Archives for the month of: March, 2017
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Nicholas Tampio: State Testing Starts March 28, Don’t Let Them Bully You: Opt Out

By dianeravitch
March 24, 2017 //
4

Nicholas Tampio is a professor of political science in New York, and a parent of children in public schools.

He warns that the State Education Department has a campaign to stop opt out from testing, based on bullying and intimidation.

He writes:

“All across New York, superintendents and principals have sent versions of the following statements to parents whose children are in grades 3-8 and are scheduled to take Common Core tests:

*Students who are still working on their exams will be allowed to continue to work, within the confines of the regular school day, beyond the recommended testing times.

*There are fewer questions on the test.

*The tests have been thoroughly reviewed and constructed by New York State educators to ensure they measure what students are learning in the classroom.

*Student performance of the 2017 Grades 3-8 ELA and Mathematics Tests will have no employment-related consequences for teacher and principal evaluations.

“The New York State Department of Education Assessment Toolkit provides all of these points in its sample superintendent letter to parents. Dutifully, administrators across the state are transcribing these statements and putting their own signatures on letters to parents.

“Test-refusing families rarely make the first three points. Few parents want their elementary school child to spend the whole school day taking a standardized test. According to the toolkit, the 2017 tests will have the same number of test questions as the 2016 tests (clearly this point did not impress parents last year). And classroom teachers did not make the tests for their students; someone else did (it doesn’t matter if they are in New York or not).

“This toolkit takes on imaginary opponents rather than test-refusing families or scholars such as Carol Burris or Diane Ravitch.

“The reason that parents are refusing the tests, as a rule, is because they don’t want school to be taking or preparing for standardized tests on computers in two or three academic subjects. That is a miserable conception of education that educated and powerful parents do not want for their own children.”

Categories Education Reform

DeVos Wants More Vouchers in DC, Despite Lack of Results

By dianeravitch
March 24, 2017 //
17

The Republicans are set to expand the D.C. Voucher program, even though no evaluation has shown better test scores for D.C. voucher students and a high attrition rate.

Students who get a voucher will check their constitutional rights at the door. The voucher schools may exclude students with disabilities and LGBT students. DeVos doesn’t care.

Republicans have already started moving HR 1387, the SOAR Reauthorization Act. This bill would reauthorize the DC voucher program (the only federally funded voucher program in the country), and the group that administers the program has said they expect to provide “hundreds” of new vouchers to DC students with Republicans in charge.

The bill was passed out of committee earlier this month on a party line vote, and we expect the bill to hit the House floor soon. Just as telling as the final vote on the bill was how the committee voted on amendments, and this headline says it all: GOP lawmakers refuse to protect LGBT students and those with disabilities in school voucher bill.

This is the first voucher bill being moved this year – and while Betsy DeVos refused to say during her confirmation hearing that schools taking federal money should have to abide by IDEA and provide the same services and protections to students with disabilities as public schools, members of Congress may soon have a chance to go on record themselves about this very issue when the SOAR Reauthorization bill is voted on.

Categories Betsy DeVos, District of Columbia, Special Education, Vouchers

John Merrow: Who Is Running the Show at the U.S. Department of Education?

By dianeravitch
March 24, 2017 //
16

John Merrow hears that the Department of Education in a state of confusion.

“From one perspective, these are the worst of times for American public education. In his inaugural address, President Trump told the nation that we have an “education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.” His proposed budget acts on his words, cutting federal education dollars by 13.55, or nearly $9 billion. His Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, has called public education a disgrace and a disaster. Openly hostile to traditional public schools (which serve 90% of children) she plans to use the levers of power available to her to support vouchers, home schooling, on-line for-profit charter schools, and other alternatives.

“Basically, it’s open warfare against public education in Washington.

“However, it’s also chaotic, because Trump’s White House does not trust any of the Cabinet departments and has installed ‘spies’ in all of them, including Education. These Trump loyalists, often called ‘Special Assistants to the Secretary,’ report to the White House, not to the Secretary of the department they’re assigned to. So, things have to be beyond weird at 400 Maryland Avenue SW, the home of the Department of Education. One can imagine these ‘Special Assistants’ going from office to office, looking over shoulders and grilling confused bureaucrats. “What do you do?” Why does what you do matter?” And so on… I hear that morale is plummeting at the Department.

“I just came from Washington, where some Republicans and Democrats told me that “Lamar Alexander is really in charge.” Mr. Alexander is the Republic Senator from Tennessee and a former Secretary of Education who, as Chair of the Committee that approved DeVos, pushed through her nomination even though her statements revealed her lack of qualifications and understanding. They seemed to be expressing the hope that Senator Alexander could and would rein in DeVos if she really got crazy.

“So, it’s bad, but it would be worse if Trump’s anti-public school people had their act together, which they do not.”

The only solace he sees in the current situation is that Hillary would have stayed on the same Republican-designed test-and-punishe regime so beloved by Teach for America and DFER.

So, it was a Hobson’s choice, between more of the same (Hillary) and a willful, ignorant billionaire intent on destroying public schools.

Where do we go from here? We have to fight back, resist, ptotest, or watch the privatization movement steal a democratic institution.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization, Testing, Vouchers

Charles Blow: The Birth of the Biggest Lie

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2017 //
12

Charles Blow wrote an important article Day about the Trump campaign’s breath-taking lies.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/opinion/birth-of-the-biggest-lie.html

“A few things are clear after the congressional testimony of James Comey, the F.B.I. director, this week:

“First, Donald Trump owes Barack Obama and the American people an apology for his vituperative lie that Obama committed a felony by wiretapping Trump Tower. It was specious, libelous and reckless, regardless of the weak revelations of “incidental collection” that the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and Trump transition team member Devin Nunes outrageously made public, briefing the president without first briefing his fellow committee members. Nunes’s announcement was a bombshell with no bomb, just enough mud in the water to obscure the blood in the water for those too willfully blind to discern the difference.

“Second, Donald Trump will never apologize. Trump’s strategy for dealing with being caught in a lie is often to tell a bigger lie. He seems constitutionally incapable of registering what others would: shame, embarrassment, contrition. Something is broken in the man — definitely morally and possibly psychologically.

“Third, and to me this is the biggest, Comey confirmed that the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to the Russians who tampered with our election is not “fake news” manufactured by Democrats stewing over a bitter loss but a legitimate investigation that has been underway for months and has no end in sight.

“Individuals who were associated with the president of the United States’ winning campaign are under criminal investigation. That is an extraordinary sentence and one that no American can allow to be swallowed up by other news or dismissed by ideologues.

“Depending on the outcome of this investigation, we could be facing a constitutional crisis. Oddly, it is likely that the reason Trump is even in the Oval Office is Comey’s original, extraordinarily inappropriate and unprecedented action. The Trump machinery then used that action to scare Americans about Clinton, in one of the most astonishing acts of deflection and hypocrisy in American history.”

Categories Lies, Trump

Grit Makes a Come Back

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2017 //
62

Just when you thought we were done with discussing, debating, and dissecting grit, the New York Times publishes an article about those “character strengths” that affluent children seem to have more of. Thomas Edsall writes about the subject here.

While there are substantial numbers of low-income children who have strength of character, the measures used continue to show that income and whatever is measured are correlated.

Attempts to develop educational strategies to promote the development of noncognitive skills are still in the beginning stages. Many experiments are being conducted in high-poverty, high-crime neighborhoods where the challenges in developing noncognitive skills have been most acute.

He goes on to cite James Heckman, Angela Duckworth, Paul Tough, and others who have written about the non cognitive skills that lead to success. Citing a researcher, he says that “noncognitive skill levels rose significantly not only as family income grew but also as the mother’s education level rose. In addition, children in continuously married two-parent families did better than children with single parents.”

What precisely is being measured?

Edsall sees a political angle to these issues, namely, Trump’s claim that Democrats and liberal policy is responsible for not teaching grit, perseverance, and character:

What is to be made of all these findings?

First, the spectrum of noncognitive skills and character strengths are a major factor in American class stratification. Whether these factors are more or less important than extrinsic forces like globalization, automation and declining unionization remains unclear, but changing family structures are evidently leaving millions of men and women ill-equipped to ascend the socioeconomic ladder.

Second, neither religious leaders nor practicing politicians nor government employees have found the levers that actually make disadvantaged families more durable or functional. As a corollary, the failure of government efforts to affect or slow down negative developments has left an opening for conservatives to argue that government interventions make things worse.

For liberals and the Democratic Party, the continued failure of government initiatives to achieve measurable gains in the acquisition of valuable noncognitive skills by disadvantaged youngsters constitutes a major liability.

This liability played a role in the outcome of the 2016 election. Throughout the campaign, President Trump repeated comments like this one:

The Democratic Party has run nearly every inner city for 50 years, 60 years, 70 years, and even more than 100 years they have produced only poverty, failing schools, and broken homes.

This and related charges will continue to dog Democratic candidates in 2018 and 2020 unless progressive policy advocates can find ways to more effectively highlight and capitalize on the ample supply of character strengths evident everywhere among America’s poor. This is extraordinarily important.

Advocates for the disadvantaged must also highlight and capitalize on the many demonstrably effective antipoverty solutions already well known to the academic, research and nonprofit communities. Without better funded and better crafted organization and advocacy on behalf of the poor, the propaganda and accusations now emanating from the right will ineluctably reshape the law of the land — and once institutionalized, such “remedies” could prove staggeringly difficult to reverse.

In my book Reign of Error, I responded to these claims, one by one. First, pointing out that test scores and graduation rates are at an all-time high, and dropout rates are at an all-time low. Then by explaining patiently that poverty takes a toll on children and families. They often lack decent health care, decent housing, and safe neighborhoods, which affects school performance and motivation.

Trump plans to take a wrecking ball to America’s public schools. He has no ideas, and his Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has only one idea: to promote alternatives to public schools. Did people like them succeed because they have grit? No, they were born rich. Trump was born on third base; DeVos at home plate.

Categories Grit, Poverty

Review: Will Higher Admission Standards for Teacher Education Produce Better Teachers?

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2017 //
34

The National Coucil for Teacher Quality issued a report calling for higher admission standards for entrants into teaching, specifically, higher SAT and ACT scores. This report was reviewed on behalf of the National Education Policy Center. It is interesting and strange that so many people think that scores on the SAT or ACT have remarkable predictive powers. The cardinal rule of psychometric is that a test should be used only for the purpose for which it was designed. These tests were designed to gauge likely success in college, but multiple studies have concluded that the students’ four-year grade-point-average is more reliable than either the SAT or ACT. Why would anyone think they predict good teachers? NCTQ should turn its attention to making the teaching profession more fulfilling and rewarding. At a time of teacher shortages, raising the bar will exacerbate the shortage.

The NCTQ is Gates-funded and endorses VAM to rate teachers. So they start with a strong bias towards standardized testing.

NEPC says:

BOULDER, CO (March 23, 2017) – A recent report from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) advocates for a higher bar for entry into teacher preparation programs. The NCTQ report suggests, based on a review of GPA and SAT/ACT requirements at 221 institutions in 25 states, that boosting entry requirements would significantly improve teacher quality in the U.S. It argues that this higher bar should be set by states, by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), and by the higher-education institutions themselves.

However, the report’s foundational claims are poorly supported, making its recommendations highly problematic.

The report, Within Our Grasp: Achieving Higher Admissions Standards in Teacher Prep, was reviewed by a group of scholars and practitioners who are members of Project TEER (Teacher Education and Education Reform). The team was led by Marilyn Cochran-Smith, the Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education for Urban Schools at Boston College, along with Megina Baker, Wen-Chia Chang, M. Beatriz Fernández, & Elizabeth Stringer Keefe. The review is published by the Think Twice Think Tank Review Project at the National Education Policy Center, housed at University of Colorado Boulder’s School of Education.

The reviewers explain that the report does not provide the needed supports for its assertions or recommendations. It makes multiple unsupported and unfounded claims about the impact on teacher diversity of raising admissions requirements for teacher candidates, about public perceptions of teaching and teacher education, and about attracting more academically able teacher candidates.

Each claim is based on one or two cherry-picked citations while ignoring the substantial body of research that either provides conflicting evidence or shows that the issues are much more complex and nuanced than the report suggests. Ultimately, the reviewers conclude, the report offers little guidance for policymakers or institutions.

Find the review by Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Megina Baker, Wen-Chia Chang, M. Beatriz Fernández, & Elizabeth Stringer Keefe at:
http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-admissions

Find Within Our Grasp: Achieving Higher Admissions Standards in Teacher Prep, by Kate Walsh, Nithya Joseph, & Autumn Lewis, published by the National Council on Teacher Quality, at:
http://www.nctq.org/dmsView/Admissions_Yearbook_Report

Categories National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), National Education Policy Center, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers

Betsy DeVos Raises Fees for Collectors of Student Debt, Including One of Her Former Advisors

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2017 //
12

Betsy DeVos just reversed an Obama administration rule that limited the fees that student debt collectors can charge, and one of the beneficiaries has a direct connection to her. As we are learning, making money is a sign of virtue in DeVos’s world, and the more money, the more virtue.

Americans who default on some of their federal student loans are likely to pay more after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos reversed an Obama administration directive limiting some fees. But it turns out the Trump administration decision has some beneficiaries—including the father of a key DeVos lieutenant who just quit.

DeVos’s decision, announced Thursday in a memorandum to the student loan industry, allows companies known as guaranty agencies to charge distressed student debtors fees equivalent to 16 percent of their total balance, even when borrowers agree within 60 days to make good on their bad debt.

The reversal is almost certain to hand United Student Aid Funds Inc., the nation’s largest guaranty agency, a victory in its two-year legal battle against her department. The fees could translate into an additional $15 million in annual revenue for the company, filings in a related lawsuit suggest. Until Jan. 1, United Student Aid Funds was led by Bill Hansen, who served as Deputy Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush. His son, Taylor Hansen, a former for-profit college lobbyist, was until three days ago one of the few DeVos advisers with professional experience in higher education.

The younger Hansen resigned from the Education Department on Friday, department spokesman Jim Bradshaw said in an e-mail. Hansen couldn’t be immediately reached for comment on his departure.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, For-Profit, Higher Education, Student Financial Aid and Student Debt

Los Angeles Charter Chain Defends CEO Income of $471,842

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2017 //
9

The Los Angeles Times published an article exposing the bloated expenses and income of the CEO of the Celerity Charter chain.

No shame or embarrassment. The charter chain defended the CEO’s salary and perks.

http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-celerity-response-20170321-story.html

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Los Angeles, Privatization

Betsy DeVos’s Super PAC Contributed to Defeat of Teacher Candidates in Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2017 //
29

In Oklahoma, the public schools are under-funded, and teachers are buying their own supplies in many schools. Last fall, a number of teachers ran for legislative seats. Needless to say, none of them was lavishly funded. But their opponents had the backing of Betsy DeVos’ American Federation for Children. How AFC can be “for” children when they oppose funding their schools and paying their teachers a decent salary is a mystery.

Oklahoma Watch reports that DeVos’ AFC PAC contributed at least $180,000 to defeat teachers running for the legislature.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Funding, Oklahoma, Teacher Pay

FairTest: The Latest News About Testing Resistance and Reform

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2017 //
3

Bob Schaeffer of FairTest reports on testing news from across the nation.

Responding to escalating grassroots pressure against standardized exam overkill, many state legislatures and education boards are advancing plans reduce testing overuse and misuse. Close monitoring by constituents is necessary to ensure that high-sounding proposals are actually implemented.

National Tell Your State to Consult with Stakeholders Over ESSA Plans
https://truthinamericaneducation.com/elementary-and-secondary-education-act/tell-your-state-slow-roll-essa-state-plans/
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2017/03/essa_involvement_unions_districts_state_chiefs.html

California New School Rating System Goes Beyond Test Scores
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education/article138642753.html

Delaware The Myth of School Grading

Apples, Oranges, & The Myth Of Grading Schools: The True Goals Behind Bad Education Policy

Florida Parents Push Back at Jeb Bush Plan for Higher Test Score Requirements
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-fsa-scores-naep-lawmakers-20170314-story.html
Florida House Panel Advances Bill to Make Some Tests Available to Public
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/florida-house-panel-moves-to-make-some-state-tests-publicly-available/2317228

Georgia State Legislature Sends Governor Bill Barring Punishment for Test Refusal
http://www.ajc.com/news/state–regional-education/georgia-lawmakers-send-school-test-refusal-bill-governor/KPJQ6uVPocHHUcAi1YxzoJ/
Georgia Legislators Consider Alternatives to Standardized Exams
http://www.ajc.com/news/state–regional-education/lawmakers-consider-alternatives-standardized-tests/WyPLN761lAoZj4if3kNCRI/

Illinois Opt-Out Tool Kit
http://www.ilraiseyourhand.org/testing2016
Illinois Opt-Out Families Criticize Pressure to Take PARCC
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/cps-families-teachers-cite-pressure-to-take-parcc-test/

Indiana State Seeks to Delay Promised Test Revamp
http://wboi.org/post/mccormick-asks-2019-start-date-new-test-not-2018

Massachusetts State Plays Shell Game Over New Test’s Contents
https://www.baystateparent.com/2017/03/14/state-officials-vague-on-new-standardized-test/

Minnesota Stop the State Testing Madness
http://www.sctimes.com/story/opinion/2017/03/16/stop-madness-mca-testing/99268306/

New Jersey Lawmakers Try to Spike PARCC Graduation Test
http://www.nj.com/education/2017/03/nj_parcc_graduation_requirement.html
New Jersey Why All Parents Should Consider Refusing the PARCC
https://www.tapinto.net/towns/montville/categories/letters-to-the-editor/articles/why-all-parents-should-consider-refusing-the-parc-43
New Jersey The Importance of Pushing Back Against PARCC
http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/03/19/op-ed-the-legislative-importance-of-pushing-back-against-parcc/

New York Grassroots Organizations Unite to Urge Massive Opt-Out
http://www.nysape.org/nysape-pr-optout2017.html
New York Regents Dump Teacher Test With Large Discriminatory Impact

New York How to Opt Out of State Tests Video
http://www.optoutnyc.com/

Ohio Use Evaluations to Help Teachers Improve, Not Label
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/03/ohio_teacher_evaluations_could_use_test_scores_for_more_growth_less_judgement.html
Ohio District-Mandated Exams Are Part of Overall Testing Crush
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/03/local_tests_are_part_of_ohios_testing_crush_too_says_state_superintendent.html
Ohio Test-Based Graduation Crisis
http://plunderbund.com/2017/03/19/the-graduation-crisis-in-one-page/

Pennsylvania State Shies Away From A-to-F School Grading System
http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/pennsylvania-is-shying-away-from-controversial-a-f-grading-system/article_09233aaa-0998-11e7-bdc0-23f560767dc7.html
Pennsylvania Academic Test Mandates Hurt Need to Develop Future Craftsmen

Academic test mandates hurt need to train future craftsmen


Pennsylvania State Considers Changes to Testing and Accountability Measures
http://triblive.com/news/education/12096521-74/pennsylvania-department-of-education-considers-changes-to-testing-accountability-measures

South Carolina 1,300 Students Forced to Retake Mandatory ACT When Computers Freeze Up
http://www.islandpacket.com/news/local/community/beaufort-news/article138845473.html

Tennessee Lawmakers Want to Roll Back A-to-F School Grading System
http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/tn/2017/03/20/tennessee-lawmakers-want-to-roll-back-a-f-school-grades-before-theyve-ever-been-given/

Texas Education Committee Chairs Propose Major Changes to A-to-F School Grades
http://www.khou.com/news/local/texas/education-committee-chairs-push-major-edits-to-a-f-ratings-for-schools/423017703
Texas Legislator: Testing Helps Create New Separate And Unequal
http://www.elpasotimes.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/03/18/gonzlez-new-separate-unequal-education/99354538/

Washington State Could Say “Goodbye” to High-Stakes Graduation Test
http://tdn.com/news/local/capitol-dispatch-state-could-say-goodbye-to-high-stakes-tests/article_d6143742-0117-54d1-983e-db37b0f6c86c.html

University Admissions Test-Optional Schools Break Down Admissions Barriers

Test optional colleges break down barriers to higher education


University Admissions FairTest Database of 925+ Colleges and Universities That Don’t Require ACT/SAT Scores
http://fairtest.org/university/optional

Worth Reading Top Ten Reasons to Opt Out of Tests

Worth Viewing “More . . . Than a Score” Video About Kindergarten Testing

Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director
FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing
office- (239) 395-6773 fax- (239) 395-6779
mobile- (239) 699-0468
web- http://www.fairtest.org

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Resistance, Testing
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