Archives for the month of: May, 2016
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New York: It is a New Day for the State Board of Regents–and for Students, Teachers, and Parents!

By dianeravitch
May 4, 2016 //
15

The new chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents visited a dual-language elementary school on Long Island, accompanied by the Superintendent, Michael Hynes (a member of the honor roll of this blog) and by Jeanette Deutermann, parent leader of the Long Island Opt-Out movement. Dr. Rosa spoke to the children in both English and Spanish.

 

 




The newly elected chancellor of the state Board of Regents visited a Medford Elementary School dual-language classroom Tuesday afternoon as part of her first statewide listening tour since she assumed the post in March.

 

“I am going around the state and seeing these wonderful opportunities,” said Betty Rosa, a former Bronx special education teacher, principal and superintendent. “My goal is to make sure our children have the resources and opportunities and access to a quality education.”

 

Rosa, joined by Patchogue-Medford Superintendent Michael J. Hynes, spoke in Spanish and English to students in the classroom at Medford Elementary in Patchogue. The district is in its eighth year offering a dual-language program, with 375 students now enrolled.

 

Hynes, a vocal critic of high-stakes testing, praised Rosa’s vision — seeing what’s working in public schools and trying to replicate it statewide.

 

“Everything she focuses on is what’s best for kids,” he said.
Rosa’s selection as chancellor marked a dramatic shift in tone for the Regents board, where a majority of board members in the past had supported higher academic standards and other reforms, first enthusiastically and then with growing reluctance.

 

She was named chancellor shortly before state assessments were administered last month. A Newsday survey found that more than half of Long Island students boycotted the English Language Arts and math exams in April.

 

It was the second sweeping boycott in New York, driven by parents’ and educators’ rebellion against the exams, the tests’ links to teacher and principal performance evaluations and other state education reforms.

 

Rosa was joined on Tuesday’s tour by Jeanette Deutermann, a North Bellmore parent and founder of Long Island Opt Out.

 

“It is so hopeful for parents who have been fighting and fighting to have somebody at the top who understands what we are fighting for and believes in the same philosophy,” Deutermann said.

 

Rosa called Tuesday for less emphasis on state tests and said she believes teacher evaluations should not be tied to scores on those exams.

 

“We have to get back to what really matters — which is teaching and learning, and . . . our kids’ excitement to become learners,” Rosa said.

 

And she means it.

Categories New York, Opt Out, Parents, Real Education

Mercedes Schneider Does Not Feel Grateful to the 1% for Funding Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
May 4, 2016 //
22

Over the weekend, Nina Rees, CEO of the Natuonal Alliance for Public Charter Schools, expressed her gratitude to the billionaires who fund charter schools and wondered why anyone could question their kindness and generosity.

 

Mercedes Schneider explains to Nina Rees why she feels no gratitude to the billionaires. They are harming public education and hurting millions of children, whose public schools are losing resources and programs and teachers as the billionaires build their charter empire to compete with underfunded public schools.

 

Rees wrote:

 

“If you heard that a group of philanthropists came together to donate millions of dollars to schools, you would probably consider it good news.”

 

Schneider responded:

 

“Anyone who has spent even five minutes on this blog would know that I would not consider the above to be “good news.” I am aware that millions donated “to schools” in this day and age likely means the corporate reform billionaire attempt to convert traditional public education into an under-regulated, market-driven model.”

 

And it gets better from there on.

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Education Reform

Joseph Batory: Time to Abolish State Control of Philadelphia’s Schools

By dianeravitch
May 4, 2016 //
3

Joseph Batory, former superintendent of public schools in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, says it is time to abolish the School Reform Commission that has governed Philadelphia’s public schools since 2001. It has presided over the destruction of public education. Having failed, it is time to replace it with an elected board. At least, it will be accountable to the public. It can’t be worse than the SRC!

 

Batory writes:

 

“It is clearly time for Philadelphia to rid itself of the State-imposed School Reform Commission (SRC) overseeing the city’s public schools. This politically appointed board, with three members appointed by the Governor and two by the Mayor, has been a colossal failure. The SRC has presided over an educational disaster in Philadelphia.

 

“Given the priority goal of establishing better fiscal oversight for the schools in 2001, the SRC’s legacy has been perpetual budget deficits in spite of the fact that Philadelphia’s public schools have been stripped of many teachers, nurses, librarians, counselors as well as basic supplies. Incredibly, a 12-year-old child died because she dared to have an asthma attack on a day when the school did not have a nurse. In terms of services to and opportunities for students, Philadelphia schools are running far behind their suburban counterparts. What sort of formula for public school success is this?

 

“The SRC has regularly has demonized the teachers union, limited parent, student and community voices, and promoted the expansion of the charter school sector, despite the fact that these actions have only worsened the District’s fiscal problems.

 

“On top of all of this, the Boston Consulting Group was paid more than $2 million by the William Penn Foundation via an incestuous relationship with the SRC to create a biased “Blueprint for Reform.” This plan laid out a five year course of privatization which would close one-fourth of Philadelphia’s schools, placing 40% of students into charters, and dividing up the remaining schools into NYC-inspired “achievement networks” run by third party operators (editor’s note: they were unsuccessful in NYC).

 

“The SRC’s two most famous CEO/Superintendent appointments were little more than “top down” dictators rather than “enablers” who demeaned principals and teachers, robotized teaching, and produced minimal school improvements at best. Yet each of them was well rewarded with generous salaries, including a $65,000.00 bonus in just one year to one of them on top of her annual salary.

 

“The SRC’s policies have provoked broad and sustained opposition from the public over the last two years. On numerous occasions, parents, students, and educators have taken to the streets and to City Council and SRC meetings to register their dissent.

 

“Thankfully, at least one State Senator is trying to do something. Senator Mike Stack (D-Northeast), is now calling for Philadelphians to elect school-board members. His proposed Senate Bill would return a locally elected school board to Philadelphia.

 
“Stack told the Philadelphia City Council Committee on Education recently. “The SRC fails the accountability and transparency test because it is not elected by the taxpayers. Therefore, it is not accountable to parents, students, and certainly not the taxpayers. It is only accountable to the Governor or Mayor who have appointed them.”

 

“Helen Gym, co-founder of Parents United for Public Education agrees. The SRC is “a body that has refused to commit to transparency,” she said. “SRC policy denies people an adequate opportunity to speak to the issues. It is a serious imposition on the public.”

 
“Make no mistake about it. An elected school board is no panacea. However, the School Reform Commission has had its opportunity to create positive change for Philadelphia’s schools and failed miserably. Tragically, Philadelphia’s public school children have been and continue to be victims of this political abuse and neglect. The School Reform Commission needs to be abolished.”

 

 

Categories Accountability, Democracy, Education Reform, Failure, Philadelphia

Paul Thomas: Look at the Norm, not Outliers

By dianeravitch
May 4, 2016 //
25

Paul Thomas, professor at Furman University in South Carolina, takes note of the recent story in the New York Times about the weight of poverty and race on academic outcomes and writes that policy must be based on evidence, not outliers.

 

The story showed the powerful impact of race and poverty. The subtitle was: “Sixth graders in the richest school districts are four grade levels ahead of children in the poorest districts.”

 

The story identified two districts that were outliers. Two small districts beat the odds. That set off a discussion about how they did it. What could we learn from Unuon City, New Jersey, and Bremen, Georgia? (I too am guilty of pointing to the outliers as models.)

 

Thomas writes:

 

“But then there is this:

 

[Quoting the story in the Times] The data was [sic] not uniformly grim. A few poor districts — like Bremen City, Ga. and Union City, N.J. — posted higher-than-average scores. They suggest the possibility that strong schools could help children from low-income families succeed.

 

“There are some outliers, and trying to figure out what’s making them more successful is worth looking at,” said Mr. Reardon, a professor of education and lead author of the analysis.
Well, no, if we find outliers—and virtually all data have outliers in research—we should not waste our time trying to figure out how we can make outliers the norm.”

 

Thomas vigorously dissents:

 

“The norm is where we should put our efforts in order to confront what is, in fact, not “puzzling” (used earlier in the article) at all; the data are very clear:”

 

[Quoting the story]: “What emerges clearly in the data is the extent to which race and class are inextricably linked, and how that connection is exacerbated in school settings.”

 

“Not only are black and Hispanic children more likely to grow up in poor families, but middle-class black and Hispanic children are also much more likely than poor white children to live in neighborhoods and attend schools with high concentrations of poor students.”

 

Thomas writes:
“Our great education reform failure is one of failing to rethink our questions and our goals.

 

“Let’s stop trying to find the “miracle” in a rare few schools where vulnerable students appear to succeed despite the odds against them. With time and careful consideration, we must admit, those appearances almost always are mirages.

 

“Let’s instead put our energy in eradicating the poverty, racism, and sexism that disadvantages some students, vulnerable populations easily identified by race and social class, so that we can educate all students well.”

 

 

 

 

Categories Education Reform, Hoax, Poverty, Race

KIPP’s Dark Secrets, Revealed by Center for Media and Democracy

By dianeravitch
May 4, 2016 //
46

The public-interest group Center for Media and Democracy made a startling discovery:

 

The powerful KIPP charter chain asked the US Department of Education to shield certain crucial data from public view, and the Department agreed to do so. With about 150 schools, KIPP is the nation’s largest charter chain, with the possible exception of the Gulen charter chain.

 

CMD notes that every public school is required to make its data public, but KIPP does not. Since KIPP millions of dollars in federal, state,and local funding, this is an unusual arrangement.

 

 

CMD reports:

 

 

“KIPP touts itself as particularly successful at preparing students to succeed in school and college.
“Yet, it insisted that the U.S. Department of Education keep secret from the public the statistics about the percentage of its eighth graders who completed high school, entered college, and/or who completed a two-year or four-year degree.
“A few years ago, professor Gary Miron and his colleagues Jessica Urschel and Nicholas Saxton, found that “KIPP charter middle schools enroll a significantly higher proportion of African-American students than the local school districts they draw from but 40 percent of the black males they enroll leave between grades 6 and 8,” as reported by Mary Ann Zehr in Ed Week.
“Zehr noted: “‘The dropout rate for African-American males is really shocking,’ said Gary J. Miron, a professor of evaluation, measurement, and research” at Western Michigan University, who conducted the national study.
“Miron’s analysis was attacked by KIPP and its allies, who said KIPP’s success was not due to the attrition of lower performing students who leave the school or move to other districts. One of its defenders was Mathematica Policy Research, whose subsequent study was used to try to rebut Miron’s analysis. (That name will be important momentarily.)
“The Department of Education has been provided with the data about what percentage of KIPP students graduate from high school and go on to college, but it is helping KIPP keep that secret—despite the public tax dollars going to these schools and despite KIPP’s claim to be operating what are public schools.
Real public schools would never be allowed to claim that high school graduation rates or college matriculation rates are “proprietary” or “privileged” or “confidential.”
“Why does the Education Department’s Charter School Program “Office of Innovation and Improvement” defer to KIPP’s demand to keep that information secret from the public?
“Meanwhile, the KIPP Foundation regularly spends nearly a half million dollars a year ($467,594 at last count) on advertising to convince the public how great its public charters are using figures it selects to promote. No public school district in the nation has that kind of money to drop on ads promoting its successes.”

 

But that’s not all that is undisclosed.

 

“Even as KIPP was seeking more than $22 million from the federal government to expand its charter school network, it insisted that the U.S. Department of Education redact from its application a chart about how much money would be spent on personnel, facilities, transportation, and “other uses” under the proposed grant. KIPP also sought to redact the amount of private funding it was projecting.
“The agency’s compliant Office of Innovation and Improvement obliged KIPP.”

 

However, CMD found some of this information on IRS reports. What they discovered were large expenditures on travel, executive salaries, and advertising. Trips included lavish expenditures at Disney World.

 

“Not only did KIPP seek to keep the public in the dark about how it spends tax-exempt funding and how many KIPP students make it to high school graduation or college, it also sought to redact information “KIPP Student Attrition” by region and “by subgroup” and “KIPP Student Performance” on state exams on “Math and Reading.”

 

“The Office of Innovation and Improvement did as KIPP requested.”

 

Why would the Department acquiesce to KIPP’s request to treat this information secret? If charters are public schools, how can their data on costs and attrition be treated as “proprietary”?

 

 

KIPP was a favorite of Arne Duncan. He awarded $50 million of Race to the Top funding to KIPP, and another $50 million to Teach for America. In case you didn’t know, Richard Barth, the executive director of KIPP, is married to Wendy Kopp, the founder of TFA.

 

 

 

– See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/04/13096/exposed-cmd-kipps-efforts-keep-public-dark-while-seeking-millions-taxpayer#sthash.BVqHlzyg.dpuf

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, KIPP Charter Schools, Teach for America, U.S. Department of Education

Professor to Pearson: Your EdTPA Stinks!

By dianeravitch
May 4, 2016 //
34

Michael J. Ludwig is a professor of specialized program in education at Hofstra University in New York. He prepares teachers. He wrote this letter to Pearson and invited me to post it, without his student’s name.

 

 

Dear edTPA,

 

Where do I begin?

 

  • With the fact that I have over 30 years’ experience in health education that includes work as a teacher at the middle school, high school, and higher education levels?

 

  • With the fact that I have three degrees (BS, MS, PhD) in health education but apparently I can’t be trusted to judge whether or not someone is prepared to lead a health education classroom?

 

  • With the fact that the art and craft of teaching has been reduced to a series of bureaucratic measurements done by someone who has never met the aspiring teacher?

 

  • With the fact that while I was intensely skeptical of edTPA from the start, I worked diligently to “get up to speed” and revised our curriculum and program to meet the demands of edTPA despite the fact that the vast majority of our master’s degree students are already certified and do not have to submit a portfolio?

 

  • With the fact that the way New York State rolled out edTPA is now viewed as a textbook case of how NOT to do it?

 

  • With the fact that a high stakes decision such as teacher licensing is decided by a Pearson employee who has never met and will never meet the candidates submitting their edTPA portfolio?

 

  • With the fact that my 2 years of work with health education teacher candidates no longer has any bearing on whether or not they are able to get licensed to teach in New York State?

 

  • With the fact that despite the cooperating teachers’ beliefs at my students’ field work placements that my students were progressing appropriately and were on track to become master teachers counts for nothing?

 

  • With the fact that edTPA scorers are not required to have experience as classroom teachers?

 

  • With the fact that edTPA scorers are paid a paltry $75 to decide whether or not a candidate is allowed to realize a dream?

 

 

With the fact that despite all my misgivings, I registered to become a health education scorer for Pearson’s edTPA so as to better be able to provide support to my health education students?

 

As I’m certain you will not address all the previous questions (which are posed rhetorically), I will attempt to provide some context for this note by answering this last question. I am currently employed by Pearson to become a health education edTPA scorer. I have not completed my training and have come to realize even more than I first believed, that the entire edTPA process is a fraud that I will no longer participate in. However, humor me and let me provide some background:

 

I scored the first health education practice portfolio and was told during the subsequent webinar that I was the best scorer they had worked with to date. I was told that I hit the majority of the rubrics with the score that was expected and the few that I didn’t get exactly were adjacent. As the demands of the semester increased, I never got around to scoring and submitting the second practice portfolio. One of the demands I was facing was to support a candidate during her student teaching.

 

I supported my current candidate (xxxxxxxxxx) as she designed, implemented, and evaluated three consecutive lessons on stress management for her edTPA portfolio where we both used the “Thinking Behind the Rubrics” as our guide and were confident that no rubric was below a three and that most of them should have earned a four or five.

 

I followed edTPA’s guidelines for appropriate candidate support but frankly I’m not sure I could have written a better series of lessons. However, my informal assessment of the portfolio was deemed VERY wrong. I say that because yesterday edTPA sent the score report back to my student (she shared it with me) and found 14 of the 15 rubrics were scored a two, with one rubric (#6) scored a three? Now, like any good researcher, I understand the role bias could play in my reading of my student’s portfolio. However, these scores were so divergent from where I believed they should be that I have to believe that the portfolio was given only a cursory read at best. Or, there had to be some issue with the scorer. The notion that there is no recourse and the that the scoring system lacks any degree of transparency is ludicrous. A person should have to defend and support their assessment. Reading the comments of the scorer of Ms. xxxxxxxx’s edTPA score report told me that whoever that person is, they either didn’t understand the writing or they didn’t bother to read carefully. Not that it’s germane to this issue but Ms. xxxxx has at least three peer-reviewed publications in journals.

 

The fact that this process costs $300 is a heavy burden for many aspiring educators. Further, the fact that edTPA charges an additional $100 for a rescore in unconscionable. Ms. xxxxxxx submitted her portfolio on March 22, 2016 and was one of the first to submit from Hofstra University. I feel one source of scorer error could be due to this early submission.

 

I insist that edTPA re-examine Ms. xxxxxxx’s submission by a fully trained and vetted veteran scorer of health education portfolios at no charge to her. I have concerns about the process: If a person has their portfolio rescored, is the scorer told that it is a “rescore”? If so, they would have to know that the rescore was the result of not passing on the initial scoring which would clearly bias the scorer. I must admit I have no faith in the edTPA system. The system crushed a promising young woman who worked tirelessly to follow the edTPA handbook. Not only that, and more importantly, Ms. xxxxxxxxx was ultimately most interested in teaching her students the functional knowledge and health-related skills so as facilitate and improve their health and wellbeing.

 

I could go on but others have done an excellent job questioning the usefulness of edTPA. I would imagine you are familiar with these critiques and have dismissed them. I believe they are largely accurate and spot on.

 

http://www.nea.org/home/63423.htm

 

http://catalyst-chicago.org/2015/05/a-laundry-list-of-problems-with-new-edtpa-teacher-assessment/

 

https://dianeravitch.net/2015/07/07/a-teacher-life-ruined-by-pearsons-edtpa/

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/new-challenges-to-pearson_b_7312856.html

 

http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/trouble-rubrics/

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Michael J. Ludwig, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Health Education

Hofstra University

Michael.J.Ludwig@hofstra.edu

Categories Education Reform

Good News from Buffalo, NY: Corporate Reformers Ousted in School Board Election

By dianeravitch
May 4, 2016 //
10

In Buffalo, New York, the election for the school board was nearly a clean sweep for opponents of corporate reform. Of six seats, only one was retained by the old pro-testing, pro-charter crowd. The one survivor was erratic and controversial multimillionaire real estate developer Carl Paladino, who won by only 107 votes of 3,000 cast running against a teenage challenger.

 

The Buffalo Federation of Teachers supported the five victorious candidates.

 

Paladino invests in charter schools. No conflict of interest there.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, New York, Resistance, Unions

Detroit: Teachers Will Be Paid, Return to Work

By dianeravitch
May 3, 2016 //
5

The following news comes from the AFT:

 
For Immediate Release
May 3, 2016

 

Contact:
Janet Bass
301-502-5222
jbass@aft.org
http://www.aft.org
Detroit Educators Get Assurance on Pay

 

DETROIT—After two days of being locked out of their schools, the Detroit Public Schools’ transitional manager today gave teachers and school employees the assurance they needed that they will be paid for their work. At a membership meeting late this afternoon, the Detroit Federation of Teachers encouraged the school employees to go back to school on Wednesday.

 

DFT Interim President Ivy Bailey received a letter with the assurance from Judge Steven Rhodes, the transitional manager for DPS.

 

“We’ve been working 24/7 to secure the assurance that educators will be fully paid for the school year, so they can go back to the classroom and do what they love to do—teach their students. It is a fundamental right to be paid for the work one does. Anything other than that is dead wrong and tantamount to wage theft,” said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.

 

Over the weekend, the DFT heard a rumor that the school system would not guarantee educators at least some salaries from as early as April 28 through June. This would especially affect the people who have their pay spread across 26 weeks of the year—about two-thirds of the city’s 3,800 educators.

 

“It’s astonishing that teachers and other school employees have been working diligently to educate our kids in under-resourced schools with deplorable conditions, yet they had to fight to get what they’re due. That’s adding insult to injury,” Bailey said. “We’re happy to return to the classroom and finish the school year with our kids.”

 

Weingarten noted the irony that today is national Teacher Appreciation Day. “At the very least, teachers must be paid for the work they do. Real appreciation would be to fully fund Detroit Public Schools, return the schools to local control, provide a process for accountability and transparency, and start the new school year with the resources and supports needed to help all kids succeed,” Weingarten said.

 

Weingarten thanked Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Judge Rhodes and others, including Gov. Rick Snyder, for their help in securing the assurance of payment.

###

Categories Education Reform

Reader: Does Funding Explain EWA Support for Common Core?

By dianeravitch
May 3, 2016 //
9

A reader of the blog who uses the name Democracy posted a comment in response to a post about the Education Writers Association. The post by testing expert Richard Phelps documented the extraordinarily one-sided agenda of EWA when presenting the Common Core.

 

Democracy explains the reason:

 

“I’ve been saying for a while now that education reporting is generally abysmal.

 

“The Education Writers Association claims that it provides ” high-quality education coverage.” Sometimes, it probably does. Many times it doesn’t come close.

 

“Which begs the question, why not?

 

“Perhaps it’s because it’s “generous support” comes from The Gates Foundation, the Dell Foundation, the Kern Foundation and the Walton Foundation, among others.

 

“The Gates Foundation is neck deep in education “reform,” corporate-style. SO are the others.

 

“For example, the Dell Foundation (think Dell computers) invests in charter schools and “data-driven education.” Its a primary backer of the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), along with ExxonMobil, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, the College Board, the Gates Foundation, and JPMorgan Chase. The NMSI tells us that “STEM education matters…our country’s student performance must improve in order for America to remain globally competitive.“ The problem, of course, is that it’s simply not true.

 

“The Kern Family Foundation is based on what it calls “the traditions of free enterprise…ordered liberty and good character.” The Kern Foundation applauds Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute for explaining in his book The Battle, that the “free enterprise is fundamentally a system of moral values such as honesty, courage, diligence, thrift and service to others.” Tell that to all of those who were hurt and cheated and swindled –– and left without homes and jobs –– because of the rampant fraud and corruption on Wall Street and in corporate boardrooms.

 

“The Walton Foundation focuses on “competition”, “charter school choice,” “private school choice,” and teacher effectiveness. It funds groups like Teach for America, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and the Charter School Growth Fund. It is no friend of public education.

 

“If the EWA is to – in fact – provide “high quality education coverage” so that reporters can get the story “right” and help “to create a better-informed society,” then it may have to shed the money it rakes in from those who have a very different agenda.”

 

Follow the money.

Categories Education Reform

Sorry, It is NOT Teacher Appreciation Week

By dianeravitch
May 3, 2016 //
43

Yesterday I posted a tribute to teachers by John Ewing, on the assumption that this was Teacher Appreciation Werk. My error. President Obama renamed it Charter Appreciation Week.

 

A comment from reader Chiara:

 

 

 

“The Obama Administration turned Teacher Appreciation Week into Charter Teacher Appreciation Week:

 

“This week, we honor the educators working in public charter schools across our Nation who, each day, give of themselves to provide children a fair shot at the American dream, and we recommit to the basic promise that all our daughters and sons — regardless of background or circumstance — should be able to make of their lives what they will. ” [The President’s Proclamation]

 

“It’s appalling how completely in the tank they are. They really require some kind of intervention in DC, some input from someone who isn’t employed inside the ed reform echo chamber.

 

“I guess “testing season” is over and now that they’ve collected the data from public school students we won’t hear a word about public schools until it’s time to test again.

 

 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/04/29/presidential-proclamation-national-charter-schools-week-2016

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Teachers
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