Chalkbeat recently wrote about the dismal test scores posted recently by students in Newark, which attempts to show the effects of losing a year of school.
Just 9% of students in grades 2-8 met state expectations in math based on the results of end-of-year tests taken this spring, according to Newark Public Schools data Chalkbeat obtained through a public records request. Only 11% of students met expectations in reading.
Most certainly, students in Newark suffered by not being in school during the past year, as did students in many districts and states where schools closed. As the article notes, there is some uncertainty about the validity of the scores, since the academic performance of Newark students was not compared on the same tests. But, however you see it, the scores reflect a troubled society and district.
First, the results might underestimate the pandemic’s academic impact because some of the most disadvantaged students are likely to have missed the tests. Also, there is no way to compare Newark students’ growth last school year to prior years because they did not previously take the MAP tests. Instead, their performance must be measured against national averages from before the pandemic.
For those reasons, the data does not show whether Newark did any better or worse than other districts in navigating the pandemic, [Martin] West said. What’s clear is that Newark students dealt with more hardships than their more advantaged peers — including family illness, job losses, and housing insecurity — and were shut out of classrooms longer.
It’s hard to remember now that the Newark schools were a major focus of the “corporate reform” movement. The district was controlled by the state, which appointed the superintendent. Mark Zuckerberg contributed $100 million to the “reform” effort.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Obviously, Newark isn’t privatized ENOUGH. When they reach the goal of “zero” public schools and ban labor unions Newark’s scores will shoot upward immediately because that’s just how magic markets work. The Zuckerberg family says so.
If it doesn’t work it doesn’t matter because they just go to Plan B, which is to say it’s not about “education” or “scores” EXACTLY but is instead about “choice” so really they succeed in the mission no matter what happens. Privatization is the only neccesary element, the rest can be jettisoned or redefined. Works for the “better” schools justification but also works if they’re not “better”. That’s the magic part.
Because that’s how magic works 🙂 EXACTLY
Yes and yes.
When the scores started to come back and some charter schools did better than public schools and some did not, and the same was true for private schools and vouchers, “the movement” all shifted in unison to CHOICE ITSELF as the justification and end goal.
They can definitely succeed in that goal. Guaranteed success. More charters, more vouchers, fewer public schools = success. Now we’re just entirely in ideological territory. The only benchmark that matters is per cent privatized. 45% isn’t high enough- has to be 100%.
As someone that taught poor students that didn’t speak English and had little formal education, the data on Newark does not scare me at all. I have dealt with far worse. The elementary students have time on their side, but certainly the secondary schools have less time. Even if older students age out of pubic schools, they can still get a GED. Students do not learn like widgets to be processed on an industrial conveyor belt. I have seen so many “behind” students, catch up and even excel. Frankly, sometimes too much data too early creates a false sense of hopelessness. Standardized testing feeds the alarmist narrative that the charter lobby wants to project, and their allies in the mainstream media will sound the alarm to politicians and nervous parents. One of the best aspects of American public education is that there are a variety of paths for young people to succeed.
Thank you, retired teacher,
Again your comment reigns truth.
Kids are resilient.
I hope you mean: “Kids are resilient if they have enough to eat and good healthcare and aren’t in the hospital and their parents and relatives haven’t died of COVID and have a safe place to live.” In terms of academics “Kids are resilient if you give them clean and repaired school buildings — not places that are falling apart — and small class sizes with experienced teachers who know how to teach.”
I sure have heard some pro-charter folks making it clear that they believe that “Kids in kindergarten and first grade can be treated like prisoners, and suspended over and over again because publicly humiliating a kid and making him suffer as much as possible for his academic struggles is good for those kids who will benefit and not be damaged by that treatment.” Those pro-charter folks believe kids are resilient and therefore humiliating and making them feel misery is perfectly fine.
Kids are resilient in terms of learning. That’s why we and our parents and our grandparents could actually have 3 months vacation running around instead of people being worried that 3 generations of Americans were ruined by not attending school 12 months of the year.
Kids aren’t resilient in terms of being treated like dirt. They aren’t resilient when their parents and grandparents are dead from COVID or they have spent weeks in the hospital themselves. But they are resilient in being able to learn after a long break, IF they have the right support. Please don’t confuse the two.
I think you mean “Kids WHO ARE BLACK, BROWN, & HAVE LEARNING DISABILITIES in kindergarten and first grade can be treated like prisoners, and suspended over and over again because publicly humiliating a kid and making him suffer as much as possible for his academic struggles is good for those kids who will benefit and not be damaged by that treatment.”
It’s those children & families the charter operators targeted in their mass marketing campaigns. Their strategy from the beginning was to get their footprints established in impoverished areas of cities, specifically places where black & brown families live.
Wealthy, white families would not tolerate such practices on their children.
“We old fogies of the 20th Century managed to invent most of the stuff we have today, create most of the major industries, start progress on civil rights—and win a couple of world wars without the benefit of the industry-developed, standardized tests. (And schools always started after Labor Day). Let’s have a moratorium on the for profit, standardized testing nonsense, while teachers, administrators, school board members, parents, and politicians of all stripes work to provide better schools. That would take more funding and less fault-finding with teachers and kids. In Ohio, we should stop cutting the income tax—the fairest form of taxation for schools and everything else we need—including the healthcare expansion provided under Obamacare.
“Frankly, if the politicians aren’t compassionate enough to see through this scheme to risk the kids for corporate profits in testing, I’d like to see my friends in the Ohio Education Association coalesce with the Federation of Teachers to withhold their teaching services until it’s safe to go back.” (from my column, School Start-up, What’s the Hurry?)
Where are the teachers’ unions, as kids endure the mis-education of the testing-for-profit businesses and scurry back to unsafe classrooms well ahead of any necessity?
Public schools need investment, not better tests. Communities certainly do not need the loss of their public asset, public education. Public schools serve community needs, and they get little credit for all they have done for most of us. Privatization only serves the interests of the billionaires and test companies that promote it. It is a way to transfer public money into private companies’ pockets while it undermines the public schools that serve the neediest students.
“As the article notes, there is some uncertainty about the validity of the scores…”
It seems that “uncertainty” didn’t stop you from going
down the test score rabbit hole of systemic racism.
Test scores function as the language of the
white/colonizer, for the sake of recognition as white.
Scores reflect a dependency that subordinates
POC humanity.
Yes Martha, scores are the currency of whiteness,
concocted by whiteness.
Standardized testing is just one aspect of whiteness. Pathological whiteness in all its forms needs to be disrupted and destroyed.
There is no “uncertainty” about the invalidities involved in the standards and testing malpractice regime. We’ve been absolutely certain about those invalidities since Noel Wilson pointed them out in 1997.
There has not been a single valid refutation/rebuttal of his seminal work “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error.” None whatsoever.
But, hey, standardized testing and the various offshoots make a lot of money for quite a few folks. Cain’t be havin someone’s livelihood taken away now can we?
I’ve been back and forth all day about whether I’m more concerned about charter school claims of miracle sauce being completely invalid or standardized testing claims of miracle sauce being completely invalid. I can’t decide. What is the lesser of two evils, two big fish tales when both the tales are being told by Big Seafood?
Interesting charter school case.
For profit charter school required that girls must wear skirts or “skorts”. Some parents sued under equal protection and federal laws that bar discrimination based on gender.
Court ruled that charter wasn’t a public school.
“the statutory designation of a school as public cannot change the fact that it is run by a private corporation comprised entirely of private actors.”
Odd that everyone outside of ed reform sees this as obvious- they’re privately owned and managed schools, so therefore not public- but no one in ed reform will admit it.
Publicly-funded doesn’t mean “public”. Obviously. If it did all the private schools they’re funding with public dollars would also be “public” and they’re not.
So the word “public” has absolutely no meaning now in ed reform. They have stripped the word of meaning, but only within the echo chamber- everyone outside the echo chamber still uses the definition.
They obliterated “public” completely. Disappeared the whole concept- now “public” means whatever they say it means. It’s reached the level of brainwashing.
https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/peltier-v-charter-day-school-appeals-court-opinion
The only thing public about charter and voucher schools is the public money they hijacked from the public schools.
A new report from UnKochMyCampus.org,
The Koch Network and the Capture of K-12 Education
Thanks for the link,
The title provides evidence that Bill and Melinda Gates are right wing and that CAP’s policies aren’t reliably different than the right wing’s.
Off topic-
Tomorrow, Ron Watkins, who many believe is the Q of QAnon, will speak at Lindell’s Cyber Symposium in South Dakota. The son of Bolsonaro, Brazil’s Trump, has already spoken at the Conference. He said he was on the side of “men with unblemished reputation and moral authority” and he is ” … aligned with the ideals of Trump.” Steve Bannon was on the dais with him. The Watkins father and son are integrally connected to 8Chan, a misogynistic website.
A good article to understand the religious alliance that put Bolsonaro in office was written in 2019 and posted at Development and Cooperation, “Playing with Religious Identity.”
Rio de Janeiro’s Archbishop provided a talking point for Bolsonaro’s election, a promise to “defend the innocent child in the classroom and religious freedom.” A co-message that appeals to Brazil’s conservatives is one against protection of minorities and against promotion of diversity. Bolsonaro said he would prefer a dead son to a gay son and he described a woman as not being worthy for him to rape.
The fastest growing religious segment in Brazil is the protestant evangelical Christian.
The organization representing Catholic bishops did not announce a position for or against
Bolsonaro. It appears Bolsonaro believes Pope Francis supporters in the Church may not be beneficial to his re-election