A comment on the blog:
I am a parent of a student at one of the state’s 20 “persistently struggling schools” LeBrun mentions in the article. We learned at a meeting earlier this week that because the school has met the state’s goals on many of the metrics used to evaluate these schools entering the receivership game, the school cannot choose those metrics to be evaluated on at the end of the year. Almost all of the metrics that are left to be chosen to be evaluated on are related to the state testing. It is all a game of trying to figure out which population subgroups will be most likely to meet the metrics when the tests are given months from now And you just keep your fingers crossed that you pick the right subgroups. (This is helping the kids how?)
It also appears that the school population as a whole has to have 95% participation in state testing to meet metrics. Is there any district in the state that did that last year? I think our school was about 80% participation last year. This is something that the school has very little control over. (To the administration’s credit, they do not strong arm families to take the test.) How can a school be evaluated on this?
Ideas of what we can do about this? The school’s plan is due Sept 30, so there’s not much we can do to change the procedure prior to plan submission. (We received the metrics from SED earlier this week, so there wasn’t much lead time.) How can we fight this even after our plan is submitted?
I am quite scared about what might happen to the school next year. No one seems to know what the possibilities even are or what rights the school and the parents have.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The best advice I can give is refuse to play the receivership game. Get the parents that care about the value of the school community to opt out. It might also be helpful to enumerate all the ways in which the school is a positive in the community. Does the school have some students accepted to decent colleges? Do they put on great school plays? Do the sports teams help build character and participate in games with other schools? Do they offer interesting electives? Does the school have a lower drop-out rate than schools of similar demographics? There are many ways to decide whether a school adds value to students’ lives other than test scores.
Abandon ship. Find the best available option for your child. No good will come of this.
Abigail may be correct. It seems that the fix is in. Schools in poor communities (no political power) are delicious looking targets for the avaricious school “privatizers.” It is a truly sad situation. In Chicago, they have become so desperate to stop the rape of non-white and not middle-class communities, that they have turned to hunger strike. I would try to organize everyone in my community to opt-out of the testing. If that continues to happen at an ever expanding rate, one of the most lethal weapons in the privatizing quiver will be taken away.
Perhaps LeBrun would do a follow up article on your school and issues specifically?
When ever I read about a school that is to be taken over or closed, I wonder about the property rights of the community that pulled together to build and fund this school. If we treated the land and buildings of a school like mining rights, the community would “own” these forever. Has there ever been a legal challenge to those who take over and close schools? Are they not stealing from the community?
In New York, as in most states, local governments have no inherent authority or rights vis a vis the state, unless (1) the state has specifically granted them that authority or those rights and (2) the local government’s exercise of authority or rights does not conflict with state law. The New York State Constitution specifically says that the state, not the local governments, retains ultimate authority over the maintenance, support, and administration of the public school system.
In short, the relationship between NY State and the municipalities within NY state is like the relationship between a parent and her children. In the case of New York City, the municipality is like a child that has been grounded.
Yes. Also at least in Buffalo, where I checked, most of the school district budget is paid by NY State.
Still, I can’t help imagining my Buffalonian friends forming a human chain to block the door to the Buffalo Board of Education to prevent a crucial meeting from occurring. Or in Albany, if that’s where the crucial meetings happen.
New Yorkers can do that kind of thing and have done it in the past.
There’s law, and there’s politics.
Start a hunger strike like Chicago…It is insane that it has come to this!
Slightly off topic, but not completely: Diane or anyone else with experience in this, I would like your take on Professional Learning Communities. I am not convinced that it is necessary for all of the kids to take the same assessments and essentially be taught exactly the same things. The book that keeps showing up on references is called: “On Common Ground: The Power of Professional Learning Communities.” I would like to see actual studies where this works, but the sources I’m seeing all refer to each other.
Is there any evidence that having common standards, assessments, and even lessons, does anything to improve student achievement (and I don’t mean test scores)? Any help or REAL resources anyone has would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I’d suggest you petition your elected officials for notice and a hearing prior to what looks like the planned closure or privatization of your publicly-owned school but that’s apparently “traditionalist” these days and has fallen out of fashion so I think I’m with the people who mentioned the Chicago hunger strike. Get the parents together and make a lot of noise.
“Pastorek also held up the Recovery School District established in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina as a model for innovative ideas and provided a graph showing dramatic increases in achievement by RSD students, who are primarily poor and minority, compared to the state average. He referred to the RSD approach as “seed, feed and weed,” arguing that “you seed new schools, you feed the ones that are there, and you weed out the ones that aren’t working.”
If you’re on the “feed” list you might have a chance but if you’re on the “weed” list then they’re just going thru the motions while starving you out and I agree with the people who said parents should start looking for a new school.
Is there maybe a chance to partner with another public school in keeping yours open? Any chance of joining forces? Maybe you can go around them.
http://theind.com/article-3791-pastorek-touts-education-reform.html
Perhaps your community can make the case for an equal protection violation of the 14th Amendment. The parents in your district have essentially been denied the right of every other parent in the state to refuse testing you think is invalid. I would approach the NY branch of the ACLU to file a class action suit against the components of the receivership law that penalize the school and community when parents exercise a right that no state official now disputes.
The 14th Amendment is a fabulous idea to use as the basis of a lawsuit.
Get 100% of the students to refuse all state assessments…. or flee
Campbell Brown is out speaking on behalf of 74 million children who apparently don’t have parents or community members who can speak for them.
https://twitter.com/BusinessNYS
She’s calling for more accountability for public schools! That means testing our kids and then punishing the schools those children attend, right? I need a translator for ed reform-ese. It all sounds like marketing to me.
Chiara,
Campbell is not calling for more accountability for her own children’s school. It is private.
It is has reached the time where every educator (teachers and administrators together) must say enough. A nationwide sickout until something changes. Million of children on the streets each day will cause a rapid reaction.
Agreed…It’s the only option…but there are still far too many uneducated people (teachers included)..they have been turning a deaf ear to these issues for years
that they are…the three monkeys…see no evil, hear no evil, do no evil
Support the fight to save democratic, community based, transparent public education, and do all you can to encourage your children to read everyday from books at home. The first step is to turn the TV off 24/7, lock up the video games and don’t buy your children mobile phones that might cause an addiction to texting mania. Also put a limit on Internet time and then lock it down.
If your children read an hour or more every day 365 days a year for a decade or more before turning 18, they will have the literacy to be a life long learner and be successful in college if they pay attention and do the work.
Ignore the tests. Opt Out. Tests do not increase literacy—-reading does.
If you want to them to learn about history, suggest the best historical fiction. There’s a lot of it out there.
So this parent comments… “It is all a game of trying to figure out which population subgroups will be most likely to meet the metrics when the tests are given months from now. And you just keep your fingers crossed that you pick the right subgroups…”
Wow sounds like what many teachers are going through while developing student learning objectives!
yes!
When I first read this, I instantly thought of a scene in the 1967 film, Marat/Sade. In it, the inmate playing Dupparet had slipped his chains and made a lunge for Corday. In the process, he was grabbed by the inmate playing Marat in his bathtub, who restrained him, looked straight into the camera and said, “Don’t think you can beat them without using force!” He then dropped Dupparet to the ground.
A set of billionaires in our society is the Duparret (in his upper class toupe’) with which we must contend. That set has slipped its chains and now controls almost every State legislature and, hence, our country. It lusts uncontrollably after every last penny it sees.
Oops, that should have been “Duperret”, but you knew what I meant.
Unity – in a MUCH greater form! multi million march on Washington. Make a statement to the world, because our government is FAILING us!
What has separate us end. Common ground to overcome. It should not be difficult to find – it’s the .01% and the rest of us. All the messages need to be there. End the tyranny.
Reblogged this on stopcommoncorenys and commented:
Comments are a must read. This is a sick game.