Archives for the month of: January, 2016
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

EXCLUSIVE: Lamar Alexander’s Staff Explains ESSA: PART 1

By dianeravitch
January 19, 2016 //
21

David P. Cleary, chief of staff to Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, has prepared a series of answers to questions I posed about the new “Every Student Succeeds Act.” I am very grateful to have my questions answered by the staff of the Senator who led the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind. Instead of speculating about what the law says or means, we can get answers directly from those who drafted the law.

Readers, your comments are welcome, as always, but I ask you to be polite and civil. You may not like the law, but it is a darned sight better than NCLB, the Death Star of American education. It is now up to us as citizens to interact with our elected local and state officials to make the new law work to improve education.

 

David P. Cleary writes, to begin the discussion:

 

 

Diane:

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to engage with you and your readers about the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). As with any new law, there are lots of questions that will take time to play out as the law is implemented both at the federal level and the state and local level.

Chairman Alexander plans vigorous oversight of the implementation of the law with hearings and regular meetings with the administration to ensure that the law is faithfully implemented. It is helpful to know what questions people have so we can work through hearings and oversight to ensure that the law is implemented as written.

One of the driving principles behind Chairman Alexander’s efforts to fix No Child Left Behind was to restore to states, school districts, classroom teachers and parents the responsibility for deciding what to do about improving student achievement. This will enable governors, chief state school officers, superintendents, principals, teachers, parents, students, advocates, and the public could grapple with these difficult issues and reach conclusions that work for their state and community.

Most importantly, the new law ends No Child Left Behind’s accountability system and also allows states to move in a different direction, if they choose, from many of the policies of No Child Left Behind and the waivers of the past several years.

In many ways, ESSA is just the beginning of the story because states will now need to figure out what to do with all of this new flexibility and responsibility.

Thanks again for this opportunity.

David

David P. Cleary

Chief of Staff/HELP Committee Staff Director

I will post my question and the response of Senator Alexander’s staff every day for the next nine days.

The response:

1. How will ESSA affect testing? Most educators and parents believe that there is too much testing and they want less of it. What does ESSA do to reduce testing and the high stakes attached to it?

Short answer:

ESSA should significantly affect testing. Through testimony we learned that although the federally required math and reading tests provide valuable information on student learning to teachers, parents, states, and the public, many states and school districts administer many more tests than necessary, largely in part to prepare for the one-time high-stakes tests required under No Child Left Behind. State and school district leaders agree that shorter and fewer tests are needed. For example, we learned that a Fort Myers, Fla., school district gave its students more than 160 tests in preparation for the federal test[s] required under NCLB.

ESSA creates an opportunity for states to reevaluate the amount of tests their students take and how the results of those tests are used. While we kept the federal requirement that students take a total of 17 tests over a their 10 years of schooling from grades three through 12, we eliminated the federal requirement that determined whether a school is succeeding or failing based only, in effect, on federally-required tests. We also ended the waiver requirement for teacher evaluation linked to testing.

Moving forward, it will be up to states—as well as and governors, legislators, teachers, parents, and advocates–to decide whether to have more than the 17 federally required tests and how important those tests should be in determining whether schools are succeeding or failing. Additionally, the bill increases state flexibility around testing by allowing states to develop innovative assessment systems, such as competency based systems, in lieu of the existing state tests. ESSA also allows school districts to select a nationally recognized assessment, such as the SAT or ACT, that high schools can administer in lieu of the state math and reading test.

Long Answer:

The first issue Chairman Alexander tackled in 2015 was the question of overtesting due to No Child Left Behind. Our first hearing on January 21, 2015 looked at this issue and it feels like every conversation was dominated by the view that No Child Left Behind and the teacher evaluation mandate in the waivers created a massive proliferation of testing.

The requirement under NCLB was that states had to conduct annual tests in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school, and a science test in each of the grade spans three through five, six through eight, and nine through 12. That resulted in a federal requirement of 17 tests over a student’s 10 years spent in school from grades three through 12.

But the accountability system of NCLB was linked almost solely to the testing requirement. If student test scores didn’t meet federal requirements, federal sanctions were applied to the school in a one-size-fits all approach.

Seeing this issue, Sen. Alexander came to the conclusion that the federal requirement for testing wasn’t necessarily the problem, it was the accountability system that was attached to it.

With that in mind, we decided to focus on reducing the federally determined high stakes attached to the tests—creating an environment where states could reduce the extra tests they were administering and, most importantly, develop their own accountability system to judge whether schools and teachers were succeeding in educating students.

Through testimony we learned that states and school districts were creating and administering dozens or even hundreds of extra tests to ensure that they were on track for all students to perform well on the annual test required by the law and the teacher evaluation mandate in the waivers. This outcome is almost expected because the annual test became almost a death penalty moment for schools—if you didn’t perform according to the plan, you faced severe federal sanctions. NCLB became a “punish your way to success” accountability system.

In ESSA, states have much more freedom to determine whether a school is succeeding or failing. Tests do not have to be the only measure of performance.

A state has to include test results, graduation rates, English proficiency, and another measure of school quality or student success in its accountability system. If a state chooses, it could also include non-academic measures having nothing to do with tests.

But how much each of these indicators count in the accountability systems is up to the states, and the Secretary is prohibited from regulating precise numbers or even ranges of weights in section 1111(e)(1)(B)(iii)(IV) of the new law.

So now states have the flexibility and responsibility to determine how to establish an accountability system. What matters to Tennessee may differ from what matters to Minnesota. Some states may indeed keep all of their tests and the high stakes associated with them, while others will reduce testing and reduce the amount that tests count in accountability systems—but they key with ESSA is that it is entirely up to the states to decide what to do.

Categories Accountability, ESSA, Testing

Illinois Plans to Cut Special Education Funding in She’ll Game

By dianeravitch
January 19, 2016 //
11

Beverley Holden Johns, an expert in special education, warns of a move planned by the Legislature to give money to poor districts by taking away special education funding from other districts. Poor districts gain at the expense of kids with disabilities. There is no increase in funding overall. 

Subject: TRIB: Diverts special ed $ for general purposes
You cannot spend the same money twice.
In his last weekly message Illinois State Superintendent of Education Tony Smith stated:
“Reallocate the appropriation for the Special Education –
Funding for Children Requiring Special Education Services 
line ($305.2 million) into the GSA [General State Aid] appropriations to increase the Foundation Level.”
If you are reallocating over $300 million to increase the Foundation Level in GSA, you cannot also spend that money on special education.
If you spend the money on special education, you have not increased the Foundation level. 
This is the Illinois version of the great shell game where the pea represents funding for programs for students with disabilities.
The Federal special education law, IDEA, requires Maintenance of Effort (must spend the same amount or more on special ed next year that was spent this year) both for the State AND for local school districts. While there are rare exceptions to MOE, this is not one of them.
Almost every school district in the State would get more money if Illinois cuts special education to fund General State Aid.
This is a regional funding fight where you have to take money away from current programs if you completely fail to add huge sums of new money, which Illinois will not and probably cannot now do given political reality.
And the target is: ALL the special ed line items.
That is why Sen. Manar is so in favor of it. His bill that passed the State Senate last year drastically cut special ed through a block grant that completely removed the tying of State dollars to the hiring of special ed teachers, and other professionals.
This is a critical issue. Direct and dedicated funding for special education is at great risk.
If you can do it for THIS special ed line item, you can do it for EVERY special ed line item.
Yes, MOE is the law. But who is going to enforce the law?
(and remember last year the Federal Office of Special Education Programs – OSEP – stated MOE did not apply in many situations, before being forced to change its position).
The special ed administrators across the country are supporting a bill in Congress (H.R. 2965) to weaken MOE.

Bev Johns

————————————–

Sunday, January 17, 2016

State plan shifts funding to needier school districts 

  Proposal diverts special ed money to be used for general expenses

By Diane Rado 
Chicago Tribune (Front page)

    Almost half of school districts in Chicago’s suburbs would lose money under a dramatic proposal to rejigger how the state divvies up money to public schools, with affluent districts targeted for cuts and less wealthy districts set to get more state aid. 
  To make it happen, the Illinois State Board of Education is proposing to take $305 million from an account designated for special education services and give that money to districts next school year for general expenses that may have nothing or little to do with kids with disabilities.
  The idea is to boost “general” state aid for public schools in what the state board believes would be a more equitable way. Even without this source of funding for special education, districts would be expected to continue covering those costs as required by law. 
The General Assembly would have to approve the changes.
  The plan has spurred confusion and concern as districts grapple with the bottom line. The state’s analysis shows that 641 districts would gain $339 million under the proposal, including Chicago Public Schools, while 211 districts would lose $29.5 million. Those figures are based on 2015-16 calculations.
  But two-thirds of those losing districts are in the Chicago suburbs, making up $26.6 million of the loss felt statewide. 
Those districts would no longer get dollars from the $305 million portion of the special education account, and they’d lose general state aid dollars as well, likely meaning that something will have to be cut to make ends meet.
  “It stinks,” said Wheaton-based Community Unit School District 200 Superintendent Jeffrey Schuler. His district stands to lose about $843,000, according to an ISBE analysis.
  Meanwhile, special education advocates are trying to understand the consequences of yanking money that has historically been set aside to serve schoolchildren with special needs.
  “I think when school districts are faced with the kind of financial situations they’re in, the question is, will services for children with disabilities be hurt, and I believe they will,” said longtime special education advocate Beverley Holden Johns.
  “The state is in a budget crisis — I understand that. But it is crazy to put that on the backs of children with disabilities,” said Johns, who is active in several special education organizations in Illinois. 
She questions the legality of the state board’s proposal, though the board insists that what it wants to do is legal.
  Melissa Taylor, president of the Illinois Alliance of Administrators of Special Education, believes districts must keep paying for special education services — and cannot reduce spending from the prior year — to comply with federal law.  
  She said her organization has been uncomfortable in the past when state lawmakers tried — unsuccessfully — to pull money out of various state special education accounts. But the group hasn’t taken a stance yet on the newest proposal.
  It’s a difficult situation, Taylor said. “It is that Catch-22. While it scares us in some regard, we also recognize that it does allow districts hurting the most to recapture some funds. To be completely opposed to it is like saying we aren’t concerned about the needs of our districts hurting the most.”
  The Illinois State Board of Education unanimously approved the proposal earlier this month as part of state schools Superintendent Tony Smith’s recommendations for state spending on public schools in 2016-17.

 

Some board members expressed concerns, including how special education programs would fare for some 300,000 students served — about 14 percent of the school population.

  

The goal of the proposal is to address long-standing concerns about unequal funding for public schools. Some districts spend more than $20,000 per student while others spend less than $7,000, state data show. 
Broad efforts to reform the funding system have included using special education money to boost general state aid, but those efforts have stalled.
  That said, the state board believes the best way to help make funding more equal is to bolster the $5 billion General State Aid program, which gives districts wide flexibility on how to spend money and is distributed to districts based on factors such as local property wealth, number of students and the concentration of low-income kids.
  Special education is treated differently, with dollars set aside to cover certain categories of services, such as helping pay salaries for special education teachers and summer school costs for students with disabilities, among other services.
  The $305 million special education pot that the state wants to put into general state aid is now used to supplement local and federal funds for special education. 
It’s one of the big-ticket items in the state board’s spending plan, representing about 20 percent of the $1.5 billion for the major special education categories.
  Why the board chose special education dollars — and not other pots of money to be put into general state aid — isn’t clear to advocates and educators.  
  The board pointed out the money in that $305 million special education category is not distributed as equitably as general state aid….
     

The state board also recommended giving $300,000 to a handful of charter schools authorized by the state to make up for losing money if the special education proposal goes through. The allocation is based in part on differences in the way those charter schools are funded compared with public school districts.  

  

There’s no similar appropriation to help offset losses for districts….

  

State Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, has been pushing for school funding reforms in recent years, and has included in his legislation the idea of putting pots of special education funds into the General State Aid program. 

Thus far, the legislation has not passed the state House and Senate.

  Manar praised the ISBE’s proposal to bolster state aid by using the special education money.

  “I think the board’s actions are a step in the right direction,” Manar said. “As difficult as that was, I firmly believe that we need a broad systemic change” to cure Illinois’ inequitable school funding system.

Categories Education Reform, Illinois

Flint Water Crisis: Governor’s Emergency Manager Decision to Switch to Polluted Water Kills 10

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2016 //
17

Michael Moore visited his hometown of Flint and helped to draw the national attention that this sorry situation deserves. As readers of this blog know, Governor Rick Snyder got a law passed allowing him to appoint emergency managers to take over cities and school districts that were in financial distress. The voters overturned the law. The legislature and the governor re-created it through some devious maneuver, giving Snyder the power to override democracy whenever he chooses.

 

Snyder’s EM for Flint was Darnell Earley. He decided to save money by cutting off the supply of safe water from Detroit and to have the residents use Flint River water instead. There are high concentrations of lead and other pollutants in the Flint River, and 10 people have died of Legionnaire’s Disease. Untold numbers of children may have suffered lead poisoning, which can cause irreversible brain damage.

 

This series of events is shocking. It is criminal. Governor Snyder should resign, as should all of his emergency managers. He should be charged with criminal neglect and tried for endangering the lives of the people of Flint by action and by negligence. An elected mayor would never had risked the health and safety of Flint’s citizens.

 

Of course, Darnell Earley is now in charge of the Detroit public schools. We should fear for the children.

 

And on Wednesday, Gov. Rick Snyder announced that the Flint area saw a spike in Legionnaires’ disease, a severe form of pneumonia, around the time the city switched its water source — a spike in illness that proved fatal for 10 people. Officials did not confirm the water switch had to do with the spike, but a drinking water expert has said there was very likely a connection.

 

The situation has drawn rebukes from Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has said there is “no excuse” for the crisis, and from Bernie Sanders, who had similar statements and said Flint residents “deserve more than an apology.”

 

In response to the intense criticism, Snyder said at a news conference Wednesday: “We’re taking every action within reason, and going beyond reason to address this,” he said. He also said, “This is something you wish that never happened, and let’s see that it never happens again in the state of Michigan.”

 

At the protest on Saturday, Moore also pinned the city’s water conditions on governmental neglect because of the city’s income level and racial makeup.

 

“They would never do this to West Bloomfield,” he said. “They would never do this to Ann Arbor. They would never do this to Farmington Hills. Let’s call this what it is. It’s not just a water crisis. It’s a racial crisis. It’s a poverty crisis… That’s what created this.”

 

 

Categories Education Reform, Michigan

Boston: Parents Protest $50 Million Budget Deficit, Cuts to Schools

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2016 //
22

Mayor Marty Walsh will give his state of the city speech tomorrow at Symphony Hall, and parents plan to protest the schools’ $50 million budget deficit.

 

The parents are taking aim at another year of multimillion-dollar budget cuts proposed by his administration. They say the proposed measures would trim teachers, librarians, and language courses such as Japanese. It would also crush some schools’ accreditation prospects and hurt programs targeting students with autism or suffering from emotional trauma, they contend….

 

Walsh will….address public education, an issue that was a significant focus of his election campaign and made a key focus during his first State of the City address last year. On Tuesday, the mayor plans to urge Bostonians to join him in a conversation on how to best serve students and create a stronger school system.

 

But as the mayor delivers his speech, several parents are planning to protest his proposed budget deficit of up to $50 million in the School Department.

 

Chang had said that while expenses have increased, federal and state funding to the School Department has been declining.

 

‘Parents are feeling very upset that [the mayor] is not supportive of the school system he’s obliged to be looking out for.’

 

The superintendent promised that no schools would close as a result of the shortfall, the Globe reported, but he said that $20 million will be cut from the central office budget, and $10 million to $12 million more will be saved by trimming the per-student funding formula, affecting the budgets of individual schools.

 

Some of those schools have had declining enrollment, officials said.

 

The mayor said the potential budget gap does not yet identify all possible efficiencies and takes into account new investments prioritized by the department. Chang said the central office and school leaders are vigorously working on strategic budget decisions.

 

“The reality is that rising expenses are outpacing current revenue sources,” Chang said in a statement. “Despite this, I am confident that Boston Public Schools will continue investing in key strategic initiatives to close achievement gaps and ensure equity throughout the system.”

 

The parents planning to protest said that during Walsh’s first two years in office, public schools have seen about $140 million in budget cuts. The cuts, they said, would devastate the high schools and special education services.

 

Superintendent Chang, who was a deputy to John Deasy in Los Angeles, is a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy. Before he joined the L.A. administration, he ran a Green Dot charter school. He has brought a number of other Broadies to join him in Boston.

 

Categories Education Reform

Peter Greene: There is a Place for Gentleness in the Classroom

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2016 //
52

Peter Greene makes the case for gentleness in the classroom.

First he quotes the guru of gentleness, who says it is a sign of strength not weakness.

Then he cites a teacher who lasted one year in a NYC public school and gave up when he couldn’t control the kids, who were disrespectful and challenging.

“Look, I don’t want to sit here in my comparatively comfortable small-town teaching career and in any way minimize the challenges of working in a tough, poor, urban school. But if your theory of classroom management is that you must get control of your students, forcing them to comply with the rules, and only once you have beaten them down, overpowered them, and gotten them to respect your authority– only then can you start teaching…. well, you are doomed to failure no matter where you teach. The only real question is just how spectacular that failure is going to be. As a commenter on facebook put it, “If you think it’s a war, you’ve already lost.”

“But Bolland is pissed. He talks repeatedly about the kids he hates. Never expressed, but there behind his words, is that liberal savior anger that he has brought these poor, downtrodden kids the hgift of himself, and they are rejecting it. Doing this was supposed to feel great, but instead it makes him feel terrible.

“Make no mistake. The students are at times brutal to Bolland, making him the object of behavior that nobody deserves. But it is clear that nobody ever taught him how to manage a classroom (a critical piece of training for any business executive type transitioning to a classroom because, guess what, these students are not your employees and they are not paid to treat you with deference), and it is clear that he has no idea of how to be truly gentle or truly strong. He takes it personally. He demands compliance. And he ultimately decides that his failure is the result of a terribly broken system and unsalvageable kids. Of course, he’s got a book deal and I’m writing this blog for free, so who knows.”

Categories Discipline and Suspensions

Report: Never Say “Please” to Students

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2016 //
46

NPR shared a story about the latest crowd control technique in the classroom: Give orders. Never say “please.”

 
It is called “no-nonsense nurturing,” although it is hard to see the nurture part in this robotic scenario.
This technique is used largely (if not exclusively) in low-income minority schools. As a Vanderbilt professor says in the article, the approach sounds like “colonialism.”

 
Paul Thomas’s blog is subtitled “a pedagogy of kindness.” His posts decry this treatment of students and teachers. Wouldn’t adults want to model the behavior they want students to practice?

 
What would Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. say about “no nonsense nurturing”? What life lessons are the students learning?

Categories Discipline and Suspensions, Education Reform

What Martin Luther King Jr. Wrote About Education

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2016 //
3

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a universal man, a man who spoke to the aspirations of people of conscience everywhere, in every land. We honor him today for teaching us about justice, compassion, righteousness, and our duty to make the world a better place. Today, more than half a century after he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington in 1963, the dream seems far away. Many barriers have been broken, to be sure, but many still remain.

This post contains Martin Luther King’s views on education when he was 18 years old, a student at Morehouse College.

King makes a distinction between a person who is very smart and lacks any sense of morals or ethics, and a person who is educated to live a worthy life.

“We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate. The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living.

“If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, “brethren!” Be careful, teachers!”

Categories Real Education

Do Vouchers Increase Integration?

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2016 //
4

Answer to question: Of course not!

 

Count on the Friedman Foundation to prove that the world really is flat, despite what you may have heard. Sure enough, FF claims that vouchers lead to more integration, despite reams of evidence and research showing that vouchers and school choice increase segregation unless policies are in place to prevent it.

 
Here is a careful, research-based refutation of the Friedman Foundation’s assertions. There was a reason that Southern politicians supported school choice when they fought the Brown decision, and it wasn’t because they wanted integrated schools.

Categories Education Reform

A Black Parent: Is Dr. King’s Dream Turning into a Nightmare

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2016 //
16

This post was written by a black parent in Massachusetts. Her son attends a charter school. She is worried about the “preschool-to-prison pipeline.”

She wrote:

“Because we may listen to the speeches of MLK and others like him yet never act on their wisdom or heed their warning, we are faced with a Charter School Expansion. One that is extremely questionable and controversial for good reason. The “CHAINS” schema should not be allowed to ooze into “urban” schools because CHAINS cannot be broken. And let’s face it; a charter is a ship. The last time we got on a Chartered ship we were forced into bondage!

“Look at Walmart’s impact on Mom and Pop stores. Same family, same rules, same game — they are big supporters of charter schools.

“I do not support CHARTER SCHOOL CHAINS whatsoever and neither does the NAACP or the Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts.

“Why don’t we see the Charter School expansion in the burbs? Why don’t the “haves” want them? Have they not seen the value or heard of the “scholar’s pledge” and the no excuses drill em and kill em while you make sure they sit still em’s ? Or have they not observed the following snapshot: instead of teaching “Fox in Sox” by Dr. Seuss, the acceptable utterance is —“you better be wearing matching socks, Or you’ll go straight to the principal’s office, you little 5 year-old you!

“My son attends a Charter School, not a chain. It’s my best forced “choice”. The other option was homeschooling him – real talk…However, I have to work full-time to keep our little house out of the hands of the big bank so I could not pull it off.

“I want my son in a community in the midst of his peer group. I want him to be held accountable to high academic and social standards yet I will not allow his person-hood to be ignored. Therefore, I work with the school. Oft times, I feel resolution. Sometimes I wish someone would turn off the White( Noise, that is) and keep the light shining on the action steps that have to happen in order for his potential to be fully realized. Would I recommend his school to others? Yes, it’s a decent option But like any school, parents have to know how to advocate.

“I cannot find the “enrichment” that he deserves within this school “choice” context bc it’s inclusion. You get (1) size fits all instruction. There are no AP tracks or gifted education programs for the students in his school. However, there is a subsidized travel opportunity for “well-behaved” scholars. Well behaved as defined\filtered through the white female gaze and backed up by the white male authoritarian gaze… so he’s left out.”

Categories Equity, Race

Steven Singer: High-Stakes Testing is not a Civil Right

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2016 //
6

Steven Singer, a teacher and blogger in Pennsylvania, takes on the myth that high-stakes testing is a civil rights issue. It is curious that this myth gained any traction, because civil rights groups used to sue to block high-stakes tests because they violated the rights of black children. They argued that the tests were biased and unfair. They argued that it was wrong to label children with such tests.

He writes:

“Standardized testing has never been shown to adequately gauge what students know, especially if the skills being assessed are complex. The only correlation that has been demonstrated consistently is between high test scores and parental wealth. In general, rich kids score well on standardized tests. Poor kids do not.

“Therefore, it is absurd to demand high stakes standardized testing as a means of ensuring students’ civil rights.

“Judging kids based on these sorts of assessments is not the utopia of which Dr. King dreamed. We are not judging them by the content of their character. We’re judging them by the contents of their parents bank accounts.

“There are real things we could be doing to realize racial and economic equality. We could do something about crippling generational poverty that grips more than half of public school students throughout the country. We could be taking steps to stop the worsening segregation of our schools that allows the effects of test-based accountability to disproportionately strike schools serving mostly students of color. We could invest in our neediest children (many of whom are minorities) to provide nutrition, tutoring, counseling, wrap around services, smaller class sizes, and a diverse curriculum including arts and humanities.”

Categories Civil Rights, Race, Testing
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »