Archives for category: Common Core
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Katie Osgood: The Cruel and Unusual Treatment of Children with Disabilities in Chicago

By dianeravitch
March 27, 2016 //
27

Katie Osgood teaches students with disabilities in Chicago. She teaches third-graders. PARCC testing begins soon. The reading level if the tests for her students are sixth grade.

She writes here about the harm these tests will do to her students.

Her students’ IEPs will not be honored. No accommodations!

She asks why children of 8 and 9 are asked to perform literary analysis.

She writes:

“The PARCC test is mind-mindbogglingly inappropriate and long. It gives NO USEFUL information for teachers or schools. It ignores IEPs. It is damaging to kids. It triggers our most vulnerable learners destroying trust and joy in the classroom. It robs classrooms of SO MUCH STINKIN’ TIME.

“Oh, and by the way, PARCC originally was in 24 states, but has now dropped to only 6.

“There is NO REASON for Illinois to continue using this test. None.”

Categories Chicago, Common Core, Special Education

D.C. Think Tank Ridicules Critics of Common Core

By dianeravitch
March 26, 2016 //
50

The Center for American Progress is a D.C. think tank that is closely aligned with the Obama administration and the Clintons. Recently it released a video making fun of people who don’t like the Common Core standards. The parents in the video express absurd views about Common Core and appear to be extremist wing nuts.

 

CAP doesn’t seem to understand the critics’ concerns and ignores them:

 

Early childhood educators say the standards are developmentally inappropriate.

 

The standards assume that all children, when taught the same material at the same pace, will learn at the same pace. They don’t.

 

The standards overlook children with disabilities and English language learners.

 

The standards were funded by one man, Bill Gates, who believes in standardization.

 

The tests for Common Core adopted a passing mark that dooms most children to fail.

 

Some educators sincerely like the Common Core. Some sincerely believe that the Common Core is harmful to students. Ridiculing those who disapprove of CC does not advance the discussion.

 

Peter Greene saw the video too, and he was not pleased. He is an experienced high school teacher in Pennsylvania and he is not a fan of Common Core.

 

He writes:

 

“The message here is literally that Common Core critics are the tin foil hat crowd. Sigh.

 

“I mean, who is this for? Satire is only effective for an audience that is familiar with what you are satirizing, but anyone who is familiar with Common Core or the criticism of it knows that CAP isn’t just taking shots at a straw man, but a picture of a straw man pinned to the straw lapel of a straw suit being worn by a straw man. I mean, I consider myself fairly familiar with the art of mockery, and you can’t mock somebody if your mockery doesn’t have some sort of root in reality. A good caricature has to be recognizable as the thing being caricatured. And, not to get all wonky, but it doesn’t even establish an internally consistent world– the Core is new, but their college age daughter went through it, although the parents who fear the Core never noticed what was happening with their older daughter, and all of these family members relate to each other as if they’re strangers?And what are we to make of the message that parents are dopes?

 

 

“This simply sidesteps every legitimate criticism ever leveled against Common Core and leaves it untouched, though it certainly does zero right in on all those people who say that Common Core requires you to throw out books or ignore math or has something to do with mutant armies. Really stuck it to those guys, let me tell you. I can’t imagine how they failed to lampoon all those people who say Common Core will make your houseplants die.”

 

Shame on CAP.

 

 

 

 

Categories Common Core, Education Reform

Carol Burris: The Coming Collapse of Corporate Reform in New York

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2016 //
27

Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, has been active in the resistance to New York’s state’s reliance on high-stakes testing for several years. As a high school principal, she helped to organize other principals across the state in opposition to test-based evaluation of both principals and teachers. About 40 percent of the state’s principals signed the petition opposing the so-called Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) based on test scores.

 

In this article, she describes the recent dramatic turn of events in New York. This state led the way in corporate-style reform. For many years, the Board of Regents–the state’s governing body for education–has strongly supported standards, testing, and accountability as the key to statewide success. Since the passage of charter legislation in 1998, the charter sector has grown, especially in the state’s urban districts. The leader of the Regents, Merryl Tisch, is a member of one of the city’s wealthiest and most philanthropic families. Tisch was a member of the Regents for the past 20 years, and chancellor since 2009. She pushed hard to win a Race to the Top grant of $700 million. She pushed hard for Common Core and rigorous testing. She selected David Steiner of Hunter College as Commissioner of Education, then pushed him aside and selected John King. She said it was all about the kids, particularly the poor kids. She thought that high standards and rigorous tests would be good for them.

 

But then came the parent opt out rebellion, and state officials went into a frenzy trying to figure out how to placate the angry parents. As it happened, Tisch lost her most powerful political ally in the legislature, and suddenly the landscape began to change. There are 17 members of the Board of Regents. Less than a year ago, six of them signed a letter protesting Governor Cuomo’s demand for tougher testing, accountability, and teacher evaluation policies. (A seventh member gave conditional support to the dissidents.) At the time, the dissidents seemed to be fighting a steep uphill battle, with the governor and the board majority opposed to their ideas. A month after the issuance of their letter, the board hired MaryEllen Elia as state commissioner to replace the unpopular John King. Elia was well known as an ardent advocate for high-stakes testing, the Common Core, and test-based accountability.

 

Burris explains in her article the miraculous revolution that occurred in less than a year.

 

Tisch announced that she would not run for reappointment by the Legislature. One of the dissidents, Dr. Betty Rosa, announced that she wanted to succeed Tisch. The possibility of Rosa winning seemed far-fetched. But incredibly, she was elected in a secret ballotmby the Regents on a vote of 15-0, with two abstentions.

 

As Burris writes, Rosa has been critical of the Common Core, high-stakes testing, and test-based evaluation. She was supported by the parents in the opt out movement.

 

The dissidents have taken charge.

 

Burris writes about her personal interactions with Betty Rosa, who is a career educator:

 

Rosa was one of three Regents who voted against the teacher evaluation system known as APPR. In 2011 she met with principals and actively listened to our concerns. As a former administrator, she understood why the practice was bad for kids, and never waivered in her opposition, referring to the inclusion of scores as “poison.”
In 2013, she publicly spoke out against the Common Core, accusing the State Education Department of manipulating data and ignoring successful schools in order to create a myth of massive failure to support their reforms. And last year she led a group of seven Regents (all women and nearly all career educators), in opposition to Cuomo’s revision of teacher evaluations. The seven created a position paper of dissent regarding the Governor’s law that increased the proportion of test scores in teacher evaluations, and six of the seven voted against the New York State Education Department’s revisions.

 

Burris predicts what she expects from Rosa. She calls it a “sea change.” I call it a miracle.

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Common Core, Corporate Reformers, New York, Privatization, Testing

Researchers: Common Core and Tests Do Not Help Neediest Students

By dianeravitch
March 17, 2016 //
36

Valerie Strauss reports on an important statement signed by more than 100 education researchers, asserting that the Common Core standards will not improve the achievement of the neediest students and will not reduce the achievement gaps between haves and have nots. Furthermore, the education researchers recommended that high-stakes exams should be abandoned, because they are not reliable, valid, or fair.

 

She writes:

 

“The researchers, from public and private universities in California — including Stanford University, UCLA, and the University of California Berkeley — say that the Common Core standards themselves do not accomplish what supporters said they would and that linking them to high-stakes tests actually harms students.

 

The brief says:

 

Although proponents argue that the CCSS promotes critical thinking skills and student-centered learning (instead of rote learning), research demonstrates that imposed standards, when linked with high-stakes testing, not only deprofessionalizes teaching and narrows the curriculum, but in so doing, also reduces the quality of education and student learning, engagement, and success. The impact is also on student psychological well-being: Without an understanding that the scores have not been proven to be valid or fair for determining proficiency or college readiness, students and their parents are likely to internalize failing labels with corresponding beliefs about academic potential.

 

More specific to California: a recent study on the effects of high-stakes testing, in particular of the CA High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE), found no positive effects on student achievement and large negative effects on graduation rates. The authors estimated that graduation rates declined by 3.6 to 4.5 percentage points as a result of the state exit-exam policy, and also found that these negative effects were “concentrated among low-achieving students, minority students, and female students.”

 

 

Categories Common Core, Education Reform, Testing

NEWS FLASH: Making Tests Harder Does Not Make Students Smarter!

By dianeravitch
March 17, 2016 //
19

Steven Singer writes here about a dumb policy that is now commonplace thinking among both Ivy League corporate reformers and redneck legislators: If you make the tests harder, they reason, students will get higher test scores.

 

No, no, no, and no.

 

Singer says his students are weary of the endless testing. And it is getting worse because the tests will be even harder to pass in Pennsylvania.

 

He writes:

 

 

In the last two years, Pennsylvania has modified its mandatory assessments until it’s almost impossible for my students to pass.

 

Bureaucrats call it “raising standards,” but it’s really just making the unlikely almost unthinkable.

 

Impoverished students have traditionally had a harder time scoring as well as their wealthier peers. But the policy response has been to make things MORE difficult. How does that help?

 

Consider this: If a malnourished runner couldn’t finish the 50 yard dash, forcing him to run 100 yards isn’t raising standards. It’s piling on.

 

Oh. Both your arms are broken? Here. Bench press 300 lbs.

 

Both your feet were chopped off in an accident? Go climb Mt. Everest.

 

That’s what’s happening in the Keystone State and across the country. We’re adding extra layers of complexity to each assessment without regard to whether they’re developmentally appropriate or even necessary and fair to gauge individual skills.

 

Where Common Core State Standards have been adopted (and Pennsylvania has its own version called PA Core), annual tests have become irrationally difficult. That’s why last year’s state tests – which were the first completely aligned to PA Core – saw a steep drop off in passing scores. Students flunked it in droves.

 

Where the previous tests were bad, the new ones are beyond inappropriate.

 

Yes, across the country, the tests have been written and designed to fail most students. “Reformers” cheer the increased “rigor.” Do they care that most students are failing the tests? Why do they think that the score on a  standardized test is a measure of good education? More likely, the pursuit of high test scores via multiple-choice tests undermines good education.

 

 

 

 

Categories Common Core, Pennsylvania, Standardized Testing

New York: Opt Out Leaders Stunned by King’s Approval

By dianeravitch
March 16, 2016 //
25

To say the least, John King had a rocky tenure as Commissioner of Education in New York. He managed to alienate parents with his abrasive, top-down style and his unwavering commitment to the Common Core.

 

Reporter Jaime Franchise spoke with leaders of the Opt Out movement, and all expressed astonishment that he was nominated and confirmed for the post as Secretary of Education in light of his performance in New York.

 

“Jeanette Deutermann, a Long Island parent, founder of the Long Island Opt-Out Info Facebook page, and co-founder of nonprofit New York State Allies for Public Education, blasted King’s ascension Tuesday via her popular Facebook page.

 

“It is inconceivable that a man synonymous with failed education policies could be promoted to the highest education post in our nation,” she slams. “The incompetence of John King as New York’s SED Commissioner was epic, and New York will be cleaning up the mess he made for years to come. The silver lining may be the igniting of an education uprising across the country the way his leadership, or lack thereof, ignited New York.”

 

“That “ignition’ is the robust, pro-public education and anti-Common Core movement that sparked parents, educators, and students to organize, protest, and take action against the education reforms they believed were undermining public education.

 

“Michael Hynes, superintendent of Patchogue-Medford schools, finds the idea of King as U.S. Secretary of Education “beyond appalling.”

 

“It’s really scary to think that that gentleman, and I’m being kind by saying that, has the potential to reframe or to move forward with what Arnie Duncan has started,” he told the Press in January. “This is a guy who is pro-charter, his kids go to Montessori school. I really believe he doesn’t know anything about public education. And now potentially will set policy nationwide.”

 

 

 

 

Categories Common Core, Corporate Reform, Education Reform, John King, New York, Standardized Testing

Senate Approves John King, 49-40

By dianeravitch
March 14, 2016 //
64

Today, the US Senate voted to confirm John King as Secretary of Education by a vote of 49-40.

 

The only Democrat to vote no was New York Senator Gillibrand.

 

King was opposed by many New York parent groups because of his unwillingness to listen, his unyielding devotion to the Common Core, test-based teacher evaluation, high stakes testing for children, and the corporate reform agenda.

Categories Common Core, Corporate Reform, Education Reform, Standardized Testing, Teacher Evaluations, U.S. Department of Education, VAM (value-added modeling)

Ohio Teacher: The Tests Make Me LIVID

By dianeravitch
March 13, 2016 //
13

Dawn Neely-Randall is an activist teacher in Ohio. She speaks out against injustice and stupidity, especially when students suffer: 

Dawn writes:

“Yesterday, I used the word “livid” in a tweet to a legislator for the first time ever. I then talked to two administrators from two different districts; Patrick O’Donnell from the Plain Dealer; left voicemails for legislators; and talked to the Ohio Department of Education…twice…to confirm my findings.

“Base knowledge: A district could choose paper or online testing.

“Let me paint a picture in your head. Ten and eleven year olds. February through May, 2015. Computer Lab. High-pressure and high-stakes testing situation. English Language Arts. PARCC testing (developed by a British monopoly). Test content: Common Core. 

“Biggest problem: A time clock on the computer screen counting down the seconds and a slew of hoops of reading/writing passages for students to complete on the screen in front of them.

“Besides the third of my fifth-graders whose parents opted them out (their activist spirit is about the only reason we don’t have this same PARCC test any longer), my students sat in this tense testing situation suffering last year and I begged boards of education, legislators, and parents across the state to help. 

“In a longer amount of time than a woman could have conceived, grown, and birthed a new child, the PARCC phantom test scores FINALLY started emerging in piecemeal from the state.

“ACROSS THE BOARD, it turns out that the ONLINE scores were lower than the paper tests, which has sent the Ohio education world into a tailspin since pulling off statewide online testing was nothing short of miraculous.

“Next, the Ohio Report Cards came out slaughtering many hardworking, top performing, accomplishment-proving districts. 

“To the tune of “Old McDonald,” let’s sing what the Ohio Department of Education/State Legislature has said to many previously performing stellar districts based on bogus scores (tests never seen; graded tests never returned; scores finally received about a year later):

“….here an F, there an F, everywhere an F, F.”

“And via an onslaught of private conversations, this is what I found out which I am now shouting about to the world:

“Students taking the ONLINE tests had company “field test items” added to them (yes, so students could become guinea pigs and practice test questions for the company to later sell) which means that, within their precious clock counting down, they had to give up time from questions that counted, to then work on questions that DIDN’T count (and they had no clue which were which).

“The Paper tests? NOT AN EXTRA FIELD TEST QUESTION GIVEN. 

“AND GUESS WHAT? The Ohio Department of Education confirmed with me that they will do the EXACT same thing with the AIR tests this year. 

“Students doing online tests….take extra “company” field test item questions. Students doing paper/pencil tests…they leave them the heck alone.

“But then, of course, they’ll label the students. Compare them to death. And make districts that are jumping through the state’s hoops look like they are the ones who are ducking performance.

“Dear Legislature and Ohio Department of Education, get your freaking act together.

“Here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack quack. 

“Steal my students time?! Stress little boys and girls out? Call them a failure after robbing them of time to perform?! Now you’re messing with me.

“I’ll be AIRing my grievances far and wide.

“In the heat of a new testing season (students will be testing for three weeks after spring break)….

“Wouldn’t you be livid, too?!”

Categories Accountability, Common Core, Education Reform

Merryl Tisch: I Did It for the Kids

By dianeravitch
March 11, 2016 //
64

Merryl Tisch is stepping down as Chancellor of the New York Board of Regents, ending a 20-year tenure on the board. The New York Times interviewed her about her time in office.

 

Tisch led the state’s effort to win Race to the Top funding. The state received $700 million, promising to increase charters, adopt the Common Core, create a longitudinal database for students, and evaluate teachers by test scores.

 

She promoted high-stakes testing, test-based teacher evaluation, charter schools, and everything expected by Race to the Top. And she didn’t just comply, she truly believes that testing, Common Core, and accountability will increase equity and reduce achievement gaps. She did it for the kids.

 

“She tried to do too much, too fast.

 
“That is Merryl H. Tisch’s appraisal of her tenure as chancellor of the Board of Regents, the top education post in New York State, as she prepares to step down at the end of the month.

 
“Her critics say the same thing.

 
“A champion of the Common Core learning standards, Dr. Tisch, 60, pushed for the creation of new, harder tests based on those standards and for teacher evaluations tied to students’ performance on the exams.

 

“That set off a backlash in which a fifth of the eligible students sat out the state’s third- through eighth-grade reading and math tests last spring. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, once her ally on using test scores in teacher evaluations, did an about-face….

 

““If anything, I fault myself for being ambitious for every child,” she said.”

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Common Core, Education Reform, New York, Race to the Top, Standardized Testing, Teacher Evaluations

Mike Klonsky: What Donald Trump Thinks About Education

By dianeravitch
March 11, 2016 //
16

Mike Klonsky says that most people have no idea what Trump’s ideas are about education. He keeps saying he wants to get rid of Common Core. “It’s a disaster,” he says, but somehow I would guess that he has never seen the CCSS standards and has no idea why they are “a disaster.” Maybe because the people he is courting don’t like them.

 

But Mike pulls together a number of statements that Trump has made about education. While they don’t add up to a coherent perspective or ideology, there is more to his approach than abolishing Common Core.

Categories Albuquerque, Common Core, Education Reform, Politics
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