Archives for category: California
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California Vs. Duncan on Testing

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2013 //
31

California officials want to end state testing as they prepare to phase in Common Core testing. They don’t want students subject to double testing. Now the state is locked in a showdown with Arne Duncan, who has warned the state that he might cut off federal aid if it stops state testing. Yesterday the state senate ignored Duncan’s threat and passed a bill to move forward with the plan to end current tests.

In his statement, Duncan said in part:

“A request from California to not measure the achievement of millions of students this year is not something we could approve in good conscience. Raising standards to better prepare students for college and careers is absolutely the right thing to do, but letting an entire school year pass for millions of students without sharing information on their schools’ performance with them and their families is the wrong way to go about this transition. No one wants to over-test, but if you are going to support all students’ achievement, you need to know how all students are doing.”

Categories California, Common Core, Duncan, Arne, Testing

California Parent: Common Core Tests Are Not Good

By dianeravitch
August 28, 2013 //
17

This parent says her daughter is a top student but found the Common Core tests confusing. She doesn’t have keyboarding skills. How will the district pay for the necessary technology? By increasing class size?

She writes:

“My children are enrolled in school in CA and my daughter’s 6th grade class was “chosen” to take the Common Core test. She is a GATE identified high achiever, with almost perfect CA state scores. She found the Common Core test to be confusing. She too echoed the complaints above. She has no typing experience (it is not on the test so why would they teach it) and so did not have enough time to finish the essays. She found the clicking and typing noises of others to be highly distracting. My kids go to one of the larger richer districts in Orange County and even they do not have the funds for computers for everyone. Where is this money going to come from? Oh yes, my first grader sat in a class of 29! This is a travesty.”

Categories California, Common Core, Testing

Charter Advocate Seeks to Oust Tom Torklakson

By dianeravitch
August 26, 2013 //
12

California State Superintendent of Schools Tom Torlakson is
one of the best education leaders. As an experienced classroom
teacher, he knows what teachers and students need. As a veteran of
the Merchant Marine, he has a steady hand on the tiller. As a
former legislator, he knows how to work with the legislature. He
had the wisdom and foresight to avoid Race to the Top, knowing that
a “win” would cost the state $3 billion to comply with federal
mandates. Naturally, the billionaires can’t stand Torlakson because
they don’t control him. Worse, he does not share their ideology of
blowing up public education and calling it “innovative.” So they
are running a candidate against Tom Torlakson. He is Marshall Tuck, who ran Mayor
Villaraigosa’s 15 schools and compiled a mediocre and unimpressive
record. He has also been president of the Green Dot charter chain.

One of Tuck’s big issues: he wants teachers to be evaluated by student test scores.
This is a bad policy that has led to teaching to the test,
narrowing the curriculum, and firing good teachers who teach the
neediest children. With the support of the corporate reformers,
eager to privatize as many public schools as possible, Tuck can
count on big money from the big-money guys who tried to unseat
Steve Zimmer (and lost) and then got beaten by a teacher with no
outside funding, Monica Ratliff.

Tom Torlakson deserves to be
re-elected. He is a fighter for kids, teachers, and public
education. He understands the importance of public education in a
democracy.

Categories California, Corporate Reformers

California Teacher on Common Core Test

By dianeravitch
August 15, 2013 //
35

From a teacher in California:

“Our class had the “privilege” of taking the ELA SmarterBalance test for common core 4th grade. It was horrible. There were split screens, essays to type (our students have no keyboarding experience) and things to click and drag. So in addition to getting students ready for the CC standards, we will need time for computer and keyboard lessons AND we will need the updated technology in time to get our students familiar with it.

“Oh, and let’s not forget that in CA we are still expected to teach for the CST [California Standards Tests] next year…no transition time to Common Core. Ridiculous!”

Categories California, Common Core, Testing

U.S. Department of Education Abandons Federalism

By dianeravitch
August 14, 2013 //
32

There is a sacrosanct principle that has informed the actions of the U.S. Department of Education throughout its 33-year history: federalism. That is, a recognition that the federal government has limited authority, and that states and localities have the primary responsibility for education. George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind was a direct assault on federalism because it asserted the power of Congress and the Department of Education to tell states and localities how to measure “progress” and how to reform schools. Since no one in either Congress or the Department of Education knows how to reform schools, this was a bad but costly joke. And not funny.

Arne Duncan made the assault on federalism more intense by promulgating Race to the Top. RTTT offered a huge financial lure to states willing to abandon their authority and accept Duncan’s untried “remedies.” Most were hungry enough to do so, because in a time of financial crisis, money talks.

Duncan’s worst idea was evaluating teachers by test scores. Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that the teachers in affluent districts get big gains and look effective while those who teach needy students do not get big gains and look like ineffective teachers. Duncan doesn’t care. He has his idee fixe and he is sticking to it, regardless of how many teachers-of-the-year get fired.

Now he has found a new way to undermine federalism. Frustrated by California’s stubborn refusal to join Duncan’s Race to Oblivion, he was able to find a group of superintendents (mostly trained by the unaccredited Broad Academy) who want federal money. So Duncan has bypassed the state, the entity that has legal jurisdiction over these districts, and has formed a direct relationship between the federal government and the coalition called CORE (California Office to Reform Education).

Read this post to learn more about this special “partnership” that cut the state out of the transaction. You will see familiar names, well known in corporate reform circles. They are eager to do what Duncan wants them to do, while ignoring the state of which they are part, which has wisely steered clear of Duncan’s mandates.

The saddest part of all this is that Duncan was a failure in Chicago, yet now he has brought his failed ideas to become national policy. After eight years of his “leadership,” what will be left of American public education? Who will want to teach?

Categories California, Duncan, Arne, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, U.S. Department of Education

Conservative Activists File Lawsuit to Cripple Public Sector Unions

By dianeravitch
August 7, 2013 //
15

Last November, anti-union groups put a measure on the ballot in California called Prop 32, whose purpose was to reduce the political influence of unions by reducing their funding. Prop 32 was soundly defeated, but its proponents are back with a lawsuit to achieve the same purpose. If they win, they could cripple public sector unions across the nation.

This is a major story in the movement to privatize public education, dismantle the teaching profession, and turn schooling into a marketplace.

“In a little-noticed move in April, a conservative legal organization that has pushed to overturn the 1964 Voting Rights Act filed a lawsuit in federal court in Santa Ana that could accomplish in the courts what Prop. 32 couldn’t at the ballot box. The players behind the suit may not be household names but the millionaires and private foundations covering their legal fees represent a familiar klatch of extreme libertarians who, since the 1980s, have been attempting to move the country in a hard-right direction.

“The main plaintiff, the Christian Educators Association International (CEAI), firmly opposes reproductive rights and marriage equality – two of the same movements opposed by Prop. 32′s various backers. CEAI also supports school voucher programs and the teaching of Creationism – also causes championed by some of Prop. 32′s supporters, who saw unions as an obstacle to imposing their political will on California when it came to these and other issues.

“The lawsuit, known as Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, challenges the constitutionality of laws that allow teachers’ unions to collect fees from teachers who don’t want to be members. The lawsuit also seeks to outlaw an automatic payroll deduction process, under which teachers who don’t want a portion of their fees to go for political activities must “opt out” of funding those activities. It claims that California’s “agency shop” law violates the First Amendment by compelling public school teachers to pay fees to teachers unions involved in political activities.”

Categories California, Unions, US Education

An Open Letter to Tom Torlakson

By dianeravitch
August 6, 2013 //
8

A teacher in California sent this letter to State Superintendent Tom Torlakson. California recently announced that it was prepared to spend $1 billion implementing Common Core, although the state’s public schools have not recovered from the billions of dollars cut during the Schwarzenegger era.

Here is the letter:

August 1, 2013

Dear Superintendent Torlakson,

Thank you for your commitment to increasing funding for California’s six million public school students, working tirelessly to improve education in the Golden State, and for being an uncompromising advocate for teachers.

Your efforts have not gone unnoticed: last year, esteemed education historian Diane Ravitch wrote in her blog, “California has another great asset in its State Superintendent Tom Torlakson… He is one of the most enlightened–if not THE most enlightened state education chiefs in the nation. He understands that rebuilding the public system is a high priority.”

I am a high school English teacher at Edgewood High School in West Covina where I teach in our school’s International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and serve as our IB Diploma Programme Coordinator. My involvement with the IB curriculum reinforces the core pedagogical beliefs I acquired while earning my MA at Claremont Graduate School twenty one years ago: children learn best when they are given the latitude and guidance to discuss and discover ideas and experiment via engaging learning activities. Deep learning is achieved via authentic, teacher-designed assessments.

While I admire the performance-based nature of the Common Core State Standards, and while the SBAC assessments do indeed require students to engage in performance-based tasks, I am gravely concerned by the exponential increase in high stakes testing that will no doubt accompany the SBAC assessments. I am alarmed by the developmental inappropriateness of the CCSS, particularly at the elementary level.

I suggest that you and your staff personally take the SBAC practice tests that can be accessed online. I believe that the length of the tests and their developmentally inappropriate demands will more than give you pause– you will become as fearful for our students’ wellbeing as I am.

Additionally, I am highly concerned about the significant cost of preparing for and administering the SBAC tests. Doug McRae, a retired executive in the testing field, projects the final cost of Smarter Balanced tests at close to $40 per student– triple what California is currently paying. It is no secret that many districts lack the bandwidth and hardware required to administer the SBAC assessments. As a result, cash strapped districts will be forced to divert funding that would otherwise be spent on students into upgrading their infrastructure to prepare for this next incarnation of high stakes testing.

Lastly, and most importantly, nearly one in four children in California live in poverty. It is well documented that the real crisis in education is the pernicious effects of poverty—socioeconomic status and school and test performance are inextricably entwined. The money spent on this brave new world of SBAC high stakes testing will make it impossible to provide the wraparound services that we know will improve the lives of poor children and therefore improve their educational experiences and outcomes: food security, health services, counselors, quality before and after school daycare, well-stocked and staffed libraries. The list goes on and on.

Last May, I proudly accompanied a group of my colleagues to the ceremony where you celebrated our recognition as a California Distinguished School. In your address, you fondly reminisced about your experiences as a science teacher, taking your students on field trips. At another point, you received enthusiastic cheers when you asked, “Who would like to see the arts back in California classrooms?” Unshackling our schools from the overwhelming financial burden of SBAC assessments will once again allow field trips, music and the arts to become a reality in California public schools.

In closing, I ask you to secure your legacy as a principled State Superintendent who unwaveringly advocates for that which is best for children. Please follow the lead of other State Superintendents who have chosen to withdraw from SBAC and PARCC assessments, and let’s allow the money our taxpayers opted to allocate to public schools go to those who are most deserving: our children.

Thank you for your consideration—

Warm regards,

Jeanne Berrong

Categories Arts Education, Budget Cuts, California, Common Core

Moral Monday: The North Carolina Protest Movement Spreads

By dianeravitch
August 6, 2013 //
5

The message from North Carolina: We can defeat the power if we organize and stand together. The Moral Monday idea started in North Carolina but it is spreading:

 

It’s heartening to see that word of North Carolina’s Moral Monday events are inspiring others, just as we have been inspired by the actions occurring in other states across this nation. 
 
http://www.carolinamercury.com/2013/08/thousands-attend-mountain-moral-monday-protests-spread-to-chicago-and-oakland/
 
 
As you’ve said,
WE ARE MANY. THERE IS POWER IN OUR NUMBERS. TOGETHER, WE WILL SAVE OUR SCHOOLS.
 
We’re on a roll.
 
Patty
 
Patty Williams
Communications Director
 
Great Schools in Wake:   greatschoolsinwake.org / Facebook / Twitter
Public Schools First NC: publicschoolsfirstnc.org / Facebook / Twitter
Categories California, Chicago, North Carolina

Tom Torlakson Shows What Leadership Is

By dianeravitch
July 15, 2013 //
7

This comment just arrived in response to the post about California having the nerve to defy all-wise, all-powerful Arne Duncan:

“State Superintendent Tom Torlakson is a former teacher. When he gathered a group of educators to hammer out the blueprint for the future of CA schools, he wisely selected classroom teachers to be on the task force. I was honored to be co-chair of the Teacher Evaluation committee.

“We believed then and do now that evaluating a teacher via an algorithm is a poor and cheap way to do the hard and time-consuming work of evaluating a teacher effectively. Students deserve more.

“I am proud to call Tom Torlakson my leader.

Martha Infante
Teacher
Los Angeles

Categories Administrators, superintendents, California

Bravo, California!

By dianeravitch
July 15, 2013 //
35

The Los Angeles Times explains today that California has stubbornly resisted Arne Duncan’s demand that teachers be evaluated by junk science.

Despite the fact that researchers overwhelmingly agree that “value-added assessment” is flawed and unstable, that it reflects whom you teach, and that good teachers may be rated ineffective, Duncan blithely insists that it is essential.

Was Duncan successful in Chicago? Is Chicago a national model of school reform? Did Duncan’s Renaissance 2010 create a renaissance?

Why is this man allowed to tell every state in the nation how to evaluate teachers?

How awkward for California Democrat George Miller, one of the lead authors of NCLB, a favorite of DFER, and senior Democrat on House Education committee

Bravo, Governor Jerry Brown!

Bravo, Tom Torlakson.

Stay strong. Don’t let Arne bully you.

Categories California, Chicago, Duncan, Arne, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Teacher Evaluations
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