Archives for the month of: March, 2016
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Can P-TECH High Get Past Its Troubles?

By dianeravitch
March 18, 2016 //
17

In this country, we have all sorts of mistaken ideas about education. One is the notion that American public education is a disaster, the idea repeated often by Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, Michele Rhee, Jeb Bush, and others who want to privatize public education. They refuse to realize that schools reflect their community and their society. Typically, schools in affluent communities are highly regarded and well-resourced. Typically, schools in segregated and impoverished communities have low test scores. Another idea without basis is that someone will come up with a solution to the problems of the schools in impoverished communities that can be quickly scaled up everywhere and these schools will end poverty. There are many “if-thens” embedded in that last sentence. My view is that school improvement goes hand in hand with improvement of people’s lives. That is not to argue against school improvement–every school can improve–but to say that we are too quick to grab onto innovations and promote them without giving them a chance to mature and prove themselves.

 

The latest example is the P-Tech High in Brooklyn, New York. The school opened a few years ago; it has not yet had its first graduating class. Yet President Obama and Secretary Duncan visited the school, and the president singled it out in his State of the Union Address. It has already been replicated in sixty other schools across the nation, without waiting for the model to be fine-tuned. The school promised that all of its students would graduate with a high school diploma and an associate’s degree in six years.

 

Now the school is finding out how tough it is to keep its promises.

 

NPR reports:

 

P-TECH completely overhauled the school-to-career pipeline, creating a six-year program that blended the traditional four years of high school with two free years of community college, plus IBM internships and mentorships. And it offered all this to some of the students most underserved by the current system: Most are from low-income families, African-American or Hispanic, and a majority are boys.

 

The school accepts students by lottery, not entrance exam. That means, unlike other early college programs, there are no academic requirements to get in. The high school’s website states boldly: “With a unique 9-14 model, the goal for our diverse, unscreened student population is 100% completion of an associate degree within six years.”

 

Riding the waves of good press, P-TECH was quickly replicated all over the country.

 

But five years in, a year before the first full graduating class of the original school is expected, the model is showing signs of growing pains. Many of its students failed college courses early on, and internal emails obtained by NPR reveal disagreements across the many parties to this partnership over how best to serve those students….

 

Of the original 97 students who started at P-TECH in Brooklyn in the fall of 2011, 11 have already earned associate degrees. At least four took jobs at IBM; the other seven are continuing at four-year colleges.

 

By June 2016, IBM says, about 1 in 4 of the original P-TECH students should have an associate degree. That, after five years, already beats the national graduation rates for poor community college students of color.

 

But the goal, on P-TECH’s own website, isn’t 25 percent. It’s 100 percent in six years.

 

And the school is being replicated quickly, in the bright glare of publicity, before the kinks have been worked out and the model has been proven sustainable.

 

I hope that P-TECH is able to survive and prosper. It sounds like a good model. But I also wish that politicians would stop promoting miracle cures and pronouncing schools to be successful when they have barely developed their strategies. This was a favorite tactic of Arne Duncan and even President Obama. A few years ago, I wrote an article about “miracle schools,” and what I have learned over time is that there are no miracle schools. Every time a politician points to a miracle school, take another look. Good schools are the result of dedication and hard work by educators and students, and you can’t wave a wand to produce them overnight.

Categories Education Reform

Flint Water Crisis: Gov. Snyder Blames Everyone Else

By dianeravitch
March 18, 2016 //
10

At the Congressional hearing about the Flint water crisis, Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan said he didn’t want to point fingers, but then proceeded to blame everyone but himself. 

It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to recognize that the real culprit was on the stand. Governor Snyder appointed every official involved in the decision to save money by shutting off the clean water supply.

“Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder began his opening statement before the House Government Oversight Committee hearing on the Flint water crisis by saying, “I am not going to point fingers.” In the same statement and in comments made during questioning, he then blamed the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the failure to prevent the poisoning of Flint’s drinking water with the powerful, tasteless, odorless, invisible neurotoxin lead. He explicitly called out “bureaucrats created a culture that valued technical compliance over common sense”. Presumably this includes the man he himself appointed to head he DEQ, Dan Wyant, a man with no previous experience in dealing with water regulation or regulations:

“Prior to directing the MDA [Michigan Department of Agriculture], Director Wyant provided policy expertise for the Senate Majority Office and was associate director of Governor John Engler’s Office of Legislative Affairs. He began his career in the private sector, as a marketing manager for the Ralston Purina Co. and then as an export trade consultant for Lowe’s International.

 

 

“Director Wyant holds a bachelor’s degree in food systems management from Michigan State University (MSU) and a master’s in business administration from American University in Washington, D.C.

 

 

“Gov. Snyder also stated plainly that “this was a failure of government at all levels”. The truth, of course, is that this wasn’t a failure of “government”. It was, in fact, a failure of Gov. Snyder, members of his administration, and, most importantly, the policies of Emergency Management and “running government like a business”. Gov. Snyder’s blaming of “government” is the continuance of a Republican policy of running government poorly and then blaming the broad category of “government” rather than the specific policies and individuals who are responsible for running that government. The fact is, properly run, government is not the problem, it is the watchdog to prevent problems. There is a direct and fatal line between Gov. Snyder’s policies of Emergency Management and “running government like a business”. In fact, during questioning, Gov. Snyder admitted this. When asked if the situation in Flint was a direct result of the failure of Emergency Management, Gov. Snyder replied, “In this particular case, with respect to the water issue, that would be a fair conclusion.”

 

 

“Another aspect of the hearings was a continuation of Republicans blaming the EPA for this catastrophe. It was bewildering to watch the very same Congressional Republicans who have worked to undermine the EPA and who fight what they see as EPA over-regulation to now malign that agency for under-regulating in the case of Flint.

 

 

“During the hearing, Democratic Rep. William Clay from Missouri was to the point:

 

[He said:]

 

 

“You know, I have to hand it to my Republican colleagues. They are actually making their argument with a straight face. And, you know, just to be clear, Republicans here today are claiming that the EPA – the Obama EPA – should have been more aggressive in stepping in and seizing control and overruling the Republican-controlled state of Michigan. They are just outraged that the EPA wasn’t more assertive with Michigan and didn’t immediately go public with their complaints about the state’s failure to follow the law. Ms. McCarthy, the irony is almost overwhelming, isn’t it? Republicans have been absolutely slamming the EPA for overreaching at every possible turn. Now they criticize the EPA for not doing more when Gov. Snyder fell down on the job.”

 

Givernor Snyder should take responsibility, hold himself accountable for poisoning the water of Flunt, and do the right thug: RESIGN.

Categories Education Reform, Michigan

Newark Officials Knew for Years about Lead in Schools’ Water

By dianeravitch
March 18, 2016 //
13

Thirty schools in Newark have lead in the water that children drink every day. The New York Times reported that school officials knew about the lead for years. They didn’t tell parents or teachers. Lead is toxic to young children and has lasting effects on their cognitive development.

 

The city will test children for lead levels in their blood.
While so much attention has centered on Mark Zuckerberg’s gift of $100 million for “reform” and Cami Anderson’s One Newark for an all-choice district, and Cory Booker’s plan to turn every school into a charter school, why didn’t anyone think of making sure that the children of Newark had safe drinking water? Shouldn’t children’s safety come first?

Categories Education Reform, Newark

Change in Venue for Citizens for Public Schools, March 23

By dianeravitch
March 17, 2016 //
1

The location for the meeting of Citizens for Public Schools in the Boston area has been changed for March 23.

 

The following message came from Lisa Guisbond of FairTest:

 

 

We have a new location for the Charter School event on March 23 in Arlington, MA.

It will be at the Sons of Italy Hall, 19 Prentiss Rd. Arlington. 7 to 9 p.m.

Would you let your readers know about the updated location? Thanks!

 

 

 

Categories Education Reform

Paul Thomas: “Turnaround Districts” are a Hoax

By dianeravitch
March 17, 2016 //
15

Paul Thomas of Furman University in South Carolina knows that elected officials are intrigued with the idea of “turnaround districts,” although they know surprisingly little about the research or experience associated with such districts. The idea is simple: if a school has low test scores for x number of years in a row, or if it ranks in the bottom x% of all schools in the state, fire the principal and the teachers and give the community’s public school to a private charter operator. Kind of like declaring bankruptcy, but forgetting that a school is not a business like a chain store.

 

Thomas points out that there are good reasons to be wary of turnaround districts. He cites research about what has happened to them.

 

First, advocacy for takeovers is mostly political cheerleading, and second, a growing body of research has revealed that takeovers have not achieved what advocates claim and often have replicated or even increased the exact problems they were designed to solve, such as race and class segregation and inequitable educational opportunities.

 

New Orleans is a low-performing district that has become even more segregated and stratified than it was before the takeover.

 

He writes:

 

Takeovers in several states—similar to embracing charter schools and Teach For America—have simply shuffled funding, wasted time, and failed to address the root causes of struggling schools: concentrated poverty and social inequity.

 

Yes, SC must reform our public schools, and we should shift gears to address our vulnerable populations of students first. But charter takeover approaches are yet more political faddism that our state and children cannot afford.

 

Continuing to double-down on accountability based on standards and high-stakes testing as well as rushing to join the political reform-of-the-moment with clever names is inexcusable since we have decades of evidence about what works, and what hasn’t.

 

SC must embrace a new way—one committed to social policies addressing food security for the poor, stable work throughout the state, and healthcare for all, and then a new vision for education reform built on equity.

 

All SC students deserve experienced and certified teachers, access to challenging courses, low class sizes, fully funded schools, safe school buildings and cultures, and equitable disciplinary policies and practices. These are reforms that must be guarantees for every public school student regardless of zip code, and they need not be part of complex but cleverly named programs.

 

You will want to read the post in full to gain access to its many excellent links to news and research.

 

Those who continue to advocate for already failed fixes are stalling, delaying the day that we must address the root causes of educational failure. They should be held accountable for their neglect of the real needs of children, families, and communities. And some day, they will.

 

Categories Michigan, New Orleans, Poverty, Race, Segregation, Tennessee

Russ Walsh: Retention is Child Abuse

By dianeravitch
March 17, 2016 //
45

Russ Walsh, literacy expert, wrote last year about the cruelty of flunking kids (retention) because of their performance on a reading test. He called it child abuse. Most of the kids who are not promoted are poor, suffering from burdens not of their making.

 

He was writing about Mississippi, which spends less on students than any other state, but he might as well have been writing about Ohio, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, or many other states that have adopted the so-called “third grade reading guarantee,” that puts into law the commandment that no child may be promoted to fourth grade unless he or she passes the reading test.

 

What should be done instead of retention? Walsh writes: Attention, not retention. 

 

He writes:

 

Individual tutoring, summer programs and early intervention programs, such as Reading Recovery, have been shown to be effective ways to provide struggling students with the attention needed to “catch-up.” For high-poverty areas, the money could also be better spent on early childhood programs, wrap around health programs and smaller class sizes.

 

Retaining students is a shortcut answer to a problem that actually works against our goals as educators. Educators would do better to attend to their struggling students with programmatic changes than with this mean spirited “hold them back” approach.

 

Let us attend to our struggling students, not condemn them to the false promise of improvement through grade retention.

Categories Education Reform

Researchers: Common Core and Tests Do Not Help Neediest Students

By dianeravitch
March 17, 2016 //
36

Valerie Strauss reports on an important statement signed by more than 100 education researchers, asserting that the Common Core standards will not improve the achievement of the neediest students and will not reduce the achievement gaps between haves and have nots. Furthermore, the education researchers recommended that high-stakes exams should be abandoned, because they are not reliable, valid, or fair.

 

She writes:

 

“The researchers, from public and private universities in California — including Stanford University, UCLA, and the University of California Berkeley — say that the Common Core standards themselves do not accomplish what supporters said they would and that linking them to high-stakes tests actually harms students.

 

The brief says:

 

Although proponents argue that the CCSS promotes critical thinking skills and student-centered learning (instead of rote learning), research demonstrates that imposed standards, when linked with high-stakes testing, not only deprofessionalizes teaching and narrows the curriculum, but in so doing, also reduces the quality of education and student learning, engagement, and success. The impact is also on student psychological well-being: Without an understanding that the scores have not been proven to be valid or fair for determining proficiency or college readiness, students and their parents are likely to internalize failing labels with corresponding beliefs about academic potential.

 

More specific to California: a recent study on the effects of high-stakes testing, in particular of the CA High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE), found no positive effects on student achievement and large negative effects on graduation rates. The authors estimated that graduation rates declined by 3.6 to 4.5 percentage points as a result of the state exit-exam policy, and also found that these negative effects were “concentrated among low-achieving students, minority students, and female students.”

 

 

Categories Common Core, Education Reform, Testing

Boston: Opt Out!

By dianeravitch
March 17, 2016 //
2

Citizens for Public Schools of Boston invites you to opt out:
Spread the Word About Opting Out!

It will take more than a few parents quietly opting out to stop high-stakes testing. It’s important to spread the word and to join with other parents who are interested in opting their kids out. One way to start is by hosting an opt-out house party. We have lots of other ideas as well.

 

You can start by checking out our new Action Network Opt Out Page, where you can download our new opt-out toolkit, find opt-out events near you and/or post information about your own opt-out house party or forum.

 

And don’t forget to visit the Citizens for Public Schools web site to read (and download) the toolkit, read our updated Opt Out Fact Sheet and find more information about fighting high-stakes testing from the Less Testing, More Learning Campaign. Make sure you let us know about your event so we can help spread the word! Testing season begins at the end of the month, so start planning soon!

 
P.S. And remember, we need your voice, your participation and your support to continue this work. Join or donate to CPS today by clicking here!
_________________________________________

Upcoming Events

Cambridge Education Forum, March 16, 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, 459 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
For more information, email ltmlcambridge@gmail.com.

 
Boston Public Schools Budget Hearing, Wednesday, March 16, 5 to 6 p.m.,

Bolling Building, 2300 Washington St., Roxbury.

 

The fight for full funding of Boston schools continues. To sign up to testify, call 617-635-9014 or email esullivan3@bostonpublicschools.org. (For the full schedule of Boston Public School hearings and meetings on budget cuts and unified enrollment, see the Boston Education Justice Alliance calendar page, here.)

 
Charter Schools: A Serious Threat to Public Schools in Massachusetts, Wednesday, March 23, 7 to 9 p.m.,

Sons of Italy Hall, 19 Prentiss Rd. Arlington. 7 to 9 p.m.

 

Open to the public, including educators, parents, and students.
Opt Out Westwood, Saturday, April 2 from 2 to 4 p.m. Join us in the Community Room at the Westwood Public Library, 66 High St., Westwood. Standardized testing season is upon us. Be informed about your right to opt out of PARCC. Join teachers and parents in the conversation about your child’s data.

 

 

Please share and bring a friend. For more information, contact Meg Maloney.

Citizens for Public Schools, Inc.

18 Tremont St., Suite 320

Boston MA 02108

Categories Boston, Education Reform

NEWS FLASH: Making Tests Harder Does Not Make Students Smarter!

By dianeravitch
March 17, 2016 //
19

Steven Singer writes here about a dumb policy that is now commonplace thinking among both Ivy League corporate reformers and redneck legislators: If you make the tests harder, they reason, students will get higher test scores.

 

No, no, no, and no.

 

Singer says his students are weary of the endless testing. And it is getting worse because the tests will be even harder to pass in Pennsylvania.

 

He writes:

 

 

In the last two years, Pennsylvania has modified its mandatory assessments until it’s almost impossible for my students to pass.

 

Bureaucrats call it “raising standards,” but it’s really just making the unlikely almost unthinkable.

 

Impoverished students have traditionally had a harder time scoring as well as their wealthier peers. But the policy response has been to make things MORE difficult. How does that help?

 

Consider this: If a malnourished runner couldn’t finish the 50 yard dash, forcing him to run 100 yards isn’t raising standards. It’s piling on.

 

Oh. Both your arms are broken? Here. Bench press 300 lbs.

 

Both your feet were chopped off in an accident? Go climb Mt. Everest.

 

That’s what’s happening in the Keystone State and across the country. We’re adding extra layers of complexity to each assessment without regard to whether they’re developmentally appropriate or even necessary and fair to gauge individual skills.

 

Where Common Core State Standards have been adopted (and Pennsylvania has its own version called PA Core), annual tests have become irrationally difficult. That’s why last year’s state tests – which were the first completely aligned to PA Core – saw a steep drop off in passing scores. Students flunked it in droves.

 

Where the previous tests were bad, the new ones are beyond inappropriate.

 

Yes, across the country, the tests have been written and designed to fail most students. “Reformers” cheer the increased “rigor.” Do they care that most students are failing the tests? Why do they think that the score on a  standardized test is a measure of good education? More likely, the pursuit of high test scores via multiple-choice tests undermines good education.

 

 

 

 

Categories Common Core, Pennsylvania, Standardized Testing

Jan Resseger: The Truth About John Kasich

By dianeravitch
March 17, 2016 //
31

Jan Resseger, a social justice advocate in Cleveland, warns us to beware John Kasich’s calm and mild-mannered approach. He presents himself as the responsible, sensible candidate, not a dyed-in-the-wool conservative like Trump and Cruz. Although Resseger doesn’t mention it, Kasich tried to eliminate  collective bargaining, but the law passed by the legislature was repealed by a referendum. Kasich is a strong proponent of privatization, including charters, vouchers, and cyber charters.

 

Resseger writes:

 

“You do have to give Kasich credit for one thing. He has been honest about his priorities: he is a tax slasher and a charter school supporter. He is also delusional about his accomplishments as Ohio’s governor since 2010. He claims the state has turned around economically. If there has been a turnaround, it hasn’t yet come to Ohio’s Rust Belt cities. He continues to claim he has turned around the Cleveland schools, but that isn’t true either. To his credit, he did, against the wishes of those in his own party, expand Medicaid.

 

“He has also slashed the income tax, eliminated the estate tax, and eliminated a reimbursement the state had created for local governments and school districts when a previous administration summarily eliminated a local tax on inventories and equipment. The Plain Dealer reminded us last Friday that local governments have been busy trying to pass local taxes to make up for enormous losses of state revenue because of Kasich’s “sharp reductions in the state’s Local Government Fund, which was created during the Depression when the sales tax was enacted to share money with the cities and villages.” Under Kasich, according to Friday’s Plain Dealer, state funding in Cleveland this year is down by $21 million, in Columbus by $27 million, and in Cincinnati by $28 million, and the big cities are not the only losers. The inner ring suburb where I live is down over $2 million this year. School districts across the state are struggling to pass levies at the same time they are increasing class size and charging students large fees to play sports.

 

“In a stunning piece published yesterday by Politico, Kimberly Hefling summarizes Kasich’s troubling record of flawed oversight of Ohio’s charter school sector, despite that Kasich has made charter school regulation “a priority.” She quotes Kasich in 2014 claiming: “We are going to fix the lack of regulation on charter schools. There is no excuse for people coming in here and taking advantage of anything.” That was the claim. And to give the governor credit, Kasich signed a law at the end of 2015 that, Hefling explains, “improves the state’s ability to revoke the rights of the poorly rated charter school sponsors and makes it more difficult for schools to switch sponsors.” (It has been a practice in Ohio that if an authorizer tries to shut down a charter school for academic or financial reasons, the school could merely “hop” to a new sponsor.)

 

“Here, however, are some realities described by Hefling, that demonstrate the seriousness of Ohio’s problem with charter schools and that undermine Kasich’s claim that he has led the way to better regulation: “Ohio ranks among the top five states in the number of charter schools. It has more than 370 charters that enroll 132,000 students… but the sector has been plagued with problems including mid-year school closures, allegations of financial improprieties and charter schools ‘sponsor shopping’ to avoid scrutiny. Ohio has more than 60 charter school sponsors, or authorizers, that open and oversee the schools… A 2014 study by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes paid for by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute found students in the state’s charter schools perform worse on average in reading and math than their peers in traditional public schools.

 

“And then there are the notorious online charters. “A big player among Ohio online charters is the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, which enrolled 14,000 students last year and was founded by longtime GOP booster William Lager. Another longtime Ohio charter school backer is David Brennan, founder of White Hat Management, who has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Kasich over the years. Innovation Ohio has estimated that since charter schools first opened in Ohio in the late ’90s, $1.8 billion of the $7.3 billion the state has spent on the sector has gone to schools run by Lager and Brennan—or $1 out of every $4 spent. Then, there’s the 11,000-student Ohio Virtual Academy, run by K12 Inc., that donated $100,000 in 2014 to the Republican Governors Association.”

 

“Finally, Hefling reports, there was the scandal that began last summer when David Hansen, then head of the charter schools office at the Ohio Department of Education, submitted a federal charter school expansion grant application that painted a rosy picture of the performance of Ohio’s charter schools and mysteriously omitted the horrible ratings of Ohio’s online charter schools. This whole mess is very much connected to Kasich, because Hansen’s wife was then the governor’s chief of staff and is now the head of Kasich’s presidential campaign. When the U.S. Department of Education responded by awarding what is a $71 million grant to expand charters—and to take over and charterize the Youngstown City Schools—a firestorm broke out. David Hansen was fired for his flawed rating system, and the federal government has demanded documentation that charter school regulation is being improved. As Hefling reports, “(T)he state took the embarrassing step in January of updating its application figures to say that instead of having nine charters schools that are poor performing, 57 are in that condition.” But even in the updated federal application, Ohio’s amended figures rate only brick and mortar schools and omit the politically connected virtual academies….

 

“Hefling summarizes her concerns about Kasich and the charter schools he loves: “Ohio Gov. John Kasich is an avid proponent of school choice, but his home state’s notoriously problematic charter school sector is often held up as an example of what can go wrong.”

 

Resseger includes links to all her statements. Open the post to see them.

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Funding, Unions, Vouchers
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