The Network for Public Education announced its reaction to Arne Duncan’s resignation and the choice of John King to replace him. NPE was founded in 2012 to rally parents, educators, and concered citizens against out-of-control high-stakes testing and privatization of our public schools, which have long been a symbol of our democracy.

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mathcs says:

October 2, 2015 at 9:19 pm

Very nice statement. Thanks to Diane, Leonie, and Carol.

Reply
virginiasgp says:

October 2, 2015 at 10:07 pm

Diane, now (that Arne has left) is it time to build the statue?

Reply
- Duane Swacker says:
  
  October 3, 2015 at 6:23 am
  
  That’s a good one Brian, made me laugh so early in the morning. Now let me get a sip of tea to help settle me down! . . . . . . .
  
  “Student growth data will soon allow all districts in Virginia, rich and poor, to conduct honest evaluations of our kids’ education.”
  
  And that’s another good one-ha ha ha ha!! And the ol’ Dunkster has been a champion of that cause-Yipppeee.
  
  There’s no honesty in error and falsehoods!
  
  SLO/SGP suffer all the inherent fundamental conceptual errors and falsehoods that the educational malpractices of educational standards and standardized testing, since that testing is what the SL0/SGP determinations are based on, are COMPLETELY INVALID as shown by (you had to know this was coming, eh) Noel Wilson in his never refuted nor rebutted 1997 treatise “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
  
  Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine.
  
  1. A description of a quality can only be partially quantified. Quantity is almost always a very small aspect of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category only by a part of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as unidimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing the descriptive information about said interactions is inadequate, insufficient and inferior to the point of invalidity and unacceptability.
  
  2. A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
  
  3. Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
  
  4. Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
  
  In other words all the logical errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
  
  5. The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. And a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
  
  6. Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms crap in-crap out.
  
  7. And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word: “So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
  
  In other words it attempts to measure “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
  
  My answer is NO!!!!!
  
  One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
  
  “So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self-evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
  
  In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
  
  Thanks for that opening, Brian!
  
  Reply
- Akademos says:
  
  October 3, 2015 at 7:35 am
  
  Maybe make the statue something Halloweenish.
  
  Resigned in October (citing commute), replaced in January.
  
  Solomon Grundy?
  
  Reply
  - virginiasgp says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 7:53 am
    
    Akademos, come on, that was a little funny, right?
    
    What’s not funny is my children’s principal trying to ban me from setting foot on school grounds for simply asking one critical question of her (not the teachers mind you). The “dangerous question”: why did she ignore student privacy and shame a single 3rd-grade student who failed his annual SOL test. The rest of the parents at that meeting really wanted to know too.
  - Akademos says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 11:12 am
    
    If that’s how you stated the question, it’s really an accusation.
  - rockhound2 says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 12:03 pm
    
    I thinking was a valid question/accusation for a parent to make, assuming it was that parent’s child who was shamed.
  - rockhound2 says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 12:04 pm
    
    Boy do I wish you could edit comments just after they are posted.
    
    I think it was… a valid etc.
  - Akademos says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 12:51 pm
    
    Of course it’s valid on the face of it. But before making public accusations one really must go through proper channels and be dead certain of facts and circumstances. This isn’t a protest against a widely public figure.
  - virginiasgp says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 1:05 pm
    
    Akademos, have you read my entire post? On all of my critiques of the district, I inform them first under the radar. Most of my public officials are on record saying they will not listen to anything I say (even if it’s illegal action by their employees). They have “blocked me” on Facebook and do not respond to any public comments.
    
    I spoke at a board meeting on Sep 8 (a link to that video is on my FB post). I thought for sure it would be investigated and resolved by the district but nobody lifted a finger. Nobody even asked me about the circumstances. They just ignored my public comments as if I was talking about the latest football scores. But here’s the issue. If the school administrators admit a violation occurred, they will have to admit fault. These violations are endemic to their policy of retakes. They simply cannot be avoided without a very sophisticated procedure and even then it’s complex (think HIPPA).
    
    The whole point of their retake policy is to artificially boost scores. This year alone the retake policy increased pass rates by 4%. Without subtracting that 4%, you can’t compare it to previous years. But they did. In VDOE’s press release, it touted its 4.5% increase year over year without a single mention of the retake change. If VDOE felt there was justification to lower the pass rate standard from 70% to 66%, make that argument publicly. But don’t try to fool the public by implementing a “fair retake policy” that 1) puts more pressure on the most vulnerable kids who fail 2) artificially inflates the passing rate and 3) only benefits the adults in the system at the expense of the kids?
    
    Are you all saying there is too much testing? These “adults” thought it best to make the kids who fail publicly take a retest!!! Is there a single person out there who doesn’t think this policy was of the adults, by the adults and for the adults?
    
    Note that none of school district officials will ever make public statements now, here or even to the local press. They realize I will skewer their foolish, irrational arguments. At least folks on this site understand they must make a reasoned argument.
  - virginiasgp says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 1:16 pm
    
    Akademos, one more point. All of you out there are used to your states actually following the rules on ESEA. You see, NCLB required 100% proficiency by now unless you agreed to follow the ESEA growth guidelines. As VDOE officials will testify this month, Virginia has not used growth scores for evals or distributed growth scores to teachers.
    
    But wait, it gets worse. You might think that SOL scores count for something, right? My district doesn’t use SOL scores in ANY teacher evaluation. So this new retake policy had no effect on teacher evals. So who did it actually benefit? ADMINISTRATORS They were looking to raise their school and district averages and then tout their “great record” of improvement. There are virtually no schools even close to missing accreditation in my district, and indeed, most schools across the state perform well. This was simply a ploy by state and local officials to boost their political resumes. And the loser in this shenanigan? Students who happened to fail the SOL and were publicly humiliated in front of their peers.
    
    The reason why the administrator at my school (Principal Tracy Stephens</u) won't answer my question is because she understands this was all about getting her fake kudos. She is provided among the most affluent students in the county and gets below average scores after discounting the FRL and ELL populations. But most parents in my neighborhood aren't clever enough to look at the results after comparing similar students among schools. If any of you had these kids, your numbers would be sky high. For Tracy, having those numbers is not enough. She must take advantage of every gimmick even at the expense of the pupils we entrusted to her.
    
    While you and I might disagree on other policies, I can’t think of any of you out there taking this same tack. There are some principles you just don’t violate.
  - Akademos says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 12:53 pm
    
    And I’m not saying that wasn’t done.
    I’m just saying.
  - Akademos says:
    
    October 4, 2015 at 6:54 am
    
    I had not read the entire post below, though I noticed it. That’s partly why I added the line above that I was speaking generally, which I was.
- Donna says:
  
  October 4, 2015 at 4:58 pm
  
  How elated am I to find that people where you live in real life really Rheely don’t like you, virginiasgp? Lots. They get it that you are the straw that stirs the turd drink.
  
  Reply
m4potw says:

October 2, 2015 at 10:33 pm

To all conscientious parents:

If 23 million of viewers agree that:

“”The Network for Public Education is a national organization founded to protect, preserve, and strengthen our public school system, an essential institution in a democratic society.””

and that:

“”Next year, Americans must be sure to vote for a candidate with a new and positive vision for our public schools, dedicated to meeting the needs of children and RESPECTING EDUCATORS.””

then, 23 million of viewers please follow Dr. Ravitch’s website closely in order to participate democratically in a discussion regarding all IMPORTANT aspects in presidential candidates who have a new and positive vision for our public schools, dedicated to meeting the needs of children and RESPECTING EDUCATORS.

This is very essential to American society in order to protect, preserve, and strengthen our public school system, an essential institution in a democratic society. Back2basic

Reply
flos56 says:

October 2, 2015 at 10:50 pm

I can’t wait until Monday when Carol Burris comes to the Buffalo area and Diane talks to us (via Skype?).

John King was not a popular character in Western New York.

Reply
virginiasgp says:

October 3, 2015 at 12:24 am

Diane, I have a favor to ask tonight. As you know, we disagree on much including whether Arne Duncan and growth measures are good for American education. But we both respect everyone’s freedom of speech. I will always respect the freedom of teachers to voice their concerns just as you have given me a voice to call out corruption in my school district. And there are areas of agreement including the necessity of charter school lobbyists/officials being completely transparent (see my lawsuit against the chairman of LCSB who works for shady Imagine Schools billionaire owner with no disclosure) and support for teachers who blow the whistle on abusive administrators like this.

I have long since been calling on Virginia to follow the ESEA agreement to which they pledged compliance but recently I have focused on another more important issue: student privacy. Regardless on what side of the debate you are on, everyone should protect vulnerable students at all costs. A recent law change in Virginia ends up disclosing students who fail the SOL tests to all of their classmates and thus to those outside the school. Despite my repeated protests and warnings, my school officials have taken no action to prevent such illegal FERPA violations nor investigate a confirmed violation. In a PTA meeting just this past week, I asked a single question of my children’s principal relating to her FERPA violation and have since been banned from my own children’s school property solely for asking critical questions. This district is completely corrupt and has begun hardball tactics like no other. I continue my lawsuit against its charter school chairman and will file a new perjury complaint (to be posted Monday with detailed transcript and email evidence verifying perjury) against its division and outside counsel (remember the attorney who absolved the principal who forced teachers to inflate grades) . Will you consider writing a post on Loudoun’s incestuous district and the rampant corruption going on? I have pasted the core of my Facebook post below but readers are invited to read the full text and follow-on comments detailing further corruption as well. I will be updating this FB post if your readers wish to follow the details on a daily basis as there is lots of intrigue from the sheriff, a school board election, perjury charges and a VDOE lawsuit. Thanks again for supporting everyone’s rights to free speech, including us military veterans who believe we just might have earned it along the way.

——————————–

Imagine you are an LCPS 3rd grade student about to take the SOLs for the first time. Your teacher has prepared you for the test and and you want to score very well. The day of the test arrives and you try your very best. You think you did well but you’ll have to wait for your scores. A few days later, the teacher has good news. Nearly the entire class passed. But uh-oh, one student has failed! The teacher instructs the class to watch for mail to their parents allowing them to retake the test. Boy, you hope it wasn’t you that failed the test. Your parents get that letter in the mail. You are devastated. Your parents know you are the ONLY one in the class who didn’t pass. They agree to let the school try to improve its score by pressuring you to retake the test. But what benefit do you get? None. Your classmates now know you have to retake the test. How shameful it feels to be the only student in the class retaking that test. Boy, the others must think I am really stupid. I wish my parents and teacher had not let everybody else know I am the dumbest kid in the class. I bet all the other kids will make fun of me. You take the test but you are not sure how it ended up.

The Virginia legislature, led by Delegate Tag Greason and others, came up with a means by which schools could pressure kids to artificially boost SOL scores by shaming failing students to take the SOL tests twice. Superintendents everywhere loved it. Even though Tag and others decry the “unfair pressure” that is placed on kids taking the SOLs, they came up with an “ingenious” plan to force the kids in grades 3-8 who failed to face even more pressure and retake the test. Some of the kids improve their scores. Others’ scores drop. But Tag and friends thought it best to only include the best scores (including the new retakes) so schools could show artificially high pass rates. And even better, if a student gets lucky and just barely passes the SOL with a 401 (400 is passing) then that student can’t retake the SOL else we might find out the student couldn’t pass it twice. All of these shenanigans artificially increased Virginia’s SOL pass rate by ~4% this past year. Tag and VDOE boasted about how great these increased pass rates were since it hides the poor performance of many schools who previously failed. But there was no real increase. Only fake increases by shaming kids into retaking the tests.

Dr. Eric Williams and LCPS were only too happy to pressure LCPS students in the very first year of this Virgina law to retake the tests. Since no student is held back due to SOLs, these retakes only help adults in the system artificially boost their evaluations – mainly administrators. I expressed concern about how these retakes would reveal student scores to others since kids would know which students failed and had to retake the exam. I specifically asked my children’s principal, Tracy Stephens of Seldens Landing Elementary School, in a spring 2015 PTA meeting if Seldens would ask its students to retake the exam when such retakes would expose students who failed the exam. Tracy was very cavalier in her response by saying nobody EVER finds out why a student leaves the classroom. Tracy had a responsibility to protect the most vulnerable students, those who failed the SOL, and she just brushed off my concerns.

About two weeks later, my 3rd-grade daughter informed me she had taken the SOLs and they were kind of fun (so much for that pressure thing, Tag). A few days after that, my daughter told me the entire class had passed except for one student. He had to retake it. I asked her if she knew the name of the student. She said of course and that is was ***** ******. I can’t say I was surprised because I had told Tracy a FERPA (federal student privacy law) violation would result from her policy.

I spoke to the Loudoun County School Board about this issue on Sep 8, 2015 (you can see the video here) The school board took no action! No investigation. No change in policy. It appears they could not care less about shaming a student who failed the SOL. If that outed student had been the child of Chief of Staff Dr. Michael Richards, Superintendent Eric Williams, or school board members Chairman Eric Hornberger (yes, the “lobbyist” for Imagine Schools who has never disclosed any conflicts – check for yourself on his campaign page), lawyer Debbie Rose or wannabe lawyer Bill Fox, then I think our board might have taken some measures to protect their own children. But this was just the privacy of a “means to an end” for them – their “stellar accreditation rates” so they couldn’t care less if the kid was publicly shamed.

Then, I tried to address the issue with Tracy Stephens in the Sep 22 PTA meeting. Stephens had just spoken at length to the parents about how every student shouldn’t be isolated when they have a disability but should be included with the group. Seldens even built a ramp to its elevated, mulched playground so no child would feel singled out. After a few parents asked Stephens about field trips, I asked Stephens why she had not heeded my advice on SOL retakes and thus generated a FERPA violation by outing a single 3rd-grade classroom student who failed the SOLs? Now Stephens doesn’t like any academic questions at PTA meetings. Most likely because Seldens ranks 900th out of ~1140 schools in Virginia in math growth scores and Seldens scores below LCPS SOL averages in every grade and in every subject when you remove FRL and ELL students (for teachers who have disadvantaged students, wouldn’t you like a class that passes the test AT THE BEGINNING of the year). That’s not a great basis for Tracy’s evaluation. But she was very upset that I had the audacity to ask an academic question in FRONT of parents?! How dare I actually ask about how Seldens treated our students’ privacy!!

Read more on the Virginia SGP Facebook post including the principals “no trespass” letter that banned me from even joining my own child for public school events (or else I will use up all of Diane’s blog space).

Reply
- virginiasgp says:
  
  October 3, 2015 at 11:42 am
  
  Thank you, Diane, I knew I could count on you. We may disagree on policy but on the questions of freedom, I think we are pretty close.
  
  Reply
- rockhound2 says:
  
  October 3, 2015 at 12:14 pm
  
  Did you join with the parent of that child to make your case? The fact you knew who it was shows a FERPA violation occurred. Yes, it would be very awkward to speak to the parent in question, but it seems they have the only real skin in the game. Their child was shamed, not yours.
  
  I can admire arguing on principle on someone else’s behalf, but think of how more effective your argument might have been if both of you were involved in addressing this issue.
  
  Just an observation, and not intended as a criticism. I really do wish you luck on pursuing this issue. On the VAM stuff, well, we’ll still have to disagree.
  
  Reply
  - Jill Lancaster says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 1:57 pm
    
    Beware Diane and interested readers that there is much more to the story than Virginia SGP states. He is only posting here because this is the only place left that does not delete his comments. He has been Blocked by many in his county for his harassment, online bullying, and for disrupting meetings, including teacher presentations during back to school nights. Basically his attention seeking behavior in public has been counter productive. He is a very smart man, but sadly misusing his talents.
  - Akademos says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 5:34 pm
    
    Not news to us.
  - Robert Rendo, NBCT says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 10:39 pm
    
    Should he not be banned from humanity, let alone school events, because he hates teachers and educators? He should be banned from himself. Banned from zoos, hospitals, Chucky Cheese, you name it.
    
    Banned, banished, banal, bananas. He should go haunt some other blog.
  - virginiasgp says:
    
    October 4, 2015 at 6:34 am
    
    Diane/Rockhound2, there’s more to the story. One of the things I find most difficult to teach my students is empathy. So when an opportunity arises, I try to maximize it. One child is an NF (personality) so it comes naturally to him. The other is an NT like me, and she doesn’t always take the other person’s perspective initially.
    
    I don’t blame the teacher in this situation. She was 23-yrs-old and brand new. A few weeks before the SOL, they were preparing for the test and my child told me the teacher was “giving out prizes” based on how well kids would perform on the great practice test. I won’t reveal the prize because that is somewhat controversial in our schools here. You received 2 prizes if you scored “advanced”, 1 prize if you scored “proficient” and 0 prizes if you scored below proficient. Now, I know some of you don’t believe in IQ. I do. I found it patently unfair that kids were being rewarded for natural talent. It’s like kids were being given prizes based on their height or how fast they could run. The teacher meant it as an incentive but this is what happens when you believe everybody can understand calculus if they just “work a little harder”.
    
    So I talked to my child about how some tasks come more easily to her than others. She might think reading was a breeze to learn but playing soccer was much harder and the other kids always seemed to be better. Then, we talked about how some kids in class always seemed to grasp ideas a little slower. I asked her how it must feel to be one of those kids. How would it feel to know that regardless of how hard you tried, you could only get 1 prize at best and you might not get any. She understood and agreed it wasn’t fair.
    
    They conducted the practice tests and nearly every kid passed. My understanding is that the teacher eventually gave 3/2/1 prizes out so even the practice test “failures” got something. Principals hardly ever visit the classroom to provide guidance, support or even observe. That is one reason all of these various practices go on. And I realize some of you will point to the fact that the class was having to “test prep” as a problem. I believe this must have come from the principal or higher since great teachers’ students get good scores without test prep. But even with the test prep that was conducted, it was just toward the end of the year prior to the SOL.
    
    I’ve told you about events at the PTA meetings and warnings to Stephens. When the real SOL scores came back, my child excitedly told me the news. And then she said **** was the ONLY kid in the WHOLE class to fail. Another teaching opportunity. Obviously, the kids recognized he failed because he was publicly taken out for the retest. And the kids attach significance to failing. I asked my child how he must feel to be the only kid to fail. She agreed he would feel very disappointed and singled out. She wouldn’t want to be him. I asked her if maybe he just learned more slowly and had done nothing wrong. She agreed that could be the case. I asked if she thought it was fair for the teachers, not the kids, to be identifying students who fail the SOL publicly. My daughter agreed that was a pretty horrendous thing to do to a child.
    
    Again, I don’t blame the teacher. There is virtually no way to prevent outing students based on this retest policy. When I was on my submarine, there was a lot of attention paid to “systems”. You cannot expect a sailor to perform every task correctly 100% of the time in a high stress environment. Certain systems/features were highly engineered to require very conscious choices to proceed. You can’t just “bump” a circuit breaker on a sub and turn off/on the equipment. It requires a very deliberate action and thought to change its position because that is a very important action in a casualty. I consider student privacy to in the same league. It shouldn’t be possible to cavalierly ask kids to retake exams and expose their failing SOL scores without great concern paid to privacy. These are impressionable 3rd graders whose outlook on school can forever change with this first encounter with SOLs. Under the previous testing policy, the scores went to the parents and the teachers but were never revealed to anyone in class. It was private. Based solely on administrators’ desire to artificially boost their rankings, these students are now publicly shamed. That’s nearly unforgivable in my book. But in order to protect their racket, these administrators are banning me from the school so other parents can learn of their illegal actions.
    
    I will never apologize for not being weak. Their attempts to suppress my public speech will fail. They will be called to account for their immoral behavior toward the kids and multiple illegal actions. I’ll give you all a front row seat as this plays out in the courts and the press in the coming weeks/months. On this, I think we can all agree here.
  - dianeravitch says:
    
    October 4, 2015 at 10:22 am
    
    M
  - dianeravitch says:
    
    October 4, 2015 at 10:51 am
    
    Virginia,
    
    Sorry to hear that your child’s school has been ranking children by their test scores, giving prizes to those with the highest scores, and shaming those with the lowest scores. That is wrong. Don’t you see the analogy with VAM? When teachers are ranked by scores, rewarded or punished by scores, humiliated by scores, it is wrong. Whether it is done to students or teachers, it is divisive and accords far too much power to a weak and flawed measurement. I feel badly for the children and the teachers.
  - Donna says:
    
    October 4, 2015 at 5:01 pm
    
    Rockhound, conversely virginialslslslsl LOVE when “scholars” at charters are shamed on the bulletin boards, made to wear “dunce cap” shirts, and sent for detention and demerits for not asking with the proper hand signal to go take a crap. LOVES it. Only when/if something similar, like this FERPA violation written above, allegedly happens in a public school, its a federal case. Do you get the irony?
Cap Lee says:

October 3, 2015 at 12:31 am

Every time there is change there is often a ray of hope. This time I don’t yet see that. Those who don’t understand education want to polarize the country rather than Use critical thinking to meet the true needs of children.

Thus, to them, it is more important to “set up” teachers than it is to seek the innovative changes necessary to assure all children achieve.

And too often the response focuses on the how bad the bad guys are rather than espousing the skills of the certified teacher who has the unique ability to determine the way kids learn best.

It’s time for those in power to realize that all children are different, and those differences require a unique education plan, not a one size fits all standard. It’s not how many kids meet proficiency, it’s how many kids progress toward that proficiency and are learning what they really need to know to survive and prosper in their community

It is said that teachers lie about the achievement of kids. That’s the response of short sighted pseudo educators who are more interested in beating up teachers than in improving education.

If critical thinking is used, they will discover that the problem at the bottom is the system of education forced on teachers and students alike.

Letter grades forced upon teacher do not indicate.the level of student achievement. A “C” in reading does not indicate that the child is on level. Nor could it under any conditions. But we still use letter grades that say nothing meaningful.

The failure system forces teachers to choose, for those who are learning at a slower rate,,between passing kids with a D- or failing them into oblivion. The only other thing is to get kids to be in the same place at the same time and anyone who knows their human growth and development knows kids develop in different ways at different rate. This will never and should never happen as genius does not unfold on a common core schedule.

The big test that has kids who have trouble sitting in a class, sitting for hours bubbling in nonsense is not an indicator of academic achievement. It is an indicator of testing achievement. A small one on one pre and post test lasting 15 minutes would be back to teachers immediately would be much more valuable. The big test is of no value to the student or the teacher

I mentored a teacher who had a student who scored on the pre primer level on the state teas, 3rd grade level on the MAP and on level on the QRI. Assessment is only as good as the information gathered and it’s application to the education of the child. The test is merely a jumping off spot for teachers and learners. The big test does nothing to promote quality education.

It is time for educators to provide a viable alternative to the testing fiasco that puts assessment at the local level where it can be of value.

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- Duane Swacker says:
  
  October 3, 2015 at 6:32 am
  
  “It’s time for those in power to realize that all children are different. . .”
  
  Not only that but that all teachers are different and it is those differences in students and teachers that allow for wide variety and scope in the teaching and learning process for students to experience. Calling for and/or attempting standardization of the teaching and learning process belies the fact of those inherent multiple divergent and individualistic traits hindering them to shine through/stand out.
  
  Reply
- Threatened Out West says:
  
  October 3, 2015 at 10:18 am
  
  I get your “progress toward proficiency” idea, Cap, and I don’t think you mean anything by it. However, “proficiency,” by itself, is tricky, because NO ONE can tell us what the hell proficiency MEANS. The media obsess all the time about how the kids aren’t “proficient,” and make it sound like the kids (and, by extension, the teachers) are dumber than dirt, but no one ever talks about the actual definition of proficient. My favorite part is when the media freaks out because 50% aren’t “proficient.” They think that there’s some bar every child can leap to be proficient, when, in reality, it’s a median, and OF COURSE 50% of children won’t reach it.
  
  I have begged my local media to look at this very thing, but they just keep buying up the press releases and never look at the background.
  
  Reply
  - caplee68 says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 4:17 pm
    
    Yes, the point was progress rather than everyone at the same place at the same time. Proficiency is a vague term and I agree. It is important that “proficiency” is demonstrated and not a bubble test. I also have trouble with a single proficiency for everyone. I prefer to call them learning goals.
    
    You are correct in your assessment. When the “bar” is singular, every time they raise it they push kids into the streets. The media is guilty of the lack of critical thinking as are most politicians. Of course in Lake Wobegon all kids are above average, which is of course, not statistically possible.
    
    It’s just a political game
gj says:

October 3, 2015 at 12:33 am

I know this isn’t the right spot for this comment. So please forgive me. Does the person who owns Pearson Realize math also own the Smarter Balance test?

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- Threatened Out West says:
  
  October 3, 2015 at 10:21 am
  
  Pearson owns PARCC, not Smarter Balanced. Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) is owned by some nebulous group out of UCLA, I believe. It’s hard to tell exactly who owns SBAC, although all of these testing companies and agencies all want the same thing: to destroy public education by making the appearance of “failing” students and schools and teachers.
  
  Reply
  - clarity says:
    
    October 4, 2015 at 1:44 am
    
    thanks, am finding ucla private public partnerships extremely nefarious
21st Century Poet says:

October 3, 2015 at 1:12 am

Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater.

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Timothy D says:

October 3, 2015 at 6:39 am

Thank you Diane and NPE. I have been watching reactions from the predictable press around the country to Duncan’s resignation and King’s appointment. Unfortunately just more piling on of corporate propaganda. Several articles used the terms “higher standards” and “greater accountability” more than twice. Throw in “raised graduation rates” and “fierce opposing from teachers’ unions” several times and you. Have written the corporate version summarizing Duncan and King. Sickening. Sadly when uninformed people from outside education read these banal summaries, they think it all sounds good.

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Akademos says:

October 3, 2015 at 7:08 am

Duncan cites strain from being apart from his family.

Parents cite strain on their children.

The deform movement is convulsing.

King knows not what he is doing at any eschelon.

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- Akademos says:
  
  October 3, 2015 at 7:10 am
  
  echelon
  
  Reply
Dienne says:

October 3, 2015 at 7:53 am

Time for a nationwide strike yet?

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- caplee68 says:
  
  October 3, 2015 at 5:05 pm
  
  Prior to a nation wide strike we must break the rules in the classroom to teach to the whole child, ignoring teach to the test. That is a moral issue. When we serve children in the way they learn best, in the way professional teachers educate kids, then let them come at us. And if 1 teacher is fired for saving kids from this shattered system of education, we all walk.
  
  We must have and implement a better idea first. Readers of this blog know my thoughts and I will help anyone who wants to change the system. Either you are for kids or not. If for them, stand for them in the classroom.
  
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Chiara says:

October 3, 2015 at 8:06 am

The attitude is really baked-in among “movement” members, it seems. Maybe it’s self-selecting since “ed reform movement” members hire (only) other movement members:

“Terry Grier, Superintendent of Houston Independent School District: “It was tough for Duncan. I just don’t see the same level of leadership from Congress that we’ve been accustomed to… We started testing, and all of a sudden, we ticked off soccer moms–and you can’t tick off soccer moms, and you can’t tick off special education parents.”

It’s like a brick wall. They’re so confident they’re right on all things any criticism is dismissed as “interest groups” (which really means ‘self-interested’) so minimized and then ignored. If parents like ed reform, then ed reform is great. If parents don’t like ed reform then ed reform is also great, because those parents who object are self-interested anyway. Either way, ed reform is right and good and correct.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-10-02-what-the-white-house-press-corp-didn-t-ask-about-arne-duncan-s-resignation

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Chiara says:

October 3, 2015 at 8:25 am

“King will most certainly continue to push Duncan’s reforms, including higher academic standards and school choice, Cunningham said. At an event POLITICO Magazine hosted last week, King noted how much work the country has to do in the K-12 arena.”

More testing and more charters, in other words, which has been the singular focus of DC for 7 years on public schools. Public schools get the stick and DC’s preferred “choice” systems get the carrots. I look forward to more stern lectures on the “skills gap” delivered to the lower and middle classes from people who make 200k a year.

President Obama noted the opposition to his public school policy only in immediately dismissing it, as people having to be “dragged into the 21st century, kicking and screaming”. It’s amazing how consistently patronizing it is, and how they don’t even hear how it sounds to someone outside the “movement” that has completely and utterly captured DC.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/john-king-education-secretary-arne-duncan-214387#ixzz3nVSJO5bl

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Chiara says:

October 3, 2015 at 8:40 am

Just so voters know, Duncan is being universally hailed among DC Democrats, so there’s not going to be any change of direction no matter which team you vote for in ’16- Team Red or Team Blue- they’re all lockstep behind market-based public school policy:

VP statement on @arneduncan. A leader who has “made almost unprecedented strides in changing direction of education”

Clinton, Biden, any of the Bush family, Kasich, Rubio- it’s all the same on public schools.

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- Akademos says:
  
  October 3, 2015 at 8:46 am
  
  They are all aligned with delusion.
  
  Education and politics are merging with advertising. Or is it a hostile takeover, or takedown?
  
  Reply
  - John says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 9:22 am
    
    Charter schools are “spin-offs”
  - caplee68 says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 4:23 pm
    
    Charters are doing the same warmed up old thing in the same old way. The system that changes things, whether or not they are allowed to, will be the system that serves kids.
- Linda says:
  
  October 3, 2015 at 8:51 am
  
  Is one of those strides, “bringing a whole profession down?”
  
  Agree- it’s unprecedented.
  
  In D.C., the revolving door has been institutionalized.
  
  Reply
  - caplee68 says:
    
    October 3, 2015 at 4:26 pm
    
    Rules are made to be broken. In public schools we must take a stand. Develop a system and philosophy that respects the intelligence and abilities of all kids. And then implement it. It is immoral to do anything else.
- clarity says:
  
  October 4, 2015 at 1:48 am
  
  I think if they fail to follow the real powers that be, they may end up paying the ultimate price. America, in my opinion, is that far gone.
  
  Reply
eleanor says:

October 3, 2015 at 9:26 am

That is their ultimate goal – destroy the pesky, teachers union thugs, and create a frightened, compliant workforce to keep the oligarchy running smoothly. I’m a building rep and debating (with an AFT affiliated local) and am thinking about having my political dues portion withheld because it will be going to Hillary and the billionaire agenda.

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Concerned parent says:

October 3, 2015 at 10:22 am

Hi all, let’s hope our new leaders will listen to all parties this time around.

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Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

October 3, 2015 at 11:25 am

Replaced one bozo. And now another bozo. OMG.

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clarity says:

October 4, 2015 at 1:50 am

JJK will attack student privacy and create more herd mentality for RFID acceptance. EVIL empire!

Plan:

Give kids more Psychotrops via the psych nurses set in place by the Fed Ed agenda after false flag, give me a break! Big Pharma wins, Billionaire Boys Club wins and basic freedoms lose. Why?because 98% snooze. To move the mountain all people need to do is wake up and rise up.

History repeats! Fed documents in this video from 1950’s prove gov’t used psych drugs on kids to experiment and abuse.. Here’s more of that with JJK.

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Michael Brocoum says:

October 4, 2015 at 9:01 pm

So is there ANY doubt now that King will replace Duncan that Duncan was merely doing what Obama wanted?

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