the communities we invest in. For that, we will never surrender.”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Students, Teachers and Teaching

MARCH for Public Schools This Thursday: NYC, 4 PM

By dianeravitch
April 8, 2014 //
7

Dear Public Education Supporter:

The CEC/Citywide Working Group is a coalition of elected District and Citywide Education Councils across New York City. We – along with numerous other public school parent and pro public education groups including the Alliance for Quality Education, New York Communities for Change, Change the Stakes, Parent Voices and many others – will be convening a rally on the steps of the New York Public Library on 5th Avenue and 41st Street at 4:00PM this Thursday, April 10th. We will then march to Governor Cuomo’s office, 633 Third Ave at 40th Street. (See attachments. This is the corrected time and location)

The rally and march have been called in the face of provisions in last week’s budget which promote the pitting of parents against parents and the willful destruction of public education in New York City by Governor Cuomo and the New York State Senate, all at the direction of the hedge fund-run charter school lobby.

Specifically, Governor Cuomo and the State Senate-led budget provide for the following:

– The de Blasio administration MUST offer space to EVERY charter school rubber-stamped in the final weeks of the Bloomberg administration. Mayor de Blasio previously approved 14 of 17 charters; now he MUST move forward with all 17 – regardless of the fact that autistic and severely emotionally disturbed children will be moved out of their own buildings, or public high schools must step aside to make room for elementary charters.

– EVERY charter now located in public school buildings MUST be allowed to EXPAND as much as the charter wishes. If public school class sizes and building enrollment increase to unsustainable levels, too bad. If it means giving control of entire buildings to charters by pushing out all public school students, so be it.

– ALL new charter schools requesting NYC public school space – and there will be dozens and potentially hundreds more – MUST be provided it or must pay for private space for the charters. No rent can be charged in public or private spaces. Public schools have no such rights.

– The Mayor, the City Council, the CEC’s and the Community are effectively removed from space decisions, giving the charter lobby more say over our public school buildings (and capital budget) than any of our elected officials.

– Per pupil funding will be increased to ALL charter schools despite the millions they receive from Wall Street and the fact that collocated charters already receive thousands of dollars more per pupil than our public schools. Meanwhile the State refused to fund the court ordered CFE decision whereby billions are owed to New York City schools. Instead the budget provides tax cuts to millionaires.

For the first time, parents across the City have united to make our collective voice heard. We seek to ensure that the 94% of New York City students in public schools are treated fairly and equally to the 6% in charters. We ask that you mobilize your parents, your students, your elected officials, your teachers and community members to attend this historic rally. Attached is a flyer with information, and multiple ways of reaching rally organizers, as well as some points of interest about our cause. Please contact us with any questions or information at SaveNYCSchools@gmail.com as soon as possible.

Thank you in advance for your support of public education and all our children. We know you are bombarded with many invitations, but this rally will prove to our legislators that we stand as one.

The CEC/Citywide Council Working Group

email: SaveNYCSchools@gmail.com
Like us on FaceBook: Save NYC Public Education

noah eliot gotbaum
community education council district 3 (cec3)
noah@gotbaum.com
twitter: @noahegotbaum

Categories New York City

Yong Zhao: PISA and Illusory Models of Excellence

By dianeravitch
April 8, 2014 //
4

Yong Zhao, who was born and educated in China, is a sharp critic of standardized testing. This article is the third in a series in which he criticizes PISA for misleading the world and promoting standardization and uniformity.

In this article, he reviews the many critiques of PISA by testing expert in other actions.

He writes:

“From the start, the entire PISA enterprise has been designed to capitalize on the intense nationalistic concern for global competitiveness by inducing strong emotional responses from the unsuspecting public, gullible politicians, and sensation-seeking media. Virtually all PISA products, particularly its signature product—the league tables, are intended to show winners and losers, in not only educational policies and practices of the past, but more important, in capacity for global competition in the future. While this approach has made PISA an extremely successful global enterprise, it has misled the world down a path of self-destruction, resulting in irrational policies and practices that are more likely to squander precious resources and opportunities than enhancing capacity for future prosperity.”

He reviews the OECD’s claim that the children of factory workers in Shanghai had higher scores than the children of professionals in the U.S. and finds it misleading.

Then he adds the “so what” factor:

“Even if PISA had done everything properly and indeed children of factory workers in Shanghai scored better than children of lawyers in the U.K. and the U.S., it does not necessarily mean they are better educated or prepared for the modern society, considering the limitation of PISA test scores as I discussed in Part 3 of this series. It could mean something entirely different: while PISA scores can be achieved with little resources and intense repetition of narrowly defined, uniformly prescribed content and skills, what truly matters—talent diversity, creativity, and entrepreneurialism—cannot. The multiplication table can be learned with a piece of paper, but it would be difficult to force anyone to play the piano without a piano. Everyone can be forced to memorize Hamlet, but it is unlikely to force anyone to invent the iPhone.”

Categories International, Testing

At Least 33,000 Students Opted Out of State Tests in New York State

By dianeravitch
April 8, 2014 //
7

Preliminary figures indicate that at least 33,000 students opted out of state tests in New York.

This is a huge increase from last year, when only a few hundred students refused to take the tests.

Given the growing criticism of the tests, which many teachers and principals say were “terrible” or developmentally inappropriate, the opt put movement will continue to grow.

It is an awful burden to place on children to tell them–and, yes, they know– that their test score will determine whether their teacher will be fired or their school will be closed.

As more states begin taking the Common Core-aligned tests, more parents will say no. We have heard from industry spokesmen that the online tests will be data mining, collecting information about children for future use, perhaps for vendors. Parents will say, “No thanks.” And they are right.

Categories New York, Resistance, Testing

What Eva Won. Thanks, Billionaires!

By dianeravitch
April 7, 2014 //
41

Now that the New York state legislature has passed a law written specifically to permit Eva Moskowitz to expand her elementary school–presently co-located inside PS 149 in Harlem–into a middle school, students with disabilities will be removed from PS 149. No one knows yet where they will go, but the city has to find a place for them.

 

That $5 million ad campaign attacking Mayor Bill de Blasio was all about the “eviction” of Eva’s students. She was outraged because the mayor said she should open a middle school somewhere else and not push out the students with disabilities. But the billionaires wanted the space presently occupied by the kids with disabilities–the ones that would never be accepted into Eva’s Success Academy. After all, if they have serious disabilities, they might pull down the test scores, and that is not acceptable, is it? Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post and Mort Zuckerman’s New York Daily News chimed in to support Eva’s smart kids. They were not being “evicted,” they were expected to move from their elementary school to a middle school in a different building, as most children in New York City do. But most children do not attend Success Academy!

 

So here is another demonstration, this time by the supporters of the children with disabilities. They will be evicted to make room for Eva’s new middle school. Will any billionaire run ads to protest the genuine “eviction” of these kids? No, they are powerless. And they don’t have high test scores. And in this society, if you don’t have high test scores, you have fewer rights and privileges:

 

 

Media Contacts:
Julian Vinocur. 203.313.2479. julian@aqeny.org

* Media Advisory for Tomorrow, April 8, 9:15a.m.
Steps of Dept. of Education, 52 Chambers St., Lower Manhattan *

Harlem Parents to Protest Gov. Cuomo for Forcing Damaging Co-location With Success Academy

*Elected Officials, NAACP’s Hazel Dukes, Parents will Rally to Save Key Services for Special Needs Students at Mickey Mantle School*

WHO: State Senator Bill Perkins; Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer; Councilmember and Chair of the Education Committee Daniel Dromm; Council Member Antonio Reynoso; President of NAACP NYS Conference Hazel Dukes; Harlem parents to be co-located with Success Academy, at PS 149/811; parents and advocates from the Alliance for Quality Education, NYC Coalition for Educational Justice, New York Communities for Change and Make the Road New York.

WHAT: At a major rally tomorrow, parents and teachers from the Mickey Mantle school PS 811 and PS 149 in Harlem, will protest Governor Cuomo for strong-arming a damaging co-location with Success Academy that will severely impact 109 special needs children. Affected parents and teachers will detail the imminent loss of vital programs and services, resulting from a forced co-location previously rejected by Mayor de Blasio’s administration, but pushed forward by Governor Cuomo during state budget talks.

– Participants will be tweeting using #SavePS811-

WHERE: Steps of the Dept. of Education, 52 Chambers St., Lower Manhattan.

WHEN: Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 8th, 9:15am.

Categories Charter Schools

Top-Scoring NYC District Will Protest ELA Tests This Friday

By dianeravitch
April 7, 2014 //
28

District 2 in New York City–one of the city’s highest scoring districts–plans protests this Friday against the poor quality of the ELA tests given last week. State officials tried to dismiss concerns from other districts, specifically from Liz Phillips, a respected Brooklyn principal who wrote a letter to all the parents in her school saying the tests were.”terrible.” More than 500 parents and teachers at her school joined to protest the ELA tests last Friday. The Néw York Times ignored Phillips’ informed judgment and accepted the assurances of state officials (and pupils–how large was their sample?) that the test was “easier” than last year.

District 2 principals agreed with Phillips.

Here is their statement:

Community Action:

Join Us in Speaking Out Regarding the NYS English Language Arts Exam

Friday, April 11th, at District 2 Schools

Dear District 2 Families,

Community School District 2 represents a richly diverse group of school communities and it is not often these days that we have an opportunity to join in a shared effort. Last week, and for several weeks prior, every one of our upper grade classrooms devoted hours of instructional time, vast human resources, and a tremendous amount of thoughtful effort to preparing students to do well on the NYS ELA exams and, ultimately, to administering them. Only a handful of District 2 families even considered opting out, and we are not advocating families do so, specifically because we believe our students are well prepared for the rigor and high expectations of the Common Core and our schools have worked hard for several years to adjust our curriculum and teaching to support students in meeting those expectations. We had high hopes for what this year’s tests would bring and assured families that they would reflect the feedback test makers and state officials had received from educators and families regarding the design of the test following last year’s administration. Our students worked extremely hard and did their very best. As school leaders, we supported teachers in ensuring that students and families kept the tests in perspective – they were important, but by no means the ultimate measure of who they are as readers, students, or human beings. We encouraged them to be optimistic, and did our best to do the same. Frankly, many of us were disappointed by the design and quality of the tests and stood by helplessly while kids struggled to determine best answers, distorting much of what we’d taught them about effective reading skills and strategies and forgoing deep comprehension for something quite different.

Last Friday morning, Liz Phillips, the principal of PS321 in Brooklyn, led her staff and her parent community in a demonstration objecting, not to testing or accountability or high expectations for kids, but to these tests in particular and, importantly, to their high stakes nature for teachers and students, and the policy of refusing to release other than a small percentage of the questions. 500 staff and parents participated.

By Friday evening some officials were dismissing the importance of their statement, claiming that Liz and her community represented only a tiny percentage of those affected, implying that the rest of us were satisfied. Given the terribly high stakes of these tests, for schools, for teachers and for kids, and the enormous amount of human, intellectual and financial resources that have been devoted to them, test makers should be prepared to stand by them and to allow them to undergo close scrutiny.

Many District 2 schools will be holding demonstrations this week, making sure our thoughts on this are loud and clear and making it more difficult to dismiss the efforts of one school. On Friday morning, April 11th, at 8:00am, we invite our families and staff to join District 2 schools in speaking out, expressing our deep dissatisfaction with the 2014 NYS English Language Arts LA exams and the lack of transparency surrounding them. Among the concerns shared by many schools are the following: The tests seem not to be particularly well-aligned with the Common Core Learning Standards; the questions are poorly constructed and often ambiguous; the tests themselves are embargoed and only a handful of select questions will be released next year; teachers are not permitted to use (or even discuss) the questions or the results to inform their teaching; students and families receive little or no specific feedback; this year, there were product placements (i.e., Nike, Barbie) woven through some exams. We are inviting you and your family to join together as a school community in this action, helping to ensure that officials are not left to wonder whether our silence implied approval.

Yours truly,

District 2 Principals

Adele Schroeter, PS59; Lisa Ripperger, PS234; Robert Bender, PS11; Tara Napoleoni, PS183; Jane Hsu, PS116; Sharon Hill, PS290; Amy Hom, PS1; Lauren Fontana, PS6; Jennifer Bonnet, PS150; Nicole Ziccardi Yerk, PS281; Susan Felder, PS40; Alice Hom, PS124; Nancy Harris, PS397; Kelly Shannon, PS41; Nancy Sing-Bok, PS51; Lisa Siegman, PS3; Irma Medina, PS111; Terry Ruyter, PS276; Medea McEvoy, PS267; Darryl Alhadeff, PS158; Samantha Kaplan, PS151; David Bowell, PS347; Lily Woo, PS130; Jacqui Getz, PS126; Kelly McGuire, Lower Manhattan Community MS

Categories New York City, Pearson, Testing

Congratulations to Anthony Cody!

By dianeravitch
April 7, 2014 //
22

The Education Writers Assiciation awarded first prize to Anthony Cody for his series of posts questioning the Common Core.

This is a recognition of Anthony’s excellent research and writing. In addition, it is a recognition that criticism of the Common Core exists among thoughtful and reflective educators.

Anthony taught for more than 20 years in the high-poverty public schools of Oakland, California. He is a National Board-Certified Teacher of science. He is also a co-founder of the Network for Public Education. .

Congratulations, Anthony! I add you to this blog’s honor roll as a champion for kids, for equity, for teachers, and for public education

Categories Honor Roll

BREAKING NEWS: Charters in Chicago Do Not Outperform Public Schools

By dianeravitch
April 7, 2014 //
57

A stunning article in the Chicago Sun-Times demonstrates that charter schools in Chicago do not get better results than public schools. Where differences exist, they are small.

Last year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 50 neighborhood public schools, which will be replaced eventually by privately managed charter schools. But this article suggests that the results of the chaos and heartbreak in fragmenting communities and their schools will be minimal or nil.

Here is how the article begins:

“Since Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office in 2011, Chicago has ordered the closings of dozens of neighborhood public schools while approving a new wave of publicly financed, privately operated charter schools, in a much-touted effort to improve education.

“Emanuel’s push continues an effort begun under former Mayor Richard M. Daley and supported by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan that’s seen the number of privately run schools across the city grow from none in 1996 to more than 130 today, with more set to open later this year. Charters and other privately run schools now serve nearly one of every seven Chicago public school students.

“But even as many parents have embraced the new schools, there’s little evidence in standardized test results that charters are performing better than traditional schools operated by the Chicago Public Schools system, an examination by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Medill Data Project at Northwestern University has found.

“In fact, in 2013, CPS schools had a higher percentage of elementary students who exceeded the standards for state tests for reading and math than the schools that are privately run with Chicago taxpayer funds.

“That was true for all CPS-run schools and also just for traditional neighborhood schools, which don’t require admissions tests or offer specialized courses of instruction.

“The analysis looked at the scores of every Chicago student who took the state tests last year — nearly 173,000 students at traditional CPS-run schools and more than 23,000 students at charter schools and the much smaller group attending so-called contract schools. Like charters, contract schools are run by private organizations with the authorization and financial backing of Chicago schools officials.

“The Sun-Times/Medill Data Project analysis showed:

◆ On the math portion of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, 7.3 percent of CPS neighborhood school students exceeded standards, while 5.3 percent of kids at the privately run schools did so.

◆ Among charter or contract elementary students, 7.9 percent exceeded standards on the ISAT for reading, compared with 9.8 percent of students at neighborhood schools. The ISAT in math and reading is given to third- through eighth-graders.

◆ Neighborhood and privately run high schools both saw just 1.6 percent of their students exceeding standards for reading on the Prairie State Achievement Examination, which is given to high school juniors.

◆ Charters and contract schools edged out neighborhood high schools — 1.3 percent to 0.7 percent — when it came to exceeding standards on the math portion of the PSAE last year.

A previously unreleased study in 2010 showed the same results, yet that did not stop either Rahm Emanuel or Arne Duncan from showering charter schools with praise and largesse:

“The analysis of the 2013 test results was similar to what CPS officials found in a 2010 study ordered by Terry Mazany, who was interim schools chief during the last six months of the Daley administration. According to previously unreleased records, that internal review found that charter students did far worse on the ISAT than students at CPS-run magnet schools and only slightly better than students at neighborhood schools.

“The results showed that they were virtually identical,” Mazany said of the 2010 study. “I found that surprising because charters are based on a model that they have greater freedom, opportunity to be innovative and be more flexible. So I would have intuitively expected they would have been performing much better than the neighborhood schools they were pitted against.”

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago

BREAKING NEWS: Kansas Eliminates Due Process for Teachers, Expands Privatization

By dianeravitch
April 7, 2014 //
90

Responding to the extremist group Americans for Prosperity, funded by the Koch brothers, the Kansas state legislature enacted legislation that strips teachers of due process and expands “school choice” (aka privatization of public schools and their funding). In the future, teachers may be fired without a hearing.

The legislature used the pretext of a court ruling to equalize funding to enact proposals that align with the far-right ALEC organization.

Destroying due process is called “reform.” Teachers may be unjustly accused and fired without a hearing. They may be fired because they taught both sides of a controversial issue or expressed a controversial view. They may be fired because the principal doesn’t like the way they look or doesn’t like their race or religion. No reason is needed because there will be no hearing.

Without any right to a fair hearing, you can be sure that the word “evolution” will never be heard in many districts, nor any reference to global warming. Nor will many classics of American literature be taught. Books like “Huckleberry Finn,” “Invisible Man,” “The Grapes of Wrath,” are risky and controversial. Now is exactly when the children of Kansas and the U.S. should be reading “1984” and “Brave New World.”

“The bill is potentially a big victory for conservative Republicans because it gives them some educational reforms they have sought while putting more money into schools.

The reforms would:

• Foster school choice by allowing corporations to make tax-deductible contributions to scholarship funds so children with special needs or who come from low-income households could attend private school.

• Make it easier to fire teachers by eliminating their due-process rights.

• Relax teacher licensing when hiring instructors with professional experience in areas including math, science, finance and technical education.

“As the final bill was negotiated, lawmakers jettisoned an idea to block funding for Common Core academic standards.

“They also shed a plan that would have provided property tax relief for parents who home-school their children or send them to private schools. Lawmakers questioned whether the property tax break was constitutional and whether they knew its real cost.

“Urged on by conservative special interests such as Americans for Prosperity, Republican leaders pressed hard to eliminate due process rights for teachers.

“They say the proposal is intended to ensure that school administrators are free from regulations that would keep them from firing substandard teachers.

“If you talk to administrators, they want this,” said Sen. Julia Lynn, an Olathe Republican. “They want really good teachers to thrive. They don’t want to be in a position to protect those teachers who are under-performing.”

“State law had required administrators to document conduct and provide a hearing for teachers they want to fire after three years on the job.

“The bill means terminated teachers would no longer be able to request a hearing.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/04/06/4941974/kansas-lawmakers-pass-school-finance.html#storylink=cpy

Categories Kansas, Privatization, Teacher Tenure

Federal Officials Warn Florida Not to Exempt More Students from Testing

By dianeravitch
April 7, 2014 //
16

Andrea Rediske is perplexed. After the death of her son Ethan, she thought the Florida legislature would pass a law named in his honor as “Ethan’s Law” to allow local school officials to grant waivers so that children like Ethan, in medical emergency, would not be required to take the state test.

Then Pam Stewart, the state commissioner, accused Andrea of trying to advance her “political agenda,” (Stewart didn’t say what that agenda might be other than to protect children like Ethan from being harassed by bureaucrats like Stewart). Then the legislature quietly dropped Ethan’s Law and added a few sentences in a general accountability bill that would a hire e the same purpose.

But trouble ahead! The U.S. Department of Education weighs in to warn Florida that if it dares to excuse more than 1% of students with disabilities,the state would not be in compliance with federal law.

So the Federal officials have joined forces with those that believe poor Ethan should have been tested as he lay dying.

What kind of a country is this? Who are these people?

Categories Special Education, Testing
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