The Senate committee HEALTH, Education, Labor, and Pensions passed the Alexander-Murray bill today.
A note from Leonie Haimson:
“Senate committee passed ESEA re-write 22-0 today; a tremendous rebuke to Arne Duncan’s prescriptive & damaging ed policies. Feds will no longer be able to mandate or incentivize specific standards, school improvement strategies or teacher evaluation policies.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A rebuke indeed. May every Democratic candidate be warned!
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Ditto…and that goes for political issues beyond education as well. Any Dems who vote tilting Right, are suspect.
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Great.. However its too little too late. NY is not going to reverse its draconian eval system. Cuomo is doubling down on testing and orchestrated teacher witch hunts.
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Jeff
The good news is that the opt outs make Cuomo’s horrible teacher evaluation plan unworkable. Too much missing data
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When I commented some time ago that they started SBAC testing in California, you said that they have not and told me not to start celebrating. I am now telling you that celebration is not in order.
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The improper use of data seems to be a minor detail in the quest for failing schools. Hasn’t been an issue in all those PR reports or submissions to the courts.
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Cuomo will make good use of whatever data remains. Do not delude yourselves.
I had to test a Special Ed kid this week. One day he was in tears complaining of a stomachache. Two days later I made a second attempt. We got through it. He is struggling with English and his disability. I felt terrible.
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I agree. They announced yesterday that the evals will still go on as plan because they have enough data.
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Outstanding!
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It still has to get through the Senate and the House without amendments added…
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explain more. Why do I feel lost in this? I follow all that you post. SO frustrated with education in the “terms” of 2015 education. Trying to return to teaching myself and trying to FIND a trustworthy public school for my 4 children…the last who will not graduate until 2029……AFTER I have read that the end of public education is estimated in 2025!!! YIKES…..Welfare here we COME!
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Not sure why these policies are always referred to as Arne Duncan’s policies…he works on behalf of President Obama…
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Finally, some good news.
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Have any of you that are writing comments even taken 5 minutes or many hours to review the Alexander garbage bill? I highly doubt it and if you had did you even have a clue what it was saying. We just got SCREWED AGAIN and we are all too damn stupid to realize it. Alexander is as progressive as they come. This bill is the end for our kids. Dont believe it. Well you didn’t believe it about NCLB or RTTT and found out too late and the same thing will happen this time except the final nail has been delivered and it is now too late. For any parent that DOES get it……….GET YOUR KIDS OUT OF THE SYSTEM YESTERDAY.
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I’m afraid you’re on to something here. I’m very, very nervous about any bipartisan unanimity involving education legislation. As you inferred, we’ve seen this before. I’m sure our “rebuked” Secretary of Education will come out applauding it as exactly what he’s been calling for throughout his term.
The good news is that parents are fighting back and at least forcing politicians to take action. Reaction will be quicker this time. Still looking for some politician to face accountability for failed education policy.
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What do you mean Alexander is as progressive as they come? He’s a Tennessee Republican. A progressive is what we need. Alexander isn’t it.
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As much as I hope you are wrong, I think you may be right after reading the parts on mental health, charter support, and a strong TFA presence encouraged. The bill still has to move through and I wish it was re written already.
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The entire Senate Reauthorization is about mental health, IDEA, and interventions for Title I At Risk kids not meeting Common Core. The affective domain has been added to make testing in the social emotional & behavioral domain legal. Specialized student support Sec 1114 is mentioned so many times, plus mental health wrap around services, non-academic standards, positive behavior interventions and supports, Multitiered system of supports, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, on & on. This was Hillary’s plan in 1995…Her,”It takes A Village To Raise A Child” plan. Bring in MEDICIAD for schools to bill mental health services
(affective domain). Wake up. ESEA IS ABOUT TOTAL CONTROL OF EDUCATION. http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/04/the-medicalization-of-schools/
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For an excellent and detailed summary of the bill, see the several posts by Mercedes Schneider at https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2015/04/13/the-senate-esea-reauthorization-draft-part-vi-my-final-post/ . Diane referred to these earlier this week. See https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2015/04/13/the-senate-esea-reauthorization-draft-part-vi-my-final-post/ .
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“Feds will no longer be able to mandate or incentivize specific standards, school improvement strategies or teacher evaluation policies.”
Instead of the feds, now every test crazed, corporate donor suck-up, charter lovin’ governor in the country can do all of the above – and worse. It will turn public education into a political football at the state level and be subject to the whims of whoever holds office. The megalomaniac running NY will be drooling over the provisions in this bill. All you Keystoners can count yourselves as fortunate, until the next roll of the political dice. If this makes it to Obama’s desk, and he signs, the unintended consequences will be harmful in ways not yet fully imagined.
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It is amazing at how people just comment on things
they do not fully grasp and further confuse other people who are trying to understand what they’ve read. Some comments here so far are so off base and meaningless relative to what just happened today.
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Such as? Please enlighten us.
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I have no comment other than: “I will wait and see. But not holding my breath. “
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Same here.
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Go to Mercedes Schneider’s blog to read her 5 part evaluation of this version of ESEA: https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2015/04/13/the-senate-esea-reauthorization-draft-part-vi-my-final-post/
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Diane, please comment on this “Breaking News” so we can better understand the consequences of this vote for teachers and students. Your knowledge is always greatly appreciated.
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Read Mercedes Schneider’s posts, where she does a close reading on the bill.
It leaves annual testing in place (bad idea) but lets states decide how to use the scores. It is a bonanza for charter industry. Prohibits Secretary of Education from dictating standards, assessments, or how to turnaround low performing schools. Federal power to mandate vastly reduced.
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The big idea left to all of us – whether it was intentionally planned by the government or not – was that NOW that states have had a taste of charter expansion, CCSS and APPR, they will be left trained, inculcated, and oriented to be authorized what the feds want them to do, but, under this new bill, are no longer authorized to do.
There’s nothing so great about that.
However, getting the feds OUT of the picture and defanging their legal authority and power inside the states is definitely a step in a better direction because one’s voice is barely heard on a federal level but can be better and more greatly amplified at the state level.
The glass is half full in this case, and let’s keep on building our movement to protect public education and fund it properly.
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Okay, you win. You are far more knowledgeable about this legislation than anyone else posting here, and you obviously possess a wealth of insider information that others do not. Now that we’ve established your elevated status, do you have any intention of sharing that knowledge and information with us, the less fortunate?
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Who are you talking to?
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“Feds will no longer be able to mandate or incentivize specific standards, school improvement strategies or teacher evaluation policies.”
I need time to let these words sink in.
Awesome.
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Unfortunately, no one was reading the bill to understand what was meant by the specialized student supports that were interlaced throughout this legislation. No one looked at the investigative select committee in Pennsylvania ( HR 37, Rep. Sam Rohrer) that uncovered how these non-academic standards/mental health/social, emotional, behavioral standards, connected MEDICAID to the schools for billing. There is an entire section on school based mental health services for ALL AT RISK CHILDREN REFERRING TO SPECIALIZED STUDENT SUPPORT on multiple pages. At Risk means not meeting Common Core. You missed the boat on this one. Diane has lead you done the wrong path. This legislation is worse than NCLB. #StopESEA in the House.
http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/04/the-medicalization-of-schools/
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Please explain. Track it for me, from the point at which a public elementary school recommends an IEP evaluation. I am recalling when my own kids’ (2 out of 3 of my children) were recommended for an evaluation. My kids went thro’ a p.s. ed-psych (who no doubt was paid via public sources, e.g. Medicaid), after which I went to private sources for a full evaluation.
And then, once my kids had an IEP, there were re-evaluations every 3 yrs or so w/a p.s. psychologist (not a psychiatrist): was this also paid via Medicaid?
If I read what you’re saying correctly, this is indeed cause for serious examination of the ESEA re-authorization in this regard. It’s one thing for the school to suggest a psych evaluation– quite another for the school itself to perform the evaluation paid for by the state. I was fortunate enough to be able to afford private evsluation; many families are not.
My experience leads me to believe that the accommodations I acquired for my children via IEP– which no doubt enabled them to attain h.s diplomas & good grades via self-contained classes– were attained because they differed from the mainstream in ways that were easily accommodated via smaller classes & extra time for assessments.
My perspective is that 50 yrs prior, in small rural schools of the 1950’s (my day), their obvious intellectual abilities would have allowed them to prosper in the mainstream. But in the late ’90’s in a highly competitive suburban area, the IEP was the only way for them to be measured on a fair basis with their cohort.
I have often thought of this difference between the 1950’s & the 1990’s as a product of the attempt to educate an increased population by a sort of assembly-line, where those which were different (too slow or too quick) had to be ejected to a pit-stop (IEP), a la NASCAR,for retooling.
Are you telling me that today, the machinations involved in an IEP evaluation & its resultant accommodations– under the Lamar-Murray re-authorization of ESEA– will be converted to a nationally-coded mental-health ‘tag’ that will follow a SpEd student in perpetuity?
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The interventions are for ALL CHILDREN. IDEA has been expanded to include related services age 0-21 through EPSDT in MEDICAID. The definitions for both Title I and IDEA cover every child not meeting Common Core. Dispositions were added to Common Core in both CCSSO AND THE FLEX WAIVERS. Alexander added the mental health criteria to encompass non-academic standards. Pennsylvania was a model for this agenda. There was a House Special Investigative Committee, Rep. Sam Rohrer, Chairman, ( HR 37) who exposed that normal children were being identified with DSM codes to ramp up funding for the schools. Schools apply for a Provider license ( partial hospitalization) to Bill MEDICAID. Response to Interventions, specialized student supports, positive behavior interventions and supports do not need an IEP. It is a 3 tiered system of interventions before the IEP team. Go to the documentation pages in my article: http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/04/the-medicalization-of-schools/
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Now the states will have the same CC as did the feds because they have no idea how to do it differently. Be careful what you wish for.
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An improvement on NCLB can’t come soon enough. Only the full vote of the senate and the house to go. As the old saying goes, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Too much testing still there, yes. Obviously one LA and math test per year. Do they say how many hours each?
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I didn’t ever buy the argument that states were adopting these policies because Arne Duncan “mandated” or “incentivized” them so I don’t see that it will make much difference if he (or the next ed secretary) does or does not “mandate” or “incentivize” ed reform. .
John Kasich and Scott Walker and Andrew Cuomo and the rest adopted the whole ed reform menu because these are the policies they support. They weren’t “coerced” into anything. My God, Andrew Cuomo could not make it more clear that he supports the Bush/Obama ed reforms. Was he “coerced”?
The same is true of Congress, both Parties. Why did they let Duncan and his merry band of privatizers run the table for 6 years? Because they support Duncan and his merry band of privatizers and it was easier and less politically perilous to let Arne do it.
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I was disappointed in the Democrats in the Senate on public schools. I didn’t hear a thing different than I’ve heard from them for 15 years.
Public schools won’t survive with Republicans hostile to their continued existence and Democrats “agnostic” to their continued existence. That won’t work.
Our schools are political orphans and I think that’s shameful. Hostile lawmakers who want to privatize the whole thing on one side of the aisle and captured cowards on the other. Great. Fabulous. So, so happy I’m paying these people.
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Also, I hate to be so demanding but “the federal government will no longer punish public schools!” is not good enough for me.
I expect people in government to support public schools. Minimum. That’s my floor.
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Chiara-
Your points are excellent!. I don’t see too many of the 32 Republican governors and their neo-liberal Democratic friends backing down from the continued pummeling of public schools with test scores… and the 22-0 vote shows either gutlessness or complicity on the part of Democrats… and your “floor” is a reasonable expectation.
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In Newark, ten more schools are in line for punishment.
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My concern is that the states will take on the Duncan mantle with enthusiasm. Too many politicians have absorbed the privatization rhetoric (“accountability”, “failing school”, “choice”) and literally know nothing else. Will they admit they were scammed? And then there all those contributions.
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I’m glad we got a stop to Duncan’s waivers, but keeping annual testing is just not acceptable. We need SOME cut back on standardized assessments. Sticking out our tongue at Arne just isn’t enough. We might as well call this ESEA rewrite “No TEST Left Behind.”
My thoughts: https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/no-test-left-behind-why-the-senate-esea-reauthorization-is-unacceptable/
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I’m VERY skeptical and fearful about how this will end up… I believe that when STATES define standards and develop accountability models many states will be worse than they are now…. I dread seeing what happens in NJ, MI, IN, WI, OH, and NYS when it comes to deciding how much standardized tests will play a role in teacher evaluations…. and if the governors are ignoring the statisticians who decry VAM they will certainly pay no attention when they are told that the opt out percentages might taint their evaluation schemes. I’m also skeptical and fearful about what the science standards will look like in States where evolution and global warming are called into question. And I’m MOST skeptical and fearful about what will happen when governors in states who believe the “government run public school monopoly” needs to be replaced with “choice”. I imagine ALEC’s voucher legislation will be introduced and passed very quickly! I believe Obama and Duncan will be happy to see this legislation pass since they sense that many states will adopt RTTT’s test-and-punish paradigm and they will be able to declare the passage of ESEA as a “bipartisan victory”. Oh… and worst of all: it will be years before this policy will be revisited.
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Part of some of the issue could be the decline in teachers that are a part of a union. Unions are stigmatized against, and they can no longer advocate as well as they used to be able to for themselves. If this bill badly affects them… who will say something. If they are vying for such an act, who pushes for it?
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Unions are complicit in education reform. Weingarten is on board with Common Core, Gates and Pearson. She refused to endorse Teachout and worked for Cuomo by supporting Hochul. The Heavy Hearts Club had no worries of union reprisals. The next step will be an endorsement of Clinton.
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So now Christie and Cuomo are in charge of demonizing teachers. The reality is the states don’t know what to do and we have no viable alternative to just say no.
This is a critical time as the test is close to crashing and burning, yet we stand empty handed. Like GOP and the Affordable Care Act. When they tried to get rid of it, they had no alternative and they lost. Now, we are close to “getting rid” of the test, and what do we have to replace it? Nothing, nada, not a clue. My bet is states will continue what the feds were doing.
Or maybe they will stop using the test to get teachers and only use it to get kids. Is that the solution we are looking for?
When will we ever learn. Simply being against something is not a solution. Have we not learned from the tea party? Where is our viable alternative to the test? Oh! wait a minute. Click the links at http://www.wholechildreform.com and there it is.
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The tests are alive and well. Do not delude yourself.
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Doesn’t the bill still have to pass the full Senate and House and then avoid a Veto from Obama?
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This is nothing to celebrate. This bill which just passed out of committee should be fought tooth and nail. It is not what it has been advertized to be, a rebuff to the federal government’s overreach. The draft is 400 pages of regulations which will end up bankrupting the states, increasing charter schools to the detriment of neighborhood public schools, and stifling students with a schedule of tests from now till doomsday.
1- It is a gigantic giveaway of tax dollars and credits to charter school investors
2- It is a huge windfall for test making companies such as Pearson (the annual allotment for tests is phenomenal)
3- Although it supposedly prevents the federal government from mandating the use of the Common Core Standards, the states are still required to come up with standards that are aligned to post secondary entrance requirements. The SAT and the ACT have already been aligned to the Common Core. The GED, an avenue to college entrance for students lacking a high school diploma, has already been aligned to the Common Core. Bill Gates is working hard to get the Common Core secured at the college level ASAP.
4- The Common Core is being promoted internationally. Just ask Sir Michael Barber, head of Pearson, where he is marketing his wares. This bill takes care of Pearson nicely.
5- There are very powerful and wealthy people and organizations reaping the profits from the implementation of the Common Core and its testing and online curriculum and the physical logistics of testing on computers. It is not going to just disappear. Microsoft, Pearson, K12, Inc., and many others are beneficiaries that will not let the deal go down.
This bill is the gravy train for all of them.
“The Asia Society, Alliance for Excellent Education, Committee for Economic Development, Council of Chief State School Officers, and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices joined to co-host a briefing on the PISA results to provide a unique opportunity for media, policymakers, educators, the business community, and other concerned citizens to join an important discussion focused on improving the performance of U.S. students.” (Comforting to know that the Asia Society is so concerned about our U.S.students)
The continued reliance on mandated annual testing is not a small inconvenience to be accepted. For one thing, these are not normal tests of reading comprehension and facility with mathematical algorithms. These are bizarre “training experiences” in which our children are subjected to reading levels way above their grade, questions with multiple “right” answers, from which they must choose the “best” answer, computer logistics such as scrolling through text in little windows, in other words, an experience designed to fail most children, to rank and sort our children, to see which children can put up with this creativity crushing soul sucking experience.
This bill is a stinker and should be labeled as such.
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Finally someone that has done there homework. Ms. Ravitch could take some lessons from you. And YES this bill IS a stinker.
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Thank you for your research and perseverance and all those videos on YouTube.
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“400 pages of regulations”
Well, if brevity is the soul of wit, 400 pages is a red flag.
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How do Arne and company reply…might be all you need to know about this bill. Also has to pass both the full Senate and House, no?
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is this for the Los Angeles County School District as well in California?
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Diane, I am wondering if you did not read the Bill. Anita Hoge did and has much criticism of this as being detrimental to education for many reasons. With all due respect, I side with Anita, fully trusting her knowledge and would like to know if you did not read the Bill and listened to misinformed individuals, or if you got paid off or bribed to support the Bill? I am just trying to understand how you can support this Bill
and do not mean any disrespect….
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Sue, I was bribed to say nice things about the bill. I didn’t say I support it. I said it was better than I feared. I don’t like support for private charter schools but am glad to see most federal mandates deleted. I forgot who paid me. Gates? Broad? Walton? Jeb Bush? My memory fails me. Oh, I remember! You and Anita Hoge paid me so you could get some space on my blog!
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I confess I did not read all 601 pages of the bill. I read the summary. I relied on Mercedes Schneider, who read every single word. I hope you read her five posts.
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Hi Sue:
Here is an advice from principal Burris of NYS (Long Island?):
““The only remedy left to parents is to REFUSE to have their children take the tests. Testing is the rock on which the policies that are destroying our local public schools are built. If our politicians do not have the courage to reverse high-stakes testing, then those who care must step in.”
Please vote for Dr. Ravitch to be USA President in 2016, then you can express like the way you did in your post. Dr. Ravitch is not the powerful SUPREME COURT JUDGE who can fine Pearson , Gates, Broad, and Walton’s for the sake of American Public Education.
Have you checked out two threads so that you further understand the nature of “BEAT AROUND THE BUSH” from our law makers in order to get FREE or BRIBERY money from corporate backers?
1) Andrea Gabor asks the million-dollar question: Why did Massachusetts, the most successful state in the nation on the National Assessment of Progress, drop its own finely honed standards and replace them with the untested Common Core standards?
2) Mercedes Schneider on the Senate ESEA Reauthorization, Part 3
By dianeravitch
April 11, 2015
[start quote]
Section 1203 is entitled, “Innovative Assessment and Accountability Demonstration Authority,” is an invitation for up to 5 states to apply to develop new, “innovative” assessment systems over an “initial period” of 3 years (with a possible 2-year renewal) as approved by the US secretary of education. The “innovative” systems must lead to “improved academic outcomes, including increased high school graduation rates for high schools” (pg. 173), and LEAs serving to pilot the “innovative” system may use it as a substitute for the annual assessments being used by the rest of the state (pg. 182). If the “innovative” system is deemed to be a success, then an entire state could use it to replace previously-approved annual assessments (pg. 184).
[end quote]
PLEASE BE AWARE OF THREE PHRASES BELOW:
1)…over an “initial period” of 3 YEARS (with a possible 2-YEAR RENEWAL) as APPROVED by the US SECRETARY OF EDUCATION. [use time delay tactic for future control and gain legally!]
2)…the “INNOVATIVE” system may use it as a substitute for the annual assessments being USED BY THE REST OF A STATE
[see what happens in Massachusetts!]
3) If the “INNOVATIVE” system is deemed to be a success, then an entire state could use it to REPLACE PREVIOUSLY-APPROVED annual assessments [do whatever we can in two or three years from now, then all will be LEGALLY replaced accordingly!]
If we can tacitly replace “INNOVATIVE” with whatever will be just like CCSS, RttT, SBAC. PARCC… but in new innovative name, as long as PEARSON and GATES still gain profit from US Public Education Fund.
Of course, with the approval of whoever will be in the position of US SECRETARY OF EDUCATION.
It is a big joke on US DEMOCRACY and a severe insult to all US intelligent scholars, educators, and US citizens that Cuomo in NY State and R. Emanuel in Chicago easily win their seats not once but twice regardless of their destructive governing style (= ignore and bully the poor, but support the rich!)
In conclusion, I hope that we, readers show some supports, or creative ideas to bring awareness, or to suggest any practical solution to public rather than senselessly attack or insult Dr. Ravitch with an apology.
If there are people like you, this website won’t exist. Please be kind, smart, and sensible in order to solidly unite and to regain our control of our own Public Education Autonomy from the powerful grab of all greedy corporations. Back2basic. May.
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Did I just read that correctly? Did you really ask if Diane was paid off or bribed? And then say that you don’t mean any disrespect?
Diane, I haven’t had any trouble understanding that you have had cautious optimism, like and dislike parts of what you have seen, and have not read the whole bill, but know that Mercedes Schneider is reading it all and distilling it for us. Thank you for helping us all so much to keep informed.
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Well, I don’t know about all you worrywarts & nay-sayers. When I asked a close friend (asst-princ in a prestigious upstate-NY h.s.) for her reaction to the Lamar-Murray proposed bill, her reaction was: “perfect. All we have to do is get all the families to opt out of the PARCC tests & we’re home free.”
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“There’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.”
While I appreciate the comments on this thread, I am waiting a bit more for things to work themselves out so we have a clearer sense of what is actually going to happen.
😎
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The bottom line is K-12 public schools got testing and nothing else.
Positive. I’m looking for some positive benefit to public schools, not the cessation of policies that harm public schools.
The “innovation fund” will go to charter schools and ed reform orgs, because DC prefers charter schools and ed reform orgs. Not a dime of that money will land in an actual public school.
Besides testing, what did public schools get?
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With all due respect- wrong.
This version of ESEA pretends to address the issues. It’s nothing more than propaganda.
ESEA *gives* the federal government, US DOE and agencies *more* power than they already have. And, more pore than allowed by the Constitution.
Would you please read this? It provides the clarification and facts that the ground-level “warriors” are desperate for. We’d really appreciate if you would provide this info on your forth coming blog posts.
Thank you so much.
https://commoncorediva.wordpress.com/2015/04/17/fom-friday-esea-re-up-hype/
>
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Cannot really enter into this conversation. I am from Indiana, and we have our own plates full of trouble right now.
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