Archives for the year of: 2015
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Cuomo’s Common Core Task Force Meets Opt Out Movement on Long Island

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2015 //
13

Governor Cuomo’s Common Core task force held its first meeting on Long Island–the epicenter of the Opt Out Movement–and it got an earful. Parents, teachers, even superintendents turned out to tell the task force that testing should be delinked  from teachers’ job ratings; that testing was overwhelming the school calendar; and that the Common Core should go.

Jeanette Deutermann, leader of the opt out group on Long Island, predicted that opt outs might double (from 220,000 in 2015 to 500,000 in 2016), if real changes do not happen.

The reporters pointed out that the hearing was very different from the one conducted by State Commissioner John King in 2013, when the audience was angry and rowdy, and King canceled future public meetings.

Lesson: ignoring parents makes them angry. Patronizing them and condescending to them will energize the opt outs.

PS: when I opened the article, I read it in full. When I went back to open it again, it was behind a  paywall. Hope you are lucky.

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

Ken Bernstein on the Democratic Debate

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2015 //
42

Ken Bernstein, veteran teacher and NBCT, listened to the Democratic debate (his picture was kaput on his TV). He was disappointed by how little was said about education, a familiar reaction. 
He writes:
“I was disappointed on how little there was on education. Yes, Bernie again mentioned free tuition at public colleges and universities. And Hillary talked about the school resource officer in SC (to which I will return beneath the fold), as well as the increasing percentage of students receiving Free and reduced Meals (for increasing numbers it is breakfast as well as lunch), but there was no discussion of what this administration has done that has distorted and damaged public education, and whether any of them would take a different approach….
Let me talk about an incident from my past. I will not identify the school, the grade level, when it occurred, or anything that might identify a student.
A student came up to me at the start of the day – I was the students’ homeroom teacher. The student said an uncle wanted me to call him. I checked quickly and the uncle was not listed as an adult contact for the student. It was clear the student, a very sweet kid, was very distressed. I explalned I could listen to the uncle but I could not discuss anything about the student to the uncle under Federal law. I asked if the student wanted to tell me what was going on, but the student was reluctant. I arranged for the student to talk first to someone in administration which led to the student talking to the counselor. Later that day the student was picked up from school by the uncle.
What had happened was in the overnight hours the local police had come into the home, pointed a gun at the mother in front of the student, and taken the mother out in handcuffs. The student had apparently called the uncle who was temporarily taking care of the student.
As I said, this was a very sweet student. Imagine a student who was not so sweet, imagine the stress, imagine what might have happened had an adult yelled at the student.
I think of another case of a student who came to school on a Monday very hungry, unable to concentrate. The student had not eaten since lunch at school on Friday.
I ask you how we could legitimate expect either of these students – and the many others with troubling situations – to focus on pure academics.
One reason I try to get to know my students (not always successfully) is so that I do not further damage a child/adolescent who is already in pain.
Think of 51% eligible for free and reduced meals. Understand that if school closes for bad weather, either that student or someone else in the household might not eat.
Think of the increasing numbers of students who live in shelters – no place to bring a friend over to one’s house.
One year at Eleanor Roosevelt I taught a very proud young man whose family had no fixed location, and sometimes had to sleep in their car. He would not come to school if he could not shower and at least wash his underwear. He was missing close to half of the school days, but could you blame him?
It goes further. We have students with little emotional control because of the circumstances in which they live. We have others who may suddenly act in unexpected and even explosive ways, perhaps because they can no longer keep bottled up all the hurt and pain and discrimination and hunger and poverty and violence with which they have to live.
Whoever our next President will be, I hope that s/he understand this, that what we are doing to our young people is sowing seeds of destruction for our nation.
I try to assure my students that in my classroom they will be safe – first physically, then emotionally, and also intellectually, the last so that I can challenge them and help them develop their thinking.
School has to be a welcoming place, because for too many of our young people it may be the one place of safety and comfort and even food upon which they can depend.
It is why our obsessing about test scores totally misses the point. It is why we should be focused on the whole child, which include the arts as a means of expression, and the very real need for some physical outlet, which could be traditional physical education, but could also be dance, or marching band. It is one reason I see a real need for teaching mindfulness, and perhaps things like yoga and meditation.  
So I am as much of a radical in my own way as others may be politically.
What will our candidates do for our young people?
They need an economic future.
They need a world that is not destroyed by global climate change.
They need security from terrorism.
But they also need basic emotional security and support.
They need regular medical and dental care.
They need food security.
They need a safe place to live.
They need stability in their lives.
Otherwise we are not serving them.
That was my strongest takeaway from tonight’s forum, perhaps because I have spent the last two decades working with young people in school settings.

Categories Education Reform

Lawsuit Accuses Achievement First Charter School of Denying Appropriate Treatment to Students with Disabilities

By dianeravitch
November 6, 2015 //
48

A lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of five students at Achievement First Crown Heights, claiming that the charter school did not provide mandated services “and were punished for behavior that arose from their disabilities.”

The lawsuit charged that the students did not get physical therapy and other services for weeks, and that a student with autism “was disciplined for not looking in the direction a teacher instructed or for hiding under his desk.”

Achievement First is a “no-excuses” charter chain with schools in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Its backers include some of the wealthiest supporters of privatization. The families are also suing the New York City Department of Education and the New York State Education Department for permitting Achievement First to avoid its legal responsibilities to the children. One parent said that her autistic son, a third-grader, was sent to a second-grade classroom as punishment for his behavior. The website of the chain “describes this approach as part of Achievement First’s strict approach to discipline.” It is part of a policy called “sweating the small stuff.”

It will be interesting to see whether federal courts allow no-excuses charter schools to abrogate the rights of students with disabilities.

Categories Charter Schools, Special Education

Mike Petrilli and I Have a Brief Exchange about International Test Scores

By dianeravitch
November 6, 2015 //
53

I knew Mike Petrilli well, back when I was a trustee of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and Institute in D.C. But after I became disillusioned with testing and school choice, I didn’t see much of him anymore. We occasionally trade emails. I have a certain residual fondness for him. But I nonetheless think he is wrong and hold out hope that he will one day realize it.

But he is not ready.

He sent me this note recently:

Joanne gets it exactly right. Ready to concede a few points?

—-
Mediocre U.S. scores: Don’t blame poverty
// Joanne Jacobs — Thinking and Linking by Joanne Jacobs

When U.S. students post mediocre scores on international tests, poverty is “the elephant in the room,” says American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten. Others point to a “poverty crisis” rather than an “education crisis.”

The elephant is not in the room, write Michael Petrilli and Brandon Wright in Education Next. U.S. schools do as well — or poorly — educating low-income students as other countries. Furthermore, U.S. children aren’t more likely to be poor: Those sky-high child poverty rates really are measuring inequality rather than absolute poverty.

Overall, the U.S. rates 28th in math proficiency for advantaged students among the 34 countries in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Disadvantaged U.S. students rank 20th compared to similar students in other PISA countries.

Our advantaged students may do better than poor kids here, but they don’t outperform similar students in developed countries.

While income inequality is high in the U.S., absolute poverty is not especially high, Petrilli and Wright argue. Including all forms of income, including welfare benefits, the U.S. poverty rate is lower than Britain’s, the same as Germany’s and “barely higher than Finland’s.”

Poverty drags down performance here — and everywhere, they conclude. The U.S. is not an outlier.

My response:

Except that the international scores predict nothing about the future. We were dead last in 1964. By now, we should be a Third World country. Except we are the biggest economy in the world with the most powerful military. How did all those dumb 15-year-olds manage that?

This is something I find hard to understand about the “reformers.” Why do they want the world to believe that we have the worst education system in the developed world? Why are they always eager to discredit our country? Who do they think created the goods and services, the technology and culture that has changed the world? It wasn’t just graduates of Andover, Exeter, and Deerfield Academy, or Lakeside and Sidwell Friends. It wasn’t graduates of charter schools. I remember the disgusting commercials that StudentsFirst produced and ran during the 2012 Olympics, portraying an American athlete as an overweight man in a tutu falling down; this was supposed to represent our flabby, effete, faltering education system. It struck me as crass anti-Americanism, as well as a few other ugly attributes.

The worst thing about our country is our tolerance for poverty, extreme income inequality, extreme wealth inequality, and segregation. The reformers scoff at such concerns and twist into pretzels trying to deny what is obvious. They are right that our education system must change, but not in the direction they seek. Our education system needs drastic change to get away from the soul-deadening conformity imposed by corporate reform. The status quo is stultifying, boring, and harmful to children and teachers.

How can I say more clearly that I don’t think the international test scores mean anything about the future? If destroying the joy of learning and the passion of discovery is the price of raising test scores, it is too high a price to pay.

Mike, please read Yong Zhao’s “Why China Has the Best and the Worst School System in the World?” Please watch the spectacular speech that he gave to the annual meeting of the Network for Public Education last April in Chicago. Please read Ted Dintersmith and Tony Wagner’s new book, “Most Likely to Succeed.” Open your mind. Create the world you want your children to live in, not a world where parents like you have to find private alternatives to escape what you and your rightwing friends are doing to our public schools.

Categories International, Testing

Mercedes Schneider: Petrilli and Wright Make an Argument That is Full of Holes

By dianeravitch
November 6, 2015 //
3

Mercedes Schneider reviewed Mike Petrilli and Brandon Wright’s article asserting that poverty does not explain the poor performance of American students on international tests. Although she teaches high school English in Louisiana, Schneider has a Ph.D. in research methods and statistics, and she brings her understanding to bear here.

She faults the authors for failing to cite sources for some of their claims. She disputes their findings.

She writes:

In the closing of their article, Petrilli and Wright state that poverty cannot be used as an “excuse” to “explain away America’s lackluster academic performance.” They call it “a crutch unfounded in evidence”– as though their porous offering is solid evidence refuting the role of poverty upon standardized test scores.

Not so.

Too many holes.

 

Categories International, Testing

Hillsborough County Will Ditch Bill Gates’ Teacher Evaluation Plan

By dianeravitch
November 6, 2015 //
12

What if you build it and it collapses? Well, you can always try to “stay the course.”

Or, in the case of Hillsborough County, Florida, you can start all over again and just write off the millions of dollars already spent on a failed teacher evaluation system as a bad debt. Just pay it off and move on.

Valerie Strauss reports that the new superintendent of schools in Hillsborough County (who followed MaryEllen Elia, who was fired, then hired as New York State Commissioner of Education) has decided to drop the Gates-funded teacher evaluation plan. Gates promised $100 million but delivered only $80 million because the approach wasn’t working.

Strauss writes:

Here we go again. Another Bill Gates-funded education reform project, starting with mountains of cash and sky-high promises, is crashing to Earth.

This time it’s the Empowering Effective Teachers, an educator evaluation program in Hillsborough County, Florida, which was developed in 2009 with major financial backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A total of more than $180 million has been spent on the project since then — with Gates initially promising some $100 million of it — but now, the district, one of the largest in the country, is ending the program.

Why?

Under the system, 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation would be based on student standardized test scores and the rest by observation from “peer evaluators.” It turned out that costs to maintain the program unexpectedly rose, forcing the district to spend millions of dollars more than it expected to spend. Furthermore, initial support among teachers waned, with teachers saying that they don’t think it accurately evaluated their effectiveness and that they could be too easily fired.

Now the new superintendent of schools in Hillsborough, Jeff Eakins, said in a missive sent to the evaluators and mentors that he is moving to a different evaluation system, according to this story in the Tampa Bay Times. It says:

“Unlike the complex system of evaluations and teacher encouragement that cost more than $100 million to develop and would have cost an estimated $52 million a year to sustain, Hillsborough will likely move to a structure that has the strongest teachers helping others at their schools.”

Eakins said he envisions a new program featuring less judgmental “non-evaluative feedback” from colleagues and more “job-embedded professional development,” which is training undertaken in the classroom during the teacher work day rather than in special sessions requiring time away from school. He said in his letter that these elements were supported by “the latest research.”

This may be the beginning of the end for test-based accountability. It has not worked anywhere, and it has cost the schools of the nation hundreds of millions–or more likely–billions of dollars that would have been better spent on reducing class sizes, promoting desegregation, opening health clinics, and hiring teacher of the arts.

Categories Failure, Florida, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teacher Evaluations

Tim Farley: The Frightening Plans for New York: Competency Based Education, or Embedded Testing

By dianeravitch
November 6, 2015 //
40

Tim Farley is a parent and educator in upstate New York. He is on the board of New York State Allies of Parents and Educators (NYSAPE), which led the historic 2015 opt out movement. When leaders of NYSAPE met with Commissioner MaryEllen Elia in August of this year, she said that the post-Pearson testing would be embedded into instruction. Farley explains what the future holds in store for students in New York and elsewhere.

The Camel’s Nose of Competency Based Education

There is a fable in which an Arab miller reluctantly allows his camel to stick his nose under his tent on a cold night in the desert. This is quickly followed by other parts of his body until the camel is entirely inside the tent and refuses to leave. The moral of the fable is to illustrate that once the “camel” (Governor Cuomo’s $2 billion Smart Bond Act) gets his nose in the tent, his body (competency based education) will soon follow. This is what we have with the Questar testing company, with which the NYSED Commissioner, MaryEllen Elia signed a $44 million contract (http://www.nysed.gov/news/2015/3-8-assessment-contract-awarded-questar-inc). The contract locks into place a five year deal and offers districts the “option to administer the tests on computers”. Isn’t that convenient.

As part of the NYSED press release, Elia is quoted as saying, “Questar, Inc. will also provide computer based TESTING (emphasis added) platforms that will help reduce the need for stand-alone field tests, and more importantly, help make our assessments even better instructional tools.” For the sake of brevity, let’s forget about the fact that the contract with Pearson is still in effect for the 2015-2016 school year and the multi-billion dollar British conglomerate will still be producing the spring 2016 NYS ELA and math tests.

According to Questar’s April 1st publication (sadly, it is not an April fool’s prank), “Reimagining the Classroom Experience” (http://www.questarai.com/reimagining-the-classroom-experience/), Eric Rohy, Questar’s Chief Services Officer, writes, “Most educators agree that the current LECTURE-STYLE (emphasis added) approach to teaching is flawed.” He further writes, “….this approach limits the teacher’s ability to adapt his or her classroom to meet a number of 21st century teaching needs such as INDIVIDUALIZED AND PERSONALIZED INSTRUCTION (emphasis added), personalized learning, competency-based grouping and progression, seamless blending of instruction and assessment, and timely impact of assessment results to affect instruction.” WOW! When was the last time Eric Rohy visited an American classroom, the 1950’s? Teachers do not use “lecture style” anymore, nor have they in several decades.

What does Mr. Rohy mean by “individualized and personalized instruction”? He writes about a four-part implementation. First, eliminate the lecture-style (“one-to-many teaching approach”) by “giving every student a TABLET DEVICE (think iPad) that WIRELESSLY CONNECTS to ADAPTIVE SOFTWARE in the cloud…. instruction tailored to their individual learning styles and capability levels; and LEARNING MODULES (emphasis added) presented just to them.” Rohy continues, “Seamlessly integrate assessment with the instruction presented to each student on his or her TABLET (emphasis added). Again, Rohy makes a false generalization of our teachers by writing, “…most teachers do not teach this way (checking for understanding on an ongoing basis throughout a lesson) for two reasons: pedagogical momentum and a lack of technology that integrates instruction and ASSESSMENT (emphasis added) seamlessly so it doesn’t disrupt the flow of the class. With TABLETS (emphasis added) and the RIGHT SOFTWARE (emphasis added), this approach is possible on an INDIVIDUALIZED basis: after every five minutes of INDIVIDUALIZED TABLET-BASED INSTRUCTION (emphasis added), students would be presented with a brief series of questions that adapt to their skill level…” He continues, “The student would then be reassessed and the cycle would continue. With both the instruction and the assessments integrated into the same software and presented as a continuous ‘flow’ to each student, there is almost NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INSTRUCTION AND ASSESSMENT (emphasis added) in the mind of a child.”

Mr. Rohy also posits that grade levels could be ELIMINATED, “because students progress through subject material at their own pace…” He ends the publication with, “It would be naive to think that such a holistic change to classroom structure and pedagogy would be easy. A number of SIGNIFICANT FUNDING (i.e. – $2 billion Smart Bond Act), process, training, and political challenges would need to be addressed. He ends with a paraphrased quote of Apple CEO Tim Cook – “we must be ‘willing to lose sight of the shore’ and make UNCOMFORTABLE changes to make a significant leap forward in education.”

The “reformers” of education want to replace “teacher” with “individualized instruction” and/or “tablet”. They believe that quality teachers can be seamlessly replaced by a tablet, some headphones, and some wifi. Let me show you a picture of what that means:

Image from http://www.projectlisten.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Edgeworth_5_01_1st_g-300×225.jpg.

The Smart Schools Bond Act (http://www.p12.nysed.gov/mgtserv/smart_schools/docs/Smart_Schools_Bond_Act_Guidance_04.27.15_Final.pdf) is the camel’s nose, the rest of the camel is represented by Questar’s CBT program, Commissioner Elia and Governor Cuomo represent the Arab miller, and the tent is a metaphor for our public schools.

Would Bill Gates, President Obama, current US DOE Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, soon-to-be US Secretary John King, and Andrew Cuomo subject their own children to this education environment? No, nor should they and nor should we. I do not want my children to be connected to a tablet all day in the name of “individualized instruction.” I want a high quality teacher to teach my children.

If Commissioner Elia believes that the opt out movement will become a moot point due to competency based education and assessments, she had better re-think her belief. Opt out numbers are likely to hit 500,000 this spring. When the 2016-2017 school year begins, opt outs will be close to 1,000,000.

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, Technology, Computers, Testing

Camp Philos: Where Privatizers Meet

By dianeravitch
November 6, 2015 //
31

Last year, Camp Philos had its first meeting in a remote area of the Adirondacks of New York. Governor Cuomo was the keynote speaker at this gathering of philosophers who strategize about replacing public schools with private management and opening up the secure flow of government funding to private investors.

This year, the philosophers’ camp convened in Martha’s Vineyard, an equally inaccessible and very expensive location. It was in late October. Some of the stars of privatization were there, plus a few new faces.

The event was sponsored by the Broad Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and ConnCAN. The usual lineup of billionaires paid for this strategy session on how to steal democracy from the public, how to promote the ALEC agenda while calling yourself a Democrat.

Categories Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, ConnCAN, Corporate Reform, Democrats for Education Reform, Privatization, Walton Foundation

Peter Greene: The Difference Between Magnets and Charters

By dianeravitch
November 6, 2015 //
21

Peter Greene here responds brilliantly to those charter advocates who defend the selectivity of charters by comparing them to public magnet schools. The charter defenders say that magnet schools select their students too.

But Greene points out that the student rejected by a charter is on her own, while the student rejected by a magnet is the responsibility of the school system.

For example:

“Conversation A

“Student: Is it true Mighty Swell Magnet School is closing?

“School: I’m afraid it is, due to budgetary cuts and enrollment considerations, the district is shutting down MSMS and we won’t open next fall. However, in keeping with our legal and ethical responsibilities, we have already placed you within one of the district’s other schools. Don’t worry. Your education will continue without interruption next year.

“Conversation B

“Student: Hey! This door is locked! How am I supposed to get to class today.

“Charter: We closed. It just didn’t make business sense to keep operating, so we are outies. Go away.

“Student: But– my education!!

“Charter: Not our problem. Have a nice life.”

Categories Charter Schools, Privatization

Jeb’s Foundation for Educational Excellence Celebrates Mississippi’s Higher Standards Day After State Defeats Funding Schools

By dianeravitch
November 5, 2015 //
21

This is incredible timing. Yesterday, voters in Mississippi turned down an initiative to increase state funding for public schools. They were urged on by Governor Phil Bryant and the Republican leadership of the Legislature, who feared that the courts would tell the Legislature what to do instead of letting the Legislature under-fund the schools all on their own.

The next day, today, former Governor Jeb Bush’s former Foundation for Educational Excellence (now headed by education expert Condoleeza Rice) saluted Mississippi for raising its standards! How cynical to think that higher standards and harder tests will improve test scores. This is like telling a student who can’t clear a 4-foot bar that you will help him by raising it to 6 feet. How cynical can one be? This is a slap in the face to every parent, teacher, and student in Mississippi.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 5, 2015 Contact: Press Office
850-391-4090
PressShop@excelined.org

RELEASE: Mississippi Raises Expectations for Students
State Leaders Continue Trend towards Readiness for College and Career

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, the Mississippi State Board of Education accepted rigorous new performance level cut scores for the state test given to students last spring. The vote signals the desire of Mississippi leaders to continue raising rigor for students and ensuring they have demonstrated a thorough understanding of grade-level content and are on track to being ready for college-level coursework or the workforce.

“This is yet another example of Mississippi’s clear commitment to raising expectations for its students. Governor Phil Bryant, Lt. Governor Tate Reeves, Speaker Philip Gunn, the Legislature, State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carey Wright, as well as the State Board of Education have revolutionized education policy in the Magnolia State, and we are starting to see some promising results for Mississippi’s students,” said Patricia Levesque, CEO for the Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd). “Last week, Mississippi posted gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Today, the Board of Education took another crucial step toward reform, ensuring that Mississippi’s students become better prepared for college and career opportunities. I applaud the Board as well as the incredible efforts of Mississippi’s educators, parents and community leaders, who are taking ownership of these reforms to better prepare young Mississippians for life’s increasing expectations.”

Mississippi’s new proficiency expectations are aligned with student performance on the NAEP, which is considered the gold standard for measuring student proficiency. The difference between NAEP and individual states’ proficiency expectations are wide and varied. This discrepancy is called an “honesty gap.” Later this month, if Mississippi follows the lead of setting more rigorous high school expectations, the honesty gaps for elementary and middle school will also close.

“Our teachers have worked incredibly hard over the past few years to help students reach these higher standards, and they should be commended for getting our students off to a strong start on their journey to college and the workforce,” said Dr. Carey Wright, state superintendent of education.

Requiring more of students will always be harder than requiring less. But Mississippi education officials have demonstrated a strong commitment to raising their proficiency expectations and creating an education system where every child masters the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful.

Visit ExcelinEd’s website http://WhyProficiencyMatters.com/Mississippi for more facts, graphics and sharable content. Join the conversation online with #ProficiencyMatters.

Categories Mississippi
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