My website is dianeravitch.com. I write about two interconnected topics: education and democracy. I am a historian of education.
Diane Ravitch’s Blog by Diane Ravitch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at dianeravitch.net.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I just received this email from StudentsFirst! I can’t imagine how I got on their mailing list. I promptly told them to unsubscribe me, but decided to pass this along with the hope that someone knows how to combat this. I will – for the umpteenth time – call my legislators, but what else can we do? Thanks! —-Janice Strauss
Over the past ten years, 250,000 students in New York have attended failing schools.
This is unjust and unacceptable, and Governor Andrew Cuomo is taking action to give students the education they deserve. In his Opportunity Agenda for this year, the Governor outlined key policies to fix failing schools, improve teacher quality, enhance parent choice, protect students and invest more than $1 billion into schools.
But special interests are already attacking the Governor’s agenda, spending millions of dollars to protect the status quo and promote policies that put the jobs of adults over the futures of students. While they fight to defend the indefensible, we must stand up for opportunity.
Tell leaders in Albany to support the Governor’s education agenda and stand for opportunity for all New York’s students.
Add Your Name to Speak Up #ForOpportunity
An excellent education for all means a generation of students ready to fulfill their potential and make the most of every opportunity. Nothing increases the likelihood that a child will achieve academically, graduate on time, succeed in college, and prosper in a career as much as a great teacher.
Unfortunately, not every child in New York has access to a quality education. Too many children, especially students in our most disadvantaged neighborhoods, attend broken schools and have ineffective teachers. In fact, 93% of the students who attend failing schools are black or Latino. In New York City, students in schools with high black and Latino populations are four times more likely to have a poorly rated teacher.
These children are being cheated. We can’t wait another year – or worse, another decade – for 250,000 more students to pass through a broken system that leaves them unprepared for the future. We can fix this problem. It’s time for leaders in Albany to take action for students across the state.
Add your name to the petition urging state leaders to advance Governor Cuomo’s education proposal for opportunity for all New York students.
Thank you for speaking up,
Jenny Sedlis
Executive Director
StudentsFirstNY
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So I guess StudentsFirst is a franchise?
Eva Moskowitz Takes Control of StudentsFirstNY With Jenny Sedlis Move
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/06/eva-moskowitz-takes-control-of.html
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So I guess StudentsFirst is a franchise?
Eva Moskowitz Takes Control of StudentsFirstNY With Jenny Sedlis Move
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/06/eva-moskowitz-takes-control-of.html
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I am a 6th grade teacher and mother of four children. Please read my blog about why my child will not take the NYS tests. standingupforthefuture.wordpress.com
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http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2012/10/12/florida-passes-plan-for-racially-based-academic-goals/
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I am embarrassed to say that this article came out of the city where I live, taught, and study education. However, I am not surprised. While it is only an opinion piece, the fact that a popular and respected local magazine published it is problematic to say the least. Philadelphia Magazine has facilitated the public disrespect of an entire profession. This piece is misinformed, ignorant, and unproductive. Shame on Philadelphia Magazine for contributing to the teacher-bashing discourse, which is harmful to the teaching profession and our nation’s school children. The author is clearly seeking attention and I hope he is met with strong critique.
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/02/18/philadelphia-teachers-snow-days/
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Lis,
I read Marks’ comments and then headed to the comments section. The whole pi$$ing match over the grammatical errors is so typical of the banter that takes place now within the ed.reform debate.
The rank and file who have swallowed the ALEC/Koch kool-aid spew the Fascist venom that the top 1%ers don’t dare personally spew, all the while using poor grammar and syntax. Naturally educators counter by correcting the linguistic faux pas and trying to counter what the kool-aid addicts dish out. The cycle is never ending.
I teach (and live, sadly) in Indiana and it’s the same banter here. Unfortunately it doesn’t matter where you live in this nation today that you can see what the public education defamationists have planned as the end game. A colleague and I were discussing this during our two hour delay this morning (yes, Mr. Marks, we were at school – it’s required) that the whole thing would almost be comedic.
The defamationists in Indiana are so blatantly out of control that they resemble a cross between the Keystone Kops and Elmer Gantry. The problem is that most of the population here is so apathetic, so uninformed, or just asleep (most likely a combination of all three) that it’s oblivious to everything. Yikes!
They could care less that their democratic rights are being microscopically whittled away, that the pledge of allegiance has been reduced to inconsequential words and that a dominionist, corporativist institution is waiting in the wings. “When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled ‘made in Germany’; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism.’”
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Diane, I know you wrote about the Civil Rights groups and their current position on standardized testing. Why did they do an “about face” from last fall? Who got to them? See, for example this article http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/28/civil-rights-groups-call-obama-drop-test-based-accountability-system-schools
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The Albany Times Union has run a front page story about how the NY Education Department’s growth model evaluations are not accurately, fairly or rationally rating teacher performance.
http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-local/article/Tests-above-average-but-teacher-fails-6093247.php?cmpid=fb
The Article explains how Sheri Lederman, an outstanding teacher, whose students get excellent results on state assessments, and who parents describe as one of the most influential educators their children ever had, still got a failing rating of 1 out of 20 points. Even though the District she works for considers her an extraordinary educator, the Education Department says there is no appeal from her 1 out of 20 rating and now New York Attorney General is filing a lawsuit to dismiss Sheri’s lawsuit saying she has no right to sue the Education Department.
Since, as part of budgetary talks, Governor Cuomo wants to increase the weight of the growth model evaluations to 50% of a teacher’s annual professional performance review, rather than the current 20%, every concerned teacher and parent should email a copy of the article to the Governor and their State Assemblyman and Senator, asking them to open public hearings on the use and abuse of current growth model evaluations.
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I have been a public educator for almost 33 years, 30 in Charlotte, North Carolina and now almost three in Huntsville, Al. My entire career has been haunted by the specter of ” A Nation at Risk” and the so called reform movement. The standards movement that motivated No Child Left Behind has made the job of Principals and teachers nearly untenable. While the Byzantine organization of local school districts along with the corporate infiltration of curriculum goes unabated, school practitioners find few resources to serve their students. How do we change this? Although federal policy has some impact, the misguided calls for “accountability” keep us from real progress. This is the real challenge, not poor teachers, but misguided leadership and policy.
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Dr. Ravitch, please encourage Hofstra to change the venue of the rally on March 9th to one that is larger than the Adams Playhouse. As a retired principal from one of the highest-needs school districts on Long Island I would love to attend to show my support but there is already a wait list for tickets.
I know that the staff I supervised in the Hempstead Public Schools is among the best in the country. If they were to switch places with the staff in Jericho the Jericho kids would do just as well as they do now but the Hempstead kids would do even worse. I am in no way disparaging the teachers in Jericho but they just don’t have the experience of working in a high poverty district with large numbers of English Language Learners and kids with special needs.
Gov. Cuomo must be stopped. Please change the site of this rally so that a truly accurate representation of those concerned about the future of public education in our country can attend.
Thank you.
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Arthur Spitzli, I passed your suggestion to the organizers of the event at Hofstra.
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Diane and all my favorite people at this blog,
I am not sure are where to post this but today I had an idea. I have been teaching in a MD public high school for many years. I have been a loyal reader of this blog for two years but never commented before. Today at an excruciating, propaganda filled faculty meeting at my school, we were informed of how for three weeks in March our school would stop functioning as a school and instead become a branch of Pearson Education as we administer the PARCC. Seriously, no normal instruction for weeks. Next when someone had the gumption to ask about the OPT OUT movement, we were told that it was against MD state law to opt out and if asked, tell parents and students exactly that.
Thus, my idea. Why not start a nationwide movement of civil disobedience. For all multiple choice questions, students could simply bubble ‘A’. That one simple act performed over and over by hundreds of thousands nationwide would represent a powerful statement.
I know that this may be more doable for middle and high school students who are in tune with social movements and who do not have to pass a test to be promoted to the next grade. But seriously, why not. Let’s call it the BUBBLE ‘A’ movement. it will render all tests invalid and show that this idea of using students and teachers for nefarious, profit making schemes is unacceptable and immoral. It must stop. Now!
Anybody?
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A well written letter to Ohio’s state superintendent from the superintendent of one of Cincinnati’s best large public schools: http://www.sycamoreschools.org/documents/contentdocuments/doc_23_5_5033.pdf
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Secretary Duncan unhappy with the House rewrite of NCLB: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/02/24/arne-duncan-blasts-house-effort-to-revise-no-child-left-behind/
Article includes his typical self-congratulatory viewpoints:
If Congress reaches a deal, then Duncan is likely to lose much of that influence. If Congress fails, then Duncan stays in control. Wouldn’t the Education Secretary like to stay in the driver’s seat?
“That was never the goal,” Duncan said Monday. “The goal was to fix the law for kids in 50 states and have clarity. We stepped into a leadership void, we stepped into dysfunction, because kids and teachers were being hurt. And we’ve done the best job we can. I’m sure we’ve done it imperfectly. I actually think we’ve done a pretty darn good job with it.”
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New Gov trying to change Maryland Charter School laws.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-charter-study-20150120-story.html#page=1
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-charter-study-20150120-story.html#page=1
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Parents and teachers calling for shorter STAAR tests in Texas
http://kxan.com/2015/02/23/parents-and-teachers-calling-for-shorter-staar-tests/
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CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR!
Last Thursday evening Kathleen Jesky addressed the Canby, Oregon School Board, informing them that she was a conscientious objector to the upcoming and new Smarter Balanced Asessment Consortium Tests being mandated by the State of Oregon. Based on the harm she believes they will do to students, she asked the Board to either allow her to opt out of adminstering those tests or to order her to do so in spite of her objections.
She was backed by some 30 other Canby teachers who were in attendence/
Here is the full text of what she had to say:
School board members:
I’ve been a teacher since 1987. Since coming to Canby in 1999, I’ve helped implement Backpack Buddies, a dental screening program, and canvassed for at least two levies. I have never shied away from hard work to make a difference in students’ lives, and have always had high standards for them and myself. I have never been resistant to change that I believe will help them.
I am disturbed by what is going on in education right now. Local control is being taken away. Top down mandates have subverted the democratic process. Among those I find most troubling is over reliance on test scores and the new Smarter Balanced Assessment in particular.
Not all teachers give state tests. That falls heavily on elementary teachers. We know our students well. They spend seven years with us. We understand their strengths and weaknesses. We know a lot about their lives. We know that this test will be incredibly difficult for many of them. “Frustration level” is a term used to describe text so difficult for a child that he may give up. This test is at frustration level for many. It will especially harm the most at risk and fragile who already struggle. Belief in one’s self is necessary for success. We spend so much time trying to build them up to believe in themselves as learners and for many, all these tests do is crush them.
The test is not developmentally appropriate. The length of the test alone is problematic. Eight and nine year olds will be testing an average of eight hours and are expected to use new on line tools and type in extensive answers. Again, I’m speaking of third graders, many of whom do not have computers in their homes. In addition to inappropriate tasks, time is taken away from learning and schedules are disrupted for weeks.
Test results are not available in a timely or useful manner. We will not get results until at best near the end of the school year and are not allowed to see student answers to analyze errors. Nor will their next year’s teacher be allowed to see that information.
In the past we could tell the state if a question was flawed (no correct answer, was confusing, or incorrectly translated). There is no longer a mechanism to do that, and we are not allowed to discuss any test items that may be incorrect or poorly constructed; at all; with anyone; not even our supervisors. And I am concerned with the quality of this assessment. It seems that development has been rushed and established ethical practices have been ignored.
And it costs a lot. Our kids have lost so much: elementary PE and band, middle school sports and foreign language, high school art courses, the list is long. How many things could they get back if we stopped spending so much money on testing?
And then there’s the whole data thing: What’s collected? Who sees it? How is it used? How is it protected?
Giving this test when the state says that up to 70% will fail weighs heavily on my conscience. I would never give a test in my class that I knew most students would fail. That is not good practice. The failure rate for Special Education students and English Language Learners will be even higher. States that have already given Common Core tests, have had failure rates up to 97% for those groups. This is a civil rights issue. I am reminded of the literacy tests in the old South.
And someone is making a lot of money off the new tests and curriculum. Testing and curriculum giant Pearson gets more profit if we all buy the same thing as opposed having choice from a variety of curricula and assessments. T-shirt companies could make more money, too, if they could make us all buy plain, white t-shirts but then we’d all be wearing the same plain, white t-shirt.
There’s a lot wrong and not much time here.
I request that the board hold a work session around standardized testing that teachers and parents could attend to discuss this further.
Also, tonight I am informing you that I am a conscientious objector to this test. As a professional career educator, I believe our students deserve better.
This being said, please select one of the options below. Thank you.
____ Kathleen Jeskey, your concerns are noted and valued and you will be allowed to opt out of administering the SBA without any retribution.
OR
____ Kathleen Jeskey, your concerns are noted but administration in this district requires you to administer the SBA despite your objections and the harm, outlined above, that you believe SBA causes.
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Thank you for sharing this! What did the SBA decide?
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Diane….check this out….
http://m.newstribune.com/news/2015/feb/25/green-blocks-state-common-core-payments-smarter-ba/?templates=mobile#.VO3aSXa6Wc9
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Front page story of The Cincinnati Enquirer: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2015/02/25/new-school-tests-spur-anger-absences-common-core-parcc-ogt/24016539/
First time The Enquirer has written a front page article balancing against the Department of Education/Reform Movement talking points.
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This last Tuesday, staff at Nathan Hale High School voted to not administer the 11th Grade SBAC test this spring.
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Hi Diane
I just wanted to share this article from the Times Union today. I work at one of the schools on the list. Right now there are no details about what exactly is going to happened, but I can tell you I am terrified.
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/229723/cuomo-report-seven-capital-region-schools-are-failing/
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I was having a conversation with co-workers the other day. None of them are really aware of the overwhelming data which shows charter schools are not good. They are convinced with very little anecdotal evidence that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the charter movement. I am compiling some of the reference you have given on your site to write a position paper to be ready to talk to those who are in the need to know bracket who are not checking out your site or any other because they don’t really know what it up. Your site is great, yet it seems you are sharing your information with those who are already convinced. How do we reach out to those who because of lack of information and understanding need to see the facts for what they are.
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Diane,
It’s really great to finally know how Scott Walker really feels about union members in Wisconsin (for all union members in general). His pearl yesterday at the CPAC convention, “If I Can Handle Union Protests, I Can Handle ISIS” is one for the classic hate-speech soundbites-rewind. And of course the fascists in attendance absolutely ate it up! So nice that he holds those who pay his salary in Wisconsin in such high esteem. Ooops… wait a minute…the Koch Bros. pay his salary…forget what I said…
Maybe he meant “If I Can Handle Teachers Union Protests, I Can Handle ISIS?” In no way could he have been referring to organized firemen or police…
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No Child Left Behind has been a success?! Who knew? According to a Fellow at the George W. Bush Institute NCLB should be moving full steam ahead:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/02/25/did-no-child-left-behinds-test-based-reforms-fail-or-not/
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Governor Cuomo presents his “Failing Schools Reports” and posts the wall of shame at this site: https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/governor.ny.gov/files/atoms/files/NYSFailingSchoolsReport.pdf
Why is this Governor so into focusing on failing schools in this way? Did branding anything with an “F” (or the scarlet letter “A”) ever motivate anyone to do better, let alone a whole set of systems. There is no social context discussed or presented in his press blast on this. It’s all about bad schools with bad teachers (and implied bad students) who just need more testing. Pathetic.
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What Governor Cuomo is really saying is that Bloomberg and Klein were failures -and that mayoral control failed. After 10 years of unfettered mayoral control, there are still so many “failing schools” in NYC. Cuomo lambastes Bloomberg and Klein as failures. Sad. So sad.
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http://www.madeiracityschools.org/districtNewsArticle.aspx?artID=31137
Check out this letter from my superintendent to ODE.
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Melissa, this link doesn’t work for me.
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This might work, Diane: http://www.madeiracityschools.org/userfiles/223/Letter%20to%20State%20Superintendent.pdf
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http://www.madeiracityschools.org/districtNewsArticle.aspx?artID=31137
Here is the link again. If you wish to see the preface to our parents, please google Madeira City Schools and Open Letter.
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What’s good for the gander isn’t necessarily good for the goose.” (How inconsistent the verbiage and actions are amongst members of the hard-right in today’s political climate.)
I was watching CNN’s State of the Nation yesterday and Dana Bash was interviewing Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). The crux of the interview dealt with the possible funding of the Department of Homeland Security, being tied to the POTUS’s Immigration plan and the possibility of the ouster of the house speaker due to the way he’s handling the situation. I was taken aback by his closing comments about elected officials being able to do what voters had elected them to do.
Jordan, a darling of the Tea Party set, was wrapping up the discussion with Bash when she posed the following:
BASH: One last question. Do you want the House Republican leadership to succeed or not?
JORDAN: Of course we want them to succeed, because that helps the country succeed. That’s good for the families we represent.
BASH: The country certainly doesn’t look like — I mean, it just — it’s — and I have covered Congress for a very long time.
BASH: And it feels more chaotic. And it is — it is impossible at this point for the House speaker and the leadership team to govern.
JORDAN: What…
BASH: And they feel like it is because you all just don’t take yes for an answer.
JORDAN: Oh, no, no, no. What’s best — what’s best for the country is to fund the Homeland Security Department — to fund the Homeland Security Department, but do it in a way consistent with the Constitution.
JORDAN: That’s what the country — that’s what the election was about. The last time I checked, Republicans did pretty well in the election last November. We’re supposed to actually — politicians, when they get elected, are actually supposed to do what they told the voters they were going to do when they got the job.
Wow! “The politicians, when they get elected, are actually supposed to do what they told the voters they were going to do when they got the job.” What a novel idea! Maybe the GOP governor and GOP super-majority in Indiana should take Jordan’s comments to heart when it comes to letting the voter’s will be done in reference with the election for the Superintendent of Public Instruction here?
No…What’s good for the gander isn’t necessarily good for the goose, especially in Indiana.
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Student suspended for informing others they can opt out http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/03/02/8th-grader-suspended-informing-classmates-standardized-test-opt-out
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The following is a letter I submitted to Gov. Cuomo & my NY state reps. I am hoping that we can all keep a steady stream of letters (personal and based on forms shared among parents, teachers and other concerned people).
I am a concerned grandparent of two boys who attend public elementary schools in Brooklyn. I am also a concerned citizen who knows that my family is among the lucky ones, living in an affluent neighborhood where parents raise money to fill in gaps left by insufficient government funding and other kinds of support: far too many other New Yorkers are dependent on what their schools can hobble together without such critical supplements. Despite the inequalities – resulting in a distressing number of schools with overcrowded classes and almost no books other than those provided by Pearson, the same profit-making company that provides the highly dubious tests inflicted on our children year after year – I have heard concerned teachers’ and parents’ inspiring stories at meetings that I’ve attended over the last couple of years, demonstrating that even without proper, compassionate, fair support, teachers work hard and care tremendously about their students.
And now you propose to make the situation worse than it already is. As though it isn’t bad enough to impose standardized tests across the board – with their questionable results, their sometimes defective grading, and their educationally unsound implementation that prevents teachers, parents and students from actually learning from their mistakes (I understand that a major reason for this withholding is that the government would have to pay more money to come up with completely new questions every year), as though it isn’t enough that teachers have already been targeted because their students don’t improve even when they already have achieved high scores that can’t be improved on, and as though it hasn’t been established that test results can’t be traced in any straight line to teachers, you plan to continue using them against the teachers and to reduce the meaningful interactions that principals and assistant principals have with the teachers and student bodies with whom they are familiar and give more weight to observations of complete strangers who will breeze in and out of schools once a year.
The current policies are consistent, that’s for sure: they consistently ignore recommendations of professional educators, based on hands-on observations and extensive studies. But as one of America’s great writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson, said, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”
What if instead of paying huge amounts of money to testing companies for their tests. their test-related texts and their observers, you use that money to give teachers more, not less, support? What if you made sure that no school is overcrowded and underprovided-for? How about making sure that every school has enough of a staff to provide art, music, gym, and science classes instead of encouraging the curriculum to shrink to reading and math that can be tested by mostly multiple-choice questions?
I would hope that you and your fellow legislators would finally ask yourselves why so few of you send your own children to the beleaguered public schools. What would you want for your relatives, your friends’ children? Isn’t it what all of our children deserve?
Until now I have had hope, mainly because of what I’ve seen for myself and heard from those teachers and parents I referred to above: despite so many odds, teachers and parents are a dedicated feisty lot. But I’m getting more discouraged. I cry when I hear my grandsons’ teachers talk or when I help out in the classrooms, because I’m hearing about too many teachers who are giving up and walking away from their chosen profession. What a tragedy for everyone!
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If Bill Gates really believed what he is preaching in this video – women equality – “more education means a higher wages” …. Then he should be supporting higher wages for teachers- this video makes me depressed
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/11/8014563/bill-gates-education-future-of-online-courses-third-world
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A friend who knows SR alerted me to this today.
http://www.mathedconsulting.com/
“The Smarter Balanced Common Core Mathematics Tests
Are So Flawed They Should Not Be Used”
Steven Rasmussen, SR Education Assoc.
I have not read the report and can’t vouch for it, but thought others who have more time might be interested.
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I just saw this by chance on Yahoo news. http://news.yahoo.com/woman-found-hanged-southern-california-high-school-classroom-194001555.html
There is no detail; there was no suicide note, it is reported. I skimmed the beginning of the comments: how sad, depressed people need help, etc.
My question is, Why did she choose to do it in her classroom?
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NPR finds that numbers are declining in teacher education programs. Some interviewed have the nerve to suggest we don’t know why this is happening (while throwing in buzzwords like “rigorous” and “rigor”). The comments are more pro-teacher than is often the case at NPR.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2015/03/03/389282733/where-have-all-the-teachers-gone
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Charter School “Civic Field Trip”
This is absolutely sickening!
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/230067/charter-rally-organizer-it-was-a-civic-field-trip/
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Hi Diane,I’m the editor for our local NYSUT newsletter up here in beautiful Tupper Lake, NY, where the temperature may hit 32 some time this month! Do I need permission to copy and paste your blog posts into our letter? Thanks in advance! Glenn Poirier, Tupper Lake United Teachers
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What will happen to PARCC and SBAC funding now that Race to the Top is expiring? Will the federal government provide funding, or will the states – or some other entity – need to pick it up?
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Whenever my education friends see something about the Common Core online they know who to forward it to…me!
My friend Rita knows I am not the biggest fan of the Common Core and try to help out whenever I can to get the truth.
So she suggested I send this video to you. Its fabulous and it puts it right out there about how the Common Core mumbo jumbo often talks down to parents.
I think it is just supposed to be funny but they sure got one of the issues down. Take a look….you will like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mcIMaU94Ro&feature=youtu.be
Thanks.
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Some New Jersey schools have among the largest opt out rates I have seen:
http://www.njherald.com/story/28265967/2015/03/04/41-in-some-schools-refuse-parcc-testing
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Fox News aired a story this morning about a school that is doing away with homework and suggesting that students play instead. The station’s comment on this story was that perhaps teachers don’t want to take the time to correct homework. This is a copy of the email I sent to the station:
Talk about teacher bashing! How can you make the leap that a decision to do away with written homework is because teachers don’t want to take the time to correct papers? Did you talk with the teachers to see if that is actually true? You have no idea what is required of teachers and what is taking their time. I documented my time spent in one school year and I logged 16 extra weeks of work. That’s twice as long as my summer “break.” I truly care that my students are getting the best and that takes time to plan engaging lessons for eight subjects. I research current journals and publications for innovative and progressive methods and practices. I prepare assessments that inform my instruction and analyze those results. All of those are worthy of my time.
What is not worthy of my time are the many additional requirements of documentation because I am not trusted to use my professional judgement in my job (of which I have obtained 3 college degrees to do.) I not only have to write my plans of what I will be teaching each day, but why I am teaching it. Just think if you had to make a list of all you will be doing in your day and then also write why you are doing it…the standards of your industry that those actions address. I am not trusted to communicate with the parents of my students in an effective way. I have to keep track of every contact with parents. I am not trusted to collaborate with my colleagues in an effective way. I have to tally each collaboration with them. I am not trusted to assess my students with my professional judgement. I am required to prepare them for and administer hours of standardized tests that don’t tell me more than what I already knew about my students. These all take an inordinate amount of time that take away from the time I could be spending on those engaging lessons…or even time with my family.
I am not trusted because of comments like those of your station that suggest that teachers are lazy and don’t want to spend time correcting homework. Perhaps physical homework so students spend more time playing and getting exercise will contribute more to their well being than completing a worksheet that is known not to be best practice anyway. Perhaps spending time with family will contribute more to the students’ well being. Perhaps engaging in creative play and learning how to get along with others will also contribute to their well being and to our society. Did you think of making those comments instead of the teacher bashing? With this bashing, I am truly concerned no one will want to go into this (what was once) noble profession. Where will we be then?
Respectfully,
Linda Schmidt
Diane, thank you for all you are doing for education and our precious students. I am from Indiana and am appalled at what is happening in our state. I have taught 36 years and can’t believe the assaults on public education. My state representative stood up at a town hall meeting last week and actually said the problem with dysfunction in our state and education is the Indiana State Teachers Association. He said the legislators have the kids’ best interest at heart and that the union only cares about money. I teach elementary school AND a teacher preparatory course at IU East. The numbers of students going into education are dwindling and the students who are there are wondering if they will be able to stay in the profession. I am truly concerned about who will be left to teach my grandsons. This is only the tip of the iceberg of my concerns. Again, thank you for all you are doing.
Linda Schmidt
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Dr. Ravitch:
Thought you might want to see the newest step in the Little Rock schools take over and what now dismantles the state’s public education system through revised newly proposed legislation.
See this link (revisions/new are underlined): http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2015/2015R/Bills/HB1733.pdf
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Elmer, you will see a post about this on Monday by the great Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times.
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I just read it. Thank you. It’s frightening for our state.
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I got this forwarded to me since a number of people know my dislike for CC and that I refer to your books.
Failings of American High Schools
by Laurence Steinberg — February 16, 2015
This commentary examines the failings of American high schools.
For more than three decades, we’ve been told repeatedly that American students fare poorly in international achievement comparisons, and that a shocking proportion of them lack basic skills in reading, mathematics, and science. The wake-up calls come several times every year as another report confirms the all-too-familiar findings. Each time, education experts, politicians, and pundits all pontificate about the “true” source of the problem—inadequate teacher compensation, growing diversity in the student population, the poor quality of graduates from our teacher-training programs, too little funding, too much testing, disengaged parents, income inequality, take your pick—and the issue receives media attention for a day or so.
Soon afterwards, the president or the secretary of education visits a school district that has defied the odds, singles out one or two students for their extraordinary accomplishments, and delivers a nationally publicized speech that announces a plan that is certain to turn things around. Within less than a week, the “crisis” fades into memory, until it is revived by the next disheartening report, press release about the latest round of substandard test scores, or revelation that an education hero or heroine had all along been faking the data.
Amidst all this noise, one vitally important signal almost never gets picked up: these problems exist primarily in America’s high schools. In international assessments, our elementary-school students generally score toward the top of the distribution, and our middle-school students usually place somewhat above the average. But our high-school students score well below the international average, and they fare especially badly in math and science compared to the country’s chief economic rivals (OECD, 2014).
Our poor showing is not a function of anomalies in the measurement process. Though many other countries track their students differently than we do (placing some in vocational tracks and others in college-preparatory programs), the organizations that administer the surveys are very careful to ensure that every country gives a representative sample that includes students at every level of ability. Nor do we fall behind because our teachers must deal with a greater diversity of skills in the classroom (which might make it harder for teachers to target their curricula effectively). In general, there is more intellectual diversity within a typical American high-school class than in other countries, but overall the disparity between our best and worst performers is comparable with other countries, indicating that the numbers aren’t skewed by this diversity (Koretz, 2009).
The problem with our high schools is that, for all but the very best students—the ones in AP classes who are bound for the nation’s most selective colleges and universities—school is tedious and unchallenging. The majority of American high-school students say they are just going through the motions at school, calibrating their level of effort to ensure that they do well enough to stay out of academic trouble (Johnson & Farkas, 1997). One-third of American high-school students report that they have little interest in school and get through the day by fooling around with their friends (Steinberg, 1996). And keep in mind that these surveys don’t include the 20 percent or so of students who have dropped out. If they were included, the proportion of disengaged teenagers would be considerably higher.
One might be tempted to write these findings off as mere confirmation of the well-known fact that adolescents find everything boring. But American high schools are more boring than schools in other countries. More than 80 percent of foreign students who have attended American high schools report that their home schools are more challenging. More than half of American high-school students who have studied in another country agree that our schools are easier. Objectively, they are probably correct: American high-school students spend far less time on schoolwork than their counterparts in the rest of the world (Loveless, 2002, 2006; Ripley, 2013).
Trends in NAEP scores reveal just how little progress we’ve made in improving high school student achievement (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013a). Reading and math scores have remained flat among seventeen-year-olds for the past 40 years, while NAEP scores among younger students have risen over this same time period. High-school students’ scores on subject-area tests in science, writing, geography, and history, which have been tracked only for the last two decades, haven’t changed either. In 2012, only 6 percent of seventeen-year-olds scored at the highest level of reading proficiency for their age. Just 7 percent of seventeen-year-olds scored at the highest level of proficiency in math that year. Far more elementary and middle school students score at the highest proficiency levels than do their high school counterparts.
If anything, logic would suggest that the test results for seventeen-year-olds would be better than those for younger kids. Hardly any students drop out of elementary or middle school, but many seventeen-year-olds have dropped out by the time the NAEP rolls around. With this academically challenged group no longer being measured, the seventeen-year-olds’ NAEP scores should be somewhat better than the nine- and thirteen-year-olds’ scores. But the opposite is true.
This shortfall is perplexing. It has nothing to do with high schools having a more ethnically diverse population than elementary schools. In fact, elementary-school-age children are more ethnically diverse than high-school kids. Nor do high schools have more poor students. Elementary schools in America are more than twice as likely as secondary schools to be classified as “high poverty” based on their students’ family incomes.
And it’s not because high-school teachers are paid less; salaries are about the same for secondary- and elementary-school teachers. It’s not because high-school teachers are less qualified; secondary-school and elementary-school teachers have comparable years of education and similar years of experience. Student-teacher ratios are the same in our elementary and high schools. So are the amounts of time that students spend in the classroom. We don’t shortchange high schools financially, either; American school districts actually spend a little more per capita on high-school students than on elementary-school students (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013b; OECD, 2012).
The bottom line is that it is hard to point to anything about American high schools themselves that explain why they perform so poorly, both in comparison to high schools around the world and in comparison to elementary and middle schools in the United States. Maybe our high-school teachers are less qualified or more poorly trained than those in other countries, but it’s unlikely that our teacher-training programs are worse at admitting and training high-school teachers than ones bound for elementary- or middle-school classrooms. In fact, the reverse may be true: a recent report from the National Council on Teacher Quality (2013) found that only one in nine programs for future elementary-school teachers adequately prepared them, compared to one in three programs for future high-school teachers. Many more training programs for secondary-school teachers received high marks than did programs for elementary-school students.
High-school students from many Asian and European countries outperform their American counterparts mainly because the cultures of achievement are very different in these other countries. These cultures give rise to higher expectations at home and more support for achievement within the adolescent peer group (Steinberg, 1996). In addition, in many other countries, especially in Asia, parents demand much more self-control from their children at much younger ages. By the time children in other cultures have matured into adulthood, they have much stronger self-control than Americans do.
In a cross-national study of adolescents and young adults that I direct, we tested people’s impulse control at different ages, ranging from ten years old to thirty (Steinberg, 2014). The comparison between China and the US is instructive. At age ten, there were very few differences in self-control between Chinese and American children—the Chinese children scored about 10 percent higher. This gap widened little by little each year; by fourteen, the Chinese scored 20 percent higher, and by eighteen, they scored 45 percent higher. In their twenties, the Chinese demonstrated 50 percent more self-control than the Americans. This advantage is unlikely to be due to cultural differences in temperament, since we would expect to have seen the self-control gap at the younger ages as well as the older ones. It is likely a consequence of how adolescents are raised.
If all of this is true, why have we been able to make inroads into improving student achievement in elementary schools? The answer is that the “noncognitive skills” that have been shown to be so fundamental for success in school, like self-control, become more important as students get older (Poropat, 2009). As students progress from elementary to middle to high school, the work becomes more challenging, and the demands for self-reliance intensify. Adults provide less supervision and assistance—students are expected to work more independently. High-school assignments take longer to complete; exams take longer to study for. The work is harder. Students who have strong self-restraint and the capacity to delay gratification have a greater advantage in high school than they do in elementary school. A child doesn’t need much perseverance to succeed in second grade. In other words, it is easier to improve elementary schools without paying attention to noncognitive skills.
Most discussions of high school reform focus, not surprisingly, on schools and teachers. They typically call for changes in the curriculum, in instructional methods, or in the selection, training, or compensation of teachers. I think this focus on what takes place inside the classroom is myopic. And it is why our efforts to improve high schools in America have largely failed. We haven’t done anything to improve adolescents’ noncognitive skills.
Nearly twenty years ago, in Beyond the Classroom (Steinberg, 1996), I argued that no school-reform effort would have any impact, though, if students didn’t come to school ready and able to learn. I continue to believe that this is true. The fundamental problem with American high-school achievement is not our schools or, for that matter, our teachers. If parents don’t raise their children in ways that enable them to maintain interest in what their teachers are teaching, it doesn’t much matter who the teachers are, how they teach, what they teach, or how much they’re paid. Without changing the culture of student achievement, changes in instructors or instruction won’t, and can’t, make a difference. In order to do this successfully, we need to start with families.
References
Johnson, J., & Farkas, S. (1997). Getting by: What American teenagers really think about their schools. New York: Public Agenda.
Koretz, D. (2009). How do American students measure up? Making sense of international comparisons. Future of Children, 19(1), 37–51.
Loveless, T. (2002). Brown Center Report on American Education, 2002. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
Loveless, T. (2006) Brown Center Report on American Education, 2006. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
National Center for Education Statistics (2013a). The nation’s report card: Trends in academic progress. Washington: U.S. Department of Education.
National Center for Education Statistics (2013b). The condition of education. Washington: U.S. Department of Education.
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2013). Teacher prep review. Washington: National Council on Teacher Quality.
OECD. (2012). Education at a glance. Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
OECD. (2014). PISA 2012: Results in focus. Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Poropat, A. (2009). A Meta-analysis of the five-factor model of personality and academic performance. Psychological Bulletin, 135(2), 322–38.
Ripley, A. (2013). The smartest kids in the world. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Steinberg, L. (1996). Beyond the classroom: Why school reform has failed and what parents need to do. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Steinberg, L. (2014). Age of opportunity: Lessons from the new science of adolescence. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
U.S. Department of Education (2012). States report new high school graduation rates using more accurate, common measure. Press release, November 26, 2012.
Cite This Article as: Teachers College Record, Date Published: February 16, 2015
http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 17864, Date Accessed: 3/8/2015 10:30:38 AM
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Very interesting blog – by any chance, do you happen to know how much (if any) is currently being spent on non-cognitive assessments in K-12? Thanks!
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“If parents don’t raise their children in ways that enable them to maintain interest in what their teachers are teaching, it doesn’t much matter who the teachers are, how they teach, what they teach, or how much they’re paid.”
I taught for thirty years and I agree 110% that this is the only correct answer most of the time. Parents/guardians are the key. In fact, from what I’ve read of Finland, parents are the key there too and that it is cultural for most parents in Finland to start reading with and to their children as early as age two and continue to do this all the way to age 7 when the child starts school already very literate. I think it is safe to say that a child who enters school for the firs6t time at age seven already enjoys reading for pleasure and/or information.
But to be fair, less than 5% of the children in Finland live in poverty, while between 24% to 51% of children in the US, depending on how we define it, live in poverty—and it is getting worse, not better.
The struggle for parents to earn enough money to pay for rent or a mortgage payment and food is growing at a very fast pace as the Milton Friedman neo-liberalists—with a President in the White House who supports this type of thinking—continues to shift wealth from the 99% to the 1% so we end up with a trickle down economy where the 1% decides how much they are wiling to share with the 99%.
For instance, I read a post from ProPublica this week about auto workers who saw their earnings drop drastically after the 2007-08 global financial crises almost destroyed the U.S. auto industry. To survive, the labor unions had to make deals that cut earnings for employees and many saw their income drop in half or worse and this caused people who were still working in the industry to lose their homes, their cars, and end up moving in with a family member if they had that kind of support. And then some who ended up homeless withhold a car to get them to work ended up losing their jobs.
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Hi Diane, I love your blog!! Especially the video of the students taking the PARCC practice test–I am also a high school student and when my classmates and I tried a practice test we were similarly frustrated. It is always nice to be informed on education policy developments, and I was wondering if you could take a look at a petition some other kids and I have written to the Ohio Department of Education– we have been having some difficulty getting the word out but we plan to submit it soon. Here’s the link (it is online): http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/excessive-standardized . Any comments or suggestions?
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Glenda Ritz proposes 1-year freeze on school accountability grades in Indiana
http://wane.com/2015/02/11/ritz-proposes-1-year-freeze-on-school-accountability-grades/
Diane,
Here’s just another conflict in the Indiana education situation to add to the mix.
Indiana’s schools chief is asking the State Board of Education to suspend school accountability grades this year, eliminate social studies tests for some students and table a third-grade reading assessment in an effort to reduce the testing burden on schools, educators and students.
Of course, Governor Empty-suit (Pence) and the GOP Brownshirts (legislative leaders) say they oppose suspending the accountability grades. What would you expect?
As an interesting aside, I’ll bet not many knew the following:
Christians United for Israel, an evangelical group focused on building support for Israel among American Christians, paid for the tourist portion of a trip for Mike and Karen Pence to Israel last December. The Pence’s paid for their children to join them. My God! How much more do the sleepers in this state have to have to before their eyes to see what Indiana is headed for?
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Georgia State Superintendent not afraid to speak his mind on testing. Open letter to Secretary Duncan:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/02/27/georgias-education-chief-has-some-words-for-arne-duncan/
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A 1-year freeze or any freeze is not enough. Test based accountability must be ended totally. There must be a zero policy toward test based accountability and an end to this attempt to compromise with the devil and his minions.
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Secretary Duncan says some kids are “over tested”…but implies some are not: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/fl-arne-duncan-west-palm-20150309-story.html
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In response to Governor Cuomo’s editorial, “Ed fix clouded by the fog of protest”, Monday, March 9, 2015, Newsday.
The only fog that surrounds Governor Cuomo’s “ed fix” is the fog that resides in the minds of the reformers, who, like Governor Cuomo, have spent no discernable time in a classroom in a public school. For those of us who do spend a considerable amount of time in the classroom, there is no fog. Our students arrive each morning, clear as day, in need of rigorous instruction, and not only is it our obligation as their teachers to deliver it, but a deep passion to push our students as far as we possibly can. There are no limits and certainly, no fog.
There are obvious flaws in the current testing program for grades three through eight, which Governor Cuomo mentions, affects only twenty-five percent of teachers. Those twenty-five percent of teachers are dedicated to teaching children. Those children are subjected to an assessment system that defies logic on multiple levels by:
1. Employing an assessment tool that has no reliability and validity testing to determine its efficacy as an instrument for measuring student progress toward state standards. The current assessments provide no growth indicators from year to year. The students who need us the most are not able to show any growth on the current assessment because it does not have the capacity to capture the wide range of students in our classrooms today in New York State.
2. Assigning a State Growth Score to a teacher without any feedback that would inform instructional practice in the classroom and assigning a score to a student without providing information that would guide instruction for that student. The result? Taking instructional time away from students, a bare minimum of several days, for which there is a highly questionable return on investment.
Governor Cuomo, I have been teaching sixth grade English Language Arts (ELA), social studies and math for thirteen years and I am one of those teachers who has been handed a “failing” State Growth Score for the last two years. According to your proposed plan, I am deemed unfit for the classroom. For this reason, for the sake of my students, I would like to extend an invitation to you, to join us in our classroom for the day. I ask that you please observe our class, and enlighten me, using your experience in education, teaching and learning, as to why, precisely, I am a failure.
I am very clear on one thing, your “ed fixes” have severely compromised the quality of education our students receive as preparing for the assessments, administering the assessments, and scoring the assessments have taken innumerable instructional hours away from students, with little return.
I teach to promote learning in my students.
I provide assessments to measure what my students have learned.
I will fight your “ed fixes” until those “fixes” support my students.
Please come out of the fog and into our classroom. This is a standing invitation.
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I love this. Bipartisan agreement that there should be a moratorium on mandated testing…for kindergartners…BUT it probably won’t pass since it would be in conflict with federal regulations: http://wamu.org/news/15/03/06/maryland_republicans_and_democrats_agree_mandatory_testing_needs_a_moratorium
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New Mexico Kids Walk out on PARCC!
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4095198666001/frustrated-students-walk-out-on-common-core-testing/?#sp=show-clips
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i have written a piece on the stupid frenzy of common core TESTING. I would like to send it to you. I am in the process of setting up my own web site but it won’t be active for a week or so. I am going to send an article I wrote on alternatives to the current testing frenzy. Please post if you like it or let me know if you don’t. Or let readers let me know.
Thanks, Karin Wiburg, Distinguished Professor, Learning Design and Technology, New Mexico State University
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Here is the article on the Testing. A Professor of Education Suggests an Alternative to the Current Testing Frenzy
We all want to know how our children are doing in school and we also want to know that our students are experiencing quality teaching in a quality school. This article suggests how this can be accomplished in a more powerful way than spending large amounts of money on testing and re- testing students for many class periods during the academic year. One testing director at an elementary school told me recently that his school spends six weeks of the school year testing. As a professor of education with extensive experience as a teacher, mathematics specialist, and a school administrator, I see the testing problem from multiple perspectives. The purpose of this article is to suggest alternative ways to determining the quality of teachers and schools.
Ironically, I and many teachers and educational leaders appreciate the Common Core State Standards. These are standards and not a curriculum, as I think Jeb Bush said recently in Florida. There is plenty of opportunity for states and districts to decide how to teach within these standards. The standards are an attempt to build a K-12 educational program so that students graduating from high school, wherever they live, are ready for work or post-secondary education. The idea of focusing nationally on higher standards in reading and math is a good one that came from collaboration between the states. It was not an invention of the federal government or President Obama. Asking all teachers, whatever their content area, to engage in teaching reading and specifically critical literacy is a good idea. The mathematics standards provide clear guidelines for improving the trajectory of mathematics learning. In the past, American schools have covered as many as 68 topics in a typical middle school mathematics or science classroom in one year. Sometimes kids see the same math concept year after yea, but never stay on the topic long enough to understand the concept completely and be able to apply math concepts to new applications. This mile-wide and inch-deep curriculum is very different from many higher performing schools in places like Japan and Singapore where the focus is on 6 to 8 topics a year which are taught in a way that kids gain deep understanding of key concepts. The mathematics standards provide a well-designed year by year process that includes problem-solving and communication as well as do-able goals for building fluency.
The problem lies in connecting the standards to extensive and continuous testing which robs teachers and students of time for learning as well as taking a large part of the educational budget. Continuous testing is like taking a temperature over and over again without focusing on what can be done to improve the temperature. There are different ways to assess the quality of schools and teaching beyond testing frequently on standardized tests.
The way in which we engage in assessment or evaluation is based on the purpose of the evaluation. One kind of evaluation in which the public is interested is program evaluation. If we are interested in knowing if a school or a district is providing students with a quality education based on student learning, we do not need to test every student. We can randomly select a much smaller number of students and give them an already existing reliable and nationally-valid test, the National Assessment for Educational Performance (the NAEP). This is a test which is already used to measure student performance across the United States. This assessment of schools is much less costly than the current testing frenzy. This solves the first part of the problem which is a valid assessment of how schools and districts are doing in terms of average student learning.
The other problem is more difficult. As parents we want to know exactly what our child knows and as taxpayers we want to know how each teacher is performing. Behind this way of thinking is a lack of respect for teachers as professionals who should be able, like doctors and lawyers, to collectively evaluate their own professional quality. I think it would be fair as part of a teaching assessment to consider some part of teacher evaluation to consist of GAIN scores by students collected over at least 3 years. By using gain scores that indicate how much the student learns in one year, teachers are not penalized by working in poor schools, although a lack of resources in schools will also affect their students chances of learning. Every teacher sometimes has a class with more high-need students than usual, so three years of test scores for each teacher could reasonably make up something like 25% of a teacher evaluation.
However, there are several reasons why doing this is not practical and not good educational practice. The first is the cost of constantly testing students, as well as the cost of taking time away from learning. The second is that teachers are so worried about test results and their jobs that they are not motivated to teach in new creative and powerful ways required by the different kind of world their students will graduate into. The saddest situation about the testing frenzy is that superintendents and teachers are now spending time and money preparing for tests in ways unlikely to raise test scores at all. There is no way that just drill and practice will ensure a student’s ability to think critically on a test and tests are designed to test for deeper understanding of concepts and thinking. A third reason is that research by Jo Boaler at Stanford and other experts shows that the quality of the school as a whole is more of a determinate of how well students perform, than the skill of each individual teacher. Finally, a quick measure of the quality of student learning using something like the NAEP will also provide general information on how well teachers in the school are teaching.
Why not take the money that can be saved by not engaging in continuous testing to provide teachers with job-embedded professional development that helps them engage in instructional assessment while teaching and learning are happening. Aren’t we more interested in how a student is learning in real time than what students remember from what they learned in the past? Such efforts will require stronger teacher pre-service and in-service education programs carried out in collaboration with schools which will provide multiple opportunities to practice instructional assessment while teaching in real classrooms. We will still need instructional leaders, such as principals or coaches, and we would also benefit by forming groups of teachers who will help one another to improve teaching and increase learning. Teachers will also need to commit to communicating clearly to parents and others how and what their students are learning.
This sounds simpler than it really is. Teaching is a highly professional activity and requires teaching content in a way that all individual students can learn it, even with increasing diversity in all of our classrooms. Differentiated instruction is what is required by professional teachers. Doctors do not give the same medicine and treatment to all of their patients. Teachers are honored as high level professionals in other countries such as Finland, where only the top 25% of students can enter professional education schools. In Japan, teachers work together as professionals to design and re-design lessons based on student learning, a process called Lesson Study. They are seen as the curriculum developers and researchers of learning that teachers are meant to be.
Currently, there is a battle between accountability which is driving excessive testing, and teacher professionalism. What kind of teacher do you want your student to have? We are still caught in an industrial age factory model where educational experts, including textbook companies, design what teachers are supposed to teach, as if teachers were factory workers on an assembly line. Are textbook and testing companies, who are not teaching children, smarter at knowing how to teach than teachers? I shudder when I hear from some of my graduate students that in their district, teachers are all supposed to be on the same page and doing the same teaching at the same time. The frenzy over testing is just one example of a superficial understanding of learning and teaching and a desire to preserve a hierarchical model of school management controlled from the top. In other countries teachers are treated as professionals, and evidence from international assessments indicate their students are learning more.
I believe in higher learning standards and highly skilled professional teachers in every classroom. The problem comes in trying to determine how we can ensure this will happen. The answer is not in fighting battles over testing but in thinking more deeply about the purpose of education in the 21st century.
Karin Wiburg, Ed.D. , Distinguished Professor, Learning Design and Technology, College of Education, New Mexico State University. Please send me your comments: kwiburg@nmsu.edu
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Hi Diane, I was wondering if you have seen the latest panic coming from the results of a study of PIAAC scores done by ETS. The result this time: American Millennials are the least skilled in the world!
Here’s the media: http://fortune.com/2015/03/10/american-millennials-are-among-the-worlds-least-skilled/
Here’s the report: http://www.ets.org/s/research/30079/index.html
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David, if we listened to the naysayers, you would conclude we are the weakest, most pathetic nation in the world, but I don’t think so. I think we live in a great nation that is cursed with indifference to poverty. We can solve our problems if we have the will.
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Cuomo states he has no control over education on NY. http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/230428/cuomo-i-have-nothing-to-do-with-the-education-system/
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http://on.freep.com/1C9yfth
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At least one person is standing up to Cuomo. http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/schools/ken-ton-school-board-chief-threatens-to-drop-use-of-student-test-scores-standardized-testing-20150309
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Shocking and scary.
Just POSTED! BREAKING!
“Pearson, the multinational testing and publishing company, is spying on the social media posts of students–including those from New Jersey–while the children are taking their PARCC, statewide tests. The state education department is cooperating with this spying and has asked at least one school district to discipline students who may have said something inappropriate about the tests.”
http://bobbraunsledger.com/breaking-pearson-nj-spying-on-social-media-of-students-taking-parcc-tests/
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in NC:
PERSONAL EDUCATION PLANS
Legislation was filed this week to eliminate Personal Education Plans (PEPs) for students not performing at grade level. Just a month ago, a state report showed that schools receiving a grade of “F” had more than 50 percent of students facing poverty. Right now, there is no plan to help these students and a complete elimination would predominately affect poor and minority students. These are resources that give students who need it the most an opportunity to be successful. Instead of complete elimination, which goes too far, NCAE is ready to work with lawmakers to streamline their use and make them a more valuable and effective tool for educators. Instead of steadily taking resources away, we should be giving our students the tools and time to learn to be successful.
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Exodus of teachers from large Cincinnati school district. Many factors at work…but the new testing/evaluation system may be getting underplayed:
Not sure if link will work: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2015/03/14/classroom-exodus-lakota-losing-teachers/70297434/
Classroom exodus: Lakota losing 100 teachers
Michael D. Clark, mclark@enquirer.com 5:09 a.m. EDT March 14, 2015
lakota1.JPGBuy Photo
(Photo: The Enquirer/ Michael D. Clark)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Lakota Schools will lose at least 100 teachers when classes end this spring.
Lakota officials assure parents that the teachers will be filled quickly and that they are making new teacher hiring a priority.
Most Lakota teachers are retiring early to avoid benefits cuts, says teacher union president, but some leaving in frustration over sweeping school reforms
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LIBERTY TWP. – When the last class bell rings to end this school year, Lakota Public Schools officials say they will face a nearly historic number of teachers quitting.
Lakota Schools, which is the second-largest district in Southwest Ohio, will see at least 100 teachers retire or move on to other jobs.
The expected exodus is the latest increase in a trend that in recent years has seen more public school teachers in Lakota — and elsewhere in Ohio — retire early to avoid newly installed benefit reductions in the state’s teacher retirement fund that will begin during 2015-2016 school year.
Since 2010 the Butler County school system has experienced a 17.4 percent drop in the number of teachers.
A portion — but not all of the decrease — coincides with a 2,000-student drop in enrollment – now about 16,500 — since 2010. But the overall aging of the teacher work force, which mirrors the aging and closer-to-retirement Baby Boomers in other industries, also plays a major role, said Lakota officials.
And some teachers are retiring, said Sharon Mays, president of the Lakota teachers’ union, because they are weary of major changes in how teachers are expected to do their jobs and how their performances are evaluated under new reforms.
“There has also been some frustration with the state mandates, which may be a contributing factor,” said Mays, whose membership in the Lakota Education Association is now 923, down from 1,117 in 2010.
Ohio’s Department of Education has come under recent criticism for what critics describe as excessive testing of students. Some complain that the increased frequency of testing and the greater priority such exams require, have reduced teacher autonomy in regards to instructional methods and style.
Moreover, a growing chorus of criticism toward Ohio’s adoption of some Common Core academic standards and their related testing has also drawn complaints from both parents and teachers.
But, the biggest reason behind Lakota’s spike in retirements, said Mays, are “major changes in (Ohio) teacher retirement system, which has caused our teachers with many years of experience to evaluate the best time for retirement. This has resulted in a larger number of retirements this year.”
“I am very sad to see the number of experienced, high-quality teachers leaving this year,” she says.
So is Lakota school parent Daniel Colpi.
The PTO vice president for Lakota’s Liberty Early Childhood Center said that with at least 100 teachers having announced so far they are leaving, the district “will be losing a lot of experienced teachers and mentors.”
“Whenever that many people leave an organization there will be some scrambling going on to get in new people. Hopefully, that sort of change can be a good one with new teachers brought in with fresh ideas,” said Colpi.
Lakota officials assure parents, saying they are moving earlier than normal to start recruiting new teachers.
Lakota Schools Superintendent Karen Mantia says theBuy Photo
Lakota Schools Superintendent Karen Mantia says the Butler County school district, which is the second largest in Southwest Ohio, will have to make hiring a priority in wake of 100 teachers quitting. (Photo: Enquirer file)
“High-quality teachers are in high demand, making it critical that we get out in the job market and start recruiting early,” said Lakota Superintendent Karen Mantia, who reminds parents that 85 percent of Lakota’s teaching staff has more than five years of experience in the district.
In response to high number of retirees, says Mantia, Lakota is ramping up its recruitment efforts, having already registered for more than 10 recruitment events this winter and spring.
Diane Brunsman, executive director of human resources for Lakota’s 22 schools, said “in the school business our greatest assets are our teachers and support staff.”
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Now Bill Gates wants to reform higher education replacing classes with MOOC’s. Of course software is the key…https://gigaom.com/2013/07/15/bill-gates-on-the-future-of-education-programming-and-just-about-everything-else/
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Article discussing numerous negative testing issues in Ohio:
http://www.toledoblade.com/Education/2015/03/16/New-Ohio-tests-source-of-anxiety-anger.html
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Just wanted to send you this from the Bellmore-Merrick Superintendent.file:///Users/traceymiller/Downloads/Gov%20Cuomo%203-17-15%20(1).pdf I’m not really sure how to send this but I was happy to receive the email from him.
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That was my childhood school district!
Tracey, can you upload the file to Dropbox, as what you posted doesn’t seem to be a usable link. Thanks!
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Hoping you can comment on this recent study:
http://credo.stanford.edu/
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A rare Governor whose children are taking PARCC tests (but be careful reading the post-article comments): http://www.nola.com/education/baton-rouge/index.ssf/2015/03/what_bobby_jindals_kids_think.html
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Great article from Pacific Standard:
http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/what-if-education-reform-got-it-all-wrong-in-the-first-place
“t’s been just over 30 years since war was declared on America’s public schools. …
Yet three decades later, and in spite the opening of a second front comprised of school vouchers, a 2.57-million student charter school network, and a classroom culture tied to test preparation, the nation’s education outcomes have barely budged, and rather than narrowing the education gap, the chasm between rich and poor appears only to be significantly widening.”
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Recently, a fourth-grader in Hernando County Florida spoke in front of the school board about her concerns regarding the FSA standardized test. She is very eloquent and says a lot of the things we all have been saying.
You can view the video here, posted by the school board: https://youtu.be/ogBuz4dU5Ew
There’s also a local news station’s interview with the student: http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2015/3/19/hernando_fourth_grad.html
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More Bullshit:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/16/us-high-school-graduation-rates_n_6878362.html?utm_hp_ref=education&ir=Education&utm_hp_ref=education
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Dear Diane Ravitch, The Cooperstown Central School District’s Faculty Association passed resolutions in support of test refusal and calling for the resignation of Commissioner Tisch. The resolutions were at our BOE meeting and can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm5f9bCqacE . PDFs available on Facebook at Opt Out CNY. Thank you.
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HR 2835 had a hearing in the Oregon House Committee on Education today:
HB 2835 Prohibits Department of Education from requiring school districts to align instruction or assessments with common core state standards and from penalizing school districts for failure to align instruction or assessments with common core state standards.
Here is the link to the video:
http://oregon.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=6&clip_id=8732
Awesome testimony from concerned teachers, parents, legislators, and others.
Question: how many lies did Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, Rob Saxton, tell in his presentation?
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Letter to the Editor: “PARCC is Failing Teachers and Students”
Teachers at a bilingual school in Framingham, MA speak out about PARCC
http://patch.com/massachusetts/framingham/letter-editor-parcc-failing-teachers-and-students-0
A beautiful piece by some badass teachers.
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If you have a concern with the flow of illegal immigrants coming into the country, we should close the border. As long as there is a hole, they will come. I believe the same thing needs to be said for the “mothers,” in the article who have no time for their children, because they are working “four jobs.” To allow the government to fix everything, including special programs to raise their child, is to promote irresponsibility.
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If you mean close the border by closing all border crossing, that might not be possible due to imports and exports in addition to the shear impossibility of closing a border due to its length—-more than 20,000 miles. Not even Communist China has been able to close its borders to stop illegal immigrants and drugs from getting in.
Click to access RS21729.pdf
As for the rest of the land border, it’s already closed but even the fence, drones and the border patrol hasn’t been able to stop illegal immigrants from crossing and even risking their lives in harsh terrain.
The only way to stop immigrants from risking their lives to get into America to find a job, is to deal with the poverty and violence in the countries they come from and the biggest threat in Mexico is the drug cartels that smuggle illegal drugs into the United States where this is a HUGE market for the illegal products they sell. And if the drug cartels can smuggle those illegal products to a hungry market in the U.S., the illegal immigrants can also find a way in.
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PRESERVING PUBLIC EDUCATION, THE FOUNDATION OF OUR DEMOCRACY
RALLY & FORUM AT SPENCERPORT HIGH SCHOOL
MARCH 19, 2005
SPEECH DELIVERED BY PARENT KAREN COSTNER
Good evening everyone.
I am here tonight not to talk to you about saving public education; I am not here tonight to talk to you about APPR or funding inequities. While I respect and appreciate our speakers input and their opinion, I am here tonight, speaking as a parent, to try and bring the discussion to where it belongs, our children.
Let’s say for arguments sake, funding would magically reappear and 50% evaluations go away.
Our children are still sitting at those desks. Every day they are forced to eat a plate called education reform created by people who never even taught in public school but conveniently backed by the wealthy. The children still have to take the tests. They still have to complete the modules. They cannot leave, they cannot protest, they cannot move, they cannot find another job in another field or complain to their union representative, they are forced to sit there, every day.
Many of you here know for a fact that some standards are questionable, that some are inappropriate, and that some go completely against the way a child’s brain develops… Many of you know that some of the modules, lesson plans and subject matter are either laughable or worse; bring tears to your eyes. Many of you know many more children cry at school than ever before.
Now some may say there’s some good in there, there some really good standards. But how dare we just throw everything at them like this and see if it sticks.
We have to get this right, we have to make sure everything we put in front of our children at school is true, that it is tested, that it has value and merit. We are not making sneakers, we are educating children. We cannot sit back and let the state play guinea pig with our kids. If we get it wrong a child loses his confidence, loses his interest, and loses his love of reading, his love of learning. And we are losing children in 3rd grade. If we get this wrong we lose a generation.
To add insult to injury, let’s test them, test them every year. For hours and hours. Let’s remind them as young as 8 years old, that they are a 1. Testing, testing, testing, it has become so important and so vital in this reform. Why?
The spin is we have to be able to measure the new standards. Of course that makes sense, especially when we are implementing new standards. But where’s that data? Why doesn’t my child’s teacher get the data detailing what standards were met or exceeding on the tests. I argue it’s not about measuring the standards, it’s about the data, and it’s about measuring up our kids.
Many people still do not know when we signed up for this new reform, the standards and the tests, there is another little tidbit New York signed up for, Statewide Longitudinal Database. Data collection. Over 400 points of data plus much more is now collected on each and every one of our children from pre k on.
There used to be a law that did not allow the sharing of our kid’s data without our permission but by executive order that was changed so that now many more people get it. Who? New York State, the federal government, Pearson, the testing company and any non- government organization that states they are in the business or are considered an evaluator. That opens the door wide open.
If Common core is the printer, the tests are the cartridge and our kids are the ink. Our kids are coin. Education is the biggest data mineable industry there is. While I will agree data can be valuable in aiding in my child’s education, when restrictions are loosened, and the profit potential is so great, it trumps my child’s privacy and best interests. And just because you want it, doesn’t mean you should get it. She’s my child, not yours.
And if these tests are not about data collection and really about measuring standards, then why is my daughter’s ELA test 4 and a half hours long? Why are there 4 plausible answers on a multiple choice question? Why the vague and ambiguous questions? If the tests are to measure how effectively the standards are working and if my child is grasping them, why is my child’s teacher and school denied any data regarding that?
Why is it that the government gets the data, Pearson gets the data, probably Knewton, and Microsoft and others get access but the most important people in my child’s education get nothing? They get a number, just a number, that’s all. The number can mean a great deal to those who promote the tests. It is used for political posturing and product positioning but that number means nothing to help my child’s instruction.
Recently Meryl Tisch, the Chancellor of the Board of Regents said in a speech last week that it was a “terrible mistake” for parents to refuse the state tests. Her speech and supporting statements reminded me of why I started to investigate common core and the testing; it all started with my daughters 6th grade ELA work. First there was drawing inferences and then persuasive writing. I found that my standards were much higher than what was required of my daughters. I have always said to my kids, if you are going to make an argument, make sure you have facts and strong supporting evidence to back your claim.
Before I go on with this, let me clarify, I have very high standards for my children. I expect a challenging and enriching curriculum. I see value in assessments when used effectively. And I am not afraid of my children taking a tough test, I welcome the challenge.
Ms. Tisch said in her speech she agrees the tests themselves could be improved. This is mind blowing to me. How dare the state put a test in front of my child carrying so much emphasis knowing there are problems? Is it really that hard to write elementary and middle schools assessments? We have had assessments for decades, yet for some reason with the initiation of common core it has become difficult and exceptionally expensive to write a test. Do not put something in front of my child expecting her to meet the standards when the test itself doesn’t even do so.
She had stated the parents who boycott the exams are opposed to the idea of judging educators based on student test scores. That is not the case with me. Whether my teachers evaluation is 1%, 20%, 50% or 90% my daughter will not be taking the test. While I agree 50% is ludicrous, I do believe in accountability, including accountability of the Board of Regents, Pearson and the New York State Department of Education.
Ms. Tisch also said that most people do not refuse to get vaccinated. That is true. But I will only vaccinate my child with a vaccine that has gone through clinical trials, and been through years of research to deem it safe and effective.
She also stated, “We don’t refuse to go to the doctor for an annual checkup.” Of course, I along with my children go every year. And when we do, if we have a test, we get all the information regarding it. If my child gets blood work, I know EXACTLY what her levels are, her potassium, and her sugar. her white count. I can see the results and see exactly where her levels fall. I can even get the name of the person who drew her blood, the name of the person who tested her blood and even find out the machine that tested it and know when and what quality control measures were taken to ensure that the test is accurate. There is transparency with my child’s medical treatment, unlike these tests.
And the last quote I cite. “We are going to continue to help students and parents understand that it is a terrible mistake to refuse the right to know.” Know what? I am still trying to struggle with what benefit this test is to my child.
My child is supposed to take a test that is written in secret, administered in secret, the teachers can’t comment on it, neither can my child. The test is graded in secret and scored in secret. My school gets no identifiable, useable, relevant data from that test. But the profit potential and political positioning from the test is limitless. And I am supposed to believe that is going to benefit my child?
Just about every day, every child in public school under the common core standards and in the common core tests are required to “find and cite evidence to support your claim”
So Ms. Tisch, Governor Cuomo, Board of Regents and the State Education Department; where’s yours?
Where’s your evidence?
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Oops–that should read 2015, not 2005. This speech was delivered in Spencerport earlier this week.
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Dear Diane Ravitch,
With regards to the Grit Scale: you have pointed out two of the flaws in the thinking of those that are trying to measure ‘grit’. How can we measure the attainment of a learning goal when we have not even properly defined these learning goals that represent human qualities worthy and capable of being developed in an educational program? What happens is that silly scales like the ones supposed to measure ‘grit’ become the de facto learning goals. Worse still, results are aggregated into numbers or letters that are used to manipulate students and teachers, rather than provide information useful for making instructional decisions to help our students attain worthy learning goals. The toxic features of high-stakes norm referenced tests migrate into the domain of human values and dispositions.
How can this information be useful? We cannot even fathom how to prepare instruction (for surely it is not a question of whether, but how, if we have identified a clear learning goal). And, more importantly, we cannot fathom how to collect useful information on the attainment of these human qualities. How do we know when a student has persevered if we do not even know what that means or looks like? Attaining the quality of “perseverance” could be a wonderful learning goal—but it is so broad that we cannot create assessments for it or instruction targeted to its development.
But what if we were to separate the activities I am suggesting from the activity of testing? When I use the word assessment, I am NOT talking about testing. Assessment is purely understanding the extent to which a student has attained a learning goal—using an assessment task, or measure, or activity that actually measures the qualities it says it measures! What if we take what this Grit Scale may be attempting to do and rethink and rework the experience we wish our students could have by focusing on specific learning goals in a non-judgmental way: so that we offer students the opportunity to explore and develop core capabilities that have the potential to open their eyes, enrich their lives, contribute to more learning in the future, while still nurturing and respecting their individuality. What a beautiful opportunity of assessment to empower students in developing the habits and qualities they want to explore and develop! What an opportunity to open a discussion about attainment of qualities and the implications for such in the 21st century world in which the students will live, work, and learn.
These qualities can be taught in an educational program.
I wish that I had understood this when I was in the classroom, endeavoring to support and nurture dispositional learning goals in my students, like feeling awe in the power of nature, appreciating the vastness of space and time, or cultivating science literacy. With my rudimentary educational and assessment skills at the time I could not hope to create assessment activities– much less collect information to guide instruction– with such broad learning goals!
But what a beautiful opportunity for assessment to demonstrate a way to specifically and precisely define a worthy learning goal, design a valid and reliable way to measure attainment of such a goal, and to use that information—not for judging or labeling or tracking or assigning a score—but to guide the decisions we make in the classroom and add value to the students’ experience in school and in life!
That is what can happen if attention is turned to specific learning goals aligned with specific assessments, and the information is used strictly for improving teaching and learning.
Thank you,
Monica Meissner
Former science and special education teacher, Neil Hellman School, Albany, NY
ACASE Associate
http://www.acase.org
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The Nation has a major expose of Cuomo’s hedgefund backers:
http://www.thenation.com/article/201881/9-billionaires-are-about-remake-new-yorks-public-schools-heres-their-story
I thought you’d have seen it.
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I posted the Nation article a few days ago. Great story!
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Diane,
I would love your support posting this video. Brooklyn educators from the Brooklyn New School and the Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies speak out on Governor Cuomo’s budget proposal. Educators call parents to action. The consequence to public education is too great to ignore.
https://vimeo.com/122744324
Elizabeth Rinella Elsass
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In response to the article in The Nation regarding the billionaires club financing the school reform in New York, it seems that the rich get richer because they can use their wealth to put on a magic show. But what also is repeated is where are the students and parents in this? What I hear is that many of these charter schools are discipline minded, task oriented mills of education. I have a difficult time believing that every child that enters such a school converts. But if they all do, and charter schools can show student achievement, then why are public schools unable to pursue these same actions? I think for the fallacy of the charter school to be exposed, I think we need to show the difference as to what each type of school is allowed to do when a student doesn’t meet the expected standards.
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Diane, I don’t know how to contact you but sure wish you could offer some exposure to the unjustified firing of the University of Mississippi’s Chancellor by the state’s IHL board presumably but it’s controlled by our governor Phil Bryant:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/23/anger-over-state-boards-decision-not-renew-u-mississippi-chancellor
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MarketWatch – Bill Gates booklist – March 23, 2015
Of note: How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff
I’m going to suggest Diane’s latest book in the comments section:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/6-books-that-bill-gates-recommends-reading-2015-03-23?mod=MW_story_latest_news
Perhaps others can do the same?
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A salute to our dedicated, experienced teachers
In the midst of the worst attacks on our teachers that I have ever witnessed, I have two special requests. First, tell all of the teachers you know just how much you respect and appreciate all that they have done for you, your children and your grandchildren. And let them know that you believe more in their ability to teach and to evaluate student learning than in the bogus, high stakes, standardized tests that are costing us $16 billion each year. (Note: By comparison, the NFL took in $9 billion last year; the box office movies– $11 billion.)
Our teachers and students know that real learning requires many opportunities to analyze, create, make mistakes and learn from them, and apply their knowledge in a wide variety of situations and tasks. So let’s encourage students to demonstrate serious learning through original creative thinking, speaking, writing, projects, reports, exhibits, and portfolios of their work over time. Then their classrooms can come alive with the energy and curiosity that fuels authentic learning.
Sadly, too many of our politicians have a primitive, simplistic view of teaching and learning, assuming that standardized, multiple guess tests are a credible measure. But the test makers themselves have warned of the limited value of their tests for assessing student learning, and they certainly never intended their tests to evaluate teacher performance. The faith of politicians in standardized junk science is abusive to students and teachers alike. And it is particularly ironic coming from climate deniers who have no faith in actual, verifiable science.
So my second request is to tell your political representatives to stop squandering hundreds of millions of our tax dollars on tests, preparation for tests, analyzing tests, labeling students and teachers and robbing us of class time for meaningful teaching and learning.
It is amazing that so many of our committed teachers have persisted in this abusive climate, with disrespectful politicians trying to further regulate their teaching, eliminate their pensions or tenure, and force 26,000 of them out of the classroom. Our children and youth are being sacrificed up on this battlefield.
It’s time to support our teachers, remembering the beloved ones who helped us on our way. There is big money in privatizing education, selling tests, textbooks and meaningless numbers. Let’s re-direct that money to the classrooms of our children and the teachers who are committed to helping them learn. Teachers are not the problem. It is politicians who need a tenure review.
Dr. Jill Sunday Bartoli
Carlisle, PA 717.249.7591
Emerita, Elizabethtown College
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I just heard your Webinar presentation at PSUC, Plattsburgh. Thank you for your candor in talking about the corporate takeover of testing in public education, and its corrosive effect on teaching and learning. You should run for President of the USA in 2016! Anne Bailey, retired Plattsburgh HS foreign language teacher
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NYTimes has article generally favorable on evaluating teachers by standardized test scores: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/business/economy/grading-teachers-by-the-test.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1
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Hi Diane, Thanks again for last night in Plattsburgh. We’ve heard nothing but extremely positive comments about your talk….and it has made a difference. And as for today’s news:
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/03/8564768/cuomo-plan-would-withhold-school-aid-until-evaluation-deal
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The link I posted just above this I should have introduced. The senate and the governor are looking to bypass democracy one more time, withholding funds until the governor gets his way on teacher evaluations…. here is the story:
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/03/8564768/cuomo-plan-would-withhold-school-aid-until-evaluation-deal
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Press Release
Local Teachers Condemn New Standardized Tests
REDMOND, Washington-March 26, 2015-Teachers at Redmond Middle School in the Lake Washington School District have publicly announced their objection to the “Smarter Balanced Assessments” to be administered to students this spring. Their announcement comes as educators across the nation have begun to react against standardized testing and its negative effects on teaching and learning.
“For me, it’s a matter of social justice,” said David Sudmeier, a twenty-eight year veteran teacher at Redmond Middle School. “We might as well pass out scores on the basis of family income. These tests pretend to offer an objective measure of student learning, but really discriminate against students who have parents working multiple jobs, who have limited home resources for activities that support learning, and who may go home to a bare cupboard instead of a warm, nourishing meal.”
“We care deeply about student learning,” remarked Shell Lockwood, who is about to end a long career as a teacher of gifted students, “but we don’t get any useful information from these tests. By the time scores are reported, those students have moved on. Every group of students is unique, and we can’t assume that the next group will have the same needs or abilities. These tests are more a distraction from productive teaching and learning than anything else.”
Some people might find it odd that teachers who object to the test are going to administer the test anyway? “Our kids are the bottom line,” said Lockwood. “We want the public to know that we stand by our students to support them in a no-win situation. To abandon them just as testing begins would be unthinkable.”
So what can parents do in this situation? “Many of us are parents, too,” said Adam Wujick, math teacher at RMS. “I am disappointed in the lost instructional time for both my own kids and my students. I know that some parents are opting their children out of standardized testing entirely.”
It’s quite apparent that these teachers are determined to make their voice heard. “We have confidence in the wisdom of parents and the public,” said Sudmeier. “Now we just need our state legislators to heed our state constitution and lift public education to its rightful position as the paramount concern.”
From members of the Lake Washington Education Association of Redmond Middle School, east of Seattle, and part of the Lake Washington School District:
A RESOLUTION OF DISAPPROVAL OF THE SMARTER BALANCED ASSESSMENT
WHEREAS, the stated mission of the Lake Washington School District is that ”Each student will graduate prepared to lead a rewarding, responsible life as a contributing member of our community and greater society;” and
WHEREAS, the Smarter Balanced Assessment is not required for graduation; and
WHEREAS, this computer based assessment will take approximately eight hours for each student to complete and its confusing format is unlike anything students will experience outside the testing environment; and
WHEREAS, student computers and district infrastructure are unreliable and it is unacceptable for students to have learning time diverted to an activity so likely to be plagued with technical issues; and
WHEREAS, the failure rate of the assessment is likely to be extraordinarily high (possibly 60%) for the general population and even higher for students of color, ELL students, and students on individualized education plans; and
WHEREAS, student performance on this test is unlikely to be indicative of learning, but very likely to correlate directly with family socioeconomic status; and
WHEREAS, graduation and standardized testing requirements in Washington State are in constant flux, confusing, and poorly communicated; and
WHEREAS, the sheer number of state mandated standardized tests and End of Course exams deprives teachers of adequate time to provide instruction and for students to learn; and
WHEREAS, some of these exams may impact high school graduation; and
WHEREAS, during the testing window teachers are also administering unit tests, year-end finals and facilitating summative projects; and
WHEREAS, the detrimental impact on school schedules, student learning, teacher and administrative work time is out of proportion to the limited value of the test results; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, we, members of the Lake Washington Education Association at Redmond Middle School object to the administration of the Smarter Balanced Assessment for spring 2015 as an unacceptable obstruction to assisting students to “… graduate prepared to lead a rewarding, responsible life as a contributing member of our community and greater society.”
Name
David Sudmeier
Denise Gross
Shell Lockwood
Sacha DeBeaumarchais
Kristin Rhode
Heidi Knable
Adam Wujick
Kaylee Hansen
Mary Chandler
Melissa Brown
Dena Kernish
Carol McCaig
Eric Fredlund
Ben Pinneo
Sara Hall
Scott Nelson
Quinn Thompson
Paul Neet
Kelly Konicki
Meg Town
Kris Kornegay
Chris Fleharty
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Excellent article published yesterday at The Atlantic, titled “The Deconstruction of the K12 Teacher” at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/the-deconstruction-of-the-k-12-teacher/388631/
“How hot does the water have to get before the best teachers start jumping for jobs in the private sector? As local communities and school districts nationwide commit to blended-learning programs, are they considering the long-term ramifications to the nature of their classrooms? Does the American Federation of Teachers know that, as its teachers upload their lesson plans into the cloud, they might be helping build an entirely different school, ones with self-organized learning environments instead of teachers?”
As someone who recently “made the jump” from teaching to the private sector, I find myself agreeing with many of the points made in the article, but also ache a little for my lost profession. As one bewildered educator puts it, “We used to be appreciated as experts in our field.”
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A route map leading to the destruction of the middle class. Imagine what will happen when 4 million+ teachers are earning slightly above poverty wages—I’m thinking of that circle of dominoes falling one by one until none are standing.
Are they really automating out the humanity of humanity?
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http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2015/03/26/nc-senate-floats-yet-another-silly-and-simplistic-education-proposal/
This is unbelievable.
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Dr. Ravitch,
Knowing about your blog helped me inform a friend whose autistic son was having difficulty with PARCC tests (taking them, losing his teacher to supervising the test, new, untrained aide, etc) that she had the right to opt him out of testing. Through your blog and the commenters I was able to connect her to the right people to get him opted out. She is eternally grateful.
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Diane, Did you know that 32,000 teachers have left NYC schools since 2002? See the Black Agenda Report: Testing Public Education to Death in New York
http://blackagendareport.com/testing_education_2_death
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Wonderful blog post from “Mr. Fitz;” “Why I Keep Teaching”:
The Real Mr. Fitz: Why I Keep Teaching
http://realmrfitz.blogspot.com/2015/03/why-i-keep-teaching.html
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Diane, have you seen this? It’s a Florida teacher explaining how his VAM score was derived to his school board and asking them to tell his story.
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Dear Diane,
Below is today’s Newsday editorial. Newsday is Long Island’s main newspaper and has always been critical of public school teachers and the teachers’ union. As you know, Long Island is a hotbed now of parents, administrators, teachers and students opting out of the standardized tests, which is why Newsday ran this editorial.
I retired in 2004 after 32 years of fulfilling teaching in a public junior high and then a senior high school, fortunately before the recent disastrous testing mania became so pervasive, so, while I have strong opinions about this current “reform” mania, I thankfully have no first-hand professional experience with it.
Given your credentials, experience and expertise in confronting this lunacy, will you consider responding to this Newsday editorial? Here is the email for Newsday’s letters editor: letters@newsday.com
Thanks for all you are doing,
Ed Ciaccio
Douglaston, NY 11362
When will teacher evaluations make the grade?
Updated March 28, 2015 8:54 PM
By THE NEWSDAY EDITORIAL BOARD
A new plan for teacher evaluations that was furiously negotiated this weekend in Albany may offer a real chance at progress. It’s hard to say without knowing the full details. In truth, it will be hard to say even after we know the full details.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has been demanding evaluations that culminate in some meaningful percentage of New York’s public school teachers being identified as ineffective. Teachers unions and the state legislators they support have been fighting him. Meanwhile, districts and parents are being misled into battling Common Core curricula and the standardized tests on behalf of teachers, who often don’t oppose the tests or the lesson plans. The teachers simply resist being evaluated on student mastery of those tests.
But whether this iteration does the trick won’t alter the long-term reality: New York will eventually get an evaluation system that identifies and rewards the best teachers, provides training for those who need it and flushes out the worst. It’s not going to happen because Albany deems it so, but because the courts, parents and stark facts of student failure demand it.
The state budget is due Wednesday, and Cuomo has made this issue central to this year’s negotiations. Evaluations of educators in New York’s schools for the past two years found very few teachers ineffective or developing. On Long Island, 104 of the 124 districts didn’t find a single teacher or principal ineffective, and 54 districts evaluated every educator as “highly effective” or “effective.”
The system has been gamed. The 80 percent of each evaluation not based strictly on student test results is slanted to favor educators, with even some teachers classed as “developing” getting as many as 76 of those 80 available points.
The unions have proved they knew a lot more about how to finesse an evaluation system than the reformers. The unions may, with this new plan, do so again. It’s difficult to believe they and their political supporters will accept a system that is, in fact, acceptable.
And it’s important to remember that the current, skewed evaluation results aren’t the fundamental reasons the system must change. It’s the number of students getting to Long Island’s community colleges in need of remedial help, 60 percent to 70 percent. It’s the mere 38 percent of the state’s high school graduates who are ready for college or careers.
This isn’t just about poor kids or minorities. The Board of Regents says that even in districts with good graduation rates, graduates are often unprepared for the next level.
This year’s standardized testing for Long Island students in grades 3 through 8 begins on April 14. Calls to opt children out of the tests are again mounting. But parents will eventually realize that their kids aren’t getting the education they need, or that we’re paying for.
The courts are figuring that out. In California and Pennsylvania, judges recently came down against both teacher tenure and layoffs by seniority. In New York, a lawsuit has been filed in pursuit of similar goals. Teacher tenure and difficult firing mechanisms are an equity issue: Underprivileged students suffer the most when bad teachers are retained. But affluent children are not well-served by such a system either.
Teachers absolutely can be evaluated in a meaningful way, with student achievement as part of the equation. Washington, D.C.; New Haven, Connecticut; Massachusetts and other places offer vaunted models of teacher evaluation to look at. We know it would help to add components of parent and student evaluations and classroom observers who aren’t employed by the same school. Better standardized tests that tell us more about each student’s needs and triumphs would be a boon, too.
What’s needed is a rigorous, fair system, and the willingness of teachers unions to work within such a system, rather than working to get around it.
If this new plan achieves that, wonderful. If not, then eventually the courts, parents and the reality of poor student achievement will.
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REDPILLED, that is an unusually uninformed editorial that reeks of ignorance. Parents are “misled” by the unions? Why does Newsday think parents are so stupid? Teachers don’t want to be evaluated? They have always been evaluated. The irony is that Long Island has some of the best, most successful schools in the state of NY. Long Island has a graduation rate far higher than the rest of the state. I don’t understand Newsday’s desire to fix what is not broken with Cuomo’s bad ideas.
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We are gathering parents up in our area (MD) that want to get informed about Common Core and Standardized testing. Obviously people have short attention spans, so I want to equip them with the key aspects, so they can make informed decisions and opinions when talking to others, including the school system. Any suggestions on how or what to present to them? If you already have a video or powerpoint presentation that I can use, please send that also, and I can tweak it or widdle it down. Thank you!
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Tony,
Check out articles by Carol Burris and Mercedes Schneider (website is Deutsch29)
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Yes, the amount of willful ignorance and misinformation in that editorial is astounding. That is why I hope you will write to Newsday to correct all that misinformation.
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Here is a recent article from the Boston Globe about “Bringing the Charter Approach to College” and MATCH. There are very few readers’ comments posted in response to this article, but most of them seem to support this as a more cost and time effective option to the traditional college experience.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2015/03/26/bringing-charter-school-approach-college/CPSqaG8MEkfs589yEnGc3O/story.html#comments
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We are at a crossroad and only parents can decide which path public education will take. Do we want to continue our model of community-based public education rooted in instruction? Or do we want state-run schools based upon assessments in English Language Arts (ELA), mathematics and science. The two simply cannot coexist.
It is common knowledge that the New York State Education Department (NYSED) took a bold stand this year when it attempted to hijack two entire school districts for the purpose of taking both in its direction of state-run public schools. Two school districts in New York State merely contemplated not administering the state’s testing program in grades three through eight, because this is what many parents in their community wanted, indicated by high rates of refusal for this year’s state tests.
NYSED’s response? Swift action, informing the district administration in both cases that their superintendents would be terminated, along with their entire school boards, comprised of members from the community and elected by the local community. In turn, their superintendents would be replaced by state appointed personnel. This bully tactic is clearly an abuse of power.
Most people would agree that a government’s job is to protect the people from harm in a variety of ways. In a democracy, we pride ourselves for having a government “for the people, by the people”. Something has clearly gone awry in the case of the NYSED. This branch of the state government, working for, and reporting directly to the governor of New York State, has been unyielding to the concerns of parents and teachers regarding the impact of high-stakes testing on children in New York State. Going so far as to threaten to terminate the superintendent and entire board of two school districts is indicative of how far the state has taken its agenda. Even the media has not wanted to touch this.
We can argue over the multitude of reasons the state has taken on such a caustic agenda. But the reason why is really inconsequential. What matters most is that it is happening. Educators have been unable to stop it. Politicians have largely ignored it. Now, the only people who can put the breaks on harmful reforms are parents.
Let’s think about these two roads.
The state would like to make 50% of a teacher’s annual evaluation based upon state assessments. This 50% becomes a State Growth Score once the state uses its Value Added Model (VAM) to contort students’ scores on assessments into an evaluative score for their teachers. According to the American Statistical Association (2014) using VAM is tricky, because realistically it will account for variability in a student’s score anywhere from 1 to 14%, https://www.amstat.org/policy/pdfs/ASA_VAM_Statement.pdf .
The association takes things a step further, arguing that relying heavily on VAM’s reduces teacher quality. If the state is going to base teacher evaluations largely on VAM’s, teachers, for their own self-preservation, will have to focus instruction on test content. Schools will have to follow suit, because administrators are also assigned state growth scores.
With all of this in mind, the state’s highway leads to classrooms focused solely on ELA, math and science. Other avenues that support creative thinking and expression in the milieu of ways public schools have addressed these things for decades will be gone. Integrating art, and music and movement in instruction will not support that possible 1-14% variability a teacher has on test scores. Schools will no longer be permitted to develop their own cultures reflecting the local community. They will have to limit themselves to content that is rooted in state testing.
And for argument’s sake, basing instruction on the tests is not wrong. This what good teachers do. Any assessment a student takes absolutely must be based upon what has been worked on in the classroom. The singular purpose of assessment is to inform instruction. The argument often made by the state is that the tests should not inform instruction. But think about it, instruction must inform the assessment. When teachers are unable to do that, the only way to attempt to make the assessment work, is to base instruction on the assessment. It is backwards, clearly. However, teachers protect their students, and sadly, with a state-mandated test, this is the only way to protect children who are taking the test.
The other path is not a highway at all. It is comprised of hundreds, if not thousands, of neighborhood streets that meander in all directions, inviting all who travel those roads, the opportunity to find him/herself. Where does he/she belong? What are his/her strengths or weaknesses? Where can he/she go in order to grow and reach his/her potential? For decades public education has worked in this way. The classroom has been a wide expanse, a place that grows with the minds that inhabit that space.
Teachers know every single student is different. There is no “one size fits all” curriculum that will spit out precisely the same child academically at the end, because curriculum cannot ameliorate the discrepancies in abilities that children arrive at school with. Teachers must rely upon skill, training and experience to devise ways to reach every learner in his/her own unique way.
Teaching is, in many ways, like medicine. There is very clear science about what works and what does not. However, in medicine, every single patient comes in with different pre-existing conditions, or none at all. The doctor must evaluate (or assess) the patient, and based upon what he/she brings to the examining room, the doctor prescribes a course of action. I have had several experiences with doctors who have said to me, “We are going to try this first. If that does not work, we will move on to Plan B”.
Teaching is quite similar in that students come to us with a variety of “pre-existing conditions”. In my ELA class, I always have several students who are remarkably strong verbally, but written expression is next to impossible. For them, I have a few treatment plans. I try having them tell me their ideas, and I write them down, so they can see that their ideas are there, they just need to be moved to the paper. Or I have them start by just listing thoughts, without worrying about complete sentences. Then we work together to expand these thoughts into sentences and paragraphs. Some students can’t tell me what they are thinking, but they can draw a picture. So we go from there.
The state’s highway to testing will close all of these small streets that lead learning in all directions. For these reasons, as a parent, I choose the neighborhood streets for my children. We refuse to participate in New York State’s testing program because we support local, community-based school districts designed to help our children grow to be successful, well-rounded citizens.
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I am sharing only so others can understand the “urgency of now” and the asinine proposals of the governor. My fight is our fight. According to my NYS state test scores in ELA 7, I am highly ineffective. This is simply not true, as corroborated by my current families and alumni for 20+ years. With the new evaluation system, as proposed, I will not be allowed to teach in a few years. So here is what I wrote to Tisch and the Board of Regents. (I revised it only slightly and sent it to every assembly person and senators as well.)
Dear Board of Regents,
I am happy to hear that the assembly and senate has separated Governor Cuomo’s demands regarding teacher evaluation from his budget. If I understand the the changing-by-the-minute media reports, you have been charged with looking at the current APPR system and perhaps revising it.
Every passionate, hard-working teacher knows that assessment is an essential part of teaching and learning, both for students and teachers. Constructive feedback celebrates success and fosters improvement. Our relatively new (and current) system is highly ineffective. We have field tested it now for several years and find it to cumbersome and labor-intensive without useful feedback for improvement. One of its fatal flaws is its over-reliance on standardized test scores and growth models for assessments shrouded in secrecy and fear, in addition to be developmentally inappropriate and profit-driven rather than student-driven.
Given the opportunity to revitalize and improve our public schools, I am writing to request your assistance in giving back the responsibility for student and teacher evaluation to the schools. provide guidelines, not mandates. Return the use of standardized tests, especially in grades 3-8, solely to diagnostic purposes.
If you are charged with creating a required APPR rather than allowing local schools to make these choices, I implore you to seek input from a wide variety of highly effective teacher evaluation systems that were already in place before the current system was mandated – evaluation systems that have been created, tested, and found constructive and valid by educators and administrators. A new APPR system is not something that can (or should) be decided with arbitrary timelines and without extensive input.
It is my sincere hope that you will each play a significant role in reclaiming the high expectations of NYS’s education system and return it to what once was working but needed improvement, not an overhaul. All systems that are focused on humans can never be static and unchanging. But the current system that has resulted in student anxiety and a growing hatred of learning, school punishment systems, fear and threats, and overall teacher demoralization can be rectified with your input. You each hold a position of power which must be wielded judiciously. I am asked you to recognize your power and use it for the improvement of NYS public education, not its demise.
Grateful for your willingness to listen and do what is right,
Kathryn D. Brown, ELA Teacher
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Diane I am hoping you see these posts. I am a retired tchr on Long Island I taught first and second grade for over 30 yrs. I have been trying to spread the word about what is happening to our profession. It truly breaks my heart and I feel SO STRONGLY that I need to do more!! I am well aware of the political aspects surrounding Race To The Top funding, Pearson etc. How can I help?
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Tracee, Long Island has many parent organizations working together to stop the attacks on their public schools. With few exceptions, the public schools in Long Island are excellent. Google New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) and find Jeannette Deutermann, who is a Long Island parent leader.
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So why can’t their children have the same experience, rather than test…test…test…that is all too much of the school experience today?
Meet the Two New Yorkers Who Are Starting a Preschool for Adults
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2015/01/meet_the_two_new_yorkers_who_are_starting_a_preschool_for_adults.php
I understand the cost is $995 for five weeks.
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Something the folks in many a statehouse and Washington, DC fail to see or heed.
Fareed Zakaria: America’s STEM education obsession is ‘dangerous,’ via Washington Post
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2015/03/stem_dangerous_fareed_zakaria.html
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I am sure like many politically involved teachers, I am on innumerable e-mail solicitation sites. I took the time today to unsubscribe from them. When they leave the box that asks why, I tell them. Until Democrats start standing up for public education, and take a stand against unreasonable high stakes testing for students that are then used to evaluate teachers, until Democrats stop attacking the professionalism of unionized public school teachers, until Democrats seriously listen and respond to the valid concerns of teachers, then I am out. If these sites got 50,000 similar e-mails, maybe they will start to listen. But when you have Democratic leaders like Duncan(and by proxy, Obama) and Cuomo, who act as if teachers are the enemy of our students, that teachers cannot be trusted with the task of teaching, that really good teachers should be able to erase the effects of poverty, illness, and egregious cuts to school spending, then I cannot continue to blindly support the party. Oh, I will still support people who earn my support, but no, I will not send a dime to the generic Democratic party. I invite others to join me.
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Finally, some one gets it!
and it’s not just Donkeys or Elephants who need our lack of support until they follow through on what they promise to do!
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good idea
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Yes, lets call this Democratic teacher opt-out!
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BREAKING NEWS – Sometime the system works.
Atlanta- 11 of 12 Cheatin’ Teachers Found GUILTY
http://news.blog.ajc.com/2015/04/01/eleven-of-12-aps-defendants-found-guilty/
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should be: Sometimes. Quick hand
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“Separation of church and state” was spoken by Thomas Jefferson and is used to describe part of the first amendment. This should be as true now as it was when the Constitution was written. The 1st amendment already gives people the freedom to practice any religion without persecution; therefore, any laws that have been enacted which protect those freedoms are redundant. Furthermore these new laws have the potential to harm the American people and country as a whole.
http://wh.gov/iZKqp
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Diane,
I am attaching my review of Paul Thomas’ Beware the Roadbuilders: Literature as Resistance. I believe this would be of interest to many of your readers.
Russ Walsh
http://bit.ly/1GRyjzm
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Hello Ms. Ravitch. I am a parent of 3 school-age children, a PTA president, a medical professional, and the spouse of a teacher. My husband and I saw you speak last week, March 26, at Monroe-Woodbury High School in NY as part of the #whatallkidsneed forum. We were inspired! You are clear, informative, and galvanizing. You may remember the woman who rose up afterwards and gave the entire room her email address and said she would be starting a group to allow all stakeholders to join together and fight for public education? That was me and we are doing it! We created the group Monroe Woodbury – Protect Public Education and have 475 members in one week. http://www.facebook.com/Monroewoodburyprotectpubliceducation
Please feel free to visit the page (it is open) and leave a comment.
Thank you for all you are doing!
Rachel Landres
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Dear Rachel Landres,
Thank you for taking action. You have a strong community and you should all collaborate to make sure your kids get the best possible education and that teachers get the respect they deserve.
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Diane – please consider passing this along!
https://www.crowdrise.com/fundraise-and-volunteer/donations/refusethetestsrobocall/debescobar
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I wonder what Cuomo’s mother thinks of this plan? As a former teacher I can’t imagine that she can support this . I am so disgusted and disheartened by the lack of respect we continue to get. Come on Cuomo …. Come teach for a week…. Better yet come watch these kids take all of these tests for just one day. Talk to the kids too because at this point they are the only ones left making any sense!
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I am currently reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (#5 in the series). I am only about 1/3 through, but I can affirm that it is an awesome commentary on Education Reform.
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Just having an appreciation moment for you Diane. I wanted to say it out loud. You’ve built the flywheel the old fashioned way. Research, experience, analysis, open to change, building a community. Can’t wait until Chicago this month.
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There is a great new teaching book that just got released. It is called “The Wow Factor” and it chronicles a teacher’s first eight years in the classroom. This book gives a firsthand view of classroom experiences. Issues such as grade inflation and parental bullies are analyzed and discussed. It is available now on Amazon under the author name, “Julie Roberts.” This book will definitely leave you feeling “wowed.”
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Nice piece that should bring smiles all around.
News Corp.’s $1 Billion Plan to Overhaul Education Is Riddled With Failures
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-04-07/news-corp-s-1-billion-plan-to-overhaul-education-is-riddled-with-failures
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Yale grad scores 88% on Common Core language test:
http://eagnews.org/yale-grad-takes-8th-grade-common-core-language-test-scores-an-88-percent/
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Will NY be forced to give a national test?
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/04/8565594/tisch-opt-out-movement-could-lead-national-test
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RI House study committee finds that charters “get disproportionately more money under the current school funding formula than their sending school districts.”
http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150407/NEWS/150409510/14111/?Start=1
Deborah Gist created this funding formula.
Does this demonstrate that charters cost MORE money than the private schools?
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A new bill in Colorado would introduce Pay for Success. This is new to me. Non-educators that I know (and a lot of educators) are slobbering all over themselves thinking about this influx of cash. I teach in Aurora and my district is completely on board. I’m leery because it seems too good too be true. I’ve tried doing some research and so far and I haven’t found a ton of info from reliable resources. Would love it if you could share any info, thoughts or links that you have. Thanks!
http://www.coloradocapitolwatch.com/bill/1/HB15-1317/2015/1/
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Lots of excitement in Texas today! Not only are they doing evaluations based on test scores (which some districts were already doing). Now they want to get rid of the traditional pay scale based on years of service, pay everyone a base of $27,000 and then decide how much more you get depending on your test scores. *sigh* Pased today with a wide margin. Still a chance to lobby against the next step. http://www.texasaft.org/senate-passes-bill-test-driven-appraisals-insulting-minimum-pay-figure-still-time-take-action/
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Dear Dr. Ravitch,
I have spent the last week and a half reeling from the shot across the bow that public education took on March 31st when the New York State Legislature ostensibly signed off on its destruction with the passing of the New York State Budget, and its attached legislation, S2006B-2015. As a teacher who is passionate about what she does, with two years of failing State Growth Scores, I know my days as a teacher are numbered. I am left with only one choice, to continue to act out of love for my students until the day comes when my district will be forced to remove me from the classroom and students I graciously serve.
My first act of love for my students, since the passing of this legislation and the absolute betrayal of my own elected officials, is the following letter I sent to the Board of Regents this afternoon.
Dear New York State Board of Regents:
This letter is in response to New York State Law S2006B-2015, dated March 31, 2015. I write you as a teacher of thirteen years who loves her profession and her students more than words could possibly capture. There has not been one day in the classroom that I wished away. Not one paycheck that I did not regard with awe over the fact that I could be paid to do a job I loved so deeply. Not one August that I did not greet with excitement in anticipation of new students, new challenges and new victories. Nor one end of school year I did not confront with sadness over the end of a ten-month partnership with my students filled with reading and writing and thinking and questioning.
Teaching is my passion. Every single day I ask myself what went wrong? Who did I not reach? What can I do tomorrow to push harder and support the growth of my students? I sincerely love teaching because after thirteen years, I am clear on only one thing – I will never have all of the answers. And I like that challenge. Each year brings new students, new families, new strengths and new areas of opportunity into my classroom. My voracious appetite for meeting their respective needs is confronted by the infinite possibilities that education offers.
This year, we had an interesting scenario. It became very clear on reading comprehension assessments that students understood what they were reading, but of the fifteen students in my class receiving Academic Intervention Services (AIS) for reading, out of a total of twenty-seven students, eight continuously earned failing scores on weekly assessments. We asked ourselves, is it the vocabulary in the questions? No. Is it vocabulary in the choices? No. We realized that students could not see the correct answers in the choices because they lacked the transferal skills to get themselves from what they knew the answers were to the choices given. We started giving the students the questions without choices, and having them write their own answers. Then we gave them the choices and they had to select the choices that most closely resembled their answers. Our failure rate dropped substantially from eight students to one to two students. This is what teaching is. Every single day we must go in, assess what our students need from us, and devise ways to meet those needs.
I often tell people that a teacher’s job is never, ever done. I could work around the clock twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and still have things I want to accomplish in the classroom. As teachers, we have to eek out as much time as we can before school, during school and after school, and spend that time on the work we determine offers our students the greatest return on investment. This is why grading assessments we provide is so important to us. Students and teachers require continual assessment feedback so instructional time can best serve students’ needs.
Where is all of this going? It boils down to assessment. Your board has been asked to craft an APPR plan that bases 50% of a teacher’s APPR on assessments you deem appropriate for this purpose. Much of what I am about to discuss pertains solely to the current grades three through eight state testing program, but please keep in mind that these thoughts relate to any assessment we deem appropriate for removing a child’s teacher from his/her classroom.
Any assessment we use for the state’s 50% of the APPR must:
1. Include reliability and validity testing that demonstrates the instrument’s ability to measure what we are asking it to measure. Assessment in New York State public school classrooms must measure a student’s progress toward New York State Standards.
2. Be created by an entity that does not also sell curricular materials to school districts. The 2013 New York State 6th ELA exam included proprietary material that Pearson had also included in its series, Reading Street, which it sells to districts. This is a serious conflict of interest.
3. Have the ability to measure all growth a student experiences during a school year. The current methodology provides simple scores of one, two, three and four limiting its ability show us where growth has or has not transpired, for a variety of reasons.
4. Inform teachers and parents of information both parties do not already know. We know who has difficulty reading and who does not. We must use an assessment that offers rich details about where our students struggles are, as well as what students are doing well.
If we continue on our current path, teachers like me who love what we do, and have an innate desire to be the best teachers we can for our students, will be gone. For the last two years, I have been given a one and a two respectively for my State Growth Score. If you proceed with the State Legislature’s plan, and your current method of assessments, you will be taking good teachers away from the students who need them, using fraudulent instruments. With your June 30th deadline looming, I beg you to contemplate the gravity of this system, and as the law prescribes, use the next few months to speak with teachers and parents who are invested in this system, to craft a plan that places children first.
In all earnest, I am willing to meet with you anytime to discuss the frailties of our current system and measures we can take to meet the law’s deadline in a way that best serves public school children. They are what matter most.
Warm wishes,
Melissa K. McMullan
6th Grade Teacher
Comsewogue School District
Port Jefferson Station, NY
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Beautifully stated, Melissa. Thank you for sharing.
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