Archives for the month of: August, 2015
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Carol Burris: Arrest Me! I’m Guilty of Encouraging Opt Outs!

By dianeravitch
August 22, 2015 //
40

Carol Burris recently retired as principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center on Long Island, Néw York. She is now executive director of the Network for Public Education. She read recently that MaryEllen Elia, the new Commissioner of Education in New York, said that she would be “shocked” if any educators encouraged parents to opt out of state testing, and she said such educators (if they existed) were “unethical.”

Burris wrote:

“Well, Ms. Elia, be shocked. I am turning myself in to your ethics squad. I absolutely encouraged the opt-out movement last year. In fact, I did so right here on the Answer Sheet. I don’t think I could have been clearer when I wrote this:

‘But there comes a time when rules must be broken — when adults, after exhausting all remedies, must be willing to break ranks and not comply. That time is now. The promise of a public school system, however imperfectly realized, is at risk of being destroyed. The future of our children is hanging from testing’s high stakes. The time to opt out is now.'”

Yes, indeed, Burris encouraged opting out, as did many other administrators, both superintendents and principals.

Burris believed it would have been unethical to stand by in silence.

She wrote:

“It would have been unethical to not speak out after watching New York’s achievement gaps grow, indicating that the tests and the standards on which they are based are not advancing the learning of the state’s most vulnerable kids.

“It would have been unethical to ignore watching the frustration of my teachers whose young children were coming home from school discouraged and sick from the stress of test prep designed to prepare them for impossible tests.

“It would have been unethical to not respond to the heartbreaking stories that I heard from friends who are elementary principals—stories of children crying, becoming sick to their stomach, and pulling out hair during the Pearson-created Common Core tests.

“And it would have been unethical to not push back against a system of teacher evaluation based on Grade 3-8 test scores that is not only demeaning and indefensible, but also incentivizes all the wrong values.

“So if there is a place called Regents Jail, I guess that is where I will have to go.”

Burris noted that Elia would have to lock up her boss, Regents’ Chancellor Merryl Tisch as well, since Tisch recently said that if she had a child with disabilities, she would “think twice” about allowing the child to take the state tests.

Who is “unethical”? The educator who complies with orders regardless of her personal and professionsl values or the educator who refuses to do what she knows is wrong?

Categories New York, Opt Out, Parents, Principals, Standardized Testing, Students

Kasich: Abolish Teachers’ Lounges

By dianeravitch
August 22, 2015 //
40

John Kasich has been trying, along with Jeb Bush, to present himself as a moderate. Readers of this blog, especially those from Ohio, know that he is no moderate on the subject of education. Ohio is a state where wealthy charter operators pay with campaigb contributions to operate their low-performing schools without accountability. If it were up to Kasich, public education would be replaced with charters and vouchers, unions would be banned, and teachers would serve at-will.

Kasich blew his cover the other day. He said if he were king, he would eliminate teachers’ lounges, so that teachers could not congregate and complain. Free speech seems to be a problem for Kasich.

Categories Ohio, Teachers

Age-ism: A Reality for Teachers Today, Despite Shortages

By dianeravitch
August 22, 2015 //
53

This post went viral. Nancy Bailey points out that several Presidential candidates are “old,” compared to most teachers.

“Jeb Bush is 62. Hillary Clinton is 67. Donald Trump is 69 and Bernie Sanders is 73. If these individuals were teaching in a public school, and not famous politicians, what would you bet that they’d still be working?

“How many older teachers do you know who are still teaching? While there is much gnashing of teeth in the news about a teacher shortage, I don’t see any effort to bring elderly teachers back to the classroom. And by elderly I’d start at age forty (no, I don’t think 40 is old but they do!). Instead, they’d rather put someone in charge of a class who hasn’t earned credentials!…

“In 2013, The Guardian’s anonymous “Secret Teacher” column titled “There’s an Insidious Prejudice Against Older Teachers” describes a veteran teacher’s unsettling fear that Teach First, which sounds eerily like England’s version of Teach for America, was being highlighted as the answer to education problems—older teachers were cast as culprits….

“Today’s education reformers don’t want teachers who cost more, or who speak their mind about untested curriculum changes, who bitch about Common Core State Standards, high-stakes testing or crummy student treatment. They sure don’t want an elementary teacher who demands recess! Or, a high school teacher who remembers free advanced classes that didn’t rely on AP as a convoluted way to make money for the College Board!

“They don’t want teachers who will point to troubling outside corporate influence by those who are not teachers. In America, that would include people like Microsoft’s Bill Gates (59) or business entrepreneur Eli Broad (82)….

“Teachers who choose teaching as a profession and who want to be there for students—always—are critical. Students deserve to experience good teachers of all ages. But older teachers have been targeted for years. Even if they hang in there, most are not respected as they deserve.

“Their voices are ignored. Their valuable experience cast off. How often do they get to do original planning these days? How often do they have to put up with scripted, commercialized material foisted into their classrooms?…

“Today’s teaching workforce is built upon the desire on the part of education reformers to have transitory teachers. Here today, gone tomorrow! That is the way to keep costs down and teachers aligned to curriculum changes and charter school control.

“They will not build teachers who commit to students in a long-term career, who will strive to remain in teaching and do what is right and good to help students learn.

“And when students get older they won’t have any teachers to go back to visit. The older teachers just won’t be there.”

Categories Teachers

Georgia: A Conservative Republican Opposes “Opportunity School District” as an ALEC Money-Making Plan

By dianeravitch
August 22, 2015 //
3

Dan DeLamater of Athens, Georgia, is a conservative Republican, a public school parent, and an insurance executive. Maureen Downey posted his article on her blog “Get Schooled” in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

DeLamater says he is “disgusted” by Governor Nathan Deal’s proposal for a statewide “opportunity school district,” in which the state would abrogate local control and take over low-performing schools. He wrote: Unfortunately, opportunity in this administration is defined by crony capitalism not beneficial education reform.

DeLamater came to see that ALEC was behind the state takeover plan:

First, we have learned about ALEC, a hideous national legislative-steering organization where lobbyists, private interests, and legislators craft legislation behind closed doors. There is no sunlight on this entity. There is no accountability. Participants are back-room puppet masters controlling the local and national political agenda. Until recently, most of us had no idea it even existed.

Regarding one important topic, ALEC is admittedly and proudly against public education. The for-profit education industry rules ALEC’s agenda here – including testing companies, consultants, for-profit schools. And lest you doubt ALEC’s influence in Georgia, know that state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, has served as National Chairman for ALEC.

Second, we have learned that Gov. Deal has become enamored with state takeover of school districts. The power play topped the governor’s education agenda in the last legislative session, in the form of the legislation to allow a state-wide referendum to create the “Opportunity School District.”

This state takeover is contrary to the long-standing “conservative” mandate of local control within the Republican Party since a state takeover clearly usurps locally elected school boards. This is contrary to any information provided by the governor’s appointed Education Reform Commission as their recommendations are still under construction to this day. This is contrary to our state’s Constitutional mandate as Georgia state government is forbidden to control local school districts.

Third, we know the governor hired an inexperienced but eager-to-lead Erin Hames as his education expert. The statewide-elected Georgia state school superintendent was evidently not an appropriate expert for Gov. Deal. This is not a surprise, of course. After all, Deal has minimized and circumvented the voters’ superintendent for years – John Barge previously and Richard Woods recently.

Hames lobbied for the takeover law, pushed it through the legislature, then–before leaving public employ–created a consulting business to advise districts on how to avoid falling prey to the law she helped to pass.

Her first contract was a no-bid contract with the Atlanta Public Schools for $96,000.

DeLamater writes:

The APS Board has $96,000 available to hire Ms. Hames. I fear for those who are not as fortunate as the APS. Or Gov. Deal. Or Ms. Hames. Or their friends. I wonder where public school children in Georgia fall in this pecking order… you’ll be hard pressed to find their interests represented by anyone involved in this sordid tale.

Categories ALEC, Georgia

Leaders of the Opt Out Movement: There Is No Other Option!

By dianeravitch
August 22, 2015 //
63

Leonie Haimson and Jeanette Deutermann explain here why the opt out movement is right and necessary. If policymakers continue on their present path, they predict, the opt out movement will grow and spread to many other states who see the power of grassroots activism.

They do so in response to editorials in the New York Times and the Washington Post criticizing the parents who opt out of mandated testing.

The mainstream media echoes the Obama administration’s line that high-stakes testing will somehow promote equity and reduce the achievement gap, but as Haimson and Deutermann contend, thirteen years of No Child Left Behind demonstrate that this assertion is false.

Haimson and Deutermann write:

Why should parents put their children through this time-consuming, anxiety-producing and pointless exercise? When parents are repeatedly ignored by policymakers, opting out is their only option.

For months leading up to the assessments, and especially during the two weeks of testing, parents report their children show signs of anxiety, sleep problems, physical symptoms, school phobias and attention difficulties. This phenomenon has been growing among children as young as 8 years old. To add insult to injury, for the last three years the exams have become overly long and confusing, with incoherent questions like the pineapple passage on theeighth-grade exam in 2010, and the talking snake passage on thethird-grade test this year. Our youngest learners sit for up to 18 hours of state testing.

The most vulnerable children – students with disabilities and English language learners – are asked to endure exams that are so inappropriate even the state asked for waivers from the federal government, which were denied. Only 3.9 percent of English language learners and 5.7 percent of students with disabilities passed these exams. The bar should be set high for all children, but at an appropriate level for each child.

Parents have become increasingly frustrated at watching the alarming changes in their children and their education, along with the waste of precious tax dollars. More than 220,000 New York state parents chose to have their children refuse the state exams this year, in both high-performing suburban districts and struggling city schools, to express their anger. Many teachers joined parents in the fight to protect their students and the integrity of their profession. The question is, will the powers that be listen and make the necessary changes? If not, the number of opt-outs will continue to grow until parents’ voices are heard by policymakers, the tests are improved, the punitive, high-stakes exams removed, and real teaching and learning return to our classrooms.

Categories Common Core, Education Reform, Opt Out, Parents, Standardized Testing

BREAKING: Union Activist in Holyoke Wins Right to Hearing

By dianeravitch
August 21, 2015 //
13

Gus Morales, the outspoken leader of the Holyoke, Massachusetts, Teachers Association, won the right to a hearing from the state’s Department of Labor Relations after he was laid off by his district.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association and his colleagues believe he was dismissed because he led protests against the state takeover of the district.

“The state Department of Labor Relations (DLR) has found “probable cause” to believe that the Holyoke Public Schools illegally fired Holyoke Teachers Association (HTA) President Gus Morales because of his activism as a union leader.

“The DLR will hold a hearing on the complaint, which stems from a charge filed by the HTA on June 25. The DLR complaint is similar to a grand jury indictment; the upcoming hearing will have many of the characteristics of a trial, with witnesses and cross-examination.

“Because I speak out against policies that I see as bad for our students and bad for our educators, I have been targeted for two straight years,” said Morales, whose employment contract with the Holyoke Public Schools was not renewed at the end of the school year.

“Morales, who does not have professional teaching status, was similarly dismissed at the end the 2013-14 school year after his election to lead the HTA. Then, as now, the DLR issued a complaint that found reason to believe that Morales was illegally terminated for his union activism.”

”

Morales and the HTA were vocal opponents of the takeover, which was imposed in April despite widespread objections from the community and several of its elected leaders.

“It is an outrage that an educator and leader such as Gus Morales, who has spoken out for the students and the Holyoke community, is being targeted for dismissal,” said MTA President Barbara Madeloni. “The MTA will not tolerate attacks on educators, especially when the attack is meant to cause fear among those who challenge the deeply flawed accountability system used to punish educators, students and communities. Gus has the courage to address the real issues affecting Holyoke — such as economic and racial injustice — and the MTA supports him and the HTA in holding the state accountable for providing resources that the community can use to combat these problems.”

“Throughout stakeholder meetings to craft a “turnaround” plan for Holyoke Public Schools, Morales and others from the HTA raised concerns about the influence of standardized tests, the need to provide social services to students living in poverty, inadequate programs for students on special education plans, the lack of ethnic diversity in the teaching ranks and other issues that they felt that the receiver needs to address.”

Morales never got a bad evaluation until he spoke out against bad policies.

Categories Massachusetts, Teachers, Unions

Can the Opt Out Parents Be Compelled to Stop?

By dianeravitch
August 21, 2015 //
42

The state of New York has a problem: according to its own data, 225,000 students did not take the mandated state tests. What should the state do? There’s been talk of financial penalties, but thats’s not likely. Now we know that federal officials told state officials there would be no financial punishment.

State officials say they will patiently explain to parents why the tests are necessary, as if the parents really don’t understand.

What the state and the Feds don’t understand is that the parents know exactly what they are doing and why. They know the state tests do NOT provide useful information to parents or teachers. They know the tests are too long (8 hours!) for children, with a passing mark intended to fail most children. They object to the time and high-stakes attacked to testing; they don’t want their teachers fired because of children’s test scores. Parents of children with disabilities are outraged that their children are subjected to tests that frustrate and fail them.

Here is the latest from politico.com:

“WHAT’S NEXT FOR NEW YORK OPT OUTS: New York state education officials said Thursday that they aren’t planning to withhold money from school districts with record high opt-out rates on standardized tests this spring. State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia will present a plan to the state board of regents next month that will detail how she will work with superintendents and principals to reverse the tide of test refusals, The New York Times reports [http://nyti.ms/1Jnk0UY ]. State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch didn’t rule out withholding money from districts if the state finds that administrators were encouraging opt outs, however. Chalkbeat New York reports [http://bit.ly/1NIQzMH] that Elia said, “I am absolutely shocked if, and I don’t know that this happened, but if any educators supported and encouraged opt-outs. I think it’s unethical.”

“- New York has to adequately address the high opt-out rates. If, down the road, federal officials feel that the state hasn’t done that, then they could step in. Federal law requires a 95 percent participation rate on state tests, and New York saw the highest opt out rates this spring in the state’s history. “The [Education] Department has not had to withhold money – yet – over this requirement because states have either complied or have appropriately addressed the issue with schools or districts that assessed less than 95 percent of students,” the agency has said repeatedly.”

Categories New York, Opt Out, Parents

The TFA Bait and Switch

By dianeravitch
August 21, 2015 //
30

This article tells the story of Jessica Millen, who graduated from Notre Dame in 2013 and immediately joined Teach for America.

Jessica’s essay is part of a new book: http://www.amazon.com/Teach-America-Counter-Narratives-Critical-Thinking/dp/1433128764/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439827400&sr=8-1&keywords=teach+for+america+counter-narratives”>new book: “Teach for America Counter-Narratives: Alumni Speak Up and Speak Out.”

As an idealistic college senior, she was drawn to TFA by the promise that she could change children’s lives in her two-year stint. She wanted to make a difference. She describes her experience of five intense weeks of training, which included rather bizarre chanting of TFA slogans and other exercises that encouraged loyalty to TFA.

Although she had been told repeatedly that she had the makings of a great teacher, when she arrived in her Néw Orleans classroom, she felt woefully unprepared. She knew she was supposed to enforce the strict behavioral management techniques of TFA, but they didn’t feel right to her.

She writes:

After those 5 weeks of training, I was alone in a classroom with 27 eight- and nine-year-olds. I had no idea what to do with the rigorous and inflexible curriculum modalities that dictated what I taught and when. There was nothing in our training that indicated our teaching lives would be so scripted and controlled. Moreover, I was confused by strict administrative policies that were completely developmentally inappropriate; for instance, my third graders were allowed only 20 minutes of recess, once a week. Again, there was no mention of what to do when school-wide policies were completely incongruent with what I knew at this point to be developmentally appropriate practices.

Trying to balance the demands and expectations of both my school and TFA was challenging, especially when both parties were extremely focused on data and standardized testing to the detriment of what my young students needed. This made it difficult for me to realize my vision of schooling. While I understood the necessity of assessment and its usefulness in gauging how much students know, and therefore in future lesson planning, both my school and TFA’s focus on testing overshadowed my legitimate concerns for students’ emotional and social well-being and academic growth beyond what could be measured in omnipresent assessments. I had to prepare my students for weekly and quarterly testing, on top of looming state-mandated tests that would also measure my success as a teacher. The pressure from both the state and district to raise student test scores manifested in my administration’s extreme concern with test scores and maximizing instructional time not only in specific subjects but also to specific isolated skill sets, always to the detriment of exploring other important areas of elementary education, such as exposure to culture, creative and scientific thinking, music, and art.

Armed only with TFA’s strictly behaviorist methods of classroom management, I was unprepared for many of the issues I faced, and my classroom quickly spiraled out of control. From my 5 weeks of training, I was knowledgeable only about behaviorist management methods that focused on giving clear directions, narrating student behavior when they were following directions, and then giving consequences to those students not complying. These management methods were presented as best practices during our training; no other alternatives were mentioned.

She could not follow orders. She was warned that she lacked leadership; she lacked confidence in herself. But she thought “my vision of schooling did not include a classroom where the teacher is all-powerful, all-knowledgeable, and in strict control at all times. What I was beginning to understand was that there was no room in their model for my vision; in fact, my vision was completely contrary to their understanding of how schooling should be conducted and why. TFA’s Teaching as Leadership model is based upon the idea that teachers are responsible for everything that happens inside of the classroom, regardless of whether or not you agree with the techniques and content you are being forced to adopt.”

The clash between what she believed to be right and what TFA taught her made it impossible to remain. She left TFA after six months. She is now a pre-school teacher in South Bend, Indiana.

Categories Teach for America

A Psychologist Speaks Out about the Low Reliability of VAM Scores

By dianeravitch
August 21, 2015 //
18

One of the affidavits at the trial of the Lederman v. King case was filed by psychologist Brad Lindell.

His full affidavit is included in this post, which contains all the affidavits.

He sent the following note to me to explain his view of VAM in layman’s terms:

I am Dr. Brad Lindell, one of the affiants in the Sheri Lederman case who was present at the oral arguments on Wednesday. It was truly something to observe. You got the feeling that good was was going to come from the great work of Sheri and Bruce Lederman and from the experts’ opinions in so far as changing this broken VAM system. You got the sense that the judge was listening to the science about VAM and not just to the political rhetoric.

Just want to fill you in on something that was presented in my affidavit modified to give a clear and understandable example of the effects of poor reliability on a full-scale WISC intelligence test. If the same test-retest reliability from the teacher assigned yearly VAM scores (.40) was applied to the WISC full-scale to determine the 90% confidence interval, the range would be ridiculously large.

Examples

If a student scored a full-scale IQ of 100 (average) then the 90% confidence interval would be an 81 to 119. This indicates that there would be a wide range where the scores from repeated administrations of the WISC would be expected to fall for this student. One could not have confidence in the validity of a intelligence test with low reliability. Without adequate reliability, there can not be validity. This same holds true for VAM scores, whose reliabilities have been found to be notorious low.

The reliability of the WISC is generally in the .80 to .90 range. The 90% confidence intervals are generally in the +\- 6 range. So this same person with a 100 full-scale IQ would have a 90% confidence range of 94-106. Quite a smaller range.

This is why reliability is so important, which has repeatedly been shown to be low like .2 to .4 for year-to-year VAM scores. This is also why teachers year to year VAM score vary so considerably, like in the case of Sheri Lederman. Without reliability there cannot be adequate validity.

Categories Teacher Evaluations, VAM (value-added modeling)

Mitchell Robinson: How the Reform Agenda of Churn and Chaos Undermined Detroit Public Schools

By dianeravitch
August 21, 2015 //
11

Mitchell Robinson, a professor of music at Michigan State University, has figured out how the reform/privatization agenda works.

Robinson writes:

The typical reform agenda goes something like this:

*demoralize the teachers

*defund the unions

*dismantle the schools

*privatize public education

We see evidence of this approach in places like New Orleans with its “Recovery School District,” and Detroit, where Gov. Snyder’s Frankenstein-like “Education Achievement Authority” continues to deprive the students and citizens of local control of their schools. The reformers’ tactics are brutal and unforgiving: create a public perception that the schools are failing, the teachers are lazy, the unions are greedy, and the only solutions are to close schools, expand choice, provide vouchers and valorize charters.

However, one of the more subtle, yet damaging, weapons in the reformers’ playbook is simultaneously less visible to the uninformed eye and more insidious in its ability to accomplish the reformers’ ultimate goal: the destabilization of public education by an intentional, purposeful strategy of near-constant turnover and turmoil in the leadership and teaching force in the schools…..

Detroit is a textbook case of the reform strategy for destroying public education.

An especially egregious example of this sort of intentional destabilization can be seen in the Detroit Public Schools, which has been under state control for most of the previous 15 years (1999-2005, 2009-2016). Under the Snyder administration, Detroit’s schools have suffered from a systematic defunding of facilities and equipment, sub-standard working conditions, safety concerns, drastic curriculum narrowing, and poor teacher morale as a result of the state’s takeover. Recent estimates are that fewer than 30% of Detroit’s children have access to school music classes, and only 40% have an art teacher. In 2014, Renaissance High School, long considered a bastion of high quality arts programming in the city, suffered devastating cuts to its music program, signaling a troubling trend in priorities from Detroit’s educational leaders.

Detroit Public Schools has had four leaders in the past four years.

It’s hard to understand how a school system can make any sort of sustained progress with a veritable revolving door of administrative transition occurring in the central offices–and this is certainly the case in Detroit: “Under emergency managers Robert Bobb, Roy Roberts and Martin, DPS has shed tens of thousands of students, closed dozens of schools and struggled with persistent deficits…Last fall’s (2014) preliminary enrollment was 47,238, less than half of the 96,000 students attending DPS when Bobb was appointed.”

It’s beyond time to declare Gov. Snyder’s approach to education reform in Detroit a resounding failure. The state has had 15 years to “fix” the problems they created through a massive disinvestment of public education in Michigan, and Detroit’s children and teachers have paid the price as a seemingly endless parade of highly paid “experts” have failed to turn the ship around.

State control is not only NOT a panacea; it is a manifest failure.

Robinson says it is past time to turn the public schools back to the people of Detroit. They might make mistakes but they are more trustworthy with their children than Governor Snyder and his appointees.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Detroit, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »