Archives for category: Common Core
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New York: Legislative Leaders Call for Two-Year Delay of Testing

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2014 //
29

Legislative leaders in the Assembly and Senate in Néw York called on the Board of Regents to delay implementation of Common Core testing for at least two years.

In addition,

“At the same time, the Senate backs a one-yuear moratorium on the proposal to share student data through the controversial third-party vendor inBloom.

“In addition, students, parents, teachers, privacy experts and school administrators have raised serious concerns about the ability of unauthorized third-parties to access personally identifiable information (PII) of students, teachers and principals that will be collected on the state-wide Education Data Portal (EDP). Therefore, we reiterate our call for the Regents to delay operation of the Education Data Portal for at least one year.”

This proposed delay is a sharp rebuke to Commissioner King and Regents Chancellor Tisch, who have shown no willingness to bend to the criticism of parents and educators.

Categories Common Core, Data and Data Mining, New York, Privacy and Privacy Rights

The All-New Online Common Core PARCC Tests: Not So New After All

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2014 //
115

An early version of the PARCC common Core tests have been released, and bloggers are underwhelmed.

Chris Cerone thinks they look more or less like the same old standardized tests, but way more expensive.

Blogger Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters wrote:

“They just released computer based sample PARCC items.

http://www.parcconline.org/computer-based-samples

Go directly to the test items in grades 3-5, grades 6-8 and high school.

Last night I looked at the sample HS ELA questions and got such a headache! I couldn’t answer the second question, glanced at others, and then quit.

It was based upon a very difficult poem.”

At the end of the day, how many billions of dollars will be spent for new computers, new bandwidth, and professional development? How many arts programs will be eliminated, how many social workers, guidance counselors, and librarians laid off?

And will we wonder if this vast new expenditure was worth it?

Categories Common Core, Technology, Computers, Testing

Peter Greene: Common Core and Planned Obsolescence!

By dianeravitch
February 4, 2014 //
47

Peter Greene, a teacher in Pennsylvania, sees the incredible marketing opportunities associated with Common Core. And he worries that the marketing department has missed some even more spectacular opportunities to sell CC-aligned products:

True– “CCSS” has been stamped every printed object that a school might potentially buy. Every book and worksheet now touts its CCSS-ness. Heck, there are elementary level bulletin board decorations out there that are CCSS ready.

But I think the Architects of the Reformatorium have missed some opportunities. Why not the Official Soft Drink of CCSS? Why not a CCSS clothing line– polo shirts will probably sell well, but I see a natural market for CCSS straightjackets as well. When can I expect to see a Happy Meal with CCSS action figures inside? I can think of many fun things to do with a little plastic David Coleman action figure. Many, many fun things.

Think of the licensing opportunities. Plush Arne Duncan dolls. CCSS board games– as your piece moves around the board you must stop every other square to take a test, then at the end, each piece is repeatedly weighed to see which has added the most value while going around the board. A CCSS blimp [insert your own hot air joke here]. So many missed opportunities.

But wait! What if there is an update? What if Arne announces CCSS 2.0?

Well, then, “school districts across the country (well, public ones, anyway) will need to upgrade their software, books, materials, programs-in-a-box, training programs, etc etc etc ka-ching ka-ching ka-ching.

“When it comes to marketing and money streams, tie-ins, licensing, and spin-offs are great. But nothing beats planned obsolescence.

 

Categories Common Core, Humor

Good News: Los Angeles Gets Price Cut from Apple, with No Curriculum

By dianeravitch
February 2, 2014 //
52

Los Angeles, which was teaching the nation what not to do with technology, is getting a new deal from Apple for its iPads.

Apple will cut the price.

Apple will sell L.A. new iPads instead of obsolete models.

The iPads will not be loaded with pre-set Pearson curriculum.

Howard Blume of the LA Times writes:

“The Los Angeles Unified School District will pay substantially less for thousands of iPads under the latest deal with Apple. The cost of the tablets that will be used on new state tests will be about $200 less per device, although the computers won’t include curriculum.
The revised price will be $504, compared to $699 for the iPads with curriculum. With taxes and other fees, the full cost of the more fully equipped devices rises to $768.

“The iPads are part of a $1-billion effort to provide a computer to every student, teacher and administrator in the nation’s second-largest school system. In response to concerns and problems, officials have slowed down the districtwide rollout, which began at 47 schools in the fall.

“L.A. Unified has also been under pressure to contain costs; it recently became clear that the district is paying more for devices than most other school systems. The higher price results mainly from L.A. Unified’s decision to purchase relatively costly devices and to include curriculum.

“District officials recently restarted negotiations with Apple and achieved two concessions. The first is that Apple would provide the latest iPad, rather than a discontinued model for which L.A. Unified was paying top dollar. The second is that Apple agreed to consider a lower price on machines for which curriculum was not necessary.”

The reason that L.A. is spending $1 billion on iPads is for Common Core testing. This raises the question as to how much Common Core testing will cost the nation. If Los Angeles alone–with about 670,000 students–will spend $1 billion, how many billions will the nation spend? $80 billion? How often will the tablets and iPads need to be replaced? What will be cut to pay for them? Does this vast new outlay explain the energetic support of the tech industry for Common Core?

Categories Common Core, Los Angeles, Technology, Computers

States Finding New Names to Rebrand Common Core

By dianeravitch
January 31, 2014 //
105

Lyndsey Layton at the Washington Post reports that the name “Common Core” has become so toxic in some states that officials are calling it something else. This is known as old wine in new bottles.

She writes:

“Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) used an executive order to strip the name “Common Core” from the state’s new math and reading standards for public schools. In the Hawkeye State, the same standards are now called “The Iowa Core.” And in Florida, lawmakers want to delete “Common Core” from official documents and replace it with the cheerier-sounding “Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.”

In the face of growing opposition to the Common Core State Standards — a set of K-12 educational guidelines adopted by most of the country — officials in a handful of states are worried that the brand is already tainted. They’re keeping the standards but slapping on fresh names they hope will have greater public appeal.

At a recent meeting of the Council of Chief State School Officers, one of the organizations that helped create the standards, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) urged state education leaders to ditch the “Common Core” name, noting that it had become “toxic.”

“Rebrand it, refocus it, but don’t retreat,” said Huckabee, now the host of a Fox News talk show and a supporter of the standards.”

This report stands in sharp contrast to the post by Vicki Phillips of the Gates Foundation on Andrew Rotherham’s blog “Eduwonk,” which claimed that the Common Core has great “momentum” and is unstoppable. Rotherham noted that his organization has received funding from Gates to promote Common Core.

There is a distinct smell of failure in the air.

Categories Common Core, Resistance

Maryland Superintendents Protest Rushed Implementation of “Reforms”

By dianeravitch
January 31, 2014 //
17

Valerie Strauss reports that almost all the superintendents in the state of Maryland signed a letter protesting the rushed timetable for Arne Duncan’s favorite reforms.

She writes:

“Nearly all of the superintendents of Maryland school districts have signed a statement that criticizes federal and state education officials for forcing them to implement several major reforms, including the Common Core State Standards, on what they say is an unrealistic timetable.

“The document, approved by 22 of Maryland’s 24 superintendents from districts educating more than 800,000 students, asks for more time and resources to put the reforms in place, including the use of new Common Core tests expected in the 2014-2015 school year. The statement (which you can read here) represents the first time that such a high percentage of schools chiefs in Maryland have come together to publicly call out education officials over school reform.

“Parents, elected officials, community leaders and pundits are reacting sometimes with alarm as local school systems throughout the state deal with the challenges of implementing the many components of education reform,” says the document, obtained by The Washington Post. Carl Roberts, executive director of the Public School Superintendents Association of Maryland and a former superintendent, organized the joint statement but would not identify the two superintendents who did not sign on.

“Though affirming that they wholeheartedly support the Common Core standards as “a more rigorous path through pre-kindergarten to grade twelve for all students,” the superintendents wrote that there are serious problems with the introduction of the reforms. They specifically cited the fact that Maryland plans to continue using an outdated test — the Maryland School Assessments — while the state has shifted to a new curriculum that isn’t aligned with the old test. They also said it is inappropriate for new test-based teacher evaluations and accountability measures to roll out before the reforms have been fully put in place.”

It bears noting that Duncan’s faith in evaluating teachers by test scores has not worked anywhere it has been tried. In New York, for example, tens of millions of dollars (perhaps more) were spent to determine that 1% of teachers were “ineffective,” and that 1% might have been misidentified. The Common Core standards have not yet been validated for any purpose, except on paper. Some 500 early childhood experts have declared them to be inappropriate for the early grades.

The federal government apparently wants everyone to jump into the deep end of the pool, whether they can swim or not, and without looking to see if the pool has any water in it.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Common Core, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

Connecticut Teacher: Why I Want to Quit Teaching: UPDATE

By dianeravitch
January 31, 2014 //
68

[Note to readers: I abridged this article to comply with copyright limits. Please open the link and read the article in full at the Hartford Courant, which had the good sense to publish it.]

Thanks to the punitive actions and policies of the U.S. Department of Education and the states, there is a new genre of writing by teachers, explaining why they are quitting. The most famous was written by Kris Neilsen of North Carolina, whose letter of resignation went viral, was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, and went around the world.

This column was written by Elizabeth Natale, a middle-school teacher in Connecticut. This state has one of the best public school systems in the United States, yet its governor and state commissioner continually bash teachers and public schools, while lauding charters and showering them with extra money. The leaders are certain that public schools and teachers are failing and need tough measures to shake them up. In time, what the leaders are doing will be revealed as a mighty hoax whose goal is to increase market share for charters.

Natale writes:

“Surrounded by piles of student work to grade, lessons to plan and laundry to do, I have but one hope for the new year: that the Common Core State Standards, their related Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium testing and the new teacher evaluation program will become extinct.

I have been a middle school English teacher for 15 years. I entered teaching after 19 years as a newspaper reporter and college public relations professional….

Although the tasks ahead of me are no different from those of the last 14 years, today is different. Today, I am considering ending my teaching career.

When I started teaching, I learned that dealing with demanding college presidents and cantankerous newspaper editors was nothing. While those jobs allowed me time to drink tea and read the newspaper, teaching deprived me of an opportunity to use the restroom. And when I did, I was often the Pied Piper, followed by children intent on speaking with me through the bathroom door.

I loved it!

Unfortunately, government attempts to improve education are stripping the joy out of teaching and doing nothing to help children….

The Smarter Balance program assumes my students are comfortable taking tests on a computer, even if they do not own one…

I am a professional. My mission is to help students progress academically, but there is much more to my job than ensuring students can answer multiple-choice questions on a computer. Unlike my engineer husband who runs tests to rate the functionality of instruments, I cannot assess students by plugging them into a computer….

My most important contributions to students are not addressed by the Common Core, Smarter Balance and teacher evaluations. I come in early, work through lunch and stay late to help children who ask for assistance but clearly crave the attention of a caring adult…

Teaching is the most difficult — but most rewarding — work I have ever done. It is, however, art, not science. A student’s learning will never be measured by any test, and I do not believe the current trend in education will lead to adults better prepared for the workforce, or to better citizens. For the sake of students, our legislators must reach this same conclusion before good teachers give up the profession — and the children — they love.”

Categories Common Core, Connecticut, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

Gates Foundation Cheers the Growing “Momentum” of Common Core

By dianeravitch
January 31, 2014 //
69

The Gates Foundation has spent $200 million or so to pay for the Common Core standards. Gates paid for everything because the U.S. Department of Education is prohibited by law from doing anything that might control, direct,or supervise curriculum or instruction. Of course, this did not stop Arne Duncan from shelling out $350 million to pay for new online tests of the Common Core. The tests will certainly influence, direct, and control curriculum and instruction, which is expressly forbidden. But why quibble over the law?

As you read on, recall that Gates paid for everything: the writing, development, evaluation, implementation, and promotion of the Common Core. There are very few education advocacy groups that have not received millions from Gates.

Now Vicki Phillips, who directs the education program at Gates, has written an article to remind us–in case the PR machine is offline–why we desperately need Common Core, why teachers and other educators are warmly embracing it, and how wildly popular it is. She admits that she is baffled by people who call on states and districts to slow down, stop or reverse this wonderful progress. Maybe that refers to Randi Weingarten and the teachers of New York.

One thing is clear, if inadvertently. The standards and the testing are portrayed as integral to states’ ability to evaluate teachers by test scores. All the pieces fit together. You are not supposed to have just the standards, you must have the whole package. That is the Gates Foundation’s vision.

Phillips is obviously unsettled by the controversies erupting in state after state, from left and right, about the standards and the tests. But she does not mention of the public hearings in New York, where thousands of parents berated the Common Core. The foundation seems to be in denial about the pushback against its prize program, the linchpin of wholesale change.

Common Core, she assures us, will get all students ready for college. But how does she know that? What if Common Core creates the results nationally that it did in New York, where only 3% of English learners passed? Where only 5% of students with disabilities passed? Where more than 80% of African American and Hispanic students failed? What if most students can’t clear the bar that the Gates Foundation raised so high? What will our society do with the many students who give up or fail? Will the Gates Foundation tell us what to do to help them? And when everyone goes to college, will the college diploma be devalued? Will there be jobs for them, or will they be truck drivers and retail clerks with a diploma and a load of college debt?

Just wondering.

Categories Common Core

Rhode Island Town Says No to Common Core Testing

By dianeravitch
January 30, 2014 //
27

The school committee of Tobrtton, Rhode Island, voted 4-1 to delay Common Core testing.

The state education department insisted that Rhode Island educators were deeply involved in the creation of the standards.

“In its resolution, the committee states that that local school committees, teachers and parents were not involved in the development of the Common Core, a set of education standards developed the National Governors Association and the most of the nation’s state school commissioners.
The state Department of Education, however, says that several Rhode Island educators served on the national committees that reviewed the standards. RIDE also said that public meetings were held in 2009 and 2010, before the standards were adopted.”

Does RIDE mean it is too late to step back as citizens learn more?

Whatever happened to critical thinking?

Categories Common Core, Testing

Mercedes Schneider and Peter Greene Offer Timely Help to Dennis Van Roekel

By dianeravitch
January 30, 2014 //
113

Dennis Van Roekel is a supporter of the Common Core standards. He recently said in an article in Education Week that no one has really set out their specific objections to the standards or offered a better alternative.

Two teacher-bloggers here offer help to Dennis. I know that Dennis is a dedicated advocate for teachers and for public education, so I hope he will read and take heed of advice from these two thoughtful and experienced teachers.

Here is Mercedes Schneider, a high school teacher in Louisiana, who patiently explains what the problems are.

And here is Peter Greene, a high school teacher in Pennsylvania, who offers help to Van Roekel.

Schneider writes in answer to the question, what is missing from the standards:

The entire democratic process is “missing” from the standards. CCSS is as “top-down” as it gets, and with a dash of “facilitated democracy” to offer pseudo-legitimacy: Teachers were brought in late in the process to offer “suggestions” that were even implemented word-for-word. However, no teacher was asked whether CCSS should happen in the first place, and no teacher in a “state” (only a governor and state super needed to sign the CCSS contract with USDOE for RTTT funds) that has adopted CCSS has the freedom to opt out.

Democracy is missing from CCSS, Mr. Van Roekel, and I assure you that I am not the only teacher that has a problem with that.

Greene writes in response to Van Roekel’s question about “what’s the alternative”:

When I teach logical fallacies, we call this a “complex question.” In the sales world it’s called “assuming the sale.” Either way, it is (and has been) the most odious part of DVR’s rhetorical strategy. Because “what’s the alternative” assumes that we need one.

It tacitly accepts the reformatorium assumption that US public ed is a hodge-podged mess of incompetent educators who don’t know what they are doing and who desperately need guidance and direction. What I would expect from my union president is something along the lines of, “Hey! My members are doing great work!” and NOT “Yeah, I need something to help these poor dopes that I’m president of.”

This question, and the assumptions imbedded in it, skip over one hugely massively crucial point. The people who insist we must have CCSS have not offered one shred of evidence that national standards– not just CCSS but ANY national standards– work. Nothing. I get that from up on Mount DC, things would look neater and it would be a lot easier to run a national school district if everybody were on the same page. But that is about providing the best possible education for every student in America; it’s about providing a better management experience for government bureaucrats.

This is like having a doctor say, “Well, since your headaches are so bad, I guess we could take out your spleen.” And when you protest that you don’t want your spleen removed, the doctor says, “Well, what do you want me to take out instead. It’s just a hodgepodge of organs in there. Which one do you want removed.” And then he can tell you that this is his best guess, and in a decade or so we’ll see if it pays off.

Categories Common Core
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